Polly Toynbee

Profile:

Full name: Mary Louisa Toynbee

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

Journals/Organisation: The Guardian

Email: 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:

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: 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: 2013

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
Money 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
Where 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
Britain's 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
How 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
Moral 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
In 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
Britain 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
David 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
Britain's 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
Don't 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
News 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
Rejoice 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
The 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
Who's 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
The 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
Social 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
Ed 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
The 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
Southern 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
Chav: 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
Bankers 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
Superinjunctions: 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
Big 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
Localism 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
Do 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
The 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
Is 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
This 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
Faith 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
A 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
David 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
This 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
George 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
A 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
Ignore 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
Budget 2011: Guardian columnists' verdict - 24th March
Nicolas 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
As 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
So-called 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
To 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
The '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
No 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
Unlike 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
There 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
Some 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
April 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
NHS 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
You 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
Cameron's 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
These 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
Big 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
Even 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
Labour 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
Our 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
For 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
Balls 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
Tory 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
This 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
So, 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
Politicians 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
Even 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
Face 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

The 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
A 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
As 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
These 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
Frank Field must not let the unthinkable happen to Sure StartField'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
Mervyn 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
Thatcher's 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
Ireland 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
How 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
An 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
No 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
If 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
Sorry, 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
Forget 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
Firefighters, 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
Benefits 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
Patients 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
Spending 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
Spending 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
The 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
The 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
Alan 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
This 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
Conservative 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
Piggybacking on religion doesn't work - Religious certainties are often a bad fit with the everyday compromises of politics - 2nd October
Ed 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
No 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
Clegg talks pure Cameronomics - Clegg is talking pure Cameronomics as he tries to persuade the party that this is the only option - 21st September
The 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
Sex 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
These 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
Tax 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
Tony Blair's memoirs: verdict - This is a historic act of treachery - 1st September
Labour's 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
The 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
Loyal, 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
Cameron's 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
The '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
Arts 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
If 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
Gove's 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
This 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
Housing 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
The 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
Labour's 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
Only 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
Public 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
Budget 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
Cameron 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
Cameron 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
Cuts 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
The 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
David 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
Tough 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
These 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
Fair 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
Coalition 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
Lib-Lab 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)
Is 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
Lab-Lib – 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
A 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
The 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
UK 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
When 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
The 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
Wake 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
Your 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
What 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
Nick 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
Blair-plus? 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
Beware 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
It's 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
Budget 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
Lucre 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
Goodbye 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
Bring 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
Electoral 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
Britain 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
Unlike 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
Voters recognise they need Vince to moderate George - Well-founded anxieties about Tory economic competence are making a hung parliament ever more likely - 23rd February
Cameron 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
Tory 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
It's 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
Free 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
Blair 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
In 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
Britain 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
Family 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
Raising 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
Little 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
Labour 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
Labour 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
This 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

Justice 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
Gutless, 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
Cameron 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
This 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
Revenge 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
Cameron's 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
Bad 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
Cool 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
Cool 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
Public 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
A 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
Quality 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
Here's 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
David 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
Brown, 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
Obama 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
Beware 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
Say 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
Me-too 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
The 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
Watch 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
We needed revolution from Gordon Brown, but we got triangulation - This was probably the last prime ministerial speech of his lifetime - 30th September
We 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)
Mandelson's 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
Gordon 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
A 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
A 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
Spend 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
Those 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
Cameron's 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
All 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
These 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
Here's 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
Last 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
Schools 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
The 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
Brown's 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
Equal 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
These 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
Decent, 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
Our 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
The 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
Fed 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
Is 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
A 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
The 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
They 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
A 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
Candour 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
Yes, 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
Dazed, 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
MPs 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
The half-dead prime minister - Labour now faces a terrible choice between Gordon Brown's disintegrating leadership or the chaos of regicide - 5th June
Throw 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
Labour's 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
A 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
Squeeze 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
Seize 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
Only 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
Gordon 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
This 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
As 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
This 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
After 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
At 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
Be 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
Wall 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
New 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
Jacqui 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
A 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
This 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
As 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
This 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
Labour 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
Nose 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
Don't 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
Sir 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
Owners 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
Leadership 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
Alfie's 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
These 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
These 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
It's 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
We 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
Not 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
We 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
This 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
Harman's 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
Thank 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
It 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

My 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
The 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
The 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
The 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
Without 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
It 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
Urge 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
All 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
At 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
Cameron 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
This 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
A 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
Judge 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)
Barack 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
Signs 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
Time 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
Labour's 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, 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
The 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
A 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
In 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
This 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
Osborne's 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
If it acts as if the election is lost, Labour could still win it - 23rd September 2008
Wanted: 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
As 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
Pay 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
The 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
Unseating 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
Faith 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
Feeble 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
Labour 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
Carbon 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

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