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September 26, 2010 · 8:31 am

Unite for a Labour Victory

So it’s Ed M by less than a whisker – 1.3% to be precise.

However, as Polly Toynbee has just said on the Andrew Marr show, this was no Denis Healey/Tony Benn election. There quite simply was no big political difference between Miliband E and Miliband D.

Given this, I truly believe there will no difficulty in the Labour Party uniting behind the new Leader. While commiserating for David, I feel strongly we should, and will, now all get on with the business of opposition, pulling together and avoiding even the merest hint of factionalism.

I arrived at Labour Party Conference on Friday evening and joined the queue to get into the Leadership announcement yesterday afternoon. Before the announcement of the ballot result we were treated to the inevitable speeches.

Gordon Brown has undergone a transformation since stepping down. Witty and relaxed, he returned to his old form. Two video tributes showed just how much we owe Gordon, especially as the longest serving and most radical Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Harriet will, fortunately, still be with us as our elected Deputy Leader.

What is so important now that we all pull together for a Labour victory. Ed and the soon to be elected Shadow Cabinet, not to mention Labour MEPs, can now get on with the job of defeating the Coalition and returning Labour to government.

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Tagged as Andrew Marr, David Miliband, Ed Miliband, Polly Toynbee

March 7, 2010 · 4:48 pm

Unjust Rewards by Polly Toynbee and David Walker

As the Tories get into ever greater trouble over Lord Ashcroft and his Belize dollar, it seems timely to review Polly Toynbee and David Walker’s excellent book Unjust Rewards. This short, punchy polemic represents something of a rarity these days – an unashamedly progressive critique of poverty and wealth in present day Britain, and specifically the growing gap between the income of those at the top and those lower down.

Unjust Rewards is hard hitting, using real life case studies and well researched statistics. Toynbee and Walker have no doubt where to place the blame for our greedy society, personified by out of touch bankers who let the recession happen because they have no contact whatsoever with people outside their narrow social circle. It lies firmly with Margaret Thatcher.

The other eternally damaging Thatcher legacy is the idea that if you are rich enough and can therefore get away with it you don’t have to pay tax. Coupled with this is the equally, if not more damaging belief, that government is incompetent and our tax goes to waste. We who can afford it do not pay tax and we will convince everyone we possibly can that we don’t need the tax as public provision is useless. Neither a correct nor an endearing political philosophy.

By contrasting the bubbles in which both the rich and the poor live, Toynbee show just how divided Britain in the early 21^st century. And as ever it’s the poor who pay.

Yet it doesn’t have to be like this. Early years intervention in the lives of disadvantaged children can have truly amazing effects, as studies about the effect of Sure Start have shown. By the time adults face difficulties such as unemployment, practical help can make an enormous difference in getting people back to work. Government, by no means the inefficient big brother the right would have us believe, can and does have positive effects.

The point of all of this is that revenues go up when people work and medical costs go down as those in work are generally healthier. Reducing the gap between rich and poor also reduces the corrosive bitterness between the haves and the have nots.

The book’s final chapter is a “manifesto” for action, including the end of “non dom” status so that everyone living in this country pays UK taxes. If the Ashcroft affair has done anything, it’s surely put this on the map. No representation without taxation perhaps.