UKIP's Douglas Carswell pens book on 'how to overthrow emerging oligarchy'

UKIP MP Douglas Carswell has penned an "energetic polemic" called Rebel: How to Overthrow the Emerging Oligarchy, set to be published by Head of Zeus.

Publisher Nicholas Cheetham acquired world rights to the title from the MP for Clacton, Essex.

In the book Carswell argues that politics has become a cartel, run in the interests of political insiders; that the economy is rigged in the interests of a few. Together the insiders, the few, have formed a supranational oligarchy that is stifling and subverting democracy. But Carswell also argues that the new radicals of the left and right who rage against it are part of the problem, rather than the cure.

Carswell’s draws on history and his own personal experiences in an "energetic polemic", according to the publisher, which ranges from the Gracchus brothers in ancient Rome to his 2014 UKIP defection, his "rocky relationship" with Nigel Farage and his place at the heart of the Vote Leave campaign ahead of the Eu Referendum.

A spokesperson for Head of Zeus said: "Having diagnosed the problem, Carswell prescribes the cure, a series of sweeping economic and political reforms underpinned by digital technology. From electoral reform to corporate governance, financial law, patent law, international property law, technology means the days when a tiny few came presume to know what is best for the rest of us are coming to an end."

Carswell said: "I have been elected to parliament four times -- twice as a Conservative and twice for UKIP. But I have not merely changed parties, I have switched many of my views fundamentally. Our democracy and the market system have been subverted. Rebel tells of my personal journey away from the groupthink found in Westminster, and sets out a clear, concise blueprint for change."

Cheetham said: ‘Rebel is an engagingly provocative – even revolutionary – read that puts Brexit and Trump into the context of two millennia of cartels versus political insurgents and Douglas’s own quest to reinvigorate our political system. It is both an incisive analysis of the status quo and a decisive manifesto for change, outlining an optimistic agenda to repair our democracy."

Rebel will be published by Head of Zeus on 6th April 2017.