Comedian and activist Mark Thomas exposes lax UK arms controls, in part by trading weapons legally.

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Product Description

Mark Thomas is one of the UK's most effective and best-known political activists, as well as being a highly successful stand-up comedian. His show, The Mark Thomas Product, ran for six highly acclaimed series on Channel Four. Amazingly, this is his first book. As Used On the Famous Nelson Mandela is a deeply funny, deeply disturbing account of Mark's rampage through the arms trade. Under a fairly flimsy disguise and with the use of some worryingly poor accents, Mark sets off on a journey of discovery in the company of arms dealers, torture victims, politicians, cops, crusties and geeks. The result is a shockingly entertaining read. Embedded within the sharpness of his humour is the truth of an industry fraught with loopholes, complacency and greed; that allows corrupt regimes to kill, maim and displace, but whose deals are often subsidised by the British taxpayer. Hard-hitting, laugh-out-loud funny and extremely unsettling, As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela is never anything less than compulsive.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #201380 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
'John Pilger with laughs', The Guardian .'Thomas, in essence, is a brilliant investigative journalist disguised as an angry, shouty comedian ... very funny indeed', Daily Telegraph

Metro
"funny, disturbing and fascinating"

The Independent
"courageous...it's a humorous yet heartfelt polemic...Thomas' revelations are riveting"

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Customer Reviews

Things we should all know about the defence industry
Opens up an industry that has too many secrets, not enough laws and regulations. This book doesn't tackle the issue of the 'defence' industry being right or wrong, that is another issue. It simply outlines the facts and loop holes of an industry we should all know more about, at home and world-wide. As a British citizen, it's important to know more about this industry, especially when literally anyone can be an arms dealer (as Mark, a nun and even a bunch of kids prove)!

Hopefully this information reaches such a wide audience to make some changes at a higher level.

Truly inspiring
Having seen Mark Thomas on TV, and thoroughly enjoyed his thought-provoking and often acid attacks on various issues, I bought this book hoping for more of the same. I was not disappointed.

Every chapter has both laugh-out-loud and truly shocking content in equal measure, and Mark Thomas clearly demontrates the immorality, greed & hypocrisy surrounding the international arms trade, in a way only he can.

If you really want to know the truth about the British 'Ethical Foreign Policy' (oh, how that makes me smile having read the book), BAEs unhealthy influence within government, how the term 'arms embargo' is utterly meaningless in the real world, the UK's pitiful record on arm control or how British schoolchildren got careers advise from an arms dealer (I kid you not), this is the book for you.

One word of warning, however. Be prepared for some late night reading, as this book is so completely engrossing, you will find yourself in the wee small hours before you know it.

Please sir, can I have some more?
Why, why, why isn't this chap more prolific?
This is a great book - it seems as though Mark is speaking to us on a one-2-one basis and explaining how alarmingly easy it is to become an arms trader.
Mark effortlessly moves from one subject to another - introducing hilarious characters, as well as malevolent villains and illustrating just how desensitised people become to death and murder when they get paid for it.
Books like this are enjoyable because you can share the author's rage and despair chapter by chapter. I'm a fan of Mark and was definitely not let down by his first book.