Broonland: The Last Days of Gordon Brown

Chris Harvie shows how Gordon Brown came to preside over a bankrupt country on the brink of economic and political breakdown. Taking us on a tour of Britain over the last decade, he explores the ever-widening disparity between rich and poor, and how manufacturing was replaced by "retail, entertainment and recreation"--otherwise known as shopping, gambling and drinking. Looking at how a deregulated, casino economy veered wildly out of control, and how Britain's public utilities and industries were privatized and sold off to the highest bidder, Broonland is both an essential anatomy of New Labour's bankrupt policies and a caustic portrait of a decade that went from boom to bust.

Christopher Harvie is Member of the Scottish Parliament for Mid Scotland and Fife. Harvie is visiting professor at Strathclyde and Aberystwyth universities and serves on the board of the European Centre for Federalism Studies, Tubingen, Germany. His many books include Scotland and Nationalism, Fool’s Gold, and Broonland.