What do you think?
Rate this book
All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain’s Political Class
'Tim Shipman's dispatches from the political front line are a must read’ NICK ROBINSON
Politics was turned upside down during 2016. This book by Sunday Times political editor Tim Shipman is the first to tell the full story of how and why Britain voted to leave the European Union and how the vote shattered the political status quo.
Based on unrivalled access to all the key politicians and their advisors – including Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, George Osborne, Nigel Farage and Dominic Cummings, the mastermind of Vote Leave – Shipman has written a political history that reads like a thriller, and offers a gripping, day-by-day account of what really happened behind-the-scenes in Downing Street, both Leave campaigns, the Labour Party, Ukip and Britain Stronger in Europe.
Shipman gives his readers a ringside seat on how decisions were made, mistakes justified and betrayals perpetrated. Filled with stories, anecdotes and juicy leaks the book does not seek to address the rights and wrongs of Brexit but to explore how and why David Cameron chose to take the biggest political gamble of his life and explain why he lost.
This is a story of calculation, attempted coups, individuals torn between principles and loyalty. All the events are here – from David Cameron’s pledge to hold a referendum, through to the campaign itself, his resignation as prime minister, the betrayals and rivalries that occurred during the race to find his successor to the arrival of Theresa May in Downing Street as Britain’s second female prime minister.
All Out War is a book about leaders and their closest aides, the decisions they make and how and why they make them, as well as how they feel when they turn out to be wrong. It is about men who make decisions that are intellectually consistent and – by their own measure – morally sound that are simultaneously disastrous for themselves and those closest to them. It is about how doing what you know has worked before doesn’t always work again. Most of all it is about asking the question: how far are you prepared to go to win?
Politics was turned upside down during 2016. This book by Sunday Times political editor Tim Shipman is the first to tell the full story of how and why Britain voted to leave the European Union and how the vote shattered the political status quo.
Based on unrivalled access to all the key politicians and their advisors – including Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, George Osborne, Nigel Farage and Dominic Cummings, the mastermind of Vote Leave – Shipman has written a political history that reads like a thriller, and offers a gripping, day-by-day account of what really happened behind-the-scenes in Downing Street, both Leave campaigns, the Labour Party, Ukip and Britain Stronger in Europe.
Shipman gives his readers a ringside seat on how decisions were made, mistakes justified and betrayals perpetrated. Filled with stories, anecdotes and juicy leaks the book does not seek to address the rights and wrongs of Brexit but to explore how and why David Cameron chose to take the biggest political gamble of his life and explain why he lost.
This is a story of calculation, attempted coups, individuals torn between principles and loyalty. All the events are here – from David Cameron’s pledge to hold a referendum, through to the campaign itself, his resignation as prime minister, the betrayals and rivalries that occurred during the race to find his successor to the arrival of Theresa May in Downing Street as Britain’s second female prime minister.
All Out War is a book about leaders and their closest aides, the decisions they make and how and why they make them, as well as how they feel when they turn out to be wrong. It is about men who make decisions that are intellectually consistent and – by their own measure – morally sound that are simultaneously disastrous for themselves and those closest to them. It is about how doing what you know has worked before doesn’t always work again. Most of all it is about asking the question: how far are you prepared to go to win?
657 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 3, 2016
About the author
Tim Shipman
8 books113 followersTim Shipman has been a national newspaper journalist for sixteen years and has a wealth of experience reporting on British and American politics and international relations.
Currently the Political Editor of the Sunday Times, Tim has covered four British General Elections and three American elections from the US. Well known in the Westminster political mix, he is a trusted confidant of politicians from all political parties and has a growing following as a witty observer of the political scene @ShippersUnbound.
Currently the Political Editor of the Sunday Times, Tim has covered four British General Elections and three American elections from the US. Well known in the Westminster political mix, he is a trusted confidant of politicians from all political parties and has a growing following as a witty observer of the political scene @ShippersUnbound.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 235 reviews
February 17, 2021
This book seems already likely to stand as the definitive account of the political events before, during and after the Brexit vote.
The book explicitly concentrates on the actions and thoughts of the key UK political players. It “begins from the premise that the actions of key individuals, at hinge moments of history, are magnified out of all proportion” and argues that the thoughts and deeds of (particularly) Cameron, Osborne, Gove, Johnson, Farage, Banks and Dominic Cummings “in the 13 months between the general election and polling day …….. decided the fate of the rest of us”.
While not ignoring the longer term sweep of history (and the “three decades of Euroscepticism” and “relentless drip, drip of anti-European propaganda”) which combined with the contemporary “revolt against globalisation” and “post truth culture” made “fighting the Remain cause … the equivalent in footballing terms [of an] away tie in Barcelona” the author has the strong view that Remain could easily have won, not least due to the many “mistakes and infighting of the Leave campaign” which would have been “even more than it [already] is …. the focus of the book”.
It is lengthy and exhaustively detailed, but rarely less than engrossing. The only passages that drop from this standard are some of those around the backroom campaigns – less because their subject matter is in some ways uninteresting, or their impact not important, but more because the array of special advisors and campaign managers, almost none of whom are known to a general reader, can be difficult for that reader to follow.
Another impressive aspect of the book is its balance – both in terms of trying to understand the motivations and actions of all players and in setting out the strengths and weaknesses of each side regardless of the eventual result – so that as well as the concentration on the problems of the leave campaign the book makes space to praise aspects of the Remain campaign (for example the “remarkable” cross-party collaboration).
Some of the key judgements in the book are that:
a) Dominic Cummings campaign management of the Vote Leave campaign was fundamental – one area being in the way they turned the immigration argument into effectively an economic one
b) The pre-work of Steve Baker and his “parliamentary guerillas” was hugely significant in taking away many of the governments advantages: getting the question changed from Yes/No to the more neutral Remain/Leave; insisting on a four week “purdah” period where the Civil Service and government machine was explicitly unable to take part in any activities; insisting on the neutrality of the Conservative Party; the suspension of cabinet collective responsibility
c) Despite their huge infighting (which nearly cost them the campaign) the two leave campaigns was probably an overall positive with Vote Leave reassuring swing voters while Farage and Banks were able to increase turnout among working class voters;
d) David Cameron effectively worked on the premise he would win (hindered badly by the inaccuracies of Andrew Cooper’s polling) and so was not prepared to sacrifice either Party Unity (for example ruling out “Blue on Blue” attacks on Johnson and Gove), European relations (for example not demanding, either in the initial negotiations or in the last few weeks extreme concessions from other European leaders) or International relations (not sacrificing security and refugee co-operation with Turkey by, in the last days of the campaign, announcing a veto on Turkish EU membership as a “pledge” type gesture such as swung the Scottish independence vote)
e) Very interestingly one of the reasons for Cameron not pushing Merkel for more concessions on migration early on was that his two key ministers at the time (Hammond as foreign secretary and May as Home Secretary) would not support a hard line
f) Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to lead the labour party on the topic (or in fact in any way – Corbyn is almost the only politician where the author completely fails to find any positives) meant the Remain campaign was too conservative focused and did not understand how to craft its message to Labour voters
g) Gove in particular was a key player – tipping the balance into Johnson joining the leave campaign, effectively saving Cummings from a coup which nearly sacked him, bringing huge numbers of Tory MPs to the leave side (something from which Cameron never really recovered), adding intellectual credibility to the Leave side and then ultimately ruining both his own and Johnson’s Prime Minister campaigns – “the sum total of those decisions, each of which he stood by afterwards “was a disaster for his own career and ensured that many of those around Vote Leave won the war and lost the peace”.
Overall an outstanding read.
The book explicitly concentrates on the actions and thoughts of the key UK political players. It “begins from the premise that the actions of key individuals, at hinge moments of history, are magnified out of all proportion” and argues that the thoughts and deeds of (particularly) Cameron, Osborne, Gove, Johnson, Farage, Banks and Dominic Cummings “in the 13 months between the general election and polling day …….. decided the fate of the rest of us”.
While not ignoring the longer term sweep of history (and the “three decades of Euroscepticism” and “relentless drip, drip of anti-European propaganda”) which combined with the contemporary “revolt against globalisation” and “post truth culture” made “fighting the Remain cause … the equivalent in footballing terms [of an] away tie in Barcelona” the author has the strong view that Remain could easily have won, not least due to the many “mistakes and infighting of the Leave campaign” which would have been “even more than it [already] is …. the focus of the book”.
It is lengthy and exhaustively detailed, but rarely less than engrossing. The only passages that drop from this standard are some of those around the backroom campaigns – less because their subject matter is in some ways uninteresting, or their impact not important, but more because the array of special advisors and campaign managers, almost none of whom are known to a general reader, can be difficult for that reader to follow.
Another impressive aspect of the book is its balance – both in terms of trying to understand the motivations and actions of all players and in setting out the strengths and weaknesses of each side regardless of the eventual result – so that as well as the concentration on the problems of the leave campaign the book makes space to praise aspects of the Remain campaign (for example the “remarkable” cross-party collaboration).
Some of the key judgements in the book are that:
a) Dominic Cummings campaign management of the Vote Leave campaign was fundamental – one area being in the way they turned the immigration argument into effectively an economic one
b) The pre-work of Steve Baker and his “parliamentary guerillas” was hugely significant in taking away many of the governments advantages: getting the question changed from Yes/No to the more neutral Remain/Leave; insisting on a four week “purdah” period where the Civil Service and government machine was explicitly unable to take part in any activities; insisting on the neutrality of the Conservative Party; the suspension of cabinet collective responsibility
c) Despite their huge infighting (which nearly cost them the campaign) the two leave campaigns was probably an overall positive with Vote Leave reassuring swing voters while Farage and Banks were able to increase turnout among working class voters;
d) David Cameron effectively worked on the premise he would win (hindered badly by the inaccuracies of Andrew Cooper’s polling) and so was not prepared to sacrifice either Party Unity (for example ruling out “Blue on Blue” attacks on Johnson and Gove), European relations (for example not demanding, either in the initial negotiations or in the last few weeks extreme concessions from other European leaders) or International relations (not sacrificing security and refugee co-operation with Turkey by, in the last days of the campaign, announcing a veto on Turkish EU membership as a “pledge” type gesture such as swung the Scottish independence vote)
e) Very interestingly one of the reasons for Cameron not pushing Merkel for more concessions on migration early on was that his two key ministers at the time (Hammond as foreign secretary and May as Home Secretary) would not support a hard line
f) Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to lead the labour party on the topic (or in fact in any way – Corbyn is almost the only politician where the author completely fails to find any positives) meant the Remain campaign was too conservative focused and did not understand how to craft its message to Labour voters
g) Gove in particular was a key player – tipping the balance into Johnson joining the leave campaign, effectively saving Cummings from a coup which nearly sacked him, bringing huge numbers of Tory MPs to the leave side (something from which Cameron never really recovered), adding intellectual credibility to the Leave side and then ultimately ruining both his own and Johnson’s Prime Minister campaigns – “the sum total of those decisions, each of which he stood by afterwards “was a disaster for his own career and ensured that many of those around Vote Leave won the war and lost the peace”.
Overall an outstanding read.
December 4, 2023
When the referendum first happened, I read, “Unleashing Demons,” written by Craig Oliver, who worked for David Cameron for the Remain campaign. Later, I read the second of Tim Shipman’s trilogy, “Fall Out: A Year of Political Mayhem,” with Theresa May at the centre. Now, with the third of Shipman’s trilogy due out fairly soon, I decided to go back and finally read the first book and I am glad that I did.
Although I enjoyed Craig Oliver’s memoir, this is a more balanced account. If you only read one book about the referendum, then I would undoubtedly suggest this one. It takes you from 2011 to 2016 and includes all of the major figures, on both sides of the debate. It begins with William Hague advising Cameron to deal with the issue of Europe, resulting in the referendum, and to George Osborne’s opposition of the decision but his personal loyalty to Cameron.
Much of the campaign involves polls, and the use of data. Interestingly, Remain pollsters found that people could name many perceived negatives of the EU, but, when asked for positives, related to belonging, they were met with a resounding silence. Part of the problem with the Remain campaign was they attempted to threaten, frighten and warn, but did not convince voters of the advantages. Osborne’s threat of a ‘punishment’ budget if there was a vote to leave and Obama’s comments about the UK being at the ‘back of the queue,’ backfired badly and put voters backs up. Security and economics are – obviously – important issues, but they did not resound with many voters.
The Remain Campaign was not helped by Corbyn’s less than enthusiastic contribution. He refused to do virtually anything and was his usual obstructive, indecisive, uncooperative self. Having recently read, “Dangerous Hero,” about the (soon to be former) Labour leader, made me understand this unhelpful stance more fully. Corbyn was never a supporter of the EU and was not keen to show support for something that Number 10 was backing. Meanwhile, Cameron, who was fairly confident, at first, that Remain would win, did not push hard enough to get a deal that was acceptable. Had Brussels realised that they had to compromise on free movement, or risk losing the UK, you wonder whether it would have changed anything. Probably not.
Meanwhile, while Remain got bogged down with the economic risks, they could not compete with Leave’s argument on the, more emotive, issues of control, sovereignty and immigration. The Leave campaign had the showbiz feel, as Shipman puts it. Both Boris and Farage attracted crowds, and gained headlines, while Dominic Cummings was wise enough to stay well away from both Nigel Farage, and immigration, while allowing Farage to raise the issues that he felt were too toxic to use. Meanwhile, Michael Gove brought gravitas and a wider appeal to the campaign. Cameron expected, at most, seventy Tory MP’s to go against him. The fact that both Johnson and Gove backed Leave, helped lead over 140 to do so, much to the PM’s shock.
Talking of shock, there is much about the result (which, unbelievably, Michael Gove slept through) and then the fallout. This includes Cameron’s resignation, Labour’s attempts to remove Corbyn from the leadership, Gove’s back-stabbing of Johnson, Theresa May becoming Prime Minister and more. This is a long book, but, like the political events themselves, this was never boring. Indeed, this is a gripping and balanced account of those events. I will try to fit in a re-read of “Fall Out,” before the third book is released. Actually, I suspect that Shipman could easily make this a quartet, as the political events will rumble on for some time yet and nobody, at present, could ever suggest that politics is boring – either here, or, indeed, across the Pond. I love political books and this is, very easily, the best I have read.
Although I enjoyed Craig Oliver’s memoir, this is a more balanced account. If you only read one book about the referendum, then I would undoubtedly suggest this one. It takes you from 2011 to 2016 and includes all of the major figures, on both sides of the debate. It begins with William Hague advising Cameron to deal with the issue of Europe, resulting in the referendum, and to George Osborne’s opposition of the decision but his personal loyalty to Cameron.
Much of the campaign involves polls, and the use of data. Interestingly, Remain pollsters found that people could name many perceived negatives of the EU, but, when asked for positives, related to belonging, they were met with a resounding silence. Part of the problem with the Remain campaign was they attempted to threaten, frighten and warn, but did not convince voters of the advantages. Osborne’s threat of a ‘punishment’ budget if there was a vote to leave and Obama’s comments about the UK being at the ‘back of the queue,’ backfired badly and put voters backs up. Security and economics are – obviously – important issues, but they did not resound with many voters.
The Remain Campaign was not helped by Corbyn’s less than enthusiastic contribution. He refused to do virtually anything and was his usual obstructive, indecisive, uncooperative self. Having recently read, “Dangerous Hero,” about the (soon to be former) Labour leader, made me understand this unhelpful stance more fully. Corbyn was never a supporter of the EU and was not keen to show support for something that Number 10 was backing. Meanwhile, Cameron, who was fairly confident, at first, that Remain would win, did not push hard enough to get a deal that was acceptable. Had Brussels realised that they had to compromise on free movement, or risk losing the UK, you wonder whether it would have changed anything. Probably not.
Meanwhile, while Remain got bogged down with the economic risks, they could not compete with Leave’s argument on the, more emotive, issues of control, sovereignty and immigration. The Leave campaign had the showbiz feel, as Shipman puts it. Both Boris and Farage attracted crowds, and gained headlines, while Dominic Cummings was wise enough to stay well away from both Nigel Farage, and immigration, while allowing Farage to raise the issues that he felt were too toxic to use. Meanwhile, Michael Gove brought gravitas and a wider appeal to the campaign. Cameron expected, at most, seventy Tory MP’s to go against him. The fact that both Johnson and Gove backed Leave, helped lead over 140 to do so, much to the PM’s shock.
Talking of shock, there is much about the result (which, unbelievably, Michael Gove slept through) and then the fallout. This includes Cameron’s resignation, Labour’s attempts to remove Corbyn from the leadership, Gove’s back-stabbing of Johnson, Theresa May becoming Prime Minister and more. This is a long book, but, like the political events themselves, this was never boring. Indeed, this is a gripping and balanced account of those events. I will try to fit in a re-read of “Fall Out,” before the third book is released. Actually, I suspect that Shipman could easily make this a quartet, as the political events will rumble on for some time yet and nobody, at present, could ever suggest that politics is boring – either here, or, indeed, across the Pond. I love political books and this is, very easily, the best I have read.
October 15, 2017
Reading AOW underlined what is for me the main problem with a kindle: throwing it at a wall to relieve your feelings rapidly becomes expensive. Consequently this book took me the best part of eight months to get through, and I still hate everybody in it.
February 16, 2021
Attempting to get into audiobooks #1
32 HOURS OF BREXIT. That was a journey.
I’m not quite a convert to audiobooks. Compared to my typical reading speed, they’re just so painfully slow. Then again, I can’t read a physical book or ebook while working, walking or cooking, so they have that going for them. An audiobook seemed like the perfect format for something like this, an unwieldy, highly detailed non-fiction tome about politics that I probably would never have got around to reading otherwise.
This is an exhaustive account, very well researched and put together. The four stars are for that, and not for the often completely infuriating content. On top of the 32-hour runtime, I also recommend ensuring you schedule regular breaks in order to scream, especially whenever Dominic Cummings is mentioned.
TinyLetter | Linktree
32 HOURS OF BREXIT. That was a journey.
I’m not quite a convert to audiobooks. Compared to my typical reading speed, they’re just so painfully slow. Then again, I can’t read a physical book or ebook while working, walking or cooking, so they have that going for them. An audiobook seemed like the perfect format for something like this, an unwieldy, highly detailed non-fiction tome about politics that I probably would never have got around to reading otherwise.
This is an exhaustive account, very well researched and put together. The four stars are for that, and not for the often completely infuriating content. On top of the 32-hour runtime, I also recommend ensuring you schedule regular breaks in order to scream, especially whenever Dominic Cummings is mentioned.
TinyLetter | Linktree
February 25, 2017
If you want to get a handle on Brexit, how it came about and the campaigns to leave and remain in the EU, this book by Tim Shipman is an absolute must-read. The author gets under the skin of perhaps the most important political issue of recent times, with impeccably sourced insights both on and off the record. This is one of the most exciting political books I've ever read and I lost count of the number of times I read an extra chapter, so engrossed was I. All Out War explains how the Leave campaign was able to win the referendum and why the Remain side was fighting it with at least one arm tied behind its back. Following the final referendum result, Shipman explains how Theresa May became prime minister and how Boris Johnson missed out on a prize that many thought he was certain to win. All Out War is a riveting and insightful account of a campaign that has changed the political direction of Britain for ever. Its unputdownable and unmissable. Truly a must-read.
January 7, 2019
I considered leaving my job to be a political strategist
January 9, 2020
Balanced. Focused. Well researched. Three ways of describing this book. Without assigning blame on any part (a task which I must admit, looks Herculean), this rather long book takes you through the process of how, why, when and who made Brexit happen. It looks at media coverage, campaign financing, politicians who were involved (and why they were involved). It covers the things we've seen on the telly and the ones we're not really supposed to know, the back stabbings, the ruthlessness, the power struggles. I commend the author for being able to write this in such a clear voice, as the resulting book is worth everyone's read.
October 28, 2017
This is a hard book to rate. On the one hand, it seems to be a pretty thorough account of a turbulent time in British politics. As far as I can tell, Tim Shipman does a good job and chronicling who did what. We get to peak inside Number 10 and hear about David Cameron's discussions with George Osborne. And for balance we see what was happening in the Labour party and UKIP.
A few pages in and I was thinking that this was an excellent book. A solid 5 stars. The definitive account of Brexit. And that's a good thing because we have a fascinating Games of Thrones style epic of courage and cruelty, loyalty and deceit.
Kudos to Tim for being reasonably even-handed too.
But then something started to niggle away at me. There was something missing. In fact there were four things that I expected to see but which weren't there.
First, while the book is good on the "who" and the "what", it's not so good on the "why". I didn't get much of a sense of motive or that politicians on either side were doing this for the good of the country. It all seemed to be about self-interest and party politics. Maybe that's a fair reflection on the debate. Maybe it's something missing from this book. I don't know.
Second, I was surprised that there was almost nothing about the views of other countries in the EU. This book is an account that rarely of ever crosses the channel.
Third, there is very little economic or factual analysis. This book is all politics. That's a shame when some of the issues, such as the infamous £350 million a week, really need to be explained in some depth.
Fourth - and perhaps most tellingly - there is very little here about the public. This book is about the political in-fighting that led to Brexit. It's stage is Number 10 Downing Street, not number 33 Acacia Avenue.
All in all, the pluses outweigh the minuses. It's a riveting story of political tricks, manipulating the public, outright lies and friendships broken. It shows quite clearly that the result could have gone either way. A few changes of history and we might be looking at a different result.
But the "total story" ... no, it isn't that.
And while we're nitpicking, Brexit didn't sink Britain political class. It brought a few careers to an end, including David Cameron and Nigel Farage. But we've still got the same political class in charge, the country is as divided as ever and our politicians are still playing the same games more than a year after the referendum.
So it's 4 stars for me. Good book. In parts, it's a fascinating book. But "the full story"? Nah, not quite.
Recommended.
A few pages in and I was thinking that this was an excellent book. A solid 5 stars. The definitive account of Brexit. And that's a good thing because we have a fascinating Games of Thrones style epic of courage and cruelty, loyalty and deceit.
Kudos to Tim for being reasonably even-handed too.
But then something started to niggle away at me. There was something missing. In fact there were four things that I expected to see but which weren't there.
First, while the book is good on the "who" and the "what", it's not so good on the "why". I didn't get much of a sense of motive or that politicians on either side were doing this for the good of the country. It all seemed to be about self-interest and party politics. Maybe that's a fair reflection on the debate. Maybe it's something missing from this book. I don't know.
Second, I was surprised that there was almost nothing about the views of other countries in the EU. This book is an account that rarely of ever crosses the channel.
Third, there is very little economic or factual analysis. This book is all politics. That's a shame when some of the issues, such as the infamous £350 million a week, really need to be explained in some depth.
Fourth - and perhaps most tellingly - there is very little here about the public. This book is about the political in-fighting that led to Brexit. It's stage is Number 10 Downing Street, not number 33 Acacia Avenue.
All in all, the pluses outweigh the minuses. It's a riveting story of political tricks, manipulating the public, outright lies and friendships broken. It shows quite clearly that the result could have gone either way. A few changes of history and we might be looking at a different result.
But the "total story" ... no, it isn't that.
And while we're nitpicking, Brexit didn't sink Britain political class. It brought a few careers to an end, including David Cameron and Nigel Farage. But we've still got the same political class in charge, the country is as divided as ever and our politicians are still playing the same games more than a year after the referendum.
So it's 4 stars for me. Good book. In parts, it's a fascinating book. But "the full story"? Nah, not quite.
Recommended.
February 6, 2017
Had I realised that this was nearly 700-pages long before I bought it, I would probably not have picked it up - how can a single referendum be interesting enough to fill all those pages? Especially when I've already lived through it?
Yet this turned out to be an extraordinary book, and certainly the best I've read on any modern political event. It is balanced, thoroughly researched, funny, thrilling, and gives deep insight into both sides of the referendum campaign - warts and all. I already knew that Shipman was a talented journalist before reading this book, but his ability to combine a lightness of touch with absolute accuracy of reporting, including pointing out where bits were single-sourced or where there were conflicting accounts, is truly remarkable.
Very highly recommended.
Yet this turned out to be an extraordinary book, and certainly the best I've read on any modern political event. It is balanced, thoroughly researched, funny, thrilling, and gives deep insight into both sides of the referendum campaign - warts and all. I already knew that Shipman was a talented journalist before reading this book, but his ability to combine a lightness of touch with absolute accuracy of reporting, including pointing out where bits were single-sourced or where there were conflicting accounts, is truly remarkable.
Very highly recommended.
November 2, 2018
Before telling you how good a read “All Out War” is, it is important to tell you what it is not. The author and veteran political journalist Tim Shipman is at pains to say he is “not a sociologist or political scientist” and that readers looking for an analysis of the long-term socioeconomic factors behind the vote for Brexit should probably look elsewhere. He declares that “All Out War” is “not the story of the little guy … it is unashamedly ‘elitist history’”. But, as an insider’s account of the 2016 EU referendum campaign – an analysis of the key players and characters on both sides of the debate – “All Out War” is unbeatable.
Shipman is not afraid to point the finger at the Remain figures whose ineptitude caused the referendum to be lost. David Cameron is depicted as a nonchalant dilettante, who called a needless referendum - that stoked divisions that are still tearing his country apart – and all because his overriding concern was uniting the Tory party and preventing defections to UKIP. Cameron seems to have been dreadfully complacent about the referendum, being so used to the support of ‘the Tory press’ during general election campaigns that he appeared startingly unprepared when the same right-wing echo chamber turned their guns on him over Brexit.
This kind of complacency seems to have been a hallmark of the Remain campaign. The pro-EU side completely failed to capitalise on their huge advantage on the economic argument for EU membership, not realising that most voters don’t have a clue about the most basic tenets of economics. Instead, the Remain campaign’s overly-detailed economic arguments were successfully countered by the Leave side’s simple, easily understandable messaging like “Take back control” and “An extra £350 million a week for the NHS” (even if such promises were complete cobblers). Unwilling or unable to communicate the positive aspects of staying in the EU, the Remain campaign ramped up ‘Project Fear’. But, Shipman argues, threats such as George Osborne’s post-Brexit ‘Punishment Budget’ merely riled up undecided voters and propelled them towards voting leave (although Shipman does credit Osborne as being an effective campaigner who ultimately put the result of the referendum ahead of his political career).
Tim Shipman reserves his greatest scorn for the role that Jeremy Corbyn played – or, rather, failed to play – dring the campaign. The Labour leader completely abdicated his responsibilities during the run-up to the referendum vote, refusing to cooperate with even fellow Labour members of the Remain campaign, failing to show up for crucial media appearances that had been scheduled for him, and even going on holiday towards the end of the election campaign. The effect of this indolence, “All Out War” contends, was that swathes of Labour voters had no idea what the policy of their party was towards the EU. The chapter on the Labour party is absorbing, with Shipman giving strong suggestions that Labour’s Remain campaign was actively sabotaged by Corbyn, his chief advisor Seamus Milne, and John McDonnell. And with the Labour leadership failing to step up to the plate, this meant the Remain campaign became dominated by the Tories who didn’t know how to tailor their message to Labour and left-wing voters.
On the other side of the Brexit divide, Shipman shrewdly notes that the strategic triumph of the Leave campaign was to fuse the issue of immigration with the concerns that voters had on the effect of austerity on the NHS and public services. The two ‘Out’ campaigns “turbocharged the lack of trust the public increasingly felt” in the UK’s political and media elites. Tim Shipman has incredible insight into – and impeccable sources within – the two Leave campaigns. He is excellent on the pro-Brexit campaign’s highly successful strategy to target non-voters in parts of the UK that had been ignored by the traditional political parties for decades, getting them registered, and getting them postal votes. Although, Shipman does have an annoying tendency of falling into writing in overblown language - particularly when detailing the pro-Brexit side - which is how we end up with bluster like “Dominic Cummings: the man who held the leave campaign by the bollocks”.
One conspicuous flaw with “All Out War” is that, for what purports to be the most in-depth analysis of the most important election to be held in the UK since the Second World War, very little of the book covers the ground campaign of the referendum. Shipman generally confines his account to the campaign HQs in London rather than the ‘ground war’ on the doorsteps of Sunderland and Stoke. Given that the Brexit referendum is commonly portrayed as a popular uprising of the ignored regions against the metropolitan elites, this is a puzzling approach by the author. For example, I would have been fascinated to find out more about cases like ‘Muslims for Britain’, the pro-Brexit pressure group who persuaded the city of Birmingham to vote in favour of leaving the E.U. Shipman only briefly mentions regional cases like this but, at the risk of sounding like a Brexiteer myself, his perspective on the referendum is quite possibly too Westminster-centric. Neither does “All Out War” make any mention of the referendum campaign in Northern Ireland (although perhaps this shouldn’t be too surprising as the last two years have brought home how little interest or concern much of the UK political class has for Ireland).
Another glaring omission is that Shipman doesn’t make any mention of the Cambridge Analytica revelations about the global data company’s close ties to the Leave.EU campaign and their strong support of such pro-Brexit figures as Nigel Farage, Aaron Banks, and Andy Wigmore. In the all-too-brief chapter on the online referendum campaign, there is a single reference to Aggregate ID (the obscure digital agency that the official Vote Leave campaign controversially pumped huge chunks of their total marketing budget into). Any future updated edition of “All Out War” surely must address this huge oversight.
Even while recognising these caveats, “All Out War” is a terrific, gripping read, and essential reading for anybody with an interest in British politics. It is defiantly, unapologetically an insider’s account of the EU referendum. But this view from ‘inside the bubble’ has the huge advantage in that it allows Shipman to talk to everyone from all sides of the campaign, and this access provides many magnificently candid and gossipy comments from the key protagonists.
A meticulous account of the most significant election campaign in Britain for the last 70 years, “All Out War” is an enthralling anatomy of a national tragedy.
Shipman is not afraid to point the finger at the Remain figures whose ineptitude caused the referendum to be lost. David Cameron is depicted as a nonchalant dilettante, who called a needless referendum - that stoked divisions that are still tearing his country apart – and all because his overriding concern was uniting the Tory party and preventing defections to UKIP. Cameron seems to have been dreadfully complacent about the referendum, being so used to the support of ‘the Tory press’ during general election campaigns that he appeared startingly unprepared when the same right-wing echo chamber turned their guns on him over Brexit.
This kind of complacency seems to have been a hallmark of the Remain campaign. The pro-EU side completely failed to capitalise on their huge advantage on the economic argument for EU membership, not realising that most voters don’t have a clue about the most basic tenets of economics. Instead, the Remain campaign’s overly-detailed economic arguments were successfully countered by the Leave side’s simple, easily understandable messaging like “Take back control” and “An extra £350 million a week for the NHS” (even if such promises were complete cobblers). Unwilling or unable to communicate the positive aspects of staying in the EU, the Remain campaign ramped up ‘Project Fear’. But, Shipman argues, threats such as George Osborne’s post-Brexit ‘Punishment Budget’ merely riled up undecided voters and propelled them towards voting leave (although Shipman does credit Osborne as being an effective campaigner who ultimately put the result of the referendum ahead of his political career).
Tim Shipman reserves his greatest scorn for the role that Jeremy Corbyn played – or, rather, failed to play – dring the campaign. The Labour leader completely abdicated his responsibilities during the run-up to the referendum vote, refusing to cooperate with even fellow Labour members of the Remain campaign, failing to show up for crucial media appearances that had been scheduled for him, and even going on holiday towards the end of the election campaign. The effect of this indolence, “All Out War” contends, was that swathes of Labour voters had no idea what the policy of their party was towards the EU. The chapter on the Labour party is absorbing, with Shipman giving strong suggestions that Labour’s Remain campaign was actively sabotaged by Corbyn, his chief advisor Seamus Milne, and John McDonnell. And with the Labour leadership failing to step up to the plate, this meant the Remain campaign became dominated by the Tories who didn’t know how to tailor their message to Labour and left-wing voters.
On the other side of the Brexit divide, Shipman shrewdly notes that the strategic triumph of the Leave campaign was to fuse the issue of immigration with the concerns that voters had on the effect of austerity on the NHS and public services. The two ‘Out’ campaigns “turbocharged the lack of trust the public increasingly felt” in the UK’s political and media elites. Tim Shipman has incredible insight into – and impeccable sources within – the two Leave campaigns. He is excellent on the pro-Brexit campaign’s highly successful strategy to target non-voters in parts of the UK that had been ignored by the traditional political parties for decades, getting them registered, and getting them postal votes. Although, Shipman does have an annoying tendency of falling into writing in overblown language - particularly when detailing the pro-Brexit side - which is how we end up with bluster like “Dominic Cummings: the man who held the leave campaign by the bollocks”.
One conspicuous flaw with “All Out War” is that, for what purports to be the most in-depth analysis of the most important election to be held in the UK since the Second World War, very little of the book covers the ground campaign of the referendum. Shipman generally confines his account to the campaign HQs in London rather than the ‘ground war’ on the doorsteps of Sunderland and Stoke. Given that the Brexit referendum is commonly portrayed as a popular uprising of the ignored regions against the metropolitan elites, this is a puzzling approach by the author. For example, I would have been fascinated to find out more about cases like ‘Muslims for Britain’, the pro-Brexit pressure group who persuaded the city of Birmingham to vote in favour of leaving the E.U. Shipman only briefly mentions regional cases like this but, at the risk of sounding like a Brexiteer myself, his perspective on the referendum is quite possibly too Westminster-centric. Neither does “All Out War” make any mention of the referendum campaign in Northern Ireland (although perhaps this shouldn’t be too surprising as the last two years have brought home how little interest or concern much of the UK political class has for Ireland).
Another glaring omission is that Shipman doesn’t make any mention of the Cambridge Analytica revelations about the global data company’s close ties to the Leave.EU campaign and their strong support of such pro-Brexit figures as Nigel Farage, Aaron Banks, and Andy Wigmore. In the all-too-brief chapter on the online referendum campaign, there is a single reference to Aggregate ID (the obscure digital agency that the official Vote Leave campaign controversially pumped huge chunks of their total marketing budget into). Any future updated edition of “All Out War” surely must address this huge oversight.
Even while recognising these caveats, “All Out War” is a terrific, gripping read, and essential reading for anybody with an interest in British politics. It is defiantly, unapologetically an insider’s account of the EU referendum. But this view from ‘inside the bubble’ has the huge advantage in that it allows Shipman to talk to everyone from all sides of the campaign, and this access provides many magnificently candid and gossipy comments from the key protagonists.
A meticulous account of the most significant election campaign in Britain for the last 70 years, “All Out War” is an enthralling anatomy of a national tragedy.
August 13, 2018
Really interesting description of how the current mess came about - he seems to somehow know everything that everyone said and did to everybody so it makes for much more interesting reading than you would think, given the subject. Must be the best book on this subject and it's very topical reading right now ! Will definitely also read his other book about the disastrous for Teresa May general election that followed.
August 20, 2022
Changed my superficial view on why Brexit referendum happened why it did: much more a complex package of bets gone wrong, human loyalties broken or kept, skills & errors, egos & data gaps --- e.g life happening. Probably much less the matter of specific conspiracies like Russian meddling or Cambridge Analytica or Facebook than it would be soothening to blame for us who still dearly miss the UK from our continental political structure.
Very well journalistically researched (emails, chats, timestamps, deep interviews). And very well performed in audio (Scottish and South African character quotes do not sound the same English!)
Very well journalistically researched (emails, chats, timestamps, deep interviews). And very well performed in audio (Scottish and South African character quotes do not sound the same English!)
September 22, 2017
Tim Shipman seems to have written the definitive account of the period before, during, and after Brexit with his masterful first book, All Out War.
His apparent omnipotence and familiarity with everyone involved means he not only creates a brilliantly encyclopaedic portrayal of the events that unfolded, but is also able to either confirm or discredit insider's accounts (for example, whether they were guilty of certain leaks to the press, or losing a key figure through not sending out a tweet before 9 P.M).
Tim Shipman's excellent sense of writing style and dry wit makes a 600 page book on a relatively dry topic a practical thriller. I eagerly await his book on the 2017 General Election.
If you read one book on British Politics this year, let it be this one.
His apparent omnipotence and familiarity with everyone involved means he not only creates a brilliantly encyclopaedic portrayal of the events that unfolded, but is also able to either confirm or discredit insider's accounts (for example, whether they were guilty of certain leaks to the press, or losing a key figure through not sending out a tweet before 9 P.M).
Tim Shipman's excellent sense of writing style and dry wit makes a 600 page book on a relatively dry topic a practical thriller. I eagerly await his book on the 2017 General Election.
If you read one book on British Politics this year, let it be this one.
March 6, 2017
It is with good reason that Tim Shipman has won rapturous praise for this book. Witty, engaging and detailed, I would be surprised if anyone had questions about either the Leave or Remain campaigns after reading this. This book is imperative for anyone who wants to understand the biggest crisis facing the UK since the end of WW2. What I was not expecting was a jolly good laugh along the way!
June 17, 2018
An absolute must read. If you have any interest in politics and if you want to try to understand how Brexit came about, then All Out War is the definitive account of the Referendum and its aftermath.
At times, and particularly in the final third of the book,All Out War is as compelling as the best political thriller. A big important book which I highly recommend.
At times, and particularly in the final third of the book,All Out War is as compelling as the best political thriller. A big important book which I highly recommend.
July 21, 2017
Forces of globalisation, regional integration, and neoliberal economic policies have been increasingly on the rise since the end of the Second World War. Winston Churchill, the ageing servant of a dying empire, took the world by surprise in September 1946 when he suggested the creation of a “United States of Europe” in a speech at Zurich. Then, the speech of the United States’ secretary of state George Marshall at Harvard University for the economic uplift of Europe (popularly known as the Marshall Plan) further strengthened the idea of a more integrated Europe. Subsequently, in May 1948, Churchill presided over the Congress of Europe held at The Hague. The Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957 and Britain joined the European Community in 1973. The question of Europe, in British politics, has not been of any particular party. Conservatives and Labour have switched sides on the issue several times, opting for a pro-European approach while in government and cashing in on the populism of anti-Europeanism when in opposition. This trend was broken by David Cameron in his campaign for elections in 2015 when he promised a referendum on European membership if he became prime minister.
All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain’s Political Class by Tim Shipman is a voluminous narration of the tricks and tactics employed by the two rival sides on the question of British membership of the EU. At the outset, it should be declared that the book does not discuss the ideological paradigm involved, politico-economic causes or the near and distant consequences of Brexit. It treats Brexit as a strategic battle fought on the political canvas of the United Kingdom and delves into the tactical moves exercised on this plebiscitary chessboard. The narrative is more like a fast-paced thriller than an academic debate on the merits and demerits of Britain staying in or opting out. With each successive chapter, new characters appear and complicate the plot for a reader who is not well versed with the British political scene. The story is reminiscent not only of Game of Thrones-style of political intrigues of rival parties seeking to capture the crowning moment, but also a complex web of characters shifting loyalties and having motives that date back sometimes several decades.
The story begins with the announcement made by the then prime minister Cameron on Jan 23, 2013, promising to call an in/out referendum if he won the 2015 general elections. Cameron, who had been leading the Conservative party since December 2005, became prime minister in May 2010, replacing Labour’s Gordon Brown. Cameron’s announcement was an election gambit not liked by many of his colleagues, particularly his long-time aide and chancellor of the exchequer (equivalent of a minister of finance), George Osborne, who, nonetheless, provided his unwavering support to the prime minister in a cause that lost him the following of several old allies and party leaders.
A guide to understanding the Leave/Remain debate in all its glory, with all its gory details
The EU project has always seen many critics in Britain. However, it became a serious concern for a large number of British citizens after a soar in immigration from the Eurozone that resulted from financial crisis and rising unemployment. New political forces such as the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) were trying to cash in on the popular anti-European sentiment. In Shipman’s view, it was these concerns that forced Cameron to hold a referendum to settle the matter once and for all. Shipman also makes it clear that Cameron was not happy with the current arrangement of the EU. What he promised his voters was to renegotiate with his European counterparts in order to change the rules in favour of Britain. The results of his renegotiations in February 2016 proved to be too little too late.
Three major organisations were set up to campaign for leaving the EU. Foremost was Vote Leave, created in October 2015 by Matthew Elliot and Dominic Cummings, two of the best political strategists in Britain. They were later joined by Conservative MP and Secretary of State for Justice, Michael Gove; and Conservative MP, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and former mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Vote Leave included leaders from Labour and Ukip as well, but was dominated by the Conservatives. The focus of its campaign was economic arguments against the EU. Its launch video told viewers that the UK was sending 350 million pounds to the EU every week, a figure much debated during the campaign and one that proved to be exaggerated, Shipman informs the reader. This exaggeration has also been highlighted by Denis MacShane in his book Brexit: How Britain Left Europe in the following words: “The total EU budget does not exceed one percent of the total European GDP. And of that one percent about four-fifths go back to member states, including Britain, in the form of payments to farmers and poor regions.”
The second organisation, Leave.EU, was co-founded in July 2015 by Ukip donor and businessman Arron Banks. Its central argument related to immigration. The third organisation, Grassroots Out, was formed in January 2016 by Ukip leader Nigel Farage and others as a result of differences between Vote Leave and Leave.EU. On April 13, 2016, the Electoral Commission declared Vote Leave as the official campaign representing the side for leaving the EU. Hence, Shipman has dedicated a large part of the book to Vote Leave and its internal workings.
Britain Stronger In was launched on Oct 12, 2015, independent of Cameron, and secured the backing of the prime minister only at a later stage when he was convinced that an official Remain campaign was necessary to win the coming referendum. Its main argument was the economic risks Britain would face in case of leaving the EU. The
UK-EU referendum took place on June 23, 2016. The voter turnout was 72 per cent; 52 per cent voted in favour of leaving while 48 per cent voted to remain. However, like an interesting thriller, the book does not end here and goes on to tell the tale of how Theresa May was elected prime minister — to the surprise of many.
In Shipman’s analysis, “The referendum represented a revolt of the provincial classes — ignored, maligned and impoverished — against the cosy metropolitan consensus on Europe, the benefits of immigration and the belief that national economic prosperity trumps personal experience of hardship.” He goes on to describe the fatalistic view of some Remainers who try to rationalise their defeat by advancing two arguments. The first is that Brexit is a result of three decades of Euroscepticism. Even Cameron had nothing substantially positive to say about Europe before the referendum campaign. The second explanation blames the overall political atmosphere around the globe where an angry middle-class is revolting against the negative consequences of globalisation. However, Shipman clearly delineates a number of decisions by the Remain campaign that contributed towards its loss.
Shipman highlights that while Vote Remain stirred the emotions of people in a “post-truth” manner, Stronger In sought to fight a rational campaign. Then there was an over-reliance on the expected support of Labour that did not materialise. Shipman quotes James McGrory, chief spokesman of Stronger In, regarding Jeremy Corbyn who was the leader of the Labour party: “If he is against the EU, fine, be against it, but he did the worst of all possible worlds by being some sort of sceptic Remainer.” Shipman is of the view that Cameron had called a referendum on a subject that barely anyone understood. In his final verdict on Cameron, Shipman states that, “he was tactical where he needed to be strategic, confident when he should have been nervous, resolute in sticking to a campaign plan that he should have changed.” We must also consider that the remain option was not simply remain; rather, it was remain and reform, which several voters thought almost impossible in the face of European reluctance to substantially change the rules of the EU.
Shipman states that identity politics also played its part. Eighty per cent of people who defined themselves as English — that is, from England and Wales — voted Leave, while 80 per cent of those calling themselves British — that is, from Scotland and Northern Ireland — voted Remain.
It is indeed a commendable effort by Shipman, political editor of The Sunday Times, to have come up with an enormous and fully referenced tome within four months of the referendum. It is, indeed, a recording of history in its full glory and with all the gory details. One defining feature of the work is that the author does not pass any value judgement on who is right and who is wrong. He simply informs the readers, quite meticulously, of all the events leading up to the referendum and tries to gauge their influence on the verdict given by the people of Britain. There is much more to the book than can be dilated into a short review; while it is a rollercoaster ride of a thriller for politically aware readers, the only shortcoming is that for anyone who is not aware of the many characters that appear in it, it becomes a mystery to solve, requiring them to find about these characters on their own.
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1337205/non...
All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain’s Political Class by Tim Shipman is a voluminous narration of the tricks and tactics employed by the two rival sides on the question of British membership of the EU. At the outset, it should be declared that the book does not discuss the ideological paradigm involved, politico-economic causes or the near and distant consequences of Brexit. It treats Brexit as a strategic battle fought on the political canvas of the United Kingdom and delves into the tactical moves exercised on this plebiscitary chessboard. The narrative is more like a fast-paced thriller than an academic debate on the merits and demerits of Britain staying in or opting out. With each successive chapter, new characters appear and complicate the plot for a reader who is not well versed with the British political scene. The story is reminiscent not only of Game of Thrones-style of political intrigues of rival parties seeking to capture the crowning moment, but also a complex web of characters shifting loyalties and having motives that date back sometimes several decades.
The story begins with the announcement made by the then prime minister Cameron on Jan 23, 2013, promising to call an in/out referendum if he won the 2015 general elections. Cameron, who had been leading the Conservative party since December 2005, became prime minister in May 2010, replacing Labour’s Gordon Brown. Cameron’s announcement was an election gambit not liked by many of his colleagues, particularly his long-time aide and chancellor of the exchequer (equivalent of a minister of finance), George Osborne, who, nonetheless, provided his unwavering support to the prime minister in a cause that lost him the following of several old allies and party leaders.
A guide to understanding the Leave/Remain debate in all its glory, with all its gory details
The EU project has always seen many critics in Britain. However, it became a serious concern for a large number of British citizens after a soar in immigration from the Eurozone that resulted from financial crisis and rising unemployment. New political forces such as the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) were trying to cash in on the popular anti-European sentiment. In Shipman’s view, it was these concerns that forced Cameron to hold a referendum to settle the matter once and for all. Shipman also makes it clear that Cameron was not happy with the current arrangement of the EU. What he promised his voters was to renegotiate with his European counterparts in order to change the rules in favour of Britain. The results of his renegotiations in February 2016 proved to be too little too late.
Three major organisations were set up to campaign for leaving the EU. Foremost was Vote Leave, created in October 2015 by Matthew Elliot and Dominic Cummings, two of the best political strategists in Britain. They were later joined by Conservative MP and Secretary of State for Justice, Michael Gove; and Conservative MP, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and former mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Vote Leave included leaders from Labour and Ukip as well, but was dominated by the Conservatives. The focus of its campaign was economic arguments against the EU. Its launch video told viewers that the UK was sending 350 million pounds to the EU every week, a figure much debated during the campaign and one that proved to be exaggerated, Shipman informs the reader. This exaggeration has also been highlighted by Denis MacShane in his book Brexit: How Britain Left Europe in the following words: “The total EU budget does not exceed one percent of the total European GDP. And of that one percent about four-fifths go back to member states, including Britain, in the form of payments to farmers and poor regions.”
The second organisation, Leave.EU, was co-founded in July 2015 by Ukip donor and businessman Arron Banks. Its central argument related to immigration. The third organisation, Grassroots Out, was formed in January 2016 by Ukip leader Nigel Farage and others as a result of differences between Vote Leave and Leave.EU. On April 13, 2016, the Electoral Commission declared Vote Leave as the official campaign representing the side for leaving the EU. Hence, Shipman has dedicated a large part of the book to Vote Leave and its internal workings.
Britain Stronger In was launched on Oct 12, 2015, independent of Cameron, and secured the backing of the prime minister only at a later stage when he was convinced that an official Remain campaign was necessary to win the coming referendum. Its main argument was the economic risks Britain would face in case of leaving the EU. The
UK-EU referendum took place on June 23, 2016. The voter turnout was 72 per cent; 52 per cent voted in favour of leaving while 48 per cent voted to remain. However, like an interesting thriller, the book does not end here and goes on to tell the tale of how Theresa May was elected prime minister — to the surprise of many.
In Shipman’s analysis, “The referendum represented a revolt of the provincial classes — ignored, maligned and impoverished — against the cosy metropolitan consensus on Europe, the benefits of immigration and the belief that national economic prosperity trumps personal experience of hardship.” He goes on to describe the fatalistic view of some Remainers who try to rationalise their defeat by advancing two arguments. The first is that Brexit is a result of three decades of Euroscepticism. Even Cameron had nothing substantially positive to say about Europe before the referendum campaign. The second explanation blames the overall political atmosphere around the globe where an angry middle-class is revolting against the negative consequences of globalisation. However, Shipman clearly delineates a number of decisions by the Remain campaign that contributed towards its loss.
Shipman highlights that while Vote Remain stirred the emotions of people in a “post-truth” manner, Stronger In sought to fight a rational campaign. Then there was an over-reliance on the expected support of Labour that did not materialise. Shipman quotes James McGrory, chief spokesman of Stronger In, regarding Jeremy Corbyn who was the leader of the Labour party: “If he is against the EU, fine, be against it, but he did the worst of all possible worlds by being some sort of sceptic Remainer.” Shipman is of the view that Cameron had called a referendum on a subject that barely anyone understood. In his final verdict on Cameron, Shipman states that, “he was tactical where he needed to be strategic, confident when he should have been nervous, resolute in sticking to a campaign plan that he should have changed.” We must also consider that the remain option was not simply remain; rather, it was remain and reform, which several voters thought almost impossible in the face of European reluctance to substantially change the rules of the EU.
Shipman states that identity politics also played its part. Eighty per cent of people who defined themselves as English — that is, from England and Wales — voted Leave, while 80 per cent of those calling themselves British — that is, from Scotland and Northern Ireland — voted Remain.
It is indeed a commendable effort by Shipman, political editor of The Sunday Times, to have come up with an enormous and fully referenced tome within four months of the referendum. It is, indeed, a recording of history in its full glory and with all the gory details. One defining feature of the work is that the author does not pass any value judgement on who is right and who is wrong. He simply informs the readers, quite meticulously, of all the events leading up to the referendum and tries to gauge their influence on the verdict given by the people of Britain. There is much more to the book than can be dilated into a short review; while it is a rollercoaster ride of a thriller for politically aware readers, the only shortcoming is that for anyone who is not aware of the many characters that appear in it, it becomes a mystery to solve, requiring them to find about these characters on their own.
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1337205/non...
July 17, 2017
"At 6am exactly, David Dimbleby announced that Vote Leave had secured more than half the votes cast. 'Quite an extraordinary moment'. he said. Britain had voted for Brexit. David Cameron had bet the farm - and he had lost the lot."
When I picked up this reservation from the library, I was quite dismayed to find that it was SO MASSIVE. It is a hefty tome that took me about a month to read (slowed by the fact that it was too impractically huge to take on my commute). However, I'm glad I ploughed through, it was absolutely worth it. This is a very well-written account of how the political elite tore each other apart in the name of Brexit. It's something akin to Whitehall meets EastEnders, it's both riveting and revolting to read about the backstabbing, scheming and general hideous arrogance of these people.
"I remember thinking, number one: we're totally dominated by Tory internal party management here. This whole campaign is run by Conservative concerns, which has got to be a bad thing. But number two: they're already planning victory! The PM had basically decided he'd won, and I think that attitude bred a complacency which ultimately was a bit disastrous."
If you're a Remainer, you will find this to be a frustrating read. While I had previously blamed Leave voters for this nightmare of a result (and they certainly have their part to play...but more on that later), this book brought home the sheer number of mistakes the Remain campaign made. We almost definitely could have won it, were it not for this catalogue of errors! Starting with the naivety of David Cameron in offering a referendum to appease a party of Eurosceptics and then being surprised when his party peers didn't choose loyalty to him over their own views. Really?! How did he not see that coming?! It also made me loathe Boris even more. While I have no love for Michael Gove, at least he was always a Eurosceptic, with his father having lost his fishing business after the Common Fisheries Policy, so his choice wasn't as surprising. Boris just dithered back and forth and ultimately made the choice that was going to get him the most air time and the best shot at PM. Eugh. EUGH.
Labour don't get off lightly either, Corbyn's refusal to state a position (and the way in which he avoided even having the conversation with senior shadow cabinet ministers) is astounding. Tories might have screwed us by being too focused on keeping their party together afterwards (never mind keeping the bloody country together); but Labour was just a chaotic mess chasing its own tail.
It was just a f***ing shambles, and they all let the country down as far as I'm concerned. More importantly it showed how incredibly out of touch they are with the electorate, a problem which continues into May's government if the latest election is anything to go by. It was amazing to find just how much Cameron and Osborne underestimated the depth of anti-immigration sentiment, to the point where they thought people could be won over with an economic argument - when few people have any economic understanding at all (or any will to want to understand it).
"The stage was set for a showdown between the two stunts, neither of which had any meaningful basis in political reality - a budget that the man announcing it did not intend to give if he won the referendum and would not be around to present if he lost, versus a fabricated manifesto by a cross-party group that by definition would never form a government."
What I also found frustrating was being constantly reminded about how easily the British people have been played. The '£350 million for the NHS message' has now been exposed for the absolute trash that it always was, but it bothers me that so few people looked at that message and thought critically about it. Even if one can believe such a grandiose claim, look at the people making it! These were people who could never, ever, have delivered on it - and who would never be held accountable for exactly that reason. So many people are crying out that they've been lied to, but it's hard to have sympathy when it was such a transparent lie.
Because this book looks at each side in such detail, it exposes the referendum for what it really was: the creation of a very small group of people intent on manipulating the British public. That's what political campaigns are - campaigns!! Fully funded and staffed with people whose job it is to present messages to certain people at certain times in order to maximise their success. This might sound obvious but I think that was easily forgotten. One can argue that during an election campaign, that's how it should work - ultimately each party is trying to sell themselves and their brand to as many people as possible to get the largest share of the vote - but this was not an election.
This is why giving us the choice was such a catastrophic error. So few people truly understood the choice we were being asked to make, we needed educating; instead, as with any political campaign, what we received was manipulation. What makes me angry is that so few people questioned the messages that we were being fed.
In summary, a fascinating read for anyone who wants to understand more about the inner workings of Whitehall and how it led to Britain voting Leave. Excluding those who are put off by 688-page political hardbacks. Don't say I didn't warn you.
November 2, 2019
Halloween has passed without us leaving the EU (thank goodness) and appropriately enough I finished Tim Shipman’s ‘All Out War’ today.
It’s a compelling and meticulous account of the Brexit Referendum that’s extremely readable despite the complexity of the events being relayed. It’s a fascinating book and achieved for me the author’s intended aim of giving readers on either side of the debate a better understanding and appreciation of the motives of the other side.
Perhaps unsurprisingly (given that the author is political editor of The Sunday Times) it does a much better job of explaining the Tory side of the story than it does the Labour one. The Conservative players are fully formed characters with motivations and personalities, whilst Labour is more or less portrayed as a big dysfunctional blob. Not sure if this is bias on the part of the author or just a result of Labour players being less willing to talk to him, but it cost the book a star for me.
Nevertheless, it’s a book I throughly recommend and I’ll be diving into the sequel very soon.
It’s a compelling and meticulous account of the Brexit Referendum that’s extremely readable despite the complexity of the events being relayed. It’s a fascinating book and achieved for me the author’s intended aim of giving readers on either side of the debate a better understanding and appreciation of the motives of the other side.
Perhaps unsurprisingly (given that the author is political editor of The Sunday Times) it does a much better job of explaining the Tory side of the story than it does the Labour one. The Conservative players are fully formed characters with motivations and personalities, whilst Labour is more or less portrayed as a big dysfunctional blob. Not sure if this is bias on the part of the author or just a result of Labour players being less willing to talk to him, but it cost the book a star for me.
Nevertheless, it’s a book I throughly recommend and I’ll be diving into the sequel very soon.
February 21, 2024
This was an incredibly detailed book on the whole process up to and including the appointment of Theresa May as Prime Minister.
August 27, 2018
A wild read. Works really well as both fiction (even though it's factual) and non-fiction. Fiction, in that it is a fascinating story with a crazy plot and great characters, and non-fiction in that it gives you a really good insight into how political campaigning works, and the types of decisions and strategies that help make history.
July 19, 2017
I thought the U.K. would ultimately and begrudgingly vote to say in Europe. A less than perfect institution but one with enormous potential. Mr Shipman explains why I was entirely wrong. In doing so confirmed some of my worst fears about squabbling public school Tory boys who displayed an amazing lack of talent in what was a race to the bottom in terms of incompetence. Happily for fans of political even handedness the labor party could not even manage to be incompetent. Read it and gnash the teeth.
October 10, 2017
What a behemoth. I'm glad I read it, but some advice to people who are not intense politics buffs:
- skip the first two chapters. They cover too many years and people in too little time, and they are the first 5-8% of the book, so highly likely you'll stop reading at that point. Skim after you've read the rest of the book of you're keen.
- read this on Kindle rather than as a paperback. I found the X-Ray feature very useful, along with highlights, and never even realised this book was a mammoth brick until I accidentally saw it in a bookshop. Psychologically much better for you.
The author has had access to most of the big players in the EU Referendum so the Game Of Thrones nature of it all has been captured from multiple sides quite perfectly. As a Remainer, I've come out of the book much more sympathetic to David Cameron and Theresa May, and have seen parts of the Vote Leave campaign that I truly admire. I'd say a Brexiter would come out of this with a better understanding of why the immigration debate was so toxic, and maybe see some truth in all that Project Fear predicted, especially as now over a year has passed.
Bottom line - worth the reading time and effort, feel free to skim over when the going gets tough (the author quite often errs on the too many details side of the line), and keep an open mind.
- skip the first two chapters. They cover too many years and people in too little time, and they are the first 5-8% of the book, so highly likely you'll stop reading at that point. Skim after you've read the rest of the book of you're keen.
- read this on Kindle rather than as a paperback. I found the X-Ray feature very useful, along with highlights, and never even realised this book was a mammoth brick until I accidentally saw it in a bookshop. Psychologically much better for you.
The author has had access to most of the big players in the EU Referendum so the Game Of Thrones nature of it all has been captured from multiple sides quite perfectly. As a Remainer, I've come out of the book much more sympathetic to David Cameron and Theresa May, and have seen parts of the Vote Leave campaign that I truly admire. I'd say a Brexiter would come out of this with a better understanding of why the immigration debate was so toxic, and maybe see some truth in all that Project Fear predicted, especially as now over a year has passed.
Bottom line - worth the reading time and effort, feel free to skim over when the going gets tough (the author quite often errs on the too many details side of the line), and keep an open mind.
March 18, 2021
Sigh. Sigh. Containing all (well, most of) the intricate aspects of a shipwreck in gory detail, I found it both fascinating and hard to read because of the ghastly consequences. Shipman isn't entirely objective (how could he be!), but comes down hard on Cameron and possibly not hard enough on either Osborne or Johnson.
In a way, it's a pity that the book virtually stops once Mrs May takes possession of 10 Downing Str - but I expect his follow-up book is not for me; there's only so much heartache I can stomach in one life time...
In a way, it's a pity that the book virtually stops once Mrs May takes possession of 10 Downing Str - but I expect his follow-up book is not for me; there's only so much heartache I can stomach in one life time...
July 29, 2018
“I’m not a sociologist or a political scientist. This is not a study of the decline of the post industrial working class, ‘post-truth politics’ or the psychology of anger….It is not the story of the little guy….If this book in any way goes beyond journalism…it is unashamedly elitist history.”
In this way, Tim Shipman sets out in his introduction to All Out War exactly what this book is not. It is not a work of political sociology, nor is it informed by any other academic discipline. But neither is it a work of “unashamedly elitist history”, unless by that you mean Westminster bubble tittle tattle. This is the work of a courtier. And as such, it is magnificent.
This is the inside story of Tory-UKIP-Brexit, because in this narrative the Tory and UKIP leaderships are part of the same tribe, and Brexit is their clearest expression. Labour and Liberal Democrat characters play bit parts. People like Peter Mandelson, Will Straw, and Ryan Coetzee provided the ‘cross-party’ cover required to gain official campaign designation for Stronger In, but they do not emerge from this telling as in any way central to the story of Brexit. Gisele Stuart and Kate Hoey, both failed junior ministers under Labour, play a far bigger, if still essentially peripheral, role for the Leave campaigns, than the seasoned campaigners, Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell did for their side. As for Jeremy Corbyn, there is a cursory examination of the role of the Labour leadership in the referendum campaign, but it is clear that Shipman has neither the contacts, nor the interest, to do more than offer a hasty sketch of their limited participation.
It is impossible to overstate how fascinated Shipman is with the Court, and with the ‘aristocracy’ of the right in general. We glimpse their dinner parties, we tumble out of taxies with them, we witness catfights between supportive spouses on either side of the referendum divide. As high class soap opera, it is riveting at first. As in Wolf Hall, one is seduced into enjoying the spectacle, the drama, the emotion, of power players at the apex of the nation. But, unlike Hilary Mantel’s novel, it is difficult for a non-Tory reader to sustain their interest, except at the level of abject horror.
What emerges from this book is the deep, dreary, unseriousness of these people. David Cameron, whom Shipman clearly admires, comes across as someone with an unshakeable sense of entitlement, and a casual disregard for those outside his circle. George Osborne emerges as the cleverer man, but equally uninterested in the country he was governing. Perhaps the most interesting character on the Tory side is not Boris Johnson, who is revealed as being quite as shallow as one might suspect, but Michael Gove.
Gove is intriguing, because of the stench of snobbery that pervades this story. He is depicted as Baldrick with pretentions, an oik with a brown nose and a cunning plan up his grubby sleeve, scheming and fawning in equal measure. Shipman, himself a grammar school boy, and therefore also, in this world, a Baldrick, plainly sees in Gove the tragic character flaw that must doom him. This is his belief in ideas over bloodline. They aren’t very good ideas, but even having ideas seems to be suspect at Court.
For that is the hole at the heart of this book. It’s about Brexit. The reasons why we had a vote when there was virtually no clamour from the public for one. The cavalier insouciance with which Cameron went about the whole thing. The overconfidence of most of the Tory Remainers, and the win-at-all-costs determination of the Leavers, all these things are sketched out through the dramatis personae. But there is nothing at all about what was this Brexit thing supposed to be. Nothing.
The most one can infer, and this from Dominic Cummings, the insolent select committee snubber and nose-thumber at the Electoral Commission, is that they were planning a coup. The idea was that Brexit would defenestrate Cameron, install a malleable buffoon or useful idiot in Number 10, put Michael Gove in the Treasury with a remit to dismantle the civil service, and only then, with the state machinery captured by the Provos of the Legatum Institute, the Tax Dodgers’ Alliance, and others, would they turn their attention to leaving the EU. That seems to have been the plan in full.
Shipman’s book is occasionally entertaining, its portrait of Court life sometimes a bit Versailles-ish (Gove and Osborne’s dogs being ‘married’ at a ‘ceremony with flowers’?), but it is also a deeply worrying account of the unfitness for office of those who rule us.
In this way, Tim Shipman sets out in his introduction to All Out War exactly what this book is not. It is not a work of political sociology, nor is it informed by any other academic discipline. But neither is it a work of “unashamedly elitist history”, unless by that you mean Westminster bubble tittle tattle. This is the work of a courtier. And as such, it is magnificent.
This is the inside story of Tory-UKIP-Brexit, because in this narrative the Tory and UKIP leaderships are part of the same tribe, and Brexit is their clearest expression. Labour and Liberal Democrat characters play bit parts. People like Peter Mandelson, Will Straw, and Ryan Coetzee provided the ‘cross-party’ cover required to gain official campaign designation for Stronger In, but they do not emerge from this telling as in any way central to the story of Brexit. Gisele Stuart and Kate Hoey, both failed junior ministers under Labour, play a far bigger, if still essentially peripheral, role for the Leave campaigns, than the seasoned campaigners, Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell did for their side. As for Jeremy Corbyn, there is a cursory examination of the role of the Labour leadership in the referendum campaign, but it is clear that Shipman has neither the contacts, nor the interest, to do more than offer a hasty sketch of their limited participation.
It is impossible to overstate how fascinated Shipman is with the Court, and with the ‘aristocracy’ of the right in general. We glimpse their dinner parties, we tumble out of taxies with them, we witness catfights between supportive spouses on either side of the referendum divide. As high class soap opera, it is riveting at first. As in Wolf Hall, one is seduced into enjoying the spectacle, the drama, the emotion, of power players at the apex of the nation. But, unlike Hilary Mantel’s novel, it is difficult for a non-Tory reader to sustain their interest, except at the level of abject horror.
What emerges from this book is the deep, dreary, unseriousness of these people. David Cameron, whom Shipman clearly admires, comes across as someone with an unshakeable sense of entitlement, and a casual disregard for those outside his circle. George Osborne emerges as the cleverer man, but equally uninterested in the country he was governing. Perhaps the most interesting character on the Tory side is not Boris Johnson, who is revealed as being quite as shallow as one might suspect, but Michael Gove.
Gove is intriguing, because of the stench of snobbery that pervades this story. He is depicted as Baldrick with pretentions, an oik with a brown nose and a cunning plan up his grubby sleeve, scheming and fawning in equal measure. Shipman, himself a grammar school boy, and therefore also, in this world, a Baldrick, plainly sees in Gove the tragic character flaw that must doom him. This is his belief in ideas over bloodline. They aren’t very good ideas, but even having ideas seems to be suspect at Court.
For that is the hole at the heart of this book. It’s about Brexit. The reasons why we had a vote when there was virtually no clamour from the public for one. The cavalier insouciance with which Cameron went about the whole thing. The overconfidence of most of the Tory Remainers, and the win-at-all-costs determination of the Leavers, all these things are sketched out through the dramatis personae. But there is nothing at all about what was this Brexit thing supposed to be. Nothing.
The most one can infer, and this from Dominic Cummings, the insolent select committee snubber and nose-thumber at the Electoral Commission, is that they were planning a coup. The idea was that Brexit would defenestrate Cameron, install a malleable buffoon or useful idiot in Number 10, put Michael Gove in the Treasury with a remit to dismantle the civil service, and only then, with the state machinery captured by the Provos of the Legatum Institute, the Tax Dodgers’ Alliance, and others, would they turn their attention to leaving the EU. That seems to have been the plan in full.
Shipman’s book is occasionally entertaining, its portrait of Court life sometimes a bit Versailles-ish (Gove and Osborne’s dogs being ‘married’ at a ‘ceremony with flowers’?), but it is also a deeply worrying account of the unfitness for office of those who rule us.
July 17, 2017
Insightful, intriguing, shocking and gripping account of the Brexit referendum. The book illustrates the importance of an effective and dirty campaign, 'spin', deception, politics, ambition etc, answering largely why the public decided to vote to leave the EU. It is only now that we start to see the disastrous consequences of that decision, which were foretold but not believed. Consequences which will impact not just the next 3-5 years, but generations into the future. So why did the Brexiteers win such a monumental victory. A perfect storm of disenchantment with the establishment, stagnating living standards for many, and immigration 'crisis' from the Middle East and a weak Europe are ley factors which 'tipped the balance' These 'events' and the impacts of Globalisation on the West are critical, however I feel that it is more down to local factors, players and reporting which had the biggest impacts. It seems inevitable that Cameron had a call a referendum, but the timing is less certain. The 'rush for 2016' seems now to have been a poorly judged decision, not least in ensuring enough time for a rigorous negotiation with EU leaders. it also seems clear that Cameron was less ambitious and willing to 'push' the EU for far greater reforms, not least on immigration which handed the Brexiteers a mandate for Leave. It should also be noted that the complacency and inflexibility of the EU was also a major factor that they now will live to regret...it seems neither Cameron or EU leaders felt that the Leave camp could win, and Cameron's weak demands and failure to 'walk away' reflected this. At a national level the Remain camp made a fundamental mistake in sticking at all costs to the economy and failing to understand and address 'immigration'. This 'failing' in the face of increasing use of immigration by Leave and the right wing press, specifically using Turkey and the Balkans and the Syrian crisis as scare tactics proved a 'game changer' for the campaign. A further critical factor surrounds the incompetence (JC), complacency (AJ)and outright 'sabotage'(SM & JMc) by the Labour Leadership which meant the loss of the 'North'. Finally, it is undisputable that the decision by Gove to join the Leave camp was absolutely critical. Leave with Farage, Banks, Cash, Fox, Redmond etc would not have had credibility with the moderate voters, which Gove and ultimately Jonson provided. This however could still have been thwarted had Cameron been aggressive and accepted the need for 'blue on blue' in the way that Leave were happy to undermine the Tory Remainers. The book throws up so many 'what if's' - stronger negotiation / more accommodation from EU leaders to retain UK in Europe, strong involvement from Labour, change in tactics from Remain, more balnced reporting.and of course the players and their behaviour...but ultimately Remain lost and Leave won the battle...now we are in a real 'war' in trying to negotiate a reasonable deal...in veryb difficult and challenging circumstances. A disastrous election for the Tories further exacerbates the problems, not least with Tory civil war raging (even though Cameron would not sanction blue on blue). Is it possible that at the end of the day we will ultimately 'pull back' and 'remain in the EU' or will we drop off the edge of the cliff with 'no deal'. The optimist in me says the former, but given the absence of talent and leadership in British politics and the division in the country I am fearing the latter, as in fighting and squabbling make 'compromise' untenable - hope I am wrong, not least for the Welsh and those on the North who voted for Leave, but will actually be the worst hot by a v 'hard Brexit'!!
September 29, 2017
I confess I only read about half of this - I may finish it at some point, but I managed enough to give a judgement. It was an excellent, definitive read on the referendum, but the forensic analysis of how the elites essentially play games with the well-being of the nation in order to fulfill their own tedious political agendas is ultimately extremely, dispiriting, wearying and tough to stomach, particularly when you realise that the Leave side basically got the rub of the green pretty much the whole way through and the Remain side could certainly have changed the outcomes if they had been a bit more organised, cohesive, and took the whole thing a lot more seriously a lot earlier.
You have to REALLY be interested in the machinations of policy wonks, civil servants and assorted political blowhards if you are going to make it through all 600 pages.
Very much looking forward to his next one on the General Election though...
You have to REALLY be interested in the machinations of policy wonks, civil servants and assorted political blowhards if you are going to make it through all 600 pages.
Very much looking forward to his next one on the General Election though...
November 24, 2017
Britain’s decision in June 2016 to leave the EU marked a post-War turning point for the Western world – for the first time a large country had decisively turned its back on globalization. The debates in the process of doing so also broadened the definition of what would be politically acceptable in terms of expression of views especially towards foreigners and immigration. This cocktail of populism, visible detest towards the elite, mixed together with the advent of social media and “post truth politics” was then seen again by the end of the year in Donald Trump’s election to the White House. In the light of the momentous Brexit decision that foreshadowed this changed mood, it should not have been such a surprise after all.
And yet – if only 650 thousand people had voted the other way, Britain would have remained in the EU. Tim Shipman’s “All Out War” is an exhaustive (688 pages!) and excellent journalistic account of Brexit. In his Sunday Times No.1 bestseller, Shipman details the run up in the years before that made David Cameron take the huge gamble of calling the referendum – after all this was a prime minister who before taking up his post stated that he did not want his premiership to be defined by Europe, and who at 49 became the youngest British ex-Prime Minister in over a 120 years. The referendum itself and the various technicalities surrounding it which were also keenly contested, and minutiae surrounding some of the battles on the question to be put before voters (apparently a simple Yes/No question would have had 4% more voting to stay in the EU) are described in some detail. Also addressed is the role of the press, particularly the BBC, as the appropriateness of the policy of “balanced coverage” is called into question when equal time is mindlessly devoted to both sides regardless of the quality of arguments presented or personalities involved. And the aftermath or fallout from this “all-out war” takes up the third and final section of the book.
This last bit is still unfolding – witness the utter confusion of the hapless Theresa May administration on when and how to start Brexit negotiations, the disarray in the government and governing party about even just what Brexit should mean, and the realization that Britain will be left with a hefty divorce bill necessitating budget cuts, rather than bringing back home the GBP 50 million that was being sent to Brussels every week (an early example of the resonance of post-truth messaging).
The subtitle of the book, “how Brexit sank Britain’s political class”, rings even truer. Following the referendum, not only did David Cameron resign - just a year after leading the Conservatives to a resounding victory at the hustings in 2015 – but none of the other party leaders, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage, remain in their positions.
Shipman holds his judgement on whether Cameron was right in calling for a referendum. What he does instead is offer an unabashedly elitist account of Brexit by focusing on the key figures – the leaders, their aides and their motivations, machinations and thoughts. Clearly Cameron’s close confidante Chancellor George Osborne firmly warned him against holding a referendum. But he would have still got his way had two leading Tories, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, not backed the Brexit campaign. They gave intellectual heft and dinner party cover to the Leave campaign supporters, offsetting the likes of Farage and other fringe right elements who may have otherwise been toxic to the campaign. Gove and Johnson’s decision to join the Leave camp is discussed, while the self-defeating ambivalence of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is highlighted as a potential reason for the Remain campaign not getting enough on the ground support from a traditionally pro-Europe Labour Party. In fact, Corbyn is excoriated as someone who was only put on the party leadership ballot to provide competition, and who was voted to leadership by those who had given up on Labour winning and just wanted to feel good while losing.
Along with these well-known figures are the crucial roles played by other aides. The drive, bite and battlefield like organizational skills of Dominic Cummings and Steve Baker on the Leave side, and of people like Will Straw and Craig Osborne on the Remain team were crucial to their respective campaigns. And readers get a peek into the gaffes and shambolisms too. The flawed predictions and analyses of “consultant” Jim Messina, the American who had handled Obama’s winning campaign gets highlighted, as does the Remain pollster Andrew Cooper whose polls shaped the message that the campaign was putting out, and yet failed utterly to show the resonance of immigration among the voters.
But perhaps the real shambles began after the referendum – instead of basking in their victory, the main Brexiteers appeared transfixed and astounded by their own victory, and rather than taking charge, the revolutionary leadership turned on itself as first Johnson and then Gove both found themselves unable to lead the post Brexit Tory party. In that sense it should be no surprise that Theresa May is PM now – after all, many Remainers believes she shares much of the blame for defeat – she was a Remain-er who did not campaign and chose to sit on the fence, and her ill-times comments as Home Secretary on immigration, just when the Remain campaign’s focus on economic issues seemed to be gaining traction, were clearly unhelpful. As a Remain camp member says ruefully at the time, “Theresa hasn’t done much media”!
Such vignettes make the book a long but interesting and insightful read into the current state of British politics and its main players, seen through the historic lens of Brexit.
And yet – if only 650 thousand people had voted the other way, Britain would have remained in the EU. Tim Shipman’s “All Out War” is an exhaustive (688 pages!) and excellent journalistic account of Brexit. In his Sunday Times No.1 bestseller, Shipman details the run up in the years before that made David Cameron take the huge gamble of calling the referendum – after all this was a prime minister who before taking up his post stated that he did not want his premiership to be defined by Europe, and who at 49 became the youngest British ex-Prime Minister in over a 120 years. The referendum itself and the various technicalities surrounding it which were also keenly contested, and minutiae surrounding some of the battles on the question to be put before voters (apparently a simple Yes/No question would have had 4% more voting to stay in the EU) are described in some detail. Also addressed is the role of the press, particularly the BBC, as the appropriateness of the policy of “balanced coverage” is called into question when equal time is mindlessly devoted to both sides regardless of the quality of arguments presented or personalities involved. And the aftermath or fallout from this “all-out war” takes up the third and final section of the book.
This last bit is still unfolding – witness the utter confusion of the hapless Theresa May administration on when and how to start Brexit negotiations, the disarray in the government and governing party about even just what Brexit should mean, and the realization that Britain will be left with a hefty divorce bill necessitating budget cuts, rather than bringing back home the GBP 50 million that was being sent to Brussels every week (an early example of the resonance of post-truth messaging).
The subtitle of the book, “how Brexit sank Britain’s political class”, rings even truer. Following the referendum, not only did David Cameron resign - just a year after leading the Conservatives to a resounding victory at the hustings in 2015 – but none of the other party leaders, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage, remain in their positions.
Shipman holds his judgement on whether Cameron was right in calling for a referendum. What he does instead is offer an unabashedly elitist account of Brexit by focusing on the key figures – the leaders, their aides and their motivations, machinations and thoughts. Clearly Cameron’s close confidante Chancellor George Osborne firmly warned him against holding a referendum. But he would have still got his way had two leading Tories, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, not backed the Brexit campaign. They gave intellectual heft and dinner party cover to the Leave campaign supporters, offsetting the likes of Farage and other fringe right elements who may have otherwise been toxic to the campaign. Gove and Johnson’s decision to join the Leave camp is discussed, while the self-defeating ambivalence of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is highlighted as a potential reason for the Remain campaign not getting enough on the ground support from a traditionally pro-Europe Labour Party. In fact, Corbyn is excoriated as someone who was only put on the party leadership ballot to provide competition, and who was voted to leadership by those who had given up on Labour winning and just wanted to feel good while losing.
Along with these well-known figures are the crucial roles played by other aides. The drive, bite and battlefield like organizational skills of Dominic Cummings and Steve Baker on the Leave side, and of people like Will Straw and Craig Osborne on the Remain team were crucial to their respective campaigns. And readers get a peek into the gaffes and shambolisms too. The flawed predictions and analyses of “consultant” Jim Messina, the American who had handled Obama’s winning campaign gets highlighted, as does the Remain pollster Andrew Cooper whose polls shaped the message that the campaign was putting out, and yet failed utterly to show the resonance of immigration among the voters.
But perhaps the real shambles began after the referendum – instead of basking in their victory, the main Brexiteers appeared transfixed and astounded by their own victory, and rather than taking charge, the revolutionary leadership turned on itself as first Johnson and then Gove both found themselves unable to lead the post Brexit Tory party. In that sense it should be no surprise that Theresa May is PM now – after all, many Remainers believes she shares much of the blame for defeat – she was a Remain-er who did not campaign and chose to sit on the fence, and her ill-times comments as Home Secretary on immigration, just when the Remain campaign’s focus on economic issues seemed to be gaining traction, were clearly unhelpful. As a Remain camp member says ruefully at the time, “Theresa hasn’t done much media”!
Such vignettes make the book a long but interesting and insightful read into the current state of British politics and its main players, seen through the historic lens of Brexit.
August 13, 2019
I've been really trying to get my head around Brexit. The daily coverage is difficult to follow from afar and I tend to get bogged down in th the complexities which is where a good contemporary history book can really make sense of things. The author is a political journalist and is clearly extremely well connected. This feels like an attempt at an American-style politics book along the lines of Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin whose books I love however they know what to leave out. There is simply too much detail here, the book could, and should, have been at least 25% shorter. As to the book, the whole sorry story of Cameron's foolish gambit to assuage the Tory eurosceptics and the ruthless exploitation of the referendum by schemers like Cummings, buccaneers like Banks and Farage as well as the sorry state of the Remain campaign and the incompetence of Corbyn....what a sorry cast of characters. Fintan O'Tooles book Heroic Failure seeks to get to the heart of the rot of not just British politics but the Britain - especially England - itself.
May 5, 2019
With a hint of shame have to say I've enjoyed this a ridiculous amount. Heard it's been called posh gossip etc, and once I'd got over bits where it says Boris popped off for a decent claret etc I couldn't put it down. A staggeringly interesting account of the motivations, thoughts and actions of some of the key players in the leave and remain campaigns. A real feel for how British politics actually works - it's mad how much depends on a tweet or a WhatsApp message... Perfect holiday reading.
December 19, 2018
Echt een onmisbaar boek om de Brexit te begrijpen. Een ontzettend spannend verslag van de campagne en gebeurtenissen rond het referendum, maar ook een manier om de beweegredenen van beide kanten te kunnen doorgronden. Daarnaast erg goed geschreven.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 235 reviews