Total Control (Paperback)

ARE WE SLEEPWALKING INTO TOTAL CONTROL?

Mike Graham’s explosive new book warns that Britain is becoming a nation where everything we do can be watched, tracked and recorded.

They know where you go. They know what you buy. They know what you watch. And Mike Graham believes this is only the beginning.

In his provocative new book TOTAL CONTROL, broadcaster and Sunday Times bestselling author Mike Graham turns his attention to the creeping surveillance and control of everyday life.

Following Fake News, his investigation into the relationship between government and mainstream media, Graham asks an even more disturbing question: just how much power are we prepared to surrender?

From smartphones and social media to facial recognition, connected cars, parking apps and smart meters, Graham argues that technology sold to us as convenient is simultaneously creating extraordinary opportunities to monitor our behaviour.
He traces his own concerns back to 2007, when a supermarket loyalty scheme revealed just how closely his shopping habits could be tracked. Almost two decades later, he argues, surveillance has moved far beyond knowing where we buy our groceries.

TOTAL CONTROL investigates social-media censorship and data harvesting, questioning who possesses our personal information, where it is stored and who may ultimately gain access to it.

Graham also turns his fire on government regulation, smart technology and the increasing ability of institutions to influence how citizens travel, communicate, consume energy and live their lives.

Written with Graham’s trademark humour and refusal to pull his punches, TOTAL CONTROL is both an attack on the surveillance society and a warning about where it could lead.

“Compliance” sounds like cooperation, Graham argues. But when citizens surrender control over their lives, something much more fundamental is at stake: freedom itself.

TOTAL CONTROL asks whether the technology designed to make our lives easier could ultimately be used to control them.

Mike Graham's media career started in the red hot Fleet Street tabloid wars of the 1980s. Kicking off at The Sun and The Mail on Sunday when he was just 23 years old he chased celebrities, fronted up criminals and dogged politicians in scandal after scandal.

Mike moved to New York in 1984 where he set up his own international news agency. He covered the Reagan White House, the Clinton Presidential campaign, the trial of cannibalism killer Jeffrey Dahmer as well as countless breaking news stories from plane crashes to the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco. He wrote for The Sunday Times, the News of the World, Today, the Daily Express and several magazines in Europe and Australia.

Mike returned to the UK in 1992 to work for the Daily Express as a reporter. He covered the war in Bosnia, countless Westminster scandals in John Major's "back to basics" government and the unravelling Royal marriage of Charles and Diana.

When he retired his notebook he moved onto the executive floor where he worked as Features Editor, Foreign Editor, Night Editor and Assistant Editor before being fired by new editor Rosie Boycott in 1998 for not being a woman.

From there he moved slightly upmarket to being a consultant for what was to become the Metro newspaper before being hired as consultant launch editor for Night & Day magazine at the Mail on Sunday.

In 1999 Mike was hired by Piers Morgan and Mirror Group to launch Project X which would become the Welsh edition of the Daily Mirror, just in time for devolution and the YES vote. By 2002 Mike had also taken over the Scottish edition and witnessed firsthand the rise of Alex Salmond and the SNP.

But there was to be another career change coming when Mike moved into broadcasting in 2006 with the Edinburgh based speech radio station Talk107. The Independent Republic of Mike Graham was born in the mid-morning slot and remained there until 2008 when he was fired again after being made programme director the year before.

Mike moved back to London and brought his brand to Talksport where he hosted the most popular overnight show in the nation's history taking calls, telling stories and debunking the myths of the establishment.

After various roles on the station - including a successful mid-morning stint with Mike Parry - Mike joined TalkRADIO for what was to become an iconic, record-breaking ride through the Brexit referendum, stalemate in Parliament and the hellish Covid years when Mike was the only broadcaster who presented his show continually from the Talk studios at NewsUK in London.

The Independent Republic became famous for standing up to the lockdown, questioning the use of masks, closing down schools and forcing vaccines on people. All of his positions on those issues are now being proven correct.

In 2023 Mike was one of the lead presenters along with Piers Morgan and Jeremy Kyle when TalkRADIO became TalkTV available on linear television and YouTube. Less than a year later Mike's show had moved to the prime time evening slot but he was soon to return to his cherished morning show.

In 2025 Mike's audience on breakfast accounted for half of the station's output but he parted company with Talk after a dispute with the management over a social media post in October of that year.

Mike now presents The Mike Graham Show on YouTube as part of his new independent TV channel UKLiveOnline. It is the biggest breakfast show on YouTube and accounts for more viewers each morning on that platform than GB News, Talk, ITV and the BBC combined.