History Thieves - Ian Cobain - Part 1

The History Thieves - Ian Cobain

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 42

 February 11, 2017 

Book 13 - The History Thieves
by Ian Cobain (2016)
 Part 1 - Pages 1-320
Reading Time - 4 hours

Another book not on my official reading list. This one came more from a personal, research interest. I had read Cobain's other book, Cruel Britannia (how Britain has used rendition and torture) a few years ago.

This book was disturbing. To learn that the United Kingdom is one of the most secretive democracies in the world. The UK has a long-standing culture of secrecy, rooted in the class system. The upper classes, who generally rule the country, have always had that sort of gentleman's code. Don't talk about stuff. The thing is... "nothing is more carefully concealed than the extent to which concealment is being practiced".

Secret archives that are denied to exist... until they are revealed.

Colonial archives that document torture as the UK empire collapsed in the 1950s and 60s. Archives that were either weeded and destroyed or shipped to the UK to reside in the aforementioned secret archives.

Secret trials that are becoming more and more commonplace.

Declassified files that are released to the National Archives, until they cause a commotion and then are quietly removed back into a government department.

I didn't know that the UK lacks a right to "Freedom of Speech". I didn't know that all official documents are automatically considered secret. But I will say this... having just read 1984 by George Orwell, I now have a better understanding of what he could see coming in the mid 1940s when he wrote the book. What is happening in the UK today is Orwellian.