Enough Said

Enough Said

What’s gone wrong with the language of politics?

Summary

LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2017

How do we discuss serious ideas in the age of 24-hour news? What was rhetoric in the past and what should it be now? And what does Islamic State have in common with Donald Trump?


We’ve never had more information or more opportunity to debate the issues of the day. Yet the relationship between politicians, the media and the public is characterised by suspicion, mistrust and apathy. What has gone wrong?

Enough Said reveals how political, social and technological change has transformed our political landscape – and how we talk about the issues that affect us all. Political rhetoric has become stale and the mistrust of politicians has made voters flock to populists who promise authenticity, honesty and truth instead of spin, evasiveness and lies.

Featuring Ronald Reagan and Sarah Palin, Tony Blair and George Osborne, Silvio Berlusconi and many more star performers, Enough Said shows how public language is losing its power, and how an ominous gap is opening between the governed and those who govern. The result of decades of first-hand experience of politics and media, this is an essential, brilliant diagnosis of what we should stop doing and what we should start doing in order to reinvigorate Western democracy.

Reviews

  • [A] superb book… Thompson’s own experience in the media is brilliantly deployed throughout for insight… Thompson is a sharp and entertaining analyst of political language itself.
    Steven Poole, Guardian

About the author

Mark Thompson

Mark Thompson is one of the presenters on the BBC Two award winning show Stargazing Live and the resident astronomer on ITV’s This Morning. When not gracing our television screens he is most likely writing about the sky, looking at it or flying through it (as a qualified pilot, not a human cannonball). He writes for a number of websites including Discovery News' Space pages and the Space Exploration Network along with a variety of other publications. He is also a regular on Radio Five Live.

Born in Norfolk, Mark has had a fascination with all things in the sky ever since he was a small boy and is proud to be a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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