The definition of levelling down: the Bank of England calling for wage ‘restraint’ | Polly Toynbee

In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, the Bank's governor has betrayed a familiar disdain for those struggling to cope

With just a few words, Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, perfectly crystallised the state and the fate of the nation. Tone-deaf and socially oblivious, the voice booming out from the economic seat of power captured the history of the last lost decade.

We do need to see restraint in pay bargaining, otherwise it will get out of control," Bailey told the BBC last week. As wages continue to fall, inflation is set to hit 7.25% in a couple of months, while pay will rise by far less. TUC leaders protest that workers have been hammered and now they're coming back for more." This is a very tough message to swallow when take-home pay is falling," the Institute for Fiscal Studies director, Paul Johnson, tells me, pointing to a decade of lost pay - the longest period of pay stagnation in many years.