1.
European Parliament
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The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union. Together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, the Parliament is composed of 751 members, who represent the second-largest democratic electorate in the world and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world. It has been elected every five years by universal suffrage since 1979. However, voter turnout at European Parliament elections has fallen consecutively at each election since that date, voter turnout in 2014 stood at 42. 54% of all European voters. The Parliament is the first institution of the EU, and shares equal legislative and it likewise has equal control over the EU budget. Finally, the European Commission, the body of the EU, is accountable to Parliament. In particular, Parliament elects the President of the Commission, and it can subsequently force the Commission as a body to resign by adopting a motion of censure. The President of the European Parliament is Antonio Tajani, elected in January 2017 and he presides over a multi-party chamber, the two largest groups being the Group of the European Peoples Party and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. The last union-wide elections were the 2014 elections, the European Parliament has three places of work – Brussels, the city of Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices, meetings of the whole Parliament take place in Strasbourg and in Brussels. Committee meetings are held in Brussels, the Parliament, like the other institutions, was not designed in its current form when it first met on 10 September 1952. One of the oldest common institutions, it began as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and it was a consultative assembly of 78 appointed parliamentarians drawn from the national parliaments of member states, having no legislative powers. Its development since its foundation shows how the European Unions structures have evolved without a master plan. Some, such as Tom Reid of the Washington Post, said of the union, nobody would have designed a government as complex. Even the Parliaments two seats, which have switched several times, are a result of various agreements or lack of agreements, the body was not mentioned in the original Schuman Declaration. It was assumed or hoped that difficulties with the British would be resolved to allow the Council of Europes Assembly to perform the task, a separate Assembly was introduced during negotiations on the Treaty as an institution which would counterbalance and monitor the executive while providing democratic legitimacy. The wording of the ECSC Treaty demonstrated the desire for more than a normal consultative assembly by using the term representatives of the people. Its early importance was highlighted when the Assembly was given the task of drawing up the treaty to establish a European Political Community
2.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
3.
Liberal Democrats (UK)
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The Liberal Democrats are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. The party was formed in 1988 as a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, at the 2015 general election, the party was reduced to eight MPs. Nick Clegg resigned as leader and Tim Farron won the subsequent leadership election, the party currently has nine MPs, following the Richmond Park by-election. The Alliance was led by David Steel and Roy Jenkins, Jenkins was replaced by David Owen, the two parties had their own policies and emphases, but produced a joint manifesto for the 1983 and 1987 general elections. Following disappointing results in the 1987 election, Steel proposed to merge the two parties, although opposed by Owen, it was supported by a majority of members of both parties, and they formally merged in March 1988, with Steel and Robert Maclennan as joint interim leaders. The new party was initially named Social and Liberal Democrats with the short form The Democrats being used from September 1988. The name was changed to Liberal Democrats in October 1989. The new party logo, the Bird of Liberty, was adopted in 1989, the party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and Liberal International. The then-serving Liberal MP Paddy Ashdown was elected leader in July 1988, at the 1989 European Elections, the party received only 6% of the vote, putting them in fourth place after the Green Party. They failed to gain a single Member of the European Parliament at this election, over the next three years, the party recovered under Ashdowns leadership. They performed better at the 1990 local elections and in by-elections—including at Eastbourne in 1990, Ribble Valley in 1991, the Lib Dems did not reach the share of national votes in the 1990s that the Alliance had achieved in the 1980s. At their first election in 1992, they won 17. 8% of the vote, in the 1994 European Elections, the party gained its first two Members of European Parliament. The election was, however, something of a point for the Liberal Democrats. Ashdown retired as leader in 1999 and the party elected Charles Kennedy as his replacement, the party improved on their 1997 results at the 2001 general election, increasing their number of seats to 52 and their share of the vote to 18. 3%. The party won seats from Labour in by-elections in Brent East in 2003 and Leicester South in 2004, under Kennedys leadership the majority of Pro-Euro Conservatives, a group of former members of the Conservatives, joined the Liberal Democrats on 10 December 2001. At the 2005 general election, the Lib Dems gained their highest share of the vote since the SDP–Liberal Alliance and won 62 seats. Many had anticipated that this election would be the Lib Dems breakthrough at Westminster, party activists hoped to better the 25% support of the 1983 election, or to reach 100 MPs. Much of the apparent lack of success resulted from the first-past-the-post electoral system, controversy became associated with the campaign when it became known that Michael Brown had donated £2.4 million to the Liberal Democrats
4.
Oxford Brookes University
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Oxford Brookes University is a public university in Oxford, England. It can trace its origins to 1865 when the former Oxford School of Art was established, the university was renamed in 1992 to honour its former principal, John Henry Brookes. The universitys School of Architecture is one of the largest in Britain, Oxford Brookes University is the sixth largest employer in Oxfordshire. Oxford Brookes started in 1865 as the Oxford School of Art, located in a room on the ground floor of the Taylor Institution at St Giles. Plans were made to relocate to the former Blue Coat School for Boys on St. Ebbes, by 1950 the college had 4,000 students. A new campus was built on a site offered by the local Morrell brewing family, renamed Oxford College of Technology, it opened on the new site in 1956. Its first residence hall was established in 1960 and the relocated to Headington in 1963. In 1970, it became Oxford Polytechnic, in 2000, it took over the site of Westminster College, Oxford, basing its education activities on the site. In October 2003, Oxford Brookes University became the first university in the world to be awarded Fairtrade status, in 2007, Graham Upton retired as Vice-Chancellor and his successor, Janet Beer, was inaugurated in September. In July 2008, Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, replaced Jon Snow as chancellor of the university, in March 2015 Alistair Fitt was inaugurated as Vice-Chancellor, replacing Janet Beer. Dame Katherine Grainger British Olympic rower also replaced Shami Chakrabarti as Chancellor, Katherine is Britains most decorated female Olympic athlete and the first British women to win medals at five successive games. She was made a Dame for her services to rowing and charity in the 2017 New Years Honours, in 2015 Oxford Brookes University celebrated its 150th anniversary. A range of events and activities took place including celebrations recognising John Henry Brookes, the first Founders Day was held in May 2016. Oxford Brookes University has three campuses and a fourth in Swindon. Headington Campus The Headington Campus is in a area of Oxford. Located on the campus are the halls of residence, including Crescent Hall, Cheney Student Village, Clive Booth Hall, Clive Booth non-en suite, Warneford Hall. Wheatley Campus The Wheatley Campus is near Wheatley in the Oxfordshire countryside, seven miles south-east of the city centre, Harcourt Hill Campus The Harcourt Hill Campus is situated on Harcourt Hill on Oxfords western perimeter, two and a half miles from the city centre. Education, Philosophy, Religion, Theology, Media and Communication and it has two halls of residence, Harcourt Hill Hall and Westminster Hall
5.
European Parliament election, 2014
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From 22 to 25 May 2014, elections to the European Parliament were held in the European Union. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists and the European Alliance for Freedom declined to nominate candidates. Additionally, left-wing, eurosceptic, and nationalist parties gained ground at the expense of federalist groups, the Council of the European Union decided to hold the 2014 elections in late May instead of early June as had been the case with previous EP elections. The ongoing Eurozone crisis, an offshoot of the Great Recession, although it affected most EU member states, the hardest-hit economies were those of southern Europe, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, along with Ireland. Among other reasons, harsh austerity measures significantly affected the public approval of EU leadership. The percentage of Greeks approving the EU leadership decreased from 32% in 2010 to 19% in 2013, while in Spain, overall, only four of the 27 members countries approved the EU leadership. Peter S. Goodman suggests that distrust about the treaties and conventions that hold together modern Europe appear at an all-time high. Europes establishment parties are expected to suffer their worst performance since 1979. The Economist estimated in January 2014 that anti-EU populists of the left, euromoney predicted anti-EU populists and nationalists winning around 150 seats in the parliament, almost 20% of the total. In Greece, the left-wing Coalition of the Radical Left consistently led the polling in the leadup to the election. In Italy the populist and anti-establishment Five Star Movement, according to the polls, was expected to be the second most popular party after the Democratic Party and this provision applied for the first time for the 2014 elections. The Common Candidate process of the Party of European Socialists was carried out according to the timetable, 1–31 October 2013. 6 November 2013, PES Presidency meeting to check the candidacies,1 December 2013 –31 January 2014, internal selection process within each member Party or organisation. February 2014, PES Election Congress to ratify the votes on the candidate, adopt the Manifesto, the PES Congress gathering in Brussels in November 2011 made the decision that it would select the PES candidate through internal primaries in each of its member parties and organisations. Member parties and organisations are free to determine their own voting process, possible candidates, José Luis Zapatero, Margot Wallström, Helle Thorning Schmidt, Frans Timmermans, Borut Pahor, Sergei Stanishev, Wouter Bos, José Sócrates, Werner Faymann, Pascal Lamy. Jyrki Katainen, Enda Kenny, Donald Tusk, Michel Barnier, while a compromise position was reached, the corresponding resolution was not passed due to disagreements on other points included in the resolution. The ALDE political party finally decided to discuss candidates at the partys pre-summit meeting at the margins of the 19–20 December European Council. Open to all inhabitants in the union over the age of 16 who support green values, other qualified candidates were Rebecca Harms and Monica Frassoni
6.
Martin Schulz
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Martin Schulz is a German politician and the chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. He was the President of the European Parliament from 2012 to 2017, in November 2016, he announced he would not seek a third term, but instead would stand in 2017 as the SPD candidate for the German Chancellorship. Prior to his Presidency of the European Parliament, he was the leader of its Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group, elected as European Parliament President in 2012, Schulz was re-elected on 1 July 2014. On 17 January 2017, he was succeeded by Antonio Tajani of the EPP, in January 2017, Sigmar Gabriel announced he is not going to be SPD candidate for the German Chancellorship in favour of Martin Schulz. Furthermore, he announced he would not stand for re-election as party leader, Martin Schulz was born in the village of Hehlrath, which is now a part of Eschweiler in western Rhineland, near the Dutch and Belgian borders, as one of five children. Having grown up in the area between Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, Schulz has relatives in all three countries. As a teenager, he went to France on an exchange programme. From 1975 to 1977 Schulz then trained to be a bookseller, the next two years he worked for a number of publishing houses and bookshops, and in 1982 he opened his own bookshop in Würselen, which he ran until 1994. At 31, he was then the youngest mayor in North Rhine-Westphalia and he held that office until 1998. In the 1994 European elections Schulz was elected to the European Parliament, Schulz has served on a number of committees, including the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Subcommittee on Human Rights. He led the German delegation of the Socialist group from 2000 and was also a vice-chair of the Socialist Group in the EP. He was elected leader in 2004, of the PSE Group, succeeding the Spaniard Enrique Barón Crespo. Since 2009, Schulz has also acted as the representative for European Affairs for Germanys SPD party, a large majority of MEPs from the other political groups followed and consequently Buttiglione was withdrawn and replaced by Franco Frattini. By 2008, SPD chairman Kurt Beck has said he wanted Schulz to succeed Günter Verheugen as Germanys EU commissioner following the 2009 European elections, the post eventually went to Günther Oettinger. Following reassurances by Barroso, Schulz dropped his opposition to him. As a result, the majority of the group abstained on the vote to Barroso. On 17 January 2012, Schulz was elected as President of the European Parliament, other candidates were Nirj Deva and Diana Wallis. Together with EU Commission President Barroso and EU Council President Herman van Rompuy, in November 2016, Schulz announced that he would not run for a third term in January 2017, and instead return to German politics
7.
Central Intelligence Agency
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As one of the principal members of the U. S. Intelligence Community, the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is focused on providing intelligence for the President. Though it is not the only U. S. government agency specializing in HUMINT and it exerts foreign political influence through its tactical divisions, such as the Special Activities Division. Despite transferring some of its powers to the DNI, the CIA has grown in size as a result of the September 11 attacks. In 2013, The Washington Post reported that in fiscal year 2010, the CIA has increasingly expanded its roles, including covert paramilitary operations. One of its largest divisions, the Information Operations Center, has shifted focus from counter-terrorism to offensive cyber-operations, when the CIA was created, its purpose was to create a clearinghouse for foreign policy intelligence and analysis. Today its primary purpose is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence, warning/informing American leaders of important overseas events, with Pakistan described as an intractable target. Counterintelligence, with China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, the Executive Office also supports the U. S. military by providing it with information it gathers, receiving information from military intelligence organizations, and cooperates on field activities. The Executive Director is in charge of the day to day operation of the CIA, each branch of the military service has its own Director. The Directorate has four regional groups, six groups for transnational issues. There is a dedicated to Iraq, regional analytical offices covering the Near East and South Asia, Russia and Europe, and the Asian Pacific, Latin American. The Directorate of Operations is responsible for collecting intelligence. The name reflects its role as the coordinator of intelligence activities between other elements of the wider U. S. intelligence community with their own HUMINT operations. This Directorate was created in an attempt to end years of rivalry over influence, philosophy, in spite of this, the Department of Defense recently organized its own global clandestine intelligence service, the Defense Clandestine Service, under the Defense Intelligence Agency. This Directorate is known to be organized by regions and issues. The Directorate of Science & Technology was established to research, create, many of its innovations were transferred to other intelligence organizations, or, as they became more overt, to the military services. For example, the development of the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was done in cooperation with the United States Air Force, the U-2s original mission was clandestine imagery intelligence over denied areas such as the Soviet Union. It was subsequently provided with signals intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence capabilities, subsequently, NPIC was transferred to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
8.
Twitter
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Twitter is an online news and social networking service where users post and interact with messages, tweets, restricted to 140 characters. Registered users can post tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them, users access Twitter through its website interface, SMS or a mobile device app. Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco, California, United States, Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and launched in July. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, in 2012, more than 100 million users posted 340 million tweets a day, and the service handled an average of 1.6 billion search queries per day. In 2013, it was one of the ten most-visited websites and has described as the SMS of the Internet. As of 2016, Twitter had more than 319 million monthly active users. On the day of the 2016 U. S. presidential election, Twitter proved to be the largest source of breaking news, Twitters origins lie in a daylong brainstorming session held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. Jack Dorsey, then a student at New York University. The original project name for the service was twttr, an idea that Williams later ascribed to Noah Glass, inspired by Flickr. The developers initially considered 10958 as a code, but later changed it to 40404 for ease of use. Work on the project started on March 21,2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9,50 PM Pacific Standard Time, Dorsey has explained the origin of the Twitter title. we came across the word twitter, and it was just perfect. The definition was a short burst of inconsequential information, and chirps from birds, and thats exactly what the product was. The first Twitter prototype, developed by Dorsey and contractor Florian Weber, was used as a service for Odeo employees. Williams fired Glass, who was silent about his part in Twitters startup until 2011, Twitter spun off into its own company in April 2007. Williams provided insight into the ambiguity that defined this early period in a 2013 interview, With Twitter and they called it a social network, they called it microblogging, but it was hard to define, because it didnt replace anything. There was this path of discovery with something like that, where over time you figure out what it is, Twitter actually changed from what we thought it was in the beginning, which we described as status updates and a social utility. It is that, in part, but the insight we eventually came to was Twitter was really more of an information network than it is a social network, the tipping point for Twitters popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive conference. During the event, Twitter usage increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000, the Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages, remarked Newsweeks Steven Levy
9.
Theresa May
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Theresa Mary May is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party, having served as both since July 2016. She has been the Member of Parliament for Maidenhead since 1997, may identifies as a one-nation conservative and has been characterised as a liberal conservative. She is the second female Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader after Margaret Thatcher, the daughter of a vicar, May grew up in Oxfordshire. From 1977 until 1983, she worked for the Bank of England, after unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the House of Commons in 1992 and 1994, she was elected as the MP for Maidenhead in the 1997 general election. She was also Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2002 to 2003, after the formation of a coalition government following the 2010 general election, May was appointed Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, giving up the latter role in 2012. Reappointed after the Conservative victory in the 2015 general election, she went on to become the longest-serving Home Secretary since James Chuter Ede over 60 years previously. She won the first and second ballot of Conservative MPs by a significant margin and was due to face a vote of Conservative Party members in a contest with Andrea Leadsom, leadsoms withdrawal from the election on 11 July led to Mays appointment as party leader the same day. She was appointed Prime Minister on 13 July, as Prime Minister, Mays focus has primarily been on withdrawing the UK from the European Union. Born on 1 October 1956 in Eastbourne, Sussex, May is the child of Zaidee Mary. Her father was a Church of England clergyman who was chaplain of an Eastbourne hospital and he later became vicar of Enstone with Heythrop and finally of St Marys at Wheatley, to the east of Oxford. Mays mother was a supporter of the Conservative Party. May was educated primarily in the sector but with a short spell at an independent Catholic school. She initially attended Heythrop Primary School, a school in Heythrop, followed by St. Julianas Convent School for Girls, a Roman Catholic independent school in Begbroke. At the age of 13, May won a place at the former Holton Park Girls Grammar School, during her time as a pupil, the Oxfordshire education system was reorganised and the school became the new Wheatley Park Comprehensive School. May then attended the University of Oxford where she read geography at St Hughs College, between 1977 and 1983 May worked at the Bank of England, and from 1985 to 1997 as a financial consultant and senior advisor in International Affairs at the Association for Payment Clearing Services. Both Mays parents died during this period, her father in a car accident in 1981, may served as a councillor for Durnsford ward on the London Borough of Merton from 1986 to 1994, where she was Chairman of Education and Deputy Group Leader and Housing Spokesman. May then stood at the 1994 Barking by-election, which was prompted by the death of Labour MP Jo Richardson. The seat had been held by Labour since it was created in 1945 and Labour candidate Margaret Hodge was expected to win easily
10.
Vince Cable
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From 1968 to 1974 he lectured in economics at Glasgow University. Later, he served as Chief Economist for Shell from 1995 to 1997, in the 1970s Cable was active in the Labour Party, becoming a Labour Councillor in Glasgow. He resigned from both of these positions in May 2010 after becoming Business Secretary and he was knighted in the 2015 Dissolution Honours Lists on 27 August 2015. Cable was born in York to a working class Tory family and his father, Len, was a craftsman for Rowntree and his mother packed chocolates for Terrys. He then went to Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he initially studied Natural Sciences and he was the President of the Cambridge Union in 1965. He was also a member and later President-elect of the Cambridge University Liberal Club. In 1966, at the end of his studies at the University of Cambridge and he graduated in 1973 with a PhD in Economics from the University of Glasgow on economic integration and industrialisation. From 1966 to 1968, he was a Treasury Finance Officer to the Kenyan Government, in the 1970s, he was special advisor to John Smith when the latter was Trade Secretary. He was an advisor to the British government and then to the Commonwealth Secretary-General in the 1970s and 1980s, Cable served as Chief Economist for the oil company Royal Dutch Shell from 1995 to 1997. His role at Shell came under scrutiny as the company was accused of playing a role in a turbulent era of Nigerian politics, at university, Cable was a member of the Liberal Party but then joined the Labour Party. In 1970, he unsuccessfully contested Glasgow Hillhead for Labour, in 1979, he sought the Labour nomination for Hampstead, losing to Ken Livingstone, who was unsuccessful in taking the seat. In February 1982, he joined the recently created Social Democratic Party and he was the SDP-Liberal Alliance parliamentary candidate for his home city of York in both the 1983 and 1987 general elections. Following the 1988 merger of the alliance, he lost his 1992 general election bid as a Liberal Democrat to unseat Conservative MP Toby Jessel in the Twickenham constituency. Cable entered the House of Commons after unseating Conservative MP Toby Jessel in the Twickenham constituency at the second attempt and he subsequently increased his majority in the elections of 2001,2005 and increased still further in 2010. He lost his seat in 2015, in 2004, Cable contributed to the Orange Book. However, he himself as being a social democrat. Then Lib Dem Leader Charles Kennedy said that the party would remain an independent political force, however, he resigned on 7 January. Cable passed on the opportunity to run for the party leadership himself, a Twickenham resident, Cable commuted by train into central London daily and so claimed the London Supplement instead of the Additional Costs Allowance
11.
Nick Clegg
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Clegg was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015 and has been the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam since 2005. In 2007 he was elected Leader of the Liberal Democrats, leading his party into a government with the Conservative Party in 2010. In 2015, he resigned as leader of the Liberal Democrats following that years general election at which his party was defeated and lost 49 MPs. Clegg is a fluent speaker of five European languages including English, German, Spanish, French and his English grandfather was Hugh Anthony Clegg, editor of the British Medical Journal for 35 years. Cleggs Dutch mother, Hermance van den Wall Bake, was interned, along with her family and she met Cleggs father during a visit to England in 1956, and they married on 1 August 1959. Clegg is multilingual, he speaks English, French, Dutch, German and his background has informed his politics. He says, There is simply not a shred of racism in me, as a person whose whole family is formed by flight from persecution and its one of the reasons I am a liberal. His Dutch mother instilled in him a degree of scepticism about the entrenched class configurations in British society. He has said of languages that The danger is that we can afford to be lazy about languages, because they all want to speak English – English is the most useful, the global language bar none. But I dont think we should allow that luxury to be a sort of not to learn languages. As a 16-year-old exchange student in Munich, he and a friend drunkenly set fire to what he called the collection of cacti in Germany. When news of the incident was reported during his time as Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman and he was arrested and not formally charged, but performed a kind of community service. He spent a gap year working as a instructor in Austria, before going on to Cambridge University in 1986. He was active in the student theatre at Cambridge, acting in a play about AIDS and he was also captain of his colleges tennis team, and campaigned for the human rights organisation Survival International. Clegg spent the summer of 1989 as a junior in Postipankki bank in Helsinki. It has been alleged that Clegg joined the Cambridge University Conservative Association between 1986 and 1987, Clegg has maintained he has no recollection of that whatsoever. However, Conservative MP Greg Hands has a record of CUCA members for 1986–1987, Hands noted that for the avoidance of any doubt, there was only one N Clegg at Robinson College. Is listed in the Robinson College Record, under Freshmen 1986 and he graduated with an upper second class honours degree in social anthropology
