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Polly ToynbeeThe Guardian |
Look up, despite the bleak midwinter, the flu crisis and this dismal mood of political cynicism. Despite, too, the daily doom that pumps out of the...
At the stroke of midnight on Saturday night, the shutters came down. Anyone who didn’t claim pension credit by then will have lost their winter...
Some women born in the 1950s were not adequately warned that they would have to work up to six extra years before drawing their state pension. Some...
This is slow government. This solemn and serious cabinet is not one for quick, bright eye-catchers, timed to hit 6 o’clock bulletins. The best it...
“It’s done! Get over it! It’s eight years ago! We’re independent and we’re free!” claimed Nigel Farage on Question Time last week. But the...
Now he’s retired from casting millions of people into poverty, George Osborne has become another flaunting, flamboyant example of a fast-growing...
Here it is at last, a landmark that will be an enduring symbol and the humane legacy of this Labour government. Parliament has finally caught up...
Men don’t pay and won’t pay. Governments for more than 30 years have failed abysmally to make fathers pay for their children. The latest...
The time has come for a defining moment early in a Labour era that has so far lacked definition. This is the week a Labour parliament can make its...
That was a state-of-the-nation image, those thousands of farmers in Whitehall protesting about inheritance tax (IHT). Their little inheritors on...
Watch what happens in Swale, as it’s a tale that will be repeated often in the next few years. Here in Kent is a test of Labour’s determination...
That is a low blow, health secretary. On a matter of life, death and personal freedom, the debate should be elevated above this. Wes Streeting...
Those panic alarms in MPs’ welcome-to-Westminster packs may have been eyed nervously by some on the Labour benches in the past week. The shock of...
With wailing woe in the small hours, many of you shared that wrenching despair when the US election result extinguished hope. Beyond reason, beyond...
Someone had to pay. Is this a “class”-based budget, the chancellor is asked on the BBC? No, it’s raising money urgently needed for the NHS and...
It’s the mood music that matters most. The budget needs to sing “Here comes the sun” after too many grey months of grim prognosis. That hefty...
A collective groan greeted the rumour that the government will announce yet another royal commission on social care. The fear is that it just kicks...
As the budget approaches, outrage from the Tories and their media outriders at any mention of proposed tax rises is reaching boiling point. Never a...
As the budget approaches, expect more balderdash and hogwash from Labour’s enemies and their foghorn media. Listen to them protest that raising...
Our critically injured public services beg for help, but the totem signifying the state of the nation will always be the NHS. The monthly waiting...
They’re off! The millionaires are taking flight in droves, chased away by Labour’s budget plans. Day after day, rightwing thinktanks and media...
Bravo to Kim Leadbeater. She can expect a rough ride for introducing an assisted dying bill. If passed, the Leadbeater legislation will enter the...
At a stroke, this government could wipe out much of the extra child poverty caused by the last government. It would be a bargain, at a cost of just...
Inside the Tory party sinkhole, its denizens pretend to understand what has befallen them, but they act like the undead who haven’t realised they...
“I’m not working class any more,” Keir Starmer told LBC’s Nick Ferrari this week. Of course that’s the case. As the Daily Mail rushed to...
With the hail of bad freebie stories echoing the Mersey downpour, this looked set to be a less joyous conference than was due a party that had just...
Jobcentres are the “least well-used” and “least well-loved” of all public services, a failure at the heart of the economy that helps account...
Of all the landmines planted by the last government, bursting prisons were the most dangerous. This left Keir Starmer with no choice but to release...
Broken but not beaten, is Lord Darzi’s verdict on the NHS in England. “My colleagues in the NHS are working harder than ever but our productivity...
I crept into the inaugural Westminster meeting of The Future of the Right, a Policy Exchange project from a bygone age of Tory ascendancy. I admit...
The honeymoon for Labour is over, say the massed ranks of the rightwing media. What honeymoon was that? It seems to have been over since 5 July....
The Labour party is “under the thumb” of its trade union paymasters and its strike settlements are payback for the union millions that funded...
This is what a fundamental power shift looks like. Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, has swept away the worst of the Tories’...
These were the headlines after an extraordinary night. “Peaceful atmosphere at Sheffield”, “No signs of disorder in Liverpool”,...
GPs in England have embarked on industrial action for the first time in 60 years. The 10 actions they can choose from could bring the NHS to a...
That sounded like a totemic cut, one that everyone could understand. She cut old folk’s winter fuel allowance! Is it like Margaret Thatcher, milk...
That was authentic anger, Rachel Reeves’s indignation well justified as she thundered in the Commons at the inheritance she has been left. Labour...
Every Labour government forges ahead with life-changing liberal reforms, and this one will be no exception. Expect the right to die to be one of...
I will eat my hat – or several – if Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves don’t soon find the money to bury the pernicious two-child benefit cap. The...
The Bruges Group celebrated its 35th anniversary last week in the august portals of the Army and Navy club in Pall Mall in central London. The...
Lest we forget, here is an audit of the state of the country Labour inherits. Pin it up, brand it into public memory so no one can forget the...