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Boris Johnson was touted as the saviour of the country and the Conservative Party, obtaining a huge commons majority and finally getting Brexit done. But within three short years, he was deposed in disgrace, leaving the country in crisis. With unparalleled access to those who were in the room when key decisions were made, Payne tells of the miscalculations and mistakes that led to Boris Johnson’s downfall. This is a gripping and timely look at how power is gained, wielded and lost in Britain today. Sebastian Early Anthony Payne [1] (born 2 July 1989) is a British think tank director and former journalist. He began his career with stints at The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator, before joining the Financial Times in 2016, where he eventually rose to become the paper's Whitehall correspondent. In 2022, he left the paper to become director of the think tank Onward. Sebastian Payne". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011 . Retrieved 20 October 2019.
Wilson makes his observation over lunch with Payne in his local pub. Their conversation is one of countless enlightening discussions in the book, which take place amid various levels of Covid restrictions in art galleries, pubs, cafes and community centres. Payne’s passion and personal engagement with his subject seems to charm many of his interviewees into opening up in fascinating ways. Labour’s crisis in the red wall, and the party’s attempts to resolve it, will shape the future of English politics. This engrossing, warm and insightful work is an indispensable guide to how it came about. Johnson always acted in his own short-term interest. Every time a scandal blew up, his strategy was to just keep fighting until the next day. This allowed the narrative of a scandal-ridden government to gain momentum. If each scandal had been dealt with immediately, in a single swoop, then it would have been harder for such a narrative to dominate. There were policy successes during the Johnson premiership, including the vaccine booster programmes and his robust support of Ukraine faced with Russian aggression, both thanks to the use of small expert teams. Payne, Sebastian (14 March 2015). "Seb Payne's schooldays". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 18 October 2021 . Retrieved 8 December 2022. Purchasing a book may earn the NS a commission from Bookshop.org, who support independent bookshopsSebastian Payne is The Washington Post's 2014 Stern Fellow". The Washington Post. 23 April 2014 . Retrieved 9 August 2020. Surrounding himself with acolytes meant his messaging was hopeless. In the pandemic, it was always going to be a problem that the rules implemented had a massive impact on a huge number of voters (many not interacting with anybody except those they lived with), whereas those working at No 10 continued in a Covid-existence that was very similar to their pre-Covid existence (even if we exclude the parties from the equation). There was a total failure to understand how the rules they enacted actually affected people, and a total failure to realise how their messaging would go down with voters. a b c "Sebastian E. Payne > Personalia". Archived from the original on 7 July 2009 . Retrieved 3 October 2020. The downside of concentrating on the last few months of Johnson in office is that it minimises those qualities that propelled him into national politics and pulled off Brexit when the elite declared it impossible, making those who remained loyal to him to the bitter end look like fools. Yet Payne recently published another, very well received book on the Red Wall that adds vital context. Johnson was more than a man; he embodied a movement. Euroscepticism confounded its opponents because it managed to ally southern Thatcherites and northern socialists, and even if this confederacy seems bizarre on paper, it cohered through the personality of a witty patriot whose abiding concern was to make Britain feel better about itself. When I voted Conservative in 2019, it was more for Boris than for the Conservatives – and with his brand of populism out of the picture, I’m not sure I’ll do the same again. A reasonable account of Johnson's fall, as told by a journalist/think tanker/hopeful MP. As a 'first draft of history', it works well as a blow-by-blow account of the events leading up to Johnson's resignation (the postscript, on the leadership election that followed, is weaker).
It may just be that the biggest strategic error the Conservative Party made was to choose Boris Johnson as its leader. Out of the Blue and The Fall of Boris Johnson are the chronicles of all that goes wrong. With unparalleled access to those who were in the room when key decisions were made, Payne tells of the miscalculations and mistakes that led to Boris's downfall. This is a gripping and timely look at how power is gained, wielded and lost in Britain today.And yet it’s actually the chapter on Ukraine that is the most revelatory, for it tells the story of when Boris got it right. He was decisive. He cut through the red tape. His issue knowledge was exceptional: one Foreign Office advisor recalled that when they studied the maps “Boris knew where everything was - the villages, historical monuments, it fitted into a particular part of his brain.” And for a man dismissed as “wanting to be liked”, he was unyielding in his diplomacy, convincing sceptical leaders that the only acceptable strategy was “Ukraine must win”. Leading alumni in online and digital". City, University of London. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020 . Retrieved 8 December 2022. Payne joined the Financial Times as digital opinion editor [14] at the beginning of 2016. [5] He became the newspaper's political leader writer, [14] before being appointed Whitehall correspondent in March 2019. He wrote a fortnightly political opinion column [15] and presented the weekly Payne's Politics podcast. [16] Payne lives in Crouch End, North London. [8] He married Sophia Gaston on 20 July 2019 with the marriage ending in divorce in 2022. Gaston is a London School of Economics visiting fellow and Head of Foreign Policy and UK Resilience at the conservative think tank Policy Exchange. [24] [25] [26] Bibliography [ edit ] With unparalleled access to those who were in the room when key decisions were made, Payne tells of the miscalculations and mistakes that led to Boris Johnson's downfall. This is a gripping and timely look at how power is gained, wielded and lost in Britain today.
His government was always reactive, rather than proactive. His only two successes were reactions to issues as they came up. Where was the proactive policymaking to deliver on the 2019 manifesto? Instead time was spent trying to privatise C4 and dealing, every day, with the scandals that the government failed to control. Payne became a data reporter at The Daily Telegraph in 2011, before leaving the newspaper the following year. [10] He was an online editor of The Spectator magazine [11] and the deputy editor of its Coffee House blog from 2012 to 2015. [12] He was also managing editor of the magazine. [6] During his time at The Spectator he spent nine months in a Laurence Stern fellowship at the national desk of The Washington Post. [13] [6] In 2010, Sebastian volunteered for Conservative Campaign Headquarters during the 2010 General Election Campaign. Author: Sebastian Payne". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 3 September 2016 . Retrieved 8 December 2022.Easy to read account that is very straightforward in it's telling and allows the narrative to speak for itself without too much commentary and it succeeds I think but given my abhorrence for the man, I am predisposed to find this account particularly damming. I would perhaps have preferred some more depth but that wasn't really what the book was aimed at providing. I do question the editing to an extent since Guto Harri's name was mis-spelled on at least 2 occasions (writing "Hari") and whenever I see this in professionally put together books I wonder if there are other editing errors. Broken Heartlands: A Journey Through Labour's Lost England (Pan Macmillan, 2021) ISBN 978-1529067361 a b c d e "The Currant Affairs Podcast Season 4 - Interview with Sebastian Payne". Purple Radio On Demand (Podcast). Apple Podcasts. 7 April 2022 . Retrieved 8 December 2022. While Brexit and the unpopularity of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn were factors, there is a more nuanced story explored in Broken Heartlands – of how these northern communities fared through generational shifts, struggling public services, de-industrialization and the changing nature of work.
Payne was born on 2 July 1989, [2] [3] [ non-primary source needed] in Gateshead, England. He attended St Thomas More Catholic School, Blaydon and later the private day school Dame Allan's School for sixth form, [4] where he began studying politics. [5] At Durham University, he studied Computer Science. [6] He was media editor of the student newspaper Palatinate, [1] [5] and manager of Purple Radio, a student radio station where he also presented a show. [1] During his tenure as manager, Purple Radio received a fine from PRS for Music for not paying any fees for playing music on the station for five years. [6] He graduated from the university's Van Mildert College [7] in 2010 with a Bachelor of Science. [8]After reading the first volume of Margaret Thatchers biography, I thought I'd read a more modern book concerning a Prime Minister. I must admit I got this book purely on the basis that it was about Boris Johnson. Yes, it's not a book that is from his better days but it is a necessary read. Featuring interviews with local people, plus major political figures from both parties – including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer – Payne explores the significant role these social and economic forces, decades in the making, played in this fundamental upheaval of the British political landscape. Broken Heartlands is an essential and compelling political road-trip through ten constituencies that tell the story of Labour’s red wall from Sebastian Payne – an award-winning journalist and Whitehall Editor for the Financial Times. This might have been award winning but it is certainly not, as the blurb claims, "explosive" nor is it, by any means "the full story." After graduation, [6] Payne completed an internship on the media desk of The Guardian. [5] He obtained a Master of Arts in investigative journalism from City, University of London in 2011. [8] [9] Career [ edit ]
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