Skipper

If someone had predicted, even five years ago that a Tory frontbencher would identify Polly Toynbee as a source of wisdom preferable to Winston Churchill, one would have discreetly called for the gentlemen in white coats. Polly has been unfairly demonised by the rightwing- their politicians, press not to mention leading bloggers- as the archetypal wishy-washy liberal- as the reason, in short, why no-one should bother reading The Guardian.

As a devotee of this 'Bolshevik broadsheet', I have occasionally been irritated by her views but long ago-after reading her book on low pay based on working as a cleaner -decided always to read her far from wishy-washy articles. On poverty and low pay I have always thought her by far the best informed columnist and now, from the opposition, comes irrefutable confirmation. Her 'caravan in the desert' analogy, borrowed by Greg Clark, the above mentioned front bench spokesman, who has doubtless caused blood pressure amongst Telegraph readers to soar, is a good one. She reprises it today:

'All [in the caravan] may move forward, but how far behind do the poor at the back have to fall before they cease to be part of the same caravan at all?'

She calls for a more generous minimum wage. This is something which I strongly support since my son has been living with me after university, working in Manchester, seeking to save money to finance a year's study to become a professional actor. I can testify he is not living in the slightest bit extravagantly, yet, even though he pays no rent, he has saved nothing at all. How much more difficult is it for someone with a family to survive on the basic 'fiver plus a bit' per hour?

As Polly observes, it is Conservative acceptance of the notion of 'relative poverty' that is the real breakthrough; before that they tended to cling to Churchill's minimum 'safety net' standard. Polly reinforces the point:

'Poverty is measured internationally in relative terms, because that is how people feel it. To be poor is to fall behind what most ordinary people have in your society.'

And Greg Clark's advice to his leader does underline the one undeniable achievement of the legacy-hungry Blair: he has succeeded in extinguishing the remaining life in the head-banging school of thought initiated by Thatcher's 'no such thing as society' assertion. And long may it remain buried somewhere in one of the far from glorious chapters of the Conservative Party's history.