<\/p>\nTHE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES<\/i> BESTSELLER<\/h3>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
‘Gripping and horrifying… witty and brilliant. Buy it’ <\/b>The Times<\/i><\/p>\n
‘A treasure trove of killer facts’ <\/b>Guardian<\/i><\/p>\n
‘Read it, absorb it, and understand how the country works’ <\/b>Laura Kuenssberg<\/p>\n
Paul Johnson and the enormously respected Institute for Fiscal Studies aim to hold Government to account – without which politicians will get away with their half-truths, elisions and dubious claims. This is a forensic examination – by the man best placed to do so – of the way the state raises and spends \u00c2\u00a31 trillion of our money every year. To follow the money. To provide an explanation, of where that money comes from and where it goes to, how that has changed and how it needs to change.<\/p>\n
‘This book is the antidote to naivety that our political class needs. Anyone, in fact, who has strong views about how society should be run would benefit from reading it, because every political ambition costs money and as Johnson writes, “someone has to pay for all this”… The story he tells may leave you reeling… Johnson’s buoyant yet acerbic style will keep you engaged. The sobering realities he lays out are peppered with entertaining asides’
Book of the Week, Sunday Times<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is a forensic examination – by the man best placed to do so – of what it costs to run the United Kingdom’s economy. To follow the money. To provide an explanation, of where that money comes from and where it goes to, how that has changed and how it needs to change. We are heading off, in fact, on a journey to not just follow the money, but to track it and pin it down, to find out how much of our money government takes and spends to keep the country we recognise as the UK running. Government decisions determine the welfare of the poor and the elderly, the state of the health service, the effectiveness of our children’s education, and our preparedness for the future: whether that is a pandemic or global warming. As a society, we are a reflection of what the government spends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[142],"product_tag":[7513],"class_list":["post-101764","product","type-product","status-publish","product_cat-general-non-fiction","product_tag-economics","pa_book_author-johnson-paul","pa_cover-paperback","pa_dewey-330-941-edition23","pa_imprint-abacus","pa_language-english","pa_pages-8634","pa_publisher-abacus","pa_readership-college-higher-education-code-f","first","onbackorder","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"\n