i couldnt put this political satire down, so consequently my partner also suffered from the-bed-shook-too-much-from-uncontrollable-laughs, unfortunately it was my turn when it was his turn to read it.

the way mr beaton threaded together different character’s pov on the same event was brilliant, but when i looked deeper into what he had written it was frightening to realise those events derived from the truth. They were what i heard and watched everyday on the news, and what’s worse is i still hear and see them on tv/internet on a hourly basis.

the events were too true that it was sad to see what the consequences might be if the world continues in the way the book had suggested or actually how we live already .

maybe all governments that were mentioned in the book should get a copy?!

This is one screamingly funny book. My wife complained, regularly, that she could not get to sleep because the bed was
shaking so much!

A fictional American president – Fletcher J Fletcher – with a strong resemblance to someone you might know, is getting
tired of being told “something must be done” about the environment.

The book opens in the White House with a policy wonk called Boyd telling the meeting that if everyone had the same
standard of living as the Vice President “We would need 15.2 planet Earths to support everyone”.

Told that not everyone could have the VP’s lifestyle, Boyd then tells the meeting that if everyone on the planet were
to have the lifestyle of the average American, the world would need 5.6 acres per person.

Boyd then tries to alert all and sundry to the facts on sustainability, and makes the mistake of using them to point out that the world population has reached 6.2 billion, and that the President should ” take measures to reduce the eco-footprint of the average American citizen.”

Not surprisingly, the President is unimprssed with this line of policy, and tries to close the meeting. However, the Defence Secretary dares to argue with Fletcher,and persuades everyone that they DO want to explore this policy a bit further, indeed he has a quick solution to the world’s problems: “Getting rid of a lot of people very quickly.”

To cut a very long story short, events persuade President Fletcher to buy into this policy.

To implement it they have to do three things: first off, they get a Brit scientist who knows how to re-create the Spanish
flu virus (1918) which is to be delivered round the globe by the US Air Force.

Second, they have to persuade the rest of the world that the visiting American jets are doing a world-wide
pollution survey for the UN.

Third, they need a vaccine so that no American gets the flu.

Naturally, there are problems along the way. The Prime Minister of Canada gets a document headed “Elliminating Canada” which
he claims must have come from President Fletcher because of the spelling mistake! At the end of a short phone call, Fletcher
decides that Canada is not going to be an exception after all.

Worse, Vince – whose job is to brief the President on questions such as: what’s the capital of Nigeria? – has decided to become
the whistleblower. And, having met Brit Prime Minister James Halstead, he decides to go to England and brief the PM on what’s about to take place.

The idea is that Halstead will use his influence with the President to stop the whole show. Bad move.

Halstead thinks its all a good idea, as long as the Brits can have the vaccine as well. He should get so lucky!

The plan goes ahead as scheduled, but there’s a problem with the vaccine.

… …