Polly Toynbee
Polly Toynbee | |
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'Continuing' SDP (1988–1990) | |
Spouses | |
Relatives | Arnold J. Toynbee (grandfather) Philip Toynbee (father) |
Mary Louisa "Polly" Toynbee (/ˈtɔɪnbi/; born 27 December 1946)[1] is a British journalist and writer. She has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998.
She is a
Toynbee previously worked as social affairs editor for the
Background
Toynbee was born at Yafford on the Isle of Wight,[5] the second daughter of the literary critic Philip Toynbee by his first wife Anne Barbara Denise (1920-2004), daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel George Powell, of the Grenadier Guards.[6][7]
Her grandfather was the historian
Toynbee attended Badminton School, a private girls' school in Bristol, leaving with 4 O-levels, which she describes as 'bad'.[10] She then attended Holland Park School, a state comprehensive school in London,[10] where she took the missing O-levels,[10] passed one A-level,[11] and obtained a scholarship to Oxford University[10] to read history at St Anne's College. [citation needed].
She had a teenage affair and became pregnant. Despite pressure from the father's family, and having visited his student sister (mother of the infant Boris Johnson) in Oxford, they decided to separate, and she took illegal abortion-inducing pills. They remained 'remote' friends.[10]
She dropped out of university after eighteen months, which she regrets, as she was told by her tutor she would. She has variously attributed this to having an affair with a married TV presenter, to having her first novel published in her first term at Oxford, to the pressure of her scholarship and family expectations, and to taking up with Jeremy Sandford.[10]
During her
After Oxford, she found work in a factory and a burger bar, 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
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 was an editor for the Washington Monthly.
Following in the footsteps of
Currently Toynbee writes for The Guardian,[13] and serves as President of the Social Policy Association.[14] She is chair of the Brighton Festival and deputy treasurer of the Fabian Society.
Political history and opinions
Toynbee has written about her privilege in the British class system, saying that all her family "lived on the left ... locked in combat with the ... forces of conservatism", but were clearly members of a privileged class. Toynbee did badly at school as she was "too rebellious to work, too angry to obey, too impatient to get out of there"; she attributed her gaining an Oxford scholarship to its "heavily class-biased exam" being designed "to reward people of exactly my background". After deliberately taking on menial jobs, she took a job that led to her becoming a journalist, something she had never intended.[10]
Toynbee is a member of the Labour Party. She and her first husband,
In 1995, Toynbee criticised Metropolitan Police Commissioner
In a 2002 debate hosted by the Royal Society of Arts and Prospect magazine, Toynbee argued that the West should pursue liberal internationalism by intervening through the United Nations to promote democracy around the world: "Spreading people's right to self-determination, and their right to think and vote for themselves, is a moral obligation… We should be intervening now in the Congo and Sudan."[19]
Toynbee strongly supports
In December 2006, Greg Clark (a former SDP member, later to be a Conservative minister) claimed Toynbee should be an influence on the modern Conservative Party, causing a press furore. Reacting to this, Conservative leader David Cameron said 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."[24] 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".[20]
Having advocated for Gordon Brown to succeed Blair as prime minister, Toynbee continued to endorse him in the early part of his premiership.[25] 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.[26] She subsequently called for his departure, voluntary or otherwise.[27] In the European Elections of June 2009 she advocated a vote for the Liberal Democrats.[28] During the 2010 general election she advocated a tactical vote for whichever candidate was best able to keep the Conservatives out of power.[29]
In October 2010, Toynbee was criticised for an article in The Guardian
Toynbee has been described as "the queen of leftist journalists",[11] 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.[34] Andrew Marr has said that "[w]hat makes her stand out as a journalist is not only her strong views but also her ferocious appetite for research. In a media world in which too many media columnists simply voice their top-of-the-head opinions, Polly always arrives heavily armed with hard facts".[20]
With her partner, former Social Affairs editor of The Guardian David Walker (Peter Jenkins died in 1992), Toynbee 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".[35][36]
To reduce child poverty in the United Kingdom, Toynbee has supported an increase in the Working Tax Credit.[37] She has criticized the UK government austerity programme under Conservative governments, and the reduction in the public sector and government services.[38][39] She has criticised the underfunding of the National Health Service and its adverse effects on patient care.[40]
In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, Toynbee wrote that "Political blame spreads right through the Conservative party, with no escape on offer. This goes far beyond the precise shockers – the Tory MPs who mockingly rejected housing regulation; the cuts to funding to councils responsible for retro-fitting fire suppressants; the disregard of coroner's instructions after the 2009 Lakanal House tragedy; and even the plan to opt out of EU safety regulations. Conservative Kensington and Chelsea council allegedly blocking its ears to tenants' well-founded anxiety is just the immediate scandal. But this event reaches far deeper, to the very sinews of its party's policy."[41]
She is a strong opponent of Brexit.[42]
Views
Views on politics
Writing about the government of PM Rishi Sunak in November 2022, Toynbee argued that choosing Suella Braverman as home secretary was a blunder and that Braverman's promise to reduce immigration to "tens of thousands" was unworkable since more than 270,000 people arrived during the year to March 2022, mostly with visas. Only small numbers arrived in boats." Toynbee further said that Braverman's "dreams" about Rwanda and cruelty and putting arrivals into squalid conditions in the Manston processing centre disrupted policy."[43]
Toynbee also criticised Sunak's initial decision to miss the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Later Sunak changed his mind and decided he would attend the COP27 conference.[44][43]
Views on religion
This section contains too many or overly lengthy quotations. (November 2022) |
An
In 2003, upon the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's papacy, she wrote that he "is a hate-figure and with good reason… No one can compute how many people have died of Aids as a result of Wojtyla's power, how many woman have died in childbirth needlessly, how many children starved in families too large and poor to feed them. But it is reasonable to suppose these silent, unseen, uncounted deaths at his hand would match that of any self-respecting tyrant or dictator".[51] In 2011 she accepted an invitation to participate in a debate with the Christian philosopher William Lane Craig on the existence of God but Toynbee later pulled out stating "...this is not my kind of forum.".[52]
Toynbee has mixed feelings about the Church of England; she has opposed both religious and secular dogmatic beliefs. In April 2014, she wrote:
The C of E is a confusing creature. Even while it tussles internally between conservative and liberal wings on gay marriage or female bishops, polls of its members show it's no longer the Conservative party at prayer: more vote Lib Dem and Labour. Look at the 40 bishops' raspberry of an Easter message to Cameron, with their strong rebuke against the "national crisis" of hunger so much worsened by his welfare policies. They know because their churches house the food banks used by almost a million people. (...) Like all humanity, the religious are both good and bad. The C of E is good on food banks, bad on sex and death. Faith makes people no more virtuous, but nor do rationalists claim any moral superiority. Pogroms, inquisitions, jihadist terror and religious massacres can be matched death for death with the secular horrors of Pol Pot, Hitler or Stalin. The danger is where absolute belief in universal truths, religious or secular, permits no doubt.[53]
Honours
Toynbee was awarded an honorary degree by the
Personal life
Toynbee lives in Lewes, East Sussex.[61] She also owns a villa in Tuscany.[62][63] She is a member of
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
- 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
- Cameron's Coup (with David Walker, 2015)
- An Uneasy Inheritance: My Family and other Radicals (2023)
References
- ISBN 1857431227. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
- ^ Toynbee, Polly (27 September 2016). "Why can't I get behind Corbyn, when we want the same things? Here's why | Polly Toynbee". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
- ^ a b "Polly Toynbee". British Humanist Association. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
- ^ "About Us". mydeath-decision.org. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
- ^ Toynbee, Polly (7 April 2015). "Back on the Isle of Wight, Tory Britain rehearses its collapse". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- ^ a b "Obituary: Anne Wollheim". The Guardian. 27 November 2004.
- ^ An Historian's Conscience: The Correspondence of Arnold J. Toynbee and Columba Cary-Elwes, ed. Christian B. Peper, 1986, Beacon Press, p. 266
- ^ a b Langley, William (26 November 2006). "Profile: Polly Toynbee". The Daily Telegraph. London.
- ^ Enlightening: Letters 1946-1960, Isaiah Berlin, ed. Henry Hardy, Random House, 2012, end note no. 361
- ^ a b c d e f g Toynbee, Polly (20 May 2023). "What my privileged start in life taught me about the British class system". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f McSmith, Andy (26 November 2006). "Polly Toynbee: Reborn, as a lady of the right". The Independent. London.
- ISBN 978-0-19-533402-9. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
- ^ Toynbee, Polly. "Polly Toynbee". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
- ^ "SPA Executive Committee 2007–08". Social Policy Association. Archived from the original on 8 September 2006. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
- ^ Polly Toynbee and Andrew Pierce on air and rail strikes, The Daily Politics, BBC, 19 March 2010.
- ^ Roy Jenkins, A Life at the Centre (London: Macmillan, 1991), p. 588.
- ^ Toynbee, Polly (1 March 2011). "Some SDP thinking might strengthen Labour's nerve". The Guardian. London.
- ^ a b Toynbee, Polly (7 July 1995). "Mugging: is it a black and white issue?". The Independent. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
- RSA JournalVol. 149, No. 5501 (2002), p. 52.
- ^ a b c Chaundy, Bob (24 November 2006). "Faces of the week". BBC News.
- ^ Jones, Lewis (August 2008). "Toynbee: the great comic figure of the age". The First Post.
- ^ Toynbee, Polly (23 September 2005). "The fight for the centre ground is throttling British politics". The Guardian. London.
- ^ Toynbee, Polly (13 April 2005). "Hold your nose and vote Labour". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
- ^ Johnson, Boris (23 November 2006). "Polly Toynbee the Tory guru: that's barking. Or maybe not". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Toynbee, Polly (2 May 2009). "Gordon Brown: no ideas and no regrets". The Guardian. London.
- ^ Toynbee, Polly (12 May 2009). "Gordon Brown must go – by June 5". The Guardian. London.
- ^ Toynbee, Polly (1 June 2009). "Throw out bad councils and vote Lib Dem for Europe". The Guardian. London.
- ^ Polly Toynvee "Your heart might say Clegg. But vote with your head", The Guardian, 24 April 2010
- ^ Toynbee, Polly (25 October 2010). "Benefits cut, rents up: this is Britain's housing time bomb". The Guardian. London.
- ^ "Hysterics over housing". The Daily Telegraph. London. 29 October 2010. Archived from the original on 31 October 2010.
- ^ "News >> Commission's decision in the case of various v The Guardian". Press Complaints Commission. Archived from the original on 1 December 2010.
- ^ "Are the Tories being bullied?". Today. London. 29 October 2010. BBC. Radio 4.
- ^ "Polly Toynbee Voted UK's 'Most Influential' Commentator" (Press release). Editorial Intelligence. 13 April 2008. Archived from the original on 31 May 2009.
- ^ Reeves, Richard (23 August 2008). "Review: Unjust Rewards by Polly Toynbee and David Walker". The Daily Telegraph. London.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "If Theresa May really cares about the poor, she must change course – now", The Guardian
- ^ "Don't fall for Philip Hammond's budget trickery. There is an alternative", The Guardian
- ^ Applauding a public sector pay cap? Tories are cheering their own demise The Guardian
- ^ "NHS crisis: the one act of self-sacrifice that could rescue our health service", The Guardian
- ^ "Theresa May was too scared to meet the Grenfell survivors. She's finished", The Guardian
- ^ "At last, Jeremy. Now Labour's mission must be to prevent any Brexit: Polly Toynbee". The Guardian. 25 February 2019.
- ^ a b Rishi Sunak’s only been in office for a few days – and the errors are already piling up The Guardian. 1 November 2022.
- ^ Rishi Sunak confirms he will attend Cop27 after earlier saying he would not go – UK politics live The Guardian
- ^ "National Secular Society Honorary Associates". National Secular Society. Retrieved 27 July 2019
- ^ Behind the Burka. Women's History Review, Volume 10, Number 4, 2001.
- ^ Toynbee, Polly (28 September 2001). "Behind the burka". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
- ^ Private Eye 18 December 2020 p. 9
- ^ The Independent (23 October 1997), quoted in Naser Meer, Citizenship, Identity and the Politics of Multiculturalism: The Rise of Muslim Consciousness (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), p. 182.
- ^ The Guardian (10 June 2005), quoted in Meer, p. 182.
- ^ Polly Toynbee, 'False paeans to the Pope', The Guardian (17 October 2003).
- ^ "Why are the atheists shy of debate?".
- ^ Polly Toynbee "David Cameron won't win votes by calling Britain a Christian country", The Guardian, 18 April 2014
- ^ "Honorary Degrees". London South Bank University. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
- ^ "University Honours archive | Graduation | Loughborough University". www.lboro.ac.uk. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
- ^ "Polly Toynbee – Congregations – University of Kent". kent.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 26 January 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
- ^ "Seven honoured by the University of Leeds". leeds.ac.uk. 9 July 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2019. She won the Orwell Prize for journalism in 1998 (for journalism published by The Independent)
- ^ "Polly Toynbee". The Orwell Foundation. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
- ^ "Media top 100 2007 : 79. Polly Toynbee". The Guardian. 9 July 2007. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
- TheGuardian.com. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
- ISBN 9781849549936– via Google Books.
- ^ Zoe Williams (29 November 2006). "A primitive reaction". The Guardian.
- wp:newsblog).
- ^ "Media Diversity UK". E-activist.com. Archived from the original on 23 December 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
External links
- Polly Toynbee on Twitter
- Polly Toynbee on Journalisted
- Interview with Polly Toynbee at the Third Way magazine, 22 June 1998
- Political Journalist of the Year 2003 citation at the Wayback Machine (archived 18 January 2008)
- RSA Vision webcast – Polly Toynbee elaborates on the findings of her new book Unjust Rewards: Exposing the Greed and Inequality in Britain Today 18 September 2008