6 d. ago To those who question what Labour stands for – look at Best Start. It will change Britain’s future | Polly Toynbee

Sure Start was New Labour’s finest achievement, and the Tories destroyed it. Now it’s back with a mission to put children at the heart of everythingThey hunt high and low for Labour’s missing message, vision, purpose or identity. Well, here it is, where it always was, in the future of children. It’s what Labour does best, what it is for: building a society where children come first and everything else falls into place. The foundations have now been laid by Bridget Phillipson by finally bringing back Sure Start to England – the most successful achievement of the last Labour government – now rebranded as Best Start family hubs.It’s a pity about the new name, but young parents recognise “hubs”, whereas Sure Start is largely gone and forgotten. Its uprooting began the day Michael Gove arrived as education secretary in 2010. He entered the “Department for Children, Schools and Families” – a name chosen to reflect the awareness that children don’t learn without wraparound care for their w...

Politics

1 week ago Beards may be dirtier than toilets – but all men should grow one | Polly Hudson

Without his, my husband resembles an estate agent. It’s time more men took advantage of this hairy little glow-upIt’s a convenient truth of our time that if you Google for long enough, you will eventually find the answer you want. In other words, there’s a lot of anti-beard propaganda out there, and I’m not falling for any of it. I love beards. So I keep scrolling.Past the recent Washington Post report that some toilets contain fewer germs than the average beard (that’s pretty much true of phone screens, and we happily rub them on our faces). Not even pausing on an investigation into whether it would be hygienic to scan canines and humans in the same MRI machine, which found most beards contained more microbes and bacteria than dog fur. La la la, I’m not listening. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago How bad am I at small talk? Let me tell you about vaginal dryness ... | Polly Hudson

I’m not sure there is anything more terrifying than chatting to parents at the school gates – then lying awake at night reliving my most embarrassing momentsThe importance of 31 December is well documented, but no one ever talks about the angst of 22 July. Or 23, or 25, depending on where you live. But while the date may vary, the bittersweet feelings are surely universal. The end of the school year is an oddly profound moment.This one’s hitting different in our house too, as our son is about to finish primary school. It’s poignant and nostalgic – wasn’t he just a baby yesterday? There is, however, one part of his cosy little school that I won’t miss. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago To all who think capitalism can drive progressive change, it won’t – and here’s the shocking proof | Polly Toynbee

Asset manager Aberdeen’s surprise cut to funding research into inequality has left those that used its grants for good works reelingThe axe fell with shocking suddenness. On Thursday Aberdeen Group plc terminated its Financial Fairness Trust without notice and sacked the CEO, Mubin Haq, the chair and all the trustees, leaving eight staff dangling. The company tells me it plans to move in a different direction. That dreaded phrase marks the end of 16 remarkable years, during which the trust sponsored some of the most influential research into inequality and its financial causes.Aberdeen is a wealth management and investment company. I admired its willingness to fund research not in its own immediate interest, but for the sake of social improvement, as a sign that decent capitalism was possible. Now that’s over. The mood has changed. Wildfires started by President Trump are engulfing global companies as his administration attempts to bar asset and retirement plan managers from conside...

Events

1 week ago Investigation launched after Aidan O’Brien horse 'distracted' by photographer in big race

Whirl’s defeat of Kalpana in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes was not as straightforward as it might have been, according to Ryan Moore

Events

2 w. ago Another tragic fact about this disastrous welfare bill: it proves Labour hasn’t learned and doesn’t listen | Polly Toynbee

From cabinet members to the British public, there is an outcry about these benefits cuts. Why is the government always so poor at reading the room?This disaster bill won’t pass on Tuesday. The dangerous obduracy of the prime minister and chancellor confirms precisely what Labour MPs say: they haven’t listened, they aren’t listening and the fear is they won’t learn to listen. Even if the bill squeezed through with some softening, it will be a pyrrhic victory. Why take such a risk for so little? U-turns are better than crashes, but best not left to the last nanosecond.Senior ministers, some of whom have already spoken up in cabinet, will put their feet down firmly to insist on radical alteration, or better still that it’s withdrawn and rethought to avoid what they call “this catastrophe”. If niceties of parliamentary practice escape some, understand how extraordinary this rebellion is. Read their “reasoned amendment” with its crushing reasons why.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist ...

Events

2 w. ago Another tragic fact about this disastrous welfare bill: it proves Labour hasn’t learned and doesn’t truly listen | Polly Toynbee

From cabinet members to the British public, there is an outcry about these benefits cuts. Why is the government always so poor at reading the room?This disaster bill won’t pass on Tuesday. The dangerous obduracy of the prime minister and chancellor confirms precisely what Labour MPs say: they haven’t listened, they aren’t listening and the fear is they won’t learn to listen. Even if the bill squeezed through with some softening, it will be a pyrrhic victory. Why take such a risk for so little? U-turns are better than crashes, but best not left to the last nanosecond.Senior ministers, some of whom have already spoken up in cabinet, will put their feet down firmly to insist on radical alteration, or better still that it’s withdrawn and rethought to avoid what they call “this catastrophe”. If niceties of parliamentary practice escape some, understand how extraordinary this rebellion is. Read their “reasoned amendment” with its crushing reasons why.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist ...

Events

2 w. ago My husband and I have found our love language – it’s called a screen divorce | Polly Hudson

Like a sleep divorce, where couples sleep in separate beds, separating screens means that you both get to watch what you want on the TVRelationships are all about compromise, but there are some areas where it’s simply impossible. Then it becomes about a mutually beneficial workaround instead. A poll has revealed that 55% of couples regularly argue over which TV show to watch: hot on the heels of the sleep divorce (different bedrooms) are we headed for the screen divorce (different tellies)?Don’t mean to boast, but my husband and I are one step ahead of this trend – screen separated, if you will. In the Venn diagram of programmes we enjoy, the intersection is big enough to fit the words Taskmaster and The Traitors, and that’s about it. He’s tried to lure me into his televisual world, I’ve tried to tempt him into mine, but no dice. Eventually, we realised one of us was always watching through gritted teeth, while the other felt guilty. And so, just like the courageous pioneers of the ...

Politics

3 w. ago I know judging other parents is wrong. But when it comes to giving kids smartphones, I'm a lost cause | Polly Hudson

From feeding to bedtimes, toys to piercings, from the day your child is born, you’re monitored by other parents. And I’m as complicit as anyone else Not all heroes wear capes; some have a box in their bedroom instead. Dragons’ Den’s Sara Davies says she confiscates her kids’ friends’ phones when they come round, so instead of sitting glued to their devices, they talk to each other and play together.“I have a box at the front door they put their phones and iPads in the box and it stays in my bedroom,” she told the Daily Mail. “No one complains. They’re outside playing football, they merge so much better – and they communicate.” Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago I hope this is the last piece I ever have to write about assisted dying | Polly Toynbee

Today’s vote is on a knife edge. MPs must take their chance to drive forward personal freedoms – and add to Labour’s legacyMPs, read this horror before you vote today. Here’s how some people are slowly dying, right now, in mortal agony untreatable by the best palliative care: “Some will retch at the stench of their own body rotting. Some will vomit their own faeces. Some will suffocate, slowly, inexorably, over several days.” An average of 17 people a day are dying these bad deaths, according to 2019 figures, as reported by palliative care professionals who see it happen.The Inescapable Truth, a report from Dignity in Dying, revealed what is usually kept hidden from us: the shocking last months for the unluckiest. It could happen to you or me. The assisted dying bill’s final Commons vote today is no abstract debate about slippery slopes or what God wants: to do nothing is to inflict torture on many.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnistIn the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contact...

Events

3 w. ago I hope this is the last piece I ever have to write in defence of assisted dying | Polly Toynbee

Today’s vote is on a knife edge. MPs must take their chance to drive forward personal freedoms – and add to Labour’s legacyMPs, read this horror before you vote today. Here’s how some people are slowly dying, right now, in mortal agony untreatable by the best palliative care: “Some will retch at the stench of their own body rotting. Some will vomit their own faeces. Some will suffocate, slowly, inexorably, over several days.” An average of 17 people a day are dying these bad deaths, according to 2019 figures, as reported by palliative care professionals who see it happen.The Inescapable Truth, a report from Dignity in Dying, revealed what is usually kept hidden from us: the shocking last months for the unluckiest. It could happen to you or me. The assisted dying bill’s final Commons vote today is no abstract debate about slippery slopes or what God wants: to do nothing is to inflict torture on many.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnistIn the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contact...

Events