Between May and December 2006, this blog detailed the factual errors in Polly Toynbee's columns. I have now stopped doing this, but here are my favourite Toynbee errors for that period: 10....
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/12/my-top-ten-favourite-toynbee-errors.html
After eight enjoyable months, I'm going to mothball this blog. This is not because Polly Toynbee has suddenly started using real facts that she undertsands -- on the contrary, her sloppines...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/12/shutters-down.html
In today's column, Polly Toynbee writes of: Restore the laws limiting media ownership by any one magnate, abolished by Margaret Thatcher to let Rupert Murdoch acquire his empire, so that he now o...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/12/no-gift-of-accuracy-or-consistency-for.html
In today's column, Polly Toynbee writes: Thus Gordon Brown personally is well ahead of the three party leaders as "doing a good job". Blair's rating is -34, Cameron is -5 and Campbell -9. The MOR...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/12/fantastic.html
In today's column, Polly Toynbee writes: But yesterday Hutton shook a threatening stick at those he regards as social-contract defaulters. He made a good case: one in 10 of those who draw jobseek...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/12/channelling-lionel-richie-strangely.html
In today's column, Polly Toynbee writes: Political pessimists fear that nothing short of the catastrophic flooding of New York, with millions dead, will make the rich world understand that climat...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/12/more-hot-air.html
In today's column, Polly Toynbee writes: ...if they regain power, they will at least be embarrassed if child poverty soars as it did last time (from one child in nine in 1979 to one in thre...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/12/something-rotten.html
In today's column (can't seem to find it online yet. UPDATE it is now here) Polly Toynbee writes: Meanwhile the annual Rich List this week will show runaway wealth at the very top jumping u...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/12/wealth-ok-income-not-accumulate-but-don.html
In a Comment is Free post today, Polly Toynbee writes: Apparently Arnold Schwarzenegger drives his own Humvee in San Francisco - but it runs on hyrodrogen - so size may not always matter. It is n...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/12/hot-air.html
In today's column, Polly Toynbee writes: Think of Easter Island and the history of its destruction, recounted by Jared Diamond in his book Collapse. The Easter Islanders became so obsessed with t...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/12/little-miss-tree.html
I am embarassed to admit that yes, I did indeed quote circulation figures to refute Polly's claim about readers. Mea culpa. I was wrong. Readership figures for most major newspape...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/12/mea-culpa.html
In today's column, Polly Toynbee writes of: the old media ownership laws that Margaret Thatcher discarded to allow Murdoch to acquire his hegemonic 40% of all newspaper readership She's done the ...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/12/something-about-privilege-down-ages.html
I hate to once again bring up Polly Toynbee's column on Tuesday, and in particular this quote: FTSE CEOs helped themselves to 30% more this year, while their directors took 28% (against an averag...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/11/armed-with-hard-facts-more-like.html
In today's column, Polly Toynbee writes: Yesterday, promoting their latest survey of 87 top executives, the CBI said two-thirds complain about tax. Only two-thirds? Who are the one-third who are ...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/11/ferocious-indigestion.html
Tom Papworth wants to know ten things I would never do, but doesn't think I'll answer. Let me try and boost that self-esteem. Trust anything Polly Toynbee says at face value (obviously) Ignore ...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/11/meme-little-meme-of-me.html
A couple of fellow bloggers -- Mr. Eugenides and Not Saussure -- were kind enough to think of me when they read a BBC profile of Polly Toynbee, which included this quote: Her editor at the Indie ...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/11/marred.html
Polly Toynbee was on BBC1's Question Time last night, and she said: We saw child poverty in this country -- and this is all there in this document -- go from 14% in 1979 to 33% She's used these f...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/11/not-all-there.html
On 19 February 2001, the Guardian carried an extract from Polly Toynbee and David Walker's book "Did Things Get Better?" which said: A quarter of the 4m poor children have been lifted o...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/11/lies-damned-lies-and.html
Polly Toynbee writes on CommentisFree that: In 1979 14% of children lived below the poverty line: that rose to 33% by 1996. Sadly, these two figures come from two inconsistent sources -- the Fami...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/11/at-least-notoreity-hasnt-changed-her.html
Polly Toynbee was on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning, being asked about Greg Clark's suggestion, reported in the Guardian, that she should replace Churchill as the inspiration for the...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/11/when-eagles-are-silent-parrots-begin-to.html
In today's column, Polly Toynbee writes of Bolingbroke hospital that: t has a day hospital for some 15 elderly patients, with out-patients and imaging diagnostics. This at best partial, it also p...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/11/partial-and-indeed-partial.html
Today sees Polly's third appearance this month in the Corrections and Clarifications column, which picks up on my suggestion last Tuesday that Nick Gilodi-Johnson's father couldn't be the owner o...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/11/present-if-not-correct.html
In today's column, Polly Toynbee writes: The Nuffield's eminent group of professors of law, medicine and ethics drew up the guidelines... The group was actually wider than this. It also included ...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/11/inaccurate-prcis.html
In today's column, Polly Toynbee writes: Occasionally the stage curtain is twitched back to expose the way things are. So true. After claiming a couple of times that City bonuses were £21bn (e.g...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/11/doesnt-let-death-get-in-way.html
In her column on Friday, Polly wrote: British women are odd: traditionally, in France, Germany and Italy women lean to the left and men lean rightwards; but in Britain the right only ever won on ...
http://factcheckingpollyanna.blogspot.com/2006/11/some-are-odder-than-others.html