Gill Bennett

We have all listened to the news programmes on TV and radio and said, "Why have those foolish politicians done that?" Armchair politics is, like its footballing counterpart, so much easier than the real thing. This book takes the reader behind six key events in British political history and tries to answer that question. It would be very easy to get it wrong when writing a book such as this. Were the author, Gill Bennett, to reveal her political allegiances, then it would negate the entire work; but she does not. I have no more idea, now that I have read the book, as to whether she is a raving communist, or a member of a far right wing group.

The book makes the case that many pressures are acting upon the politician as he/she makes a decision: not just the circumstances surrounding whatever crisis may be facing them, but also other political, personal and state issues. The cases to which Gill Bennett refers, are all over thirty years old. This is so that the thirty year rule has been completed and more of the facts are allowed into the public arena. She has, however, chosen carefully which episodes to highlight. Each of these six situations have similarities to more recent political dramas and, whilst one cannot simply change the names and deduce that the reasoning was identical, there is, unquestionably, insight to be gained.

The book is well written. It does not presume a great deal of pre-knowledge of the events discussed, but equally, does not treat the reader as a pre-school child needing to be spoon-fed with the correct opinion. Gill Bennett was Chief Historian to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (No, I didn't know that they had one, either!) for ten years and so, she is well placed to have the relevant information about these scenarios but, it is equally interesting to glean the history for which she was, perhaps a little too close to government, to see with full objectivity. I do not think that she is aware of how antediluvian some of the attitudes of our leaders were then and, I suspect, still are. The British public have, in general, come to terms with the fact that Great Britain, whilst still one of the best countries in which to live, is no longer the major world power that it was pre World War II. So many of these crisis decisions seem to be tinged with a desperate need still to be "at the top table". The British upper class knows what it means to have gone from owning the country to a state where they live off an echo of past glory; politicians seem to be taking a little longer to accept a similar state.… (meer)