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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
"Bullough, a lively and clever writer, has alighted on a lively and clever metaphor around which he builds Butler to the World."
"Unmissable, deeply depressing ..."
"Nor am I convinced of his central conceit — Britain as butler — which he hammers in at every opportunity, and which soon becomes tiresome."
"A stinging case for developing a regulatory regime to force the U.K."
"This highly readable but thoroughly depressing book is an attempt to explain how Britain became the money-laundering capital of the world."
"Lucid explanations of complex financial matters and a simmering sense of outrage distinguish this timely investigation into how Britain sacrificed its principles for pounds."
"Butler to the World is both a brilliant and depressing blast at decades of malign financial cosiness and the politicians who let it happen ..."
"The gulf between rhetoric and reality has been chasmic ..."
"Bullough describes a system before the 1950s in which 'financial institutions were largely guided by gentle pressure toward doing the 'right thing,'' with no need for formal agreements, since 'a chap's word was his bond.' But the City lost its global financial supremacy to Wall Street after two world wars ..."
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