Butler to the World The book the oligarchs don’t want you to read – how Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals

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LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022AN ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF 2022A DAILY MAIL BEST CURRENT AFFAIRS BOOK OF 2022A DAILY MIRROR BEST NON-FICTION BOOK OF 2022A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022A PROSPECT ‘POLITICS & REPORTAGE’ BEST BOOK OF 2022PRESENTER OF THE BBC RADIO 4 SERIES ‘HOW TO STEAL A TRILLION’AN RTE BEST FACTUAL BOOK OF 2022A WATERSTONES BEST POLITICS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022AN IRISH TIMES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022’Brilliant’Marina Hyde, GuardianA savage analysis of Britain’s soul. As essential as Orwell at his best’Peter Pomerantsev’Horribly brilliant’James O’BrienHow did Britain become the servant of the world’s most powerful and corrupt men?From accepting multi-million pound tips from Russian oligarchs, to enabling Gibraltar to become an offshore gambling haven, meet Butler Britain…The Suez Crisis of 1956 was Britain’s twentieth-century nadir, the moment when the once superpower was bullied into retreat. In the immortal words of former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, ‘Britain has lost an empire and not yet found a role.’ But the funny thing was, Britain had already found a role. It even had the costume. The leaders of the world just hadn’t noticed it yet.Butler to the World reveals how the UK took up its position at the elbow of the worst people on Earth: the oligarchs, kleptocrats and gangsters. We pride ourselves on values of fair play and the rule of law, but few countries do more to frustrate global anti-corruption efforts. We are now a nation of Jeeveses, snobbish enablers for rich halfwits of considerably less charm than Bertie Wooster. It doesn’t have to be that way.

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