The Decade in Tory: The Sunday Times Bestseller: An Inventory of Idiocy from the Coalition to Covid

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Perhaps it's fatigue - either the reader's or the author's (or both?) - but it did feel like the "snort out loud" moments that feel like they are almost one-per-sentence at the beginning atrophied somewhat towards the end (perhaps surprisingly, given this is where the project started online - with the simply brilliant #WeekInTory threads) but on reflection this is entirely appropriate given the thousands of deaths per week we were living through as the 2010s finally came to an end. It also perhaps helps that the disasters of the coalition and pre-referendum feel more distant and almost forgotten, so utterly have they been superseded by the insanity that followed that fateful day in 2016. It is perhaps the British way to laugh and brilliantly satirise the moral and practical weaknesses of our political "masters" rather than - say - take to the streets in protest to overthrow them. We are after all, a nation concerned with propriety and not breaking laws or causing a fuss, unlike the Tories. That may be a failing on our part, but one can always appreciate Jones way with words, for example when he described Theresa May's awkward angular strut onto the stage at her last Conservative conference as leader as being like Vogon poetry in motion. Lightly amusing when appropriate, darkly scathing throughout- this book uses the scandals, corruptions, and idiocies of the past decade to tear down any existing facade of decency or competence within the tory party. All through their own quotes and verified statistics (see the extensive notes at the end of the book).

But Jones' book shows that - while no politician is likely to be perfect - they most definitely are not all the same. Nearly 75 years on from Nye Bevan's Manchester speech, his words ring as true as ever What is Toryism but organised spivvery? … No amount of cajolery can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party Recently, even here in Scotland, I've heard people espousing sympathetic views towards the Conservative government as a result of the unprecedented hurdles they faced due to Covid. However, Russell Jones' The Decade In Tory argues that Conservative rule has been a shambles since 2010, long before Covid, and really, the government didn't need the pandemic as an excuse to showcase its incompetence.At the centre of this decade of disaster lies the Brexit vote, not so much the nadir as the point of inflexion at which the collapse in government competence, honesty and standards in public life abruptly accelerated. As Jones puts it As a History graduate, it occurred to me that books like this are actually quite rare: a meticulous, conscientiously-cited account of basically every awful thing that a Conservative-led Government did over a ten-year period. Normally, such corruption and mendacity would be summarised in a few sentences or at best a couple of paragraphs of a book trying to cover a longer period or make more sweeping points about an era or macro-trend. As such, I think that behind its sarcastic exterior, it's actually a really important documenting of a disastrous decade when Britain's body politic, society and public discourse were dragged to depths from which the country as we previously knew it may never properly recover. If you want a deep dive into a decade of mismanagement, corruption, and putting self/party interest over nation, then this book is for you.

In The Decade in Tory, Jones gives us a magnificent tour of misconduct in public office and venal malfeasance on a scale the country should have a collective nightmare about. As Jones points out It's absolutely fine to scream occasionally whole reading this book. You can probably tell that I'm very much part of the target audience. I remember much of what is covered from when it happened. I probably tutted at each individual scandal at the time. Reading about them now, one after the other, piled up next to each other, made me angry, exasperated and sad. Sad that we have been played by these incompetents for so long. If I believed in God, I'd pray for an end to this. But God isn't listening, and not enough of the public are either. Until one or the other wakes up, a perpetual vortex of agitation is where we are all doomed to live."And if there was anything wrong or unjust in how Jones describes his many Tory targets (over half of Tory MPs who served in the years 2010 to 2020 are named in this litany of failure) I am sure they would come out to refute his claims...

I never review books on here but had to review this one. I listened to the audiobook and never has a book made me want to laugh, cry, shout, feel so frustrated and helpless, but better informed all at once. The book details ten years in Tory power, yet manages to do so whilst using humour and comic timing in the reading of it throughout. My only criticism is it's very long (18 hours on audio) and the book can basically be summarised by the key themes it outlines of the utter ineptitude, power seeking, money grabbing behaviours of the party as a whole and individuals within it. The description of decisions made helped me understand the state of the government and the information kept out of the general media that exposes the party fully for what it is. Jones takes us through a 'tsunami of unmitigated failure' from the coalition, through welfare system 'reforms', to what essentially amounts to defunding of the NHS, through austerity, cuts to legal aid, culling our badger population in an attempt to reduce bovine tuberculosis that flew in the face of scientific evidence to the contrary, Brexit and, of course, Covid. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it should be required reading lest anyone is tempted to try and vote them in again. In 2020 the United Kingdom reached a bewildering milestone: ten successive years of Conservative rule. In that decade there were three prime ministers, each in turn described as the worst leader we ever had; ministerial resignations by the hundred; and an unrelenting stream of ineffectual, divisive bum-slurry oozing from 10 Downing Street.The last decade has been indistinguishable from a rollercoaster drawn by M. C. Escher, composed entirely of nauseating descents." The Decade In Tory is a bravura performance. Substantial, meticulous, incredible, depressing, hilarious, rude – and essential reading. However, while my notes and highlights are filled with "lol" or even "lol lol lol" I often had to qualify this with "sad lol" or "angry lol" because to read this catalogue of conservative iniquity is to be enraged at what the bastards have got away with - and continue to get away with. One of humour's powers is how it lowers the traditional barriers of established thinking (like lowering the shields on the Enterprise) and gives a brief opportunity for the photon torpedo of truth to get through (I may have overworked that analogy), so it might be tempting to give copies to any right leaning people in your circle?! If you are just pissed off with successive Tory incarnations claiming that they will 'fix Britain' while denying that it was tories that broke it, then this book is for you. It's too much to hope for that anyone other than a tax-dodging billionaire with a seat in the House of Lords who still wants to vote Tory will read this and pause for thought, but for the rest of us - and perhaps for more sanguine generations yet to come (assuming the world survives the current iteration of disaster capitalism) - it will serve as a crucial, engaging and clear-eyed testament of how badly wrong a once-decent country can go in the space of a few years when it is led by the most incompetent, venal and cruel group of people you could possibly assemble.

But Jones doesn’t get lost in, or distracted by the detail. He moves with ease between macro lens and panorama, between the granular and the lofty, and sees the overall trends for what they are. His distaste for the Tories is writ large, but don’t be fooled; there is real political writing here too – thoughtful, informed assessment sits underneath the venom. That’s why his punches hit home, both in his online commentaries and in this substantial book. Jones knows his oats.