Who Runs This Place?: The Anatomy of Britain in the 21st Century

by Anthony Sampson (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $8.69

  Forty years ago Anthony Sampson wrote his indispensable best-seller The Anatomy of Britain. Now he has felt drawn back to the task by exasperation with the lack of democracy and accountability in Blair's Britain. How has power become so concentrated in so few hands? Whatever happened to all those alternative centres -- like parliament, the monarchy, the regions or the cabinet? Why are company directors, lawyers or accountants so unanswerable to the people they represent? Sampson follows 'the will o' the wisp of power' through each profession vividly describing the new people at the top: corporate chiefs in place of hereditary landowners, Islington media couples in place of Kensington toffs. He finds still more power concentrating on Downing Street, which has never been more distant from parliament -- or closer to big business. After four decades of power-watching Sampson is now more impatient with the abuses. But he is hopeful that the British people will finally reassert their democratic rights, whether as voters or shareholders.This new Anatomy provides an insider's tour, with exceptional sources; but it is on the side of the outsider, written for ordinary citizens who want to know who manipulates their lives -- and how to make them answer.

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $4.11

  These familiar questions are now far more topical and urgent. The peaks of both government and finance have become far more concentrated and isolated; checks and balances have become much weaker; the costs of wrong decisions have often proved disastrous to the public.

  Anthony Sampson has spent forty years dissecting the power-structure, with unique access to people at the top, to produce his best-selling Anatomies of Britain. Now in this intensely topical book, he surveys a much more troubled scene with more anger and impatience. He looks at the whole panoply of power, from an embattled Number Ten to the murky intelligence spooks, from corporate boardrooms to banks and pension funds. Everywhere he talks to the people who really know their inside workings.

  Who Runs This Place? is written not just for those inside the Westminster Bubble. It is addressed in fresh and vivid terms to those who need to understand the institutions and careers they are choosing, and the bosses who will influence their whole future. And it comes at a time when the British people are clamouring to comprehend the secretive groups that pull the levers, behind the facades. It is essential reading.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2004

  $4.11

  Government power: Attorney-general and Blair crony, Lord Goldsmith, confirms the legality of war in Iraq in the face of convincing counter-arguments. Media power: Politicians resign regularly to satisfy media bloodlust and sales figures, while long-term democratic endeavour is irreparably damaged. Corporate power: FTSE100 fat-cats enjoy salary hikes of 92% over the past 10 years to GBP579,000, while inflation rises only by 25%. Every citadel, from the murky intelligence service to the boardrooms of business moguls, is stormed. The results are remarkable for their uncompromising awareness and penetrating depth. Anthony Sampson's direct access to powerful figures, his decades of power-watching, ensure unprecedented insights into Britain's ruling elites. But, above all, Who Runs This Place? is written for the here and now. When, in the backlash against institutional corruption, the call for accountability is becoming increasingly vocal and heartfelt. Anthony Sampson shows that only by examining who manipulates our lives can we begin to make them answer.