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Mary Louisa Toynbee, known as Polly Toynbee (; born 27 December 1946),〔National Portrait Gallery, (Polly Toynbee )〕 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. 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.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Polly Toynbee )〕 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. 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).〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Polly Toynbee」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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