The Party's Over

Some personal news.

The second edition of Falling Down will be released in paperback this summer! As you can see, it's getting a new title and cover. But is that it?

Quite a lot has happened in politics since the first edition hit the shelves 18 months ago. Boris Johnson is gone, we're on our second Prime Minister since he vacated the chair. And, happily, the Tories are looking at the electoral end times that could last a generation. If not longer. The second edition, or The Party's Over: The Rise and Fall of the Conservatives from Thatcher to Sunak, will feature an extended chapter on Boris Johnson and the Tory politics of the Covid-19 crisis, the failure of levelling up and, of course, his fall from grace. This will be followed by an extended discussion of the future of the Tories, calling in on the premierships of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak along the way. The introduction will be slightly different, and those annoying typos and slippages that wriggled through into the first edition have been picked up and dealt with.

Everyone's going on about Tory decline these days but this book remains the first and most comprehensive effort to describe and explain their fall, and did so while the Conservative Party were at the heights of their powers and were destined for another decade in power. If you believed the political cognoscenti paid to utter trite and superficial opinions. What better time for a reissue now Tory decline is plain enough for everyone to see? The Party's Over will be appearing in time for party conference season and I'm hoping that events between now and then don't quickly date it!

As per the first edition, there is nothing I won't attend or do if it means the book and its arguments get a plug. Media programmes, book shops, podcasts, left events, party and trade union meetings, just give me a shout.