Polly Toynbee is a commentator for the Guardian and was the BBC’s social affairs editor. She has written books on the NHS, adoption and work, most recently including Better or Worse? Has Labour Delivered? with David Walker, and Hard Work: Life in Low-Pay Britain. She is president of the Social Policy Association, has four children and lives in Lambeth.
What is your first political memory?
Watching Barbara Castle with flaming hair and a flowing scarf declaiming passionately from the back of an open lorry in Battersea Park on May Day.
Who is your greatest political hero?
Shirley Williams, for sheer humanity even if she’s not always right. Who is your greatest political villain? Eric Forth, for yobbish parliamentary vandalism in destroying private members’ bills regardless of their merit.
If you were granted one political wish, what would it be?
A fairer voting system – to allow smaller parties to break the stranglehold of the current two-party system.
When you were a child, what did you want to be?
A tightrope walker.
Do you have any free time and what do you do in it?
Eat, drink and enjoy the company of good friends.
What is the more honourable profession – politics or journalism?
Politics – by far. We journalists snipe from our comfortable crows nest at the parade of politicians passing our gun sights while they try to get things done as they dodge our bullets.
What would be your desert island disc and book?
Fats Waller, and the Count of Monte Christo by Alexander Dumas.
If you were able to spend an hour with one dead, historical figure, who would it be and what would you ask them?
Abraham – Could you be dissuaded from founding three world religions which will cause more bloodshed and despair for more millennia than you could possibly imagine?