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A parliamentary scandal that dominates the headlines. The resignation of major party figures. Commentators and citizens wondering if the British government—and the people’s faith in it—will survive. Before Brexit, another major crisis rocked the foundation of government in the country: the expenses scandal of 2009.

Featuring interviews with the members of parliament, journalists, and officials close to the center of the turmoil, An Extraordinary Scandal tells the story of what really happened. Andrew Walker, the tax expert who oversaw the parliamentary expenses system, and Emma Crewe, a social scientist specializing in the institutions of parliament, bring fascinating perspectives—from both inside and outside parliament—to this account. Far from attempting provide a defense of any the parties involved, An Extraordinary Scandal explains how the parliament fell out of step with the electorate and became a victim of its own remote institutional logic, growing to become at odds with an increasingly open, meritocratic society.

Charting the crisis from its 1990s origins—when Westminster began, too slowly, to respond to wider societal changes—to its aftermath in 2010, the authors examine how the scandal aggravated the developing crisis of trust between the British electorate and Westminster politicians that continues to this day. Their in-depth research reveals new insight into how the expenses scandal acted as a glimpse of what was to come, and they reveal where the scandal’s legacy can be traced in the new age of mistrust and outrage, in which politicians are often unfairly vulnerable to being charged in the court of public opinion by those they represent.

A gripping account of how the Shan rebellion influenced the colonial struggle between Siam, Britain, and France to expand their power in northern Thailand.

Moving beyond the familiar story of Siam fending off European colonialism, TheShan Rebellion reveals a new historical subject: Siam as colonizer. As European powers expanded their presence in Southeast Asia at the end of the nineteenth century, Siam launched its own colonial project to assert control over tributary states that lay outside the Siamese heartland. Most important was Lanna (now northern Thailand), a region where Siamese, British, and French colonial ambitions intersected. The outbreak of the Shan Rebellion in 1902 began with the violent dismantling of the Siamese colonial administration in Phrae, one of Lanna’s principal towns. As the rebels began moving towards other centers, they tested the limits of Siamese power in Lanna. With the British having valuable commercial interests to protect and the French itching for an opportunity to expand their reach, Siam’s colonial project faced a dangerous moment. Drawing on rich archival sources from Thailand, Burma, India, France, and England, this outstanding study provides the first detailed account of the rebellion and its impact on competitive colonialism in mainland Southeast Asia.