A fully revised and updated edition of Nigel Lawson's extraordinary autobiography. A key minister for a full decade and Chancellor of the Exchequer, from 1983 to 1989, Nigel Lawson was one of the most powerful and effective of Margaret Thatcher's colleagues, and among the chief architects of Thatcherism. This abridged edition of Lord Lawson's memoirs - first published as The View from No.11 in 1992 and acclaimed as one of the best political memoirs of the period - goes straight to the heart of economic policy-making at a time of crisis and creative change. It explains the workings of government with candour, clarity and depth, against the backdrop of the remarkable story of the rise and fall of his political collaboration with Margaret Thatcher, productive and successful for many years, but ending with his dramatic resignation in October 1989.The book includes a new final chapter reflecting on events from the perspective of 2010, also discussing the crisis in the banking sector and global warming.

Sir Garfield Barwick wrote the story of his public life. At the age of 92, he had been at the centre of Australian legal and political life for over half a century. The story starts in the inner suburbs of Sydney walking to the renowned Fort Street High School. Sydney University in the 1920s follows and a struggling career at the Bar takes hold before all is lost in the Great Depression. Civilian service in World War II was followed by triumph in the Bank Nationalisation Case. The defeat of the Chifley Government's legislation established Sir Garfield's reputation as an advocate in Australia and in the United Kingdom. It led to a decade of unparalleled dominance of the Australian Bar when he continually appeared in the High Court and led in such public inquiries as the Petrov Royal Commission. It also established Sir Garfield in the public mind as a Liberal Party man and in 1958, at the age of 56, he entered Parliament. He served six years, almost all on the front bench as a reforming Attorney-General as Minister for External Affairs focussing on Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia. He resigned to become Chief Justice of the High Court in 1964 and in the next 18 years gave judgments delineating power in modern Australia: citizen and government, States and the Commonwealth, executive and legislature. Most notably, he provided crucial and controversial advice to the Governor-General in the 1975 Dismissal Crisis.

Some people enter politics because they want to make the world a better place. Then there are those with welldeserved inferiority complexes who want status, power and position. Few believe me, but I entered the House of Commons purely by accident.' High virtue in high office? Not a chance, says Jerry Hayes. No staid autobiography or dry political memoir, An Unexpected MP takes you on a raucous and salacious romp through Westminster, the media and public life. In this no-holds-barred exposé, Jerry Hayes shows exactly why people were so surprised when he became an MP - from the duty policeman who told him to bugger off when he rolled up on his first day, to the Iron Lady herself, who looked with a steely eye on his cheerful chutzpah. And, as the perfect antidote to the holier-than-thou, whiter-than-white ways of the current crop of politicos, the shameless - and shamelessly entertaining - Hayes makes a brilliant tour guide to the strange country that is Parliament, taking gleeful swipes at left and right alike. Full of tall tales of unspeakable debauchery on a tsunami of alcohol, An Unexpected MP is a thundering account of the offbeat lunacy of Westminster and Fleet Street.

This book considers the relationship between public spending and public deficit and the varying successes and difficulties governments have had in recent years to balance the two. As the fiscal crash of 2007/8 turned into the Great Recession and tax revenues tumbled, public finances across the UK, the USA and Europe plunged into deficit. Controversial attempts by governments to balance their budgets, commonly described as austerity by critics, had mixed success, politically and economically. Michael Burton outlines how politicians tackled the worst economic downturn in over half a century, drawing on previous examples of deficit-reduction to see how governments managed public finances in recessions and where austerity worked and where it failed. This two-part book, which for the first time provides an historical context to austerity, analyses firstly deficit-reduction in the UK in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2010-2016, and then looks at case studies in Europe, the USA, Canada and Asia Pacific. The author concludes that with the ageing population placing greater pressure through health and pensions on the public finances of the developed world, politicians and their electorates will have to learn to live long-term with austerity.

The Great Deception shows how the most ambitious political project of our time has for more than 50 years been based on a colossal confidence trick - the systematic concealment from the people of Europe of what the aim of this project has always been since its inception in the late 1940s. Updated to include the recent developments in Europe, including the referendum and the upcoming votes in France and Holland. As it reveals for the first time the true story behind the long-term plan to build a politically united Europe, the authors show how all previous attempts to reconstruct the history of this project - whether written by Europhiles or Eurosceptics - have got it wrong, at almost every step along the way. With all the suspense of a detective story, drawing on thousands of books, papers, and official documents, many of which have only become publicly available in the past few years, the book traces how a handful of determined visionaries set out more than half a century ago to weld the countries of Europe into a single political state.

This text systematically traces the development of the British Conservative government's policy to the European Exchange Rate Mechanism from 1979 to 1994. The book provides information and insight into the development of ERM policy, which led to the downfall and discredit of the Conservative leadership. Revealing dramatic episodes in the progress of the policy, including a full account of the deterioration in the relationship between Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson, the author shows how the Thatcher government was torn apart, and the credibility of the Major government undermined.