Polly Toynbee

Mary Louisa Toynbee, known as Polly Toynbee (/ˈtɔɪnbi/; born 27 December 1946), is a British journalist and writer, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998.

She is a social democrat and was a candidate for the Social Democratic Party in the 1983 general election. She now broadly supports the Labour Party. 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.

However, she was a strong critic of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition and urged a vote for Labour in 2015. Toynbee previously worked as social affairs editor for the BBC and also for The Independent newspaper. She is Vice President of the British Humanist Association, having previously served as its President between 2007 and 2012. She was also named 'Columnist of the Year' at the 2007 British Press Awards.

Background

Polly Toynbee was born at Yafford 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.

Peter Hitchens

Peter Jonathan Hitchens (born 28 October 1951) is an English journalist and author. He has published six books, including The Abolition of Britain, The Rage Against God and The War We Never Fought. He is a frequent critic of political correctness, and describes himself as a theist and Burkean conservative.

Hitchens writes for Britain's The Mail on Sunday newspaper and is a former foreign correspondent in Moscow and Washington. He works as a foreign reporter and in 2010 was awarded the Orwell Prize. He is the younger brother of the late writer Christopher Hitchens.

Early life

Peter Hitchens was born in Malta, where his father, a career naval officer, was stationed as part of the colonial garrison. He was educated at the Leys School and the Oxford College of Further Education before being accepted at the University of York, where he studied Philosophy and Politics and was a member of Alcuin College, graduating in 1973. He later commented that he "must have been a severe disappointment" to his parents after making sure he "would never get into Oxbridge" by being arrested breaking into a government fall-out shelter.