Journalist and broadcaster Patrick Hannan discusses post-war British politics in his particular style in "When Arthur Met Maggie". The meeting (famously they never met) of the two figures of the book's title marked a tipping point for British politics, and British society. After the year-long battle between the NUM and the Conservative government trade union power began to be curtailed, management replaced ideology as the main criteria for party election, debate within parties seemed to become more important than debate between them. Hannan explores how, from the ground-breaking Atlee government on, we arrived at Arthur and Maggie's danse macabre, and what the fall-out of their quickstep has been. Post-industrial Britain under New Labour and in the new millennium seems a million miles away from the founding of the welfare state, and the journey to and from the miner's strike throws up all sorts of ironies and unforeseen and unintended consequences. Many of the diversions, planned and unplanned, have resulted from the personalities of the leading players, including Roy Jenkins, Aneurin Bevan, Kinnick, Thatcher, Heath and, in Wales, Dafydd Wigley and Dayfydd Elis Thomas. Hannan takes in the changing fortunes of the three major British parties, the story of devolution (particularly in Wales), the unions in post-industrial society and the developing role of women in politics. His book is based on extensive interviews with the major players and valuable new research, and narrated in Hannan's characteristically accessible and witty style. As massed voting turned to voter apathy and ideology to spin, When "Arthur Met Maggie" is a timely look at the state we're in, and how we got there.
