1.
Order of the British Empire
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There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of, the order. Recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire were at first made on the nomination of the United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions of the Empire, nominations continue today from Commonwealth countries that participate in recommending British honours. Most members are citizens of the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth realms that use the Imperial system of honours and awards. Honorary knighthoods are appointed to citizens of nations where the Queen is not head of state, occasionally, honorary appointees are, incorrectly, referred to as Sir or Dame – Bill Gates or Bob Geldof, for example. In particular, King George V wished to create an Order to honour many thousands of those who had served in a variety of non-combatant roles during the First World War, when first established, the Order had only one division. However, in 1918, soon after its foundation, it was divided into Military. The Orders motto is For God and the Empire, at the foundation of the Order, the Medal of the Order of the British Empire was instituted, to serve as a lower award granting recipients affiliation but not membership. In 1922, this was renamed the British Empire Medal, in addition, the BEM is awarded by the Cook Islands and by some other Commonwealth nations. The British monarch is Sovereign of the Order, and appoints all members of the Order. The next most senior member is the Grand Master, of whom there have been three, Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, Queen Mary, and the current Grand Master, the Duke of Edinburgh. The Order is limited to 300 Knights and Dames Grand Cross,845 Knights and Dames Commander, and 8,960 Commanders. There are no limits applied to the number of members of the fourth and fifth classes. Foreign recipients, as members, do not contribute to the numbers restricted to the Order as full members do. Though men can be knighted separately from an order of chivalry, women cannot, and so the rank of Knight/Dame Commander of the Order is the lowest rank of damehood, and second-lowest of knighthood. Because of this, Dame Commander is awarded in circumstances in which a man would be created a Knight Bachelor, for example, by convention, female judges of the High Court of Justice are created Dames Commander after appointment, while male judges become Knights Bachelor. The Order has six officials, the Prelate, the Dean, the Secretary, the Registrar, the King of Arms, the Bishop of London, a senior bishop in the Church of England, serves as the Orders Prelate. The Dean of St Pauls is ex officio the Dean of the Order, the Orders King of Arms is not a member of the College of Arms, as are many other heraldic officers. From time to time, individuals are appointed to a higher grade within the Order, thereby ceasing usage of the junior post-nominal letters
2.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
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.
Labour Party (UK)
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The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Labour later served in the coalition from 1940 to 1945. Labour was also in government from 1964 to 1970 under Harold Wilson and from 1974 to 1979, first under Wilson and then James Callaghan. The Labour Party was last in government from 1997 to 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, beginning with a majority of 179. Having won 232 seats in the 2015 general election, the party is the Official Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the party also organises in Northern Ireland, but does not contest elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Labour Party is a member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance. In September 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party, the first Lib–Lab candidate to stand was George Odger in the Southwark by-election of 1870. In addition, several small socialist groups had formed around this time, among these were the Independent Labour Party, the intellectual and largely middle-class Fabian Society, the Marxist Social Democratic Federation and the Scottish Labour Party. In the 1895 general election, the Independent Labour Party put up 28 candidates, Keir Hardie, the leader of the party, believed that to obtain success in parliamentary elections, it would be necessary to join with other left-wing groups. Hardies roots as a lay preacher contributed to an ethos in the party led to the comment by 1950s General Secretary Morgan Phillips that Socialism in Britain owed more to Methodism than Marx. The motion was passed at all stages by the TUC, the meeting was attended by a broad spectrum of working-class and left-wing organisations—trades unions represented about one third of the membership of the TUC delegates. This created an association called the Labour Representation Committee, meant to coordinate attempts to support MPs sponsored by trade unions and it had no single leader, and in the absence of one, the Independent Labour Party nominee Ramsay MacDonald was elected as Secretary. He had the task of keeping the various strands of opinions in the LRC united. The October 1900 Khaki election came too soon for the new party to campaign effectively, only 15 candidatures were sponsored, but two were successful, Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby. Support for the LRC was boosted by the 1901 Taff Vale Case, the judgement effectively made strikes illegal since employers could recoup the cost of lost business from the unions. In their first meeting after the election the groups Members of Parliament decided to adopt the name The Labour Party formally, the Fabian Society provided much of the intellectual stimulus for the party. One of the first acts of the new Liberal Government was to reverse the Taff Vale judgement, the Peoples History Museum in Manchester holds the minutes of the first Labour Party meeting in 1906 and has them on display in the Main Galleries. Also within the museum is the Labour History Archive and Study Centre, the governing Liberals were unwilling to repeal this judicial decision with primary legislation
5.
Maidstone
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Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England,32 miles south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it with Rochester, historically, the river was a source and route for much of the towns trade as the centre of the agricultural county of Kent, known as the Garden of England. There is evidence of a settlement in the area dating back to before the Stone Age, the town is in the borough of Maidstone. In 2011, the town had a population of 113,137, maidstones economy has changed over the years from being involved in heavy industry, to more light industry and service industries. Saxon charters show the first recorded instances of the name, de maeides stana and maegdan stane. The latter meaning may refer to the nearby megalith around which took place. The name evolved through medestan/meddestane in the Domesday Book with possible variation Mayndenstan, the modern name appeared by 1610. It has been suggested that the name derives from stones set into the river to allow clothes to be rinsed in the water away from the banks. Neolithic finds have revealed the earliest occupation of the area, the Normans set up a shire moot, and religious organisations established an abbey at Boxley, hospitals and a college for priests. Today’s suburb of Penenden Heath was a place of execution in medieval times, maidstones charter as a town was granted in 1549, although briefly revoked, a new charter in 1551 created the town as a borough. The charter was ratified in 1619 under James I, and the coat of arms was designed, bearing a golden lion, recently to these arms were added the head of a white horse, a golden lion and an iguanodon. The iguanodon relates to the discovery in the 19th century of the remains of that dinosaur. Maidstone has had the right to a town gaol since 1604, during the English Civil War, the Battle of Maidstone took place in 1648, resulting in a victory for the Parliamentarians. Paper mills, stone quarrying, brewing and the industry have all flourished here. The paper maker James Whatman and his son invented wove paper at Turkey Mill from 1740, a permanent military presence was established in the town with the completion of cavalry barracks in 1798. Invicta Park Barracks is now home to the 36 Engineer Regiment, Maidstone Prison is north of the town centre and was completed in 1819. Modern Maidstone incorporates a number of outlying villages and settlements, the county council offices to the north of the town centre were built of Portland stone between 1910 and 1913. On 29 September 1975 a local pub serving Invicta Park Barracks, The Hare, Maidstone General Hospital opened on the outskirts of the town in 1983, replacing West Kent General Hospital, which opened 150 years earlier in Marsham Street
6.
Kent
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Kent /ˈkɛnt/ is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south west, the county also shares borders with Essex via the Dartford Crossing and the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. France can be clearly in fine weather from Folkestone and the White Cliffs of Dover. Hills in the form of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge span the length of the county, because of its relative abundance of fruit-growing and hop gardens, Kent is known as The Garden of England. The title was defended in 2006 when a survey of counties by the UKTV Style Gardens channel put Kent in fifth place, behind North Yorkshire, Devon. Haulage, logistics, and tourism are industries, major industries in north-west Kent include aggregate building materials, printing. Coal mining has played its part in Kents industrial heritage. Large parts of Kent are within the London commuter belt and its transport connections to the capital. Twenty-eight per cent of the county forms part of two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the North Downs and The High Weald, the area has been occupied since the Palaeolithic era, as attested by finds from the quarries at Swanscombe. The Medway megaliths were built during the Neolithic era, There is a rich sequence of Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman era occupation, as indicated by finds and features such as the Ringlemere gold cup and the Roman villas of the Darent valley. The modern name of Kent is derived from the Brythonic word Cantus meaning rim or border and this describes the eastern part of the current county area as a border land or coastal district. Julius Caesar had described the area as Cantium, or home of the Cantiaci in 51 BC, the extreme west of the modern county was by the time of Roman Britain occupied by Iron Age tribes, known as the Regnenses. East Kent became a kingdom of the Jutes during the 5th century and was known as Cantia from about 730, the early medieval inhabitants of the county were known as the Cantwara, or Kent people. These people regarded the city of Canterbury as their capital, in 597, Pope Gregory I appointed the religious missionary as the first Archbishop of Canterbury. In the previous year, Augustine successfully converted the pagan King Æthelberht of Kent to Christianity, the Diocese of Canterbury became Britains first Episcopal See with first cathedral and has since remained Englands centre of Christianity. The second designated English cathedral was in Kent at Rochester Cathedral, in the 11th century, the people of Kent adopted the motto Invicta, meaning undefeated. This naming followed the invasion of Britain by William of Normandy, the Kent peoples continued resistance against the Normans led to Kents designation as a semi-autonomous county palatine in 1067. Under the nominal rule of Williams half-brother Odo of Bayeux, the county was granted powers to those granted in the areas bordering Wales
7.
Borough of Dartford
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The Borough of Dartford is a local government district with borough status in Kent, England, in the far north west of the county. It is part of the contiguous London urban area, according to the 2011 Census, its population was 97,365. The borough was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Dartford, Swanscombe Urban District, in the mid-1990s review of local government in Kent, consideration was given to merging the borough with that of adjoining Gravesham to form a new unitary authority. However, the proposal proved unpopular amongst residents who took part in the consultation, since 2010, the main areas MP is Gareth Johnson who replaced the outgoing Howard Stoate. The mayor for the year May 2014 to May 2015 is Councillor Avtar Sandhu MBE, the leader of the council, from February 2006, is Councillor Jeremy Kite. There are seven stations in the borough, at Stone, Greenhithe, Swanscombe and Dartford, all on the North Kent Line. From Dartford there are three lines serving London and one to Gravesend, the Medway Towns and eastern Kent, for many services Dartford is the terminus. Ebbsfleet International railway station on High Speed 1 opened in the east of the borough on 19 November 2007, six high-speed services to Paris and five to Brussels run daily from here by Eurostar. The first of the Fastrack bus services, using a combination of ordinary roads, the service runs from the Temple Hill area of Dartford, through the town centre and on to Bluewater Shopping Centre, Greenhithe, Ebbsfleet International and Gravesend. Three of the main roads pass through the borough boundaries, the M25 and M20 motorways. The A20, A225 and the A226 roads also cross the borough, the M25 motorway bisects the district Swanscombe and Greenhithe have low rise homes and mid rise by the river Thames. Housing is a mixture of high rise in Dartford centre through to low rise in all of the villages. The number of listed buildings in the district exceeds 50 and this includes 7 churches listed in the highest grading in the national listing system. The population rose in the 10 years to 2011 from 85,911 to 97,365, by 13. 3%,87. 3% of residents were born in England, which was 2. 5% higher than the average for the South East. The next most common group of countries of birth was the non-EU, however this was 0. 3% lower than the average for the South-East, as to older people, the borough has a below national and regional proportion. With 80. 8% of households with a car or van,1. 0% of the population lived in a communal establishment in the area. As to homes, as 12. 6% of properties in the area are detached, being almost at the mean for the country, Christians form just over 60% of the areas population. In October 2012 Dartford and Gravesham councils co-announced plans for a theme park to be built on the Swanscombe peninsula
8.
Greater London
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London, or Greater London, is a region of England which forms the administrative boundaries of London. It is organised into 33 local government districts, the 32 London boroughs, the Greater London Authority, based in Southwark, is responsible for strategic local government across the region and consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The county of Greater London was created on 1 April 1965 through the London Government Act 1963, administratively, Greater London was first established as a sui generis council area under the Greater London Council between 1963 and 1986. The area was re-established as a region in 1994, and the Greater London Authority formed in 2000, the region covers 1,572 km2 and had a population of 8,174,000 at the 2011 census. In 2012, it had the highest GVA per capita in the United Kingdom at £37,232, the Greater London Built-up Area—used in some national statistics—is a measure of the continuous urban area of London, and therefore includes areas outside of the administrative region. The term Greater London has been and still is used to different areas in governance, statistics, history. In terms of ceremonial counties, London is divided into the small City of London, outside the limited boundaries of the City, a variety of arrangements has governed the wider area since 1855, culminating in the creation of the Greater London administrative area in 1965. The Greater London Arterial Road Programme was devised between 1913 and 1916, one of the larger early forms was the Greater London Planning Region, devised in 1927, which occupied 1,856 square miles and included 9 million people. The LCC pressed for an alteration in its boundaries soon after the end of the First World War, noting that within the Metropolitan, a Royal Commission on London Government was set up to consider the issue. The LCC proposed a vast new area for Greater London, with a boundary somewhere between the Metropolitan Police District and the home counties, protests were made at the possibility of including Windsor, Slough and Eton in the authority. The Commission made its report in 1923, rejecting the LCCs scheme, two minority reports favoured change beyond the amalgamation of smaller urban districts, including both smaller borough councils and a central authority for strategic functions. The London Traffic Act 1924 was a result of the Commission, Greater London originally had a two-tier system of local government, with the Greater London Council sharing power with the City of London Corporation and the 32 London Borough councils. The GLC was abolished in 1986 by the Local Government Act 1985 and its functions were devolved to the City Corporation and the London Boroughs, with some functions transferred to central government and joint boards. Greater London was used to form the London region of England in 1994, a referendum held in 1998 established a public will to recreate an upper tier of government to cover the region. The Greater London Authority, London Assembly and the directly elected Mayor of London were created in 2000 by the Greater London Authority Act 1999, in 2000, the outer boundary of the Metropolitan Police District was re-aligned to the Greater London boundary. The 2000 and 2004 mayoral elections were won by Ken Livingstone, the 2008 and 2012 elections were won by Boris Johnson. The 2016 election was won by Sadiq Khan, Greater London continues to include the most closely associated parts of the Greater London Urban Area and their historic buffers. Thus it includes, in five boroughs, significant parts of the Metropolitan Green Belt which protects designated greenfield land in a way to the citys parks
9.
Gillingham, Kent
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Gillingham /ˈdʒɪlɪŋəm/ is a town in the county of Kent in South East England. For local government purposes it is also in the authority of Medway. The town includes the settlements of Brompton, Hempstead, Wigmore, Parkwood, Rainham, Rainham Mark, Gillingham means a homestead of Gyllas family, from Old English ham and ingas, and was first recorded in the 10th century as Gyllingeham. Also referred to in old texts as Jillyingham Water, hence the pronunciation being Gillingham, Gillingham became an urban district under the Local Government Act 1894, gaining municipal borough status in 1903. John Robert Featherby was the first mayor of the Borough of Gillingham, in 1928 Rainham was added to the Gillingham Borough. Under the Local Government Act 1972 it became a non-metropolitan district and it merged with the other Medway Towns in 1998 under the 1990s UK local government reform, to become part of the Medway unitary authority. The Municipal Buildings in Canterbury Street were built as offices for Gillingham Borough Council. They were opened by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir George Broadbridge, the Lord Mayor was received at Gillingham Railway Station by a guard of honour of boys of HMS Arethusa. Before the Second World War, air raid sirens were placed on the Municipal Buildings, in about 1953, Gillingham Borough Control was built underground, beneath part of the car park. Medway Council then moved into the former Lloyds of London headquarters at Chatham Gun Wharf, and they were sold off in 2008 under a contract which turned them into a residential care home. The town grew along the road from Brompton on the great lines, as such it was a linear development. Close by was the road along the line, linking The Strand. Later, communiites developed along the top road- Watling street – turnpike linking Chatham with Dover, all these communities merged into the town that is called today Gillingham. Gillingham experiences a climate similar to almost all of the United Kingdom. Due to its southerly, sheltered, marine position near the European continent the climate is among the warmest in the whole of England, the name Gillingham is recorded in the Domesday book of 1086. It is said to have named after a warlord, Gyllingas—from the old English gyllan. He was a man in Kent history as he led his warriors into battle screaming and shouting. At the time of the Norman Conquest, Gillingham was a small hamlet, Gillingham itself, at the time, was a small hamlet, built around the parish church and surrounded by large farm-holdings, of which St
10.
Medway
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Medway is a conurbation and unitary authority in South East England. It had a population in 2014 of 274,015, over half of the unitary authority area is rural in nature. The main towns in the conurbation are, Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham and these are traditionally known as the Medway Towns. Many smaller towns and villages such as Frindsbury, Brompton, Walderslade, Luton, outside the urban area, the villages retain parish councils. Cuxton, Halling and Wouldham are in the Medway Gap region to the south of Rochester, Hoo St Werburgh, Cliffe, High Halstow, St Mary Hoo, Allhallows, Stoke and Grain are on the Hoo Peninsula to the north. Frindsbury Extra including Upnor borders Strood, Medway includes parts of the North Kent Marshes, an environmentally significant wetlands region with several Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Other similar areas of conservation include Ranscombe Farm on chalk grassland and woodland between Strood and Cuxton, with rare woodland flowers and orchids, Medway is one of the boroughs included in the Thames Gateway development scheme. The Medway area has a long and varied history dominated originally by the city of Rochester and later by the naval, Rochester was established on an Iron Age site by the Romans, who called it Durobrivae, to control the point where Watling Street crossed the River Medway. Rochester later became a town and, under later Saxon influence. The first cathedral was built by Bishop Justus in 604 and rebuilt under the Normans by Bishop Gundulf, Rochester was also an important point for people travelling the Pilgrims Way, which stretches from Winchester to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury. The Pilgrims Way crossed the Medway near Cuxton, in Medway there are 82 scheduled ancient monuments,832 Listed buildings and 22 conservation areas. The Royal Navy opened a dockyard during the reign of Henry VIII, although it is called Chatham dockyard two-thirds of the dockyard lie within Gillingham. It was protected by a series of forts including Fort Amherst, the majority of surviving buildings in the Historic Dockyard are Georgian. It was here that HMS Victory, Admiral Lord Nelsons flagship at Trafalgar, was built, Sir Francis Drake learned his seamanship on the Medway, Sir John Hawkins founded a hospital in Chatham for seamen, and Nelson began his Navy service at Chatham at the age of 12. Another warship built at Chatham that still exists is HMS Unicorn laid down in February 1822 and she never saw active service and has been restored and is preserved afloat in Dundee, Scotland. There have also other naval disasters in Medway other than the Raid on the Medway. On 25 November 1914 the battleship HMS Bulwark was moored at buoy number 17 at Kethole Reach on the River Medway and she was taking on coal from the airship base at Kingsnorth, on the Isle of Grain when an internal explosion ripped the ship apart. In all, the explosion killed 745 men and 51 officers, five of the 14 men who survived died later of their wounds, and almost all of the others were seriously wounded
11.
Bob Geldof
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Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof, KBE, is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor, and political activist. He rose to prominence as the singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The band had hits with his compositions Rat Trap and I Dont Like Mondays and he co-wrote Do They Know Its Christmas. One of the singles of all time, and starred in Pink Floyds 1982 film Pink Floyd – The Wall as Pink. Geldof is widely recognised for his activism, especially anti-poverty efforts concerning Africa, in 1984 he and Midge Ure founded the charity supergroup Band Aid to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. They went on to organise the charity super-concert Live Aid the following year, a single father, Geldof has also been outspoken for the fathers rights movement. In 2005 he received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, Geldof was born and brought up in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, a son of Robert and Evelyn Geldof. His paternal grandfather, Zenon Geldof, was a Belgian immigrant and his paternal grandmother, Amelia Falk, was an English Jew from London. When Geldof was six or seven, his mother, Evelyn,41, Bob Geldof attended Blackrock College, where he was bullied for being a poor rugby player and for his middle name, Zenon. After work as a slaughterman, a navvy and pea canner in Wisbech, he was hired as a music journalist in Vancouver. He briefly guest hosted the CBC childrens program Switchback, returning to Ireland in 1975, he became lead singer of the Boomtown Rats, a rock group closely linked with the punk movement. In 1978, The Boomtown Rats had their first No.1 single in the UK with Rat Trap, in 1979, they gained international attention with their second UK No. This was both successful and controversial, Geldof had written it in the aftermath of Brenda Ann Spencers attempted massacre at an elementary school in San Diego, California in 1979. In 1980, The Boomtown Rats released the album Mondo Bongo and its single Up All Night was a hit in the U. S. and its video was played frequently on MTV. Geldof became known as an interview subject. He responded to nuns in the audience who tried to shout him down by saying they had a life with no material worries in return for which they gave themselves body. The interview caused uproar, making it impossible for The Boomtown Rats to play in Ireland again, in January 2013, Geldof announced The Boomtown Rats would be reforming to play together for the first time since 1986 at that year’s Isle of Wight Festival in June. They have subsequently announced further tour dates and released a new CD Back to Boomtown, Geldof left the Boomtown Rats in 1986, to launch a solo career and publish his autobiography, Is That It. which was a UK best-seller
12.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
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It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories. Its head is the Sovereign of the United Kingdom and its seat is the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster, one of the boroughs of the British capital, the parliament is bicameral, consisting of an upper house and a lower house. The Sovereign forms the third component of the legislature, prior to the opening of the Supreme Court in October 2009, the House of Lords also performed a judicial role through the Law Lords. The House of Commons is an elected chamber with elections held at least every five years. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster in London, most cabinet ministers are from the Commons, whilst junior ministers can be from either House. The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Treaty of Union by Acts of Union passed by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The UK parliament and its institutions have set the pattern for many throughout the world. However, John Bright – who coined the epithet – used it with reference to a rather than a parliament. In theory, the UKs supreme legislative power is vested in the Crown-in-Parliament. However, the Crown normally acts on the advice of the Prime Minister, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created in 1801, by the merger of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Union. The principle of responsibility to the lower House did not develop until the 19th century—the House of Lords was superior to the House of Commons both in theory and in practice. Members of the House of Commons were elected in an electoral system. Thus, the borough of Old Sarum, with seven voters, many small constituencies, known as pocket or rotten boroughs, were controlled by members of the House of Lords, who could ensure the election of their relatives or supporters. During the reforms of the 19th century, beginning with the Reform Act 1832, No longer dependent on the Lords for their seats, MPs grew more assertive. The supremacy of the British House of Commons was established in the early 20th century, in 1909, the Commons passed the so-called Peoples Budget, which made numerous changes to the taxation system which were detrimental to wealthy landowners. The House of Lords, which consisted mostly of powerful landowners, on the basis of the Budgets popularity and the Lords consequent unpopularity, the Liberal Party narrowly won two general elections in 1910. Using the result as a mandate, the Liberal Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, introduced the Parliament Bill, in the face of such a threat, the House of Lords narrowly passed the bill. However, regardless of the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 created the parliaments of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland and reduced the representation of both parts at Westminster
