Dismembered: How the attack on the state harms us all

Wednesday 11 October 2017, 6.30pm

Speaker: Polly Toynbee and David Walker, The Guardian

Yarburgh Lectures

Book review: “Polly Toynbee and David Walker have long prowled the world of modern, dysfunctional, unequal Britain and have, on the whole, painted a disagreeable picture of it. Dismembered, despite its reasonable tone, also paints a disagreeable picture. The onslaught on the state over the last 30 years – the privatisations, outsourcings and dotty business school theorising – has done immense damage to British society, and shows little sign of weakening … Toynbee and Walker present much damning evidence as to what has happened in Britain … however, optimism keeps breaking in. To write a book of persuasion you have to believe that people can be persuaded – to hope that if voters only understood why they need an active state they would come to support it. (Guardian)

Speaker biographies: Polly Toynbee and David Walker have co-authored Dogma and Disarray: Cameron at Half-Time, Unjust Rewards: Exposing Greed and Inequality in Britain Today, The Verdict: Did Labour Change Britain? and Better or Worse: Did Labour Deliver? Polly Toynbee is a columnist for the Guardian. David Walker is a contributing editor to the Guardian Public and former director of public reporting at the Audit Commission.

Location: Ron Cooke Hub auditorium, Campus East

Admission: is by free ticket only. Please book below.