

Britains best-loved MP and bestselling diarist returns with his hilarious account of a New Labour backbencher
On the backbenches but still in the thick of it,Decline and Fallruns from Chris Mullin's sacking as a minister by Tony ('The Man') Blair in 2005 to the fall of New Labour in May 2010. Here is politics as it really is: entertaining encounters with constituents and conspirators, tantalising glimpses behind the scenes at the courts of Blair and Brown, all set against the background of the global financial crisis and the great expenses meltdown.Every bit as funny and insightful as his first volumeA View From The Foothills,these new diaries provide a snapshot of life in the Westminster village. Preparing to step down after twenty-three years as an MP, Mullin wryly observes'they say failed politicians make the best diarists, in which case I am in with a chance'.
Chris Mullin was elected labour MP for Sunderland South in 1987. He chaired the Home Affairs Select Committee and was a minister in three departments. He is the author ofA View From the FoothillsandA Very British Coup(Serpent's Tail).
'Every once in a while, political diaries emerge that are so irreverent and insightful that they are destined to be handed out as leaving presents in offices across Whitehall for years to come.A View from the Foothillsis one such book', David Cameron
'At a time when we are awash with memoirs of political grandees, the worms-eye view is even more valuable', New Statesman