Some Summer reading for you

When I retired as editor of West England Bylines last year my colleagues kindly gave me a book token and recommended books for me to read in my ‘retirement’.

After a few months I’ve managed to read a fair few. But there are still several to go. My problem is that, once I mention to friends and family that I have a reading list, they insist on adding to it!

So off I set with brave intentions of finishing them all and coming back for more. But ‘many a slip twixt cup and lip’ and I haven’t read half of them. What has been fascinating though was exploring the vastly differing topics. So this is a progress report so far …

The European Journey

First up had to be Peter Burke’s recommendation of Homelands by Tim Garton Ash. This took me on a journey similar to my own exploring the emerging Europe. He divides Europe into four phases – “Divided” (1961-80); “Rising” (1980-89); “Triumphant” (1990-2007) and “Faltering” (2008-22). He sets the scene of a disparate set of European states slowly coalescing into a democratic whole, eventually the European Union we know today. Tim was too young for the Prague Spring but was there with Solidardošĉ in Poland where he met his wife to be and travelled with her on Poland’s tortuous route to freedom from Soviet rule. He records the irony of himself, a committed European, writing for The Spectator, Britain’s most vocal anti-European periodical. Yes Britain was “in Europe” but acting very much as a “Spectator”. He charts other Eastern European countries breaking away for the Soviet Union, including East Germany which was thought to do communism better than the Russians. He singles out Václav Havel as a heroic figure in Czechoslovakia’s fight for freedom, a “Good King Wenceslas”. With the fall of ‘The Wall’ came the assimilation of the East into the West. Europe was unable to prevent the Yugoslav wars and genocide, nor was it able to prevent the crash of 2008. He charts too the unpalatable failure of the Union to cope with immigration, inequality, the clashes with Islam and a resurgent Russia. And then there was Brexit which stripped him of his European citizenship and left him “heartbroken”.

A revolutionary thriller

Looking for something non-political I then picked up Paul Ryder’s A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. This was an intriguing thriller set after the Russian Revolution. The hero is a Russian aristocrat who is saved from the firing squad by his pro-revolutionary writing. He ekes out his house arrest in a luxury Moscow hotel observing how the privileged life of the old aristocracy is replaced by that of the equally privileged party. He preserves the gentlemanly ways of his upbringing in the face of the communist party’s attempts to treat everyone equally. The Russian colonial attitude to Ukraine is typified when one character says: “Ukraine is where the grain is grown but Russia is where it’s eaten”. The surprise ending to this book makes it a true thriller.

A warning to an incoming Labour government

I then tackled Claire Jones’ suggestion of This Time no Mistakes (How to Remake Britain) by Will Hutton.

I was looking for insights into how Keir Starmer’s Labour administration could learn from the past and make Britain fair and prosperous again. What I got first was a potted history of the Labour movement in the past two centuries, occupying the first seven chapters! In chapter eight he develops his thesis that we must move from a “me-centred” society to a “we-centred” one – a noble aspiration. He highlights productivity as the way to improve standards of living and “generate optimism”. The key to this must be an “audacious public investment programme” with banking and company reforms. This strong economy then creates a strong society. Ensuring education is there for all of society (not just the middle class) and especially in early years (viz the late lamented “Sure Start” scheme). Hutton then lists 12 key policies to achieve his “we-centred” society:

1. Stronger Cabinet Office and a split Treasury
2. Long term parliamentary control of legislation
3. Empower councils, ensure civil service independence
4. Replace the House of Lords with an elected body
5. Replace First Past The Post with Proportional Representation
6. Ensure referendums require a two thirds majority
7. Independent authority for ethics in government and preserve judicial independence
8. Ensure an independent BBC and grant more powers to Ofcom
9. Implement Leveson recommendations for regulating the press
10. Reform social media and digital platforms
11. Democratise regulators
12. Establish an Office for EU Relations

Many of these are admirable but none of them are going to achieve his stated aims of improving productivity, infrastructure and education.

Finally, given that Sir Keir Starmer is supposed to have read this treatise and describes it as “a brilliant book”, I don’t see any evidence of his government following Hutton’s advice.

Watch out for Part Two when I review these recommendations:

Still to be read are:

Plus, this ‘further reading:

*The shock of freedom

**Populism for beginners

We want to hear your views. Please send any comments to editor@westenglandbylines.co.uk

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