Polly gets close...

The beloved P Toynbee is in excellent form in the Guardian in condemning the appalling discrepancies between rich and poor in modern Britain. 'The ranks of the global super-rich – those with more than $30 (£23m) – swelling by 13% last year barely merit a mention today, beyond the Guardian’s sharp-eyed wealth correspondent. The number of dollar billionaires has shot up by 15% too.'.

Polly (if I may be so bold) notes the appalling ignorance of these ultra-rich when it comes to the realities for most people in Britain, their lack of remorse, and the 'crisis in personal debt among low earners: 22% of adults have less than £100 in savings.' She cites the relentless debt-collection processes, public as well as private, that produce 'deteriorating mental health and depression': 'It’s no surprise that this government is the most aggressive punisher of poor people, since it has deliberately caused so much poverty.' It is now 'predicted that 5 million children will be in poverty by 2022.'

A recent report from the Institute for Public Policy Research shows 'how gains from growth are diverted from wages to profit' and suggests some plans for redistribution and tax rises. Toynbee is right to say that 'Only Labour governments ever tilt the balance the other way.'

All good stuff, but also hints of banging on and on about Brexit grow throughout.

We are told that growing inequality 'fosters a bitter, directionless social grudge with a familiar tendency to turn on foreigners, erupting in the self-harm of Brexit.', peddling the old line about Brexit as unfocussed affect directed against foreigners in general. 

Then we get an interestingly ambivalent sentence: 'The Brexit catastrophe has consumed politics to the exclusion of all else – rightly as it risks economic damage that will make future social repair even harder.' Apart from anything else, this seems to commit the policy of economic redistribution to the same old 'trickle down' line -- 'social repair' will only take place in conditions of economic growth -- and complete an ideological inference that, since Brexit can be assumed to damage economic growth, working class Brexiteers, through ignorance, are their own worst enemies. The negative economic consequencs of Brexit, as she sees them, will outweigh any of the negative economic consequences that produced such dreadful poverty in the first place (like the Great Crash of 2008 and the EU-backed austerity that ensued)? 

The EU's famous 'freedoms' include the disastrous freedom of movement of capital which has produced the global super-rich, but the whole article gets close to saying 'Serves you right, you mugs!'

Finally, and most dubious of all: 

From now on, nothing at all must distract Jeremy Corbyn’s front bench from the ruthless pursuit of power. They must adopt every winning strategy – and that includes attacking Brexit every day from now on.

Much to doubt here, of course -- Corbyn wins by attacking Brexit asumes rather a lot, to put it mildly. It is also quite likely to lose votes in Brexit-voting constituencies unless you believe those rather dodgy polls saying Labour voters have changed their minds. Despite all the material above, the only concrete example of a winning strategy is to oppose Brexit. (Admittedly, the Labour Party offers little else, but its economic policies in its Manifesto were probably quite popular).

Poor old Polly Toynbee can never leave it alone and must always repudiate Brexit. In doing so she must always connect Brexit to current catastrophes. Dubious consequences await -- if Brexit happens those who supported it can be blamed for increased poverty and inequality?