Peter Hoskin

Will Toynbee’s praise help or hinder Miliband?

Polly Toynbee’s article in today’s Guardian is really quite remarkable.  She’s certainly cooled towards Brown and his government over recent months.  But now the split is complete and unequivocal.  Here’s what she has to say about the Prime Minister’s reshuffle plans:

“It’s all too late. No one listens to a leader once 85% of people decide he is ‘not up to the job’, as in this week’s YouGov poll. It needs someone untrammelled by the past to change direction now.”

And who should that someone be?  Toynbee certainly rhapsodises enough about David Miliband.  His Guardian op-ed is described as a “sketched outline of radical policies”.  And his appearance on the Jeremy Vine Show apparently showed him in “a new light”, and at “breezy ease” with the situation.

Toynbee’s enthusiasm reveals just how well Miliband’s actions have worked – in one respect, at least. 

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