Polly Toynbee

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Polly Toynbee bigraphy, stories - British journalist

Polly Toynbee : biography

27 December 1946 –

Mary Louisa Toynbee, known as Polly Toynbee (born 27 December 1946)National Portrait Gallery, 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.

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.". Womens History Review, Volume 10, Number 4, 2001. 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”.[https://twitter.com/#!/UnbelievableJB/status/101712221247258624] (11 August 2011) Justin Brierley confirming the pull out on Twitter] Article about pullout

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):

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., The Daily Politics, BBC, 19 March 2010. 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.