Who Dares Wins: Britain, 1979-1982

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Former SAS man Ryan knows every inch of his former regiment and uses the knowledge to excellent effect - you're left feeling you know what it's like to wear the famous winged dagger cap badge' -- Daily Mail Thatcherism is often characterised as a substantial break with the economic policies of the post-war years. Both sides of politics in those years managed the bedding down of the welfare state, the development of nationalised industries, the use of prices and incomes policies to control inflation, pursuit of full employment, and direct government control of the currency. I am thoroughly fascinated by the SAS. I don't know why, I just am. I do not come from a military family nor am I closely linked to anyone serving, but I am fascinated by the rhetoric, psychology and machismo that seems to prevail in this world, particularly the Special Forces. The Falklands War proved to be the pivotal moment in Margaret Thatcher’s first term as Prime Minister. Indeed, if Argentina had not invaded the Falkland Islands, it is unlikely that she would have secured even a second term, far less a third. The British economy plummeted during her first years as Prime Minister, and unemployment soared, extending beyond three million. Of course, this was particularly ironic given the success of the Conservatives’ election campaign, a key element of which had been billboards showing huge queues outside a Job Centre with the slogan, ‘Labour isn’t working’. Even senior figures within her own party was starting to challenge her approach. During the opening years of her premiership, Britain saw vicious riots spreading throughout the country, in places as far apart as Brixton, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Cardiff. This book is an interesting read. Peppered with personal military experience, this book is narrated by Ant, Ollie, Foxy and Colin most well known for Channel 4's SAS: Who Dares Wins television series. It offers some useful insights into how 'Elite' techniques can be utilised on Civvy Street: how to successfully self-motivate or how to deal with stress/emotion during job interviews for example.

Who Dares Wins by Chris Ryan | Goodreads Who Dares Wins by Chris Ryan | Goodreads

Or did it? The reality was more complicated, says Sandbrook. Even before the Argentinian invasion the Tories had been on an upswing, inflation was falling, business improving, and their approval rate was more than 30%. This contrasts with the opening sections of the book, which lay out the sorry state of Britain at the turn of the 80s – economic decline, unemployment, inflation, violence in Northern Ireland, strikes, riots, and a general sense that our days of being “Great” were long gone. The received wisdom is that Thatcher set about destroying British industry by hammering the unions, instituting cash controls – monetarism – and plunging the country into recession. But, as Sandbrook argues, coal, steel and car-making had been in steep decline for years, and the recession would have happened even under Labour. Similarly, the right to buy, the Tories’ controversial sale of council houses, predated Thatcher by at least a decade; her twist on the policy was to make it law. Mrs Thatcher enjoyed watching snooker, though leisure was not something she understood The book was more balanced on The Falklands War and I needed reminding of the terrible looses of life and life destroying injuries to so many in the Argentinian Air Force and British Navy encounters. The conflict, with all of its complexities, would fill volumes, so I intend to read a more in depth history of that. The transformation of Britain under these social developments seems driven more by structural change than a direct result of the election of Margaret Thatcher. Sandbrook notes that many changes superficially attributed to the Thatcher years were in fact well underway when Thatcher was first elected in 1979. This is certainly true of the Thatcher economic agenda.Genuinely insightful and fantastic to listen to throughout. One glaring admission though, and I think this speaks volumes, is that he never considered religion or the church, which highlights its irrelevance even though religion has hardly faded away from significance.

Who Dares Wins: a full-blooded, explosive military thriller

Life and leadership lessons from the Special Forces, from the stars of Channel 4 series Who Dares Wins - including Sunday Times bestselling author of FIRST LEADING FROM THE FRONT , Ant Middleton SELECTED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019 BY THE TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, LONDON EVENING STANDARD, DAILY MAIL AND BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE The two epigraphs heading the book suggest who the real actors of history may be: the first is Fielding's remark in Tom Jones, that 'many little circumstances are omitted by injudicious historians ... the great wheels are set in motion by those which are very minute'; the second is Tolstoy's comment in War and Peace that 'most of the people paid no attention to the general progress of events but were guided by their private interests, and they were the very people whose activities at that period were most useful.' I do need to reread some of the economic bits again as it's not my strongest suite and I struggle to hold that sort of information in my head. I should say straight away that I am a huge fan of Dominic Sandbrook, and feel that this is his finest book yet, although I recognise that that might simply reflect my greater familiarity with, and recollection of, the events about which he writes. Where he excels is in drawing together, without any semblance of artifice, so many different strands of life. He gives a detailed account of the political issues dominating day to day life, but also sheds light on prevailing trends in entertainment, literature and music, as well as changing aspects to domestic life.As an aside, it is remarkable to read in Who Dares Wins of the intense socialism fostered by the trades union activists of the period. It might beggar belief that people could countenance such economically fruitless ideas when in their own time the socialism enforced in Eastern Europe was demonstrating convincingly that central planning and despotic government results inevitably in relatively miserable living standards. It seems that socialist ideas are virulent and repeatedly find receptive hosts. Both events suggest that Britain was not in irreversible decline at the end of the 1970s, and that its national self respect, battered by economic decline and policy paralysis, was reinvigorated by these two highly public examples of competence and leadership. Bought at a discount bookshop whilst on holiday last year and a bit of a hidden gem. Although others have pointed out that you might get this advice from other books on management and leadership, I doubt whether those books were written by authors who had to put these ideas into action in the most perilous of circumstances.