News about Polly Toynbee

I had a burning desire to live in a gritty, frightening Moscow, which was once the capital of a nation I loot. I stepped into the Kremlin's shadow because I wanted to know, investigate, and write about the Communist world, which then happened to be a few hundred miles from the Channel. I was not disappointed. I was not dissatisfied with this other looking glass planet, its squalor and despair, the dignity of many of its citizens, the diet of lies on which they lived, and the true, ghastly aim of its wicked kings were all clear. I was shocked to learn that our own warm country could just have been like this.

Author Joan Smith (left) said she resigned as a Humanists UK patron because of the organisation's stance on the issue, describing herself as someone who had "campaigned for women's rights all my life." Baroness Dianne Hayter (right) resigned from the charity as a result of a letter from Humanists UK that said that a change would cause confusion, allow unacceptable exclusion, and unjustified discrimination, as well as stripping transgender people of their rights. Following a petition submitted by almost 110,000 people calling for the Equality Act to be clarified, parliamentarians debated the legal status of sex today at Westminster Hall, not'sex'. It will be voted alongside a nearly 139,000 signature petition that claims that the proposed reform will'remove legal rights for trans people, a previously marginalized group.'

PETER HITCHENS: Polly Toynbee, my long-serving cousin, has written a lovely, funny, and moving book. It made me laugh out loud often, and it brought me to tears as well. Unable to be disturbed, I read it in two long sittings. It's partially about herself and part about the infuriating self-righteous class of world reformers to which she belongs. It is foolish to be told of an imaginary world of callous Right-wingers who allegedly loove the poor. It is assumed that the state has a lot more ability to do good than it does. It ignores the government's long-proven capability to do harm while still meaning well.

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: The Labour Party has managed to convince an astonishing number of people that it has abandoned its old, ardent desire to divide the country rather than raise. It was certainly eager to make acquaintances with super wealthy contributors and unconcerned about the wealthy. Lord Mandelson proclaimed in 1998 that he was 'intensely relaxed about people becoming filthy rich as long as they pay their taxes.' However, Labour has never accepted the belief that a hard-working, hard-saving middle class middle class is a good thing. People should continue to develop themselves by their own efforts, let alone that they should then be able to pass on some of their hard-earned riches to their children by education or inheritance.

Consider the 1979 election, which forced Margaret Thatcher to resign from office and saved the country from apparently inevitable economic decline, with radical measures that might not have been carried out if she had been compelled to divide control with multiple groups. In fact, Labour and the Liberals gained over two million more votes than the Conservatives in the 1979 election. A Labour-Liberal alliance would have prevented Margaret Thatcher from becoming Prime Minister, and publicity would have prevented this from happening. Polly Toynbee, the veteran Guardian columnist, argues that this is the primary reason for her long-running effort to get Labour to implement PR: to hold the Conservatives out, at least permanently. The 'centre and center-Left referendum has been fatally divided under the new system,' she claims, after the rising Labour Party struggled to smear the remnants of the old Liberals'.

ANDREW PIERCE: When the Party faithful sang the national anthem at the opening of their annual conference in Liverpool yesterday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer reacted with apparent surprise when there were no jeers or boos. He may well have to thank Labour For A Republic's leadership, the official party party running for the abrogation of the monarchy. It has warned supporters not to make any incendiary statements regarding the Royal Family, mindful of rising emotions following the Queen's death.

Hundreds of 'woke' republicans, including a Labour MP, have screamed for the abolition of the monarchy as they warned against a future without a 'white, privilege male' as the head of state for the next century, just weeks after the queen's death. During a fringe event at the Labour Conference in Liverpool last night, activists, including Richard Burgon, said that the power derived from "accident of birth" is "incompatible" with the Labour Party's political ideals, which is also relevant to the argument for a British republic. Author Paul Richards, Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee, and Dr Adam Tucker, a constitutional law researcher at the University of Liverpool, were among the debate's panelists. The main argument was focused on the future of the monarchy, a subject that has split the party in recent days as Corbynites slammed Keir Starmer's call for the national anthem to be sung at the conference.

Labour for a Republic (L4AR): The official mourning period between the late monarch's death and her funeral yesterday had been used as a "cloak" to stifle resistance against Charles III's ascension. The group will host a conference fringe event featuring Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee on Saturday, entitled What Future for the Monarchy? It comes just a day after the Queen was laid to rest with her late husband, Prince George VI and the Queen Mother, and sister Princess Margaret. During the remembrance and beyond, Sir Keir has been at pains to reinvigorate his party. Despite concerns that some delegates could boo, the Mail on Sunday announced that the party would break with tradition at the start of its conference by playing the National Anthem.