Harry Mount

Rod Liddle on Brexit: The Great Betrayal reviewed

Between 30 and 45 per cent of the electorate now have no representation

issue 21 September 2019

Rod Liddle has taken a huge gamble with this book. It could be out of date very soon. The book’s premise is a conversation he had with his wife on the day after the Brexit vote in 2016. She, like Liddle, is a Brexiteer and said to him that morning, ‘They won’t let it happen.’ Liddle agreed. ‘Betcha we don’t leave,’ he said. And that is the book’s principal argument: we’ll never leave the EU.

The Great Betrayal was published in July and, so far, Liddle is right. But what about on 1 November: will this book be massively outdated and will Britain be out of the European Union? It’s anyone’s guess.

Even now, quite a few of the references in the book are dated. It was published before Boris Johnson became Prime Minister. And already Theresa May’s doomed premiership, which features prominently here, seems light years away.

Still the book is very engaging.

Written by
Harry Mount

Harry Mount is editor of The Oldie and author of How England Made the English (Penguin) and Et Tu, Brute? The Best Latin Lines Ever (Bloomsbury)

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