Christmas reading list 2025
Christmas seems to start early these days, so here's our contribution. We sometimes publish a list of books we suggest people might lay in stock to read over Christmas, or to give to friends. Here's our list for Christmas 2025.
"Why I Became a Conservative" by Owen Jones.
In this story of his journey, Owen tells how he came to see Marxism as an ideology imposed by intellectuals on the working class, and against their interests and aspirations. By contrast, he came to realize that Conservatism, working with the grain of human nature, gives working people the chance to improve their lives.
"On My Ownio - the last of Labour" by Ben Bradshaw.
This rather sad autobiography chronicles how it feels to be the last Labour MP. Ben sketches the history of the once great party from its origins in working men's associations, to its final demise in the streets of Islington. As Westminster's solitary Labour MP, Ben tells how it feels to have no-one to second his motions, and to have to sit on the cross benches after a distinguished career in opposition.
"The Body Count" published by HM Statistical Office.
This shocking book catalogues the death toll brought about by NGOs through their campaigns against genetic modification, nuclear power, fracking, global free trade, and by their campaign for biofuels. The authors count up the millions of children who could have been saved from starvation by GMO crops and cheap food and energy, plus those whose sight could have been saved by GMO golden rice. It is a shocking catalogue of the havoc the NGOs wreaked until their funding began to dry up four years ago as people withdrew their support.
"Bought and Sold for English Gold" by Elaine McLintock.
Here at last is the gripping story of how Scotland's fifth referendum on independence since 2014 went down by an even bigger margin than the fourth. It's a blow by blow account of the increasingly bitter campaign that saw the Scots decide to remain within the developed world's fastest growing economy rather than heed the siren calls to a proud and romantic, if impoverished, independence.
"We Kept the Peace" by Herman von Rompuy.
Five years after the dissolution of the European Union, one of its stalwart old time enthusiasts asks for it to be remembered fondly for the good it did. Herman claims it prevented a third war between France and Germany, and that although it finally expired in a quagmire of bureaucracy and mutual recrimination, it should be remembered for its earlier achievement as Europe's Nobel prize-winning peacekeeper.