__NOTOC__ Year 1197 (MCXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

Amalric II succeeds Henry II of Champagne as King of Jerusalem.

Theobald III becomes Count of Champagne.

Arbroath Abbey is consecrated, and dedicated to St. Thomas Becket.

Kaloyan becomes Tsar of Bulgaria.

Corfu is occupied by the Genoese.

Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, negotiates a peace with Wales.

North Crawley is split into Great Crawley and Little Crawley.

Philip of Swabia marries Irene Angelina, daughter of Byzantine emperor Isaac II.

The Danes attack Estonia.

Genghis Khan defeats the Jurkins. Mukhali's father gives him and his brother to Genghis Khan as personal hereditary slaves.

Births

October 22—Emperor Juntoku of Japan (d. 1242)

Amadeus IV of Savoy (d. 1253)

Raymond VII of Toulouse (d. 1249)

Deaths

January—William Longchamp, Lord Chancellor of England and bishop

April 28—Rhys ap Gruffydd, Welsh ruler (b. 1132)

September 10—Henry II of Champagne (b. 1166)

September 29—Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1165)

Marguerite of France, daughter of Louis VII of France (b. 1158)

Bgcolour	silver
Name	Tim Pollard
Imagesize	200px
Caption	as Robin Hood
Birthdate	1964
Birth place	Nottingham, England
| height	6' 1" (1.85 m)
Notable roles	Robin Hood in the Robin Hood Pageant at Nottingham Castle (1999-)

Tim Pollard (23 February 1964) is an English actor and entertainer who has been appearing and performing as Robin Hood in and around his home town of Nottingham England for over 16 years. He lives in the legendary city and represents the town nationally and internationally.

Early years

Before his career as an actor, Pollard worked in the roleplaying and wargaming industry for many years as well as being a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. During this time, he became involved in Viking battle re-enactment and the first live-roleplaying company established in the UK, Treasure Trap (at Peckforton Castle, where he still performs at medieval banquets), as well as performing with a number of local rock bands. He also studied medieval Japanese and 19th century South African history at SOAS, the prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

Robin Hood

As Nottingham's 'official' Robin Hood, Tim Pollard has represented the County and City of Nottingham nationally and internationally since 1996 - for example appearing in Chicago, Houston, Toronto and several times in New York and Hameln, Germany (home of the famous Pied Piper with whom he keeps contact through their brotherhood “The Legion of Legends”). He also performs regularly at Nottingham Castle's annual Robin Hood pageant and at medieval banquets, charity events and other shows throughout the Midlands.

Television

Tim Pollard has also choreographed fight scenes or played roles in Blue Peter, The Oxford Road Show, Blind Date, The Big Breakfast, Moll Flanders and Common as Muck

DVD/Music

In 1985 he was a featured part of the stage show performing with psychedelic prog-rock band Hawkwind on their Chronicle of the Black Sword tour, and can be seen on the live concert DVD The Chronicle of the Black Sword.

Gaming and role-playing

Pollard has also worked full and part time in the gaming business since 1978. He was also employed in design at Games Workshop and Citadel Miniatures as a writer, editor, artist and art manager. He edited and produced the initial Flintloque line of table-top Napoleonic fantasy games for Alternative Armies, as well as co-writing the entry for Shaka Zulu in Steve Jackson Games “GURPS Who's Who 1.” He also contributed to the PC first-person action game No-One Lives Forever.

External links

Nottingham city website

Legion of Legends

Robin Hood Photos

Digital Paparazzi

Moll Flanders at www.imdb.com

.

Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:British actors Category:Game artists Category:Interactive fiction writers

Name	Kenny MacAskill
Honorific-suffix	MSP
Imagesize	200px
Office	Cabinet Secretary for Justice
Term start	17 May 2007
Firstminister	Alex Salmond
Predecessor	Cathy Jamieson(as Minister for Justice)
Successor	Incumbent
Constituency mp2	Edinburgh East and MusselburghMember for Lothians 1999-2007
Parliament2	Scottish
Majority2	1,382 (4.6%)
Term start2	3 May 2007
Predecessor2	Susan Deacon
Birth date	April 28, 1958
Birth place	Edinburgh
Nationality	Scottish
Party	Scottish National Party
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh
Occupation	Lawyer
Website	www.kennymacaskill.co.uk

Kenneth "Kenny" Wright MacAskill (born 28 April 1958) is a Scottish National Party politician, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh since 2007.

Background and family life

MacAskill was born in Edinburgh and was educated at Linlithgow Academy before studying law at the University of Edinburgh. After completing his training at a firm in Glasgow, he set up Erskine MacAskill. He is married with two sons.

Early political career

He came to prominence inside the SNP through his activities in the left wing 79 Group and became a party office bearer. In the 1980s he led the "Can't Pay, Won't Pay" campaign in opposition to the Poll Tax. It was widely known that he often disagreed politically with Alex Salmond, leader of the SNP through the 1990s, and he was at one stage viewed as belonging to the SNP Fundamentalist camp, being perceived to be allied to figures such as Jim Sillars and Alex Neil within the party.

After MacAskill became on MSP in 1999 upon the establishment of the Scottish Parliament as a regional list member for the Lothians he moderated his political position, seeing the development of the Scottish Parliament as the most achievable route for Scotland to become an independent nation state. In this respect he was regarded as having adopted a gradualist approach to Scottish independence in place of his previous fundamentalist position. He was one of former SNP leader John Swinney's closest supporters.

In 1999 MacAskill was detained in London before the Euro 2000 second leg play-off match between Scotland and England on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly. As he was not charged with any crime the incident did not affect his position within the SNP and he won re-election at the 2003 election.

In 2004, after John Swinney stood down as SNP party leader, Kenny MacAskill backed the joint leadership ticket of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. He had initially intended to stand for deputy leader himself on a joint ticket with Nicola Sturgeon, who would have sought the leadership. He gave way when Salmond reconsidered his earlier decision not to seek re-election to the leadership. Upon their election as leader and deputy leader respectively MacAskill was selected to be the SNP's deputy leader in the Scottish Parliament, making him the shadow Deputy First Minister.

MacAskill authored a book, 'Building a Nation - Post Devolution Nationalism in Scotland', which was launched at the SNP's 2004 annual conference in Inverness. He has since edited another book 'Agenda for a New Scotland - Visions of Scotland 2020' and has co-authored 'Global Scots - Voices From Afar' with former First Minister Henry McLeish.

Justice Secretary

For the 2007 Scottish Parliament election MacAskill was top of the SNP's party list for the Lothians region. He stood in the Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency, winning that seat from the Scottish Labour Party with a 13.3% swing to give a majority of 1,382. This was the first time the SNP had ever won a parliamentary seat in Edinburgh. After the SNP's victory at the 2007 Scottish Parliament Election, MacAskill became the Cabinet Secretary for Justice.

One of MacAskill's first acts as a cabinet secretary was to lift the ban on alcohol sales at international rugby union games held at Murrayfield Stadium.

MacAskill also insisted that the 2007 terror attack on Glasgow Airport was not committed by 'home-grown' terrorists in that the suspects were not "born or bred" in Scotland but had merely lived in the country for a "period of time".

Pan Am Flight 103

On 20 August 2009, MacAskill authorised the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who had been convicted of the bomb attack on Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people. Megrahi had served 8½ years of a life sentence, but doctors certified that he had developed prostate cancer and had "only a very short period of time to live". The Justice Secretary has discretionary authority to order such a release, and MacAskill has taken sole responsibility for the decision.

In the United States, where 180 of the 270 victims came from, the decision met with broad hostility. Political figures including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke out against it, and families of the victims expressed indignation over the decision. FBI director Robert Mueller, who had been a lead investigator in the 1988 bombing, wrote a highly critical open letter to MacAskill. Former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish was critical of Mueller's attack on the decision.

In Britain, reaction was divided. Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray, former First Minister Jack McConnell, and former Scottish Office minister Brian Wilson criticized the decision, while Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, former Labour MP Tam Dalyell and former British ambassador to Libya Richard Dalton publicly supported it. Ian Galloway and Mario Conti, representatives of the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church respectively, also spoke in favour of the release.

John Mosey, a priest who lost a daughter on Pan Am Flight 103, expressed his disappointment that halting Megrahi’s appeal before it went to court meant that the public would never hear "this important evidence — the six separate grounds for appeal that the SCCRC felt were important enough to put forward, that could show that there’s been a miscarriage of justice." Saif Gadaffi reiterated his belief in Megrahi's innocence commenting that the Justice Secretary had "made the right decision" and that history would prove this to be the case. A letter in support of MacAskill's decision was sent to the Scottish Government on behalf of former South African President Nelson Mandela.

The Scottish Parliament was recalled from its summer break, for the third time since its creation, to receive a statement from and question MacAskill. The opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament passed amendments criticising the decision and the way it was made, but no motions of confidence in MacAskill or the Scottish Government were tabled.

References

External links

Kenny MacAskill MSP official site

Kenny MacAskill MSP Scottish Parliament webpage

Kenny MacAskill MSP biography at SNP website

Kenny MacAskill MSP Scottish Government biography

An independent Scotland hinges on its economy Kenny MacAskill's article in The Scotsman 2 June 2005

Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:People from Edinburgh Category:People from West Lothian Category:Members of the Scottish Parliament 1999–2003 Category:Members of the Scottish Parliament 2003–2007 Category:Members of the Scottish Parliament 2007– Category:Scottish National Party MSPs Category:Scottish solicitors Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:Ministers of the Scottish Government Category:Alumni of Linlithgow Academy