1.
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
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Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians, who are present or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, the Council also holds the delegated authority to issue Orders of Council, mostly used to regulate certain public institutions. The Council advises the sovereign on the issuing of Royal Charters, which are used to grant special status to incorporated bodies, otherwise, the Privy Councils powers have now been largely replaced by the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The Judicial Committee consists of judges appointed as Privy Counsellors, predominantly Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The Privy Council of the United Kingdom was preceded by the Privy Council of Scotland, the key events in the formation of the modern Privy Council are given below, Witenagemot was an early equivalent to the Privy Council of England. During the reigns of the Norman monarchs, the English Crown was advised by a court or curia regis. The body originally concerned itself with advising the sovereign on legislation, administration, later, different bodies assuming distinct functions evolved from the court. The courts of law took over the business of dispensing justice, nevertheless, the Council retained the power to hear legal disputes, either in the first instance or on appeal. Furthermore, laws made by the sovereign on the advice of the Council, powerful sovereigns often used the body to circumvent the Courts and Parliament. During Henry VIIIs reign, the sovereign, on the advice of the Council, was allowed to enact laws by mere proclamation, the legislative pre-eminence of Parliament was not restored until after Henry VIIIs death. Though the royal Council retained legislative and judicial responsibilities, it became an administrative body. The Council consisted of forty members in 1553, but the sovereign relied on a smaller committee, by the end of the English Civil War, the monarchy, House of Lords, and Privy Council had been abolished. The remaining parliamentary chamber, the House of Commons, instituted a Council of State to execute laws, the forty-one members of the Council were elected by the House of Commons, the body was headed by Oliver Cromwell, de facto military dictator of the nation. In 1653, however, Cromwell became Lord Protector, and the Council was reduced to thirteen and twenty-one members, all elected by the Commons. In 1657, the Commons granted Cromwell even greater powers, some of which were reminiscent of those enjoyed by monarchs, the Council became known as the Protectors Privy Council, its members were appointed by the Lord Protector, subject to Parliaments approval. In 1659, shortly before the restoration of the monarchy, the Protectors Council was abolished, Charles II restored the Royal Privy Council, but he, like previous Stuart monarchs, chose to rely on a small group of advisers. Under George I even more power transferred to this committee and it now began to meet in the absence of the sovereign, communicating its decisions to him after the fact. Thus, the British Privy Council, as a whole, ceased to be a body of important confidential advisers to the sovereign and it is closely related to the word private, and derives from the French word privé
2.
First Secretary of State
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First Secretary of State is an honorific title occasionally used within the Government of the United Kingdom. The title, which implies seniority over all other Secretaries of State, has no powers or authority attached to it beyond that of any other Secretary of State. The title is not always in use, so there have sometimes been extended gaps between successive holders of the title, the most lengthy of which being the 25 years between 1970 and 1995. The last holder was George Osborne, having held the post from May 2015 until July 2016, the post of Deputy Prime Minister had been created in 1942 for Clement Attlee, the leader of the Labour Party in Winston Churchills wartime coalition ministry. The post indicated that the holder ranked second in government, after the Prime Minister, for this reason, the Deputy Prime Minister concurrently held other offices, entitling him to a place in cabinet. The title First Secretary of State indicated the rank as a Secretary of State. The title was created in 1962 for Deputy Prime Minister R. A. Butler, michael Heseltine and John Prescott were also relieved of their cabinet portfolios when serving as Deputy Prime Minister, and were therefore additionally appointed First Secretary of State. In 1964, Prime Minister Harold Wilson established the alternative usage, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
3.
Elizabeth II
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Elizabeth II has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February 1952. Elizabeth was born in London as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake duties during the Second World War. Elizabeths many historic visits and meetings include a visit to the Republic of Ireland. She has seen major changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation. She has reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms and she is the worlds oldest reigning monarch as well as Britains longest-lived. In October 2016, she became the longest currently reigning monarch, in 2017 she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee. Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the family, however, support for the monarchy remains high. Elizabeth was born at 02,40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather and her father, Prince Albert, Duke of York, was the second son of the King. Her mother, Elizabeth, Duchess of York, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and she was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfathers London house,17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. Elizabeths only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930, the two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as Crawfie. Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music, Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margarets childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family. The book describes Elizabeths love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, others echoed such observations, Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant and her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved. During her grandfathers reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, the Duke of York. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, many people believed that he would marry and have children of his own. When her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, later that year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Consequently, Elizabeths father became king, and she became heir presumptive, if her parents had had a later son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession
4.
Gordon Brown
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James Gordon Brown is a British politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Blair Government from 1997 to 2007, Brown was a Member of Parliament from 1983 to 2015, first for Dunfermline East and later for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. A doctoral graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Brown spent his career working as both a lecturer at a further education college and a television journalist. He entered Parliament in 1983 as the MP for Dunfermline East and he joined the Shadow Cabinet in 1989 as Shadow Secretary of State for Trade, and was later promoted to become Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1992. After Labours victory in 1997, he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, in 2007, Tony Blair resigned as Prime Minister and Labour Leader and Brown was chosen to replace him in an uncontested election. Brown remained in office as Labour negotiated to form a government with the Liberal Democrats. On 10 May 2010, Brown announced he would stand down as leader of the Labour Party, Labours attempts to retain power failed and on 11 May, he officially resigned as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. He was succeeded as Prime Minister by David Cameron, and as Leader of the Labour Party by Ed Miliband, later, Brown played a prominent role in the campaign surrounding the Scottish independence referendum of 2014, galvanising support behind maintaining the union. Brown was born at the Orchard Maternity Nursing Home in Giffnock, Renfrewshire and his father was John Ebenezer Brown, a minister of the Church of Scotland and a strong influence on Brown. He died in December 1998, aged 84 and his mother, Jessie Elizabeth Brown, known as Bunty, died on 19 September 2004, aged 86. She was the daughter of John Souter, a timber merchant, the family moved to Kirkcaldy – then the largest town in Fife, across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh – when Gordon was three. Brown was brought up there with his elder brother John and younger brother Andrew Brown in a manse, in common with many other notable Scots, he is therefore often referred to as a son of the manse. At age sixteen he wrote that he loathed and resented this ludicrous experiment on young lives and he was accepted by the University of Edinburgh to study history at the same early age of sixteen. During an end-of-term rugby union match at his old school, he received a kick to the head and this left him blind in his left eye, despite treatment including several operations and weeks spent lying in a darkened room. Later at Edinburgh, while playing tennis, he noticed the symptoms in his right eye. Brown underwent experimental surgery at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and his eye was saved. In his youth at the University of Edinburgh, Brown was involved in a relationship with Margarita. Margarita said about it, It was a solid and romantic story
5.
John Prescott
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John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour member of parliament from 1970 to 2010, in the 1994 leadership election, he stood for both Leader and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, winning election to the latter office. He was appointed Deputy Prime Minister after Labours victory in the 1997 election, with a brief as Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport. In his youth he failed the 11-Plus entrance examination for school, but went on to graduate from Ruskin College. Prescott also developed a reputation as a key conciliator in the stormy relationship between Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. On 27 June 2007 he resigned as Deputy Prime Minister, coinciding with Blairs resignation as Prime Minister, following an election within the Labour party, he was replaced as Deputy Leader by Harriet Harman. Prescott retired as an MP at the 2010 election, on 8 July 2010, he entered the House of Lords as a life peer with the title Baron Prescott, of Kingston upon Hull in the County of East Yorkshire. Prescott stood as the Labour candidate in the election to be the first Police and Crime Commissioner for Humberside Police, on 21 February 2015, it was announced that Prescott would return to politics as a special adviser to then-Labour leader, Ed Miliband. The son of John Herbert Prescott, a signalman and Labour councillor, and Phyllis. In 2009, he said, Ive always felt very proud of Wales and being Welsh. I was born in Wales, went to school in Wales and its my place of birth, my country. In 2009, John Prescott featured in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home about his Welsh family history, with roots in Prestatyn and he left Wales in 1942 at the age of four and was brought up initially in Brinsworth in South Yorkshire, England. He attended Brinsworth Manor School, where in 1949 he sat, shortly afterwards, his family moved to Upton, Cheshire, and he attended Grange Secondary Modern School in nearby Ellesmere Port. He became a steward and waiter in the Merchant Navy, thus avoiding National Service, working for Cunard, Prescotts time in the Merchant Navy included a cruise from England to New Zealand in 1957. Among the passengers was Sir Anthony Eden, recuperating after his resignation over the Suez Crisis, Prescott reportedly described Eden as a real gentleman. Apart from serving Eden, who stayed in his much of the time, Prescott also won several boxing contests. He married Pauline Tilly Tilston at Upton Church in Chester on 11 November 1961 and he then went to the independent Ruskin College, which specialises in courses for union officials, where he gained a diploma in economics and politics in 1965. In 1968, he obtained a BSc in economics and economic history at the University of Hull, the defeated Conservative challenger was Norman Lamont. Previously, he had attempted to become MP for Southport in 1966, from July 1975 to 1979, he concurrently served as a Member of the European Parliament and Leader of the Labour Group, when its members were nominated by the national Parliaments
6.
William Hague
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William Jefferson Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond PC FRSL is a British Conservative politician and life peer. He represented Richmond, Yorkshire as Member of Parliament from 1989 to 2015, Hague was educated at Wath-upon-Dearne Grammar School, the University of Oxford and INSEAD, subsequently being returned to the House of Commons at a by-election in 1989. Hague quickly rose through the ranks of the government of John Major and was appointed to Cabinet in 1995 as Secretary of State for Wales. Following the Conservatives landslide defeat at the 1997 general election by the Labour Party and he returned to the backbenches, pursuing a career as an author, writing biographies of William Pitt the Younger and William Wilberforce. He also held several directorships, and worked as a consultant, after David Cameron was elected Leader of the Conservative Party in 2005, Hague was reappointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Foreign Secretary. He also assumed the role of Senior Member of the Shadow Cabinet, after the formation of the Coalition Government in 2010, Hague was appointed First Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary. Cameron described him as his de facto political deputy, Hague was elevated as a Life Peer in the 2015 Dissolution Honours List and created Baron Hague of Richmond, of Richmond in the County of North Yorkshire, on 9 October. Hague was born on 26 March 1961 in Rotherham, Yorkshire and he initially boarded at Ripon Grammar School and then attended Wath-upon-Dearne Comprehensive, a State-secondary school near Rotherham, previously Wath Grammar School. His parents, Nigel and Stella Hague, ran a soft drinks manufacturing business where he worked during school holidays and his childhood nurse, Bessie Camm, went on to be the oldest living person in Britain as of 2017, at age 112. He first made the news at the age of 16 by addressing the Conservatives at their 1977 Annual National Conference. In his speech he told the delegates, half of you wont be here in 30 or 40 years time, but that others would have to live with consequences of a Labour Government if it stayed in power. Hague read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Magdalen College, Oxford and he was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association, but was convicted of electoral malpractice in the election process. Hague was playing the game of using his powers as President to keep his faction in power. There were accusations of blatant ballot box stuffing and he also served as President of the Oxford Union, an established route into politics. After Oxford, Hague went on to study for a Master of Business Administration degree at INSEAD and he then worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where Archie Norman was his mentor. After Lamont was sacked in 1993, Hague moved to the Department of Social Security where he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, the following year he was promoted as Minister of State in the DSS with responsibility for Social Security and Disabled People. His fast rise up through Government was attributed to his intelligence and he continued serving in Cabinet until the Conservatives were replaced by New Labour at the 1997 general election. At the age of 36, Hague was tasked with rebuilding the Conservative Party by attempting to build a modern image
7.
Lord President of the Council
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The Lord President of the Council is the fourth of the Great Officers of State of the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord High Treasurer and above the Lord Privy Seal. The Lord President usually attends and is responsible of presiding over meetings of the Privy Council, in the modern era, the holder is by convention always a member of one of the houses of Parliament and the office is a Cabinet post. The Lord President is currently David Lidington as of 14 July 2016, the Privy Council meets once a month, wherever the Sovereign may be residing at the time, to give formal approval to Orders in Council. Only a few Privy Counsellors need attend such meetings, and only invited to do so at the Governments request. As the duties of the Lord President are not onerous, the post has often given to a government minister whose responsibilities are not department-specific. In recent years it has been most typical for the Lord President to also serve as Leader of the House of Commons or Leader of the House of Lords. Before the change of government in 2010, the Lord President was Peter Mandelson, examples of this practice are the meetings in New Zealand in 1990 and 1995, when Geoffrey Palmer and James Bolger respectively were acting Lords President. In the 19th century, the Lord President was generally the cabinet responsible for the education system. This role was gradually scaled back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but remnants of it remain, a particularly vital role was played by the Lord President of the Council during the Second World War. The Lord President served as chairman of the Lord Presidents Committee and this committee acted as a central clearing house for dealing with the countrys economic problems. This was vital to the running of the British war economy. Winston Churchill, clearly believing that this wartime co-ordinating role was beneficial, introduced a similar, the so-called overlord ministers included Frederick Leathers as Secretary of State for the Co-ordination of Transport, Fuel and Power and Frederick Marquis, 1st Baron Woolton as Lord President. Wooltons job was to co-ordinate the then separate ministries of agriculture, the Lord President has no role in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Privy Council Office Vice-President of the Executive Council President of the Queens Privy Council for Canada Sinecure
8.
Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon
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Janet Anne Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon PC is a British Labour Co-operative Party politician. She announced in May 2015 that she would not seek re-election as the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords, Royall grew up in Hucclecote and Newnham on Severn, where her parents ran a shop. Royall was educated at the Royal Forest of Dean Grammar School and Westfield College, University of London, Royall was a special adviser to Neil Kinnock, the leader of the Labour Party, in the 1980s, and she has remained a close ally of his ever since. She sought selection as Labours candidate for Ogmore in a 2002 by-election, however, the constituency party preferred Huw Irranca-Davies as their candidate. When in 2003 she became head of the European Commission office in Wales, on 25 June 2004 she was created Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, of Blaisdon in the County of Gloucestershire. In the House of Lords, she became government spokesperson for Health, International Development and Foreign, on 24 January 2008 Baroness Royall was appointed government chief whip in the House of Lords, following the resignation of Lord Grocott. She was appointed a Privy Counsellor later in the year, on 3 October 2008, she was promoted to the cabinet by Gordon Brown, who made her Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council. On 5 June 2009, Royall was succeeded as Lord President by Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary and she voted for a 100% elected House, on the last occasion that the House of Lords voted on Reform of the House of Lords in March 2007. She has called for a referendum on any reforms of the chamber. In September 2012, she spoke out against the badger cull. She announced in May 2015 that she would not seek re-election as the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords, in February 2017, Somerville College, Oxford, announced the selection of Baroness Royall as its next principal. She will follow Alice Prochaska at the end of August 2017 and she was married to Stuart Hercock until his death in 2010, and has a daughter, Charlie, and two sons, Ned and Harry
9.
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
10.
John Denham (politician)
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John Yorke Denham FRSA is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for Southampton Itchen from 1992 to 2015. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills from 2007 to 2009 and as the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2009 to 2010. After leaving education in 1977 he became a worker at the Energy Advice Agency in Durham. He was Head of Youth Affairs at the British Council from 1979 until 1983 and he subsequently worked for Christian Aid, Oxfam and other development agencies until his election to Westminster. He was selected to contest the Southampton Itchen seat at the 1983 general election following the defection to the Social Democratic Party of the sitting Labour MP Bob Mitchell. The election proved to be a close run affair with Denham coming in place, Mitchell in second. Denham again contested the seat at the 1987 general election, he overtook Mitchell into second place but was still behind Chope who held his seat with a majority of 6,716. It proved third time lucky, as Denham finally took the seat at the 1992 general election, Mitchell did not fight the election this time. Denham made his speech on 20 May 1992, reminding people that the Pilgrim Fathers left from Southampton. Following the promotion to the cabinet of Alan Milburn, Denham moved to the Department of Health in 1999 and he became a Member of the Privy Council in 2000. Following the 2001 general election he became a Minister of State at the Home Office and he had allegedly been promised, along with Peter Hain, that he would be one of the next people to be promoted to the cabinet by Blair. After his resignation, Denham was appointed in July 2003 as chairman of the influential Home Affairs Select Committee, though regarded as a Blairite, Denham was a regular critic of the Blair administration as chair of the Home Affairs committee. Following Browns installation as Prime Minister in June 2007, Denham was named to take over the new post of Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills. During Denhams tenure as Secretary of State, he announced an extension of maintenance grants to students from households earning up to £60,000 a year. The changes mean that an additional 50,000 students would be entitled to a full grant, as part of the Cabinet reshuffle on 5 June 2009, Denham was appointed to the role of Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. He replaced Hazel Blears who had resigned from the post on 3 June 2009, on 7 October 2011, Denham announced that he would be standing down at the 2015 general election. In June 2012 Denham publicly admitted that Labour knew immigration was causing problems for working-class people in England as early as 2005. He is also a member of the Parliamentarian Fellows scheme at the London School of Economics Institute of Public Affairs and he was seen as a government loyalist and University of Southampton Students Union had revoked his lifetime membership for his support of tuition fees
11.
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
12.
John Hutton, Baron Hutton of Furness
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He is now the Chairman of the Royal United Services Institute. Hutton was born 6 May 1955, in London, though his family moved to Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex when he was 8. He was educated at Westcliff High School for Boys and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he joined the Conservative, Liberal and Labour Associations and gained a BA in 1976 and he worked for a year as a bus driver. For two years he was an adviser to the CBI. From 1980–81, he was an associate for Templeton College. He went on to become a law lecturer at the Newcastle Polytechnic from 1981–92 before turning back to politics. Hutton first stood for election in the Penrith and the Borders seat in 1987, two years later, he also failed to be elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the Cumbria and North Lancashire region. His election to the Barrow and Furness seat in the 1992 general election saw him replace Cecil Franks as MP with a majority of 3,578 and his majority increased to 14,497 in the Labour landslide of the 1997 Election. After being a part of the Department of Health from 1998 and his position in this role was short lived, however. Following the second resignation of David Blunkett, Hutton was appointed as his replacement in the role of Secretary of State for Work and he was moved into the role of Secretary of State for Defence in the cabinet reshuffle on 3 October 2008. On 5 June 2009, Hutton resigned his Cabinet position and announced his intention to stand down as an MP at the general election. Hutton gave evidence to the Iraq Inquiry about his role as Defence Secretary on 25 January 2010, in June 2010, it was announced that Hutton had joined the board of US nuclear power company Hyperion Power Generation. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments stipulated that he should not lobby his former department for 12 months and it was also announced in June 2010, that the Conservative – Lib Dem coalition had asked him to head a commission into public sector pensions. His initial report was published in October 2010, the final report was published in March 2011. John Hutton married Rosemary Caroline Little in 1978 in Oxford and they had three sons and a daughter, before divorcing in 1993. He married civil servant Heather Rogers in 2004 and he is a member of Cemetery Cottages Working Mens Club, Barrow. In 2008 John Huttons first book was published, a book with the title Kitcheners Men – The Kings Own Royal Lancasters on the Western Front 1915–18. In it, Hutton gives an insight into the daily routine
13.
President of the Board of Trade
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The President of the Board of Trade is head of the Board of Trade. The current holder is Liam Fox who is also the Secretary of State for International Trade, charles II established a Council of Trade on 7 November 1660 followed by a Council of Foreign Plantations on 1 December that year. The two were united on 16 September 1672 as the Board of Trade and Plantations, after the Board was re-established in 1696, there were 15 members of the Board - the 7 Great Officers of State, and 8 unofficial members, who did the majority of the work. The senior unofficial member of the board was the President of the Board, the board was abolished on 11 July 1782, but a Committee of the Privy Council was established on 5 March 1784 for the same purposes. On 23 August 1786 a new Committee was set up, more focused on commercial functions than the previous boards of trade. At first the President of the Board of Trade only occasionally sat in the Cabinet, but from the early 19th century it was usually a cabinet-level position
14.
Tony Blair
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Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and the Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. From 1983 to 2007, Blair was the MP for Sedgefield, under Blairs leadership, the party used the phrase New Labour, to distance it from previous Labour policies and the traditional conception of socialism. Critics of Blair denounced him for having the Labour Party abandon genuine socialism, in May 1997, the Labour Party won a landslide general election victory, the largest in its history, allowing Blair, at 43 years old, to become the youngest Prime Minister since 1812. In September 1997, Blair attained early personal popularity, receiving a 93% public approval rating, the Labour Party went on to win two more elections under his leadership, in 2001, in which it won another landslide victory, and in 2005, with a reduced majority. In the first years of the New Labour government, Blairs government introduced the National Minimum Wage Act, Human Rights Act, Blairs government also devolved power, establishing the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly. In Northern Ireland, Blair was involved in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Blair has faced strong criticism for his role in the invasion of Iraq, including calls for having him tried for war crimes and waging a war of aggression. In 2016, the Iraq Inquiry strongly criticised his actions and described the invasion of Iraq as unjustified, Blair also intervened militarily in Kosovo and Sierra Leone. Blair was succeeded as the leader of the Labour Party and as Prime Minister by Gordon Brown in June 2007. On the day that Blair resigned as Prime Minister, he was appointed the official Special Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East and he now runs a consultancy business and has set up various foundations in his own name, including the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Anthony Charles Lynton Blair was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 6 May 1953 and he was the second son of Leo and Hazel Blair. Leo Blair was the son of two entertainers and adopted as a baby by Glasgow shipyard worker James Blair and his wife. Hazel Corscadden was the daughter of George Corscadden, a butcher, in 1923 he returned to Ballyshannon, County Donegal. In Ballyshannon Corscaddens wife, Sarah Margaret, gave birth above the grocery shop to Blairs mother. Blair has one brother, Sir William Blair, a High Court judge. Blairs first home was with his family at Paisley Terrace in the Willowbrae area of Edinburgh, during this period, his father worked as a junior tax inspector whilst also studying for a law degree from the University of Edinburgh. Blairs first relocation was when he was 19 months old, at the end of 1954 Blairs parents and their two sons moved from Paisley Terrace to Adelaide, South Australia. His father lectured in law at the University of Adelaide and it was when in Australia that Blairs sister Sarah was born. The Blairs lived in the suburb of Dulwich close to the university, the family returned to the UK in summer 1958
15.
Margaret Beckett
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Dame Margaret Mary Beckett, DBE is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Derby South since 1983. She was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith from 1992 to 1994 and she later served in the Cabinet under Prime Minister Tony Blair in a number of roles, becoming Britains first female Foreign Secretary in 2006. Beckett was first elected to Parliament in 1974 for Lincoln and held positions in the governments of Harold Wilson. She lost her seat in 1979, but returned to the House of Commons in 1983 and she was appointed to Neil Kinnocks Shadow Cabinet shortly afterwards, being elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 1992, becoming the first woman to hold that role. When John Smith died in 1994, she became the first woman to lead the Labour Party, after Labour returned to power in 1997, Beckett became a member of Tony Blairs Cabinet initially as President of the Board of Trade. Following Blairs resignation as Prime Minister in 2007, Beckett was not initially given a position by new Prime Minister Gordon Brown, after some time, Brown appointed her Minister of State for Housing and Planning in 2008, before she left the government for the last time in 2009. She is the longest-serving female MP in the House of Commons}} and she is also one of the few remaining MPs who served in the Labour governments of the 1970s. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 New Year Honours for public, Margaret Beckett was born Margaret Mary Jackson in 1943, in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, into a working-class family. She had two sisters, one later a nun, the later a doctor and mother of three. She was educated at the Notre Dame High School for Girls in Norwich, then at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and she was an active member of the Students Union and served on its Council. In 1961, Beckett joined Associated Electrical Industries as a student apprentice in metallurgy and she joined the Transport and General Workers Union in 1964. She joined the University of Manchester in 1966 as an experiment officer in its metallurgy department, in 1970 Beckett went to work for the Labour Party as a researcher in industrial policy. She married the chairman of her local Constituency Labour Party, Lionel Leo Beckett in 1979 and he works as Becketts agent and aide, travelling with her and working in her private office. He is paid from Margaret Becketts staff allowance, one of the largest staff expenses, Leo Beckett has two sons from a previous marriage, and three grandchildren. Beckett and her husband enjoy caravan holidays, as they have throughout her political career, at the February 1974 general election, Beckett lost to Taverne by 1,297 votes. After the election she worked as a researcher for Judith Hart, Harold Wilson called another general election in October 1974, and Beckett again stood against Taverne in Lincoln at the October 1974 general election. This time Beckett became the MP, with a majority of 984 votes, almost immediately after her election she was appointed as Judith Harts Parliamentary Private Secretary. She remained in position until she lost her seat at the 1979 general election
16.
Stephen Byers
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Stephen John Byers is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for North Tyneside from 1997 to 2010, in the previous parliament, from 1992, he represented Wallsend. He did not contest the 2010 general election, Stephen Byers was born in Wolverhampton. He was educated at Wymondham College a state-run day and boarding school, Chester City Grammar School and the Chester College of Further Education. He then gained a law degree at Liverpool John Moores University and became a law lecturer at Newcastle Polytechnic in 1977, Byers was elected as a councillor to the North Tyneside District Council in 1980 and was its deputy leader from 1985 until he became an MP in 1992. Reportedly a former supporter of the entryist Militant group once active within the Labour Party – a claim which he says is untrue – Byers had publicly rejected the approach by 1986. In the 1983 general election, he contested the Conservative stronghold seat of Hexham, finishing in third place and some 14,000 votes behind the former Cabinet minister Geoffrey Rippon. He was first elected to Parliament in the 1992 general election in Wallsend, a Labour stronghold, following the retirement of Ted Garrett, in 1993, Byers joined the influential Home Affairs Select Committee. He became an ally of Tony Blair, a fellow northeastern Labour MP, Blair gave him a job as soon as he became the Leader of the Opposition, placing Byers in the Whips Office. An instance of this is when Byers briefed journalists in 1996 saying that the party might sever its links with the trade unions, while at this post, Byers drew attention to himself when he said 8 times 7 was 54 in a BBC interview promoting a Government numeracy drive. His Wallsend constituency was abolished in 1997 and he was elected for the equally safe North Tyneside constituency with a 26,643 vote majority and he joined the Cabinet in July 1998, as Chief Secretary to the Treasury and became a Member of the Privy Council. After the sudden resignation of Peter Mandelson, Byers was appointed as Secretary of State for Trade, after the 2001 general election, he was made Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government & the Regions. Byers was heavily criticised for his part in the collapse of the MG Rover Group and this ultimately led to the creation of Network Rail, which effectively renationalised Britains railway infrastructure company. Byers decision angered those private investors who had lost money, and under pressure from The City, the action also led to the largest class legal action ever seen in the British courts. Moore and Byers survived the resulting outrage, but, in February 2002, on 15 February, the resignations of both Moore and Sixsmith were announced. Later on, however, Sixsmith stated that he had not agreed to go, Byers troubles continued over the following months. The pressure on Byers was too much, and he resigned on 28 May 2002 to be replaced by Alastair Darling, the BBC announced the change with the comment Its bye-bye Byers, hello Darling. On the backbenches, Byers kept up pressure for the Labour Party to keep to the centre ground, in August 2006, he suggested that Labour heir-apparent, Gordon Brown, should discard the inheritance tax to prove his New Labour credentials to Middle England. On 14 November 2009, he announced that he would be stepping down from Parliament at the 2010 general election and he also condemned the governments proposed inheritance tax reforms that had been launched in response to Opposition proposals to reform the tax
17.
European Commissioner for Trade
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The European Commissioner for Trade is the member of the European Commission responsible for the European Unions common commercial policy. The portfolio has been held by Cecilia Malmström since November 2014, the Commissioner heads up the Directorate-General for Trade in defining the commercial policy of the EU, which has been exclusively under the EUs mandate since the EECs Rome Treaty in 1957. Former Commissioner Leon Brittan commented that “Frankly, it is more important than most cabinet jobs”, the Commissioner defines the trade interests of the EU and negotiates bilateral, regional or multilateral agreements with third countries. The European Union is a member of the World Trade Organization in its own right since the WTO was founded on 1 January 1995, alongside its member states. The EU forms its own customs union with a common external tariff and commercial policy, EU trade policy is decided by the Article 133 committee which brings together the Commission and member states to decide policy. Actual negotiations are carried out by the Commissions Directorate-General for Trade under the authority of the Trade Commissioner, however, current plans for the European External Action Service may see trade and WTO relations being transferred from the Commission over the EEAS and the High Representative. At the WTO, the EU has been in a number of trade disputes with other members. The EU has brought 81 cases to the WTO, had 67 brought against it, Cecilia Malmström became the new Commissioner for Trade in late 2014. The confinements were the result of the hearing in the European parliament a few weeks before and she tried to revive the negotiations with the USA two weeks after entering office. Karel De Gucht was appointed Commissioner for Trade in 2010, De Gucht criticised China for undervaluing the renminbi and the US for protectionism and incoherence over the Doha round. This further came after EADS pulled out of a US defence contract bid, the comprehensive trade agreement with Ukraine was a direct cause of the upheavals in Independence Square and the 2013–14 Ukrainian Crisis. In October 2014 he concluded CETA, the trade agreement with Canada. He also concluded landmark economic partnership agreements with West Africa, South Africa and Eastern Africa, the signature of the trade agreement with the EAC, consisting of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, was his ultimate duty, done in Nairobi on 31. October 2014, his last day in office as the European Commissioner of Trade and he left office while several trade negotiations were still ongoing. He oversaw the start of negotiations with Japan and Vietnam, resumed talks with Mercosur. He also prepared and launched free trade negotiations with the United States, the concerns were partially relieved after the negotiation mandate was released to the public in October 2014. Catherine Ashton was nominated by Gordon Brown as the UKs EU Commissioner on 3 October to replace Peter Mandelson, although a life peer, she does not use her title Baroness Ashton of Upholland as an EU Commissioner. On 1 December 2009 Ashton became the new High Representative and Benita Ferrero-Waldner took over Trade until the second Barroso Commission was in place
18.
Pascal Lamy
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Pascal Lamy is a French political consultant and businessman. He was the Director-General of the World Trade Organization until 1 September 2013 and his appointment took effect on 1 September 2005 for a four-year term. In April 2009, WTO members reappointed Lamy for a second four-year term and he was then succeeded by Roberto Azevêdo. Pascal Lamy was also European Commissioner for Trade and is currently the Honorary President of the Paris-based think tank, Notre Europe. Born in Levallois-Perret, Hauts-de-Seine, a suburb of Paris, Lamy studied at Sciences Po Paris, from HEC and ÉNA, Lamy is also an honorary graduate of the University of Warwick. He then joined the service, and in this role he ended up serving as an adviser to Jacques Delors as Economics and Finance Minister. Lamy has been a member of the French Socialist Party since 1969, when Delors became President of the European Commission in 1984, he took Lamy with him to serve as chef de cabinet, which he did until the end of Delors term in 1994. During his time there, Lamy became known as the Beast of the Berlaymont and he was seen as ruling Delors office with a rod of iron, with no-one able to bypass or manipulate him and those who tried being banished to one of the less pleasant European postings. Lamy briefly moved into business at Crédit Lyonnais, promoted to second in command, he was involved in the restructuring and privatisation of the bank. Returning to the European Commission in 1999, Lamy was appointed European Commissioner for Trade by Commission President Romano Prodi, Lamy served to the expiry of the commissions term in 2004. His ability to manage the powerful civil servants in his department was noted, during his time in office, he pushed for a new Doha round of world trade talks and advocated reform within the WTO. On 13 May 2005, Lamy was chosen as the next director-general of the World Trade Organization and he had been nominated by the European Union and won over candidates including Carlos Pérez del Castillo of Uruguay and Jaya Krishna Cuttaree of Mauritius. On 30 April 2009, Lamy was re-elected unanimously by the WTO General Council for a term of four years. He also served as the chairman of the organizations Trade Negotiations Committee and he was the WTOs fifth director-general. His hobbies include running and cycling, the Geneva Consensus, Making Trade Work for All. The Economic Summit and the European Community
19.
Catherine Ashton
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Her political career began in 1999 when she was created a Life Peer as Baroness Ashton of Upholland, of St Albans, in the County of Hertfordshire by Tony Blairs Labour Government. She became the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Education and Skills in 2001 and she was appointed a Privy Councillor in May 2006. Ashton became Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council in Gordon Brown’s first Cabinet in June 2007 and she was instrumental in steering the EUs Treaty of Lisbon through the UK Parliaments second chamber. In 2008, she was appointed as the British European Commissioner, in December 2009, she became the inaugural High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy that was created by the Treaty of Lisbon. As High Representative, Ashton served as the EUs foreign policy chief and it was announced on 17 November 2016 that Ashton will become Chancellor of the University of Warwick from 1 January 2017, succeeding Sir Richard Lambert and becoming Warwicks first female Chancellor. Catherine Ashton was born at Upholland, Lancashire, on 20 March 1956 and she comes from a working-class family, with a background in coal mining. She attended Upholland Grammar School in Billinge Higher End, Lancashire, then Wigan Mining and Technical College and she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology in 1977 from Bedford College, London. She was the first person in her family to attend university, Ashton lives in St Albans with her husband, Peter Kellner, the president of an online polling organisation, YouGov. She has two children and three stepchildren, between 1977 and 1983, Ashton worked for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament as an administrator and in 1982 was elected as its national treasurer and subsequently as one of its vice-chairs. From 1979 to 1981 she was manager of the Coverdale Organisation. As of 1983 she worked for the Central Council for Education, for most of the 1990s, she was a freelance policy adviser. She chaired the Health Authority in Hertfordshire from 1998 to 2001 and she was created a Labour Life Peer as Baroness Ashton of Upholland in 1999, under Prime Minister Tony Blair. In June 2001 she was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Education, in 2002 she became Minister responsible for Sure Start in the same department. Ashton was sworn of the Privy Council in 2006, and she became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the new Ministry of Justice in May 2007, in 2005 she was voted Minister of the Year by The House Magazine and Peer of the Year by Channel 4. In 2006 she won the Politician of the Year award at the annual Stonewall Awards, on 28 June 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown appointed Ashton to HM Cabinet as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council. As Government Leader in the House of Lords, she was responsible for steering the Lisbon Treaty through the Upper House, on 3 October 2008, Ashton was nominated by the UK to replace Peter Mandelson as the European Commissioner for Trade. And represented the EU in ending a dispute over banana imports, principally involving Latin America. On 19 November 2009, Ashton was appointed the EUs first High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and her appointment was agreed at a summit by 27 European Union leaders in Brussels
20.
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
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The Secretary of State is a Minister of the Crown who is accountable to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is the chief minister in the Northern Ireland Office. As with other ministers, the position is appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister, the position is normally described simply as the Secretary of State by residents of Northern Ireland. g. Security, human rights, certain public inquiries and the administration of elections, created in 1972, the position has switched between Members of Parliament from the Conservative Party and Labour Party. This contrasts with the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Secretary of State for Wales, historically, the principal ministers for Irish affairs in the UK Government and its predecessors were, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, and the Home Secretary. In August 1969, for example, Home Secretary James Callaghan approved the sending of British Army soldiers to Northern Ireland, the office of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland was created following the suspension, then abolition, of the Northern Ireland Parliament, following widespread civil strife. The UK Government was increasingly concerned that the Northern Ireland Government was losing control of the situation, on 24 March 1972, it announced that direct rule from Westminster would be introduced. This took effect on 30 March 1972, the post effectively filled three roles which existed under the previous Stormont regime, the Governor of Northern Ireland, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and the Minister of Home Affairs. Direct rule was seen as a measure, with a power-sharing devolution preferred as the solution. The Sunningdale Agreement in 1973 resulted in a brief, power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive, from 1 January 1974, the strikers opposed the power-sharing and all-Ireland aspects of the new administration. The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention and Northern Ireland Assembly were unsuccessful in restoring devolved government, after the Anglo-Irish Agreement on 15 November 1985, the UK Government and Irish Government co-operated more closely on security and political matters. Following the Belfast Agreement on 10 April 1998, devolution returned to Northern Ireland on 2 December 1999 and this removed many of the duties of the Secretary of State and his Northern Ireland Office colleagues and devolved them to locally elected politicians, constituting the Northern Ireland Executive. On each of these occasions, the responsibilities of the ministers in the Executive then returned to the Secretary of State and his ministers. During these periods, in addition to administration of the region, power was again devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly on 8 May 2007. The Secretary of State retained responsibility for policing and justice until most of powers were devolved on 12 April 2010
21.
Mo Mowlam
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Marjorie Mowlam was an English Labour Party politician. Mowlams time as Northern Ireland Secretary saw the signing of the historic Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998 and her personal charisma and reputation for plain speaking led her to be perceived by many as one of the most popular New Labour politicians in the UK. When Tony Blair mentioned her in his speech at the 1998 Labour Party Conference and she would later be awarded the Freedom of the City in 1999. She was the one of the familys three children to pass the 11-plus exam. She started at Chiswick Girls grammar school in West London, then moved to Coundon Court School in Coventry and she then studied at Trevelyan College, Durham University, reading sociology and anthropology. She joined the Labour Party in her first year, Mowlam was a lecturer in the Political Science Department at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1977 and at Florida State University in Tallahassee from 1977 to 1979. Mowlam returned to England in 1979 to take up an appointment at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and she also worked in adult education at Northern College, Barnsley, with students who had fewer opportunities than traditional university students. In 1981, she organised a series of lectures to the Reith lectures being given that year by Laurence Martin. These were published as Debate on Disarmament, with their proceeds going to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Mowlam married Jonathan Norton, a City of London banker, in County Durham on 24 June 1995, Norton died on 3 February 2009. Having failed to win selection for the 1983 general election, Mowlam was selected as Labour candidate for the seat of Redcar after James Tinn stood down. She took the seat in the 1987 general election, becoming the Labour spokesperson on Northern Ireland later that year, together with Shadow Chancellor John Smith, Mowlam was one of the architects of Labours Prawn Cocktail Offensive dedicated to reassuring the UKs financial sector about Labours financial rectitude. Mowlam joined the Shadow Cabinet when John Smith became leader of the Labour Party in 1992, during this time, she antagonised both monarchists and republicans by calling for Buckingham Palace to be demolished and replaced by a modern palace built at public expense. Later, her willingness to speak her mind, often without regard to the consequences, was seen as her greatest strength by her supporters, following Smiths death in 1994, Mowlam, alongside Peter Kilfoyle, became a principal organiser of Tony Blairs campaign for the Labour leadership. After his victory, Blair made her Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and she initially resisted being appointed to the position, preferring an economic portfolio, but, after accepting it, she threw her weight into the job. In 1997, Mowlam was once again re-elected as MP for Redcar with a majority of 21,667. She was made Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the first woman to have held the post and she was successful in helping to restore an IRA ceasefire and including Sinn Féin in multi-party talks about the future of Northern Ireland. Mowlam saw the Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998, which led to the establishment of a devolved power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly. Im the new tea lady around here, Mowlam resented being appointed to the post, having previously disparaged it as Minister for the Today programme
22.
John Reid, Baron Reid of Cardowan
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John Reid, Baron Reid of Cardowan PC is a British Labour Party politician. He was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010, and he was Health Secretary from 2003 to 2005, Defence Secretary from 2005 to 2006, and Home Secretary from 2006 to 2007. Born in Bellshill to working class, Roman Catholic parents, Reid first became involved in politics when he joined the Young Communist League in 1972. He later joined the Labour Party, working for them as a researcher before being elected to the House of Commons in 1987 as the MP for Motherwell North. He retired from politics in 2007 following Gordon Browns appointment as Prime Minister. He later stepped down as an MP in 2010, and was elevated to the House of Lords. Reid also took a role in the campaign for a No vote in the 2011 AV referendum. Reid was born in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, to working class Roman Catholic parents and his grandfather was a staunch Church of Scotland Presbyterian and his grandmother a poor and illiterate Irish peasant. His mother, Mary, was a worker and father. Reid attributes his success to hard work and a good education, like his successor as Scottish Secretary, Helen Liddell he attended St Patricks Secondary School, Coatbridge. The headmaster of St Patricks, James Breen, was described as being driven by the belief that working class children could make good in their lives provided there was discipline. If we werent allowed in before 9 oclock, we werent going in after 9 oclock Reid is quoted as saying, eventually the Headmaster conceded and the strike ended. Leaving school at 16, Reid decided not to go to university but instead took a series of jobs, including work on an oil pipeline. It is this latter job that Reid quotes as opening his eyes politically, soon after this he joined the Labour Party. It was also around this time that Reids lifelong passion for history was kindled when his girlfriend, Cathie McGowan, bought him a copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer. From 1979 to 1983 he was an officer for the Labour Party in Scotland. From 1986 to 1987, he was Scottish Organiser of Trade Unionists for Labour and he entered parliament at the 1987 general election as MP for the Motherwell North constituency. Reid was married to Cathie McGowan from 1969 until her death from a heart attack in 1998
23.
Minister without portfolio
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A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. Stanley Bruce was given the title of Minister without Portfolio when he took up his position in 1932 as the Commonwealth Minister in London and he was given the title by Lyons Cabinet so that he could better represent the PM and his colleagues free from the limitations of a portfolio. In this case the title was a promotion and carried considerable responsibilities, bangladesh appoints ministers without portfolio during cabinet reshuffles or fresh appointments. Ministers are not usually appointed without portfolio as a coalition negotiation – all long run ministers end up with a portfolio, suranjit Sengupta was a minister without portfolio in Sheikh Hasinas second government. Notable Conservatives who filled the role include R. B, bennett, and Arthur Meighen, however, Meighen served this role after he had been prime minister. The practice has continued under the guise of ministers of state without responsibilities in the ministers titles, three control ministers served as ministers without portfolio during World War I. After the Liberation of Denmark in May 1945, the first Danish cabinet included four ministers without portfolio, kauffmann served in this capacity from 12 May to 7 November 1945. The three other holders of this title had joined the cabinet a few days before – Aksel Larsen, lise Østergaard held a position as minister without portfolio with special attention to foreign policy issues in Anker Jørgensens cabinet from 26 February 1977 to 28 February 1980. Anders Fogh Rasmussen appointed Bertel Haarder to Minister without Portfolio, Haarder served in this capacity from 27 November 2001 to 18 February 2005. The reason for appointing a minister without a ministry was the Danish European Union Presidency of 2002, Haarder was considered the most experienced Danish politician on European affairs. Tamás Fellegi Kunwar Natwar Singh Since the inception of the state, Indonesia had ministers without portfolio, the number was not fixed, entirely depended on the behest of the President. Below is the list of Ministers without Portfolio in each Cabinet, Mohammad Amir Abdul Wahid Hasyim Sartono Alexander Andries Maramis Mohammad Amir Oto Iskandar di Nata Rasjidi Wikana Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwana IX Abdul Wahid Hasyim Wikana Dr. Such a minister may nevertheless be given a specific title, the only substantive minister without portfolio has been Frank Aiken, the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures during World War II. By the Emergency Powers Act 1939 then in force, the Minister for Defence was able to delegate some competences to him, such delegation is now done instead with Ministers of State, junior ministers who are not members of the government. Junior ministers can be given a right to sit at cabinet and this allows the Government to circumvent the Constitutional limit on the number of Senior Ministers. On several occasions a minister has been appointed to a government with the title of a new Department of State. Between the date of appointment and the date of creation of the department, examples include, It is common practice in Israel to appoint ministers without portfolio as part of the coalition negotiations. All cabinets in recent years have had at least some such appointment, departments on equalities, European affairs and relations with regions, for example, are usually led by ministers without portfolio
24.
Brian Mawhinney, Baron Mawhinney
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Brian Stanley Mawhinney, Baron Mawhinney, PC is a British Conservative Party politician. He was a member of the Cabinet from 1994 until 1997, Mawhinney was born in 1940 in Belfast and was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. He worked as assistant professor of research at the University of Iowa from 1968–70. Mawhinney contested Stockton-on-Tees in October 1974 but lost to Labour incumbent, Mawhinney served as Member of Parliament for Peterborough from 1979-97 and Member of Parliament for North West Cambridgeshire from 1997 to 2005. In 1979 one of his bills was in the Private Members’ Bills ballot, in early 1980, he called for Keith Joseph to launch an inquiry into a page on the Post Office’s Prestel viewdata service, called A Buyers Guide to Dirty Books. He was PPS to John Wakeham from 1982-83, and PPS to Tom King from 1984-86 and he became a junior minister at the Northern Ireland Office in 1986, and then became Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office in 1990. In 1992, he became Minister of State at the Department of Health until 1994, having been sworn of the Privy Council in the 1994 New Year Honours, he entered the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Transport that year. He served as Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio for two years from 1995 until the 1997 election and he was knighted in the 1997 Dissolution Honours. He served as Shadow Home Secretary and spokesman for home, constitutional and legal affairs for a year under William Hague before returning to the benches in June 1998. He stepped down from the House of Commons in May 2005, on 13 May 2005 it was announced that he would be created a life peer, and on 24 June he was created Baron Mawhinney, of Peterborough, in the County of Cambridgeshire. Lord Mawhinney questioned the priority David Cameron had given to the Marriage Bill, in 2003, he was appointed Chairman of The Football League, and in 2004 oversaw a re-organisation of the league structure, renaming the former Division One as the Football League Championship. Deeply religious, Mawhinney is a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship and was a member of the General Synod for five years. He is also the current president of Christians In Sport, Mawhinney has two sons and a daughter with his wife Betty, a United States citizen. He lists Anglo-American relations among his interests, 1940–1979, Mr Brian Mawhinney 1979–1994, Mr Brian Mawhinney MP 1994–1997, The Rt Hon. Brian Mawhinney MP 1997–2005, The Rt Hon. Sir Brian Mawhinney MP2005, The Rt Hon, sir Brian Mawhinney 2005–, The Rt Hon. The Lord Mawhinney PC List of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Lords List of Northern Ireland members of the Privy Council Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Brian Mawhinney
25.
Charles Clarke
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Charles Rodway Clarke is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Norwich South from 1997 until 2010, and served as Home Secretary from December 2004 until May 2006. The son of Civil Service Permanent Secretary Sir Richard Clarke, Charles Clarke was born in London and he attended the fee-paying Highgate School where he was Head Boy. He then read Mathematics and Economics at Kings College, Cambridge, a member of the Broad Left faction, he was President of the National Union of Students from 1975 to 1977. Clarke had joined the Labour Party by then and was active in the Clause Four group, Clarke was the British representative on the Permanent Commission for the World Youth Festival from 1977 to 1978. He was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Hackney, being Chair of its Housing Committee. He worked as a researcher, and later Chief of Staff and his long association with Kinnock and with the general election defeat in 1992 was expected to handicap him in his career. Elected to the British House of Commons in the Labour landslide of 1997 and he moved to the Home Office in 1999 and joined the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio and Party Chair after the 2001 general election. He returned to Education as Secretary of State on 24 October 2002 after the resignation of Estelle Morris, as Education Secretary, he defended Oxbridge, encouraged the establishment of specialist secondary schools, and suggested that the state should not fund unproductive humanities research. His view of universities could be seen as either impressively bold or overly instrumental and he explained, I argue that what I described as the medieval concept of a community of scholars seeking truth is not in itself a justification for the state to put money into that. We might do it at say a level of a hundredth of what we do now and have one university of medieval seekers after truth that we thought were very good, to support them as an adornment to our society. But I dont think that we will have the level of funding that we do now for universities unless we can justify it on some kind of basis of the type I have described. He also oversaw the introduction of Bills to enable universities in parts of Britain to charge top-up fees, following the first resignation of David Blunkett on 15 December 2004, Clarke was made Home Secretary, one of the senior positions in the Cabinet. He was swiftly at the centre of attention for his advocacy of proposals for countering terrorism, critics suggest that his reforms to the judicial system undermine centuries of British legal precedent dating back to the 1215 Magna Carta, particularly the right to a fair trial and trial by jury. He was also criticised for the Identity Cards Act 2006, seen by some as serious infringement of privacy, during the 2005 British Presidency of the European Union, Clarke pressed other member states to pass a directive to require communications data to be stored for law enforcement purposes. The directive was criticised as infringing civil liberties and privacy, on 25 April 2006 it emerged that 1,023 foreign prisoners had been freed without being considered for deportation. Among the offenders, five had been convicted of committing sex offences on children, seven had served time for other sex offences,57 for violent offences, there were also 41 burglars,20 drug importers,54 convicted of assault and 27 of indecent assault. Former Home Secretary David Blunkett commented that Heads should roll over the scandal, the foreign prisoners scandal led many to call for Clarkes resignation, not only from the opposition, Clarke reportedly offered to resign, but Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, refused to accept. Having reputedly turned down the offer of Defence Secretary by Tony Blair, however, he did state that although Tony Blair had lost his sense of purpose, he wanted to see Blair continue as PM
26.
Hartlepool (UK Parliament constituency)
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Hartlepool /ˈhɑːrtˌlᵻpᵿl/ is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament which has elected a Labour member to serve it since 1964. The seat is currently coterminous with the borough of Hartlepool, which has close to the population for a UK parliamentary constituency. The seat includes the town of Hartlepool itself and the villages of Hart, Elwick, Greatham, Newton Bewley. Before 1974 the seat was known as The Hartlepools, the constituency had previously substantially been in the constituency of The Hartlepools. It became the constituency of Hartlepool in 1974, since its creation, Hartlepool has been a Labour constituency, although its predecessor did have Conservative MPs both in the early 1960s, and during the Second World War. In the 1992 general election, Edward Leadbitter stood down and was succeeded by the former Labour Director of Communications Peter Mandelson, mandelsons pivotal role in the reshaping of the Labour Party into New Labour has attracted much attention and he has become a prominent target. During the first term of office of the Labour government he was appointed to the Cabinet. In the event, Mandelson held his seat, while Scargill polled only 912 votes, Mandelson shocked many with a highly triumphalist victory speech in which he declared They underestimated Hartlepool, and they underestimated me, because I am a fighter and not a quitter. Mandelson quit his role as MP for Hartlepool when he was appointed as a European Commissioner in the summer of 2004 and this triggered a by-election that took place on 30 September 2004. The Hartlepool by-election was the last before the 2005 general election, Iain Wright retained the seat for Labour. That by election marked the first time that the United Kingdom Independence Party had ever come third in a by election and this precipitated the closure of several departments, and the removal of services from Hartlepool. The move was supported by Hartlepool MP Iain Wright. A substantial protest group was formed opposing Wynyard, and calling on services to remain at Hartlepool, following the recession of 2008, the incoming governmental coalition announced it would scrap the Wynyard proposals, although no guarantees were made regarding the future of Hartlepool hospital. It was also noted that the similarity of his name to the towns MP, and the fact he would feature above him on the ballot paper, may result in additional votes. The Conservatives gained a swing of 16. 7%, the largest in the country, taking place from the Liberal Democrats. John Hobbs, an 80 year old autism campaigner stood under the tagline ‘Tell it like it is’ and it selected Philip Broughton, a former Stockton Conservative Councillor and wrestling entrepreneur, as its candidate. The Conservative Party selected public affairs consultant and competitive swimmer, Richard Royal, the Green Party selected local member Michael Holt, who had been arrested the previous year for obstructing a police officer at a protest in London, although charges were subsequently dropped. Just days before the deadline, the Liberal Democrats selected Darlington based Hilary Allen as its candidate
27.
Iain Wright
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Iain David Wright is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool since 2004, and is currently the Shadow Minister for Industry. He was previously Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State with responsibility for apprenticeships, Wright was born in Hartlepool and graduated with a BA in 1994, and MA in 1995 in history from University College London. That year, he joined the Labour Party and was elected as an officer of Cleveland and Richmond Young Labour and he worked as a chartered accountant for Deloitte & Touche from 1996 to 2003, and for the One NorthEast RDA from 2003 to 2004 before his election. He was elected as a councillor for the Rift House ward of Hartlepool Borough Council in 2002, the Labour Party dismissed the claims as having come from the usual suspects. One subsequently apologised, and another was expelled, on polling day, Wright was elected with a majority of 2,033, reduced from Mandelsons majority of 14,571. The campaign was unusually long for British by elections, effectively having begun on 22 July and his first act as an MP was to actively campaign for the proposed North East Regional Assembly in the referendum held in November 2004. The proposal for an assembly was rejected by 78% to 22%, Wright was re elected in the May 2005 General Election, with an increased majority of 7,478. In June 2005, he was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Health Minister Rosie Winterton, in 2006, he became Chairman of Labour Friends of Israel. In May 2009, during the MPs expenses row, Wright, Wright and Watson claimed the legal fees for buying the property and the following year claimed £1,431.46 legal fees for buying the freehold, which significantly enhanced the property value. Rules at the time did not require them to any profits made on the sale of the property. In response, Wright said As a new MP, I purchased furniture and his expenses for 2008-2009 were £136,725 and ranked 489 out of 647 MPs. The Legg Report stated that he was reimbursed £805.97 for an extra month mortgage interest during 2006 to 2007, at the 2015 General Election, Wrights majority was cut to 3,024 by UKIP candidate Phillip Broughton. On 19 June 2015, he was announced as having elected to the chairmanship of the Business, Innovation. Wright completed the 2011 Great North Run in aid of the Stroke Association and he joined his son Benjamin,17, on the 13.1 mile run. The pair ran in aid of the Stroke Association, a cause which has close to their hearts. Wright completed the course in his personal best time of two hours and fifty minutes, with Ben achieving a time of two hours thirty minutes, Wright has also supported Whizz-Kidz, a charity for disabled children in Hartlepool
28.
House of Lords
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The House of Lords of the United Kingdom, referred to ceremonially as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster, officially, the full name of the house is, The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. Unlike the elected House of Commons, all members of the House of Lords are appointed, the membership of the House of Lords is drawn from the peerage and is made up of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal. The Lords Spiritual are 26 bishops in the established Church of England, of the Lords Temporal, the majority are life peers who are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister, or on the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Commission. However, they include some hereditary peers including four dukes. Very few of these are female since most hereditary peerages can only be inherited by men, while the House of Commons has a defined 650-seat membership, the number of members in the House of Lords is not fixed. There are currently 805 sitting Lords, the House of Lords is the only upper house of any bicameral parliament to be larger than its respective lower house. The House of Lords scrutinises bills that have approved by the House of Commons. It regularly reviews and amends Bills from the Commons, while it is unable to prevent Bills passing into law, except in certain limited circumstances, it can delay Bills and force the Commons to reconsider their decisions. In this capacity, the House of Lords acts as a check on the House of Commons that is independent from the electoral process, Bills can be introduced into either the House of Lords or the House of Commons. Members of the Lords may also take on roles as government ministers, the House of Lords has its own support services, separate from the Commons, including the House of Lords Library. The Queens Speech is delivered in the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament, the House also has a Church of England role, in that Church Measures must be tabled within the House by the Lords Spiritual. This new parliament was, in effect, the continuation of the Parliament of England with the addition of 45 MPs and 16 Peers to represent Scotland, the Parliament of England developed from the Magnum Concilium, the Great Council that advised the King during medieval times. This royal council came to be composed of ecclesiastics, noblemen, the first English Parliament is often considered to be the Model Parliament, which included archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, and representatives of the shires and boroughs of it. The power of Parliament grew slowly, fluctuating as the strength of the monarchy grew or declined, for example, during much of the reign of Edward II, the nobility was supreme, the Crown weak, and the shire and borough representatives entirely powerless. In 1569, the authority of Parliament was for the first time recognised not simply by custom or royal charter, further developments occurred during the reign of Edward IIs successor, Edward III. It was during this Kings reign that Parliament clearly separated into two chambers, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The authority of Parliament continued to grow, and, during the fifteenth century
29.
Lords Temporal
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This article is about the secular members of the British House of Lords. For the fictional lords of time, see Time Lords, in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the Lords Temporal are secular members of the House of Lords. Before the enactment of the House of Lords Act 1999, all peers were members of the House of Lords, membership of the Lords is now limited to life peers and a number of elected hereditary peers. The Lords Temporal are all members of the Peerage, formerly, they were all hereditary peers. A similar arrangement was made in respect of the Kingdom of Ireland when that nation merged with Great Britain in January 1801 to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. However, when most of Ireland left the United Kingdom as the Irish Free State in December 1922, by the Peerage Act 1963, the election of Scottish representative peers also ended, and all Scottish peers were granted the right to sit in Parliament. Under the House of Lords Act 1999, only life peerages automatically entitle their holders to seats in the House of Lords. Of the hereditary peers, only 92 – the Earl Marshal, the Lord Great Chamberlain and 90 elected by other peers – retain their seats in the House
30.
Hampstead Garden Suburb
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Hampstead Garden Suburb is a suburb, north of Hampstead, west of Highgate and east of Golders Green. It is an example of early twentieth-century domestic architecture and town planning located in the London Borough of Barnet in northwest London, the master plan was prepared by Barry Parker and Sir Raymond Unwin. Comprising just over 5000 properties, and home to around 13,000 people, Hampstead Garden Suburb was founded by Henrietta Barnett, who, with her husband Samuel, had started the Whitechapel Art Gallery and Toynbee Hall. In 1906, Barnett set up the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust Ltd, the provisions of the new act, Hampstead Garden Suburb Act 1906, allowed less land to be taken up by roads and more by gardens and open spaces. Other consultant architects involved with the Hampstead development include George Lister Sutcliffe, however, with no industry, no public houses and few shops or services, the suburb, unlike the garden cities, made no attempt to be self-contained. In the 1930s the Suburb expanded to the north of the A1, while more characterful than most other suburban housing, some of the housing to the north is considered, overall, of less architectural value. On Central Square, laid out by Sir Edwin Lutyens, there are two churches, St. Judes Church and The Free Church, as well as a Quaker Meeting House. There are two mixed state primary schools in the Suburb, Garden Suburb and Brookland, There is also a state girls grammar school, Henrietta Barnett School. The school used to house The Institute, an education centre. Shops and other services are provided in the parade of Market Place. Shopping areas adjacent to the suburb include Temple Fortune, Golders Green, little Wood contains an open air arena, which is used for summer theatrical performances by a local amateur theatre society. In 2015, the association decided to implement a yellow. The HGS Trust maintains the character and amenity of the Suburb and is responsible for implementing the management scheme and it has offices in Finchley Road. Freeholders are required to get the approval of the Trust before altering the external appearance of their properties. Consent is also required for significant changes to gardens, erection of garden sheds, the Trust is also the freeholder of the majority of the remaining leasehold property in the Suburb which are mostly held on very long leases. Urban town planning had been restricted by the byelaws established after the 1875 Housing Act, which had de facto called for a grid street layout. This had prevented Cadbury building workers houses within a city, for Unwin to design a street structure that followed the contours, and built houses in cul-de-sacs a parliamentary act was needed. The Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust sponsored a private bill, the three relevant sections of the Act were Section 2 There shall not be built in the Garden Suburb on the average throughout a greater proportion of houses to the acre than eight
31.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
32.
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
33.
Alma mater
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Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website
34.
St Catherine's College, Oxford
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St Catherines College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its motto is Nova et Vetera, which translates as, the new, the college was founded by the historian Alan Bullock, who went on to become the first master of the college, and later Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. As of 2006, the college had a financial endowment of £53m. The college traces its descent from the Delegacy of Non-Collegiate Students, nonetheless, the social role of a college was re-established by the Delegacys students, meeting as St Catherines Club, which was named after its meeting place in a hall on Catte Street. The club was recognised by the University in 1931 as St Catherines Society. It was thus developing the characteristics of a college, and in 1956 the Delegates decided to formalise this change in status, by 1960 Sir Alan Bullock raised a further £1,000,000 with invaluable assistance from two industrial notables, Sir Alan Wilson and Sir Hugh Beaver. After a total cost of £2.5 million, the college opened in 1962 to male students, in 1974 St Catz was one of the first mens colleges to admit women as full members, the others being Brasenose, Jesus College, Hertford and Wadham. The college is situated towards the east of Oxford, on the bank of the Cherwell river and its striking buildings in glass and concrete by the Danish architect Arne Jacobsen marry modern materials with a traditional layout around a quadrangle. Jacobsens designs went further than just the fabric of the buildings, with cutlery, furniture, the dining hall is notable for its Cumberland slate floor. The original college buildings received a Grade I listing on 30 March 1993, the St Catherines Christmas carol concert has since been held in Harris Manchester Colleges chapel. The college has a bell tower however, it is visible since no college building is more than three storeys high. An extra floor was planned for most accommodation blocks, but due to regulations concerning safe building on marshland. There are also additional purpose-built conference facilities with lecture theatres, meeting rooms and bar, the dining hall, which seats 350 diners, has the largest capacity of any Oxford college. The majority of St Catherines buildings are in the form of staircases that open directly onto the quad outside, there is little indoor space in the college and St Catherines favours a minimalist, rather austere environment, though still comfortable. Student rooms are light and spacious, notable for their curtain wall glazing, prior to this, all undergraduates had the experience of living off-campus for their second year. These new staircases effectively form a quad, which is largely used to provide accommodation for conferences during the breaks between academic terms. The college celebrates its patron saint each year with a special Catz Night dinner, every three years the college also holds a ball, usually off site due to the problem of securing the colleges perimeter sufficiently for insurance purposes. The most recent off-site ball was held was 9 February 2008 at Heythrop Park, on 12 February 2011, the latest incarnation of the Catz Ball was held on-site
35.
Policy Network
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Policy Network is an international progressive think tank based in London. Policy Network seeks to promote strategic thinking on progressive solutions to the challenges of the 21st century and it organises debates and conducts research on policy and political challenges. Policy Network discloses the identities of its funders on its website, according to its website, ″In 2016, Policy Network received core funding from Lord Sainsbury of Turville. The Policy Network Observatory also hosts a monthly bulletin, The State of the Left. In 2010 Policy Network launched its opinion poll tracker, which tracks the fortunes of Europe’s social democratic parties on a cross-comparative basis, under conditions of globalisation and European integration, the distinction between national and international problems has become increasingly blurred. Current or recent projects include economic and public service reform, migration, integration and political trust, the networks stated goal is to enhance co-operation and links between key progressive policymakers and academics as well as to provide a meeting place for exchanging concrete policies and practices. Since its formation in 1999, Progressive Governance conferences have been held in Chile, the United Kingdom, participants have included Brazilian presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, U. S. Vice President Joe Biden, Director-General of the World Trade Organization Pascal Lamy, the 2013 Progressive Governance conference was hosted by the Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt in Copenhagen in April 2013. Patrick Diamond, Senior research fellow at Policy Network and former head of policy in the UK Prime Ministers Office,10 Downing Street. Formerly group director of policy at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, board Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, Labour member of the House of Lords. Former head of the Number 10 Policy Unit and former Minister of State for Education, stephen Beer, Senior fund manager, central finance board of the Methodist Church. Matt Browne, Fellow at the Center for American Progress, previously director of affairs in APCO Worldwide’s London office. Andrew Gamble, Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield and his most recent book is Crisis Without End. Susan Hitch, Manager of Lord Sainsbury of Turvilles pro bono programme, a Governor of the Institute for Government and board member of Centre for Cities, Progress, stephen Hockman QC, Joint head of chambers at 6 Pump Court. He specialises in law and was chairman of the bar in 2006. He is chair of the Society of Labour Lawyers, jürgen Krönig, Broadcaster and author, commentator for the German weekly Die Zeit and various other publications in Germany, Switzerland and Britain. Giles Radice, Baron Radice, Labour member of the House of Lords, renaud Thillaye, Can the EU spend better. The Europe Dilemma, Britain and the Drama of EU Integration, mariana Mazzucato,2012 Jacob Hacker, The Institutional Foundations of Middle Class Democracy,2011 Colin Crouch, Is There a Liberalism Beyond Social Democracy
36.
United Kingdom general election, 1992
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The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on Thursday 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. It was the last outright win for the Conservatives until 2015 and this election result took many by surprise, as opinion polling leading up to the election day had shown the Labour Party, under leader Neil Kinnock, consistently, if narrowly, ahead. John Major had won the election in November 1990 following the resignation of Margaret Thatcher. The economy was facing a recession around the time of Majors appointment, because it confounded the opinion polls, the 1992 election was one of the most dramatic elections in the UK since the end of the Second World War. The BBCs live television broadcast of the results was presented by David Dimbleby and Peter Snow. Sky News presented full coverage of an election night for the first time. The Conservative Party received what remains the largest number of votes in British history, Labour began to lead the Conservatives in the opinion polls by as much as 20 percentage points. Thatcher resigned after the party leadership ballot in November 1990 and was replaced by John Major and this was well received by the public, Labour lost some momentum as it reduced the impact of their calls for Time for a Change. Parliament was due to no later than 16 June 1992. Major called the election on 11 March, shortly after Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont had delivered the Budget, under the leadership of Neil Kinnock the Labour party had undergone further developments and alterations since its 1987 election defeat. Labour entered the campaign confident, with most opinion polls showing a slight Labour lead that if maintained suggested a hung parliament, the parties campaigned on the familiar grounds of taxation and health care. Major became known for delivering his speeches while standing on an upturned soapbox during public meetings, immigration was also an issue, with Home Secretary Kenneth Baker making a controversial speech stating that, under Labour, the floodgates would be opened for immigrants from developing countries. Some speculated that this was a bid by the Conservatives to shore up its support amongst its white working-class supporters. The Conservatives also pounded the Labour Party over the issue of taxation, producing a memorable poster entitled Labours Double-Whammy, showing a boxer wearing gloves marked tax rises, Labour seemingly recovered from the NHS controversy, and opinion polls on 1 April showed a clear Labour lead. But the lead fell considerably in the following days polls, however some analysts and participants in the campaign believed it actually had little effect, with the event only receiving widespread attention after the election. This was the first general election for the newly formed Liberal Democrats and its formation had not been without its problems, but under the strong leadership of Paddy Ashdown, who proved to be a likeable and candid figure, the party went into the election ready. They focused on education throughout the campaign, as well as a promise on reforming the voting system, in Scotland the Scottish National Party hoped for a major electoral breakthrough in 1992 and had run a hard independence campaign with Free by 93 as their slogan. Although the party increased its vote by 50% compared to 1987
37.
Hartlepool by-election, 2004
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On 23 July 2004, the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool, in England, Peter Mandelson, was nominated as the United Kingdoms new European Commissioner. On 8 September, he accepted the office of Steward of the Manor of Northstead, thereby disqualifying himself from Parliament, polling took place on 30 September. It was the last of six by elections which were held during the 2001–2005 Parliament, out of a registered electorate of 68,517, there were 31,362 valid votes, making a turnout of 45. 77%. This was the highest by election turnout since the Romsey by election in May 2000, the Labour Party candidate Iain Wright won the seat with a majority of 2,033, a substantially reduced majority. The Liberal Democrat vote more than doubled, leaving them a close second, the United Kingdom Independence Party held their deposit, and beat the Conservatives into third place. This marked the first time they had come third in a by election and it would be over six years before they ever improved on this position, when they took second place at Barnsley Central in 2011. They would go on to win a by election, for the first time a little over a decade after the Hartlepool contest in Clacton, in October 2014. The Conservative vote in Hartlepool dropped considerably, leaving them in place for the first time in an English by election since Liverpool Walton in 1991. Robert Kilroy-Silk of UKIP initially suggested he might stand but later ruled out, as did Hartlepool and Middlesbrough mayors Stuart Drummond. Preceding by elections had seen the Liberal Democrats come from third place to beat the Conservative Party, the seat was safer than Leicester but was vulnerable to swings such as achieved in Brent, or in Birmingham Hodge Hill where the Lib Dems narrowly failed to win. In the event, the Liberal Democrats were not quite able to repeat these performances and their campaign suffered by the choice of a candidate who was not from Hartlepool, while the Labour candidate had been born and brought up in the town. Fordham removed a reference to some of the people canvassed being Labour supporters, Labour gave wide publicity to this remark and asserted that it was an insult to the people of Hartlepool. Dunn defended her remarks on the Today programme, in a performance that was perceived to be unconvincing, Hartlepool had no significant ethnic minority vote, which had been present in the other three by elections. The Liberal Democrats were nevertheless content to claim the large swing to them, the UK Independence Party did well in Hartlepool with a local candidate, and their message of opposition to European Union fishing rules was a popular one in a port town. Labour also regarded the result – along with that in Hodge Hill – as a vindication of their decision to attack the Liberal Democrats
38.
Cabinet of the United Kingdom
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Ministers of the Crown, and especially Cabinet ministers, are selected primarily from the elected members of House of Commons, and also from the House of Lords, by the Prime Minister. Cabinet ministers are heads of government departments, mostly with the office of Secretary of State for, the collective co-ordinating function of the Cabinet is reinforced by the statutory position that all the Secretaries of State jointly hold the same office, and can exercise the same powers. The Cabinet is the ultimate decision-making body of the executive within the Westminster system of government in constitutional theory. The political and decision-making authority of the cabinet has been reduced over the last several decades. The Cabinet is the committee of Her Majestys Privy Council, a body which has legislative, judicial and executive functions. Its decisions are implemented either under the existing powers of individual government departments. Since the reign of King George I the Cabinet has been the executive group of British government. Both he and George II made use of the system, as both were not native English speakers, unfamiliar with British politics, and thus relied heavily on selected groups of advisers, the term minister came into being since the royal officers ministered to the sovereign. The name and institution have been adopted by most English-speaking countries, and this development grew out of the exigencies of the First World War, where faster and better co-ordinated decisions across Government were seen as a crucial part of the war effort. All these demanded a highly organised and centralised Government centred on the Cabinet, Cabinet ministers, like all ministers, are appointed and may be dismissed by the monarch at pleasure on the advice of the Prime Minister. The allocation and transfer of responsibilities between ministers and departments is generally at the Prime Ministers discretion. The extent to which the Government is collegial varies with political conditions, any change to the composition of the Cabinet involving more than one appointment is customarily referred to as a reshuffle, a routine reshuffle normally occurs every summer. The number in addition to the Prime Minister is currently 21, the Cabinet Secretary does not have a political appointment such as Secretary of State and is not a member of the Cabinet, but is the professional Head of Her Majestys Civil Service. In formal constitutional terms, the Cabinet is a committee of Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council, all Cabinet members are made Privy Counsellors shortly after appointment if not already Privy Counsellors, but only selected Privy Counsellors are appointed to the Cabinet or invited to attend. MPs and peers in the Cabinet use the style the Right Honourable The Cabinet has come to be made up almost entirely of members of the House of Commons, the Leader of the House of Lords is a member of the House of Lords. Otherwise it is rare for a peer to sit in the Cabinet, the Lord Chancellor was formerly the presiding officer of the House of Lords, but since 2007 need not be a member of the Lords, and members of the House of Commons have been appointed. The number of ministers who are peers has increased since 1997. Occasionally cabinet members are selected from outside the Houses of Parliament, harold Wilson appointed Frank Cousins and Patrick Gordon Walker to the 1964 cabinet despite their not being MPs at the time
39.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of Her Majestys Government in the United Kingdom. The prime minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Monarch, to Parliament, to their political party, the office is one of the Great Offices of State. The current prime minister, Theresa May, leader of the Conservative Party, was appointed by the Queen on 13 July 2016. The position of Prime Minister was not created, it evolved slowly and erratically over three hundred years due to acts of Parliament, political developments, and accidents of history. The office is therefore best understood from a historical perspective, the origins of the position are found in constitutional changes that occurred during the Revolutionary Settlement and the resulting shift of political power from the Sovereign to Parliament. The political position of Prime Minister was enhanced by the development of political parties, the introduction of mass communication. By the start of the 20th century the modern premiership had emerged, prior to 1902, the prime minister sometimes came from the House of Lords, provided that his government could form a majority in the Commons. However as the power of the aristocracy waned during the 19th century the convention developed that the Prime Minister should always sit in the lower house. As leader of the House of Commons, the Prime Ministers authority was further enhanced by the Parliament Act of 1911 which marginalised the influence of the House of Lords in the law-making process. The Prime Minister is ex officio also First Lord of the Treasury, certain privileges, such as residency of 10 Downing Street, are accorded to Prime Ministers by virtue of their position as First Lord of the Treasury. As the Head of Her Majestys Government the modern Prime Minister leads the Cabinet, in addition the Prime Minister leads a major political party and generally commands a majority in the House of Commons. As such the incumbent wields both legislative and executive powers, under the British system there is a unity of powers rather than separation. In the House of Commons, the Prime Minister guides the process with the goal of enacting the legislative agenda of their political party. The Prime Minister also acts as the face and voice of Her Majestys Government. The British system of government is based on an uncodified constitution, in 1928, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith described this characteristic of the British constitution in his memoirs, In this country we live. Our constitutional practices do not derive their validity and sanction from any Bill which has received the assent of the King, Lords. They rest on usage, custom, convention, often of slow growth in their early stages, not always uniform, the relationships between the Prime Minister and the Sovereign, Parliament and Cabinet are defined largely by these unwritten conventions of the constitution. Many of the Prime Ministers executive and legislative powers are actually royal prerogatives which are still vested in the Sovereign
40.
New Labour
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New Labour refers to a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid-1990s to the early 2010s, under leaders Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a slogan first used by the party in 1994 which was later seen in a draft manifesto published in 1996, called New Labour. It was presented as the brand of a reformed party that had altered Clause IV. The branding was used while the party was in government. New Labour won landslide victories in 1997 and 2001. In 2007, Blair resigned as the leader and was succeeded by Gordon Brown. He was succeeded by Ed Miliband after that years leadership election, the New Labour brand was used to communicate the partys modernisation to the public. It was coordinated by Alastair Campbell, who centralised the partys communications, in 2002, following criticism from Philip Gould, Blair announced the need to reinvent the brand based on a unified domestic policy and greater assertion in foreign affairs. Labour maintained this wider support in the 2001 and 2005 elections, the brand was retired in 2010. New Labour has been influenced by the thinking of Anthony Crosland, the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The political philosophy of New Labour was influenced by the development of Anthony Giddens Third Way. In 2002, Giddens named spin as New Labours biggest failure, the media has since speculated that Blair agreed to stand down and allow Brown the premiership in the future, though Blairs supporters have contended that such a deal never took place. The term New Labour was coined by Blair in his October 1994 Labour Party Conference speech, as part of the slogan New Labour, during this speech, Blair announced the modification of Clause IV of the partys constitution, which abandoned Labours attachment to nationalisation and embraced market economics. The new version of the clause committed Labour to a balance of market and public ownership, the party was also victorious in 2001 and 2005, making Blair Labours longest-serving Prime Minister, and the first to win three consecutive general elections. Indeed, he was the first Labour leader to win an election since Harold Wilson in 1974. In the months following Labours 1997 election victory, referendums were held in Scotland, there was a clear majority supporting devolution in Scotland and a narrower majority in Wales, Scotland received a stronger degree of devolution than Wales. The Labour government passed laws in 1998 to establish a Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, Blair attempted to continue peace negotiations in Northern Ireland by offering the creation of a regional parliament and government. In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement was made, which allowed for a 108-member elected assembly, Blair was personally involved in these negotiations
Officer, Légion d'honneur
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