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Polly Toynbee

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Also known as Mary Louisa Toynbee

English journalist and writer

Person · Open Library

Born
1946
Works
30

Top works

  • Hospital
  • Dismembered
  • Working Life
  • Cameron's Coup
  • Uneasy Inheritance

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Country
GB
Active from
1946-12-27

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
25
Total plays
27

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Polly+Toynbee">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Polly Toynbee

Quotes

  • [At HMP Styal, a women's prison in Cheshire, near Manchester] Since mental hospitals began to shed their patients into what is euphemistically called the community, the prison ranks have swelled to accommodate them.
  • Yet again we are to be treated to the disgusting spectacle of the virtually all-male House of Commons pontificating sanctimoniously on when and how women must or must not give birth to children. The greatest number of abortions happen because men abandon women at pregnancy, so the sight of a large collection of men deciding when and how women should have babies is especially unedifying.
  • The greatest motor behind the anti-abortion campaign has always come from the Catholic and fundamentalist Protestant churches and within all churches there has always been the strongest streak of misogyny. Telling infertile women that they should not benefit from test tube bay techniques or telling pregnant women they must give birth springs from a fount of woman hating passion that begins with the first chapter of Genesis and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
  • Yet, as ever, he will sound considerably tougher on crime than on its causes because that is where his true feelings lie. The toughness comes easy but the underlying social justice theme comes but once a year at party conference.
  • The underlying reason for remorseless social disadvantage remains a silent subject in Blair politics.
  • Research published this month into OECD countries shows the poor gamble away a larger proportion of their income than the better off. Inevitably the temptations are greater when a £4,000 jackpot feels life-changing to someone on the minimum wage. So countries with more poor people - like the UK - are likely to gamble more. Britain is already the fifth highest gambler among developed nations.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Available in 8 languages

via Wikidata sitelinks · CC0