37 Facts About Polly Toynbee

Mary Louisa "Polly" Toynbee is a British journalist and writer.

Polly Toynbee has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998.

Polly Toynbee is a social democrat and was a candidate for the Social Democratic Party in the 1983 general election.

Polly Toynbee is vice-president of Humanists UK, having previously served as its president between 2007 and 2012.

Polly Toynbee was named Columnist of the Year at the 2007 British Press Awards.

Polly Toynbee became a patron of right-to-die organization My Death My Decision in 2021.

Polly Toynbee was born at Yafford on the Isle of Wight, the second daughter of the literary critic Philip Polly Toynbee by his first wife Anne Barbara Denise, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel George Powell, of the Grenadier Guards.

Polly Toynbee's grandfather was the historian Arnold J Toynbee, her grandmother was Rosalind Murray, and her great-grand uncle the philanthropist and economic historian Arnold Toynbee, after whom Toynbee Hall in the East End of London is named.

Polly Toynbee's parents divorced when Toynbee was aged four and she moved to London with her mother, who married the philosopher Richard Wollheim.

Polly Toynbee attended Badminton School, a private girls' school in Bristol, leaving with 4 O-levels, which she describes as 'bad'.

Polly Toynbee then attended Holland Park School, a state comprehensive school in London, where she took the missing O-levels, passed one A-level, and obtained a scholarship to Oxford University to read history at St Anne's College.

Polly Toynbee dropped out of university after eighteen months, which she regrets, as she was told by her tutor she would.

Polly Toynbee 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.

Polly Toynbee worked for many years at The Guardian, before joining the BBC, where she was social affairs editor.

Polly Toynbee has written for The Observer and the Radio Times; at one time she was an editor for the Washington Monthly.

Polly Toynbee 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, during which time she contracted salmonella.

Polly Toynbee contributed an introduction to the UK edition of Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On Getting By in America.

Currently Polly Toynbee writes for The Guardian, and serves as President of the Social Policy Association.

Polly Toynbee is chair of the Brighton Festival and deputy treasurer of the Fabian Society.

Polly Toynbee stood for the party at the 1983 general election for Lewisham East, garnering 9351 votes and finishing third.

Polly Toynbee was one of the few SDP members who believed in unilateral nuclear disarmament, founding an unsuccessful group "Unilateralists for Social Democracy".

Polly Toynbee urged Guardian readers to vote with a clothes peg over their nose if they had to, to make sure Michael Howard's Conservatives would not win thanks to vote splitting.

In December 2006, Greg Clark claimed Polly Toynbee should be an influence on the modern Conservative Party, causing a press furore.

Polly Toynbee subsequently called for his departure, voluntary or otherwise.

In October 2010, Polly 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 Polly Toynbee said was not her intention.

Polly 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.

Polly Toynbee was named the most influential columnist in the UK.

Polly Toynbee has criticized the UK government austerity programme under Conservative governments, and the reduction in the public sector and government services.

Polly Toynbee has criticised the underfunding of the National Health Service and its adverse effects on patient care.

Polly Toynbee criticised Sunak's initial decision to miss the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

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

Polly Toynbee has said that she is simply a consistent atheist, and is just as critical of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

Polly Toynbee has mixed feelings about the Church of England; she has opposed both religious and secular dogmatic beliefs.

Polly Toynbee was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Essex in 1999 and by London South Bank University in 2002.

Polly Toynbee declined to be made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000.

Polly Toynbee is a member of the Arts Emergency Service.