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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
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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
"A stinging case for developing a regulatory regime to force the U.K."
"While this may be an example of how Bullough's 'butler' analogy doesn't quite work—a butler accepts tips from guests but doesn't run the country—it illustrates in the most lurid way a larger story."
"And in doing so, he concludes that the provision of any service to the rich—whether by bankers or lawyers or, for that matter, butlers—is just one big groveling disgrace."
"Nor am I convinced of his central conceit — Britain as butler — which he hammers in at every opportunity, and which soon becomes tiresome."
"The most revealing chapter is on the 'Scottish limited partnership' ..."
"Lucid explanations of complex financial matters and a simmering sense of outrage distinguish this timely investigation into how Britain sacrificed its principles for pounds."
"Unmissable, deeply depressing ..."
"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 ..."
"This highly readable but thoroughly depressing book is an attempt to explain how Britain became the money-laundering capital of the world."
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