I... came to know John O' Farrel from picking up his book An "Utterly Impartial History of Britain — Or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots In Charge", and enjoying his factual but funny take on our past, and having been a Labour voter through the years of landslide Conservative governments, I thought this book might chime well with me. It did, but perhaps not quite in the ways I thought it would. Like John I had suffered the years of having to defend some of the almost in-defensibly convoluted crack pot nonsense that was the Labour party in the eighties and early nineties, when the whole of Britain it seemed was 'Mondeo Man' mad for Maggie. When all the Labour party could muster was and old bloke who wore a donkey jacket and safety specs, and party conferences were awash with convoluted composite motions of no particular interest to anyone but the earnest dungaree wearing activists at the conference. However this is not just a book for Labour voters, O' Farrel does not dwell too long on the party political differences , but more on the mechanics of trying to win local and national elections against a tide of apathy, media hostility , and the afore mentioned introspection. This he does with great wit and some degree of insight. The book will appeal to anyone who has ever sat on a committee, those hardy souls who 'run things' up and down Britain, and who are left to do everything with no help or encouragement , but their own drive and commitment. There are a few famous name drops in the book which give good context to the times, and those who lived through those times , whatever the political persuasion, will enjoy this.