Stitch Up Politics: the People's Champions How establishment tries to destroy them

Is due process being used disproportionately against political outsiders - and is it working, or making everything worse? Over four years, across two countries and several kinds of accountability machinery, a recognisable shape kept appearing: instruments built for grave conduct, reached for in contested circumstances, against figures who stand - or market themselves as standing - outside the political establishment. A £50 fixed penalty notice for a Prime Minister. A 108-page report and a 90-day suspension. A bank dossier citing 'values'. Thirty-four felony counts from one reimbursement stream. A hashtag comparing a candidate to Hitler. A resignation that converted a committee inquiry into a by-election. This book takes no position on whether any named figure is guilty. Its subject is instruments and their use, not the character of the people they were used on. Every fact is sourced and dated. Every inference is flagged as inference. And where a judgement call arrives, you make it - not the author. The destination is a five-question proportionality test you can run on any case that hits the front pages: - Was the instrument designed for conduct of this gravity? - Is enforcement even-handed between insiders and outsiders? - Does the sanction match the proven conduct? - Is the process insulated from electoral advantage? >The question mark on the cover is not a hedge. It is a handing-over. You are the jury. For readers of Ezra Klein, Martin Gurri, Jonathan Rauch, and anyone who has ever wondered whether the machinery of accountability is being used - or abused.