The Art of the Impossible: How to start a political party (and why you probably shouldn’t) - Softcover

Andrew Reid; Simon Carr

Softcover

ISBN 10: 178590812X ISBN 13: 9781785908125

Publisher: Biteback Publishing, 2023

Synopsis

“Revelation… If we learn the lessons of this short, sharp, crisp little book, maybe we’ll pull it off again.” Nigel Farage

***

Nothing like it had ever been done before. In January 2019, the Brexit Party was just a name. Over a matter of weeks, the party would be launched, stand candidates across seventy seats and become the largest single party in the European Parliament.

Along the way, it fought Establishment quangos, the courts, Parliament, the Speaker and the government – hammering the Conservatives so hard it forced the resignation of their Prime Minister – to win nearly twice as many seats as its nearest rival.

It was a success beyond anyone’s dreams (or, indeed, anyone’s worst nightmare). And the inside story of how it happened may serve as a manual of how to – and occasionally how not to – do it.

This unique book details the wild ride of the brand-new Brexit Party as it heads from triumph in the European elections to disaster in the general election six months later. Packed with hilarious anecdotes about the reality of setting up a new party, it takes the reader on a journey through building the entire apparatus in an impossibly short time frame; losing key players to enemy action; and facing chaotic scenes created by a cat’s cradle of legal complications – before arriving at the conclusion that politics is much more difficult than it looks.

About this title

About the Author

Andrew Reid has never written a book before, and his wife certainly never wanted him to write this book. However, he felt as a witness to history that the book needed to be written for current and future generations. He also felt the different style of the book was important, being written by the backroom boy rather than the leader (with the assistance of Simon Carr). Andrew has never sought the limelight and his only forays into the public domain have been as a result of his success as a solicitor, achieving Times lawyer of the week, and as a very successful racehorse trainer, in spite of his non-racing background.

Simon Carr is the author of a dozen books of social commentary, three ghostwritten bestsellers, a novel and a memoir which was made into a film, in which he was played by Clive Owen. For over a decade, he was the parliamentary sketch writer for The Independent, at the same time manufacturing a novelty product in China and selling it in the US. He is currently working on a radical reinterpretation of Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights.

Edition details

• Publisher: Biteback Publishing
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 178590812X
• ISBN 13: 9781785908125
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240