We had to look back over our records just to make sure, but it appears that it really was only a week ago that Mark Pack reviewed one of our other books, Paul Moorcraft’s Inside The Danger Zones, for Liberal Democrat Voice. This week he has given us his thoughts on Which Way’s Up?: The future of coalition Britain and how to get there by Nick Boles MP.
And we are delighted to say that he seems to have enjoyed Which Way’s Up just as much as Inside the Danger Zones. We must stress that he probably didn’t enjoy them in quite the same way though, as the books aren’t exactly similar. It’s very difficult to compare a fascinating account of thirty years of reporting from inside some of the toughest and most dangerous war zones in the world with a comprehensive insider study of the future of the coalition government. Alright, so maybe the two environments are quite similar.
Mark Pack admires Boles for raising the policy debates that he does at a time when arguments over methods for successfully tackling debt, the budget deficit and cuts are at their most brutal. Pack also contests some of the notions put forward by him, showing that - particularly in the early days of the coalition in which two parties previously in opposition and desperate to push their own ideas forward - the subject of policy is as exciting as ever. Which Way’s Up he says, offers unique insights into the state of the Conservative Party:
“…although Boles’s book is about a future of Conservative-Liberal Democrat cooperation, in many ways its most important message is how even Conservatives now want to be judged on levels of social equality and mobility.”
But, to be honest, we only discovered this once we’d managed to tear ourselves away from the first paragraph.
“The rapid appearance since the formation of the Coalition of Conservative MP Nick Boles’s book Which Way’s Up? is a tribute to the speed with which Biteback turns round books – recognising that the previous slothful pace of much political publishing meant books were no longer able to capture the political weather.”
Stop, you'll make us blush...
Which Way's Up?: The future for coalition Britain and how to get there by Nick Boles MP is available to buy here for £8.99.