WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
The mill stone around contemporary Britain’s neck
A wealth of information is let down by the final conclusions, writes WILL PODMORE
DOGMATIC MONOLITH: The Treasury building in London
[James Stringer/CC] 
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
Bankruptcy, bubbles and bailouts: The inside history of the Treasury since 1976
by Aeron Davis
Manchester University Press £16.99
THIS is a splendid survey of a key department of state. The Treasury dominates the state machine.
What is its purpose? The record shows that it consistently opposes our national industries, regional development, central planning, and much-needed infrastructure projects.
By contrast it always gives foreign companies incentives to move to Britain — regional development aid, free enterprise zones, free ports. It backs international finance against national industry.
More from this author
WILL PODMORE peruses a new history of the opening weeks of conflict between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia
WILL PODMORE recommends an excellent and useful introduction to a lesser-known giant of the scientific revolution in Britain
WILL PODMORE is enthralled by the convincing case that guilds of Islamic craftsmen were responsible for the European gothic style
WILL PODMORE is intrigued by a study the British ruling class that follows statistical analysis with totally inadequate proposals for change
