Polly Toynbee, President of the British Humanist Association

Columnist, broadcaster, and President of the British Humanist Association, born 1946

The BHA was delighted to be able appoint Polly Toynbee as its President in July 2007, replacing Linda Smith who sadly died in 2006.

After leaving full-time education Polly Toynbee worked first for The Observer and then for many years at The Guardian before joining the BBC where she was Social Affairs Editor from 1988-1995. She then joined The Independent before re-joining The Guardian where she has been since 1998, now a regular columnist.

She often writes and speaks on the issues that concern humanists: the rise of religious fundamentalism; faith schools; equality; secularism. In July 2001 she was one of the signatories to a letter published in The Independent which urged the Government to reconsider its support for the expansion of maintained religious schools; she was one of the signatories to a letter supporting a holiday on Charles' Darwin's birthday, published in The Times on February 12, 2003, and also sent to the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary.

She has written a number of social commentary books including, in 2003, Hard Work: Life in Low-Pay Britain (buy it here) about an experimental period voluntarily living on the minimum wage. She is President of the Social Policy Association and won the Political Journalist of the Year Award in 2003.

See also

Polly's wikipedia entry
Polly's recent articles in The Guardian
Her interview in the CD-ROM Living without God on our webshop