Polly Neate

D‌octor of Laws

Wednesday 9 November 2022 - Orator: Professor David Cowan

Listen to the full oration and honorary speech on Souncloud

Deputy Vice-Chancellor

I am honoured to have been selected as the orator for this award of an honorary Doctorate of Laws to Polly Neate, because nobody better exemplifies and inspires the characteristics to which we all should aspire in our lives than her:

• passion for our causes – for her causes are those I share;
• social justice;
• strength and integrity;
• making change happen;
• leading others not by mandatory direction but by co-producing outcomes;
• and campaigning for people otherwise lost or forgotten in the system. 

She has written that “Change starts by believing that lives are only very rarely damaged by problems inherent to individuals. They are usually damaged by systems failure and discrimination. Those things can be changed”. This is a mantra to live by and remember.

Polly has occupied senior roles in a number of charities, including being an executive director at Action for Children, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, and, from 2017, Chief Executive of Shelter, the national housing charity. 

We honour her because many of the laws that you will have studied during your degree and which you will come across professionally have Polly’s campaigns at their root. Consider, for example, the expanded definition of domestic abuse to include coercive and controlling behaviour in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, and even the very shift in emphasis away from violence to abuse. Things which may seem to us to be representative of fundamental and essential rights are matters for which she has campaigned – such as the rights of women living in domestic abuse refuges to vote, or the civil right for people to live in homes that are fit for human habitation. 

She campaigns for change in housing in the midst of what some describe as a housing crisis. Shelter is currently campaigning to end income discrimination by landlords against people in receipt of social security; to force the government – whichever government is in power – to change private renting by enacting the Renter’s Reform Bill; and to demand truly affordable good quality housing. All of these campaigns will strike a chord with you because they live and breathe what we try and teach you during your degree about equality and social justice, as well as taking an active role in policy and practice. Whether or not you agree with those campaigns – and I defy anybody to stand in Polly’s way because she is such a force of nature – their successful fulfilment will benefit you in the early stages of your housing history as you move on to further study or into your careers.

Polly graduated from Bristol with a BA in English in 1988. She loved her course, a comparative English and French literature degree, and her time in Bristol, especially the edgy music and art scene. It was her time at Bristol which fermented her campaigning approach to issues. She was one of the Vincent 15 – who campaigned to stop the University’s name being used in articles written by one of its professors, John Vincent, which was regarded as racist. It is a matter which causes us to re-consider our history. The University took disciplinary action against the 15 for their protests, something which should give us all pause for thought in the current environment. Newspapers referred to them as the “new barbarians” but I think that, today, we would regard them as exercising their right to protest and, as importantly, their right to get us to confront our own actions. This is an uncomfortable memory for Bristol but it is one which we should be open about and celebrate the activism of our student body.

That was in her first year.

In her final year, Polly began a women’s magazine. This ran for only one issue, but it was important to her, both in galvanising others to write for it, and in developing her own feminism.

Polly describes herself as an idealist, and it was this which caused her transition from early-career journalist to the third sector. What I loved about talking to Polly about her achievements at those organisations was the way she did not claim much to herself, but emphasised the value of those around her. As she put it, “It’s what they do as much as what I do”.  That ability to bring people with you, and her commitment to local activism, are particularly admirable characteristics.

But speaking to her, I was also struck by Polly’s strength of character and resolve. Perhaps it was that which kept her going when stuck with a badly fractured ankle abseiling down a cliff. Left hanging halfway down for 90 minutes until the emergency services were able to get to her must have been a life-changing experience, but not one to daunt her; she told me that she is now a better climber than a walker.

Polly has told me that she is proud of her family, and her two daughters. Her family life is as important to her as her campaigning life. And her father, former president of the International Bar Association and driving force behind its championing of the rule of law, has suggested that following this honorary degree, he understands what I hope we all understand – that Polly is somebody we should all do our best to emulate.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, I present to you Polly Neate as eminently worthy of the degree of LLD honoris causa.