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The Association of University Teachers has come under fire for hiring left-wing media commentator Polly Toynbee as a star columnist in its members' magazine, AUTLook .

The issue after her inaugural effort, out this week, contains angry letters. One member rants that he doesn't pay his union dues to employ a "clapped-out columnist to write the same sort of rubbish that I could read any day of the week in The Guardian ".

But the same edition contains a robust response to the negative comments from Jim Grimbleby of Reading University, who waxes lyrical about Ms Toynbee's wit. Can Dr Grimbleby sense what is in his magazine before it lands on his doormat? Or was there a desperate letters editor on the phone hours before the issue went to press?