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Sandi Toksvig: trolls are already out over plans to form Women’s Equality party Sandi Toksvig: trolls are already out over plans to form Women’s Equality party
(about 1 hour later)
Sandi Toksvig has said the “trolls have already come out” after her recent announcement that she planned to help form a new political party, but that she refuses to be deterred. Sandi Toksvig has said the “trolls have already come out” after her recent announcement that she planned to help form a new political party, but that she refuses to be deterred. Toksvig is standing down as the host of BBC Radio 4’s comedy show The News Quiz to set up the Women’s Equality party, which plans to field candidates in the 2020 general election.
Toksvig is standing down as the host of BBC Radio 4’s comedy show The News Quiz to set up the Women’s Equality party, which plans to field candidates in the 2020 general election.
Speaking at the Hay festival, the veteran broadcaster said she had once wanted to be a human rights lawyer, and had taken the leap to start the the party after deciding it was “not too late to fight the good fight, after all”.Speaking at the Hay festival, the veteran broadcaster said she had once wanted to be a human rights lawyer, and had taken the leap to start the the party after deciding it was “not too late to fight the good fight, after all”.
Toksvig said that since announcing her party on the BBC’s The One Show last month she had experienced a great deal of abuse. Toksvig said that since announcing her party on the BBC’s The One Show last month, she had experienced a great deal of abuse. “Trolls have already come out, and so therefore I must be mad, because that is the world we live in,” she said on Monday. “But I refuse to live my life on the sidelines with a vague feeling of regret. I want to grab life by the throat, even if every time you raise your head above the parapet somebody tries to shoot you down.”
Related: Sandi Toksvig reveals she quit Radio 4 to set up women's rights political partyRelated: Sandi Toksvig reveals she quit Radio 4 to set up women's rights political party
“Trolls have already come out, and so therefore I must be mad, because that is the world we live in,” she said on Monday. “But I refuse to live my life on the sidelines with a vague feeling of regret. She said she believed the current political system is “broken beyond repair”. Toksvig derided the offer of “women’s manifestos” at the general election and in particular Labour’s “pink bus”, which toured Britain with politicians to speak about women’s issues. “It was as if the main manifesto had nothing to do with us. Harriet Harman’s pledges could not be heard above the sound of [Emmeline] Pankhurst spinning in her grave.”
“I want to grab life by the throat, even if every time you raise your head above the parapet somebody tries to shoot you down.”
She said she believed the current political system is “broken beyond repair”.
Toksvig derided the offer of “women’s manifestos” at the general election and in particular Labour’s “pink bus”, which toured Britain with politicians to speak about women’s issues. “It was as if the main manifesto had nothing to do with us. Harriet Harman’s pledges could not be heard above the sound of Emily Pankhurst spinning in her grave.”
She added: “We have politics driven by fear and greed and instead of whinging, I decided to do something about it … I know that equality is better for everyone and a society founded on equal principles is more at ease with itself.”She added: “We have politics driven by fear and greed and instead of whinging, I decided to do something about it … I know that equality is better for everyone and a society founded on equal principles is more at ease with itself.”
The Women’s Equality party will be “non-partisan … from across the political divide to work for a fairer, more equal society, aimed at everybody,” she said, adding: “Women are different, they can lend a different perspective, and it is a perspective that for too long has been absent. The Women’s Equality party will be “non-partisan … from across the political divide to work for a fairer, more equal society, aimed at everybody,” she said, adding: “Women are different, they can lend a different perspective, and it is a perspective that for too long has been absent. Every piece of business research that has ever been done shows that when a company puts a women on their board the company does better yet women make up 17% of the boards of FTSE 100 companies and that is a parlous state.”
“Every piece of business research that has ever been done shows that when a company puts a women on their board the company does better yet women make up 17% of the boards of FTSE 100 companies and that is a parlous state.” The broadcaster said she was inspired by more feminine values that had particularly influenced one Icelandic company, run by two women, which survived Iceland’s economic collapse a few years ago. “Do emotional due diligence, think about profit with principles, profit should be measured in social and environmental terms,” she said. “Those impacts are just as important as the balance sheet.”
The broadcaster said she was inspired by more feminine values that had particularly influenced one Icelandic company, run by two women, which survived Iceland’s economic collapse a few years ago. Toksvig said her feminist awakening began as a child when reading fairy stories about “fey girls sitting around, waiting for boys to make life happen”. History too, she said had “simply excluded women … It enraged me that a wonderful writer like Mary Ann Evans had work that would only be taken seriously if she published under the name of George Eliot.”
“Do emotional due diligence, think about profit with principles, profit should be measured in social and environmental terms,” she said. “Those impacts are just as important as the balance sheet.” She said her anthropology professor at Cambridge was an influential figure who had encouraged her to question the way women had been erased from history, starting with the Ishango bone, with the very first recorded markings of a lunar cycle, famously proclaimed as “man’s first attempt at a calendar”. “I remember my professor saying to me, ‘What man in the world would need to note a lunar cycle?’ I decided there were gaps on the history shelves. I found girls who had been pirates, gladiators, I wanted young girls to know they could do whatever was on their mind.”
Toksvig said her feminist awakening began as a child when reading fairy stories about “fey girls sitting around, waiting for boys to make life happen.” Toksvig, who will leave News Quiz in four weeks’ time, said her political work was now more important than her broadcasting. But the broadcaster said she still felt a great deal of sadness at leaving her job in radio, and particularly in leaving the BBC.
History too, she said had “simply excluded women … It enraged me that a wonderful write like Mary Ann Evans had work that would only be taken seriously if she published under the name of George Eliot.” Of her newsreader father, who arrived from Denmark to do his journalism training at the BBC, Toksvig said: “He came to train at what was seen as the great benchmark of broadcasting. The BBC is still the great benchmark of broadcasting and woe betide anybody who interferes with the BBC.” Her remarks were greeted with with loud applause.
She said her anthropology professor at Cambridge was an influential figure who had encouraged her to question the way women had been erased from history, starting with the Ishango bone, with the very first recorded markings of a lunar cycle, famously proclaimed as “man’s first attempt at a calendar”.
“I remember my professor saying to me, ‘What man in the world would need to note a lunar cycle?’ I decided there were gaps on the history shelves. I found girls who had been pirates, gladiators, I wanted young girls to know they could do whatever was on their mind.”
Toksvig, who will leave News Quiz in four weeks’ time, said now her political work was more important than her broadcasting.
But the broadcaster said she still felt a great deal of sadness leaving her job in radio, particularly in leaving the BBC. Toksvig talked about her newsreader father, who arrived from Denmark to do his journalism training at the BBC.
“He came to train at what was seen as the great benchmark of broadcasting. The BBC is still the great benchmark of broadcasting and woe betide anybody who interferes with the BBC,” she said, to loud applause from the room.