
The Nanny State Made Me
A Story of Britain and How to Save it
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $18.88
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Stuart Maconie
-
By:
-
Stuart Maconie
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
It was the spirit of our finest hour, the backbone of our postwar greatness and it promoted some of the boldest and most brilliant schemes this isle has ever produced: it was the Welfare State, and it made you and me. But now it's under threat, and we need to save it.
In this timely and provocative audiobook, Stuart Maconie tells Britain’s Welfare State story through his own history of growing up as a northern working class boy. What was so bad about properly funded hospitals, decent working conditions and affordable houses? And what was so wrong about student grants, free eye tests and council houses? And where did it all go so wrong? Stuart looks toward Britain’s future, making an emotional case for believing in more than profit and loss and championing a just, fairer society.
©2020 Stuart Maconie (P)2020 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Happy-Go-Lucky
- By: David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask—or not—was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. As Happy-Go-Lucky opens, he is learning to shoot guns with his sister, visiting muddy flea markets in Serbia, buying gummy worms to feed to ants, and telling his nonagenarian father wheelchair jokes. But then the pandemic hits, and like so many others, he’s stuck in lockdown, unable to tour and read for audiences, the part of his work he loves most.
-
-
Great except for an audio glitch
- By Rynnkins on 06-01-22
By: David Sedaris
-
Renaissance Nation
- How the Pope's Children Rewrote the Rules for Ireland
- By: David McWilliams
- Narrated by: David McWilliams
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In four decades, bookended by the Pope’s visits to Ireland in September 1979 and August 2018, Ireland has become one of the wealthiest and most progressive nations in the world. Characteristically brilliant and timely, Renaissance Nation is a thrilling account of Ireland’s vertiginous rise and a timely exploration of its conflicted present, where stark decisions await the next generation of would-be revolutionaries.
-
-
An analysis for posterity
- By Diarmuid McSweeney on 09-04-24
By: David McWilliams
-
The Anthropocene Reviewed
- Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
- By: John Green
- Narrated by: John Green
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, best-selling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale - from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar.
-
-
unexpected
- By E. Collins on 05-18-21
By: John Green
-
Trick Mirror
- Reflections on Self-Delusion
- By: Jia Tolentino
- Narrated by: Jia Tolentino
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity.
-
-
Couldn’t stop listening
- By Alice on 08-25-19
By: Jia Tolentino
-
Harry's Last Stand
- How the World My Generation Built Is Falling Down, and What We Can Do to Save It
- By: Harry Leslie Smith
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As one of the last remaining survivors of the Great Depression and the Second World War, I will not go gently into that good night. I want to tell you what the world looks like through my eyes, so you can help change it.... In November 2013, 91-year-old Yorkshireman, RAF veteran, and ex-carpet salesman Harry Leslie Smith’s Guardian article – "This year, I will wear a poppy for the last time" – was shared almost 60,000 times on Facebook and started a huge debate about the state of society.
-
-
BRILLIANT
- By Lori on 11-27-18
-
World of Our Fathers
- The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made
- By: Irving Howe
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 35 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, two million Jewish immigrants poured into America, leaving places like Warsaw or the Russian shtetls to pass through Ellis Island and start over in the New World. Though some moved on to Philadelphia, Chicago, and other points west, many of these new citizens settled in New York City, especially in Manhattan's teeming tenements....
-
-
Spectacular but long
- By Len on 10-31-20
By: Irving Howe
-
Happy-Go-Lucky
- By: David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask—or not—was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. As Happy-Go-Lucky opens, he is learning to shoot guns with his sister, visiting muddy flea markets in Serbia, buying gummy worms to feed to ants, and telling his nonagenarian father wheelchair jokes. But then the pandemic hits, and like so many others, he’s stuck in lockdown, unable to tour and read for audiences, the part of his work he loves most.
-
-
Great except for an audio glitch
- By Rynnkins on 06-01-22
By: David Sedaris
-
Renaissance Nation
- How the Pope's Children Rewrote the Rules for Ireland
- By: David McWilliams
- Narrated by: David McWilliams
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In four decades, bookended by the Pope’s visits to Ireland in September 1979 and August 2018, Ireland has become one of the wealthiest and most progressive nations in the world. Characteristically brilliant and timely, Renaissance Nation is a thrilling account of Ireland’s vertiginous rise and a timely exploration of its conflicted present, where stark decisions await the next generation of would-be revolutionaries.
-
-
An analysis for posterity
- By Diarmuid McSweeney on 09-04-24
By: David McWilliams
-
The Anthropocene Reviewed
- Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
- By: John Green
- Narrated by: John Green
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, best-selling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale - from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar.
-
-
unexpected
- By E. Collins on 05-18-21
By: John Green
-
Trick Mirror
- Reflections on Self-Delusion
- By: Jia Tolentino
- Narrated by: Jia Tolentino
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity.
-
-
Couldn’t stop listening
- By Alice on 08-25-19
By: Jia Tolentino
-
Harry's Last Stand
- How the World My Generation Built Is Falling Down, and What We Can Do to Save It
- By: Harry Leslie Smith
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As one of the last remaining survivors of the Great Depression and the Second World War, I will not go gently into that good night. I want to tell you what the world looks like through my eyes, so you can help change it.... In November 2013, 91-year-old Yorkshireman, RAF veteran, and ex-carpet salesman Harry Leslie Smith’s Guardian article – "This year, I will wear a poppy for the last time" – was shared almost 60,000 times on Facebook and started a huge debate about the state of society.
-
-
BRILLIANT
- By Lori on 11-27-18
-
World of Our Fathers
- The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made
- By: Irving Howe
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 35 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, two million Jewish immigrants poured into America, leaving places like Warsaw or the Russian shtetls to pass through Ellis Island and start over in the New World. Though some moved on to Philadelphia, Chicago, and other points west, many of these new citizens settled in New York City, especially in Manhattan's teeming tenements....
-
-
Spectacular but long
- By Len on 10-31-20
By: Irving Howe
-
Between the Stops
- The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus
- By: Sandi Toksvig
- Narrated by: Sandi Toksvig
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'Between the Stops is a sort of a memoir, my sort. It's about a bus trip really, because it's my view from the Number 12 bus (mostly top deck, the seat at the front on the right), a double-decker that plies its way from Dulwich, in South East London, where I was living, to where I sometimes work - at the BBC, in the heart of the capital. It's not a sensible way to write a memoir at all, probably, but it's the way things pop into your head as you travel, so it's my way'.
-
-
Funny, interesting and enlightening. A must listen.
- By Steve Killingback on 01-05-20
By: Sandi Toksvig
-
Tucker
- By: Chadwick Moore
- Narrated by: Chadwick Moore
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For tens of millions of Americans, Tucker Carlson was long the only voice on cable news providing a counternarrative to establishment Washington and the mainstream press on the most important issues of our time: the Covid-19 vaccine, January 6, the Ukraine war, and even UFOs, just to name a few.
-
-
A master class on living an ethical life.
- By Jason on 08-05-23
By: Chadwick Moore
-
Around the World in (More Than) 80 Days
- Discovering What Makes America Great and Why We Must Fight to Save It
- By: Larry Alex Taunton
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A battle rages for the heart and soul of America. For one group, the idea of "American Exceptionalism" is dead. Some never tire of lecturing us about how out of step America is with the rest of the world and how the country needs to get with it. Worse, America, they say, is bad for the world. Its freedom and prosperity are merely historical accidents.
-
-
Still the greatest and spells out why
- By Donald L. Huxley on 01-10-21
-
The Good Immigrant
- 26 Writers Reflect on America
- By: Nikesh Shukla - editor, Chimene Suleyman - editor
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, full cast
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An urgent collection of essays by first- and second-generation immigrants, exploring what it's like to be othered in an increasingly divided America.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Kristie Smith on 11-06-19
By: Nikesh Shukla - editor, and others
-
Light and Shadow
- Memoirs of a Spy's Son
- By: Mark Colvin
- Narrated by: Mark Colvin
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mark Colvin is a broadcasting legend. He is the voice of ABC Radio’s leading current affairs program PM; he was a founding broadcaster for the groundbreaking youth station Double J; he initiated The World Today program; and he’s one of the most popular and influential journalists in the twittersphere. Mark has been covering local and global events for more than four decades. He has reported on wars, royal weddings and everything in between. In the midst of all this he discovered that his father was an MI6 spy.
-
-
Probably of most interest to Australian readers
- By Robyn on 04-12-17
By: Mark Colvin
-
The Atlas of Happiness
- The Global Secrets of How to Be Happy
- By: Helen Russell
- Narrated by: Helen Russell
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This charming and entertaining guide offers listeners the chance to learn and be inspired by the "untranslatable" beliefs and unique perspectives on how to live a happier life from countries around the world.
-
-
Good, but not quiet Danishly
- By G. Baker on 04-03-20
By: Helen Russell
-
The World Is My Home
- A Memoir
- By: James A. Michener
- Narrated by: Alexander Adams
- Length: 21 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Literary legend James A. Michener was "a Renaissance man, adventurous, inquisitive, unpretentious and unassuming, with an encyclopedic mind and a generous heart" ( The New York Times Book Review). In this exceptional memoir, the man himself tells the story of his remarkable life and describes the people, events, and ideas that shaped it.
-
-
If you're not a huge fan, don't bother
- By Karin Bergsten-Buret on 06-23-19
-
A Woman First: First Woman
- A Memoir
- By: Selina Meyer
- Narrated by: Selina Meyer
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The long-awaited memoir of her tumultuous year in office, A Woman First: First Woman is an intimate first-person account of the public and private lives of Selina Meyer, America's first woman president.
-
-
Go. Get it. Now.
- By Sookie M on 04-24-19
By: Selina Meyer
-
Girl Gurl Grrrl
- On Womanhood and Belonging in the Age of Black Girl Magic
- By: Kenya Hunt
- Narrated by: Kenya Hunt, Ebele Okobi, Jessica Horn, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Black women have never been more visible or more publicly celebrated. But for every milestone, every magazine cover, every new face elected to public office, the reality of everyday life for black women remains a complex, conflicted, contradiction-laden experience. An American journalist who has been living in London for a decade, Kenya Hunt has made a career of distilling moments, movements, and cultural moods into words. Her work takes the difficult and the indefinable and makes it accessible; it is razor sharp cultural observation threaded through evocative and relatable stories.
-
-
Inspired
- By Amazon Customer on 01-29-21
By: Kenya Hunt
-
Like a Rolling Stone
- A Memoir
- By: Jann S. Wenner
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris, Jann S. Wenner
- Length: 17 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rolling Stone founder, co-editor, and publisher Jann Wenner's deeply personal memoir vividly describes and brings you inside the music, the politics, and the lifestyle of a generation, an epoch of cultural change that swept America and beyond. The age of rock and roll in an era of consequence, what will be considered one of the great watersheds in modern history. Wenner writes with the clarity of a journalist and an essayist. He takes us into the life and work of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Bono, and Bruce Springsteen, to name a few.
-
-
Name-dropping on steroids
- By Tim on 09-19-22
By: Jann S. Wenner
-
Dishonesty Is the Second-Best Policy
- By: David Mitchell
- Narrated by: David Mitchell
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Mitchell’s 2014 best seller Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse must really have made people think - because everything’s got worse. We’ve gone from UKIP surge to Brexit shambles, from horsemeat in lasagne to Donald Trump in the White House, from Woolworths going under to all the other shops going under. It’s probably socially irresponsible even to try to cheer up.
-
-
Meant for UK listeners
- By Maggie May on 11-19-19
By: David Mitchell
-
Our Towns
- A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America
- By: James Fallows, Deborah Fallows
- Narrated by: James Fallows, Deborah Fallows
- Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the last five years, James and Deborah Fallows have been traveling across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, they have met hundreds of civic leaders, workers, immigrants, educators, environmentalists, artists, public servants, librarians, businesspeople, city planners, students, and entrepreneurs to take the pulse and understand the prospects of places that usually draw notice only after a disaster or during a political campaign. The America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems, but it is also crafting solutions.
-
-
Excellent premise, please hire a reader.
- By Elena G. on 05-24-18
By: James Fallows, and others
Critic reviews
"He is as funny as Bryson and as wise as Orwell." (Observer)
What listeners say about The Nanny State Made Me
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Paul F Rugman-Jones
- 10-17-20
A moral reminder/lesson for all
It's hard to listen to Stuart Maconie's words about simple things like public libraries and swimming pools and not feel just a little bit ashamed of 2020 Britain. Enthralling and heart felt. Absolutely loved it!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- MR MICHAEL R ROBERTS
- 02-09-25
Excellent thinking, history and conveyed with hunour
His passion is contagious, so happy to have read this - it’s what has been wrong
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!