At the launch of the final part of his magisterial Brexit quartet, author Tim Shipman offered three reasons why differing political groups should read it. The first were those still reeling from the Out result. The second were those who passionately wanted to get Out and blamed everyone else for not making the EU exit after the 2016 referendum work better to the UK’s advantage. The third were the oft-ignored Liberal Democrats, “because there’s a whole chapter about them”.
On his telling — at a length akin to Boccaccio’s Decameron, an account of life under a 14th-century plague — Out covers the period from the advent of Boris Johnson as leader in 2019 to the demise of the Tory government in July 2024, a period encapsulated in the subtitle, “How Brexit got done and the Tories got undone”.
Shipman’s methodical approach as The Sunday Times’ main political chronicler hasn’t changed across his oeuvre, a lively mix of high politics, low gossip and a grab-bag of metaphors: “In a moment of surrealism, which Dali would have baulked at.”
The challenge of a multi-instalment series is that they need main characters to sustain a flow of events which, while they enthralled Westminster at the time, can feel so-whattish afterwards. So the first part of the account focuses heavily on two of these: Johnson himself as he inherits the Tory crown after Theresa May failed to effect a “soft Brexit”, and the influence of erratic sidekick-cum-Svengali Dominic Cummings.
この記事は The London Standard の November 28, 2024 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は The London Standard の November 28, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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