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As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela: Underground Adventures in the Arms and Torture Trade

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Author: Mark Thomas
Publisher: Ebury Press
Category: Book

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Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

14 reviews
Sales Rank: 14828

Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1

ISBN: 0091909228
Dewey Decimal Number: 382.456234
EAN: 9780091909222
ASIN: 0091909228

Publication Date: April 5, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: New, unread, slightly shlefworn copy. Shipped from the UK by First Class Royal Mail service in eco-friendly packaging.

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•	Paperback - As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela: Underground Adventures in the Arms and Torture Trade

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Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Who said Politics was boring? April 21, 2008
I have watched Mark Thomas on television for years now and have always thought he was brilliant. This is his first book and his writing style is very like his stand up routine. As I read the book I could almost see him standing up on stage reciting the words.
The book charts Mark investigates Britain involvement in the armaments industry and how much influence the arms companies have over the government here.
It is a brilliant read very informative the only thing I would say is that it would be good if he had an action plan for people to get involved.

5 out of 5 stars

Startling, Informative, Hilarious, Essential Reading! January 31, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

It's not often that "Arms Trade" and "Satirical Comedy" get mentioned in the same sentence, but those phrases would sit fine with this book. Mark Thomas has transformed from a stand-up comic that went on demonstrations into a political activist that does stand-up, and in a way this book documents that.

His C4 show, the Mark Thomas Comedy Product, used to poke fun at the police and his stand up shows would announce his great plan for getting junk mail reduced (get all the freebies sent to Michael Heseltine's address). As his ideas developed, they got wilder, until he had this idea of attending an arms fair as a PR man. And so the book begins.

Being able to describe such a subject matter with humour is an awesome achievement, and the description of the Penis of Peace is just one example of taking the sublime to the ridiculous in the space of a page.

The encounter with the man who sold Michael Ryan his gun is intrigiung, and the stand off with the Hindujas is engrossing.

If you like proper political satire, and you want the facts that BAE don't want you to know, then you need to read this book.

5 out of 5 stars

Brave, well-written, funny, important, a must-read October 3, 2007
A well-written account of Mark Thomas' investigations into, and brave confrontations with, arms brokers up to 2006. It's important to note that this is arms brokering rather than arms use and so while there are guns and torture weapons on display, this book isn't set in a warzone- it is set in the bizarrely convoluted and loophole-ridden world of British politics, EU embargoes, Channel 4 exposes and large arms trade fairs at London's ExCeL centre.

It's more jaw-droppingly staggering than it is funny, but it is funny. The humour is mostly one long string of incredulousness ("can you believe that these schoolchildren were able to buy these grotesque sting sticks just from a few phone calls?"), as well as coming from some of the variety of characters Thomas meets- both arms brokers and activists- who Thomas will warmly laugh with, as well as laugh at. The sheer warmth and obvious importance of the subject is easily enough to get you through the occasional slightly dense paragraph of lists or regulations details.

Thomas throws in just a little introspection and self-depreciation for good measure, as he talks about trying to come to terms with this new position working for "the Man" instead of his previous absolutely anti-Government point of view.

Overall a brilliant book. Book readers and everybody else in Britain would be better off if there were far more people writing like, but most importantly behaving like, Mark Thomas.

4 out of 5 stars

Serious Comedy Product September 29, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

A hearty recommendation. Thomas is a likeable narrator and his mix of anger, despair and hope at the world and the morals of its inhabitants is touching. The book chapters his (somewhat successful) attempts to change legislation on arms trading, weaving facts and figures with a narrative of his visits abroad, to parliament, to arms fairs and to police stations as he switches between posing as arms brokers and buyers and participating in direct action against them. Stand-out sections include his recruiting school-age 'arms dealers' to shame the Irish government and his accompaniment around an arms fair by an affable minder who is able to knowledgably and loudly describe the killing potential of various displayed weapons as Thomas films on his camcorder, much to the discomfort of the stallholders. Superb!

4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating August 28, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I read with a mixture of fascination, occasional amusement, increasing admiration for Mark Thomas and his colleagues and horror at what they discovered. Some of their stunts in this expose of the arms trade are absolutely breathtaking: helping classes of schoolchildren arrange arms deals and getting Malaysian generals to admit to using torture, among others.

The revelations of the loopholes in the arms trade, which mean British-made goods end up being used for horrific purposes by supposedly embargoed regimes (and that the British taxpayer actually subsidises this), and that British dealers can broker deals between two other countries without breaking any rules at all, mean this really should be required reading for anyone who thinks a foreign policy should be based on something other than pure profit.

As with his stand-up, Thomas keeps a lighthearted tone even while discussing terribly important issues. However, my only criticism is that he shouldn't have bothered with many of the jokes - it's not that they're inappropriate, but they are generally obvious and not particularly funny. If the book needed jokes to be readable, then he'd be in trouble; luckily, it doesn't.