I am at present reading Who Runs this Place? by Anthony Sampson which was published last month. It is a great read about modern Britain. I find that I am in agreement with everything I have read in it so far. The democratice deficit, Blair and presidential attitude, the outrage of the invasion of Iraq, the irrelevance of the Monarchy to the government of the country -other than its facilitity for the the PM rubber stamp everything in the monarch's name, the pointless Tory party, the House of Lords etc. I suppose I have not read much that I did not know already - but I am not a quarter way through.
Sadly Mr Sampson, who I think was in his early seventies, died in December '04.: a sad loss.

Heading into this election lead-in.
Can't vote for Blair. Where do you start?
War, control freak, liar, right-wing
err,
Would be moralist, hypocrite
Hasn't said a word against the idiot Bush
and his dangerous bible-bashing
(old and new versions) crew.
Can't vote for Howard - right-wing
err
Dracula.
May vote for Kennedy's lot.
But...
For the first time in my life
I've actually considered abstention.
That is seriously bad....
Not as bad as invading Iraq,
Or polluting the fuck out of the World
Like the Americans...
Or abusing the Iraqis,
Or blowing up the Trade Center.
Or not stopping the genocide in
Sudan, Congo, Rwanda.
Just going where the oil is...
Not as bad as that.
Thank god.