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Polly Toynbee

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Polly Toynbee
BornMary Louisa Toynbee
(1946-12-27) 27 December 1946 (age 77)
Isle of Wight, England
Occupation(s)Journalist and writer
Notable credit(s)Social Affairs editor: the BBC (1988–1995)
Columnist: The Guardian (since 1998).
Spouse(s)Peter Jenkins (1970–1992)
David Walker
Children3
RelativesArnold J. Toynbee (grandfather)
Philip Toynbee (father),

Mary Louisa Toynbee, known as Polly Toynbee (born 27 December 1946) is a British journalist and writer, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998.

She is a social democrat and broadly supports the Labour Party, while urging it in many areas to be more left-wing. During the 2010 general election she called for tactical voting to keep out the Conservatives with the hope that this would lead to a Lab-Lib coalition supporting proportional representation. She was appointed President of the British Humanist Association in July 2007. In 2007 she was named 'Columnist of the Year' at the British Press Awards.

Background

Polly Toynbee was born on the Isle of Wight, the second daughter of the literary critic Philip Toynbee (by his first wife Anne), granddaughter of the historian Arnold J. Toynbee, and great-great niece of philanthropist and economic historian Arnold Toynbee, after whom Toynbee Hall in the East End of London is named. Her parents divorced when Toynbee was aged four and she moved to London with her mother. 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 won a scholarship to read history at St Anne's College, Oxford, despite gaining only one A-level. During her gap year, in 1966, she worked for Amnesty International in Rhodesia (which had just declared independence) until she was expelled by the government. She published her first novel, Leftovers, in 1966. Following her expulsion from Rhodesia, Toynbee revealed the existence of the "Harry" letters, which detailed the alleged funding of Amnesty International by the British government.

After 18 months at Oxford, she dropped out, finding work in a factory and a burger bar and hoping to write in her spare time. She later said "I had a loopy idea that I could work with my hands during the day and in the evening come home and write novels and poetry, and be Tolstoy... But I very quickly discovered why people who work in factories don't usually have the energy to write when they get home." She went into journalism, working on the diary at The Observer, and turned her eight months of experience in manual work (along with "undercover" stints as a nurse and an Army recruit) into the book A Working Life (1970).

Toynbee genealogy

The Toynbees have been prominent in British intellectual society for several generations (note that this diagram is not a comprehensive Toynbee family tree):

Joseph Toynbee
Pioneering otolaryngologist		Harriet Holmes
Arnold Toynbee
Economic historian		Harry Valpy ToynbeeGilbert Murray
Classicist and public intellectual		Lady Mary Howard
Arnold J. Toynbee
Universal historian		Rosalind Murray
1890–1967
Antony Harry Toynbee
1914–39		Philip Toynbee
Writer and journalist		Anne PowellLawrence Toynbee
b. 1922
Josephine ToynbeePolly Toynbee
Journalist

Career

Toynbee worked 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. She later rejoined The Guardian. She has also written for The Observer and the Radio Times; at one time she edited the Washington Monthly USA.

Polly Toynbee speaks at the October 2005 Labour Party conference

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, during which time she contracted salmonella. The book is critical of conditions in low pay jobs in Britain. She also contributed an introduction to the UK edition of Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.

Currently Toynbee serves as President of the Social Policy Association. She is chair of the Brighton Festival, deputy treasurer of the Fabian Society.

Political history and opinions

Toynbee and her first husband Peter Jenkins (from 1970) were supporters of the Social Democratic Party breakaway 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%), and finishing third. She later refused to support the subsequent merger of the SDP with the Liberals (to form the Liberal Democrats), reacting instead by rejoining Labour when the rump SDP collapsed.

Toynbee strongly supports state education, though she had two of her three children partly educated in the private sector, leading to accusations of hypocrisy. Although she has been consistently critical of many of Tony Blair's New Labour reforms, she wrote in 2005 that his government "remains the best government of my political lifetime". 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, Greg Clark (a former SDP member, now a Conservative Minister), 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." In response to the episode, Boris Johnson, at the time a Conservative MP and journalist who had been severely criticised by Toynbee, rejected any association with Toynbee's views, writing 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".

Having advocated Brown to succeed Blair as Prime Minister, she continued to endorse him in the early part of his premiership. By spring 2009 she had become sharply critical of Brown, arguing that he had failed to introduce the social-democratic policies he promised, and was very poor at presentation too. She subsequently called for his departure, voluntary or otherwise. In the European Elections of June 2009 she advocated a vote for the Liberal Democrats. During the 2010 general election she advocated a tactical vote for whichever candidate was best able to keep the Conservatives out of power.

In October 2010 Toynbee was criticised for an article in The Guardian in which she said the government's benefits changes would drive many poor people out of London and could be seen as a "final solution" for their situation. Some people interpreted this as a reference to the Nazis, which Toynbee said was not her intention. A Press Complaints Commission report in the matter ruled the comments were "insensitive", but did not breach any rules as the organisation's remit does not cover matters of taste and offence. She later apologised for using the term.

Toynbee has been described as "the queen of leftist journalists", and in 2008 topped a poll of 100 "opinion makers", carried out by Editorial Intelligence. She was also named the most influential columnist in the UK. With her current partner, former Social Affairs editor of The Guardian David Walker (Peter Jenkins died in 1992), Toynbee has co-authored two books reviewing the successes and failures of New Labour in power. In "Unjust Rewards" (2008) they argued that "excess at the top hurts others".

Views on religion

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

In 2004 the Islamic Human Rights Commission awarded Toynbee the 'Most Islamophobic Media Personality' title in the Annual Islamophobia Awards, a claim she strongly contested. She claimed that she is simply a consistent atheist, and is just as 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." Toynbee had agreed to debate with philosopher William Lane Craig during his UK October visit, but subsequently pulled out, saying "I hadn't realised the nature of Mr Lane Craig's debating style, and having now looked at his previous performances, this is not my kind of forum".

Honours

Toynbee was awarded an Honorary Degree by the University of Essex in 1999 and 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". The University of Leeds awarded her third Honorary Doctorate in 2008.

She won the Orwell Prize for journalism in 1998 (for journalism published by The Independent), and in 2007 was named 'Columnist of the Year' at the British Press Awards.

Personal life

Toynbee married The Guardian's political columnist Peter Jenkins in 1970 having met him at trade union conference; they had three children. Jenkins died from a lung disease in 1992. For many years she lived in a house just off Clapham Common, South London, although she sold this in 2011. Toynbee is married to David Walker, a Guardian journalist and former communications director of the Audit Commission.

Toynbee is a member of The Arts Emergency Service..


References

  1. National Portrait Gallery, Polly Toynbee
  2. Toynbee, Polly (1 May 2010). "The vote is precious, but we can't be. Keep the enemy out". The Guardian. London.
  3. ^ "Polly Toynbee named new President of British Humanist Association". British Humanist Association. 2007. Archived from the original on 28 December 2007. Retrieved 21 April 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  4. Langley, William (26 November 2006). "Profile: Polly Toynbee". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  5. ^ McSmith, Andy (26 November 2006). "Polly Toynbee: Reborn, as a lady of the right". The Independent. London.
  6. Professor David P Forsythe (11 August 2009). Encyclopedia of Human Rights. Oxford University Press. pp. 164–. ISBN 978-0-19-533402-9. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
  7. "SPA Executive Committee 2007–08". Social Policy Association. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
  8. Langley, William (26 November 2006). "Profile: Polly Toynbee". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  9. Polly Toynbee and Andrew Pierce on air and rail strikes, The Daily Politics, BBC, 19 March 2010.
  10. Toynbee, Polly (1 March 2011). "Some SDP thinking might strengthen Labour's nerve". The Guardian. London.
  11. McSmith, Andy (26 November 2006). "Polly Toynbee: Reborn, as a lady of the right". The Independent. London.
  12. Jones, Lewis (2008). "Toynbee: the great comic figure of the age". The First Post. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  13. Toynbee, Polly (23 September 2005). "The fight for the centre ground is throttling British politics". The Guardian. London.
  14. Toynbee, Polly (13 April 2005). "Hold your nose and vote Labour". Guardian Unlimited Election blog. London. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
  15. Johnson, Boris (23 November 2006). "Polly Toynbee the Tory guru: that's barking. Or maybe not". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
  16. Chaundy, Bob (24 November 2006). "Faces of the week". BBC News. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
  17. Toynbee, Polly (29 June 2007). "It's a truly decent, clever team, but that is not enough. Now they must excite". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 August 2009.
  18. Toynbee, Polly (2 May 2009). "Gordon Brown: no ideas and no regrets". The Guardian. London.
  19. Toynbee, Polly (12 May 2009). "Gordon Brown must go – by June 5". The Guardian. London.
  20. Toynbee, Polly (1 June 2009). "Throw out bad councils and vote Lib Dem for Europe". The Guardian. London.
  21. Polly Toynvee "Your heart might say Clegg. But vote with your head", The Guarian, 24 April 2010
  22. Toynbee, Polly (25 October 2010). "Benefits cut, rents up: this is Britain's housing time bomb". The Guardian. London.
  23. "In the name of reason, cut the caterwauling". Daily Mail. London. 30 October 2010.
  24. "Hysterics over housing". The Daily Telegraph. London. 29 October 2010.
  25. Glover, Stephen (28 October 2010). "Labour's gleeful hopes for a double-dip recession are juvenile. Worse, they are out of touch with the public mood and unpatriotic". Daily Mail. London.
  26. Press Complaints Commission >> News >> Commission's decision in the case of various v The Guardian
  27. "Are the Tories being bullied?". Today. 29 October 2010. BBC. Radio 4. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
  28. "Polly Toynbee Voted UK's 'Most Influential' Commentator" (Press release). Editorial Intelligence. 13 April 2008.
  29. Reeves, Richard (23 August 2008). "Review: Unjust Rewards by Polly Toynbee and David Walker". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  30. Sutherland, Ruth (14 September 2008). "Asbos for the millionaires: A strong and hopeful analysis of the growing gap between Britain's rich and poor". The Observer. London.
  31. "Winners of Islamophobia Awards 2004 announced" (Press release). Islamic Human Rights Commission. 26 June 2004. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
  32. Behind the Burka. Womens History Review, Volume 10, Number 4, 2001.
  33. bethinking.org – What is Apologetics? – Polly Toynbee steps in where Grayling & Dawkins fear to tread
  34. (11 August 2011) Justin Brierley confirming the pull out on Twitter]
  35. Article about pullout
  36. "Honorary Degrees". London South Bank University. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
  37. The Orwell Prize, Polly Toynbee
  38. Walker, Tim (18 December 2010). "Rage at Audit Commission boss pocketing a £30,000 payoff". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  39. "Media Diversity UK". E-activist.com. Retrieved 25 October 2013.

Select bibliography

  • Leftovers, a novel (1966) ISBN 0-586-02643-6
  • A Working Life (1971) ISBN 0-340-14760-1
  • Hospital (1977) ISBN 0-09-131390-2
  • Way We Live Now (1981) ISBN 0-413-49090-4
  • Lost Children: Story of Adopted Children Searching for Their Mothers (1985) ISBN 0-09-160440-0
  • Hard Work: Life in Low-pay Britain (2003) ISBN 0-7475-6415-9
  • Better or Worse?: Has Labour Delivered? (2005) ISBN 0-7475-7982-2
  • Unjust Rewards: Exposing Greed and Inequality in Britain Today (with David Walker, 2008) ISBN 978-1-84708-093-6

External links

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