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Polly Toynbee

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Polly Toynbee (born Mary Louisa Toynbee on December 27 1946) is a liberal journalist and writer in the United Kingdom, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998. Her columns generally support New Labour, but she has also made pointed criticisms of the Blair government. Her work has often caused sharp reaction.

Contents

Biography

She was born on the Isle of Wight. After attending the Holland Park Secondary Modern School (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.

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. Through her paternal grandmother Rosalind Toynbee, eldest daughter of the classicist Gilbert Murray, she is a descendant of the 9th Earl of Carlisle. She thus has a distinguished academic and aristocratic descent, as follows:

9th Earl of Carlisle → Lady Mary Murray md Gilbert A. Murray, Regius Professor of Classics → Rosalind Murray md (div) Arnold J. Toynbee, historian → Philip Toynbee, literary critic → Polly Toynbee, journalist
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 SDP breakway from Labour in 1981 – both signing the Limehouse Declaration. Toynbee went on to stand for the party at the 1983 General Election in Lewisham East, garnering 9351 votes (22%), and thus helping the Conservatives gain the seat from Labour by a 1909 majority. 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 is indistinguishable from the Tory alternative.

Toynbee was awarded an Honorary Degree by London South Bank University in 2003. 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.

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 an NHS 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 some left-wing critics, but was savaged by some right-wing critics, who considered that it combined self-absorption with a poor grasp of the underlying issues.

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.[Distinguished Supporters of Humanism]: British Humanist Association website. Retrieved 21 June 2006

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."['Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion'] by Polly Toynbee: The Guardian, 5 December 2006. Retrieved 21 June 2006 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.

Other journalists' views

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.

Others, like younger liberal journalist Johann Hari, have described her as "a hero" and "an inspiration to all liberal and social democratic journalists."

Criticism

At least one Blog has been keeping a detailed record of what it claims is poor use and citation of facts and references by Toynbee.

Subtitled “Trying to factcheck Polly Toynbee. Because her editor clearly doesn't” the Blog Factchecking Pollyanna['Factchecking Pollyanna'] reviews each of Toynbee’s online articles for the Guardian and highlights areas where Toynbee’s representation differs from the source materiel.

This Blog presents itself not only as a counter-point to inaccuracies printed in a national newspaper but also to subtly imply hypocrisy on Toynbee’s part. In her column she can be scathing about journalists and politicians who oppose her point of view and have poorly researched their facts.

References

Partial bibliography

External links

 

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