Some nonfiction reads like a magazine article. You can feel the author jumping through proverbial hoops to keep you engaged and informed. Some nonfiction reads like how I imagined nonfiction would be (like a lecture delivered by a university professor) back in the days before I really read all that much nonfiction. Will Hutton’s latest, This Time No Mistakes, falls firmly in that second category – which isn’t to denigrate it at all, and more to say when you start reading you’ll want to be in a place where you can concentrate and pay attention. It’s also worth saying, if you’re anything like me, something like a crime novel, you can tear through in a matter of hours; a book like this, you’re looking at something like 30 pages a day. It’s serious mental gym time.
Which is probably as it should be, because not only is Will Hutton not messing about, he’s also talking about incredibly serious matters – like, how the eff have we got into the position we’re in and how the eff do we get out of it again? He has powerful responses to both of those. Obviously he starts from a place of everything being effed so if you are the kind of person who watches GB News and thinks the main problems we, as a country, face are what our pronouns are, whether we manage to stop those ships and whether the BBC are going to cancel an old episode of Fawlty Towers, it may be that some of this (the shit in the rivers, the money spaffed up the wall by Tory Party cronies or the fact that Brexit has been a gigantic episode of hoodwinking and dogwhistle politics) may come as something of a surprise to you.
But don’t come here expecting a one-sided all Tories are bad / everyone on the Left is good either. Hutton is about as even-handed as they come. Historically, the right and left come in for about as much criticism as praise. The most successful governments of the last century and a bit were the product of collaboration rather than dogma or ideology. They were governments that understood the job of government (to make the country and society better for all). Hutton is also clear sighted when it comes to understanding why the progress made by the best Governments was not sustained. And, should you find yourself, as we did, with an “ah but” or two rising in your throat (we kept finding ourselves saying, yes, true, but you can’t underestimate the damage done by an out of control rabid right wing media!), just know that he has answers for you. Be patient.
By the time you reach Chapter 13, you’ve already heard the vast majority of what Hutton thinks needs to happen but he helpfully recaps. We’re talking about things like splitting up the Treasury into an Office of Budget and an Economic Strategy Ministry, giving Parliament time to scrutinise proposed laws, boosting the power of local government, replacing the House of Lords with an Assembly of Nations, replacing the first past the post voting system – these and other things designed to send the likes of the Daily Mail and its readers into a rabid raging froth.
It’s a tough read, make no mistake. It will put you through your paces as a reader. It may even demand and challenge your preconceptions, itself no bad thing. I learned some things. I felt challenged. Some things I had to go away and mull on. Some things I had to go away and investigate further (in the main to check I was wrong and Will Hutton was right – you’ll no doubt be unsurprised to learn I was wrong and Will was right). But, importantly, it feels like the kind of book the country needs and the kind of book everyone running for Parliament in the next (hopefully imminent) General Election needs to have a strong opinion on. Will Hutton has given us a roadmap – who among you are brave enough to take it on and try to do better?
Any Cop?: A genuinely thrilling (at times) read that left this reader full of hope. Absolutely one to dip into when the doomscrolling gets a bit much…
Bookmunch 