Polly Toynbee's Blog

After a tumultuous run-up to a make-or-break moment for the government, has the chancellor struck the right balance?

There is nothing wrong with questioning the mighty cost of the lockdowns, but we can’t let hardline libertarians rewrite Britain’s pandemic history

That number will stay fixed for ever in public memory: 23,000 people died because Boris Johnson resisted locking the country down in time. As Covid swept in, and with horrific images of Italian temporary morgues in tents, he went on holiday and took no calls. With the NHS bracing to be “overwhelmed” by the virus, he rode his new motorbike, walked his dog and hosted friends at Chevening.

Nothing is surprising about that: he was ejected from Downing Street and later stepped down as an MP largely for partying and lying to parliament about it. Everyone knew he was a self-aggrandising fantasist with a “toxic and chaotic culture” around him. But this is not just about one narcissistic politician. It’s about his entire rightwing coterie of libertarians and their lethally dominant creed in the UK media.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

The party sees its harsh policies as politically necessary. But what happened to talking up the value of migrants for a thriving economy and society?

This is how Labour MPs see it. They face brutal dilemmas and miserable choices. How to manage our asylum system is one of the worst. Through their constituency work, they will have met refugees with tragic stories of war and fear, of terrifying journeys across the world, of gangsters on night-time beaches. But MPs’ experience of hearing those heart-rending stories clash head-on with what they see as political necessity, demanding they block their ears and harden their hearts. A life in politics is not for the squeamish.

Wes Streeting, a practising Christian, yesterday writhed while answering questions on LBC radio about the home secretary’s tough plans for deterring small boat arrivals. The flavour of his reply reflected how many on Labour’s benches feel. Confronted with the government’s intention to deport more families with children – ending what Shabana Mahmood said was feeble “hesitancy” – he sought a bogus escape by claiming many would leave voluntarily, making forced removals “low”. But when pushed, he said yes, removals must be enforced. Was he comfortable with that? “Honestly? Comfortable? No. But is it the right thing to do for the country? Yes.”

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

The focus should be on talking up this government’s achievements so far – and preventing a Reform victory

The dominant political force sweeping across Europe is the “throw the bastards out” party, whoever happens to be in power. Discontent and distrust spread as global democracy declines. Only 6.6% of the world’s people live in a full democracy, according to the Economist’s global index, down from 12.5% 10 years ago. Europe is still the most democratic place, but it’s turbulent.

Britain is an insular country that needs reminding it is not alone in its political turmoil after an omnishambles week for Keir Starmer’s government. The rumbling earthquakes beneath No 10 also shake the ground under the Élysée Palace and other official residences. A number of European countries have thrown out old governments in the past three years, including Finland, Germany, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and the UK (Starmer is Britain’s sixth prime minister in less than a decade). Most are still stuck in a state of post-2008-crash stagnation, more recently compounded by the pandemic, inflation, energy price rises, worsening housing crises and a cost of living squeeze.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

No one denies their deep grievances – but after seeing improvements and winning generous pay settlements, the BMA is overplaying its hand

The bizarre, self-defeating assault on Wes Streeting suggests a pre-budget panic. This feels like a government losing touch and escaping from dismal circumstances in the real world. The ricochets damaged the PM and Morgan McSweeney, whoever organised these orchestrated briefings. If the briefers are not “found” and fired, No 10 looks either weak or guilty.

The health secretary shrugged it off with wit and agility in a host of interviews and left for Manchester to speak to the NHS Providers conference. There, he addressed grim-faced managers confronting the hardest of times. Resident (formerly junior) doctors go out on a five-day strike from 7am on Friday. Their timing aims at maximum disruption in what will be “one of the toughest winters our staff have ever faced” according to NHS England’s CEO, Jim Mackey. An exceptionally virulent flu strain has arrived early, with cases already several times higher than normal. Last month, flu hospitalisations were up 74% week-on-week.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

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BBC chair Samir Shah apologises for way in which speech from US president was edited after corporation’s two most senior executives resign. This liveblog is now closed

Full report: BBC board member with Tory links ‘led charge’ in systemic bias claims, say insiders

We have heard from Culture, Media and Sport committee chair Caroline Dinenage, who has suggested that the outgoing BBC director Tim Davie ignored an internal dossier into bias at the BBC (see post at 09.06 for more detail on the dossier).

She said Davie “ignored” concerns raised in Michael Prescott’s report over the way the speech by Donald Trump was edited for Panorama.

I’m very sad about Tim Davie stepping down. I think he was an effective leader at the BBC.

I think he was a great champion for public service media, but there is no escaping the fact that he was very slow to act on this particular issue. But this isn’t the first time and on this particular issue, Michael Prescott’s report, he just didn’t take it seriously until it was too late.

I would like to say it has been the privilege of my career to serve as the CEO of BBC News and to work with our brilliant team of journalists.

I stepped down over the weekend because the buck stops with me. But I’d like to make one thing very clear, BBC News is not institutionally biased. That’s why it’s the world’s most trusted news provider.

Replacing the TV licence with a means-tested alternative may help disarm the right of one of its most effective weapons

Gotcha! The BBC’s enemies have taken two scalps and inflicted maximum damage. The shock resignation of the director general, Tim Davie, and the head of news, Deborah Turness, make it look as if the BBC accepts that it does indeed suffer from “serious and systemic” bias in its coverage of issues including Donald Trump, Gaza and trans rights. But in this political coup, only the BBC’s sworn ideological foes think a cherrypicked sample of journalistic errors amounts to “systemic” bias.

It was indeed a bad mistake to splice together two bits of Trump’s speech; but it needed a quick apology, not a decapitation. The BBC’s chair, Samir Shah, I’m told, tried to persuade Davie to stay to avoid this apparent capitulation to critics: Davie should indeed have stood his ground, not weakened the BBC by walking away.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

The service is a symbol of our shared values as a nation. No wonder divisive forces in politics and the press are working to undermine it

Public satisfaction with the NHS is at its lowest ever level, according to the most recent British Social Attitudes survey: just 21% of patients are quite or very satisfied with the state it is in. Deep analysis of the feedback makes for grim reading. Jim Mackey, the chief executive of NHS England, now warns: “We have damaged our relationship with the population and it’s their service. We only exist at their will.” Public satisfaction is one of the most important of all targets, he said, along with the NHS staff survey, which shows that only 64% would recommend their service to a family member.

He was speaking at the King’s Fund annual conference this week, where graphs showing public attitudes cast waves of gloom. Access to GPs, hospital appointments and A&E were top public concerns; social care has only 13% approval; and the young are more dissatisfied than the old. On quality, the public is a little more forgiving: 51% were pleased with the quality of NHS care. But people are perverse. Nearly three-quarters think the NHS doesn’t get enough money and it needs more staff – yet people are evenly split on whether to pay more tax to fund the NHS, or stay as we are. People use an easy excuse for not paying more for public services: 51% claim the NHS doesn’t spend its money well. One incident, one pointless letter sends a message of inefficiency.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

The Reform leader’s speech was full of contradictions and damaging cuts. But if he makes it to No 10, Labour will be to blame

If you screw up your eyes and look four years into the future, can you imagine a Prime Minister Farage standing victorious on that No 10 doorstep? I’m afraid the answer is yes – just about. I can see that ghastly grin. If everything that can go wrong does go wrong, then it’s not inconceivable, and everyone had better believe it.

The showman had on his serious face to talk about the economy in today’s speech. He had some pretty heavy lifting to do, heaving out impossible promises made only a short time ago. Gone was his £90bn tax cut bonanza. Public spending will be slashed instead: Reform has already put 100,000 civil servants “on notice”. Farage the chameleon now says his is both “the party of workers” and one that is “pro-business”. Reform had also briefly posed as the party of poor children with a suggestion that it would end the two-child benefit cap, but Farage rapidly cut back eligibility: now it’s only for couples, only when both work, and only for British nationals. He also promised spending cuts and big cuts to the benefits bill.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please .

There is no popular way to raise taxes, and with Labour tanking in the polls, my advice to the chancellor is this: do it anyway

On Westminster Bridge on Tuesday demonstrators wearing masks of the big four banks’ CEOs gestured with jeroboams of champagne and sacks of cash. Positive Money, Tax Justice UK, the Fairness Foundation, Equality Trust and others are campaigning for a windfall tax on banks’ accelerating domestic profits. Inflation has yet again raised their takings to record heights for no extra effort, the same inflation that also raises the cost of living.

When oil and gas prices soared in 2022, the Tory government set a 35% energy profits levy. Why not on banks, an equally unavoidable utility, they demand? Naturally British banks fight back. “Our sector underpins investment, business growth and home ownership across the country,” says their lobby group, UK Finance. It will damage their competitiveness with foreign banks. Nonsense, say the campaigners, they would only tax UK retail profits. Banks’ investment in the real economy has been dropping, as they pay growing sums to their shareholders.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist