TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2008
The Class Contradictions of Polly
Polly is whining again about the verbal kicking she gets after almost every column:
Guido frequently questions her judgment, but he has never accused her of being middle-class, for the simple reason she is not. Mary Louisa Toynbee is in fact part of the rarefied metropolitan media elite, she has a comfortable six-figure income and a villa in Tuscany to go with the London townhouse. That is not middle-class by any stretch of the imagination.
Her income is not middle-class, it puts her in the top 1% of earners.
She was privately educated (Badminton), went to Oxford (St Annes) and on to the BBC. A classic metropolitan elite career path. Toynbee is the daughter of the literary critic Philip Toynbee and granddaughter of the famous historian Arnold J. Toynbee, his uncle was the philanthropist and economic historian Arnold Toynbee after whom Toynbee Hall is named.She was born into three generations of metropolitan elitists.
She is perfectly entitled to point to the toffs on the Tory front-bench, but Guido is not going to let her pretend to be middle-class. She is the enemy of the aspirational middle-classes, the high priestess advocate of taxing them to pay for her social democratic utopia.
my most constant hate-swipes on Comment is Free and in rightwing political blogs is for being middle class.
Guido frequently questions her judgment, but he has never accused her of being middle-class, for the simple reason she is not. Mary Louisa Toynbee is in fact part of the rarefied metropolitan media elite, she has a comfortable six-figure income and a villa in Tuscany to go with the London townhouse. That is not middle-class by any stretch of the imagination. Her income is not middle-class, it puts her in the top 1% of earners.
She was privately educated (Badminton), went to Oxford (St Annes) and on to the BBC. A classic metropolitan elite career path. Toynbee is the daughter of the literary critic Philip Toynbee and granddaughter of the famous historian Arnold J. Toynbee, his uncle was the philanthropist and economic historian Arnold Toynbee after whom Toynbee Hall is named.She was born into three generations of metropolitan elitists.
She is perfectly entitled to point to the toffs on the Tory front-bench, but Guido is not going to let her pretend to be middle-class. She is the enemy of the aspirational middle-classes, the high priestess advocate of taxing them to pay for her social democratic utopia.
N.B. See also this for an example of Polly's consistency, prescience and judgement over Gordon Brown. This "rightwing blog" must have got under her skin...
Return to Rationing?
An advertisement is not an endorsement. However in the case of the British Legion campaign for better treatment for servicemen Guido is happy to give his support. The treatment of ex-soldiers by this government is disgraceful. Whitehall bureaucrats have gold-plated index linked pensions, MPs vote themselves phenomenal benefits and pensions to keep them in the manner they are accustomed to when they retire (courtesy of the taxpayer). These are the people who determine the pensions of ex-servicemen.
An estimated one third of ex-servicemen are in poverty. Something is very wrong.
Jonah Cursed Murray Live on Sky
As many co-conspirators pointed out yesterday, Andy Murray has spent the last two weeks at Flushing Meadows playing the best tennis he's ever played. He beat the World's #1 to get to his first grand slam final against a man he has already beaten. Winning the US Open would make him the first Briton to win a major single title since 1936.
Then Jonah Brown sent him a good luck message live on Sky News.* Andy Murray lost in straight sets...
*Congratulations to all the co-conspirators who immediately called their bookies.
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