<p><b>A <i>Sunday Times </i>Paperback of the Year <br><br>'</b><b>I can’t tell you how refreshing it is in these polarised times to read a book on politics that doesn’t have an axe to grind . . . an essential read.' - </b><i><b>The Sunday Times</b></i><br><br>Jason Cowley, editor-in-chief of the<i> New Statesman</i>, examines contemporary England through a handful of the key news stories from recent times to reveal what they tell us about the state of the nation and to answer the question <i>Who Are We Now</i>?<br><br>Spanning the years since the election of Tony Blair’s New Labour government to the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, the book investigates how England has changed and how those changes have affected us. Cowley weaves together the seemingly disparate stories of the Chinese cockle-pickers who drowned in Morecambe