"William Keegan is a great columnist and an entertaining and authoritative chronicler of the economic and political history of our times."  

David Smith, The Sunday Times

In this new book, Wiliam Keegan of The Observer builds on his earlier best-selling examination of the political career of Gordon Brown, 'The Prudence of Mr Gordon Brown' (2003). A book that expressed some unfashionable concerns about the conduct of New Labour's economic policy and seeked to temper the copious praise that was then being lavished on Brown.

"Saving the World"? takes a fresh look at the later years of Gordon Brown as chancellor and prime minister.

The book, no hagiography, draws equally on the accounts of those who worked closest with him as well as those who he fought and feuded with and provides a balanced view of Brown the leader, arguing that, for all his acknowledged flaws, and policy errors, the degree to which 'it was all Gordon's fault' is much exaggerated.

Brown is widely acknowledged, certainly outside of Britain, to have been the right leader, in the right place at the right time to rescue the world economy in 2008-09, a view supported by amongst others Paul Krugman and Amartya Sen; given the current absence of such impressive leadership in global macro-economic policy, it is a loss that Brown has largely withdrawn from policy issues. 

On the home front, his famous 'prudence' was always for a purpose, and as time goes on, it will be seen that he and his colleagues did more for public services in health, education and relief of poverty than has been recognised, although as Keegan shows they did not do enough, with social housing a particular failure.

'Saving the World'?

It's time for a reassessment.

Publication date: October 2012 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-907720-56-7
Order your copy now: £9.99/€11.60/$15.55 plus p&p

Buy "Saving the World?" together with The Courageous State and save 20%

£19.99/€24.77/$32.02 plus p&p

Buy "Saving the World?" together with The Red Book and save 20%

 £15.98/€19.80/$25.59 plus p&p

The surprise star of the London Olympics and

''the nearest thing to a national religon.'' (Nigel Lawson).

What sort of NHS do you want?

From the introduction to David's book:

' The area I live in provides a microcosm of the problems facing our health service. 

Economic decline has brought bad health and the resulting bad habits.  There is also a large, and growing, population of the elderly for whom care has to be provided. It seems to present an enormous challenge.

But things are not as bad as they appear at first.  There are many good people in the community who are trying to do something about the situation. There is a lively health centre, with innovative and dedicated GPs and a go-ahead manager. There is a thriving garden association which has 250 gardens and a waiting list.  There is an impressive and proactive community Health Forum, entirely run by volunteers who cared about their community and its health.

So there is hope. 

A community which has been on the sharp end of recession and economic decline, and has experienced their effects at first hand, is doing something about it. It made me think.  What sort of role do we see for the NHS in the future?   The NHS will be financially constrained whichever government is in power, and we cannot expect it to solve all our problems alone.  Communities must do something to help.

In this book I attempt to set out my ideas about how a community-based, democratically run health service will function in the future. 

If we are to deal with bad health, it is a job for all of us.  Despite our problems, we have some examples of very good practice that provide some idea of what sort of health service we could have in this country in the future.' 

ISBN: 978-1-907720-60-4

Publication date: October 2012 (paperback)
Order your copy now - £9.99/€11.60/$15.55 plus p&p

Buy What Sort of NHS Do We Want? together with Loan Sharks and save 20%

£15.98/€19.80/$25.59 plus p&p

Buy What Sort of NHS Do We Want? together with The Red Book and save 20%

 £15.98/€19.80/$25.59 plus p&p