1.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
2.
BBC Radio 4
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BBC Radio 4 is a radio station owned and operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967, the station controller is Gwyneth Williams, and the station is part of BBC Radio and the BBC Radio department. The station is broadcast from the BBCs headquarters at Broadcasting House and it is also available through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and on the Internet. It is notable for its news bulletins and programmes such as Today and The World at One, BBC Radio 4 is the second most popular British domestic radio station by total hours, after Radio 2 – and the most popular in London and the South of England. It recorded its highest audience, of 11 million listeners, in May 2011 and was UK Radio Station of the Year at the 2003,2004 and 2008 Sony Radio Academy Awards and it also won a Peabody Award in 2002 for File On 4, Export Controls. Costing £71.4 million, it is the BBCs most expensive national radio network and is considered by many to be its flagship. There is no comparable British commercial network, Channel 4 abandoned plans to launch its own speech-based digital radio station in October 2008 as part of a £100m cost cutting review, in 2010 Gwyneth Williams replaced Mark Damazer as Radio 4 controller. Damazer became Master of St Peters College, Oxford, music and sport are the only fields that largely fall outside the stations remit. It broadcasts occasional concerts, and documentaries related to forms of both popular and classical music, and the long-running music-based Desert Island Discs. As a result, for around 70 days a year listeners have to rely on FM broadcasts or increasingly DAB for mainstream Radio 4 broadcasts – the number relying solely on long wave is now a small minority. The cricket broadcasts take precedence over on-the-hour news bulletins, but not the Shipping Forecast, as well as news and drama, the station has a strong reputation for comedy, including experimental and alternative comedy, many successful comedians and comedy shows first appearing on the station. The BBC Home Service was the predecessor of Radio 4 and broadcast between 1939 and 1967 and it had regional variations and was broadcast on medium wave with a network of VHF FM transmitters being added from 1955. Radio 4 replaced it on 30 September 1967, when the BBC renamed many of its radio stations. For a time during the 1970s Radio 4 carried regional news bulletins Monday to Saturday and these were broadcast twice at breakfast, at lunchtime and an evening bulletin was aired at 5. 55pm. There were also programme variations for the parts of England not served by BBC Local Radio stations and these included Roundabout East Anglia, a VHF opt-out of the Today programme broadcast from BBC Easts studios in Norwich each weekday from 6.45 am to 8.45 am. Roundabout East Anglia came to an end in 1980, when local services were introduced to East Anglia with the launch of BBC Radio Norfolk. All regional news bulletins broadcast from BBC regional news bases around England ended in August 1980 apart from in the south west, in September 1991 it was decided that the main Radio 4 service would be on FM as coverage had extended to cover almost all of the UK. Opt-outs were transferred to long wave, currently Test Match Special, extra shipping forecasts, The Daily Service, long wave very occasionally opts out at other times, such as to broadcast special services, the most recent being when Pope Benedict XVI visited Britain in 2010
3.
John Humphrys
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Desmond John Humphrys is an award-winning Welsh broadcaster. He presents the programme with Justin Webb, Nick Robinson, Mishal Husain, since 2003 he has been the host of the BBC Two television quiz show Mastermind. Humphrys has a reputation as a tenacious and forthright interviewer, occasionally politicians have been critical of his style after being subjected to a tough interview on live radio. Humphrys was born at 193 Pearl Street, Adamsdown, son of Winifred Mary, a hairdresser, and Edward George Humphrys and he was one of five children. During early life Humphrys had a bout of whooping cough and concerned that he would be known as Dismal Desmond his Mother opted to use the name John and his parents encouraged him to do his homework and he passed the eleven plus exam. He became a pupil at Cardiff High School, but he did not fit into the environment there. He was a pupil and left school at 15 to become a reporter on the Penarth Times. He later joined the Western Mail, Humphrys joined TWW, a commercial television channel based in Wales, and was the first reporter on the scene of the Aberfan disaster in October 1966. He joined the BBC later that year as the reporter for Liverpool and the Northwest. He then worked as a correspondent, initially having to go abroad. Later he took his family with him to the United States, Humphrys became disillusioned with living in hotels and life on-the-road as a foreign correspondent, and returned to London in 1980 to take up the post of BBC Diplomatic Correspondent. In 1981 he became the presenter of the BBCs flagship Nine OClock News. This appointment marked a change in the BBCs approach to news broadcasting, the job on Today was unexpectedly offered when John Timpson was about to retire at the end of 1986. Humphrys began presenting Today in January 1987, joining Brian Redhead and he still made occasional appearances fronting BBC TV news bulletins in the 1990s. During the 1991 Gulf War he was a presenter on the BBC Radio 4 News FM service. From 1993 he presented the weekly On The Record political TV show until its demise in 2002 and he made the headlines on 28 August 2004 for giving the yearly MacTaggart Lecture in which he made scathing criticism of the dumbing-down of British television. He criticised reality shows such as Big Brother, as well as the violence in British soap operas. He made these criticisms after five years with no television set, on 6 September 2005, Humphrys was censured by the Corporation for his use of inappropriate and misguided language
4.
Justin Webb
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Justin Oliver Webb is a British journalist who has worked for the BBC since 1984. Since August 2009, he has presented on the Today programme, in an article in the Radio Times in January 2011, Webb revealed that his natural father was Peter Woods who was formerly a reporter with the Daily Mirror and later became a BBC newsreader. Woods was married and Webbs mother, then Gloria Crocombe, was a secretary at the Daily Mirror and was divorced from her first husband at the time of the affair with Woods. Webb commented that his mothers split from Woods may have been as much her doing as his, Woods provided financially for Webb but saw his son only once, when he was six months old. Webb took the surname of his stepfather when his mother remarried in 1964 and he was educated at Sidcot School, a Quaker school in Somerset, and the London School of Economics, where he was editor of student newspaper The Beaver. Webb joined the BBC as a trainee in 1984 working in Northern Ireland for BBC Radio Ulster based in Belfast. He then worked as a reporter for BBC Radio 4s Today programme, before becoming a foreign correspondent based in London. He reported on the Gulf War and the war in Bosnia, the collapse of the Soviet Union and he then became a BBC News presenter based in London, and the main presenter on BBC Ones Breakfast News programme from 1992 to 1997. He also presented the BBCs One and Six OClock News bulletins, from 1998 he spent three years working as the BBCs Europe correspondent based in Brussels. In 2001, Webb moved to the United States, as the BBCs chief Washington correspondent, much of his time was spent on local Washington Radio, most notably, WAMU, a public radio station, on The Diane Rehm Show. He raised eyebrows within the BBC in 2006 when, at a seminar on impartiality, he claimed the corporation was anti-American and treated the US with scorn and derision and he has also presented a Radio 4 series on anti-Americanism. In December 2007, he became North American Editor for BBC News and he replaced Matt Frei who moved to present the new World News America bulletin. Since November 2007, Webb has maintained a regularly updated blog on the BBC website, in August 2009, he returned to the UK to replace Edward Stourton on the Today programme. In August 2009, Webb returned to the UK with his wife Sarah, whilst in the United States, his son Sam fell ill and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus. As a result, Webb experienced the United States healthcare system first-hand, Justin Webb at the Internet Movie Database BBC World biography Justin Webbs BBC blog
5.
Mishal Husain
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Mishal Husain, is a British news presenter for the BBC, who appears on Today, BBC World News and BBC Weekend News. She was previously a presenter on HARDtalk and BBC Breakfast, Husain was born in Northampton, England. Her father attended Army Burn Hall College in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and her grandfather, Syed Shahid Hamid, was an army officer, as a private Military Secretary of Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck. When she was two, the moved to the United Arab Emirates, where her father practised as a doctor. Husain attended the British School in Abu Dhabi, the family were based in Saudi Arabia for a period. Husain returned to the UK at the age of 12 to continue her education at Cobham Hall and she then studied Law at New Hall, Cambridge, followed by a masters degree in International and Comparative Law at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Husain gained her first experience of journalism at the age of 18, then, while at university, she did several stints at the BBC as work experience. Her first job was at Bloomberg Television in London from 1996, Two years later, in 1998, she joined the BBC as a junior producer in the newsroom and for the News 24 channel, and then in the Economics and Business Unit. From September 2002 she was the corporations Washington correspondent, serving as the news anchor through the buildup to the invasion of Iraq. She has interviewed many high-profile figures including Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy US Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Pentagon adviser Richard Perle and Rwandas President Paul Kagame. In 2011, Husain hosted Impact on BBC World News, but in spring and summer 2011 she was engaged on making a documentary on the Arab Spring and she presents the Sunday evening editions of the BBC Weekend News on BBC One. On 8 May 2010, she published an essay in The Independent based on a nostalgia trip to the UAE. Husain is also a presenter of the BBC News at Six. She has occasionally presented Newsnight on BBC Two, on 2 December 2011, it was announced that Husain would be part of the BBCs Olympic Presenting team. On 7 November 2013, it was announced that Husain would be part of the BBCs Commonwealth Games Presenting team, on 17 March 2013 she presented the last News at Ten to be broadcast from BBC Television Centre. On 16 July 2013, the BBCs Director-General Lord Hall announced that Husain was to become a presenter of BBC Radio 4s Today programme in the autumn. She continues to present the Sunday evening editions of the BBC Weekend News on BBC One and on occasions on BBC World News, Husain presented her first edition of Today on 7 October 2013, when her co-presenter was John Humphrys. Husain won the Broadcaster of the Year Award at the London Press Club Awards in 2015, when the first series of Star Spell – a spin-off from Hard Spell that had only appeared before as a one-off episode – aired, Husain appeared as word pronouncer, replacing Nina Hossain
6.
Martha Kearney
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Martha Catherine Kearney is an Irish-born English journalist and broadcaster. She is the presenter of BBC Radio 4s lunchtime news programme The World at One. Kearney was born in Dublin, and brought up in an environment, her father. From 1976–80 she read classics at St Annes College, Oxford, in her final year at Oxford, she worked as a volunteer in hospital radio. She began her career at the London commercial station, LBC. In 1998 Kearney became a presenter of BBC Radio 4s Womans Hour. In 2000 she became editor of BBC Twos Newsnight programme. She went on to present Newsnight and its weekly consumer survey of entertainment and culture, Newsnight Review, with increasing frequency. She has been a presenter of the Today Programme on Radio 4, and was a candidate to succeed Andrew Marr as the BBCs political editor in 2005. She also featured later in the episode in a report from Notting Hill. In 2006 she presented with her father a Radio 4 series on the history of universities in Britain, Kearney presented her final Womans Hour on 19 March 2007 and her final Newsnight on 23 March 2007. She became the presenter of Radio 4s lunchtime news programme The World at One on 16 April 2007. She remains a presenter of Newsnight Review, describing her current role as allowing her to play to her strengths. Kearney was nominated for a BAFTA award for her coverage of the Northern Ireland Peace Process in 1998 and she was, with Jenni Murray,2004 TRIC radio presenter of the year, and won a Sony bronze award for a programme on child poverty. In 2013, Kearney featured in the Great Comic Relief Bake Off, in 2014, she presented The Wonder of Bees, a one-hour programme on BBC Four about the worldwide disappearance of bees. In 2015, she presented The Secret World of Lewis Carroll, in 2002 Kearney was a judge for the Webb Essay Prize. In 2005 she chaired the judges for the women-only Orange Prize for Fiction, Kearney chaired the judges for the 2012 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine. Kearney’s husband was a producer of the Academy Awards nominated short documentary Watani
7.
Broadcasting House
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Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast was made on 15 March 1932, the main building is in Art Deco style, with a facing of Portland stone over a steel frame. As part of a consolidation of the BBCs property portfolio in London. This involved the demolition of post-war extensions on the side of the building. The wing was named the John Peel Wing in 2012, after the disc jockey, BBC London, BBC Arabic Television and BBC Persian Television are housed in the new wing, which also contains the reception area for BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra. The main building was refurbished, and a built to the rear. The radio stations BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC World Service transferred to refurbished studios within the building. The extension links the old building with the John Peel Wing, the move of news operations from BBC Television Centre completed in March 2013. Construction of Broadcasting House began in 1928, programmes transferred gradually to the building. On 15 March 1932 the first musical programme was given by the bandleader Henry Hall, Hall also wrote and performed, with his Dance Band, Radio Times, the name of the BBCs schedule publication. The first news bulletin was read by Stuart Hibberd on 18 March, the last transmission from Savoy Hill was on 14 May, and Broadcasting House officially opened on 15 May 1932. George Val Myer designed the building in collaboration with the BBCs civil engineer, the interiors were the work of Raymond McGrath, an Australian-Irish architect. The building is built in two parts, dispensing with the oft-found central light-well of contemporary buildings this size, the central core containing the recording studios was a windowless structure built of brick. The surrounding outer portion, designed for offices and ancillary spaces, is framed and faced using Portland stone. While the outer portion had plenty of windows, the core required special sound-dampened ventilation systems. There were two areas where right of ancient lights would cause height restrictions, Underground structures, including a hundred-year-old sewer, also presented problems during construction. The building is above the Bakerloo line of the London Underground, the Victoria line was tunnelled beneath in the 1960s, noise from passing trains is audible within the radio theatre, but generally imperceptible in recordings. The ground floor was fitted with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the street, the rapid expansion of the BBC meant this never occurred
8.
Television Centre, London
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Television Centre in White City, West London was the headquarters of BBC Television between 1960 and 2013. Officially opened on 29 June 1960, it is one of the most readily recognisable facilities of its type, parts of the building are Grade II listed, including the central ring and Studio 1. Live television events from studios and routing of national and international sporting events took place within the Television Centre before being passed to the Broadcast Centre for transmission and it was announced on 21 September 2010 that the BBC would cease broadcasting from Television Centre in 2013. BBC Worldwide moved into space in the Stage 6 building following extensive refurbishment in 2015. The radio and television news departments moved to Broadcasting House in central London, the building is 4 miles west of central London, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The nearest Underground stations are White City and Wood Lane, London broadcasts at the time came from Alexandra Palace and Lime Grove Studios. It was to be the largest television centre in the world, riverside Studios in Hammersmith were used from 1954. It was planned to be 6 acres, but turned out to be twice as big, on 24 August 1956 the main contract was awarded to Higgs and Hill, which also built The London Studios for ITV in 1972. The building was planned to cost £9M, when it opened, the Director of BBC television was Gerald Beadle, and the first programme broadcast was First Night with David Nixon in Studio Three. In 1997 the BBC News Centre was opened, in a new complex at the front of the building, the building featured a central circular block around which were studios, offices, engineering areas and the News Centre. In the centre of the block was a statue designed by T. B. Huxley-Jones of Helios. At the foot of the statue were two reclining figures, symbolising sound and vision, the components of television, even though there was a foundation stone marked BBC1956 in the basement of the main building, construction began in 1951. With the migration of staff and functions to complexes in Salford and London W1, the overall design from the air appeared to resemble a question mark in shape. The architect, Graham Dawbarn CBE, drew a question mark on an envelope while thinking about the design of the building, an article in The BBC Quarterly, July 1946, proposed a circular design, several years before Dawbarn drew up his plans. The building was commissioned in 1949 with work starting in 1950, work resumed in 1953 on the TVC scenery block and work began in 1954 on the canteen block, which doubled as a rehearsal space. Work on Stage 3, the central office block and studios. The shells of TC1, TC6 and TC7 were constructed around the same time, BBC Television Centre officially opened with TC3 operational on 29 June 1960. Arthur Hayes worked on the building from 1956 to 1970 and was responsible for the creation of the iconic BBC Television Centre lettering on the façade of Studio 1, the lettering was later used all over the building, even in tile work outside lift entrances
9.
Thought for the Day
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Notable contributors to the slot have included major religious figures including Rowan Williams and Pope Benedict XVI. Major British rabbis to have contributed include Chief Rabbi Jonathan Lord Sacks of the United Synagogue movement, no link, this is usually done when the contributor picks a topic that is already directly spiritual or religious in nature. I don’t want to talk about Christianity, I want as a Christian to talk about the news and this led politicians into a public debate about the advisability of the broadcast, and questions were asked in the House of Lords. The BBC dropped Morris from the list of contributors for a few months following the debate, in 1979, a broadcast by Labour MP Tony Benn was delayed. Benn attacked the BBC for delaying the broadcast and told the press that he had been censored and it later turns out that the Conservative MP Rhodes Boyson had also been asked to prepare a script for Thought for the Day but was unable to do so. Fearing an accusation of bias in broadcasting Benn and not Boyson, during the 1980s, increasing social problems in the inner cities led the Church of England to produce a report, Faith in the City. This laid a large portion of the blame for the issues on the policies of the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. A number of Anglican bishops appeared on Thought for the Day speaking out against Thatchers social policies including Tom Butler, Jim Thompson and Richard Harries. To protect against accusations of bias in the run-up to the 1987 General Election, David Hatch told producers, I dont want some lefty bishop on Thought for the Day queering our pitch. In 1990, Canon Eric James had planned to use a Thought for the Day slot to defend those protesting the poll tax, and planned to speak in positive tones of the spiritual value of revolt. The broadcast was set to be broadcast on the first day of the Labour Party conference, no doubt, we will have an adulterers Christian Fellowship. The BBC said that they had received a number of complaints from listeners. The broadcast followed the Popes visit to the United Kingdom earlier in the year, in the message, he claimed to be fond of Britain and asked listeners to consider Jesuss birth. The National Secular Society had criticised the BBC for giving the Pope a chance to whitewash the Catholic Churchs record on Catholic child sexual abuse. The message was a damp, faltering squib, commented biologist and atheist Professor Richard Dawkins on the Comment is Free webpages of The Guardian newspaper, the Radio 4 Thought for the Day format has been copied onto some other BBC channels, notably local radio. An example is BBC Radio Suffolks morning show hosts a Thought for the Day at approximately 7,30. Suffolks programme differs from the national broadcast in that it is only 1 minute and 45 seconds long, BBC Radio Leicester, too, has a daily Thought for the Day. Slot, now pre-recorded and broadcast at 6,45, there is a pick of the week re-broadcast on Sunday morning
10.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
11.
BBC Home Service
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The BBC Home Service was a British national radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it became the current BBC Radio 4. Between the 1920s and the outbreak of the Second World War, as well as a basic service programmed from London, the Regional Programme included programming originating in six regions. On 1 September 1939, the BBC merged the two programmes into one service from London. The reasons given included the need to prevent enemy aircraft from using differentiated output from the Regional Programmes transmitters as navigational beacons. To this end, the regional transmitters were synchronised in chains on two frequencies,668 and 767 kHz, with an additional chain of low-powered transmitters on 1474 kHz appearing later. The new service was named the Home Service, which was also the designation at the BBC for domestic radio broadcasting. On 29 July 1945, the BBC resumed its previous structure, though true regional radio stations would not return till the 1970s. The Home Service had seven regions, London and South East England was served by the basic Home Service, which was not considered a region by the BBC and acted as the sustaining service for the other regions. The Northern Ireland service was separated from the North region on 7 January 1963, the Service provided five national news programmes a day from London, and drama, talks and informational programmes. Non-topical talk programmes and heavier drama output were transferred to the BBC Third Programme when it began broadcasting on 29 September 1946, during the day, the Service included programmes of classical music. They disappeared when the Music Programme began regular 0700–1830 broadcasting daily on 22 March 1965, the Service broadcast educational programmes for schools during the day, backed with booklets and support material. On 30 September 1967, the BBC split the Light Programme into a pop music service, the Light Programme became BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2. The BBC Third Programme became BBC Radio 3, with the Music Programme losing its separate identity, the Home Service was renamed BBC Radio 4. With the introduction of BBC Local Radio, starting with BBC Radio Leicester on 8 November 1967, the BBC produced a report, Broadcasting in the Seventies, on 10 July 1969, proposing the reorganisation of programmes on the national networks and the end of regional broadcasting. During the 1970s Radio 4 FM in the East of England carried a breakfast magazine programme, Roundabout East Anglia, the service closed in advance of the opening of BBC Radio Norfolk in 1980. Radio 4 FM continued to carry four daily five-minute regional news bulletins on Mondays to Saturdays until the early 1980s, the wide coverage of the Holme Moss transmitter meant that listeners in much of Northern England received combined North and North-West news. BBC Radio Timeline of the BBC Stations of the BBC BBC English Regions Radio drama BBC Year Book 1947, London, BBC Year Book 1948, London, British Broadcasting Corporation,1948. BBC Handbook 1967, London, British Broadcasting Corporation,1967, BBC Handbook 1972, London, British Broadcasting Corporation,1972
12.
Light music
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Light music is a generic term applied to a mainly British musical style of light orchestral music, which originated in the 19th century and continues until the present day. Its heyday occurred during the mid‑20th century, the form was especially popular during the formative years of radio broadcasting, with stations such as the BBC Light Programme featuring a playlist largely consisting of light compositions. Occasionally known as music or concert music, light music is often grouped with the easy listening genre. The Straussian waltz became a light music composition. These influenced the foundation of a tradition of classical music in the 19th. The light-music genre as it is currently recognised probably has its origin in the orchestras that flourished in Britain during the 19th. These played a repertoire of music, from classical music to arrangements of popular songs. From this tradition came many specially written shorter orchestral pieces designed to appeal to a wider audience. Notably, even serious composers such as Sir Edward Elgar wrote a number of works in this medium, such as the Salut dAmour, the Nursery Suite. Influenced by the promenade concerts held in London pleasure gardens. However, in the late 1920s with the introduction of broadcasting by the BBC the style found an ideal outlet. This increased after the launch of the BBC Light Programme in 1945, featuring programmes such as Friday Night is Music Night, the halcyon days of the genre date from this period until the early 1960s. The light composer Ernest Tomlinson has been quoted as saying that the distinction of light music is its emphasis on melody. David Ades suggests that it is agreed that it occupies a position between classical and popular music, yet its boundaries are often blurred. He goes on to cite broadcaster Denis Norden who said that music was not just tuneful round the outside. Often, the represent a mood, place, person or object. The genres other popular title mood music is a reference to such as Charles Williams A Quiet Stroll. Light music pieces are presented individually or as movements within a suite
13.
Up to the Hour
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Up to the Hour was a programme on BBC Radio 4 that ran from May 1977 to June 1978. There were two editions every weekday morning, each 25 minutes long and finishing at 7am and 8am respectively, both parts were followed by the Today programme, which during this period was also broadcast in two parts. Rather than hire a separate presenter, the programme was presented by the duty announcer, the first presenter was Laurie Macmillan, the last John Marsh, other presenters included Peter Donaldson and future television newsreader Moira Stuart. The original theme tune was Tambourin by François Joseph Gossec, performed by James Galway, in 1977 the then-controller of Radio 4, Ian McIntyre, cut the length of a number of news and current affairs programmes, in the belief that this would improve their overall quality. In the case of the breakfast programme Today, the reduction from two hours to one was achieved by splitting the programme into two, the gaps created were filled by Up to the Hour, which consisted of lighter items such as music, sport and trailers for upcoming programmes. It also incorporated the existing religious slot, Thought for the Day, the new format was unpopular with BBC staff, including Peter Donaldson who on at least one occasion openly ridiculed the programme on air. It also provoked comments in the columns of the daily newspapers. From July 1978 Today returned to its previous length and Up to the Hour was dropped
14.
Nigeria
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Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. It comprises 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, where the capital, Nigeria is officially a democratic secular country. Modern-day Nigeria has been the site of numerous kingdoms and tribal states over the millennia, the modern state originated from British colonial rule beginning in the 19th century, and the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914. The British set up administrative and legal structures whilst practising indirect rule through traditional chiefdoms, Nigeria became a formally independent federation in 1960, and plunged into a civil war from 1967 to 1970. Nigeria is often referred to as the Giant of Africa, owing to its large population, with approximately 184 million inhabitants, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world. Nigeria has one of the largest populations of youth in the world, Nigeria is divided roughly in half between Christians, who live mostly in the southern part of the country, and Muslims in the northern part. A minority of the population practise religions indigenous to Nigeria, such as native to the Igbo. As of 2015, Nigeria is the worlds 20th largest economy, worth more than $500 billion and $1 trillion in terms of nominal GDP and it overtook South Africa to become Africas largest economy in 2014. The 2013 debt-to-GDP ratio was 11 percent, Nigeria is a member of the MINT group of countries, which are widely seen as the globes next BRIC-like economies. It is also listed among the Next Eleven economies set to become among the biggest in the world, Nigeria is a founding member of the African Union and a member of many other international organizations, including the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations and OPEC. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country and this name was coined in the late 19th century by British journalist Flora Shaw, who later married Lord Lugard, a British colonial administrator. The origin of the name Niger, which applied only to the middle reaches of the Niger River, is uncertain. The word is likely an alteration of the Tuareg name egerew n-igerewen used by inhabitants along the middle reaches of the river around Timbuktu prior to 19th-century European colonialism. The Nok civilisation of Northern Nigeria flourished between 500 BC and AD200, producing life-sized terracotta figures which are some of the earliest known sculptures in Sub-Saharan Africa, further north, the cities Kano and Katsina have a recorded history dating to around 999 AD. Hausa kingdoms and the Kanem-Bornu Empire prospered as trade posts between North and West Africa, the Kingdom of Nri of the Igbo people consolidated in the 10th century and continued until it lost its sovereignty to the British in 1911. Nri was ruled by the Eze Nri, and the city of Nri is considered to be the foundation of Igbo culture, Nri and Aguleri, where the Igbo creation myth originates, are in the territory of the Umeuri clan. Members of the clan trace their lineages back to the patriarchal king-figure Eri, in West Africa, the oldest bronzes made using the lost-wax process were from Igbo Ukwu, a city under Nri influence. The Yoruba kingdoms of Ife and Oyo in southwestern Nigeria became prominent in the 12th and 14th centuries, the oldest signs of human settlement at Ifes current site date back to the 9th century, and its material culture includes terracotta and bronze figures
15.
Yoko Ono
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Yoko Ono is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist who is also known for her work in performance art and filmmaking. She is the wife and widow of singer-songwriter John Lennon of the Beatles. Ono grew up in Tokyo, and studied at Gakushuin and she withdrew from her course after two years and rejoined her family in New York in 1953. She spent some time at Sarah Lawrence College, and then involved in New York Citys downtown artists scene. She first met Lennon in 1966 at her own art exhibition in London and she brought feminism to the forefront in her music, influencing artists as diverse as the B-52s and Meredith Monk. Ono achieved commercial and critical acclaim in 1980 with the chart-topping album Double Fantasy, public appreciation of Onos work has shifted over time, helped by a retrospective at a Whitney Museum branch in 1989 and the 1992 release of the six-disc box set Onobox. She received a Golden Lion Award for lifetime achievement from the Venice Biennale in 2009, as Lennons widow, Ono works to preserve his legacy. She funded Strawberry Fields in New York City, the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland, and she has made significant philanthropic contributions to the arts, peace, Philippine and Japan disaster relief, and other causes. In 2012 Yoko Ono received the Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt Human Rights Award endowed by Alexandra Hildebrandt, the award is given annually in recognition of extraordinary, non-violent commitment to human rights. Ono continues her activism, inaugurating a biennial $50,000 LennonOno Grant for Peace in 2002. She has a daughter, Kyoko Chan Cox, from her marriage to Anthony Cox, Ono was born on February 18,1933, in Tokyo, to Isoko Ono and Eisuke Ono, a banker and former classical pianist. Isokos father was ennobled in 1915, isokos maternal grandfather Zenjiro Yasuda was an affiliate of the Yasuda clan and zaibatsu. Eisuke came from a line of samurai warrior-scholars. The kanji translation of Yokos first name Yoko means ocean child, Two weeks before Yokos birth, Eisuke was transferred to San Francisco by his employer, the Yokohama Specie Bank. The rest of the family followed soon after, with Yoko meeting Eisuke when she was two and her younger brother Keisuke was born in December 1936. Yoko was enrolled in piano lessons from the age of 4, in 1937, the family was transferred back to Japan and Ono enrolled at Tokyos Gakushuin, one of the most exclusive schools in Japan. In 1940, the moved to New York City. The next year, Eisuke was transferred from New York City to Hanoi, Ono was enrolled in Keimei Gakuen, an exclusive Christian primary school run by the Mitsui family
16.
John Timpson
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John Harry Robert Timpson OBE, was a British journalist, best known as a radio presenter. He was educated at Merchant Taylors School, a independent school in Northwood. Born at Ridgeholme,53 The Ridgeway, Kenton, Harrow, Middlesex, after five years there and two years of national service in the Royal Army Service Corps, he married his wife Patricia née Whale in 1951 and moved to Norfolk. He then worked for the Eastern Daily Press until, in 1959, he started to work for BBC News as reporter and he remained in this post until 1967. From 1964, he presented Newsroom on BBC2, the first British television news programme to make the switch to colour on 1 July 1967 and he later presented BBCs late evening Tonight programme. Timpson co-presented the BBC Radio 4 programme Today from 1970 to 1976 and again from 1978 to 1986, Timpson became known as the more humorous of the two men with jocular asides like Insulation - Britain lags behind or Crash course for learner drivers. From 1984 to 1987, he presented the popular weekly radio show. He was generally perceived as something of a conservative traditionalist. His experiences in broadcasting provided Timpson with material for books, Today and Yesterday, The Lighter Side of Today. After his retirement from the BBC he returned to Norfolk and continued writing, especially about England and these included a novel Paper Trail and two works on the quirks and oddities of English life - Timpsons England and Timpsons Towns. Subsequent books included Timpson’s English Villages, Timpson’s Other England, Timpson’s English Country Inns, in 1986 he was awarded a Sony Gold Award for outstanding services to radio, and the following year he was awarded an OBE for his services to broadcasting. John Timpson died in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, on 19 November 2005 and was buried at his church of St Peters Weasenham. He was survived by his wife and son, although his second son Nick had predeceased him by five weeks. A memorial service was held on 22 February 2006, when family, friends and co-workers gathered at Norwich Cathedral to celebrate his long and productive life, the speakers included the Director of BBC Radio and Music, Jenny Abramsky. John Timpson at the Internet Movie Database
17.
Margaret Thatcher
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She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century, and the first woman to have held the office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her The Iron Lady, a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics, as Prime Minister, she implemented policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism. A research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959, Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975, Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Leader of the Opposition and she became Prime Minister after winning the 1979 general election. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation, flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies and she narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in 1984. Thatcher was re-elected for a term in 1987. During this period her support for a Community Charge was widely unpopular and she resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a peerage as Baroness Thatcher which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. After a series of strokes in 2002, she was advised to withdraw from public speaking. Despite this, she managed to pre-record a eulogy to Ronald Reagan prior to his death, in 2013, she died of another stroke in London, at the age of 87. Always a controversial figure, she has described as one of the greatest and most influential politicians in British history. Thatcher was born Margaret Hilda Roberts on 13 October 1925, in Grantham and her father was Alfred Roberts, originally from Northamptonshire, and her mother was Beatrice Ethel from Lincolnshire. She spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned two grocery shops, Prior to the Second World War, in 1938 the Roberts family gave sanctuary to a teenage Jewish girl escaping Nazi Germany. Thatcher was to describe this in her memoirs as among the significant events of her formative years, Alfred Roberts was an alderman and a Methodist local preacher, and brought up his daughter as a strict Wesleyan Methodist attending the Finkin Street Methodist Church. He came from a Liberal family but stood as an Independent and he was Mayor of Grantham in 1945–46 and lost his position as alderman in 1952 after the Labour Party won its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950. Margaret Roberts attended Huntingtower Road Primary School and won a scholarship to Kesteven and her school reports showed hard work and continual improvement, her extracurricular activities included the piano, field hockey, poetry recitals, swimming and walking. She was head girl in 1942–43, in her upper sixth year she applied for a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, but she was initially rejected and was offered a place only after another candidate withdrew. Her dissertation was on the structure of the antibiotic gramicidin, even while working on chemistry, she was already thinking towards law and politics
18.
Nigel Lawson
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Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, PC is a British Conservative politician and journalist. He was a member of parliament representing the constituency of Blaby from 1974 to 1992, prior to entering the Cabinet, he served as the Financial Secretary to the Treasury from May 1979 until his promotion to Secretary of State for Energy. He was appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer in June 1983, in both Cabinet posts, Lawson was a key proponent of Thatchers policies of privatisation of several key industries. He is the father of six children, including Nigella Lawson, a writer and celebrity cook, Dominic Lawson, a journalist. Lawson was born in 1932 to a wealthy Jewish family living in Hampstead and his father, Ralph Lawson, was the owner of a commodity-trading firm in the City of London, while his mother, Joan Elisa Davis, was also from a prosperous family of stockbrokers. His paternal grandfather, Gustav Leibson, a merchant from Mitau, changed his name from Leibson to Lawson in 1925, Lawson carried out his National Service as a Royal Navy officer, during which time he commanded a fast patrol boat, HMS Gay Charger. Lawson began his career as a journalist at the Financial Times in 1956 and he progressed to the positions of City editor of The Sunday Telegraph in 1961 – where he introduced his friend Jim Slaters Capitalist investing column – and then editor of The Spectator. On the election of Margaret Thatchers government, Lawson was appointed to the post of Financial Secretary to the Treasury, in the Cabinet reshuffle of September 1981, Lawson was promoted to the position of Secretary of State for Energy. He was a key proponent of the Thatcher Governments privatisation policy, after the Governments re-election in 1983, Lawson was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in succession to Geoffrey Howe. The early years of Lawsons chancellorship were associated with tax reform, the 1984 Budget reformed corporate taxes by a combination of reduced rates and reduced allowances. The 1985 Budget continued the trend of shifting from direct to indirect taxes by reducing National Insurance contributions for the lower-paid while extending the base of value added tax. During these two years Lawsons public image remained low-key, but from the 1986 Budget, his stock rose as unemployment began to fall from the middle of 1986. Lawson also changed the budget deficit from £10.5 billion in 1983 to a surplus of £3.9 billion in 1988 and £4.1 billion in 1989. During his tenure the rate of taxation also came down, the basic rate was reduced from 30% in 1983 to 25% by 1988. In 1986 the City of Londons financial markets were deregulated in the so-called Big Bang, in an interview in 2010 Nigel Lawson said that an unintended consequence of the Big Bang was the financial crisis of 2007-2008. Lawson, in his own defence, attributes the boom largely to the effects of various measures of financial deregulation, Lawson also ascribes the difficulty of conducting monetary policy to Goodharts Law. His tax cuts, beginning in 1986, resulted in the Lawson Boom of the British economy, Lawson opposed the introduction of the Community Charge as a replacement for the previous rating system for the local financing element of local government revenue. His dissent was confined to deliberations within the Cabinet, where he found few allies, the issue of exchange-rate mechanism membership continued to fester between Lawson and Thatcher and was exacerbated by the re-employment by Thatcher of Sir Alan Walters as personal economic adviser
19.
Sarah Montague
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Sarah Anne Louise Montague, Lady Brooke, is a British journalist, best known for her work on BBC Radio 4 as one of the regular presenters of the Today programme. Montague was born to John Montague and Mary on Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency and her father was an Army colonel. She attended Blanchelande College, a independent school for girls. Montagues first job was as a stockbroker for County NatWest and then a Eurobond dealer with NatWest Capital Markets in London and she then went into business in London with the owner of Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts. Montague began her career with Channel Television in 1991. She joined Reuters in January 1995 and then became correspondent for Sky News in January 1996. She joined the BBC during October 1997 and presented Newsnight and BBC News and she has also presented HARDtalk on BBC News. In December 2008, she hosted BBC Worlds Nobel Minds in the library of the Royal Palace, Stockholm. The 2008 Nobel Prize winners in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Economics, on 6 November 2010, Montague broke a strike at the BBC called by the National Union of Journalists. She arrived to present the Today programme at 3,30 am, along with fellow presenter Evan Davis, on 15 July 2011, she again broke an NUJ strike by presenting Today with Justin Webb, again by arriving early. On 10 February 2015, she was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa from the University of Bristol, in 2002, Montague married Richard Christopher Brooke. Montague is the mother of three daughters and also has a stepdaughter, in 2012, Mrs. Brooke became Lady Brooke, when her husband inherited the family baronetcy, to become Sir Christopher Brooke, Bt. Profile @ BBC News BBC Radio 4 Profile Sarah Montague at the Internet Movie Database Articles for the New Statesman
20.
Carolyn Quinn
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Carolyn Quinn is a British journalist best known for her work on BBC Radio 4 as a political correspondent and for presenting the Today programme and PM. Quinn attended St Josephs RC Primary School in Crayford, Dartford Grammar School for Girls and she joined Riverside Radio at the hospital. She freelanced before joining the Irish Post and was selected for a BBC Local Radio trainee scheme. After training and two years at BBC Radio Solent from 1987–9, she became a BBC news correspondent at Westminster, Quinn was a presenter of the Today programme from 2004 to 2008, co-presenting her last programme with James Naughtie on Wednesday 26 March 2008. She presents PM on Saturdays, and covers the weekday edition when Eddie Mair is away and she has also presented Pick Of The Week several times and in January 2007 presented an edition of Womans Hour. Quinn became the presenter of Radio Fours The Westminster Hour from January 2007 following Andrew Rawnsleys departure in September 2006. Carolyn Quinn married Nigel Morris, deputy Political Editor of The Independent, carolyn Quinn at the Internet Movie Database BBC Profile Independent May 2006 BBC Biography The Observer January 2007 Interviewing Lord Andrew Philips in 2007
21.
Edward Stourton (journalist)
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He is the author of six books, most recently Cruel Crossing, Escaping Hitler Across the Pyrenees. He was head boy in his year at both establishments. While at Ampleforth he befriended future High Court judge Nicholas Mostyn, the duo won the national ESU Schools Mace debating prize in 1975. He read English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining a 2,1 and he served as president of the Cambridge Union Society and editor of the student magazine Rampage. He joined the staff of ITN in 1979 as a graduate trainee, while working there he was a founder member of Channel 4 News in 1982 working predominantly as a copy writer but also as a producer, duty home news editor and chief sub-editor. Stourton joined the BBC in 1988 as a Paris correspondent and he returned to ITN as a diplomatic editor in 1990. In 1993, he was back at the BBC as the presenter of BBC One OClock News for six years and he presented editions of Assignment, Correspondent, Panorama and Call Ed Stourton, a phone-in programme on Radio 4. He has made a number of current affairs programmes for Radio 4 including Asia Gold and Global Shakeout, The Violence Files, With us or against us, Asia Gold was the winner of the Sony Radio Gold Award for current affairs in 1997. Stourton presented a series about the Catholic church, entitled Absolute Truth. It was broadcast on BBC2 in 1997 and he also wrote a book to accompany the series. In January 1999, he joined the BBC Today programme presentation team and it was announced in on 12 December 2008 that he would leave the programme in September 2009, to be replaced by Justin Webb. This announcement was greeted with widespread public dismay not least because Stourton found out about it from a journalist rather than his employers, following a campaign by listeners, it was announced on 27 December 2008 that he was not being sacked. Instead, shortly after Justin Webb joined the Today Programme in August 2009, Stourton presented Today for the last time on 11 September 2009. Since leaving his role on the Today programme, Stourton has joined the presenting teams of The World at One. On 27 December 2006 he appeared on the celebrity edition of BBC Ones Mastermind. When asked his name, Stourton replied, John, why do you need to ask that and his specialist subject was Pope John Paul II on which he scored 17 points, for a total of 28 points after general knowledge to win his heat. Stourton is a Catholic who regularly presents Sunday, Radio 4s religious and his series, A Year in the Arab Israeli Crisis was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service in 2005. In 2001, he won the Amnesty Award for best television documentary, Stourton is a descendant of the 19th Baron Stourton and in very distant remainder to this barony presently held by his cousin Edward Stourton, 27th Baron Mowbray
22.
Stephen Sackur
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Stephen John Sackur is an English journalist who presents HARDtalk, a current affairs interview programme on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel. He is also the main Friday presenter of GMT on BBC World News, for fifteen years he was a BBC foreign correspondent and he is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4 and a number of newspapers and magazines. Sackur was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, England, and studied at King Edward VI Grammar School, Spilsby, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Harvard Universitys John F. Kennedy School of Government. Sackur began working at the BBC as a trainee in 1986, as a BBC Radio correspondent, Sackur reported on the Velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia in 1989 and the reunification of Germany in 1990. During the Gulf War, he was part of a BBC team covering the conflict, at the end of the war, he was the first correspondent to report the massacre of the retreating Iraqi army on the road leading out of Kuwait. Sackur was based in Cairo, Egypt, between 1992 and 1995 as the BBCs correspondent in the Middle East and he moved to Jerusalem in 1995 until 1997. He covered both the death of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the growth of the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat, between 1997 and 2002, he was appointed the BBCs correspondent in Washington and covered the Lewinsky scandal. Presidential Election in 2000 and interviewed President George W. Bush, Sackur went back to Iraq in 2003 after the fall of Saddam Hussein and was the first to report Iraqs mass graves of victims of the regime. He was also the moderator of BBCs worldwide broadcast of a debate on climate change with a panel of five world leaders from South Africa, in 1991 he wrote On the Basra Road. In 2004 Sackur replaced veteran journalist Tim Sebastian as the regular host of the BBCs news programme HARDtalk and he has also interviewed leading cultural figures including Gore Vidal, Slavoj Žižek, Richard Dawkins, Noam Chomsky, Anwar Ibrahim, Annie Lennox, and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Sackur was named International TV Personality of the Year by the Association for International Broadcasting in November 2010 and he was nominated as Speech Broadcaster of the Year at the Sony Radio Awards 2013
23.
Evan Davis
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Evan Harold Davis is an English economist, journalist, and presenter for the BBC. In October 2001, Davis took over from Peter Jay as the BBCs economics editor and he left this post in April 2008 to become a presenter on BBC Radio 4s Today programme. He stood down after the 26 September 2014 edition of Today to become a presenter on Newsnight. Davis is also the presenter for the BBC Two venture-capitalist programme Dragons Den, as well as The Bottom Line, Davis grew up in Ashtead, Surrey. He attended Dorking County Grammar School, which in 1976 became The Ashcombe School, while at Oxford University, he edited Cherwell, the student newspaper. In 1988 he moved to the London Business School, writing articles for their publication Business Strategy Review, in 1993, Davis joined the BBC as an economics correspondent. He worked as editor on BBC Twos Newsnight programme from 1997 to 2001. In the mid-1990s he was a member of the Social Market Foundations Advisory Council, as the BBCs economics editor, Davis was responsible for reporting and analysing economic developments on a range of programmes on BBC radio and television, particularly the Ten OClock News. He also had a role in shaping the extensive BBC coverage of economics across all the corporations outputs, Davis also wrote a blog for the BBC website entitled Evanomics in which he attempts to understand the real world, using the tool kit of economics. Subjects he discussed included road pricing, care for the elderly, Gordon Browns Budget, Davis has won several awards including the Work Foundations Broadcast Journalist of the Year award in 1998,2001 and 2003, and the Harold Wincott Business Broadcaster of the Year award in 2002. In 2008, Davis was ranked first in the Independent on Sundays pink list of the hundred most influential gay, on 23 May 2005, Davis crossed picket lines during a day of industrial action by BBC staff over announced job cuts. Other notable broadcasters who turned up for work during the strike included Terry Wogan, Shelagh Fogarty, in mid-2007, Davis was a guest presenter on the Today programme for two weeks. In April 2008, he stood down as BBC Economics Editor to join the Today programme as a full-time presenter replacing Carolyn Quinn. In 2009, Davis said that one of the best things about presenting on the radio is that you can look things up on Wikipedia while on air. On top of his duties at Today, Davis also presents The Bottom Line, in 2014, Davis presented a BBC Two series Mind the Gap, London vs the Rest in which he explored the economic forces in Britain and why the capital city is so dominant. On 21 July 2014, it was announced that Davis would replace Jeremy Paxman as presenter of Newsnight starting in Autumn 2014 and his last appearance as a presenter on Today was 26 September 2014. Davis 1998 book Public Spending was published by Penguin, in it he argued for the privatisation of public services as a means of increasing efficiency. Davis second book, Made in Britain, How the Nation Earns Its Living, was published by Little, Brown and Company in May 2011
24.
Scottish independence referendum, 2014
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A referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom took place on 18 September 2014. The referendum question, which answered with Yes or No, was Should Scotland be an independent country. The No side won, with 2,001,926 voting against independence and 1,617,989 voting in favour, the turnout of 84. 6% was the highest recorded for an election or referendum in the United Kingdom since the introduction of universal suffrage. To pass, the proposal required a simple majority. With some exceptions, all European Union or Commonwealth citizens resident in Scotland aged 16 or over could vote and this was the first time that the electoral franchise was extended to include 16 and 17 year olds in Scotland. Yes Scotland was the campaign group for independence, while Better Together was the main campaign group in favour of maintaining the union. Many other campaign groups, political parties, businesses, newspapers, prominent issues raised during the referendum included which currency an independent Scotland would use, public expenditure, EU membership, and North Sea oil. The Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England were established as independent countries during the Middle Ages, after fighting a series of wars during the 14th century, the two monarchies entered a personal union in 1603 when James VI of Scotland also became James I of England. The two nations were temporarily united under one government when Oliver Cromwell was declared Lord Protector of a Commonwealth in 1653, Great Britain in turn united with the Kingdom of Ireland in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Most of Ireland left the Union in 1922 to form the Irish Free State, consequently, the Labour Party was committed to home rule for Scotland in the 1920s, but it slipped down its agenda in the following years. The Scottish National Party was formed in 1934, but did not achieve significant electoral success until the 1960s, a document calling for home rule, the Scottish Covenant, was signed by 2 million people in the late 1940s. Home rule, now known as Scottish devolution, did not become a serious proposal until the late 1970s as the Labour government of James Callaghan came under pressure from the SNP. A proposal for a devolved Scottish Assembly was put to a referendum in 1979, a narrow majority of votes were cast in favour of change, but this had no effect due to a requirement that the number voting Yes had to exceed 40% of the total electorate. No further constitutional reform was proposed until Labour returned to power in 1997, clear majorities expressed support for both a devolved Scottish Parliament and that Parliament having the power to vary the basic rate of income tax. The Scotland Act 1998 established the new Scottish Parliament, first elected on 6 May 1999, a commitment to hold a referendum in 2010 was part of the SNPs election manifesto when it contested the 2007 Scottish Parliament election. As a result of election, the SNP became the largest party in the Scottish Parliament and formed a minority government led by the First Minister. The SNP administration launched a National Conversation as an exercise in August 2007, part of which included a draft referendum bill. After this, a paper for the proposed Referendum Bill was published
25.
Good Morning Scotland
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Good Morning Scotland is a Scottish breakfast radio news programme. It is broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland weekdays from 06,00 to 09,00, established in 1973, it is the longest-running radio show broadcast from Scotland and remains one of the most popular. Weekend editions, broadcast between 08,00 and 10,00, were introduced in early 2015, the programme was launched on the morning of 31 December 1973 with presenters David Findlay and John Milne. Prior to GMS, radio producers Geoff Cameron and Allan Muirhead were responsible for producing a daily opt-out from Today and its popularity led to the subsequent Good Morning Scotland. In 1980, to celebrate 50 years of broadcasting from the BBCs Edinburgh studios at Queen Street, Good Morning Scotland was simulcast on BBC One Scotland, in 2006 there some major changes to the show, including a change of presenters with Gary Robertson brought in. The programme had an estimated 455,000 listeners in 2008, the first half of the programme is also broadcast on BBC Scotlands Gaelic-language station, BBC Radio nan Gàidheal before its Gaelic counterpart Aithris Na Maidne begins at 07,30. Listeners in Orkney opt-out between 07,30 and 08,00 for Around Orkney, a 30-minute magazine programme with features, local news and weather, diary, jobspot, mart report and postbag. There are also local news opt-outs from Selkirk for the Scottish Borders, Dumfries for the South West, Aberdeen for the North East, presented by Graham Stewart, it usually debated one of the biggest stories running on Good Morning Scotland. It was previously only 40 minutes long but was extended in 2008 to an hour, the programme was axed in 2010 and replaced with a phone-in, Call Kaye, presented by Kaye Adams. The last edition of Morning Extra aired on 26 February, Good Morning Scotland at BBC Programmes
26.
United Kingdom general election, 2015
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The United Kingdom general election of 2015 on 7 May 2015 elected the 56th Parliament of the United Kingdom. Each of the 650 parliamentary constituencies elected one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons and it was the first general election at the end of a fixed-term Parliament. Local elections took place in most of England on the same day, polls and commentators had predicted the outcome would be too close to call and would result in a second hung parliament similar to the 2010 election. Opinion polls were eventually proven to have underestimated the Conservative vote as they won an outright majority. Having governed in coalition with the Liberal Democrats since 2010, the Conservatives won 330 seats and 36. 9% of the vote, the British Polling Council began an inquiry into the substantial variance between opinion polls and the actual result. The Labour Party, led by Ed Miliband, saw an increase in its vote share to 30. 4%. This was its lowest seat tally since the 1987 election, senior Labour shadow cabinet members, notably Ed Balls, Douglas Alexander, and Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy, were defeated. The UK Independence Party came third in terms of votes with 12. 6%, the Green Party won its highest-ever share of the vote with 3. 8%, and held Brighton Pavilion with an increased majority, though did not win any additional seats. Labours Miliband and Murphy resigned, as did Clegg, Farage claimed that his resignation was rejected by his party, and he remained in post. In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionist Party returned to the Commons with two MPs after an absence, while the Alliance Party lost its only seat despite an increase in total vote share. That renegotiation was followed by an in-out referendum a year later in June 2016, as a result, it is likely that this was the last general election to be held in the UK during its membership of the EU. There were local elections on the day in most of England. No other elections were scheduled to take place in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, all British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens over the age of 18 on the date of the election were permitted to vote. In general elections, voting takes place in all constituencies of the United Kingdom to elect members of parliament to seats in the House of Commons. Each parliamentary constituency of the United Kingdom elects one MP to the House of Commons using the first-past-the-post system, if one party obtains a majority of seats, then that party is entitled to form the Government. If the election results in no party having a majority. In this case, the options for forming the Government are either a minority government or a coalition government, the next boundary review is now set to take place in 2018, thus the 2015 general election was contested using the same constituencies and boundaries as in 2010. Of the 650 constituencies,533 are in England,59 in Scotland,40 in Wales and 18 in Northern Ireland, in addition, the 2011 Act mandated a referendum in 2011 on changing from the current first-past-the-post system to an alternative vote system for elections to the Commons
27.
The World at One
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The World at One, or WATO for short, is BBC Radio 4s long-running lunchtime news and current affairs programme, which is currently broadcast from 1.00 pm to 1.45 pm from Monday to Friday. The programme describes itself as Britains leading political programme, with a reputation for rigorous and original investigation, it is required listening in Westminster. Because of the programmes nature it is often agenda setting, with leading the headlines from lunchtime through to early evening. From 7 November 2011, the programme was extended in length to 45 minutes and this has meant the thirty-minute programmes at one time broadcast immediately after The World at One have now found a new time slot on the Radio 4 schedule. A fifteen-minute programme now fills the gap till 2 pm, the programme began on 4 October 1965 on the Home Service and its launch is considered to have been key in making news programmes appointment to listen broadcasting. As the then head of BBC Radio, Jenny Abramsky, noted, the programme had attracted criticism as it seemed to blend together news and current affairs, and break down the distinction made between reporting and interpretation. In his history of news and current affairs, Public Issue Radio, Hugh Chignell pointed out that The World at One was a highly successful. That vulgarity was personified by its first presenter, William Hardcastle, Hardcastle did not want to do the programme every day so Andrew Boyle suggested he share the job with William Davis another presenter whose career did not wholly depend on the BBC. The programme was a success from the start, over two million people were tuning in by the end of 1965, and would eventually reach four million by 1975. In 1998, the then Controller of Radio 4, James Boyle, the World at One is still known for its robust journalism. After a short introduction to the programme, there is a news bulletin, followed by serious political interviews. Its audience reach has risen recently to approximately 3.3 million listeners, Robin Day, James Naughtie and Nick Clarke are amongst the list of previous presenters of the programme. From late 2005, Shaun Ley presented the show while Clarke recovered from an operation to remove a cancer in his left leg, Clarke returned part-time in August 2006. Other stand-in presenters have included Brian Hanrahan, Guto Harri, Laura Trevelyan, Stephen Sackur, Carolyn Quinn, James Robbins, the current main presenter is Martha Kearney - who presents from Monday to Thursday, with Ley usually in the chair on Friday. In 2012 and 2014 the programme was nominated as one of the best news, the previous weeks programmes can be listened to again using the BBC iPlayer or downloaded as a podcast. William Hardcastle William Davis Brian Widlake David Jessel Sir Robin Day James Naughtie Nick Clarke Martha Kearney Shaun Ley Today – Radio 4s early morning stablemate to The World at One, PM – Radio 4s early evening stablemate to The World at One. The World Tonight – Radio 4s late evening stablemate to The World at One, the World This Weekend - Radio 4s Sunday stablemate to The World at One. Chignell, Hugh Public Issue Radio Palgrave MacMillan pp 85-87 ISBN 978-0-230-24739-0 The World at One at BBC Programmes The Radio Academy Hall of Fame - William Hardcastle
28.
Electoral fraud
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Electoral fraud, election manipulation, or vote rigging is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about a result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates. What constitutes electoral fraud under law varies from country to country, many kinds of election fraud are outlawed in electoral legislation, but others are in violation of general laws, such as those banning assault, harassment or libel. Show elections, in only one candidate can win, are sometimes classified as electoral fraud. In national elections, successful electoral fraud can have the effect of a coup détat or corruption of democracy, in a narrow election, a small amount of fraud may be enough to change the result. Even if the outcome is not affected, revelation of fraud can have an effect, if not punished. A list of threats to voting systems, or electoral fraud methods considered as sabotage, is kept by the National Institute of Standards, Electoral fraud can occur in advance of voting if the composition of the electorate is altered. The legality of this type of manipulation varies across jurisdictions, deliberate manipulation of election outcomes is widely considered a violation of the principles of democracy. In many cases it is possible for authorities to control the composition of an electorate in order to produce a foregone result. One way of doing this is to move a number of voters into the electorate prior to an election. Many countries prevent this with rules stipulating that a voter must have lived in a district for a minimum period in order to be eligible to vote there. However, such laws can also be used for demographic manipulation as they tend to disenfranchise those with no fixed address, such as the homeless, travelers, Roma, students, another strategy is to permanently move people into an electoral district, usually through public housing. One notable example of this occurred in the City of Westminster in England under Shirley Porter, immigration law may also be used to manipulate electoral demography. A method of manipulating primary contests and other elections of party leaders is related to this, people who support one party may temporarily join another party in order to elect a weak candidate for that partys leadership. The goal ultimately is defeat of the candidate in the general election by the leader of the party that the voter truly supports. The composition of an electorate may also be altered by disenfranchising some classes of people, from the turn of the century into the late 1960s, most African Americans in the southern states of the former Confederacy were disenfranchised by such measures. Compared to most European nations, many states in the US have much more severe laws that prevent convicted felons who have served their sentences from ever voting again, groups may also be disenfranchised by rules which make it impractical or impossible for them to cast a vote. Communities may also be effectively disenfranchised if polling places are situated in areas perceived by voters as unsafe, in some cases voters may be invalidly disenfranchised, which is true electoral fraud
29.
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
30.
Richard Harries, Baron Harries of Pentregarth
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Richard Douglas Harries, Baron Harries of Pentregarth FRSL is a retired bishop of the Church of England and former British Army officer. He was the Bishop of Oxford from 1987 to 2006, from 2008 until 2012 he was the Gresham Professor of Divinity. Harries was educated at Wellington College and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Corps of Signals on 16 December 1955 and was promoted to lieutenant two years later. He left the active Regular Army on 12 September 1958, and went up to Selwyn College, Cambridge, Harries was made deacon in 1963, becoming assistant curate of Hampstead St John in the Diocese of London. He was ordained priest the year and later combined his ministry at St Johns with the chaplaincy of the former Westfield College. He became a Tutor at Wells Theological College and was then Warden of the new Salisbury and he returned to parish ministry as Vicar of All Saints, Fulham and returned to academia as Dean of Kings College London. In 1999 he was appointed to the Royal Commission investigating a possible reorganisation of the House of Lords He retired on 2 June 2006, on 4 August 2006, he was appointed to the Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved for a period of five years. In 1986 Harries took up an appointment as Consultant to the Archbishops of Canterbury. As Bishop of Oxford he became a member of the Oxford Abrahamic Group, bringing together Christian, Muslim. He chaired the Council of Christians and Jews from 1992 until 2001, in 1988 he was president of the Johnson Society, delivering a Presidential Address on Johnson – A Church of England Saint. He was Chairman of the Church of England Board for Social Responsibility and he was also a member of the Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords. A regular contributor to the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, including appearances on Thought for the Day. He is a patron of POWER International a charity working with disabled people in poor countries. Harries was appointed a Fellow of Kings College London in 1983, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1996, and an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2004. In 1994 he became a Doctor of Divinity honoris causa of the University of London and he was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics 2002–2008. In 2002 he was Visiting Professor at Liverpool Hope University College, in 2008 he replaced Keith Ward as the Gresham Professor of Divinity. Harries insisted that there was no conflict between science and religion and he was critical of both outspoken atheists and creationists, From time to time, I see American creationist magazines with articles by people claiming to have doctorates in science. Judging religion only on the basis of its least credible examples is as though I judged all science on the basis of creationist science, Harries currently serves as an Advisory Steering Group Member for the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life
31.
University of Oxford
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The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris, after disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two ancient universities are frequently referred to as Oxbridge. The university is made up of a variety of institutions, including 38 constituent colleges, All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. Being a city university, it not have a main campus, instead, its buildings. Oxford is the home of the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the worlds oldest and most prestigious scholarships, the university operates the worlds oldest university museum, as well as the largest university press in the world and the largest academic library system in Britain. Oxford has educated many notable alumni, including 28 Nobel laureates,27 Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, the University of Oxford has no known foundation date. Teaching at Oxford existed in form as early as 1096. It grew quickly in 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris, the historian Gerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188 and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the university had the title of chancellor from at least 1201, the university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of King Henry III. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled from the violence to Cambridge, the students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two nations, representing the North and the South. In later centuries, geographical origins continued to many students affiliations when membership of a college or hall became customary in Oxford. At about the time, private benefactors established colleges as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders were William of Durham, who in 1249 endowed University College, thereafter, an increasing number of students lived in colleges rather than in halls and religious houses. In 1333–34, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new university at Stamford, Lincolnshire was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King Edward III. Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London, thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, the new learning of the Renaissance greatly influenced Oxford from the late 15th century onwards. Among university scholars of the period were William Grocyn, who contributed to the revival of Greek language studies, and John Colet, the noted biblical scholar. With the English Reformation and the breaking of communion with the Roman Catholic Church, recusant scholars from Oxford fled to continental Europe, as a centre of learning and scholarship, Oxfords reputation declined in the Age of Enlightenment, enrolments fell and teaching was neglected
32.
Richard Dawkins
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Clinton Richard Dawkins FRS FRSL is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author. He is a fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxfords Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, in 2006, he founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Dawkins is an atheist, and is known for his criticism of creationism. In The Blind Watchmaker, he argues against the watchmaker analogy, instead, he describes evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker in that reproduction, mutation, and selection are unguided by any designer. In The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and he opposes the teaching of creationism in schools. Dawkins was born in Nairobi, then in British Kenya, on 26 March 1941 and he is the son of Jean Mary Vyvyan and Clinton John Dawkins, who was an agricultural civil servant in the British Colonial Service in Nyasaland. His father was called up into the Kings African Rifles during World War II and returned to England in 1949 and his father had inherited a country estate, Over Norton Park in Oxfordshire, which he farmed commercially. Dawkins considers himself English and lives in Oxford, England, both his parents were interested in natural sciences, and they answered Dawkinss questions in scientific terms. Dawkins describes his childhood as a normal Anglican upbringing, and that left me with nothing. From 1954 to 1959 Dawkins attended Oundle School in Northamptonshire, an English public school with a distinct Church of England flavour, while at Oundle Dawkins read Bertrand Russells Why I Am Not a Christian for the first time. He studied zoology at Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1962, while there and he continued as a research student under Tinbergens supervision, receiving his MA and DPhil degrees by 1966, and remained a research assistant for another year. Tinbergen was a pioneer in the study of behaviour, particularly in the areas of instinct, learning and choice. From 1967 to 1969, he was an assistant professor of zoology at the University of California, during this period, the students and faculty at UC Berkeley were largely opposed to the ongoing Vietnam War, and Dawkins became involved in the anti-war demonstrations and activities. He returned to the University of Oxford in 1970 as a lecturer, in 1990, he became a reader in zoology. He held that professorship from 1995 until 2008, since 1970, he has been a fellow of New College, Oxford and he is now an emeritus fellow. In 1991, he gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children on Growing Up in the Universe and he has also edited several journals, and has acted as editorial advisor to the Encarta Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia of Evolution. He is listed as an editor and a columnist of the Council for Secular Humanisms Free Inquiry magazine
33.
Secular humanism
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Secular humanism posits that human beings are capable of being ethical and moral without religion or a god. It does not, however, assume that humans are inherently evil or innately good. Rather, the humanist life stance emphasizes the unique responsibility facing humanity, along with this, an essential part of secular humanism is a continually adapting search for truth, primarily through science and philosophy. Many secular humanists derive their moral codes from a philosophy of utilitarianism, ethical naturalism, or evolutionary ethics, the Happy Human is the official symbol of the IHEU as well as being regarded as a universally recognised symbol for those who call themselves Humanists. Secular humanist organizations are found in all parts of the world and those who call themselves humanists are estimated to number between four and five million people worldwide. The meaning of the phrase secular humanism has evolved over time, the phrase has been used since at least the 1930s, and in 1943, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, was reported as warning that the Christian tradition. Was in danger of being undermined by a Secular Humanism which hoped to retain Christian values without Christian faith, the release in 1980 of A Secular Humanist Declaration by the newly formed Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism gave secular humanism an organisational identity within the United States. However, many adherents of the approach reject the use of the secular as obfuscating and confusing. All too often secular humanism is reduced to a sterile outlook consisting of more than secularism slightly broadened by academic ethics. This kind of hyphenated humanism easily becomes more about the adjective than its referent, adherents of this view, including the International Humanist and Ethical Union and the American Humanist Association, consider that the unmodified but capitalised word Humanism should be used. The endorsement by the IHEU of the capitalization of the word Humanism, the American Humanist Association began to adopt this view in 1973, and the IHEU formally endorsed the position in 1989. In 2002 the IHEU General Assembly unanimously adopted the Amsterdam Declaration and this declaration makes exclusive use of capitalized Humanist and Humanism, which is consistent with IHEUs general practice and recommendations for promoting a unified Humanist identity. To further promote Humanist identity, these words are also free of any adjectives, such usage is not universal among IHEU member organizations, though most of them do observe these conventions. Historical use of the humanism, is related to the writings of pre-Socratic philosophers. These writings were lost to European societies until Renaissance scholars rediscovered them through Muslim sources, in 1851 George Holyoake coined the term secularism to describe a form of opinion which concerns itself only with questions, the issues of which can be tested by the experience of this life. The modern secular movement coalesced around Holyoake, Charles Bradlaugh and their intellectual circle, the first secular society, the Leicester Secular Society, dates from 1851. Similar regional societies came together to form the National Secular Society in 1866, holyoakes secularism was strongly influenced by Auguste Comte, the founder of positivism and of modern sociology. Comte believed human history would progress in a law of three stages from a phase, to the metaphysical, toward a fully rational positivist society
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