James O'Brien

N.B Due to exceptional demand, this event will now be taking place at the Tom Fleming Centre for Performing Arts instead of Greenside Church.

James O'Brien, whose daily current affairs programme is the most popular show on LBC with over 1.3 million weekly listeners, joins us in November to tell us all about his latest book, How They Broke Britain. Following on from James' Sunday Times bestselling How To Be Right, How They Broke Britain is a defining account of the dark network that, in James' view, is responsible for corrupting our political life.

This event will be chaired by Emily Kenway, Edinburgh-based activist, former policy maker, and author of Who Cares? The Hidden Crisis of Caregiving, which was a finalist for 2023's Orwell Prize for non-fiction.

How They Broke Britain

Something has gone really wrong in Britain.

Our economy has tanked, our freedoms are shrinking, and social divisions are growing. Our politicians seem most interested in their own careers, and much of the media only make things worse. We are living in a country almost unrecognisable from the one that existed a decade ago. But whose fault is it really? Who broke Britain and how did they do it?

Bold and incisive as ever, James O'Brien reveals the shady network of influence that has created a broken Britain of strikes, shortages and scandals. He maps the web connecting dark think tanks to Downing Street, the journalists involved in selling it to the public and the media bosses pushing their own agendas. Over ten chapters, each focusing on a particular person complicit in the downfall, James O'Brien reveals how a select few have conspired - sometimes by incompetence, sometimes by design - to bring Britain to its knees.

About James O'Brien

James O'Brien is an award-winning writer and broadcaster whose journalism has appeared everywhere from the TLS to the Daily Mirror. His daily current affairs programme is the most popular show on LBC with over 1.3 million weekly listeners and his first book, How To Be Right, was a Sunday Times bestseller, which won the Parliamentary Book Award for Best Political Book by a non-politician. He is often to be found on Twitter trying not to get into arguments unless absolutely necessary.