Reasons to be Cheerful, Mark Steel review

I've finished Reasons to be Cheerful and it is a good read, full of reminders of the 80s and early 90s. Like the night the tories lost in 97 and the miners strike, the me and my money first attitudes, which turned into a soft of more caring 90s, at least for a while, now we have the anti globlization backlash.
I enjoyed the book, it has made me think more about my teens and twenties and why I've done the things I've done. Mark Steel essentially tells his life story, highlighting some of the interesting political events that happened as he gets older. It was interesting for me to read, as I feel partly an outsider on the UK's labour and tory politics, as I was born in Belfast and there politics is quite a sad affair. I remember in my late teens wishing that the labour party would properly setup in Northern Ireland, as politics is so dominated by the troubles that there is no real meaningfull dialogue on any other issue.
Mark Steel writes well and depicts life in small towns in England to living in a squat and on council estates in London. The life of an activist and the details of union negociations and striking are amusingly and kindly analysed. His book is intelligent and quite thoughtful, it carries a good insight into current political life in the UK and helps to explain the mess we are in with Tony and New Labour.
Mark Steel has written a new book VIVE LA REVOLUTION: a Stand-up History of the French Revolution, which unsurprisingly is a history of the French revolution. He also has a regular Independent column.