This quote is priceless.* I almost want to frame it. It's not that she's entirely wrong, it's the totemic significance of 3 million for Labour and the sudden renunciation of its importance:
Even if unemployment reaches 3 million, that still leaves 90% in secure jobs. Most people will suffer not at all in this recession: on the contrary they will do well
Polly Toynbee, The Guardian 25.11.08
The rest of the article is also bit rubbish. My personal favourite is describing a tax that she admits affects 1.3% of the country as Labour having 'unfurled its old battle banner for social justice.'
Incidentally, Polly's grandfather, A.J., was a wide ranging historian and one of the first Byzantine chairs. He's less fashionable now, but he would have been pleased at the cyclical nature of politics and the significance of his grandaughter acknowledging that 3 million may not have been so bad after all.
*BTW, I've shamelessly stolen someone else's research to find it.
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