Polly Toynbee

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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 since 1998 been a highly influential columnist for The Guardian newspaper. Her columns are written from a social democratic viewpoint, and thus are closer to Labour than the other major British parties. She holds up social democratic Sweden as an exemplar.

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[edit] 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.

In recent years, Toynbee has been critical of many of Tony Blair's New Labour reforms from a social-democratic position, yet she believes it remains "the best government of my lifetime" and condemns those who are so critical of it that they believe it indistinguishable from the Tory alternative. She is most noted for writing about otherwise under-reported social programmes like SureStart and Family Credit that are designed to help the poor.

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"[1].

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."[2]

Toynbee was awarded an Honorary Degree by London South Bank University in 2002.[3] 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". Although criticizing those who educate their children in private schools in her Guardian columns, Toynbee sent one of her children to private school for the last two years of his education after he was heavily bullied at a comprehensive and her step-daughter, Amy Jenkins, whose education she was not responsible for, attended Westminster School. [4]

[edit] Hard Work: Life in Low-Pay Britain

In 2003, she published the book 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 dinner lady in a primary school, a nursery assistant, a call-centre employee, a cake factory worker and a care home assistant. She contributed an introduction to the UK edition of a similar publication, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by the American writer Barbara Ehrenreich about Ehrenreich's field-work in low-pay America. Toynbee expressed strong disapproval of the level of the minimum wage, which she argued should be increased considerably, and also raised concerns about terms and conditions issues such as holiday pay and working hours. The book was received positively by left-wing critics, but was savaged by some right-wing critics.

[edit] Views on religion and charges of "Islamophobia"

A proud atheist, Toynbee is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association[5] and the Humanist Society of Scotland.

In 2003, she was nominated as "Most Islamophobic Journalist of the Year" by the Islamic Human Rights Commission for her criticisms of Islam. The title eventually went to the right-wing journalist – and her former Guardian colleague – Melanie Phillips, who is now at the Daily Mail. Toynbee rejected the charge, pointing out that she has consistently defended immigrants and asylum seekers, including Muslims, from bigoted attacks. As a consistent opponent of what she sees as "superstition," she is at least as critical of Christianity and Judaism as she is of Islam. 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.

In an article on the Chronicles of Narnia in the context of the new Disney film, Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, she claimed that "Children won't get the Christian subtext, but unbelievers should keep a sickbag handy during Disney's new epic."[6] Toynbee's negative view of Christianity was evident; she described Aslan (the Lion, a Christ-like figure) as "an emblem for everything an atheist objects to in religion. His divine presence is a way to avoid humans taking responsibility for everything here and now on earth." For Toynbee:

[o]f all the elements of Christianity, the most repugnant is the notion of the Christ who took our sins upon himself and sacrificed his body in agony to save our souls. Did we ask him to? Poor child Edmund, to blame for everything, must bear the full weight of a guilt only Christians know how to inflict, with a twisted knife to the heart.... When the poor boy comes back down with the sacred lion's breath upon him he is transformed unrecognisably into a Stepford brother, well and truly purged.

[edit] Other journalists' views

Toynbee is a polarising figure, attracting great scorn and great praise. She recently topped a poll of 100 "opinion makers", carried out by Editorial Intelligence[7]. She was named the most influential columnist in the UK, with one in ten people nominating her as one of their top three commentators.

Peter Hitchens of the Mail On Sunday and Richard Littlejohn of the Daily Mail have regularly referred to Polly Toynbee as a member of the "liberal elite" they see as bringing the downfall of British moral values. The liberal journalist Johann Hari though, has described her as "a hero" and "an inspiration to all liberal and social democratic journalists."

[edit] Criticism

From May to December 2006 the blog Factchecking Pollyanna[8] reviewed each of Toynbee’s online articles for The Guardian and highlighted claimed discrepancies in her use of facts and references.

Daniel Ben-Ami has argued on Spiked (magazine), which is funded by a number of right-wing corporations, that Toynbee's critique of inequality is fundamentally conservative despite appearing left wing. She is, he claims, arguing for a levelling down of consumption and for rationing rather than for a general raising of living standards [1]

[edit] 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 who founded Toynbee Hall in the East End of London.

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

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ 'Hold your nose and vote Labour'
  2. ^ ' Polly Toynbee the Tory guru: that's barking. Or maybe not'
  3. ^ 'LSBU Honorary Degrees'
  4. ^ 'Profile: Polly Toynbee'
  5. ^ Distinguished Supporters of Humanism: British Humanist Association website. Retrieved 21 June 2006
  6. ^ 'Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion' by Polly Toynbee: The Guardian, 5 December 2005. Retrieved 21 June 2006
  7. ^ 'Guardian's Toynbee is top read for "opinion makers"'
  8. ^ 'Factchecking Pollyanna'

[edit] Partial bibliography

[edit] External links

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