The Silent State
  • Published: 1 July 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407088600
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

The Silent State

Secrets, Surveillance and the Myth of British Democracy

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Jul 2010
Paperback
15 Jan 2011
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A modern classic of journalism and an iconic investigation of power in C21st Britain, by one of the country's leading reporters.

Award-winning investigative journalist Heather Brooke exposes the shocking and farcical lack of transparency at all levels of government. At a time when the State knows more than ever about us, Brooke argues that without proper access to the information that citizens pay for, Britain can never be a true democracy.

*SECRECY*: anonymous bureaucrats, clandestine courts, men in tights and the true cost of 'public' information. *PROPAGANDA*: spin, PR and bullshitting by numbers. The British government spent £38m more on advertising last year than their closest competitor, Proctor and Gamble - find out what they spent it on! *SURVEILLANCE*: discover the extent of Britain's network of databases spying on ordinary citizens, *EXPENSES*: read, for the first time, the exclusive and definitive account of Brooke's five-year campaign to have MPs' expenses revealed, which rocked the nation and transformed Britain's political landscape.
  • Published: 1 July 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407088600
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288
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About the author

Heather Brooke

Heather Brooke is a journalist and Freedom of Information campaigner based in London who is famous for uncovering the MPs' expenses scandal. She writes for the main national papers and has worked as a consultant and presenter for Channel 4’s Dispatches. She is a visiting professor at City University's Department of Journalism and is also the author of Your Right to Know, The Silent State and The Revolution Will Be Digitised. In 2009 she was named Reformer of the Year and has won numerous awards, including the Setting the Political Agenda Award from the Political Studies Association and, in 2010, Judges' Prize at the British Press Awards.

portrait photo of Heather Brooke

Also by Heather Brooke

The Revolution will be Digitised
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Praise for The Silent State

She's a total ninja.

BEN GOLDACRE

You won't know whether to laugh or rise up and overthrow absolutely everything.

CHARLIE BROOKER

A wonderful book... Heather Brooke puts every other British journalist to shame. She has changed British public culture and earned an essential place in our national history. She is an extraordinary figure who must be celebrated.

PETER OBORNE

Secrecy is one of the great British diseases. It's so secret that we don't even admit we suffer from it. Heather Brooke is part of the cure - challenging the routine concealment and distortion of important information. There should be more journalists doing the same.

NICK DAVIES

'passionate, eloquent and persuasive...We need the likes of Heather Brooke to challenge, to take up grievances and to campaign.'

Peter Riddell,Times Book of the Week

'Brooke tells the story of her own preliminary part in one of the most successful raids every carried out against the Establishment vividly'

Telegraph

The American heroine of the battle to release details of MPs' expenses look in turn at different abuses...the book is cogent, impersonal analysis...beadily observant, playful but implacable.'

John Dugdale, Guardian pb review

'[The Silent State] unmasks an endemic secrecy and a sod-you attitude to the public that arouses new levels of indignation.'

Sunday Times pb review
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