The Trouble with Europe

Reviews / Votes

I recommend our diplomats and ministers read this book: it will provide them with an intellectual backbone. This will be the essential vade mecum if and when a referendum campaign takes place. The part of Bootle's book in which he analyses the pros and cons of British exit from the EU will be the most influential. -- Dominic Lawson The Sunday Times An outstanding, grown-up account of the failures of the European Union. Bootle is certainly no little Englander, but his argument is calm, conversational, rigorous and - quite remarkably for an economist - entirely free of bafflegab. Engaging and absorbing, here is an eye-opening book that will inspire you to think through the issues clearly - with- out starting a saloon-bar brawl. The Daily Telegraph Bootle writes with energetic prose and makes some good points. His discussion of European monetary union is cogent. The enterprise was unnecessary and it was embarked on too early and with insufficient preparation. It was an integration too far and too soon. Bootle is an accomplished economist whose The Trouble with Markets provided a penetrating analysis of the origins of the finan- cial crisis. In The Trouble with Europe, he asks what has gone wrong with the EU, suggests why reforms are unlikely to happen and maps out a fresh start for UK-EU relations. Financial Times Bootle is right on every count. -- Larry Elliott The Guardian Roger Bootle perceptively analyses what is wrong with the European Union as presently constituted, both politically and economically; what reforms are needed to make it wise for the UK to remain a member; and how we can most sensibly conduct ourselves outside the EU, should those reforms not be undertaken. It is essential background read- ing for any future in/out referendum. -- Rt. Hon. Nigel Lawson, former Chancellor of the Exchequer As I have come to expect from Roger Bootle, he gets to the heart of the matter with crystal-clear analysis and punchy comment. It's the best book yet on the European Union's dysfunctionality. -- Jeff Randall, Sky News business presenter Brilliant, albeit radical solutions. One of the most thoughtful accounts that I have yet read about the European question. Independent on Sunday This is a credible plan for life outside Europe and deserves to be widely read. The Week - Business Books of the Year Roger Bootle's well-informed and rigorously-argued book brutally exposes the problems besetting Europe and Britain's position within - and conceivably outside - the European Union. It should be required reading for all those preparing to vote. -- David Marsh, co-chairman of OMFIF, and author of Europe's Deadlock