Polly Toynbee



Profile:
Full name: Polly Louisa Toynbee

Area of interest: Society and politics with particular regard to social issues

Journals/Organisation: The Guardian

Email: [mailto:polly.toynbee@guardian.co.uk polly.toynbee@guardian.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/pollytoynbee

Blog: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/arts/author/polly_toynbee/index.html

Representation:

Networks: https://twitter.com/#!/pollytoynbee



Biography:
About:

Education: Badminton School, Bristol; Holland Park Comprehensive School, London; St Anne's College, Oxford

Career: The Observer: reporter, feature writer; Washington Monthly (USA): co-editor; The Independent: columnist and associate editor; BBC: social affairs editor (TV & radio) 1988/1995; The Guardian: columnist, 1998- Current position/role: columnist - political and social commentator


 * also writes/has written for: the Radio Times; edited the Washington Monthly USA

Other roles/Main role:

Other activities:
 * Polly Toynbee named new President of British Humanist Association, (Wikipedia info)
 * BBC Radio 4: Interview with BHA President, Polly Toynbee, 5th September 2007

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight: BBC News 24: Faces of the week, Polly Toynbee, 24th November 2006

Broadcast media: Extensive experience

Video:

Controversy/Criticism:
 * Who is right on the NHS? You decide. Shirley Willams accused Polly Toynbee of lying. Toynbee said Williams copped out. Now, at the NHS bill's 11th hour, they take each other on, The Guardian, 16th March 2012
 * William Langley: Profile: Polly Toynbee The Daily Telegraph, 26th November 2006

Awards/Honours: Magazine Writer of the Year, 1996; George Orwell Prize, 1997; Commentator of the Year, What the Papers Say Awards, 1997; Columnist of the Year, British Journalism Awards, 1998; Political Journalist of the Year, 2003; Political Journalist of the Year, The DODS and Scottish Widows Woman of the Year Awards, 2007; Columnist of the Year, British Press Awards, 2007

Scoops:

Other:
 * Daughter of literary critic Philip Toynbee, granddaughter of historian Arnold J. Toynbee, great-great niece of philanthropist and economic historian Arnold Toynbee (after whom Toynbee Hall in the East End of London is named)
 * Partner of David Walker, The Guardian's social affairs editor



Books & Debate:

 * A working life OCLC 705781, 1971
 * Hospital OCLC 16492753, 1977
 * The way we live now OCLC 10111381, 1981
 * Lost children: the story of adopted children searching for their mothers OCLC 19511168, 1985
 * Hard work: life in low-pay Britain OCLC 51001158, 2003
 * Better or worse?: has Labour delivered? OCLC57063769, with David Walker, 2005

Latest work: Unjust rewards: exposing greed and inequality in Britain today OCLC22944412, with David Walker, 2008 see review by Ruth Sunderland

Speaking/Appearances: 18th June 2013: Meet Polly Toynbee and Aditya Chakrabortty for a coffee on Tuesday. If you'd like to talk to our columnists face to face, here's a chance to do so at our new coffee shop in east London.

Current debate: 
 * Faithworks Debate with Polly Toynbee "Is faith in public life good for Britain?" 21st November 2005
 * Meet the rich - The gap between rich and poor is wider than ever. But that doesn't seem to bother Britain's wealthiest earners. In an extract from their new book, Polly Toynbee and David Walker describe the jaw-dropping arrogance they encountered when they asked some of the fat cats to justify their lives of luxury.The Guardian, 4th August 2008

The Guardian:
Column name:

Remit/Info: Society and politics with particular regard to social issues

Section: Comment & Debate

Role: Columnist - political and social commentator

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:polly.toynbee@guardian.co.uk polly.toynbee@guardian.co.uk]

Website: Guardian.co : Polly Toynbee: All comment / Conservative party / Liberal Democrats / Labour party

Commissioning editor:

Day published: varies, usually Tuesday and Friday

Regularity: Twice-weekly

Column format:

Average length:



Articles: 2017

 * Applauding a public sector pay cap? Tories are cheering their own demise - As austerity’s grim effects bite, Labour has an open goal every day. They will lose vote after vote, but win the argument every time - 29th June
 * Dear Andrea Leadsom, shrinking the state is the opposite of patriotism - The leader of the House of Commons accuses broadcasters of not being patriotic – yet the Tories have betrayed the nation through cuts to our most valued services and institutions - 27th June
 * This party is not fit to govern. May can’t hide behind the Queen’s speech - This is the impasse parliament – nothing can be done by a rudderless government immobilised by a toxic combination of state shrinkers and Europhobes - 21st June
 * Brexiteers call it useless red tape, but without it people die - The war on regulation energises rightwingers such as Boris Johnson. But as Grenfell Tower shows, it undermines our rules for a safe and decent society - 20th June
 * Theresa May was too scared to meet the Grenfell survivors. She’s finished - Symbolism is everything in politics and nothing better signifies the austerity of May-Cameron-Osborne era than North Kensington’s ghastly tomb - 17th June
 * It wasn’t Tim Farron’s faith – the Lib Dems’ results were what did for him - Calling for a second referendum on Brexit was a fatal strategic error. And Labour’s fudge on the issue proved surprisingly effective - 15th June
 * Let’s whoop at the failure of May’s miserabilism. Optimism trumped austerity - Theresa May’s visionless, empty negativism deserved to fail. This signals a monumental shift in what is to come - 9th June
 * Go out and vote today, but know this – our grotesque system needs reform - So distorted is first past the post that very few election ballot papers will make a difference. Abandoning this could make everyone’s vote count - 8th June
 * Here are 10 good reasons to dread five more years of May - The harsh light of the election campaign has shown up her hollowness – and inability to respond to heartbreak - 6th June
 * Ukip’s nonsense manifesto tries – and fails – to whip up anti-Muslim outrage - The party might have expected to capitalise on the Manchester attack. But Paul Nuttall’s words fell with a thud, and the party’s end is in sight - 25th May
 * After May’s ‘dementia tax’ U-turn she can’t accuse anyone of weakness - The PM’s panicked reaction over social care has trashed her claim to be strong and stable. If she wobbles like this, how will she cope with negotiating Brexit? - 23rd May
 * Theresa May’s social care system is a lottery. Just hope you’re not unlucky - The Tory manifesto pledge takes a bold step in raising money from elderly home-owners, but there are fairer ways to fund this, as Labour has shown in the past - 18th May
 * May's claim to lead a party for the workers is breathtaking fantasy-speak - The prime minister’s boast that she champions employee rights is a clever takeover bid for Labour’s turf. But to believe it takes a lot of forgetting - 16th May
 * These local elections make a national point: voting should be compulsory - British democracy is in crisis, with turnouts likely to be lower than ever. Let’s save young people from themselves – by marching them off to the polling station - 5th May
 * Theresa May promised to tackle greedy bosses – instead she’s helping them - The pay of HSBC’s chief executive has reached nearly £8m. Those who object to yawning inequality are helpless - 1st May
 * Theresa May’s obsession with immigration betrays her weakness - In rejecting a move to exclude foreign students from immigration targets the prime minister has shown a worrying lack of flexibility - 27th April
 * Liberal capitalism has rotted our souls. But its days might be numbered - It will be a long road back from the Blair/Thatcher consensus. But this election finally gives us leaders who prioritise morality over the market - 20th April
 * If 1997 was a new dawn, now Labour faces its darkest night - Twenty years on from Blair’s historic victory, with his legacy trashed, the party must learn from its past - 11th April
 * The gender pay gap law doesn’t mean job done on women’s earnings - It’s a good move by the government, but what about the gender divide on apprenticeships, which cements girls into jobs with lesser prospects? - 6th April
 * My generation fought to be free. What happened to us? - On sex, contraception, women’s and gay rights we stood for liberation. But our Brexit voting shows we’re no longer progressives and we’re betraying the young - 4th April
 * Theresa May has signed, sealed and delivered article 50 - May could pay the price for new, softer tone - 29th March
 * Now the battle line is drawn before Theresa May’s disastrous Brexit - Reality bites from this week: the reckless charge out of Europe has begun. But at last Labour, thanks to Keir Starmer, is fighting back - 28th March
 * The media response to the Westminster attack reflects a divided country - All of us responded to this atrocity in our tribes. We feel emotional, visceral indignation today, but must face the risks with calm reason - 23rd March
 * Osborne could be a potent weapon in this Brexit war - The Evening Standard’s new editor poisoned British politics, but pro-Europeans need his cunning - 21st March 2017
 * The Brexit fanatics are at the helm, but don’t despair - this is not over - The future seems bleak but with EU negotiations and a great reform bill still to come, there are many pitfalls for a reckless prime minister - 14th March
 * Don’t fall for Philip Hammond’s budget trickery. There is an alternative - As the chancellor prepares to slash the state he claims there’s no cash. Yet he’s preparing to give billions away to the rich - 7th March
 * Labour’s failure on the NHS is prolonging this health crisis - Without fear of the opposition, the Tories are wreaking havoc in our hospitals. When is enough enough? - 1st March
 * What next for Labour and Corbyn after the byelections? - Corbyn’s allies blame disunity, but Copeland is a Labour disaster - 24th February
 * Theresa May’s assumption of absolute power over Brexit spells disaster - The ice queen has decreed any Lords amendment to her irrational plans a betrayal. This obduracy could break Britain – and her own leadership - 23rd February
 * Was the Surrey council tax referendum a swindle all along? - David Hodge has been a thorn in the government’s side over its pernicious cuts. Next month’s budget will reveal who really won this power struggle - 9th February
 * Stoke byelection: this is Britain on the edge, torn between hope and despair - I found voters there teetering between Labour and Ukip. They’re choosing not just an MP but an identity - 8th February
 * Stoke byelection: this is Britain on the edge, torn between hope and despair - I found voters there teetering between Labour and Ukip. They’re choosing not just an MP but an identity - 7th February
 * Ken Clarke was magnificent, defying the Brexit zealots - He spent 50 years hauling Britain into the modern world. Yesterday, in a speech that will echo down the years, he raged against the dying of the European light - 2nd February
 * Labour MPs owe a duty to the country – not Corbyn’s absurd three-line whip - Many will lose seats for failing to obey their Brexit-voting electorates. They should do it anyway. They have a higher responsibility - 31st January
 * On her flight May should read Trump’s book: the other guy is always shafted - Brexit has made the UK desperate supplicants, but the prime minister shouldn’t bring shame on us by rushing to meet a president who is unfit to hold any office - 26th January
 * It’s a crisis indeed when the social care rebels are Tories - One Conservative leader is resisting his party’s cuts. Maybe he will start an epidemic of truth-telling - 24th January
 * Climate change will affect all of us. So why the lack of urgency? - From Trump to Brexit, we are all fixated on more immediate news stories. We need to look at the bigger picture - 19th January
 * Theresa May’s Brexit speech - This looks like war - 17th January
 * NHS crisis: the one act of self-sacrifice that could rescue our health service - Major alerts, cancer operations cancelled, patients dying, yet Theresa May still won’t listen. But maybe there’s a tipping point that could force a response - 17th January
 * Trump revealed his presidential dream to me in 1988. Now the nightmare begins - Back then I wrote that Donald Trump becoming US president would be a bad joke. Yet it’s about to come true - 13th January
 * Theresa May’s great deceit: there is little left to share - The prime minster spouts fine words but is pushing ahead with cuts that undermine the very fabric of the state - 10th January
 * Inheritance tax is toxic. We need new ways to tackle inequality - A new report confirms that inherited wealth increasingly benefits only Britain’s richest. Theresa May’s talk of social mobility will ring hollow until this is fixed - 5th January



Articles: 2016

 * Politics is a rough trade, but Jamie Reed should be hanging in there - The Corbyn critic has every reason to feel less then thrilled about being a Labour MP right now. But he has a duty to his constituents, and to democracy itself - 23rd December
 * Our future is being stolen. Be brave and take it back - With Trump and Brexit looming, I can’t say that things will get better next year. But I do know that things will get worse if we don’t fight - 20th December
 * Murdoch’s dominance is insidious. He must not be allowed to buy Sky - Politicians already kowtow to the News Corp owner. Someone must stand up to his bullying and stop the spread of his brand of toxic vitriol - 15th December
 * Desperate commuters, it’s time for a rebellion the government can’t ignore - Southern rail’s appalling service means people are losing jobs, while in the north lines are left to rot. Train users must take action now - 9th December
 * Desperate commuters, it’s time for a rebellion the government can’t ignore - Southern rail’s appalling service means people are losing jobs, while in the north lines are left to rot. Train users must take action now - 8th December
 * Brexit is bigger than any single party – Richmond Park has taught us that - This volcanic byelection is a taste of how Brexit threatens to overturn all old certainties and render Labour increasingly irrelevant in post-referendum Britain - 2nd December
 * The right will attack, but MPs must be brave and save us from ruin - Parliamentarians should be willing to intervene on Brexit if they get the chance, and ready for ferocious hostility - 29th November
 * Sooner or later, May and Hammond will have to put Britain before Brexit - The autumn statement revealed just how much leaving the EU is likely to cost us – and the chancellor dared not tell us this was what we’d wished on ourselves - 24th November
 * Theresa May will say her hands are tied this week. Don’t be bamboozled - With Wednesday’s autumn statement, the Tories could begin to revive our public services and the ailing NHS. But they won’t - 22nd November
 * Equality looks further away than ever in a Brexit, Donald Trump world - The government’s Social Mobility Commission report shows progress is in reverse – and Theresa May’s government has no answers - 17th November
 * Only a decrepit society would deprive young families of a home - With the autumn statement, Theresa May can finally help the growing precariat. But I’m not holding my breath - 15th November
 * Brexit and Trump mark a whitelash. Politicians must not pander to it - The US election result will infect Britain’s political psyche, especially on those totemic ‘them and us’ issues – race, migration, poverty and benefits - 11th November
 * Theresa May’s ‘just managing’ will be the victims of this new benefits cap too - As families face annual cuts of up to £6,000, the government’s vilification of the poorest has turned hearts to stone - 8th November
 * Brexit has caused havoc already. Now parliament must save us - The ruling on article 50 is a huge opportunity. It would not be anti-democratic to try and stop what many other countries see as economic suicide - 3rd November
 * Don’t stop at Nissan – we all need comfort letters now - If ministers are willing to protect car firms from the ravages of Brexit, why not all of us who were lied to? - 1st November
 * A vote against Zac Goldsmith is a vote against extreme Brexit - Labour should not contest the Richmond byelection. Instead, it should give the Lib Dems a clear run to beat the constituency’s hard Brexit MP - 28th October
 * Our nurses are being cast into a perfect Brexit storm - Cuts and the threat to EU staff add to the growing NHS crisis. The least leavers can do is reassure them - 25th October
 * The public are already turning against Brexit. When will Theresa May listen? - Britons have started to realise that a protest vote against immigration might have economic ramifications too. The prime minister knows she can change her mind too - 21st October
 * Jeremy Hunt can’t fix the NHS. No one now believes a word he says - Even good ideas are polluted with mistrust – across all parties and in communities – fearing that they conceal deeper cuts - 17th October
 * With the great Marmite war, the reality of Brexit has started to bite - Every passing day shows how disastrous a referendum can be. The real-world effects of leaving the EU begin to hit home and politics enters new territories - 13th October
 * Take back control? Our Border Force is in no fit state to do its job - Weakened by cuts, our ports are understaffed and lax on security – as politicians would know if they talked to employees - 11th October
 * Telling NHS doctors to go home is self-harming madness - Why would anyone – let alone a health secretary – insult the one third of our doctors who were born abroad by suggesting that they’re only ‘interim’? - 6th October
 * Will Theresa May’s speech appeal beyond Tory conference? - The Tories are brilliant at cognitive dissonance - 5th October
 * Will Theresa May be the next Tory leader to be bulldozed by the Europhobes? - The Conservative party faithful are cheering. But hard Brexit will hurt, and the prime minister could sink in the quicksands of EU negotiations - 4th October
 * Who needs a coherent plan for Brexit when you have dreams and fantasies? - While ministers spout unfounded claims and fanciful notions about how trade and security will work once we leave the EU, the UK is becoming a laughing stock - 29th September
 * After Corbyn definitively took the Labour leadership for the second time, this was his chance to inspire party members – and prove his critics wrong - Well-delivered, it was the best of Corbyn; and it was the worst of Corbyn - 29th September
 * Why can’t I get behind Corbyn, when we want the same things? Here’s why - At the Labour conference I am besieged by good people who feel they are part of a great wave for a better society. My response to this passion sounds cynical – but realistic - 27th September
 * We can afford the NHS. The question is whether we are willing to pay for it - Rationing funds between competing claims within the health service is nothing new. It doesn’t mean the nation can’t afford good healthcare through taxation - 22nd September
 * Get serious, Labour rebels, and deal with the Brexit catastrophe - Fighting a disastrous hard Brexit policy, not obsessing about their party, must be the priority for the 172 MPs who voted against Jeremy Corbyn - 20th September
 * Britain is dehumanising – Post Office closures are just the latest symptom - With every rural bus, swimming pool or post office that’s cut or moved into private hands, the veneer of civilisation gets thinner - 15th September
 * Theresa May’s incompetence is creating an opposition within her own party - For a brief moment we thought the prime minister a safe pair of hands. But from Brexit to grammar schools, her reckless tactics will split the Tories - 13th September
 * Did we baby boomers bring about a revolution in the 60s or just usher in neoliberalism? - A new exhibition looks back at the time of psychedelia and protest. But for those of us who were there it’s an unsettling time warp - 8th September
 * Why I can’t forgive Nick Clegg and his party of useful idiots - The Lib Dems in coalition were so incompetent they backed Tory savagery yet somehow lost the great prize of proportional representation - 6th September
 * Jeremy Hunt must listen to junior doctors. The NHS can’t afford a strike - With the health service paralysed by debt and facing a shortage of medical staff, why unnecessarily provoke the precious doctors on whom it relies? - 1st September
 * How Britain sank its shipping industry by waiving the rules - The fate of a ship stuck in Great Yarmouth sums up the damage that state inaction and unfettered free markets have inflicted on a once-proud merchant fleet
 * The Tories must tackle the real cause of obesity: inequality - Fat is a class issue. Most of the seriously obese are poor. Offer a diet of self-esteem, good jobs and social status, and the pounds will fall away - 19th August
 * Feet first, our NHS is limping towards privatisation - Cuts to podiatry services that are vital for diabetic patients mean more amputations – and the problem is getting worse - 16th August
 * It’s not the 1980s. Labour must unite to fight the Tories - Party members may succumb to the romance of the impossible, but it’s vital that pragmatic MPs continue to battle on behalf of the vulnerable - 11th August
 * It’s not the Isle of Wight that is inbred. It’s the establishment - David Hoare, like many privileged people, clings to the delusion that brilliance earns wealth and power – while the poor have only themselves to blame - 6th August
 * Labour has been adrift. Owen Smith can bring it back to land - Thank you, Jeremy, for sweeping away the third-way brigade, but it’s Smith who has the policies, daring and coherence to take the party to power - 29th July
 * Jeremy Hunt has saved his own skin but let the NHS sink - The funding crunch is disastrous and the Brexit windfall was a lie. The truth is that we need to pay more for Britain’s health service – or get less - 26th July
 * Forget Trident. Labour needs to focus on issues that matter - The Tories have free rein to batter the poor so long as the opposition has a leader in Corbyn who refuses to reach out beyond his base - 19th July
 * Cameron has washed his hands of No 10. But he’s left an almighty mess - The prime minister’s cheerful departure can’t disguise the scale of the task facing Theresa May – or the danger posed by her lurking Eurosceptic backbench - 14th July
 * For the Tories, closed ranks: for Labour, open warfare - Eagle deserves praise for challenging Corbyn at a time when the party is on a bizarre seesaw: with rising membership but falling support in the country - 12th July
 * A viable shot at a better NHS has been killed off by privacy paranoia - Care.data could have advanced medical knowledge but our collective fear of data collection has caused it to be abandoned. It will be our loss - 7th July
 * This Tory chaos won’t last. Labour must take its chance - The Conservatives will unite to resume their attack on the poor. If Jeremy Corbyn has a plan, let’s hear it now - 4th July
 * A Labour challenger needs a rhino hide – luckily Angela Eagle is battle hardened - Despite John McDonnell’s protestations this morning, it’s now clear that Jeremy Corbyn needs to be challenged. And the Wallasey MP is the one to do it - 1st July
 * This is now Project Betrayal – and we are all victims - The blame falls entirely on the Tories for this referendum – and on Boris Johnson for his despicable campaign. Did the voters take back control? No - 28th June
 * Dismal, lifeless, spineless – Jeremy Corbyn let us down again - Labour squandered a golden opportunity to own the referendum campaign. And party leader Corbyn must take the blame - 25th June
 * This referendum puts voting reform right back at the top of the agenda - It’s been a vile campaign. But whatever the outcome, let’s remember one thing: at least in this election, every ballot counts - 23rd June
 * On Friday I’ll get my country back. Britain will vote remain - This country is not the leave campaign’s ingrown place of phobias, conspiracies and fear of foreigners. Our generosity will defeat their meanness of spirit - 21st June
 * The mood is ugly, and an MP is dead - It’s wrong to view the killing of Jo Cox in isolation. Hate has been whipped up against the political class - 16th June



Articles: 2015

 * Labour people are optimists, but this time I see no hope - I have tried to believe Jeremy Corbyn can win the 2020 election, but more and more it feels like believing in Father Christmas - 23rd December
 * Is Osborne serious about catching tax cheats – or just the little guys? - If he were serious, he would reverse HMRC staff cuts and pursue the big company cases that have a greater chilling effect on evasion and avoidance - 18th December
 * If we truly valued caring, we would fix the gender pay gap - From cooking to childcare, the jobs that keep society together are done by women - and are downgraded. This has to change - 15th December
 * Cameron has declared war on the Lords. Let the ermine rebellion begin - The prime minister’s attempts to rejig the constitution in his favour, starting with the silencing of the Lords to punish them over the tax credits vote, must be resisted - 10th December
 * David Cameron’s cabinet saboteurs are pushing him to Brexit - If the PM’s negotiations with Europe are backfiring, it’s because his own ministers are undermining them - 8th December
 * Some MPs have agonised over Syria. But many are fighting other wars - Behind the debate in the Commons, in which MPs voted to back airstrikes against Isis, hidden agendas were shaping decisions - 3rd December
 * What’s many times more deadly than terrorism? Britain’s roads - The government preaches ‘security’ yet cuts police and road casualty targets. Let’s keep our fears of the risks in everyday life in proportion - 26th November
 * The Lords are right: young people should vote on the EU referendum - What happens to the EU will affect 16- and 17-year-olds most, so let them have a say. And imagine the dynamics, with politicians chasing their votes - 19th November
 * If police have to make these cuts, what exactly should they stop doing? - Slashed mental health and social budgets have stretched forces to breaking point. After Paris, does Theresa May really want to put the deficit before security? - 17th November
 * Housing is the next target in David Cameron’s dismantling of the welfare state - For the many people who can’t afford to own a home, the new housing bill will have a devastating impact, as social rented properties are lost - 11th November
 * We risk discovering the joy of tax only after it is too late - For years, voters have been promised Scandinavian services on US tax rates. Now reality is kicking in, in the shape of a chancellor who believes tax is theft - 4th November
 * Hospital food banks expose the gap between benefits and the cost of survival - With some families forced to feed themselves on just £19 a week and parents skipping meals so their children can eat, no wonder food banks are everywhere - 30th October
 * Even the House of Lords couldn’t stomach Osborne’s tax credit cuts - The chancellor will still take £4.5bn from the low-paid in tax credit cuts, but the rebellion is a political setback - 27th October
 * This nuclear power deal with China is one of the maddest ever struck - The decision to allow China to build nuclear power stations in the UK is sheer folly, especially at a time when Cameron is shutting the door on renewable energy - 21st October
 * This isn’t a poll tax moment, and the Tories know it - Tax credit cuts will hit struggling families, but Osborne has plenty of budgets to put things right - 20th October
 * EU referendum: Remain’s anaemic launch should alarm pro-Europeans - If it can’t shake off the whiff of cross-party dullness, the EU in camp will be vulnerable to Nigel Farage’s pathos - 13th October
 * Only the BBC could give us Bake Off and Strictly. We must protect it - Today is the deadline for the public to have their say on the future of the corporation. The stakes couldn’t be higher - 8th October
 * Labour’s bitter refuseniks risk being stranded by the tide - There’s cause for optimism at party conference. The priority now for all must be to attack the Tories - 29th September
 * Jeremy Hunt’s hit squad is a danger to our national health - Inspectors have condemned a leading hospital, but its problems are symptoms of savage national spending cuts - 22nd September
 * Harriet Harman’s victory was putting women’s lives at the heart of politics - From all-women shortlists to the Low Pay Commission to the minimum wage, the great Labour fighter leaves a rare legacy - 17th September
 * Those who flounce out on Jeremy Corbyn will not escape blame if Labour crashes - The MPs who turned their back on the new leader have made a serious error: they’re just helping the enemy - 15th September
 * The press regulator Ipso is a year old – and it’s a total failure - The PCC’s sham of a replacement looks on benignly as Rupert Murdoch sticks two fingers up to parliament, victims and everybody else - 11th September
 * MPs should be brave – and finally vote to give us the right to die - They need to reject religious dogma and back the assisted dying bill so that those in pain can choose how to end their own lives - 8th September
 * The UK’s stance on the refugee crisis shames us all - David Cameron’s refusal to act decently is not only morally wrong, it is politically idiotic when it comes to Britain’s place in Europe - 3rd September
 * Let Queen Elizabeth reign until the end – then stop this charade - Next week, she’ll be our longest-reigning monarch. But historians will struggle to find glory in her era - 1st September
 * If the House of Lords is a circus, a peerage byelection is the headline act - A lord has resigned. Roll up for the most outrageous and bizarre spectacle our warped constitution has to offer - 28th August
 * This leadership race is bigger than Labour: if Corbyn wins, Britain could be out of Europe - With a referendum due, the new leader must clearly be for staying in. Instead the frontrunner prevaricates - 25th August
 * Cooper has taken on Corbyn, gloves off. Could this be a knockout blow? - A victory for Jeremy Corbyn will be a win for global corporations, the City and the savagery of Osbornomics. Labour can win again, but only with a credible leader - 13th August
 * Support the National Gallery strikes while they’re still legal - Cameron’s trade union bill will obstruct the kind of justified protests seen at the art museum this week - 11th August
 * Free to dream, I’d be left of Jeremy Corbyn. But we can’t gamble the future on him - Many of us share the Labour leadership frontrunner’s core beliefs, but tactically the best chance lies with Yvette Cooper - 4th August
 * As Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron will have the luxury of being an outsider. It’s different for Labour - It’s tempting to envy minority parties’ freedom to say what they really think. But remember – they don’t need to actually get back into power - 17th July
 * What have young people done to Osborne to deserve such contempt? - As if the chancellor hasn’t monstered the young enough, he introduces a gratuitous cut to housing benefit and other exemptions that will cause misery - 9th July
 * Has the right learned to love higher wages? Don’t fall for it - A living wage will be of little help to the working poor if George Osborne cuts tax credits at the same time - 7th July
 * David Cameron abolishes poverty, just like that - The prime minister is the most shameless practitioner of political mendacity – to be poor from now on will mean to be in need of correction, not cash - 2nd July
 * The BBC is under threat because its success challenges market ideology - Conservative MPs are sharpening their knives to cut back the corporation. But they should ask why it’s so popular - 30th June
 * Working mothers are good for children – but the guilt trips will keep coming - The rightwing media made its mind up about working mothers long ago. Don’t expect a groundbreaking Harvard study to change it - 25th June
 * In Labour’s leadership race, Yvette Cooper is the one to beat - Though the debate remains leaden, the former shadow home secretary is beginning to impress against her main rival, Andy Burnham - 23rd June
 * These are nation-changing times — help us hold power to account - In a tipped-up, one-sided media, the Guardian is here to restore balance. Become a Guardian Member and join our community of writers and readers to debate the big issues and help us challenge the status quo - 19th June
 * Cutting the onshore wind subsidy is perverse nimbyism - The planet is warming at record rates, yet the Tories’ reckless loyalty to its shire heartlands takes precedence over policy, science and economics - 18th June
 * If Cameron wants to stay in the EU, he needs to stop appeasing his enemies - Tory rebels are already making life as hellish for David Cameron as John Major’s anti-EU ‘bastards’ of yesteryear did. But let’s not gloat – Britain’s future is at stake - 16th June
 * Osborne’s ludicrous surplus plan will be the biggest test for Labour’s candidates - Will any of the leadership contenders have the political nerve to tell the chancellor the truth: that this is economic nonsense? - 11th June
 * The NHS needs savings of £22bn? Only a magician could find that - The closures and mergers planned for our health service over the next three years will prove universally unpopular. Expect a huge outcry, even from Tories - 9th June
 * Bring back altruism. Our blood banks depend on it - Donations are falling, but a US-style model of paying donors would be disastrous. From giving blood to paying tax, it’s altruism that creates a decent civilisation - 5th June
 * The early years matter most, but good childcare still eludes us - While politicians preach social mobility, the nursery system is failing children at the most vital age - 2nd June
 * These children of Thatcher are free to cut, cut, cut – and they’re loving every minute - George Osborne and David Cameron have been waiting for this moment – to take us back to a prewar, pre-welfare government - 22nd May
 * A tip for the next Labour leader – get yourself an interest outside politics - Michael Gove – and Nicky Morgan after him – downgraded arts education. But a rounded worldview is impossible without the influence of culture and creativity - 19th May
 * The Tories have declared war on the trade unions – without public support - Most people don’t share the Conservative hatred of unions, yet Sajid Javid is turning the screw by making striking almost impossible - May 15th
 * Labour should forget ‘Blairism’ and reclaim Blair’s early radicalism - The party must not confuse the magic of their former leader at its peak with his later zealotry for privatisation, war in Iraq and multimillionairedom - 12th May
 * Labour has failed but it’s the low-paid and hard-pressed who will suffer - There will be epic cuts and more zero-hours contracts. But the party should not rush headlong into choosing a new leader - 9th May
 * Meet the invisibles – the wealthy and powerful at the heart of the Tory party - In the City I came face to face with the reclusive influencers within Cameron’s world. The experience showed me how profoundly divided our nation has become - 5th May
 * Danny Alexander’s revelation should be a wake-up call for everyone - Such is the UK’s skewed perspective of welfare, millions are unaware that £12bn of Tory cuts would hit them, not just ‘scroungers’ - 1st May
 * Warning: these Tories won’t jump. They must be pushed - David Cameron will do anything to stay in power. The voters who will suffer most must realise what is at stake in this election - 28th April
 * Puzzled by the manifestos? The Tories and Labour have swapped clothes - But by election day there will be no disguising the real political choice - it’s rarely been starker - 14th April
 * Back on the Isle of Wight, Tory Britain rehearses its collapse - In the latest of our pre-election series, Polly Toynbee returns to where she was born, once a haven of tranquility. So when did it get so angry? - 7th April
 * No wonder the SNP are confident – the Tories behave as if they want Scotland gone - To discount Scottish votes is to expel them from Westminster and turbo-charge the case for independence - 31st March
 * Britain mourns a monster – because he was a king. Richard III’s burial was absurd - He may have been a child-murdering tyrant, but he was a king. So, in a nation where we still think like subjects, not citizens, thousands came to humble themselves before his 500-year-old bones - 27th March
 * The NHS needs serious money, but our politicians are refusing to face it - The public wants a high-quality health service and low taxes. Neither Labour nor the Tories have been brave enough to say that we can’t have both - 26th March
 * Welcome to the National Gallery, Dr Finaldi. Now look after your staff - The gallery’s new director should cancel plans to outsource the jobs of gallery assistants – there would be no better start to his tenure - 19th March
 * Iain Duncan Smith’s family values won’t help the poor - The Tories’ married couples’ allowance benefits a philanderer on his third wife, but those most in need miss out. It must rank as one of the most ill-conceived tax policies ever - 10th March
 * If Miliband is so weak, why is Cameron so afraid of debating with him? - The entire Tory campaign – backed by the shameless rightwing press – is predicated on Miliband’s feebleness. But on the TV debates issue, it’s Cameron who squirms - 6th March
 * Miliband’s hands are clean, but the Rifkind and Straw sting may still hurt - The Labour leader has a far better record on lobbying than the Tories do. Yet to alienated voters ‘they’re all the same’ - 24th February
 * Time is running out for voters to wake up to the Tories’ cataclysmic plans - George Osborne’s promised £50bn of cuts will have a disastrous effect on everything from NHS care to basic council services. Why isn’t Labour shouting about it? - 19th February
 * Who dares confront Jeremy Hunt, NHS bully-in-chief? - The climate of fear is created by the health secretary. It’s no wonder doctors and other frontline staff increasingly feel like quitting - 17th February
 * Taxpayer funding of politics is better than the sordid status quo - Party donors have too much money in Swiss bank accounts, and money has too much sway in politics. It’s time for a level playing field - 12th February
 * With penalties so weak, tax evasion is worth the risk - Many countries have instigated criminal proceedings against HSBC. It’s no surprise that Britain has not - 10th February
 * Here’s how Labour should tackle the tax avoiders: an Office of Tax Responsibility - Labour isn’t being anti-business in taking on Boots and co. And a new entity, led by Margaret Hodge, could be its secret weapon - 6th February
 * This isn’t about three-parent babies. It’s about saving families needless misery - The religious lobby is urging MPs to vote against mitochondrial replacement – yet the public wants it - 3rd February
 * Cameron cuts, and the money is recycled to the rich - Labour should take heart from the half of people who want an end to austerity and rising inequality - 27th January
 * All bar the Tories want constitutional reform. Another reason to keep them out - First thoughts: The monstrous injustice of the first-past-the-post system is just one of our democratic bugs. Fixing it could address voter apathy - 23rd January
 * On Charlie Hebdo Pope Francis is using the wife-beater's defence - Yes, free speech has always had its limits – but verbal provocation is never an excuse for violence - 16th January
 * Why our distorted fears cost more lives than terrorism - The Paris murders have horrified us. But we must beware the dangers of our all-too-human overreaction to them - 13th January
 * Harriet Harman is right: women hold the balance of power – if they vote - Nearly all progress for women has come from Labour, yet the election may depend on deputy leader’s efforts to get them to the ballot box - 13th January



Articles: 2014

 * What if Downton Abbey told the truth about Britain? - The period detail is impeccable but the series is a far cry from the brutal reality of upper-class attitudes - 23rd December
 * Ignore the flaws. For only Labour can beat the Tories - Osborne’s strategy will bring ideological shrink-the-state brutality. We need to stop this however we can - 10th December
 * For the sake of justice, this attack on judicial review must be resisted - The future of judicial review is at stake in the Lords. The prison book ban case shows its importance for freedom – and common sense - 9th December
 * Economic dishonesty is the deadliest deficit of all - Chancellor George Osborne will disguise the harm he means to do in the autumn statement, but Labour and the Lib Dems are trapped in me-too territory - 2nd December
 * Why do we only worship 'real' works of art? - As the V&A prepares to reopen its cast courts with its glorious reproductions, you'd be forgiven for thinking authenticity is overrated - 14th November
 * Panic over the Labour leadership serves no purpose – stop it, now - You can find grumblers aplenty to talk to about Ed Miliband's bad ratings, but few who expect decapitation. There's no one obvious to succeed him - 9th November
 * Assisted dying is an act of kindness we all might need - The House of Lords must not allow the religious opponents of Falconer's bill to wreck it today - 7th November
 * Scandalously low pay should not be the new normal - A living wage is the kind of policy people expect from Labour, but is Ed Miliband letting it slip away? - 4th November
 * This war on windfarms is the Tories’ latest sop to Ukip - David Cameron once fixed a turbine to his roof. Now his government is blocking the cheapest clean energy - 28th October
 * The NHS is on life support. Can this plan revive it? - Simon Stevens was feared as a privatising stooge. But his prescription may save the health system - 24th October
 * Low pay is breaking Britain’s public finances: the evidence can’t be denied - Permanent low pay threatens to overtake us, with the Treasury, hit by lower tax receipts, facing an ever-rising benefits bill - 23rd October
 * David Cameron has now passed the point of no return on Europe - The prime minister's impossible red lines on the EU will place him in the 'out' camp in any referendum - 21st October
 * The strike is a symptom of an NHS in intensive care - Even the Tories admit their reorganisation was disastrous. Frontline staff are paying the price - 14th October
 * Start telling the hard truth, Nick Clegg – there is no free lunch - Taxes must rise or our social fabric will unravel – what are the Lib Dems for if they can't be honest? - 7th October
 * These brutal new Tories are happy playing Ukip’s game - David Cameron has sacked the last of the decent old school: the push to the europhobic right is relentless - 30th September
 * Scotland’s referendum has spurred a dash for devo – but localism is no panacea - England is so grotesquely unequal that more devolution could be a disaster for deprived regions - 16th September
 * On abortion, the media needs to reflect what is happening in the real world - Attitudes around the right to choose have changed, but television, films and news outlets seem intent on pushing an anti-abortion agenda - 1st September
 * Scottish referendum: shared values matter more than where the border lies - The Tories have not won an election for 22 years – this is no time to be giving up on a British social democratic future - 19th August
 * Iain Duncan Smith's delusional world of welfare reform - He's the misery man, turning to tricks and magical thinking when the flaws in his benefits plans are revealed - 13th August
 * This farcical tax system is cheating us out of billions - The whims of past chancellors have set up bizarre anomalies. It’s time to scrap tax reliefs and chase down avoiders - 29th July
 * Ed Miliband is challenging voters to choose between image and substance - The Labour leader may have a serious image problem, but he also has brain, ideas and strong policies - 26th July
 * Labour's spring is back – but it won't mean a thing without a swing - A radicalism tempered by discipline reignited the spirit of 97 this weekend. But the deficit always hangs over Labour's campaign - 23rd July
 * It's not death I fear, but dying in the torture chamber - The right to die in peace will be hard fought because of unfounded fears of a 'slippery slope', but we need to change the law - 15th July
 * Cameron's war on strikers is a tactical blunder he may regret - With food banks full, the prime minister is badly out of touch if he thinks there is any public appetite for an assault on the workforce - 11th July
 * Mentally ill people need to be helped, not hounded - Ministers promise 'parity of esteem' for mental and physical health services. Instead the reality is scandalous cruelty - 9th July
 * Dennis Skinner is no model, yet he has a lesson for Labour - Despite their popularity, individualist politicians are not the answer. But they do show that the party must be clear what it stands for - 4th July
 * The Muslim 'Trojan Horse' schools frenzy hides a need for integration - Children should be taught religion, not have one imposed on them. That a third of state schools are faith schools is a disaster - 24th May
 * Our dismal EU ballot papers say it all: this electoral system is corrupt - The way we vote today is a toxic anachronism of safe seats and rotten boroughs. And it suits our main parties fine - 23rd May
 * Nothing will stop David Cameron's race to the 'weightless state' - In giving up authority over our public services, the prime minister is handing them to firms that could become beyond anyone's control - 20th May
 * No poll jitters: Axelrod can help Labour hit back, and hard - Ed Miliband may envy David Cameron's ratings, but his policies will be popular with voters. They just don't know it yet - 15th May
 * Now troubled children are an investment opportunity - An 18% return on the most disturbed and needy children in care homes is the extreme end of Britain's outsourcing culture - 13th May
 * The NHS is on the brink: can it survive till May 2015? - Jeremy Hunt's main task is to keep the health service out of the news until the election. Tories are praying he succeeds - 9th May
 * There's no evidence that privatisation works, but it marches on - From the Land Registry to East Coast rail, valuable public assets are being frittered away despite the many cautionary tales - 6th May
 * Scrap inheritance tax and leave the dead to rest in peace - To reduce our soaring inequality we must treat inherited wealth like ordinary taxed income and end all the wheezes - 2nd May
 * The arts must embrace this culture secretary – Star Trek-loving philistine or not - With the case for arts funding under such pressure, establishment snootiness towards Sajid Javid is truly dangerous - 29th April
 * £5m for the Barclays boss is disgusting. But so is £71 for the unemployed - Nearly 500 Barclays staff are paid more than £1m. Meanwhile, those hit by the recession continue to suffer. This can't go on - 25th April
 * Help to Work is a costly way of punishing the jobless - The better the employment figures, the more eager the government is to tighten the screws on those still unemployed - 15th April
 * Personal independence payments are a punishment of the poor and ill - PIP should be a national scandal: Iain Duncan Smith's new system already has a huge backlog and people are dying waiting - 11th April
 * Let's face it, neither MPs nor the press are fit to regulate themselves - Maria Miller should have been sacked. But the papers now baying for her blood are motivated by their hatred of oversight - 8th April
 * Why won't George Osborne collect fair tax? His heart isn't in it - Public outrage at poor public service or multinational avoiders means little to a government that thinks all tax a burden - 1st April
 * Farage's TV debate has lit the European touchpaper – are we in or out? - Britain is a step closer to leaving Europe this week. It is high time all who fear an exit spoke out against the liars - 27th March
 * The left has united behind Ed Miliband. Now he has to be bold - The foundation has been laid, the policies brewing. Labour now needs its leader to be optimistic and radical if it is to win - 25th March
 * Older people vote – that's why George Osborne's budget is for them - Less than half our younger generation go to the polls. So it's no surprise the chancellor is increasingly hanging them out to dry - 21st March
 * The budget: look out for even more of George Osborne's sham pledges - The chancellor likes to appear committed to shrinking the deficit with cuts – but it's a fraud, just as his budget will be - 18th March
 * This is no time to 'hug a banker'. Labour must take on the boardroom - Co-op chief Euan Sutherland has gone, and polls show most disgusted by the greedy - 14th March
 * Here's some lessons in real job creation from much-maligned Wales - The Conservatives disparage the principality, but it has a lot to offer in giving young people genuine hope for the future - 7th March
 * Every family has first world war memories. These are mine - The great war is this year's crucible for national self-examination. But do we know what to do with the absence of conflict? - 14th February
 * This treatment would save children's lives – so why won't the government allow it? - Mitochondrial replacement, developed in the UK, looks set to be lost to the US because the government is too timid to back it - 11th February
 * Labour must not sign up to George Osborne's destructive cuts - The chancellor himself won't dare deliver his own planned cuts. Ed Miliband would be mad to say he will match them - 7th February
 * Lisa Jardine is the latest woman gone in the Tory bonfire of the quangos - Putting (male, Tory donor) stooges in charge of regulatory bodies is a corruption of government. It must stop - 4th February
 * Giving 16-year-olds the vote can be Labour's Great Reform Act - Britain's rotten, bribery-based democracy discounts the young and the poor. Getting sixth-formers to vote is the first step to fixing it - 31st January
 * Ed Balls's 50p tax rate won't harm business – but these kleptocrats will - The only thing a higher taxation rate will stifle is growing inequality. No wonder the captains of industry are yowling - 28th January
 * Steve Webb's pensions U-turn is a dead duck on the dust heap of disasters - The government's bold assault on the industry has failed to materialise, and the grand theft mis-selling continues - 24th January
 * For all Lord Rennard's supporters: a guide to sexual harassment, and why it matters - Sexual harassment is all about who has the power. And what women hear from the Lib Dems – yet again – is 'not you' - 21st January
 * Ed Miliband's pitch is radical – but his party is stuck in 1997 - With growth returning, only a frontal assault can turn people against the inept nastiness of George Osborne's economics - 17th January
 * Housing squalor and exploitation are back. Where is Labour's outrage? - Cameron's housing policy seems crafted to turn a crisis into a catastrophe, for aspiring owners and the most vulnerable - 14th January
 * There's a new climate of diktat and fear sweeping through the NHS - An occupational therapist who won awards for her work has been sacked for querying cuts to a stroke unit - 7th January
 * If you want to curb immigration, pay workers a living wage - Cheapskate employers are importing what too often looks like serf-labour instead of hiring ethically at home - 3rd January



Articles: 2013

 * We must all share the blame for our 'useless' politicians - Brave would be the candidate who dared to remind citizens of their responsibilities to the democracy they live in - 31st December
 * Charity is a fine thing, but it can't justify the wealth of the 1% - The rich pretend the option is the status quo or outright communism. But giving is no excuse for gross inequality - 20th December
 * If you think people shouldn't have kids if they can't afford them, think again - Many people now agree with hardline Tories that the state shouldn't support children at all. Here's why they're wrong - 17th December
 * The drop in teenage pregnancies is the success story of our time - The fall in young women having children is no accident – it's thanks to a programme that should be a model for social policy - 13th December
 * The autumn statement was another omnishambles. Labour must show some backbone - George Osborne has monumentally misread the nation. Any attempt by Ed Miliband to shadow his plan would be fatal - 10th December
 * Osborne's autumn statement was a study in pessimism. Who will offer hope? - As Britain gets richer, the Tories motor on with their cuts agenda. We can afford a brighter future and Labour should say so - 6th December
 * How Ed Miliband can continue to make the political weather - The Tories ridiculed Labour's energy price freeze. Now Osborne's autumn statement limps after it in imitation - 3rd December
 * Energy's big six: the more we learn, the worse they look - Cutting the 'green crap' from energy bills is a damaging electoral sweetener – the signs are voters will not be fooled - 29th November
 * British universities shouldn't condone this kind of gender segregation - Secular neutrality is a pillar of higher education. We can't cave in to faith groups in our institutions – even if it causes offence - 26th November
 * One thing Cameron can't rip from the young is the vote - The lost generation can strike back at a vindictive coalition at election time. Labour must put their plight centre stage - 22nd November
 * Whoever the 'middle class' are, they're about to be bribed with tax cuts - Polly Toynbee: It's the autumn statement, so coalition factions are exchanging fire across the fiscal divide. But their real target is the wealthy vote - 19th November
 * Competition is killing the NHS, for no good reason but ideology - Enforced competition, as predicted, is wasting millions and putting lives at risk. Just look at Bournemouth and Poole - 15th November
 * The push for performance-related pay is driven by faith, not facts - Incentives destroy morale and lead to risky behaviour. Yet ministers promote them with an almost religious fervour - 12th November
 * Iain Duncan Smith's second epiphany: from compassion to brutality - I've seen his benefit sanctions inflict misery on places like Easterhouse, where poverty made him weep a decade ago - 8th November
 * In Michael Gove's world Jane Austen, Orwell and Dickens will die out - The core English GCSE is to be stripped of literature – leaving nothing but grammatical correctness and straitjacket language - 5th November
 * Welfare dependency isn't Britain's gravest economic problem. Pitiful pay is - If the government really wanted to cut its benefit bill, it would ensure that employers give their workers a living wage - 1st November
 * Ideology meets idiocy in these brutal disability cuts - Iain Duncan Smith's savage new disability benefits regime not only smears the vulnerable but makes no economic sense - 29th October
 * Simon Stevens, new head of NHS England, is in for a rude awakening - Under Labour, Stevens began the culture of competition in health. He will now find out just how perverse this has become - 25th October
 * Rachel Reeves needs the thickest skin in the shadow cabinet - Rachel Reeves is Labour's best hope for shifting the national conversation towards how to give the unemployed a future - 22nd October
 * If Britain's charities are gagged, who will stop this lobbying bill? - Often charities' job is to be a thorn in the side of government. But now they're being co-opted and coerced into silence - 18th October
 * Dominic Cummings may disagree, but wealth is considerably more heritable than genes - Policymakers who misuse genetics to argue a child's fate is preordained are deliberately ignoring the effects of inequality - 15th October
 * It is the Baby Ps and Hamzah Khans who pay for this Tory vandalism - Michael Gove's dismantling of successful schemes like ContactPoint has left abuse victims even more vulnerable - 11th October
 * After this shadow cabinet reshuffle, we know what's in Ed Miliband's mind - The Labour leader has got what he wanted. No lurch to the left or right, but a team unafraid of the challenges ahead - 8th October
 * No retreat for Ed Miliband – he's now Daniel in the lions' den - It will be a tough fight for the Labour leader but, just as he stood up to Murdoch, he is right to take on Paul Dacre at the Daily Mail - 4th October
 * David Cameron's speech was a bugle call to Tories tempted by Ukip - Nothing the prime minister said was meant to ruffle his own side – the moderniser of 2005 is dead and gone - 3rd October
 * Who will vote for George Osborne's even nastier economic medicine now? - Forever dogged by his tax cut for the rich, the chancellor struggles to be believed when he says the country will recover together - 1st October
 * David Cameron's least favourite question: whose side are you on? - There is no vacancy in the centre ground. Labour occupies it, and voters may no longer be fooled by red scaremongering - 27th September
 * It was Iron Balls' best shot, but will Tory scare tactics win the day? - Cameron's economic policies are in disarray, but his team's supreme skill is in sticking the stiletto into Labour - 24th September
 * My advice to Labour: be of good cheer, be bold, stop jumping at shadows - Forget the Wallace and Grommit jibes. Leaders are the embodiment of their policies – and Ed Miliband's can win him the election - 20th September
 * A Labour win is still on – if alienated Tories and Lib Dems play ball - Miliband has the prospect of becoming an unpopular leader, by fluke of greater conservative forces split three ways - 13th September
 * Whose recovery is this? That's the great general election question - If competition over living standards for low and middle earners does become the next battleground, that's cause for celebration - 6th September
 * The lobbying bill will save corporate PRs but silence the protesters - Today parliament must wake up to a lobbying law designed to muzzle the government's biggest critics before the election - 3rd September
 * No 10 curses, but Britain's illusion of empire is over - The Syria debate has exposed the fact that, while Cameron wasn't looking, both his country and his party changed - 30th August
 * Ed Miliband's Syria dilemma: what should Labour do? - First thoughts: Backing action in Syria could give Miliband a much-needed injection of gravitas – but, quite rightly, he has conditions - 28th August
 * I read about the hardship of working families with appalled fascination - A book that changed me: Maud Pember Reeves produced a record of the lives of good people ground down by the relentlessness of earning too little - 26th August 2013
 * It's right to worry about security, but sometimes data trawls can be useful - For once the government has got something right – the NHS's electronic surveys could be more effective than randomised control trials - 23rd August
 * Why we all love Charlie Bucket (and despise the poor in real life) - We love the poor in fairytales, but survey after survey shows we are all too quick to blame real people who fall on hard times - 20th August
 * Labour has faced its demons, but the Tories are still ruled by theirs - Ed Miliband spent the past year laying building blocks for his policies, while the Conservatives wallowed in their old nastiness - 16th August
 * The BBC needs conserving. Yet these Conservatives think not - Yes, it makes mistakes, but the corporation is a democratic asset. Try telling that to ministers taking - 13th August
 * Britain's booming population is a blessing, not a curse - The birth rate, at its highest for 40 years, is a great opportunity for our economy and wellbeing – if we make the right choices - 9th August
 * Misogyny runs so deep in this society, it is even used against abused children - First thoughts: As the case of a 13-year-old girl described as predatory by a judge shows, women-hating instincts are not - 7th August
 * Should mothers work or stay at home? Don't ask George Osborne - The chancellor has his knickers in a twist over the family: his vouchers for childcare will alienate almost all parents - 6th August
 * No women over 50 allowed (unless it's Helen Mirren) - A generation of women is being bundled out of jobs at an alarming rate, and the world of work gets more insane as a result - 26th July
 * Growth based on cheap money and artificial mortgages is fool's gold - First thoughts: Osborne's Help to Buy scheme sets us up for a new housing crash. Labour should lay the foundations for a national housebuilding plan - 24th July
 * Will Labour have the guts to fight our unfair care system? - Few elderly people will live to qualify for this Tory 'reform'. The task of the opposition is to make it as universal as the NHS - 23rd July
 * While dubious mortality rates grab headlines, NHS privatisation gallops on - The ferocity of the battle over 'dangerous' hospitals was not synthetic. The future of the NHS itself is under attack - 19th July
 * Testing five-year-olds: why a blazer and an exam cannot fix everything - First thoughts: Nick Clegg's proposals sound good, but the reasons why some children don't learn are many – and failure can scar for life - 17th July
 * You can't nurture families as the government is uprooting them - A report advocating a reprise of the Sure Start vision is heart-warming but seems unreal as the coalition cuts and cuts - 16th July
 * Yes, universal credit issimple: work more and get paid less - This Tory benefit reform was meant to give people incentives to work – but crunch the figures and you find the opposite is true - 12th july
 * Money, as ever, is at the root of the care worker crisis - First thoughts: Training, accreditation and regulation are all good ideas from the Cavendish review, but as funds shrink, so will time to care - 10th July
 * Falkirk crisis: Labour needs the unions, but both need members - Falkirk is a tragedy for unionism, which suffers the same affliction as political parties do: empty democracy - 9th July
 * The NHS at 65: chaos, queues and mounting costs - What national healthcare in Britain looks like in 10 years' time depends more on the future of politics than on economics - 5th July
 * Ed Balls was too prudent. We need full-throttle fury - Labour's response to George Osborne's venomous attack on welfare and the poor was too cautious. Where is their passion? - 28th June
 * Osborne's comprehensive spending review puts society in intensive care - As Osborne plans ever deeper cuts, Labour has to resist. The deficit can be shrunk by means that don't hammer the poor - 25th June
 * Bankers banged up? They need to return to planet Earth first - The banking commission report takes good steps forward and makes fun reading, but can it bring a change in culture? - 19th June
 * Forget the excuses, here's how Britain can tax the rich - Cameron has made a bold push at the G8. But it's time our politicians admit you can't have Swedish services on US rates - 18th June
 * At last, working mothers can ditch the guilt – their children do not suffer - New research shows that babies born since the millennium suffer no ill effects from their mothers going out to work - 12th June
 * Snowden's revelations must not blind us to government as a force for good - The real threat to our privacy and economy isn't Big Brother but a weak state at the mercy of global business - 11th June
 * As Labour's iron man, Ed Balls could do the trick - The tough-as-titanium spending plan Ed Balls laid out could clinch an election. Can Ed Miliband provide matching vision? - 4th June
 * Jeremy Hunt's blundering blaming of GPs makes for bad politics - The health secretary is taking a risk in gunning for family doctors. The public trust them more than they do those in government - 24th May
 * Mervyn King's housing warning is too little, too late - In a British economy addicted to property inflation, the government's Help to Buy scheme threatens Fannie Mae-style disaster - 21st May
 * Amid Tory disarray, Labour's critical moment looms - Ed Miliband has tough decisions to take on spending and growth. He must do so before the spending review - 17th May
 * The noise on immigration is drowning out real problems - Desperate to sound tough, politicians are in fact making it harder to improve the plight of domestic slaves in Britain - 14th May
 * Labour must stand firm: no to a referendum on Europe - Out-of-office Tories have Cameron in a corner. But Miliband should ignore calls to hold a futile and distracting in-out vote - 10th May
 * Queen's speech: sound and fury signifying nothing - For all the hype surrounding the new bills, Her Majesty could simply have said "Laissez faire" and left it at that - 9th May
 * Labour's lesson after Ukip: put more passion into your politics - The opposition did well last week, but it now needs to be bolder, more authentic, and really put the case for borrowing to invest - 7th May
 * We know spending on the arts makes big money for Britain. So why cut it? - Whingeing luvvies are easily mocked but it just doesn't make sense to give way to this purblind, anti-cultural bias - 3rd May
 * Labour's golden policy key? Build, build and build more - We've seen intellectual Ed. But if Miliband wants to win in 2015, he needs one idea that has our inner optimist jumping for joy - 30th April
 * Teacher-bashing: a political sport with no winners - It's pupils, not performance-related pay, that motivate teachers – as I learned from a day in charge of a class in a Liverpool school - 23rd April
 * George Osborne's case for austerity has just started to wobble - With the IMF and his favourite economists revising their figures, the pro-cuts argument now lacks intellectual support - 19th April
 * Tony Blair is like a loose horse at the Grand National - Labour's former leader is making the same mistake as Thatcher – and getting in the way of the runners in today's electoral race - 16th April
 * Benefits don't look quite the electoral winner Cameron presumed - Attitudes to welfare change once people understand the detail. For all last week's sound and fury, Labour was 10 points ahead - 12th April
 * Thatcher's reckless acolytes don't know when to stop - David Cameron and George Osborne are crude copies, who lack her brains and believe conviction is all it takes to run a country - 9th April
 * Martine White is a product of British welfare, not Mick Philpott - George Osborne is fighting back, aware that tax cuts for the rich and benefit cuts for the frail shock even natural conservatives. But this is just the start - 5th April
 * IDS should try living on £53 a week. Even minimum wage opened my eyes - I've tried living on the lowest wage. What starts as a challenge and a puzzle soon settles into a bleak greyness - 2nd April
 * This latest cure for the NHS really could kill the patient - They're calling it a health revolution. So expect a boom in private profit, public mistrust and bankrupt hospitals - 2nd April
 * Benefit cuts: Monday will be the day that defines this government - Those on low incomes, after all the vicious talk dismissing them as cheats and idlers, will be hit by an avalanche of cuts - 29th March
 * Labour needs to recapture the spirit and nerve of 1945 - Local councils are cowed by cuts and the opposition too cautious: only bold action can salvage investment for growth - 26th March
 * Do people get Osborne and co yet? Even Thatcher wouldn't have gone this far - Many still don't realise how far this government is bent on dismantling the public realm. Labour has to show us a way out - 22nd March
 * Will Britain's press repent its nasty ways? Don't hold your breath - A small triumph for citizens the royal charter may be, but for now we're still stuck with the most savage papers in Europe - 19th March
 * Bedroom tax: why you should march against this heartless, pointless 'reform' - Mass evictions of the most vulnerable are no way to tackle the housing benefit bill, and we must do all we can to stop - 15th March
 * A mansion tax can stop this mountain of wealth crushing us - Labour barely breathed on the super-rich when in power. In backing a mansion tax, they are at last offering an alternative - 12th March
 * After Eastleigh, the Lib Dems have finally found the fire in their belly - The Lib Dems must now seize the chance to prove they aren't just a fig leaf for the Tories' cruellest cuts - 5th March
 * With this student visa policy, Cameron is throttling our cultural exports - The wealth created by our arts and universities is being choked. The US and others are happy to gain from those we shun - 1st March
 * Eastleigh byelection should be about economics – not gropings or smears - While austerity rages on, the town's already disillusioned voters are being offered merely sordid spectacle - 26th February
 * The Lib Dems must not stand for any more lies over the NHS - The Tories have misled their coalition partners – and us – repeatedly over the true extent of their health service vandalism - 22nd February
 * How to turn a housing crisis into a homeless catastrophe - From Westminster to Hull, the bedroom tax is proving to be the ultra-sharp end of three decades of failure to build - 19th February
 * Ed Miliband is a man with the makings of a brave and visionary leader - Bagging mansion tax and the 10p rate for Labour was good politics, but the scale of his economic ambition was better still - 15th February
 * Jeremy Hunt's smoke and mirrors will not solve the care crisis - His attempt at reform fails both economically and politically. Funded by inheritance tax, not even the Tory core supports it - 12th February
 * Today's picks - NHS enemies will declare the service broken. But it is not - 8th February
 * The gay marriage debate has uncovered a nest of bigots - Far from showing off the party's modernity, today's vote has brought out the Tory old guard in all its out-of-touch glory - 4th February
 * The Big Four: laughing all the way to the tax office - Accountancy giants are paid huge sums by the state while helping firms strip it of desperately needed tax revenue - 1st February
 * How do you fit six toddlers into a buggy? Ask Liz Truss - Childcare is in crisis and Sure Start has been decimated, but the minister's deregulation plan can only make things worse - 29th January
 * Lewisham is just the start of hospital protests to come - As thousands prepare to march over threatened units, 60 trusts are about to go bust – yet services can't just go to the wall - 25th January
 * These Tory backbenchers will bang on until they hit self-destruct - The Conservative right is pushing David Cameron ever further from the centre ground. Don't they see he's their biggest asset? - 22nd January
 * An EU speech delayed: but Tory problems are here to stay - The clash between Cameron's imaginary world and the real one is startling – nowhere more so than in his European policy - 18th January
 * Labour's 2015 fears are puny compared to the Tories' terror - On the economy, Europe, tax and the NHS, the trajectory is all in favour of Ed Miliband. Now his party can start to dare - 15th January



Articles: 2012

 * Have a happy Christmas, things can only get worse - From local government to health, spending plans show the deepest cuts are yet to come. This is bad news for Labour too - 21st December
 * The Tories are losing their vile war on 'scroungers' - George Osborne thought he'd hit the button with his tale of workshy sleepers. But too many know people who are struggling - 18th December
 * Atheists are better for politics than believers. Here's why - As my term as British Humanist Association president comes to an end, a few words of advice to my successor, Jim Al-Khalili - 14th December
 * Britain could end these tax scams by hitting the big four - The spiders spinning the web of avoidance are the major accountancy firms who make billions from the public purse - 11th December
 * Be bold, Labour, and expose Osborne's skivers v strivers lie - Osborne's below-inflation benefit rise may not be as popular as he thinks. Labour can, and must, make the case against - 7th December
 * Tories at half-time: cruel and inept, with worse to come - The autumn statement falls on an inauspicious day – Cameron's halfway mark – and is likely to unleash yet more chaos - 4th December
 * The Leveson report: A true test of who rules Britain - Politicians have a unique chance to stand up to the bullying barons. They must for their own sake - 1st December
 * If Beveridge delivered his report now, would we listen? - Seventy years ago Labour ushered in the welfare state. And the solidarity that fuelled it survives the worst the Tories do - 30th November
 * David Cameron's ermine multitude will suffocate democracy - The absurdity of the constitutional freak show of the House of Lords can only get worse with another 100 members - 27th November
 * Why 2013 will be a boom year for bailiffs and slum landlords - Quietly, this government has changed the law that protected homeless families. We will witness a crisis on an epic scale - 23rd November
 * No amount of moralising will alleviate the hardship caused by Tory austerity - For Iain Duncan Smith, poverty is caused by failure and dysfunction. The reality is different, and Labour must say so - 20th November
 * Forget Bermuda, Britain's tax havens are much closer to home - It's easy to point a finger at Amazon and co, but UK-based trusts make it easier than ever for the rich not to pay their share - 16th November
 * If only soap operas didn't wash their hands of politics - When programmes like The Archers are silent on government policy, it's no wonder the public feels so disengaged - 13th November
 * Will Mitt Romney's defeat force a Tory party rethink? No chance - Many Conservative MPs can see what's going wrong for the party, but their prescriptions are all for more of the same - 9th November
 * The living wage tide is turning, but it's not enough - Paying the minimum required for survival is only part of the cure for Britain's dangerous levels of inequality - 6th November
 * Labour, you've made your point about the EU – now make the case for it - In tough times it is only right that the EU budget be trimmed, but the left must never forget the benefits of membership - 2nd November
 * On Trident, Miliband needs to be brave and jump ship - With the Tories and Lib Dems at odds over our cold-war nuclear defences, Labour has to forge a political third way - 30th October
 * This withering assault on farm workers' wages is a race to the bottom - Farming is the last sector where pay rates have some level of protection, and now that is under threat. Labour, take note - 26th October
 * Why politicians won't tell you the truth about crime - Offending is falling, and prison doesn't work. But Cameron shows he's also addicted to the quick fix of tough talk - 22nd October
 * The 'plebs' row is a mere sideshow to destructive Tory incompetence - Nothing will divert David Cameron and George Osborne from their great enterprise – an austerity to wither the state - 21st October
 * Of all the wild Tory dogma, this cut-price baby farming is the worst - Liz Truss's plans for childcare on the cheap will undo all the progress Labour achieved on early-years education - 19th October
 * A Lib Dem double backflip now would be madness - A backroom deal to swap Tory-favouring boundary changes for reform of party funding would be suicidal - 16th October
 * Integration? The opposite is true in Jeremy Hunt's NHS - The latest healthcare buzzword means nothing, but growing privatisation is reported to be fragmenting services - 12th October
 * For these one-term Tories a shrunken state is the prize - Devil-may-care Osborne cuts with an eye to his ideological legacy, while growth evaporates and misery flourishes - 9th October
 * George Osborne's strategic mind? Long may it continue to whirr - As the Tories gather for their crisis conference, their plans to win back support are growing more and more dotty - 5th October
 * British soldiers are dying in Afghanistan to win the war of Whitehall - Only one battle matters to the Ministry of Defence – the battle for resources. In this the Taliban is not an enemy, but an ally - 3rd October
 * Miliband and Balls do have a plan, but they needn't reveal all yet - There is no way to duck all cuts, nor is it wise to decide too much ahead of the election. The two Eds will not be bullied into it - 2nd October
 * Labour must face this fact – it may be better in coalition - Spitting expletives at the Lib Dems has to stop. If they'd governed together we'd have had no Iraq or civil liberties abuses - 28th September
 * Nick Clegg reprises scare-mongering Greek comparisons - Remorse? Regret? Atonement? No. Liberal Democrat leader says there's no turning back, even as the economy plummets - 27th September
 * This pleb jibe exposes the Tories' Flashman thinking - David Cameron and Andrew Mitchell rule for 'people like us'. The Lib Dems should never be complicit in their attacks on the poor - 25th September
 * This was Nick Clegg's chance to save his skin. He failed - If the Lib Dem leader had made a genuine apology people might have listened, but his words flew in the face of reality - 21st September
 * Cameron's coalition: a government with ominous intent - David Cameron is halfway through his term as prime minister and despite the 'omnishambles' of his austerity cuts his steely ideological core will not allow him to change course now - 20th September 2012
 * David Cameron's men go where Margaret Thatcher never dared - The PM wears a soft-Tory disguise, but his record speaks for itself: this is the most rightwing of all postwar governments - 17th September
 * The John Lewis motto should be 'never knowingly underpay' - Why celebrate the store's business model when its famed generosity doesn't extend to its outsourced and low-paid cleaners? - 14th September
 * Jeremy Hunt's in-tray will wipe that smile off his face - His job is to schmooze the public into accepting NHS changes, but the turmoil he inherits will make that nearly impossible - 7th September
 * These angry Tories can't see what 'no alternative' means - So blinded by dogma are they that the reality of the cuts to come has not yet hit home with Cameron's critics. But it soon will - 4th September
 * As Ed Miliband knows, Labour must learn to forgive the Lib Dems - The party should have embraced Nick Clegg's wealth tax proposals, isolating the Tories on the failing economy - 31st August
 * We need great speeches in this time of national drama - Amid the government's injustice and class bias, people want to see their deep anger reflected by opposition politicians - 28th August
 * Celebrate Paralympians, but remember they needed state help to get there - As we celebrate these super-fit athletes, benefits for disabled people are being cut and views against them are hardening - 24th August
 * Would you be happy to live like Tony Nicklinson? - The court had no choice but to rule against Nicklinson's right to die. The law must be changed to end such brutal suffering - 17th August
 * As the scales tip in Labour's favour, this is a pivotal moment for Ed Miliband - Unlike David Cameron, the Labour leader knows what he wants. And he knows radical steps are necessary to achieve it - 3rd August
 * London 2012: Danny Boyle's opening ceremony history is only a partial truth - The Olympics ceremony celebrated the best of Britain. But in the past three decades so much of that has gone into reverse - 31st July
 * Beneath the Olympic gloss we are a troubled nation - What will our visitors make of us? Sure, we can put on a good show, but Cameron's government is failing us on every front - 27th July
 * The poll tax is back from the dead – it's Cameron localism - The council tax benefit 'reform' is yet another example of the axe being devolved – and of the poorest being hit hardest - 24th July
 * Anna's charity was bid candy for the Work Programme. Now it's bankrupt - Big companies use small charities to win prime contracts from Duncan Smith's programme. But where's the proof it works? - 20th July
 * After G4S, who still thinks that outsourcing works? - Confidentiality clauses and fiendish complexity in contracts for public services create moral hazard on a grand scale - 17th July
 * Cool, assured Ed Miliband must now boldly define himself - Ed Miliband proved himself master of the Commons – but David Cameron's serial bungling alone will not deliver Labour victory - 13th July
 * Only the state can provide the care we need in old age - It's an inconvenient truth for George Osborne but the numbers don't lie: privately we can't afford to look after ourselves - 10th July
 * The Barclays ethos infects our culture. Purge the entire board - The bank's directors sit on so many institutions that banning them all would send a healthy shockwave through the City - 6th July
 * This lost generation will cost us more than the cuts save - We can help the rising number of young people who aren't in jobs or education. But the Tories seem unfazed - 4th July
 * The campaign to save the NHS is back on its feet - Opponents of the Health Act are recovering from their stunned despair to find powerful, new ways to fight this vicious law - 29th June
 * Cameron's big cut 'idea' will only backfire on the Tories - Attacking the under-25s might help poll ratings for now, but the real causes of high housing benefit costs lie elsewhere - 26th June
 * Housing is hanging off its hinges. Could Labour fix it? - It's no good leaving it to the market – regulation is urgently required to banish the culture of house-price gambling - 22nd June
 * To end this impasse, let us tap Europe's vast wealth - Faced with a crisis almost as grave as war, social democrats must act in concert to end the toxic policies of austerity - 19th June
 * Iain Duncan Smith's fact-free dogma will make many more children poor - I used to think the minister didn't understand poverty data. Now I think he knows the truth, but ignores it - 15th June
 * Tory vilification campaign against the poor is so clever - David Cameron will oversee the worst child poverty record for a generation. Yet he is winning the public argument on cuts - 12th June
 * Queen's diamond jubilee: a vapid family and a mirage of nationhood. What's to celebrate? - If the very idea of monarchy diminishes us, the living reality is much more humiliating and damaging to our country - 1st June
 * Tony Blair: godfather of realpolitik – and Rupert Murdoch's daughter - Labour's all-time winner stopped trashing his own legacy at the Leveson inquiry and reminded us of his great talents - 29th May
 * Britain's climate change policy is going up in smoke - Coal and gas emissions targets have been abandoned, by sleight of hand, to the inferno of the energy bill - 29th May
 * Clegg and Cameron's cruellest day - From business to the disabled, Monday was special even for a cabinet whose dogmatic bungling is unrivalled in modern Britain - 15th May
 * Queen's speech: the good, the bad and the surprises - The ConservativeHome editor, Tim Montgomerie and Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee deliver their respective verdicts on the Queen's speech - 10th May
 * Hollande and Europe are turning the tide. Where will it leave Cameron? - Social democrats like François Hollande are challenging austerity. But in Britain the Tories are only listening to themselves - 8th May
 * Local election results: Labour deserves to be cock-a-hoop - Labour has shown the coalition to be incompetent and unfair. Now it needs to persuade more people to actually vote for it - 5th May
 * - 5th May12/may/03/what-should-we-pay-mps What should we pay MPs? You won't like the answer - Politicians work harder than ever, but deciding what they are worth would be much easier in a less divided country - 4th May
 * Why we must vote Labour in Thursday's elections - Brutal and bungling, this Tory government is probably the worst of my life. Voting Labour in these elections is an urgent necessity - 1st May
 * Murdoch and the Cameron entourage: a shameful tale - Here's a reminder of what the Tories were about to unleash on the country - 27th April
 * Lords buffoonery has to end. So why not abolish them? - Reform opens deeper questions about where power should lie than this cabinet looks willing or capable of confronting - 24th April
 * On charity Osborne must stand up to the super-rich - Tory donors fighting to keep tax relief on charity should instead campaign against tax avoidance if they really want to help others - 17th April
 * The tax and finances of every citizen must be open to public scrutiny - The tax genie is now out of the bottle. It is secrecy that enables inequality, while transparency underpins social justice - 10th April
 * The message from Bradford: Labour needs to get angrier - Ed Miliband should know it's not only in areas feeling the worst cuts that voters are seeing the damage around them - 3rd April
 * Only voters can get rid of the stink of politics' dirty money - The Tory cash-for-access scandal can't be buried – a fair playing field must be created with some state funding for all parties - 30th March
 * Self-confidence matters. This is a moment for Labour to seize - Labour strategists could not have devised a better wish-list of Tory self-harm, yet fear dogs their steps. The party must be bold - 27th March
 * A budget for Tory blowhards and Redwood dreamers - Forget mugging grannies, George Osborne's 50p rate gamble reveals a naked yearning for the glory days of Thatcher - 23rd March
 * It's full-steam ahead for George Osborne's inequality drive - The budget promises to be the near-perfect device for accelerating all the forces that divide us - 20th March
 * George Osborne's budget will mirror Europe's Ebola economics - From Greece to Germany Europe's been seized by a collective psychosis – our own government cuts to the bone voluntarily - 16th March
 * Sorry, Shirley Williams, but I have to nail your health bill myths - The evidence suggests that if anyone is guilty of trumping truth with tribalism on privatisation and the NHS, it's Williams - 13th March
 * Their failure to stop the health bill will come to define the Lib Dems - With surgical precision, the Tories are disembowelling the welfare state – sheep-like, decent Lib Dems can only watch - 9th March
 * Yes, legal aid will be cut, but not where it hurts the silks - Lawyers have much to lose in Clarke's bill, and it's only when Tories' interests are involved that their sense of injustice twitches - 6th March
 * Tax credit cut will hit hardest those the Tories love to praise – working families - The government is hurting those trying to stay off the dole, while filling workplaces with free staff. Voters should be shocked - 2nd March
 * Andrew Lansley's fragmentation of the NHS can be stopped only by Nice - The health service will always be rationed, even under Labour. But it must not be done chaotically - 28th February
 * If the Sun on Sunday soars Rupert Murdoch will also rise again - What was hailed as a victory for journalism is a sign that despite it all, News Corp's boss won't get his comeuppance in the UK - 24th February
 * Protest really does work – just look at Tesco and workfare - Get behind a precise, winnable issue such as workfare and protesters can give the government the bloody nose it deserves - 22nd February
 * How Cameron's NHS cheats waiting-list figures - A hospital clerk ordered to lie to patients reveals a rampant culture of deviousness in the NHS that forced her to quit - 21st February
 * Civic life and law must bind us, not ritual and religion - The Queen and Baroness Warsi might disagree. But there is nothing extreme about demanding church and state be separate - 17th February
 * Any strategy for growth must include decent childcare for all - Reversing our dwindling birthrate would do much more for the economy than making people work longer into old age - 14th February
 * These empty apprenticeship schemes are failing our young - Apprenticeships touted as solutions to the grave crisis of youth unemployment are not remotely up to the job - 10th February
 * The NHS bill could finish the health service – and David Cameron - The market ideology of the health and social care bill shows that the pragmatic prime minister is on another planet - 7th February
 * The welfare reform bill will incentivise people: to turn on David Cameron - David Cameron's cuts have barely got going yet. That's the frightening truth about austerity - 3rd February
 * Taxing wealth? The public mood still escapes the Tories - Ed Miliband's task is to point out where the blame really lies for unfairness in the system: the field is there for Labour's taking - 31st January
 * Don't expect the Tories to regret this bloody battle over benefits - Will they be embarrassed by the galloping poverty they're creating? No. Labour must defend the weak against these bullies - 27th January
 * Welfare cuts: now they're slamming the door on the truly desperate - After a dismal day in the Lords comes the cruellest cut to the welfare state, in which emergency loans go over to 'local' control - 24th January
 * On morality Ed Miliband is way ahead of Cameron. Now for the economy - Miliband has done well to force Cameron to fight on Labour territory. But he needs to change the economic conversation - 20th January
 * 'Welfare reform has us terrified' – families facing the worst speak out - As the Lords prepares for another debate, people facing impending disability cuts wonder how they will cope - 17th January
 * Welfare cuts: Cameron's problem is that people are nicer than he thinks - When these welfare changes come into force, their savage effect will be seen – and then the public mood will turn - 13th January
 * Ed Miliband is right: fairness in capitalism matters - Labour's values count even more in hard times. David Cameron has to agree: this could be a tipping point for fat cat Britain - 10th January
 * Labour – roll up your sleeves and demolish these disastrous howlers - This government is the most incompetent in living memory, yet the opposition is too busy navel-gazing to expose the facts - 7th January
 * How the badly maimed BBC can stand up to parasitic Sky - Glorious Great Expectations shows why Labour must help the BBC recoup millions from Murdoch - 3rd January



Articles: 2011

 * As the cuts bleed harder, the cruel Tory truth will emerge - In my political lifetime, I have never seen a more callous or inept crew in charge. This is no time for Labour to lose its nerve - 31st December
 * George Osborne's every blow falls on those with less not more - With his autumn statement, the chancellor has declared class war: a Tory assault on the public sector and the poor - 30th November
 * Guardian Christmas charity appeal: How Community Links is supporting young people - An organisation that inspires disadvantaged young people to re-engage with their community and expand their horizons kicks off the Guardian's Christmas appeal - 25th November 2011
 * Lloyds top vacancy is a chance to reshape banking - António Horta-Osório's successor could make Lloyds a beacon of good banking by re-localising and supporting small business - 3rd November
 * Vindication for Ed Miliband is in the air - David Cameron may now surf the zeitgeist of fairness, but Labour is in a stronger position than it realises - 1st November
 * Executive pay soars while the young poor face freefall. Where is Labour? - As the income gap yawns wider and the full blast of cuts hits home, those left behind will find others to voice their anger - 29th October
 * This Tory rebellion over Europe tells us nothing we don't already know - Cameron was in no peril from the Euro-fanatics once Labour pledged to vote for the truth – being in Europe is our destiny - 25th October
 * In the City and Wall Street protest has occupied the mainstream - Crazy anti-capitalism outside St Paul's? Hardly. Many would support Occupy London's principles, which shame Labour - 18th October
 * Cathy Come Home's lesson will soon be learned again - There is no cheap answer to housing but as rent gets more out of reach the state has to find ways for all to afford a home
 * Public sector workers need a plan C - The shocking total of public jobs lost this year shows the government has put political calculation before livelihoods - 10th October
 * This shocking NHS bill is without sense or mandate - The Lords should be affronted by the slipshod way our health system is being blown apart, before they can even debate it - 8th October
 * These conference sleights-of-hand will reap nothing but cynicism - In the heat of elections, politicians say anything. In the depths of a crisis, dissembling only harms our trust in the system - 4th October
 * Taking down Anwar al-Awlaki shows the US is winning against al-Qaida - Our active defence against terror is now highly effective. But the US must move past Awlaki's death to champion American values - 1st October
 * Minimally conscious 'M' has been sentenced to suffer - The outcome of this trial is a sad reminder of the courts' ability to inflict cruelty. But you can protect yourself - 30th September
 * Ed Miliband's critics may yet eat their words - Miliband is no orator but this is a man with a sense of purpose - 28th September
 * Labour must take the fight to the Tories, day in, day out - Labour doesn't need a bout of soul-searching. It must start delivering smart bombs down government chimneys - 27th September
 * Ed Miliband: to dodge the rocks, be bold and speak your mind - The Labour leader is not a natural show-off, but if he goes for it in his Great Speech, his character and conviction will out - 24th September
 * Fairness and recovery, Vince Cable? No, only balderdash and mendacity - At the Liberal Democrat conference, Vince Cable and Nick Clegg talked like the Tory captives they are - 20th September
 * Labour and Liberal Democrats could still have a future together - Angry readers blame the Guardian for its support of Clegg at the last election, but it was a Lib-Lab pact that we really hoped for - 17th September
 * Children face one hammer blow after another - The bankers get off scot free again, while children pay the price. The social harm done will cascade down the generations - 13th September
 * What MPs must know before they vote to wreck the NHS - The Tories' ideologically driven NHS bill deserves a backlash. The Lords would be well within their rights to block it - 3rd September
 * busts the convenient myth that social class is dead'' - Britain likes to pretend it has moved on: but birth determines our destiny and income more now than it did 50 years ago - 30th August
 * is Britain's Warren Buffett or Liliane Bettencourt?'' - Instead of calls to pay more tax, Britain's tycoons are looking for ways the rich can make money out of the poor - 27th August
 * entrepreneurial spirit is being strangled'' - The banks – even those all but owned by us – still won't lend enough to small businesses. They must be forced to do so - 23rd August
 * sad to live in a society that won't invest in its young'' - The riots crystallised the fear and loathing felt by the older and wealthy. For our children's generation, the prospects are bleak - 20th August
 * outrage at rioters fixes nothing: the only remedies are liberal'' - Denouncing criminality and banging up looters is easy. Social repair is slow, costly and difficult – a fact Cameron must confront - 13th August
 * this second wave of crisis, the pain has to be shared'' - This government is insulated from the brutal nature of its cuts. It must invest in the young to avoid a crippling legacy - 6th August
 * must resist Tea Party thinking'' - As unreason triumphs in the US, a similar paranoia and refusal to accept scientific fact threaten to invade British politics - 2nd August
 * Cameron's NHS chaos won't save money – let alone lives'' - Despite the ideological demand for competition, doctors point to evidence that collaboration is what gets the best results - 29th July
 * social elastic is almost at snapping point'' - With the gap between rich and poor widening still further, it is painfully apparent that we are not all in this together - 26th July
 * be fooled by the lull – the NHS is still at great risk'' - Ours is one of the world's most efficient health services. The cost of this ideology-driven change has yet to be counted - 23rd July
 * International: If Ed Miliband doesn't flinch, he could well seize the day'' - The Labour camp smells the fear wafting out of No 10, and is taking full advantage. Ed's high-risk strategy is working - 19th July
 * at Rupert Murdoch, but the Daily Mail still darkens the horizon'' - If Paul Dacre's paper profits, dreams of a better press and journalistic practice will founder - 16th July
 * game has changed. The emperor has lost his clothes'' - Kowtowing to Murdoch will now be widely mocked. Cameron can only press on with the BSkyB deal at his peril - 9th July
 * in the market for sub-prime behaviour bonds?'' - Duncan Smith's wheeze to monetise social risk does little but delay the cost to taxpayers – and for the City, it's fool's gold - 5th July
 * strikers' real success was to expose Tory bombast'' - Thursday showed that private and public sector workers are not separate tribes – one 'gold-plated' – but truly all in this together - 2nd July
 * care is on the critical list. But Dilnot won't cure it'' - A nation that spends less than 0.5% on old age can hardly expect anything other than a decrepit system. We can do better - 28th June
 * Miliband may lack instant charisma, but voters value decency'' - Miliband's honesty is desperately needed to stand against a government plunging the country into reckless hardship - 25th June
 * David Miliband and Ed Balls leaks are meant to hurt Labour. Why now?'' - There is little new in the latest 'revelations' – but they catch Ed Miliband at a weak time, and benefit both Tories and Blairites - 11th June
 * Cross and Winterbourne View have tested public tolerance to the limit'' - The care homes scandal shows just what happens when financiers are free to make a profit out of the most vulnerable - 4th June
 * the vile word at the heart of fractured Britain'' - Fostering the loathing of a feral underclass allows public resentment to be diverted from those above to those below - 31st May
 * caused the crash and now they strangle recovery'' - Instead of lending to small businesses, bankers are lining their own pockets. And yet we look the other way - 28th May
 * How the rightwing media makes the political personal'' - They moralise about privacy, but our press barons' real agenda is to spread the poison of envy, anger and hatred - 24th May
 * society isn't new, but the Tories are purging the past'' - David Cameron thinks he has nothing to learn from Labour. The hard-won experience of creating community is being lost - 21st May
 * bill: In pursuit of little platoons, Pickles uproots the state'' - 'Let local people decide!' sounds fine in rhetoric but reeks in reality. The consequence is services sold out or gone forever - 17th May
 * we care about 300,000 more children in poverty?'' - Voters are torn between natural generosity and fear of scroungers. It's too easy for Cameron to stamp on good impulses - 14th May
 * Lib Dems have the red lines to stop NHS breakup'' - To support these radical amendments and tear the heart out of the bill, Nick Clegg must eat a huge helping of words - 10th May
 * this the start of a long Conservative hegemony?'' - With electoral reform hopes dashed, Lib Dems in near-death agonies and the loss of Scotland, Labour has work to do - 7th May
 * royal wedding is Britain's Marie Antoinette moment'' - Back in the real world, below this thin layer of pomp, there is a social dislocation whose cracks are starting to emerge - 30th April
 * schools: now even the church admits they're unfair'' - The Bishop of Oxford has blown the whistle on unfair selectivity, bringing muscle to the social mobility debate - 23rd April
 * no to AV hurts Clegg. But a yes whacks the organ grinder'' - The Tories ruled the last century on a minority of votes. It may be hard, but forgiving the Lib Dems will serve the left best - 19th April
 * Cameron's well-oiled winning machine is now a car crash'' - From NHS to schools, a catalogue of errors and incompetence is undermining confidence in a once pitch-perfect Tory party - 9th April
 * benefits bonanza is more big Serco than big society'' - The evidence is damning: private firms aren't much cop at welfare to work. But their chief executives are earning millions - 5th April
 * Osborne – if the facts change, it's OK to change your mind'' - The economy is tanking, the confidence fairy has flown. It's not too late for the coalition to heed Keynes's famous dictum - 2nd April
 * great act of vandalism that will impoverish us all'' - This culture-gutting coalition claims to care about both happiness and economic growth – so why cut arts funding? - 29th March
 * the sneers. This march is a real alarm-clock moment'' - There is an alternative to the brutal cuts agenda, and thousands of people from all walks of life will demonstrate that in London - 25th March
 * 2011: Guardian columnists' verdict'' - 24th March
 * Sarkozy makes populist play for welfare in country that still cares'' - Cross-party commitment to welfare means France is a good place to be old, young, sick, jobless or female - 23rd March
 * the slump hits home, George Osborne budgets for decay'' - Even the government's best friends can't defend the chancellor's deficit-cutting mania. In Wednesday's budget expect little change - 22nd March
 * localism will undo years of human endeavour'' - Eric Pickles's latest vision means, again, to them that hath shall be given. It undermines our ability to live well together - 19th March
 * kick Clegg may be tempting, but winning AV is essential'' - Supporters of voting reform can't be tribal: the Lib Dem leader will soon be gone. We have to grasp this chance for change - 15th March
 * 'good society' must prevail. We start two weeks today'' - The 'good society' must rally on 26 March in support of threatened public services and maligned public workers - 12th March
 * winners over public sector pensions if ministers or unions rush to battle'' - The look in ministers' eyes suggests a dangerous appetite for a fight, not shared by most unions despite their sabre-rattling - 11th March
 * Thatcher, Cameron is preserving awkward history'' - Birth cohort studies will reveal the full story of Tory social vandalism. So I must praise a Tory for fighting to save them - 8th March
 * is still a way to win this Murdoch media war'' - Vince Cable may have lost out over the BSkyB decision, but by fighting from the backbenches he could yet achieve victory - 5th March
 * SDP thinking might strengthen Labour's nerve'' - Confused by third-way boxing clever, stricken with taboos about its core values, the party needs a dose of social democracy - 1st March
 * will indeed be cruel, but we don't have to take it'' - With only a month to go until the great axe falls, the shock will be grave. So what can you do? Begin by turning the tide - 26th February
 * turmoil is just the start of Tory ideology run wild'' - Every public service will be put out for tender if Cameron gets his way, with contracts to trade and accountability gone - 22nd February
 * can't cut £18bn from the poorest without pain'' - Iain Duncan Smith claims there'll only be winners in his welfare reforms. Many of us will soon discover how wrong he is - 19th February
 * magical thinking can't save this national joke'' - The feeble 'big society' bank will not plug the gaps in charity funding left by the cuts. As many a Tory has said, this is BS - 15th February
 * brutal cuts form a turbo-charged programme for accelerating inequality'' - Beware the tales of statistics-wielding ministers – the poorest areas will be hit hardest by the council cuts - 12th February
 * society's a busted flush, but who will admit it first?'' - Politicians should quail: the nasty party detoxifier has not worked – and for public servants, silence is no longer an option - 8th February
 * the pro-market Blairites know the NHS faces chaos'' - Alan Milburn, a former health secretary and now a David Cameron aide, has no dog in this fight. But he says the reforms are a fatal mistake - 5th February
 * leads on every issue – except the one that matters'' - The polls are brimming over with good news for Labour – but for Ed Balls and Ed Miliband the economy is still the killer question - 1st February
 * children will inherit a far worse legacy than mere debt'' - The coalition's electoral mendacity over Sure Start is no longer surprising, but the loss of the hope it represents is devastating - 29th January
 * all its neuroses, the BBC should have self-confidence'' - Conservatives hate the corporation, but the public trust and will always defend it against looming depredations - 25th January
 * the bruiser is the man to confront these Tory lies'' - The figures are awful; the government is being found out. Now Labour must stop navel-gazing and come out fighting - 22nd January
 * free-market hurricane will blow our NHS apart'' - Cameron's silken words won't hide the grim truth: this week's bill will turn a unified health service into a purchasing agency - 18th January
 * year's savage local cuts will unite Tories and Labour'' - Councillors of all parties are outraged at the efforts by government to blame them for inefficiencies - 15th January
 * Simon Hughes, what would it take for you to walk away?'' - After a heated row with Simon Hughes on the telephone, I am still mystified as to why he defends coalition policy - 11th January
 * lie, but David Cameron's mendacity is breathtaking'' - The Tories' long list of broken promises is worse than Nick Clegg's, and will haunt them far longer than expenses - 8th January
 * the Tories now foresee chaos in Lansley's NHS'' - The health secretary's reforms will not bring slow and stealthy change, but a radical explosion. Cameron must sack him - 3rd January
 * it if you dare. This is the end of the children's decade'' - Watching the coalition torch the programmes Labour designed to make a better society for the young is heartbreaking - 1st January



Articles: 2010

 * sewage tells the story of the millions who'll miss out'' - Our waste reveals inner cities are undercounted, yet Cameron is cutting up constituencies with no regard to fairness - 21st December
 * red carpet of opportunity awaits shell-shocked Labour'' - Cameron will be doomed by his cuts and Clegg by his betrayal. Miliband can now win over voters as the honest politician - 14th December
 * NHS cuts bite, we will soon see the next eruption of popular anger'' - Andrew Lansley's disruptive reorganisation will see waiting lists go up and treatments withdrawn. The blue touchpaper is lit - 11th December
 * brilliant protests on tax-dodging can unite us all'' - Everyone has an interest when billionaires keep money that should pay for the universities and Sure Starts now being savaged - 7th December
 * Field must not let the unthinkable happen to Sure Start''Field's poverty report says investment in the early years is crucial. So will he defend his fine vision from being wrecked by coalition cuts? - 4th December 2010
 * King is consistently wrong: now his hawkish dogma has been exposed'' - WikiLeaks: We now know the Bank of England governor's central role in pushing an agenda of harsh cuts on successive governments - 1st December
 * children can lead the class of 68 back into action'' - The students aren't just angry about education cuts. They see themselves as a vanguard for a much wider protest campaign - 27th November
 * shouldn't get a penny until it gives up its tax piracy'' - Cameron says he is being 'good neighbours' with the Irish. Why, when they have been such terrible neighbours to us? - 23rd November
 * to turn 60,000 students into unqualified drop-outs'' - The axing of the education maintenance allowance to help poor teenagers stay at school feels like targeted government malice - 20th November
 * unhappiness index is more David Cameron's style'' - The less equal a society, the more unhappy it is. For David Cameron to talk up wellbeing is really hard to swallow - 16th November
 * losers – really? Soon they will emerge by the million'' - Universal benefits have been hyped as a simple way to get people to work. But an £18bn cut will always cause real harm - 13th November
 * only Labour ministers had shown Ken Clarke's bravery'' - The justice secretary's promise to jail fewer people shows strong leadership can defy even the Mail's wrath. But will he deliver? - 9th November
 * students, but you're low in the pain pecking order'' - The demonstration next week should be about those whose life chances will be wrecked long before university - 6th November
 * patients. Andrew Lansley is the servant of big pharma'' - Nice was one of Labour's best inventions. Its demise will probably mean more ineffective drugs, and higher prices - 2nd November
 * for the unions' sake, work on bonfire night'' - Striking on this most dangerous of dates risks alienating the public – more empathic forms of protest must be found - 30th October
 * cut, rents up: this is Britain's housing time bomb'' - At last the Tories have a final solution for the poor – send them to distant dumping grounds where there are no jobs - 26th October
 * lying in corridors will expose George Osborne's botch of the NHS'' - Don't be fooled that the health service's tiny budget increase leaves it in clover. History suggests a volcano ready to erupt - 23rd October
 * review: What's all the fuss about? Just you wait'' - The government thinks people won't know or care about those who lose out, but will that change when reality bites next year? - 21st October
 * review: Ya-boo won't work. Labour's response must be forensic'' - Alan Johnson has laid out the basics of an alternative to cuts. It's a solid enough start – but now the real fight begins - 19th October
 * coalition crowd-pleasers will not save them for long'' - When a million jobs have been lost and the cuts have begun to bite, the government's talk of 'fairness' will turn to dust - 16th October
 * Tory wastebuster Philip Green says: bring back the quangos'' - What an embarrassment: from GPs to free schools, the Green report directly contradicts David Cameron's decentralising ideologues - 12th October
 * Johnson can wipe smirks off Cameron's chainsaw mob'' - Housing, benefits, arts, the NHS – the Tories could hardly have made life easier for Steady Ed Miliband's new shadow chancellor - 9th October
 * Conservative notion of a universal credit is a mirage'' - The Tories' catch-all plan is dangerously naive. But even if they sell the new-brand welfare, where will all the jobs come from? - 5th October
 * conference: Those who know disaster looms mustn't stay quiet'' - Experts of all kinds blow off in private about the impact of the coalition's cuts – but timidly zip their lips in public - 2nd October
 * on religion doesn't work'' - Religious certainties are often a bad fit with the everyday compromises of politics - 2nd October
 * must stick to his ideology if he's to beat Cameron'' - Politics will always be about conviction. The new leader must define his economic beliefs and not be knocked off course - 28th September
 * time like the present for Labour's Young Turk to abandon old guard'' - Ed Miliband has the opportunity to bring a new generation of MPs to the fore and revitalise the party - 27th September
 * talks pure Cameronomics'' - Clegg is talking pure Cameronomics as he tries to persuade the party that this is the only option - 21st September
 * Lib Dems are in trouble – but they are shape-shifters'' - Canny malcontents will keep quiet about leaders swallowing a Tory potion: this conference will be a celebration of power - 18th September
 * and death lie at the poisoned heart of religion'' - Why invite the pope on a state visit – at a cost of millions in a time of cutbacks – when the vast majority are secular? - 14th September
 * boundary changes will be imposed by Stalinist edict'' - Cameron's recasting of constituencies will spark public protests. He has devised maximum turmoil for minimal gain - 7th September
 * collection. Now there's a moral crusade for the Tories'' - Misgivings about the ideological nature of Osborne's cuts agenda could be dispelled by protecting the HMRC - 4th September
 * Blair's memoirs: verdict'' - This is a historic act of treachery - 1st September
 * vain, venal has-beens should bow out and shut up'' - The interventions of Blair and Mandelson are the last thing Labour needs as it considers its next leader and future path - 31st August
 * Labour project now is the reverse of 1994'' - A different toxic history has to be expunged: the party has shown a weaker sense of social justice than middle England - 28th August
 * public service merits more than this cold trashing'' - The good faith of ordinary workers is clear. Yet their jobs are axed with glee by a coalition that is cutting us into eternal austerity - 24th August
 * Mr Nice act still fools some, but the pain is a wake-up call'' - Cameron's campaign had no mention of such bitter cuts. Blaming the public sector won't work as his popularity slumps - 14th August
 * 'big society' is a big fat lie – just follow the money'' - For all David Cameron's rosy rhetoric on nurturing a nation of volunteers, his government is slashing charities first and hardest - 7th August
 * for everyone is cheap considering its rich returns'' - A 25% cut won't be plugged by philanthropy. To take this paltry sum is a political gesture, not a financial necessity - 28th July
 * Labour can't fight social injustice, what's it all for?'' - The party must paint a bright red line linking itself to those who'll suffer most from the coalition's atrocious cuts - 24th July
 * bill spells segregation and tax-funded madrasas'' - The academies bill is casual law-making by arbitrary diktat that will fail the poorest and fuel the rise of faith schools - 20th July
 * is no careful plan: the NHS is being wired for demolition at breakneck speed'' - Analysts are aghast at the sheer recklessness of the proposals. Yet the Tories proceed with no answers to the basic questions - 17th July
 * was Labour's great failure. Now it gets worse'' - Coalition plans to slash housing benefit will force an exodus of the poor. This is social cleansing on an epic scale - 13th July
 * NHS may not survive this volcano of ideology'' - Memo to Mr Lansley – it was Labour's 'targets and terror' regime that got results, not Tony Blair's endless reorganising - 6th July
 * hustings are dismal – I know, I've chaired one'' - The winner stands every chance of being the next prime minister – but only if the party breathes life into a miserable process - 3rd July
 * Vince Cable can halt the Foxification of UK news'' - If successful in his bid to buy up the rest of BSkyB, Rupert Murdoch will be able to eat up opponents and squeeze other media - 29th June
 * blessing of cuts will dissolve when reality strikes'' - This ideological budget is more brutal than 1981. As the unjust distribution of pain emerges, the rebellion will resound - 25th June
 * 2010: A Conservative budget with only a little Liberal Democrat icing'' - Nothing rang more hollow than George Osborne's promise to create 'work incentives' by cutting benefit entitlements - 22nd June
 * and Clegg are like pre-modern leech doctors'' - The more they bleed the economy, the sicker the patient becomes. Britain must pay more than lip service to fair treatment - 19th June
 * will soon regret this hospital populism'' - The top-down decisions being imposed on NHS managers to appease local campaigners will cost money and safety - 15th June
 * will hit the poor hard. Tax rises would be far fairer'' - If Cameron's plans go through, the increase in inequality will be huge. But we could avoid this relatively painlessly - 12th June
 * most perilous of cuts is to sever the historical record'' - The fate of the hugely valuable birth cohort studies will tell us a lot about this government's true intentions - 7th June
 * Laws's life goal was to cast people out of work'' - I regret the manner of his fall, but he wasn't honest with public money, while his cuts agenda is terrifying to contemplate - 1st June
 * talk rings hollow as long as work pays a pittance'' - Whatever Iain Duncan Smith's intentions, all his benefits system can do is sweep up after economic policy that fuels poverty - 29th May
 * cuts won't hurt a bit. Unless you're young or poor'' - The well-off may not notice George Osborne's first cuts, but the pain these cause will be real enough - 25th May
 * pay: will CEOs play ball with Hutton?'' - A fair pay review will throw up the hard facts – by a long way most of the public sector is worse paid than the private - 18th May
 * government: Like a flat-pack with screws missing, this deal will wobble'' - The Tory partner, five times the size, will trample the Liberal Democrats like a rhino without even noticing - 13th May
 * rocket crashes back to earth'' - Whose fault was it that they failed to strike a deal? Now the blame game begins, and bystanders can only gaze at the wreckage - 12th May (Cif at the polls)
 * Labour serious about a progressive alliance?'' - Senior Lib Dems fear Labour's negotiators really believe no deal is better than one that brings in PR - 11th May
 * – the only legitimate coalition'' - With Gordon Brown gone, Labour can forge a historic alliance of principle with the Liberal Democrats: if Nick Clegg has the fibre - 11th May
 * done deal? No, Tory-Lib is a marriage made in hell'' - Brown's letter captures a despondent mood. But Labour must not give up on a progressive alliance - 9th May
 * hopes of decades rest with Clegg. He must hold his nerve'' - For once, Lib Dems are in a position to demand crucial voting reform. A once unthinkable progressive coalition is on the table - 8th May
 * election results: Labour's secret relief'' - Though beaten, Gordon Brown's party lives to fight another day – and may relish opposition as Britain reels from Tory cuts - 8th May
 * you vote on Thursday, don't forget Clapham Park'' - The estate where I lived is testament to Labour's highs and lows. But all that is good here is bound to fall victim to Tory cuts - 4th May
 * vote is precious, but we can't be. Keep the enemy out'' - There's no high principle in ignoring the outcome. Voting tactically is how to win reform that lets conviction votes count - 1st May
 * up, parents, and shout about toddler top-up fees'' - Political tribalism doesn't come into it. Tory plans for nurseries reveal the vast gap between centre-left and centre-right - 27th April
 * heart might say Clegg. But vote with your head'' - Until the electoral system is reformed, progressives are stuck. If you do not want a Tory government, it's tactics, not romance - 24th April
 * Clegg can learn from the SDP'' - Nick Clegg may soon face the same identity dilemmas that did for the SDP at the end of the 1980s - 22nd April
 * Clegg and Gordon Brown need to turn their guns on the real enemy'' - The Clegg bounce could end up taking seats from Labour, just as Tory Big Society airiness is being shown up for what it is - 17th April
 * Hardly. This is a bold, persuasive manifesto'' - No extravagance, and no bombast. But Labour has reminded voters in the starkest terms of the crucial choice they face - 13th April
 * the 'radical' Tories. The reality is terrifying'' - Cameron's synthetic claim to a progressive approach veils entirely predictable policies – and their painful results - 10th April
 * time to stop genuflecting to the big business bullies'' - The letter writers have always been of a Tory mindset – the shame is that Labour for so long obsessed over them - 3rd April
 * 2010: A quiet preen for Alistair Darling on his day of vindication'' - In its untheatrical sobriety, this was Labour's most effective speech in a long time - 25th March
 * poisoned New Labour. Now for an antidote'' - A budget for fairness and a living wage can uphold the party's true values – trashed by the greed of Blair and his acolytes - 23rd March
 * to the bishops'' - The Lords is for people of all faiths and none: there is no space for reserved benches for the clergy - 15th March
 * on the Robin Hood tax'' - Everyone but the rich is outraged by the financiers' billowing wealth. At the budget, Labour can tip the balance back to the people - 13th March
 * reform could define the election'' - Brown has just enough time to push through voting reforms that would expose the Tories and cement his legacy - 9th March
 * may be broken, but not in the way Tories claim'' - The more Cameron and his party harp on this theme, the more their own social isolation and lack of solutions show - 6th March
 * Ashcroft, the horror of Tory cuts will stay hidden'' - For all his tough talk, Cameron's spending plans must be too unelectably Thatcherite for the public gaze - 2nd March
 * recognise they need Vince to moderate George'' - Well-founded anxieties about Tory economic competence are making a hung parliament ever more likely - 23rd February
 * will be our next PM, but maybe not for long'' - The popular will to eject Labour looks settled, but a Tory government voted in without enthusiasm will swiftly falter - 13th February
 * cuts pave the way for a return to 80s dole queues'' - Conservative plans to axe longer term support suggest they still think unemployment is a price worth paying for ideology - 9th February
 * late – but praise Brown for trying to make votes count'' - Even if it changes little this time, embracing electoral reform shows Labour can still shed its old skin and start again - 6th February
 * care sounds nice, but why redistribute to the rich?'' - In pursuit of a gripping headline, Brown has scuppered a fair, sensible and long-term plan for care of the elderly - 2nd February
 * was wrong. He still is. But let's not fetishise the UN'' - Yesterday offered a raw reminder of the defining Labour foreign policy error – it should not be reduced to legal detail - 30th January
 * the fight for Labour's soul, this is the day of reckoning'' - Will it be the old tribalists or the dynamic pluralists who carry the day? Electoral reform reaches into the party's very bowels - 26th January
 * must back Obama's stand against the money bullies'' - It's high noon for the global economy, but malign market forces are running rings round Labour - 23rd January
 * life is a vipers' nest politicians should not poke'' - Cameron's marriage tax break is unworkable and unjust. But before Labour gloats, beware: this is a banana skin for them, too - 19th January
 * Iraq's ghosts has left Brown feeling their icy chill'' - The PM called an inquiry to distance himself from Blair. Instead, rightly or not, the current Labour cabinet will take the flak - 16th January
 * by little, the blue seeps through Cameron's silky skin'' - Scratch the surface of the Tory leader's dreamy vision of good parenting and his true colours become that bit clearer - 12th January
 * faces an obstacle course, but it has the ideas'' - The only question that matters now is how the party can best fight the coming election with the leader it has - 10th January
 * faces an obstacle course, but it has the ideas'' - The only question that matters now is how the party can best fight the coming election with the leader it has - 9th January
 * death-wish brigade will let Brown crash his party'' - As Labour skids downhill at breakneck speed, self-interest and old rivalries paralyse those who could yet slow the descent - 2nd January



Articles: 2009

 * in pay packets starts at the top. Across the board'' -Finally, moves are afoot to restrain out-of-control salaries – in the public sector. But the contagion co mes from private firms - 22nd December
 * yes. But the planet's future is no priority of ours'' - While Copenhagen may fall far short of the deal we need, leaders know voters are not prepared to change their lifestyle - 19th December
 * copycats won't cut it. Here's a braver alternative'' - Instead of succumbing to debt-phobia, Darling and Brown must level with voters. Fairer and higher tax is the only way - 12th December
 * is class war – carried out by Cameron against the poor'' - Politicians' backgrounds are of no importance – unless, like the Tories, they are hell bent on defending their privilege - 8th December
 * for past failings is a luxury the poor can't afford'' - However disappointing Labour's record may be on fairness and services, the noises from Tories show it could get worse - 5th December
 * gifts to the non-dom classes may turn toxic for the Tories'' - As the Tory leader tries to sweet-talk us into regressive tax plans, Labour must hit back with radical measures - 1st December
 * politicians are slave to public opinion. Good ones try to change it'' - Social scientists now need to take a leaf out of David Nutt's book, and speak out on bad policies – yet recognise politics is an art - 28th November
 * the cutting fisticuffs – take a long, hard look at tax'' - As Brown and Cameron clash on how to slash the deficit, a new blueprint spells out how tax reform could curb it fairly - 24th November
 * the cutting fisticuffs – take a long, hard look at tax'' - As Brown and Cameron clash on how to slash the deficit, a new blueprint spells out how tax reform could curb it fairly - 24th November
 * pay is bloated. But don't forget the virus source'' - The wild escalation of top salaries goes across both sectors – and so must the solution: a high pay commission - 21st November
 * Queen's speech to paint Labour's thick, red line'' - Regrets hung in the air, but don't dismiss the Queen's speech as a packet of fag-end gestures. Many of these bills could pass - 19th November
 * universal childcare for £9bn a year? A bargain'' - The promise of Labour's under-fives programme has only ever been half-met. The next manifesto should go the distance - 17th November
 * the last hard choice for Labour: leader or country'' - The byelection doesn't alter the polls. Victory is impossible under Brown. MPs must act or leave us with the Conservatives - 14th November
 * Cameron, social policy butterfly'' - David Cameron floats very prettily over the poverty agenda, but soon he'll need to provide substance. And will there be a sting? - 10th November
 * a tax convert? Hard to believe, but let's hope so'' - A Tobin transaction tax would be a bold, sensible, social democratic move – so it's a shock to hear the prime minister backing it - 10th November
 * has got his pay tsar. So let's tax crazy profits here'' - A fiscal measure from the second world war could be just the thing to curb executive extravagance and tackle the deficit - 24th October
 * the zealots selling miracle cures of privatisation'' - The latest CBI salvo against the public sector is blinkered. Those who dash for dazzling quick fixes will come a cropper - 20th October
 * it again, say it often: the public sector is paid less'' - In a triumph of upside-down logic, the myth that an overpaid state sector is to blame for the crisis has taken poisonous root - 13th October
 * politics will cost Labour the next election'' - Conference season 09: The party has finally triangulated itself to death, and now all it can do is claim that the Tories stole its policies - 10th October
 * only way the Tories can please everyone: cheat'' - Conference season 09: The Conservative party's identity is still unresolved - it wants to be nice and make deep cuts too. The upshot is bogus accounting - 6th October
 * out. These Tory lambs have viciously sharp teeth'' - David Cameron may well be a nice man. But his party will choose the most savage cuts to public services and jobs - 3rd October
 * needed revolution from Gordon Brown, but we got triangulation'' - This was probably the last prime ministerial speech of his lifetime - 30th September
 * need clever cuts – creative, productive. Not slash and burn'' - Ed Balls' promise to cut £2bn from schools is typical of this disastrous fastest-axer-takes-all electoral battle - 30th September (Series: A new public services)
 * mortar fire could save Labour's future'' - Conference season 09: The election may be lost, but an inspired fightback could give its bright young candidates the chance to rebuild the party - 29th September
 * Brown's parting shot'' - Gordon Brown can at last emerge a hero, by giving a resignation speech at the party conference. Here's one I've drafted for him - 26th September
 * deathbed conversion will do. It's now or never for PR'' - If Labour has any shred of will left to regain the high ground from such depths, it will deliver a vote on electoral reform - 22nd September
 * Lib Dem moment? Could be. But only if they go radical'' - The Liberal Democrats are wasting a golden opportunity if they fail to go for Labour's jugular - 19th September
 * now, pay later'' - Labour can still roll back the Tories on the public spending debate. The problem is Gordon Brown's deficit of political capital - 16th September
 * who blamed the state for Baby P now cry freedom'' - Ministers are on a hiding to nothing: negligent in cases of harm, intrusive when checking on adults helping out with children - 15th September
 * basic error will cost this country dearly'' - Just as Labour has got the economy fluttering to life, promised Tory cuts to the public sector would put it all at risk - 12th September
 * Labour needs to summon is nerve, daring and ambition'' - I would eat a rack of hats if the party's leaders had the bottle to set national politics alight. There is nothing left to lose - 8th September
 * Tory poverty claims will return to haunt them'' - I predict with confidence that they can't fix broken Britain. Whoever's in charge, things get worse if unemployment is high - 29th August
 * a challenge to the myths of the mega-earners'' - Information has power. Throw daylight on pay disparities and let voters judge a fairer distribution for themselves - 25th August
 * time we abandoned the young, bits of Britain broke'' - School-leavers in the 80s slump had blighted lives. It is imperative Labour finds the funds to avert another lost generation - 22nd August
 * struggle to: (a) weed kids out; or (b) keep them in?'' - Exam results time reveals parties' true colours on education. But all misread teachers' greatest battle: (c) overcoming inequality - 18th August
 * 1961 Suicide Act is an instrument of state torture'' - The next parliament may well be filled with social conservatives. Labour still has time to ensure our right to easeful death - 1st August
 * worst failing yet is to let voters fall for Tory cuts'' - While economists of all hues support further spending, Labour won't make its own case, let alone push radical reform - 25th July
 * opportunity is fantasy in any society this unequal'' - Declining social mobility has exposed Labour's delusion that huge gaps in wealth do not harm poor children's chances - 21st July
 * signs of life won't quicken Labour's heartbeat'' - Resigned to its fate, Labour can only shrug in the face of opposition. Solid plans for the future now lack credibility - 18th July
 * brave and bold. But the backlash has already begun'' - Ageing Britain: Winning public approval for reform of the care system will be tough when few understand it and fewer think it's fair - 14th July
 * Murdoch's malign influence demeans British politics - Phone-hacking is but one corner of a potent empire – just who stands to benefit from the Tories killing the TV watchdog? - 11th July
 * call to arms for voters'' - A new politics: Change in the voting system will not come from parliament – we have to galvanise popular anger, and drive change through - 10th July
 * clamour to cut public sector pay is based on myth'' - State incomes remain comparably low – calls for a freeze can't distract us from the real issue: outlandish executive pay - 7th July
 * up with politics? Don't just sit there'' - A new politics: If you're sick of two parties carving up power and blocking new political life, this rally may be the last chance in years to be heard - 7th July
 * there pensions apartheid? Well, if you're a nurse there is'' - False Tory outrage at fat-cat pubic sector benefits is a crude sleight of hand to divert voters' attention from the real wealth gap - 4th July
 * spending landmine that enshrines Labour priorities for years'' - Brown's bills package is a deftly disguised political manoeuvre that will make it difficult for the Tories to shrink the state - 30th June
 * bile of anti-politics is corroding the zeal for change'' - Good news for democracy – citizens do believe their lives are getting better. The bad news: they despise those responsible - 27th June
 * could be heroes. Instead these bankers are pariahs'' - The City has reverted to its bad old habits; Brown and Darling missed the radical moment in the weeks after the crash - 23rd June
 * carve-up of the licence fee would be sheer vandalism'' - The BBC is in the same category as the NHS. Some public assets are much too valuable to talk of market competition - 20th June
 * is the weapon to target the Tory achilles heel'' - The latest Guardian poll confirms Labour's one edge: public services. But to win the debate, it needs to be honest about the costs - 16th June
 * I flip-flopped on Brown. And I hope I'm wrong again'' - Mail claims of a Guardian plot are hypocritical nonsense. What matters to me is who can best prevent a Tory rout - 13th June
 * gripped by delusion, the party last night bottled it'' - Polly Toynbee: There is a bold, reviving leader's speech that might yet salvage Labour. It just can't be delivered by Gordon Brown - 9th June
 * will face liquidation in a near-Labourless landscape'' - The party will look back on this week with anger: by failing to stop the crisis this cabinet has proved itself unfit for leadership - 6th June
 * half-dead prime minister'' - Labour now faces a terrible choice between Gordon Brown's disintegrating leadership or the chaos of regicide - 5th June
 * out bad councils, and vote for Lib Dems in Europe'' - Don't use local polls to throw stones at national parties. But do reward the most principled pro-EU party we have - 2nd June
 * last chance: oust Brown, then bring in PR'' - If the cabinet comes out from under its duvet now, there is still time to avoid annihilation and create a fairer electoral system too - 30th May
 * reshuffle of these grubby MPs is futile. Try mass exile'' - Labour must earn the right to be heard again. That begins with a clean pair of hands as leader, and a cabinet purge - 23rd May
 * the size of the Commons'' - A new politics: Parliament has too many MPs who are either glorified local councillors or faceless party placemen. We need fewer, but better - 20th May
 * this moment to bring in real constitutional change'' - Proportional representation for the Commons, a fully elected Lords and clean party funding: the impetus is growing - 19th May
 * Alan Johnson can prevent catastrophe'' - Labour is the heavy loser in the expenses scandal. A new leader might not win an election, but at least avert annihilation - 16th May
 * Brown must go – by June 5'' - He made the rich richer and the poor poorer. The Labour party can't go into the next election under Brown's leadership - 12th May
 * expenses shame crowns Labour's failure on fairness'' - Only in a vastly divided society can leaders think such perks normal. The government's legacy is world-class inequality - 9th May
 * fresh humiliation closes in, Brown can forge a triumph'' - Post Office privatisation faces a massive revolt in the Commons. A new not-for-profit model should be seized with gratitude - 5th May
 * bold equality push is just what we needed. In 1997'' - Harriet Harman's bill is a frank recognition of the role of class in Britain. A decade earlier, it might have had a real impact - 28th April
 * the lie of the free lunch comes a real political choice'' - The pretence of building a Swedish society on US tax rates is over. But we can still avoid savage cuts – if we pay for it - 25th April
 * last, a budget where the super-rich's bluff is called. Shame it's all too late'' - When the new 50% rate kicks in next April, this last social democratic flag may be drowning, not waving - 23rd April
 * bold, Chancellor, and you could be our Lloyd George'' - By emulating the spirit of the People's Budget, Darling can give voters a rock-solid reminder of what Labour is for - 21st April
 * Street wounded Ghana. IMF tonic could hurt it more'' - Small but steady growth has been undermined by a banking crisis far away. Now is a test of whether G20 aid will really help - 18th April
 * world, new rules: now Brown must dare to spend'' - It's not done yet. Backing up his G20 rhetoric will mean borrowing serious money to ease the crisis and save a generation - 4th April
 * Smith is a victim of the new wave of puritanism'' - Expenses rules have to change, and fast. But our politicians are basically decent. The bile hurled at them damages us all - 31st March
 * furious public demands political anger management'' - Little the government suggests begins to match our outrage at bonuses, fiddles and failures. Things could turn nasty - 28th March
 * is an emergency. Act now, or local news will die'' - Papers around Britain are following US titles to the grave. The government needs to step in, for the sake of democracy - 24th March
 * the job market plunges, the fantasy politics prevail'' - Never before have so many lost work at such a rate. Only bold action can avert social disaster. And Westminster is sleeping - 21st March
 * is one legacy target that Labour can't afford to miss'' - If this government is to be remembered for anything, it should be for meeting its pledge on eradicating child poverty - 14th March
 * has one last chance to catch the public mood'' - Anger at fat cats and tax dodgers needs a political narrative to sustain it. Brown must look to Obama and take the lead - 10th March
 * pegs aren't enough. We will need smelling salts, too'' - As voter despair deepens, Labour needs to ditch its tribalism and accept that the centre-left's survival relies on electoral reform - 7th March
 * blame the public sector for catching the fat cats' virus'' - Rather than tackle the skewed pay of all at the top, the right is turning on the usual scapegoats, putting services at risk - 3rd March
 * Fred's just one of millions to do better under Labour'' - Amid the furore over bankers' greed, it's easy to forget the post-1997 years have been kind to many of society's poorest - 28th February
 * must be weaned off the house-price drug'' - Now is the time to be honest about what is needed to avoid another wild boom: taxes geared to discourage inflation - 24th February
 * tiffs are for later. Right now, it's life and death'' - Any party doing so badly in polls will question its direction, but Labour can best alter course with a brave, bold April budget - 21st February
 * story is characteristic of New Labour's failings'' - The weaknesses of the teenage pregnancy strategy reflect how hard it is to roll the boulders of social change uphill - 17th February
 * rottweilers do the work of the Tories for them'' - A powerful lobby is hard at work convincing the electorate that the public sector is profligate and urgently needs pruning - 10th February
 * strikes are the upshot of a decade of blunt mantra'' - Brown's tin-eared faith in unchecked globalisation has propelled inequality. And workers are right to fear that worse is to come - 3rd February
 * time to rattle and bang in protest at this outrage'' - Delving into the truth of corporate taxes has taken our Guardian team months. What they have found is truly shocking - 31st January
 * must brave the rage, and take on won't-pay fathers'' - Plans to revoke passports and driving licences from those who dodge child support are well-founded. But expect fireworks - 27th January
 * all of finance is in ruins. Bonus culture is doing fine'' - It's business as usual for the failed masters of the universe, and politicians seem blind to the public mood of indignation - 24th January
 * will all remember where we were today - even in lazily cynical Britain'' - Monumental danger has summoned a man whose character matches the hour. Copying Obama must be a global habit - 20th January
 * craven airport decision hands Cameron a green halo'' - Here was a test of both courage and political nous. Brown has flunked it, and given the Tories an undeserved boost - 17th January
 * law is Labour's biggest idea for 11 years'' - A public-sector duty to close the gap between rich and poor will tackle the class divide in a way that no other policy has - 13th January
 * goodness the poor don't rely on philanthropy'' - Donations are drying up as the recession bites - exposing the nonsense of the Tory belief in charity replacing the welfare state - 10th January
 * might sound appealing, but this is populist poison'' - The Conservative plan for retrenchment and thrift is economically illiterate. It would have disastrous consequences if enacted - 6th January



Articles: 2008

 * Christmas message? There's probably no God'' - It is neither emotionally nor spiritually deficient to reject religions that seek to infantilise us with impossible beliefs - 23rd December 2008
 * prospect of another lost generation is a chilling one'' - Unemployment wrecks lives and stores up future calamities. Even public work programmes are better than nothing - 20th December 2008
 * winds are growing bitter. Labour has to bare its teeth'' - Cameron is raising the bar on crisis rhetoric. As the economy gets a buffeting Brown needs to show he knows who is to blame - 16th December 2008
 * beginning of the end of a cruel, impractical edict'' - The law against suicide condemns families to watch loved ones die in pain. Human dignity demands a free choice - 13th December 2008
 * the facts on pay, how can we judge what is fair?'' - The more people realise how unequally incomes are distributed, the more progressive they become. Labour must learn this - 9th December 2008
 * is a desperate tale, but far from proof of broken Britain'' - The Shannon Matthews saga shows dysfunction persists, but must not be used against families on the edge trying to cope - 6th December 2008
 * lone parents into jobs. Just put away the big stick'' - Getting people employed is vital, but in a recession current welfare-to-work targets are impossible - and compulsion is crazy - 2nd December 2008
 * this gloom and drama is part of Labour's big gamble'' - Raise expectations of the worst and pray that the upturn is swift - a risky strategy, but it could still beat the clueless Tories - 29th November 2008
 * last, the party of social justice has woken up'' - It was far from perfect, but yesterday confirmed Labour's escape from the grip of the rich - and a Tory reversion to type - 25th November 2008
 * has blown it: his progressive party is dead'' - Tested by recession, the Tory leader has reverted to type - a laissez-faire Thatcherite, U-turning his party back to 1981 - 22nd November 2008
 * frenzy of hatred is a disaster for children at risk'' - Britain has one of the best records on child deaths. One case blasted out of all proportion can undo years of good - 18th November 2008
 * chance to do the right thing, without cheap bribes'' - Forget tax giveaways and VAT cuts. Brown should kickstart the economy by targeting the richest and giving to the poorest - 15th November 2008
 * Dacre dispenses little justice from his bully pulpit'' - The Mail editor's faux outrage about the Mosley case smacks of hypocrisy - and the hubris of power without responsibility - 11th November 2008 (see: Daily Mail Comment: A good day for the grubby and corrupt)
 * could teach Brown to say boo to the goose'' - Obama has broken the spell that says centre-left parties threatening to tax the rich are inevitably dead in the water - 8th November 2008
 * of progress at last, but profound inequality remains'' - Labour success on social mobility will only be valued from the gloom of Tory rule. So much more might have been done - 4th November 2008
 * to face down the myth that banks always know best'' - As the tap runs dry for small businesses, Labour must use all the power at its disposal to get the hoarders lending again - 1st November 2008
 * stitch-up will deny women fundamental rights'' - An apparent dirty deal to keep abortion out of Northern Ireland has also led to the shelving of crucial reforms in Britain - 21st October 2008
 * jobs, jobs must be the mantra for a softer recession'' - A visit to a jobcentre only confirms the urgency. To prove its values, Labour needs to launch a huge work creation scheme - 18th October 2008
 * defibrillator worked - now for the intensive care'' - Brown may be today's saviour, but only by cleansing the City of greed and restoring trust will he find redemption - 14th October 2008
 * good man in a crash. Now can he show how to mend it?'' - Brown's next task is to craft a vision of a good society in bad times, and reflect the public mood on supersonic wealth - 11th October 2008
 * the face of apocalypse, heed not horsemen's advice'' - Brown should tread wary of the City voices in his economic war cabinet. Now more than ever, the poor must come first - 7th October 2008
 * 1997 tribute band is out of tune with our times'' - Labour is lacking a renewed sense of purpose, and even a return to the glory days won't help bring it back - 4th October 2008
 * ideas are way off, but his guns are well-aimed'' - The shadow chancellor's tax cuts should be easy meat for Labour. Instead, years of courting the City has left the party exposed - 30th September 2008
 * it acts as if the election is lost, Labour could still win it'' - 23rd September 2008
 * a leader who dares draw some bright red lines'' - As the party gathers glumly in Manchester, it must recognise that only bold totemic policies will change Labour's fortunes - 20th September 2008
 * the storms roll in, Brown is left politically naked'' - The rebels' biggest task is to find a new leader who can dismiss the days of laissez-faire and make the case for a strong state - 16th September 2008
 * attention, pessimists - Tory victory is not certain'' - Labour fatalists suggest the party is reaching the end of its natural cycle, but this only removes the painful need for action - 13th September 2008
 * right conspires to hide it, but this is no classless society'' - Camouflaging reality has stifled debate on wealth and inequality. Labour's silence drains political identity from the poorest - 9th September 2008
 * Gordon Brown may be Labour's last chance'' - Getting rid of the prime minister is a very high risk strategy, but a dying party should be ready to take dangerous medicine - 6th September 2008
 * schools may be Blair's most damaging legacy'' - Labour's new rules mean that anyone who works in these institutions may have to get down on their knees to keep their jobs - 2nd September 2008
 * Labour folds in the face of anti-tax paranoia'' - This party should be taking on the cheating and avoidance of the super-rich. Instead they cower in their caves - 26th August 2008
 * is bound to bypass the lessons of the 58ers'' - The determinist mindset of the post-Thatcher establishment means fine social research won't produce decent policy - 19th August 2008
 * credits tick all the boxes. What's the delay?'' - Energy use has to be cut soon, so it's odd that this techno-savvy cabinet still shies away from a simple credit system - 16th August 2008
 * Greed has brought us here, fairness must lead us out - Anger over the wealth gap is huge. Tories talk poverty but won't touch the rich. Has Labour the agility to change course? - 5th August 2008
 * Breathless with amazement - 'Here on display was the great fissure in class, race, style, attitude, background, life-experience and confidence.' Polly Toynbee and David Walker accompany Brent school students on a visit to Oxford - 5th August 2008
 * Rich pickings - Whoever leads the party, Labour's silence on Britain's corporate excess must be challenged: only then will it be able to move towards a fairer society - Comment is free - 4th August 2008
 * This week, Miliband made winning look possible again - He offers an adrenalin shot of optimism to his party, which will reward those bold enough to act in this crisis - 2nd August 2008
 * A law to label real fur - that should bring the voters back - Its leader enfeebled, its cabinet torn apart, Labour has rejected any policy that might rekindle interest in the party - 29th July 2008
 * Cardiac arrest in Glasgow - and still the clunking mantra - Brown's inadequacy was plain in his reaction to the heartland wreckage. But a new leader is no good without a new direction - 26th July 2008
 * Labour's sin-eater has now neutralised welfare reform - James Purnell's radical proposals have shot the Tory fox, but at the expense of those who can least afford a cut - 22nd July 2008
 * Labour does one thing really well - burying good news - A week when Brown and co failed to make capital out of an avalanche of positive news shows how out of touch they are - 19th July 2008
 * This is far more likely to work than locking them up - The new youth justice plan offers proven ways of dealing with offenders, while Cameron can only urge yet more prison - 15th July 2008
 * The Labour idealism that saved Clapham Park is dead - Looking again at this south London estate, the power of a bold state is clear. But such courage is today a distant memory - 12th July 2008
 * A plot is brewing, but what this drama needs is direction - Defeat in Glasgow East may spur a Brutus from cabinet. Whoever is in charge, however, Labour has to tell us what it is for - 8th July 2008
 * The education boom has proved a curse for the poor - It's all very well for Gordon Brown to talk of an upwardly mobile Britain: but the best social engineer is equality - 5th July 2008
 * For all the hyperbole, Bevan would have approved of this - The new NHS plan will consolidate a golden age for the service - and protect it from Tory tampering - 1st July 2008
 * A year on, Brown is yet to run out of steam, but his ship is plainly sinking - Older MPs are imploring young ministers to grasp their Clause Four moment and topple the leader. It's hard to blame them - 27th June 2008
 * The miserablists need a politics they can believe in - The number one culprit in fostering gloom is the media, but politicians meanwhile give us little to be optimistic about - 24th June 2008
 * The public deserves protection from the false hope of 'wonder drugs' - Calls to allow patients to top up treatments with their own money ignore how seldom the NHS denies patients help - 20th June 2008
 * Labour's legacy is a puzzle of moral contradictions - The government's reluctance to challenge culturally destructive forces makes any talk of values meaningless - 17th June 2008
 * That hum? It's the sound of Labour's zombie-like MPs marching to disaster - The docile acceptance of 42 days suggests a choice to walk the plank rather than mutiny. Profound electoral wipe-out awaits - 13th June 2008
 * Cameron deftly bypasses the hard politics of the family - His words are without substance, yet Labour's inability to breathe human warmth into its policies allows him to take credit - 10th June 2008
 * Don't be fooled: this doctors' protest is all about profits, not patients - GPs are fighting the new polyclinics for the same reason they refused to join the NHS 60 years ago: to protect their business - 6th June 2008
 * Any fat goose fretting over tax can boo this lot off course - A frightened leadership has fallen for the City's crocodile tears. More retreats will only hasten the anti-Labour stampede - 3rd June 2008
 * It's the epic flight of the white working class that Labour should really fear - Obeisance to Britain's boardrooms has driven traditional voters away. A radical rebalance of the tax system is needed - 23rd May 2008
 * The dam's burst. Now voters just want to wallop Labour - The electorate don't care what Tory policies are, and their pent-up hatred will not be assuaged by fettling the 10p tax band - 20th May 2008
 * Goodbye, good times. Now Labour has to show just whose side it is on - Faced with an economic downturn, Gordon Brown must spread the pain fairly - not carry on squeezing the low-paid - 16th May 2008
 * Despite the baby boomers ageing, we can afford to care - This generation is going to be expensive. But a voluntary, late-in-life or after-death payment scheme ticks every box - 13th May 2008
 * Resist the medievalists. Women's right to abortion is a private matter - MPs must hold firm in the face of a mendacious, emotive and unscientific campaign to cut the time limit from 24 to 20 weeks - 9th May 2008
 * Labour has nothing to say and no territory of its own - It's not the Tories who are the stupid party now, and it will take some scorched-earth thinking to win the voters back - 6th May 2008
 * When business calls, the clunking fist turns into a wee tim'rous beastie - Instead of panicking at corporate scare stories, Brown should join forces internationally to make firms pay fair taxes - 2nd May 2008
 * Stop tinkering, Gordon. Be bold, and show whose side you are really on - Public outrage over tax has created the right political mood for Labour to restore its reputation as a party for social justice - 25th April 2008
 * After the 10p tax row, Labour needs a gravity-defying May 1 - Midterm torpor and Brown's errors mean that the party is almost bound to be wiped out at the local elections - 22nd April 2008
 * If a Martian taxman landed now, he'd never guess Labour was in power - This government has failed miserably to make the case for fair taxation. More than ever, birth has become destiny - 18th April 2008
 * Girlification is destroying all the hope we felt in 1968 - Women are still paying the motherhood penalty at work. But the damage starts in infancy, with a poisonous pink assault - 15th April 2008
 * This buffeted prime minister must stop scrambling at every puff of wind - Long loyal Brownites are dismayed. Everyone else is perplexed. How did a man of such principle fall for weather vane politics? - 11th April 2008
 * Beware the lesson of the Tory wolf in liberal clothing - Sweden's great social democracy has been transformed for the worse - and Britain risks importing the nightmare - 8th April 2008
 * Save the BBC from these Murdoch-pleasing predators - In failing to denounce licence fee cuts, Labour has - depressingly - again been seen to legitimise a Tory policy - 1st April 2008
 * One small electoral change could rouse the sulking, apathetic hordes - Only 53% declare themselves certain to vote, says Hansard. That's because there is too little choice on offer - 28th March 2008
 * Religion doesn't rule in this clash of moral universes - Clerics cannot randomly intervene in contentious bills, nor should the church take priority over ministers' consciences - 25th March 2008
 * A shot of southern comfort can unite the warring halves of Labour's brain - The party fears wipeout in the south. But if it ignores the rich and helps the real middle England, its path is clear - 21st March 2008
 * Cameron's down-home hokum is going to backfire - It's good news when the family becomes hot politics, but Tory policies betray a grave ignorance about ordinary lives - 18th March 2008
 * There is nothing dull about a budget that rescues thousands from poverty - This is no time to despair of Labour. The brave commitment to children in need underlines just what the party is for - 14th March 2008
 * This minister for fatcats is stuck in a Blairite time warp - A mood of outrage at the hugely rich has gripped the nation - but you'd never know from John Hutton's paean to money - 11th March 2008
 * One last chance to resist the temptations of gambling - There is an important social difference between letting people seek out a harmful pursuit and thrusting it at everyone - 26th February 2008
 * MPs must fulfil Labour's pledge to low-paid and temporary workers - The 2005 manifesto promised equal rights for all - something that no good company would want to deny its staff - 22nd February 2008
 * Labour's election hopes rely on things they don't control - Brown and Darling come out of the Northern Rock debacle looking assured. But it's risky to stake all on stability and Tory folly - 19th February 2008
 * To throw the enemy the chancellor's head would be utterly in vain - The Tories and their allies in the rightwing media are gloating at the cabinet's inability to handle public politics - 15th February 2008
 * Try telling Bangladeshis that elections are bad for the poor - The march of democracy - so impressive in the past 50 years - must not stumble over indifference and fears of violence - 12th February 2008
 * Talk of time to turn and flee is wrong - as long as Nato is given a boost - Realpolitik and decency demand that we stay the course. But our biggest mistake is a disastrous prohibition policy
 * Unlike Blair, Brown doesn't lust after lucre - but he is afraid of it - Daunted by the bully power of big money, the prime minister has yet to show any real courage by reforming our tax system - 1st February 2008
 * The new politics of welfare is the same old sabre-rattling - Labour's record on getting people into work is admirable. So why pander to tabloid panics about benefit cheats? - 29th January 2008
 * For political vacuity and ineptitude, Labour has really excelled this week - Peter Hain's resignation caps an astonishing spell of blundering. Brown's only comfort can be that the Tory lead is so small - 25th January 2008
 * A top-sliced licence fee will trigger the BBC's destruction - Meddling with the public subsidy would provoke strong passions and risk ruining a proud national institution - 22nd January 2008
 * Cameron will play the anti-EU card all right, but he'd never quit the union - The Tories will lose face through the treaty debate, but their loss won't be enough to win the argument for Labour - 18th January 2008
 * Living people matter. When you're dead, you're dead - Brown's proposal on organ donation could end needless deaths that stem from the misguided instincts of the few - 15th January 2008
 * Presenting nuclear as the grown-up option is deceptive and delaying - Faced with persistent cabinet and industry lobbying and professors bearing heavy statistics, MPs have simply caved in - 11th January 2008
 * Quackery and superstition - available soon on the NHS - A sharp line has to be drawn between fact and fiction when it comes to spending public funds on alternative therapies - 8th January 2008
 * For all the carping, at the age of 60 the NHS is looking in rude good health - Hospitals remain a plum political battlefield, but there will be few easy hits once the real success of reform shows through - 4th January 2008
 * Now Brown can rediscover his natural political fire - Labour must prepare for the worst in 2008, but if that doesn't happen and it shows passion and daring, it could win big - 1st January 2008



News & updates:


References:
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Links:

 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Toynbee