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All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class Hardcover – January 1, 2016

by Tim Shipman (Author)

4.5 1,583 ratings

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'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?

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All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class

The only book to tell the full story of how and why Britain voted to leave the EU.

This is the acclaimed inside story of the EU referendum in 2016 that takes you behind the scenes of the most extraordinary episode in British politics since the Second World War.

With unparalleled access to all key players, this is a story of calculation, attempted coups and people torn between principles and loyalty. It is a book about our leaders and their closest aides, the decisions they make, how and why they make them and how they feel when they turn out to be so wrong.

In All Out War, Tim Shipman has written a political history that reads like a thriller, exploring how and why David Cameron chose to take the biggest political gamble of his life, and why he lost.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins Publishers (January 1, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 688 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008215154
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008215156
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.18 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.26 x 1.77 x 9.45 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #269,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.5 1,583 ratings

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Tim Shipman

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Tim Shipman is the Political Editor of The Sunday Times newspaper and has been covering politics since 2001, an enterprise that has broadened his mind and his waistline. He has also reported from Westminster for the Daily Mail and the Sunday Express.

He is a regular on the BBC and Sky News, where he is to be found offering analysis and sarcasm depending on what the situation demands. He popularised the word “omnishambles” in Westminster long before George Osborne based his 2012 budget on the concept.

Tim was Washington correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph during Barack Obama’s historic first election campaign, so he has been lied to by political operators on both sides of the Atlantic. In the last twenty years Tim has covered four general elections, three presidential elections, two wars and more leadership contests than he can count.

Tim was Chairman of the Parliamentary Press Gallery in 2012. He was shortlisted for the political journalist of the year award at the British Press Awards in both 2015 and 2016. He lives in South East London with his wife and more than two thousand books. So far he has only managed to get one of these published himself.

You can follow Tim's waspish Twitter feed here: https://twitter.com/ShippersUnbound

You can hire him to speak here: http://www.kirbyjones.co.uk/tim-shipman

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Chris DeRose, NYT Bestselling Author

One of the best books I've ever read

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2017

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One of the best books I've ever read, and, as a political work, in the league with Cramer's masterpiece "What it Takes" (the greatest book ever written on politics) and Caro's Lyndon Johnson series.

I've been following British politics since the 1990's and intensely since the 2000's. But I wondered whether 688 pages on the Brexit referendum was more than I needed. On the contrary, Shipman provides all the necessary context of Britain's long and tumultuous relationship with the European Union without lingering or engaging in tedium.

What follows is a gifted storyteller mining an epic drama for all of its narrative worth. Imagine a national referendum over the future of the country with fissures running through party lines and pitting leaders of the two major parties against one another.

Underlying this national battle is the psychodrama among a group of friends who attended Oxford in the 80's: Boris Johnson, who watched as his younger classmate David Cameron ascended to the leadership of the Conservative Party and the premiership ahead of him, who emerges as the front man of the Leave campaign, putting him on the path to being prime minister; Michael Gove, whose modest background affected the dynamic with his classmates Cameron and Johnson, found himself marginalized in the latter's government. Gove, who supplied much of the intellectual heft of the new Conservatives, would do the same for the Leave campaign. The interpersonal politics and personal history was just as interesting as the campaign itself, which cannot be understood without it.

Shakespeare wouldn't have dared to invent this story. Cameron, the young prince, never a Europhile, promises a referendum in order to win a General Election in 2015. The referendum fails, and his political career with it. In the retrospect of his amazing career, Europe was always there, waiting, to give him his greatest victory but also his final and fatal defeat.

How Leave wins, and the head Brexiteers lose the peace, is a story that deserved a book of this magnitude. I enthusiastically recommend it.

9 people found this helpful

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JEDrury

Superb history

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2018

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Tim Shipman's book is an intense journalistic focus on the politics leading up to and about Brexit (from mid 2015 through Sept 2016). The book is long (600 + pages) and it could have been edited effectively without losing its color and analytical depth. Its vivid, even-handed portraits of the players (Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Jeremy Corbyn, David Cameron and Theresa May, Dominic Cummings) are enlightening, the "Remain" and the "Leave" landscape and strategy are fairly presented, its June 2016 outcome is dramatic (even though known) and its finale is a Shakespearian political scramble within the Tories leading up to the election of Theresa May as party leader. Shipman reserves his well thought out opinions for his thirty (30) page conclusion. The beginning includes an informative timeline and he adds Johnson's "In" Article and Cameron's "Victory" speech.

3 people found this helpful

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Tom Jennings

Make Britian Great Again

Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2016

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Fascinating look at the actors, the plans and the gaffes that led to Brexit. Shipman interviewed extensively and provides an almost day-by-day in progress review of the run-up to Brexit. The players on display are shown at their brilliant best and their lewd, bumbling worst. A must-read for political junkies, those trying to make sense of internationalism in retreat, and those curious about the parallels between Brexit and Trumpism.

9 people found this helpful

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Andreas Falke

But with a cool head, it could have been prevented

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2017

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If you want to understand the craziness of Brexit, here is a detailed account of the political dynamics, and the pressures Cameron was subject to. But with a cool head, it could have been prevented

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Fascinating instant - history of the Brexit campaigns and immediate ...

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2017

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Fascinating instant - history of the Brexit campaigns and immediate aftermath. Even this yank across the pond could not put it down once I started reading - even knowing how it ends!

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Jan-Henry Hansen

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2017

An important story

A ship without a captain...

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2017

In this great book Tim Shipman gives the inside story on BREXIT. There was actually two OUT campaigns, the official Vote Leave campaign run by the Tory establishment, and Leave.EU which was run by Arron Banks and spearheaded by Nigel Farage. The tale is interesting and well written. Both campaigns hated each other and believed the other was having a negative effect. But the fact is both campaigns were required to win BREXIT. Vote Leave targeted middle-upper class conservative voters, making it socially acceptable to vote OUT, while Farage and co hit the Labour heartlands and working class areas with a nativist and anti-immigrant pitch.

I had a good laugh at Daniel Hannan and other establishment figures who claim that anti-migrant sentiment was not the single largest motivating factor in BREXIT. Hannan is a liar, and its a perfect example of how our political class has become so petrified of being called racist they must do mental gymnastics on such an obvious issue. Yes, Vote Leave did have polling of upper class Tory voters showing 'make our own laws' to be the top issue, but that's because those respondents were too cultured to tell the pollster what they really think.

But what really fascinated me was the following attack on Michael Gove, one of the leading OUT figures for the Tory party...

"More than any specific ideological vision he has, Gove is an ideologue. You do get the whiff of burning witches. The thing about ideologues, whether they're left or right, none of them need experts because they're the expert; because the ideology has the answer. Ideologues force the world to conform to their theory instead of having their theory conform to the world. That, to my mind, explains Michael Gove."

This passage is utterly instructive of a larger issue of our time. It shows that Cameron's government, at heart, regarded ideology as the enemy. But isn't this for the best, you may ask? Does this not show their sound pragmatism? No. Let me explain.

The new political class, on the left and right, eschew ideology in favor of a technocratic form of governance. The idea is to deliver reform based on empirical evidence and pragmatic solutions to issues as they arise. It sounds good, but the end result is very different. An ideology-less government will, in practice, always devolves into ad hoc, piece-meal social engineering and paternalism.

Right now, Britain is under almost unprecedented assault in the areas of civil liberties. Facebook posts, tweets and all manner of petty thought crimes are now grounds for being imprisoned. Child welfare services have become tyrannical and out of control. Spying, privacy intrusion and video surveillance now rival anything that Orwell's 1984 could have envisioned.

Not only have these things continued since the Cameron government took over from Labour in 2010, they have accelerated. Cameron's technocrats have proven themselves almost indivisible from Blair's New Labour. Without any ideology to guide them, there can be no internal movement to roll any of this back; to do so it to be accused of being ideological. Without ideology to guide them, each crisis is only solved through flexible ad-hoc interventionism, always more paternalism, always more government.

This explains the disaster British society has been heading into these last few decades, right alongside those other European technocratic governments; Germany, Sweden e.t.c

7 people found this helpful

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G. Jones

Excellent Book, Terrible Subject

Reviewed in Germany on December 3, 2018

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Excellent book. If you're interested in the causes and criminality of Brexit, you'll find a lot of info here. But it's more about the early days than the exposed illegality from later. To find out more about that, I suggest reading the work of the award winning Observer/Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr.

R. Parry

FIRST RATE INSIGHT AND ENTERTAINMENT

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 4, 2017

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Even If you are bored witless by Brexit it is hard to imagine you will not be captivated by this brilliant and insightful book. It is the ultimate insiders’ account of the UK’s 2016 referendum melodrama both behind and in front of the scenes. Given that we all know the outcome it may seem hard to imagine that a book detailing the process should be so entertaining. But it is. Amongst the reasons are that author and experienced Sunday Times political journalist Tim Shipman writes so well and enjoyed such good access to the people at the centre of it all.
The Sunday Times has developed a house style which invites the reader to imagine they are a fly on the wall at significant moments. In terms of how this looks on the page it goes along the lines of: “It was just after 7am on Sunday when Boris Johnson had taken the top of his mint flavoured toothpaste that his Apple iPhone played its distinctive Rule Britannia ring tone….” Tim Shipman is a master practitioner of this approach and it gives the book a sense of privileged access and narrative drive. He tell a complex story really well and makes it personal and fun.
In one sense All Out War is a series of essays on different aspects the referendum and its aftermath. It must have started with the multitude of articles Mr Shipman wrote on the subject as the drama was unfolding and as such there are times when the same material is covered but from different perspectives. That leads to one possible criticism of this book - it is long and at times repetitive and might have benefited from a bit more aggressive subediting. But it is never dull, never boring so you might argue you simply get more words for your money
Newspapers are sometimes called “a first draft of history” but in fact it is publications like All Out War that really claim that role as it provides context and considered analysis as well as instant facts. Enervating though it is - to still be watching the Brexit mess unfold it was a truly historic event and this book will be used for many years as a vital source. Worth the effort to read it. Looking forward to the inevitable movie – hope they give Mr Shipman due credit but that it does not run for more than 2 hours.

4 people found this helpful

Jane Heck

A good read

Reviewed in Germany on October 22, 2017

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An amazing insight, although if you are not an insider it takes a while to sort out who the all the string- pullers and campaign leaders are- still if one perseveres it is a gripping read.

One person found this helpful

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cryptopsyftw

absolutely bangin'

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 25, 2017

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I'm conflicted about the 4 stars; the missing star represents a flaw that has nothing to do with the author's ability to convey information in a non-biased manner. In fact he does quite the opposite; All Out War is compulsively readable. The story is complex, but Shipman navigates it well, covering each point in enough depth to demonstrate its importance without getting bogged down. Both the leave and remain sides of the debate are given roughly equal coverage, and the author keeps his personal biases enough in check that he does not advocate for one side nor disparage the other. Whatever your political slant, you won't put this book down feeling persecuted or misunderstood.

The way this story plays out in places feels akin to a novel; this is Game of Thrones with cups of Earl Grey. All the interactions between all the different characters build upon each other to form a deep but easily followed narrative up to Theresa May taking over. There will be players within this particular drama that you'll naturally be drawn to and others that you may wind up detesting, according to your own personal politics. It gives people the benefit of the doubt, suggesting frequently - and not without well founded cause - that the decisions involved here were born more of conviction than as cynical career moves. Overall, the book comes across as good natured, in the spirit of honest inquiry rather than a spiteful polemic against anyone in particular.

You'll get an expose of some of the claims within the referendum here too; notably the £350 million to the EU claim amongst others, without passing judgement on them. Overall, the book seems superlatively researched...which brings me to the one flaw I can think of off the top of my head. This really isn't the fault of the author, but because many of his sources are still in political careers, they understandably don't want to be named. This reduces parts of the book down to saying things like "An aide said" or "One particular MP pointed out" and so on. It goes without saying that this would be very hard to independently verify. It's not necessarily a problem exactly - it's not as though the author doesn't cite sources where he can, but it's worth bearing in mind that much of the narrative here is based on the comments and judgements of unnamed sources. In fairness, many of the things it discusses are incontrovertible; the issue is more that the rationale behind them may - hardly for certain, mind - be spun in and of itself. Then again, the sources are anonymous, so perhaps not. The point is that it could be.

That doesn't detract from the overall worth of this book though. By and large its an even handed, exhaustively researched account of the events of the Brexit referendum, and if you are looking to learn about that then this would absolutely be a fantastic place to begin.

9 people found this helpful

Retro Brit

DYNAMIC READ!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 30, 2017

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I was engrossed in this book from the word go. We go through the whole process of how David Cameron was forced by his own Eurosceptics and UKIP pressure to do his famous Bloomberg speech. What followed next was the chain reaction and the underestimating of the Brexiteers’ ability to put together a substantial fighting force. This combined with events and powerful personalities brought about one of the most interesting political shockwaves I can remember in my 56 years of life.

This book is very detailed and looks at both Remain in the EU and Leave the EU camps and the consequences that brought it about. We also see some egotistical characters in the form of Dominic Cummings and Aron Banks with their different aggressive approaches.
We get a good look at how David Cameron watered down his demands after the Bloomberg speech and then tried to sell it to the electorate, thinking he had got a victory for the British people and his ministers.

Every chapter gives the reader an interesting angle and development as we edge close to the referendum day. It is not for the faint-hearted for it is packed with cunning ways to attract attention, good for one group and bad for the opposing. There are political guerrilla tactics employed as we move closer to the all-important day. This is a splendid and exciting read that lets you see both sides of the campaign including the in-house fighting.

It was a total war with battle fronts comprised of joint party cooperation on both sides. The organised pro-EU government-backed campaign led by the Prime Minister and the wonderful guerrilla adversaries from the Leave camp of Vote Leave, Leave EU to Grass Roots Out or GO. The whole thing is marvellous.

Cabinet ministers taking sides against their Prime Minister and joining opposing party politicians for a greater cause. Opposition MPs joining the opposing government for the pro-EU. This was a civil war at its very best where each side battled to win more than 50% of the electorate.
The amount of work that went into targeting specific categories of people. All the planning and application were mind boggling. This is one of the best political accounts I have ever read and on such an emotive and derisive subject. It certainly gives the reader a deeper insight and appreciation of the work both sides put in. Also the oversights and underestimating afterwards.

I would highly recommend this book.

The Last Days of Thunder Child: Victorian Britain in Chaos!

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All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class Hardcover – January 1, 2016

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