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Polly Toynbee (born Mary Louisa Toynbee on December 27 1946) is a journalist and writer in the United Kingdom, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998. She is a social democrat and Labour party supporter. She was appointed President of the British Humanist Association in July 2007

Biography

She was born on the Isle of Wight. After attending Badminton School, a girls' independent school in Bristol, followed by the Holland Park School, a state comprehensive school in London (she had failed the Eleven Plus examination), she read history at St Anne's College, Oxford, but dropped out before completing her degree. She then went into journalism, working for many years at The Guardian before joining the BBC where she was social affairs editor (1988–1995). At The Independent, which she joined after leaving the BBC, she was a columnist and associate editor, working with then editor Andrew Marr. After Marr's principal spell as Independent editor she rejoined The Guardian. She has also written for The Observer and the Radio Times; at one time she edited the Washington Monthly USA. Currently Toynbee serves as President of the Social Policy Association.

Polly Toynbee was married to the late Peter Jenkins, also a journalist. She now lives with the journalist David Walker, with whom she has collaborated on books reviewing the successes and failures of New Labour in power. Both she and Jenkins were supporters of the Social Democratic Party breakway from Labour in 1981 – both signing the Limehouse Declaration. Toynbee stood for the party at the 1983 General Election in Lewisham East, garnering 9351 votes (22%). She later became something of a rarity in refusing to support the subsequent merger of the SDP with the Liberals (to form the Liberal Democrats), reacting instead by moving back towards Labour when the rump SDP collapsed.

Although in recent years, Toynbee has been critical of some of Tony Blair's New Labour reforms, she has stated that it is "the best government of my lifetime" and is noted as a stalwart supporter of New Labour.

During the 2005 General Election, with dissatisfaction high among traditional Labour voters Toynbee wrote several times about the dangers of protest voting, "Giving Blair a bloody nose". She urged Guardian readers to vote with a clothes peg over their nose if they had to, to make sure Michael Howard would not win from a split vote. "Voters think they can take a free hit at Blair while assuming Labour will win anyway. But Labour won't win if people won't vote for it".

In December 2006, an advisor to Tory leader David Cameron claimed Toynbee should be an influence on the modern Conservative Party, causing a press furore. Cameron later clarified this to say he was impressed by one metaphor in her writings - of society being a caravan crossing a desert, where the people at the back can fall so far behind they are no longer part of the tribe. He added, "I will not be introducing Polly Toynbee's policies." Toynbee expressed some discomfort with this embrace, adding, "I don't suppose the icebergs had much choice about being hugged by Cameron either."

Toynbee was awarded an Honorary Degree by London South Bank University in 2002. In 2005, she was made an Honorary Doctor of The Open University for "her notable contribution to the educational and cultural well-being of society". She is chair of the Brighton Festival.

Hard Work: Life in Low-Pay Britain

Following in the footsteps of Barbara Ehrenreich's 'Nickel and Dimed' (2001), she published in 2003 Hard Work: Life in Low-Pay Britain about an experimental period voluntarily living on the minimum wage, which was £4.10 per hour at the time. She worked as a hospital porter in a National Health Service hospital, a dinnerlady in a primary school, a nursery assistant, a call-centre employee, a cake factory worker and a care home assistant. The book is critical of conditions in low pay jobs in the UK.

She also contributed an introduction to the UK edition of Ehrenreich's, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.

Views on religion

An atheist, Toynbee is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society, a supporter of the Humanist Society of Scotland and was appointed President of the British Humanist Association in July 2007.

In 2004 Toynbee was awarded the 'Most Islamophobic Media Personality' title in the Annual Islamophobia Awards.

She is also critical of Christianity and Judaism. She wrote:

The pens sharpen – Islamophobia! No such thing. Primitive Middle Eastern religions (and most others) are much the same – Islam, Christianity and Judaism all define themselves through disgust for women's bodies.

Criticism

Toynbee is a polarising figure, attracting both praise and criticism. She recently topped a poll of 100 "opinion makers", carried out by Editorial Intelligence. She was also named the most influential columnist in the UK.

Richard Littlejohn of the Sun has called Toynbee the "Guardian's resident madwoman" amongst other less appealing epithets, and Conservative MP and journalist, Boris Johnson, wrote that she, "incarnates all the nannying, high-taxing, high-spending schoolmarminess of Blair's Britain. Polly is the high priestess of our paranoid, mollycoddled, risk-averse, airbagged, booster-seated culture of political correctness and 'elf 'n' safety fascism".

Family

Toynbee was the second daughter of the literary critic Philip Toynbee (by his first wife Anne), and so granddaughter of the historian Arnold J. Toynbee and thus great-great niece of philanthropist and economic historian Arnold Toynbee after whom Toynbee Hall in the East End of London is named.

She is also, despite her scorn for supposedly aristocratic Tories like Boris Johnson, a direct descendant of George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle.

Her boyfriend is David Walker, the social affairs editor of The Guardian, with whom she has co-authored two books.

See also

• List of atheists

References

1. Polly Toynbee named new President of British Humanist Association
2. Profile: Polly Toynbee November 26, 2006
3. 'Hold your nose and vote Labour'
4. ' Polly Toynbee the Tory guru: that's barking. Or maybe not'
5. 'LSBU Honorary Degrees'
6. Polly Toynbee named new President of British Humanist Association British Humanist Association website. Retrieved 21 June 2006
7. Winners of Islamophobia Awards 2004 announced 26 June 2004
8. Behind the Burka Women’s History Review, Volume 10, Number 4, 2001
9. Interview - Richard Littlejohn January 31, 2003
10. Faces of the week 24 November 2006
11. 'Polly Toynbee - Boris the jester, toff, serial liar and sociopath for mayor, 17 July 2007'
12. 'BBC Online - Faces of the Week, 24 November 2006'

Partial bibliography

• Hard Work: Life in Low-pay Britain (2003) ISBN 0-7475-6415-9.
• Lost Children: Story of Adopted Children Searching for Their Mothers (1985) ISBN 0-09-160440-0.
• Way We Live Now (1981) ISBN 0-413-49090-4.
• Hospital (1977) ISBN 0-09-131390-2.
• A Working Life (1971) ISBN 0-340-14760-1.
• Leftovers (1969) ISBN 0-586-02643-6.

External links

• Guardian columns by Polly Toynbee
• Political Journalist of the Year 2003 citation
• 2003 Honorary Degree from London South Bank University

• 1946 births
• BBC people
• British humanists
• British journalists
• English columnists
• Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford
• Guardian journalists
• Living people
• People associated with London South Bank University
• Critics of religions or philosophies
• English atheists