Perhaps surprisingly for someone who enjoys a bit of a row, O’Brien appears a little irked by my questions, even if therapy has taught him to be calmer in response. “If you’d asked me unfair questions 10 years ago, I would have responded to you in a much more aggressive fashion,” he says.

O’Brien, of course, doesn’t want to work at the BBC. He values his “voice” too much for that, which is why he opted not to continue presenting Newsnight – though to my mind, his job at LBC, where he spends his time dismantling the opinions of the people who call in, wastes what talent he has. Surely he would be able to do more good, journalistically speaking, at the BBC than at LBC – a station where one of the presenters, Rachel Johnson, the sister of our former prime minister, once interviewed her father, Stanley, about the state of Britain’s rivers. But perhaps doing good isn’t the point for him. One of the other problems with How They Broke Britain is that however forensically it catalogues the misdemeanours of various politicians, journalists and strategists, it is just that: a catalogue. What needs to be done? Will things be different under a Labour government? Are we all doomed? O’Brien only (inadvertently) answers the last question.But then I saw the book in Foyles in London and read the blurb and the Foyles recommendation too, and I realised this book was not what I had expected at all. Instead this is a deeply personal look by the author at the art of self examination of our own views. He candidly and apologetically tells of some of his biggest errors and worst actions. He speaks of his own need for counselling, and most of all he tells us of times he has been forced to change his mind. Again and again. Given the endless crises and scandals that have occurred over the past half-decade or so, it’s easy to forget some of the squalid behaviour that went on. How They Broke Britain, then, feels like a useful document to have – O’Brien’s scathing voice provides a thorough record of the self-serving actions and pronouncements of those who have held power in Britain. James, Clive (13 December 2012). The Meaning of Recognition: New Essays 2001-2005. p.152. ISBN 9780330527170. In 2008, O’Brien voted for Boris Johnson to become the Conservative mayor of London. “I just wasn’t paying attention,” he admits. He liked the proposal of an amnesty for illegal immigrants. “Ken Livingstone seemed to be going a little bit off the deep end, and Johnson seemed to be an affable, bouncy character.”

a b Dorian Lynskey (3 February 2017). "How James O'Brien became the conscience of liberal Britain". New Statesman . Retrieved 22 September 2019. O'Brien review, ITV: 'disappointing' ". Daily Telegraph. 30 March 2015 . Retrieved 8 February 2018. 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? In the bestselling How To Be Right, James provides a hilarious and invigorating guide to talking to people with unchallenged opinions. With chapters on every lightning-rod issue, James shows how people have been fooled into thinking the way they do, and in each case outlines the key questions to ask to reveal fallacies, inconsistencies and double standards.

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Each baddie gets a chapter: Rupert Murdoch, Paul Dacre and Andrew Neil represent the press; Nigel Farage, David Cameron, Jeremy Corbyn, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss are his politicians; Matthew Elliott and Dominic Cummings of Vote Leave bring up the rear (like a pantomime horse). All 10 more than deserve his ire, and ours; there seems little point in my going over their entitlement and casual destruction here. But in the end, even as O’Brien worries about divisiveness and polarisation in Britain, he also engenders it to a degree, for hasn’t he signed up wholesale to what I’m going to call, for reasons of concision, a woke agenda? I don't want to sound like a biggot in talking about snowflakes articles and saying books that cover their subjects are guttural, but I just want to criticise publications that use them and *do not properly analyse it*, otherwise it just creates mis-information – It's no news then that a media veteran creates mis-information... Every day, James O’Brien listens to people blaming hard-working immigrants for stealing their jobs while scrounging benefits, and pointing their fingers at the EU and feminists for destroying Britain. But what makes James’s daily LBC show such essential listening – and has made James a standout social media star – is the incisive way he punctures their assumptions and dismantles their arguments live on air, every single morning. The book works on the mistakes of the Conservative government and there are some good points to debate here but it’s all a little one way and predictable. I was disappointed.

James O'Brien on changing the mind of his toughest opponent yet: himself". www.penguin.co.uk. 22 October 2020 . Retrieved 16 June 2021. I can recommend How Not To Be Wrong as an engrossing, thoughtful and thoroughly illuminating read. One of my best books of the year so far. Clive James on (election) TV". The Independent. 30 May 2001 . Retrieved 25 April 2009. [ dead link] We have all listened to James O’Brien on LBC and he can sound very much like a Labour client journalist so I bought this book hoping there was some balance to his book.

Retailers:

The start of the book got me interested then it wandered off to his troubled mind and became a little tedious. It strikes an opening chord with me when I realise it’s our passivity that has allowed us to get here. We stopped noticing it, we just kind of accepted the incompetence.