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Butler to the World: How Britain Helps the World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, and Get Away with Anything

Butler to the World: How Britain Helps the World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, and Get Away with Anything

by Oliver Bullough

St. Martin's Press ·2022 ·288 pages
Maybe Someday
Maybe Someday
I Index
35/99
Bottom of the Pile

22/99

Critics' Rating Index

Maybe Someday

48/99

Readers' Rating Index

n/a

Scholars' Citation Index

89/99

Volume of Reviews

64/99

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About This Book

In his punchy follow-up to Moneyland, Oliver Bullough's Butler to the World unravels the dark secret of how Britain placed itself at the centre of the global offshore economy and at the service of the worst people in the world… The Suez Crisis of 1956 was Britain's twentieth century nadir, the moment when the once superpower was bullied into retreat. In the immortal words of former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, 'Britain has lost an empire and not yet found a role.' But the funny thing was, Britain had already found a role. It even had the costume. The leaders of the world just hadn't noticed it yet. Butler to the World reveals how the UK took up its position at the elbow of the worst people on Earth: the oligarchs, kleptocrats and gangsters. We pride ourselves on values of fair play and the rule of law, but few countries do more to frustrate global anti- corruption efforts. We are now a nation of Jeeveses, snobbish enablers for rich halfwits of considerably less charm than Bertie Wooster. It doesn't have to be that way.


Reviews

"The most revealing chapter is on the 'Scottish limited partnership' ..."

The Economist Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"At the time of writing, we have just learned that the Conservative Party received a major donation from a Russian source, with links to the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Sergei Kopytov."

Geoffrey Wheatcroft· The New Republic Read review ↗ Near the Top

"This highly readable but thoroughly depressing book is an attempt to explain how Britain became the money-laundering capital of the world."

Simon Nixon· The Times (UK) Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Unmissable, deeply depressing ..."

Tim Adams· The Guardian Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"'to seek a different way to earn a living.'"

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Bullough's book has real value is in its accounts of some truly awful people—the kleptocrats and oligarchs who should have been his sole focus ..."

Tunku Varadarajan· The Wall Street Journal Read review ↗ Bottom of the Pile

"[An] impressively detailed and frequently enraging exposé ..."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Near the Top

"A butler, Bullough must know, is constrained by his class and opportunities."

Balaji Ravichandran· The Washington Post Read review ↗ Maybe Someday

"One of the great things about his book is that Bullough doesn't just sit back and drily condemn all this financial skulduggery, he goes to meet the people who helped create the conditions that allowed it to happen ..."

Robert Verkaik· The Guardian Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

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