Earlier this week Polly Toynbee wrote an article for the Guardian, saying what a good thing it would be if the details of everyone's salary were publicly available.
Some people then decided that, in line with this idea, it would be interesting to know how much Toynbee earns herself. Among them was the Mandrake column from the Sunday Telegraph:
Ms Toynbee has a basic salary at The Guardian that undoubtedly runs well into six figures (and it is happily supplemented with her freelance journalism, broadcasting and books such as Hard Work: Life in Low Pay Britain), but she was reluctant to throw open her own books when I telephoned the home that she shares with fellow Guardian journalist David Walker.
He tells me that she is too busy putting "her children to bed". This seems odd. It was only 6.30pm and Ms Toynbee's youngest child is 21.
There could be all sorts of reasons for this - perhaps her children were all drunk or just smashed on cocaine.
ReplyDeleteI have no reason to defend Ms Toynbee (I once wrote to her challenging an article of hers that said only professionals should be on telly, I just thought ordinary people were a lot more fun, and she never replied). But her actual suggestion was not for each of us individually to reveal our salaries, instead the whole lot should be revealed by making tax returns publicly available. Have you got anything to hide?
So why didn't Mandrake give their salary while they were at it? What's to hide?
ReplyDeleteMaking tax returns available is obviously not an option, that would only reveal the extent of avoidance through government sanctioned loop-holes for the rich. Polly Toynbee cannot sanction that, it may impinge upon her priviliged position up in her ivory tower.
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