Blowin' In The Wind (Free subscription) | 20/11/2008
Singapore swears by meritocracy. But it has led to greater inequality in Britain, according to the writer, Toby Young, who adds his father coined the word, “meritocracy”. But the people aren’t protesting, he says, because they think they too can...
The Daily Dish (Free subscription) | 23/11/2008
Toby Young believes celebrity culture sustains the illusion of meritocracy: If the existence of the celebrity class does play a role in securing people's consent to our winner-takes-all society, then the fact that the entry requirements are so low helps...
Drudge Retort (Free subscription) | 07/11/2008
Toby Young, writing for Britain's Spectator : I don't get it. I mean, am I the only person in the world who's noticed that Barack Obama isn't black?
Daily Mail (Free subscription) | 01/11/2008
His disastrous stint as a journalist in America saw him insult celebrities, lose close friends - and even get sued. So Toby Young was more than a little surprised to discover that a thief has chosen to impersonate him in an attempt to steal luxury watches worth thousands of pounds.
The First Post (Free subscription) | yesterday
Kirsten Dunst (pictured), most recently seen in the screen adaptation of English journalist Toby Young's best-selling book How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, has won a restraining order…
New Zealand Herald (Free subscription) | 30/11/2008
Deborah Hill Cone: Who wants to be a celebritarian? 3:55AM Monday Dec 01, 2008By Meritocracy. Merit-o-cracy. Cool word. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary says it is a system in which the talented are moved ahead on the basis of their achievement.Meritocracy sounds like something Plato might have yarned about, but the word was only thunked up in 1958 by Michael Young, the egalitarian chap...
Jossip (Free subscription) | 25/11/2008
The opening chapter of Toby Young's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People involves the Vanity Fair writer trying to crash the uber-exclusive Oscar-after party of Graydon Carter's publication. His ticket ends up in the hands of another reporter, and Young is bumped from the guest-list. And if you think that was brutal then, you should [...]
The Independent (Free subscription) | 25/11/2008
Toby Young, Journalist "It seems politically quite astute, and I would have thought it has marginally enhanced Labour's chance of winning the next election, but there is a whiff of opportunism about it. Gordon Brown is ruthlessly exploiting the predicament we are in to raise public spending, not just to boost the economy but to put the Tories on the back foot. He has hiked the tax on those [earning]...
<B>Patrick Joubert Conlon</B> (Free subscription) | 23/11/2008
Toby Young writes : Fifty years ago, the sociologist Michael Young—my father—published a book that, in his own words, gave him a minor claim to immortality. A dystopian satire in the same vein as 1984, it was an attempt to sound a warning bell about various social and political trends by describing a future in which they had come to fruition. It wasn't as successful as Orwell's...
First Drafts (Free subscription) | 21/11/2008
Prospect’s own head honcho David Goodhart was on Radio 4’s Today this morning, along with our contributor Toby Young. Both of them deal with social mobility in the latest edition. Indeed, David used his biog descripton to come out as an old Etonian “who failed his A-levels first time round, went to a provincial university [...]
Hobnob Blog (Free subscription) | 20/11/2008
... cause for hope may be the existence of Peaches Geldof. " Lulled by the celebritariat ," by Toby Young, Prospect, December 2008 Also see " Sick fascination with celebrities indicts Americans ," by Leonard Pitts Jr., Columbia Tribune, January 19, 2008
A Guy In New York (Free subscription) | 20/11/2008
... cause for hope may be the existence of Peaches Geldof. " Lulled by the celebritariat ," by Toby Young, Prospect, December 2008 Also see " Sick fascination with celebrities indicts Americans ," by Leonard Pitts Jr., Columbia Tribune, January 19, 2008
First Drafts (Free subscription) | 19/11/2008
... piece to David, we are also luck enough to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Michael Young’s The Rise of the Meritocracy with a wry essay from his son, Toby Young, on the rise of the celebritariat - “the people featured in Heat magazine, rather than Hello!, the premier league footballers and their wives, pop stars, movie stars, soap stars and the like.” Toby...
Time (Free subscription) | 12/11/2008
Top Chef, currently Bravo's best reality show—and I'd say that even if Project Runway were returning—comes back tonight. What excites me: it's once again set in my city, New York. What doesn't: they've inexplicably replaced fantastic judge Ted Allen with serial self-promoter Toby Young. I'll suspend judgment on the judge for now, however. The new [...]
Random Reality Thoughts (Free subscription) | 11/11/2008
The next season of "Top Chef" premieres tomorrow night at 10 p.m. (Bravo) and Tom/Padma are dishing already! It looks like it's going to be a great season with the new cast and a bevvy of guest judges, featuring Toby Young . Also scheduled to appear are Martha Stewart, The Foo Fighters, Jean-Georges, Eric Ripert, Rocco DiSpirito, Wylie Dufresne, Jean-Christophe Novelli and Natasha Richardson....
