All I want for Christmas...

Is John Kampfner's "Freedom for Sale: How we Made Money and Lost Our Liberty". Why?

My new book tackles the issue head on. I look at eight countries, four notionally authoritarian – Singapore, China, Russia and the UAE – and four notionally democratic, India, Italy, the UK and the United States. My central thesis is that people around the world, whatever their different cultures or circumstances, have been willing over the past 20 years of globalised glut to trade certain freedoms in return for the promise of either prosperity or security. We have elevated private freedoms, especially the freedom to earn and spend money, over public freedoms, such as democratic participation and accountability and free expression. I call the thirst for material comfort the ultimate anaesthetic for the brain.

(John Kampfner: Independent "Liberal values have never been more important - or less popular")

I've always said the difference between the British govenment and the Chinese government is that the Chinese government is more honest about its goals. I suppose we'll see what Mr. Kampfner thinks about it.