{"product_id":"james-meek-private-island-2015","title":"James Meek: Private Island [2015]","description":"\u003ci\u003e\"The essential public good that Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and  now Cameron sell is not power stations, or trains, or hospitals. It's  the public itself. it's us.\"\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a little over a generation  the bones and sinews of the British economy - rail, energy, water,  postal services, municipal housing - have been sold to remote,  unaccountable private owners, often from overseas. In a series of  brilliant portraits the award-winning novelist and journalist James Meek  shows how Britain's common wealth became private, and the impact it has  had on us all: from the growing shortage of housing to spiralling  energy bills.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Meek explores the human stories behind the  incremental privatization of the nation over the last three decades. He  shows how, as our national assets are sold, ordinary citizens are handed  over to private tax-gatherers, and the greatest burden of taxes shifts  to the poorest. In the end, it is not only public enterprises that have  become private property, but we ourselves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Urgent, powerfully  written and deeply moving, this is a passionate anatomy of the state of  the nation: of what we have lost and what losing it cost us - the rent  we must pay to exist on this private island.","brand":"Meek, James","offers":[{"title":"Very Good","offer_id":54144261423443,"sku":"XV81784782061","price":5.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/meek-james-james-meek-private-island-2015-xv81784782061-1246520003.jpg?v=1782830890","url":"https:\/\/chaptersbookstore.com\/products\/james-meek-private-island-2015","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}