She’s been propelled to the public’s attention as the new Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport and now has a significant job to do, but Lisa Nandy is not new to the world of politics. She has been a significant figure in the Labour Party for a considerable time, and has seen politics in action firsthand, whether as Shadow Foreign Secretary or as the local MP saving a football club. Now that she’s in the best place to help change the United Kingdom, what does she think the prevalent issues are, and what can be done to remedy them?
All In is an MP’s take on our country, its issues and the ways we can work to bring it to a better place. Analysing what the author believes are the past 40 years of decline, we are taken through a range of problems Nandy believes are prevalent in the U.K., their causes and what about them needs to be changed. It also gives us a sense of her life, experience as an activist and constituency MP and her ministerial roles in the Shadow Cabinet, and the influence this has on her work and opinions. She aims to describe “how we build a country that works” from the place we are currently in.
It doesn’t have much to do with the book itself, but in the opening pages, this book does a good job at reassuring readers about Lisa Nandy’s experience. Recently appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Nandy has no previous experience of this brief or the department, but the opening few pages showed clearly the work she did to help save Wigan FC from collapse. Whilst this is hugely different from a ministerial role, being able to see that she does have some familiarity with some of the brief goes a long way to reassuring me of her knowledge in that area, which may prove invaluable now in the Cabinet.
But that aside, I can’t say this book particularly captivated my imagination. We spend a lot of the book recounting what Nandy believes is wrong with this country, and crucially what she believes the causes are, but I never feel as though we have a strong idea what she thinks we should be doing about it. There are small snippets here and there which could be considered potential ideas, but for a book which has “how we build a country that works” in the extended title, the time spent exploring how we do that is very minimal, particularly compared to the time dedicated to decrying the problems our country is currently facing. The best way to describe it is that it sounds like a book written by an Opposition figure (which of course at the time she was), but not by someone who was prepared to enter government. I went into this hoping and assuming I would be getting a positive idea of what we can do, but it’s more of a negative reflection rather than looking to a positive future.
I was also acutely aware as I continued through the book of a not inadequate portion of biased storytelling in the book. Firstly, Nandy continually references that the issues posed are as a result of the last 40 years of governance, with her pinpointing specific actions by the Thatcher, Major, Cameron, May, Johnson and Truss administrations which have resulted in the problems the country faces. But despite her criticism of the past 40 years, there is a distinct 13-year period which receives significantly less coverage overall, and when it is, it is not given criticism to the same extent – the period of Blair and Brown’s New Labour administrations (the years her party were in charge). I completely understand a lesser willingness to criticise administrations of her own party, particularly as a sitting MP and, at the time, a Shadow Cabinet member, but the incongruence between the 40 years of decline and the missing period in the middle was frustrating.
In a similar vein, I also found it interesting when specific parties were and were not mentioned. I am very familiar with politics, so finding names that I was aware of was like finding an easter egg in a film. But this led me to realise a strange pattern was beginning to emerge. When talking about the positive work of New Labour, some Labour MPs or councils, the fact that this was a Labour Party figure or administration was mentioned in its description, but when it was from another party, this detail was omitted. One such example was when Nandy was celebrating some work carried out by the Liberal Democrat Tim Farron MP, except his party wasn’t named. The only time the Liberal Democrats were named, by my memory, was when discussing Nandy’s disapproval of the coalition government in 2010-2015. I fully understand being partisan, particularly as an active and visible member of one specific party, but the way this was handled in the book was interesting to note.
All In was a frustrating read that I wish had been so much more. From a focus on decrying the problems rather than focusing on solutions to them and an interesting perspective on certain key elements, this book left me wanting. It is clear how much passion Nandy has for politics, which should be commended, but a lot of the book felt like a party-promotional dossier rather than a clear framework for building “a country that works”. Her experience and thoughts are welcome, but it definitely feels like it was written by an Opposition figure, rather than an Opposition figure who was ready for government.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
All In (ISBN: 978-0-00-848080-6) was published in 2022
