City of Worcester
—  City & Non-metropolitan district  —
Coat of arms of City of Worcester Coat of arms
City of Worcester shown within Worcestershire
Coordinates: 52°11′28″N 2°13′20″W / 52.19123°N 2.22231°W / 52.19123; -2.22231
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	West Midlands
Non-metropolitan county	Worcestershire
Status	Non-metropolitan district, City
Admin HQ	Worcester
Incorporated
Government
• Type	Non-metropolitan district council
• Borough council	Worcester City Council (TBA (council NOC))
• Mayor	Dr. David Tibbutt
• MPs	Robin Walker (Conservative)
Area
• Total	12.85 sq mi (33.28 km2)
Area rank	305th (of 326)
Population (2010 est.)
• Total	94,800
• Rank	237th (of 326)
• Density	7,400/sq mi (2,800/km2)
Time zone	GMT (UTC0)
• Summer (DST)	BST (UTC+1)
Postcodes	WR1-5
Area code(s)	01905
ONS code	47UE
OS grid reference	SO849548
Website	www.worcester.gov.uk

Worcester skyline from the River Severn

The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, (ⁱ/ˈwʊstər/ WUUS-tər), is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Birmingham and 29 miles (47 km) north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the middle of the city, overlooked by the twelfth-century Worcester Cathedral. The site of the final battle of the Civil War, Worcester was where Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army defeated King Charles II's Cavaliers, resulting in the English Interregnum, the ten-year period during which England and Wales became a republic. Worcester was the home of Royal Worcester Porcelain and the birthplace of the composer Sir Edward Elgar. It houses the Lea and Perrins factory where the traditional Worcestershire Sauce is made, and is home to one of the UK's fastest growing universities, the University of Worcester.

History[link]

Occupation of the site of Worcester can be dated back to Neolithic times, a village surrounded by defensive ramparts having been founded on the eastern bank of the River Severn in around 400 BC. The position, which commanded a ford on the river, was used in the first century by the Romans to establish what may at first have been a fort on the military route from Glevum (Gloucester) to Viroconium (Wroxeter) but which soon developed – as the frontier of the empire was pushed westwards – into an industrial town with its own pottery kilns and iron-smelting plants.

A map of Worcester in 1806

Tudor buildings in Friar Street

Tudor building with jettied upper storey in New Street.

Roman Worcester (which may have been the Vertis mentioned in the seventh century Ravenna Cosmography) was a thriving trading and manufacturing centre for some three hundred years, though by the time of the Roman withdrawal from Britain in 407 it had dwindled considerably in size and is not recorded again until the mid-seventh century when documents mention the Anglo-Saxon settlement Weorgoran ceaster (settlement of the people by the winding river).^[1] The fact that Worcester was chosen at this time – in preference to both the much larger Gloucester and the royal centre of Winchcombe – to be the Episcopal See of a new diocese covering the area suggests that there may have been a well established, and powerful, Christian community living on the site when it fell into English hands.

The town was almost destroyed in 1041 after a rebellion against the punitive taxation of Harthacanute. The town was attacked several times (in 1139, 1150 and 1151) during "The Anarchy", i.e. civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I. This is the background to the well-researched historical novel The Virgin in the Ice, part of Ellis Peters' "Cadfael" series, which begins with the words:

"It was early in November of 1139 that the tide of civil war, lately so sluggish and inactive, rose suddenly to wash over the city of Worcester, wash away half of its lifestock, property and women, and send all those of its inhabitants who could get away in time scurrying for their lives northwards away from the marauders". (These are mentioned as having arrived from Gloucester, leaving a long lasting legacy of bitterness between the two cities.)

By late medieval times the population had grown to around 10,000 as the manufacture of cloth started to become a large local industry. The town was designated a county corporate, giving it autonomy from local government.

Worcester was the site of the Battle of Worcester (3 September 1651), when Charles II attempted to forcefully regain the crown, in the fields a little to the west and south of the city, near the village of Powick. However, Charles II was defeated and returned to his headquarters in what is now known as King Charles house in the Cornmarket, before fleeing in disguise to Boscobel House in Shropshire from where he eventually escaped to France. Worcester was one of the cities loyal to the King in that war, for which it was given the epithet "Fidelis Civitas" ("The Faithful City"). This motto has been incorporated into the city's coat of arms.^[2]

In 1670, the River Severn broke its banks and the subsequent flood was the worst ever seen by Worcester. A brass plate can be found on a wall on the path to the cathedral by the path along the river showing how high this flood went, and other flood heights of more recent times are also shown in stone bricks. The closest flood height to what is known as The Flood of 1670 was when the Severn flooded in the torrential rains of July 2007.

The Royal Worcester Porcelain Company factory was founded by Dr John Wall in 1751, although it no longer produces goods. A handful of decorators are still employed at the factory and the Museum is still open.

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Worcester was a major centre for glove making, employing nearly half the glovers in England at its peak (over 30,000 people).^[3] In 1815 the Worcester and Birmingham Canal opened, allowing Worcester goods to be transported to a larger conurbation.

The British Medical Association (BMA) was founded in the Board Room of the old Worcester Royal Infirmary building in Castle Street in 1832.^[4] While most of the Royal Infirmary has now been demolished to make way for the University of Worcester's new city campus, the original Georgian building has been preserved.^[5] There are plans to reopen the building as a medical museum.^[6]

During World War II, the city was chosen to be the seat of an evacuated government in case of mass German invasion. The War Cabinet, along with Winston Churchill and some 16.000 state workers, would have moved to Hindlip Hall (now part of the complex forming the Headquarters of West Mercia Police), 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Worcester, and Parliament would have temporarily seated in Stratford-upon-Avon. The former RAF station RAF Worcester was located east of Northwick.

In the 1950s and 1960s large areas of the medieval centre of Worcester were demolished and rebuilt as a result of decisions by town planners. There is still a significant area of medieval Worcester remaining, but it is a small fraction of what was present before the redevelopments.

The current city boundaries date from 1974, when the Local Government Act 1972 transferred the parishes of Warndon and St. Peter the Great County into the city.

Governance[link]

The Conservatives had a majority on the council from 2003 to 2007, when they lost a by-election to Labour meaning the council had no overall control.^[7] The Conservatives remained with the most seats overall with 17 out of 35 seats after the 2008 election.^[8] Worcester has one member of Parliament, Robin Walker of the Conservative Party, who represents the Worcester constituency as of the May 2010 general election.^[9]

The County of Worcestershire's local government arrangement is formed of a non-metropolitan county (Worcestershire County Council) and six non-metropolitan districts, with Worcester City Council being the district for most of Worcester, with a small area of the St. Peters suburb actually falling within neighbouring Wychavon District. The Worcester City Council area includes two parish councils, these being Warndon Parish Council and St Peter the Great Parish Council.

Geography[link]

Notable suburbs in Worcester include Barbourne, Blackpole, Cherry Orchard, Claines, Diglis, Northwick, Red Hill, Ronkswood, St Peter the Great (also simply known as St Peters), Tolladine, Warndon and Warndon Villages (which was once the largest housing development in the Country when the area was being constructed in the late 1980s/very early 1990s). Most of Worcester is on the eastern side of the River Severn; Henwick, Lower Wick, St. John's and Dines Green are on the western side.

Climate[link]

Worcester enjoys a temperate climate with warm summers and mild winters generally. However, the city can experience more extreme weather and flooding is often a problem.^[10] During the winters of 2009-10 and 2010-11 the city experienced prolonged periods of sub-freezing temperatures and heavy snowfalls. In December 2010 the temperature dropped to −18 °C (−0.4 °F) in the city and in nearby Pershore the temperature fell to −19.5 °C (−3.1 °F).^[11] The Severn and the Teme partially froze over in Worcester during this cold snap. In contrast, Worcester recorded 37 °C (98.6 °F) on 3 August 1990.^[12]

Skyline of Worcester viewed from Worcester Cathedral

Demography and religion[link]

The 2001 census^[14] recorded Worcester's population at 93,353. About 96.5% of Worcester's population was white; of which 94.2% were White British,^[15] greater than the national average.^[16] The largest religious group are Christians, who made up 77% of the city's population.^[17] People who reported having no religion or who did not state their religion made up 21% of the city's population. Other religions totaled less than 2% of the population. Ethnic minorities include people of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Italian and Polish origin, with the largest single minority group being British Pakistanis, numbering around 1,200, approximately 1.3% of Worcester's population.^[17] This has led to Worcester containing a small but diverse range of religious groups; as well as the commanding Worcester Cathedral (Church of England), there are also Catholic and Baptist churches, a large centre for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), an Islamic mosque, and a number of smaller interest groups regarding Eastern Religions such as Buddhism and the Hare Krishnas.^[18]

Worcester is the seat of a Church of England bishop. His official signature is his Christian name followed by Wigorn, which is also occasionally used as an abbreviation for the name of the county.

Economy[link]

The city of Worcester, located on the River Severn and with transport links to Birmingham and other parts of the Midlands through the vast canal network, became an important centre for many light industries. The late-Victorian period saw the growth of ironfounders, like Heenan & Froude, Hardy & Padmore and McKenzie & Holland.

Glove industry[link]

One of the flourishing industries of Worcester was glove making. Worcester's Gloving industry peaked between 1790 to 1820 when about 30,000 where employed by 150 companies. At this time nearly half of the Glove manufacturers of Britain were located in Worcestershire.

In the 19th century the industry declined because import taxes on foreign competitors, mainly from France, were greatly reduced. By the middle of the 20th century, only a few Worcester gloving companies survived since gloves became less fashionable and free trade allowed in cheaper imports from the Far East.
Nevertheless at least 3 large glove manufacturing companies still survived until the late 20th century: Dent Allcroft, Fownes and Milore. Queen Elizabeth II's coronation gloves were designed by Emil Rich and manufactured in the Worcester based Milore factory.^[19][20]

Manufacturing[link]

The inter-war years saw the rapid growth of engineering, producing machine tools James Archdale, H.W. Ward, castings for the motor industry Worcester Windshields and Casements, mining machinery Mining Engineering Company (MECO) which later became part of Joy Mining Machinery and open-top cans Williamsons, though G H Williamson and Sons had become part of the Metal Box Co in 1930. Later the company became Carnaud Metal Box PLC.

Worcester Porcelain operated in Worcester until 2008 when the factory was closed down due to the recession. However, the site of Worcester Porcelain still houses the Worcester Porcelain Museum which is open daily to visitors.^[21]

One of Worcester's most famous products, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce is made and bottled in the Midland Road factory in Worcester, which has been the home of Lea & Perrins since 16 October 1897. Mr Lea and Mr Perrins originally met in a chemist's shop on the site of the now Debenhams store in the Crowngate Shopping Centre.

The surprising foundry heritage of the city is represented by Morganite Crucible^[22] at Norton which produces graphitic shaped products and cements for use in the modern industry.

The Kays^[23] mail order business was founded in Worcester in the 1880s and operated from numerous premises in the city^[24] until 2007. It was then bought out by Reality, owner of the Grattan catalogue. Kays' former warehouse building was knocked down in 2008. Worcester is the home of what is claimed to be the oldest newspaper in the world, Berrow's Worcester Journal, which traces its descent from a news-sheet that started publication in 1690. The city is also a major retail centre with several covered shopping centres that has most major chains represented as well as a host of independent shops and restaurants, particularly in Friar Street and New Street.

Retail trade[link]

Worcester’s main shopping centre is the High Street, home to the stores of major retail chains such as Marks & Spencer, Pandora (jewelry), House of Fraser, TK Maxx, Primark, Next, and Debenhams. Part of the High Street was modernised in 2005 amid much controversy, many comments were reported in the Worcester News. Many of the issues focussing on the felling of long-standing trees, the duration of the works (caused by the weather and an archaeological find) and the removal of flagstones outside the city’s eighteenth century Guildhall. The other main thoroughfares are The Shambles and Broad Street, while The Cross (and its immediate surrounding area) is the city’s financial centre and location of the majority of Worcester’s main bank branches.

There are three main covered shopping centres in the City Centre, the CrownGate Shopping Centre, Cathedral Plaza and Reindeer Court. There are three retail parks, the Elgar and Blackpole Retail Parks, which are located in the Blackpole area of the city, and the Shrub Hill Retail Park which is located immediately outside the city centre.

Landmarks[link]

Worcester Cathedral at night.

Probably the most famous landmark in Worcester is its imposing Worcester Cathedral. The current building, formally named The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, was begun in 1084 while its crypt dates from the tenth century. The chapter house is the only circular one in the country while the cathedral also has the distinction of having the tomb of King John. Limited parts of the city wall still remain.

There are three main parks in Worcester, Cripplegate Park, Gheluvelt Park and Fort Royal Park, the latter being on one of the battles sites of the English Civil War. In addition, there is a large open area known as Pitchcroft to the North of the city centre on the east bank of the River Severn, which, apart from those days when it is being used for horse racing, is a public space.

Gheluvelt Park was opened as a memorial to commemorate the Worcestershire Regiment's 2nd Battalion after their part in the Battle of Gheluvelt, during World War I.

There are also two large woodlands in the city, Perry Wood, at twelve hectares, and Nunnery Wood, covering twenty-one hectares. Perry Wood is often said to be the place where Oliver Cromwell met and made a pact with the devil.^[25] Nunnery Wood is an integral part of the adjacent and popular Worcester Woods Country Park, itself next door to County Hall on the east side of the city.

Destinations from Worcester[link]

	Tenbury Wells, Ludlow	Droitwich, Kidderminster, Dudley, Wolverhampton	Bromsgrove, Redditch, Birmingham
	Leominster, Bromyard		Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick
		Worcester    East
	Hereford, Malvern	Tewkesbury, Upton-Upon-Severn, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Bristol	Banbury, Pershore, Evesham, Oxford

Transport[link]

Road[link]

Worcester Shrub Hill station.

The M5 Motorway runs north-south immediately to the east of the City, and is accessed by Junction 6 (Worcester North) and Junction 7 (Worcester South). This makes the city easily accessible by car to most parts of the country, including London which is only 120 miles (190 km) away (via the M5, M42 and M40).

Several A roads pass through the city. The A449 road runs south-west to Malvern and north to Kidderminster. The A44 runs south-east to Evesham and west to Leominster and Aberystwyth and crosses Worcester Bridge. The A38 trunk road runs south to Tewkesbury and Gloucester and north-north-east to Droitwich and Birmingham. The A4103 goes west-south-west to Hereford. The A422 heads east to Alcester, branching from the A44 a mile east of the M5. The city is encompassed by a partial ring road (A4440) which is formed, rather inconsistently, by single and dual carriageways. The A4440 road provides a second road bridge across the Severn (Carrington Bridge) just west of the A4440-A38 junction. Carrington Bridge links the A38 from Worcester towards Gloucester with the A449 linking Worcester with Malvern.

Rail[link]

Worcester locomotive depot 14 April 1959

Worcester has two stations, Worcester Foregate Street and Worcester Shrub Hill.

Worcester Foregate Street is located in the city centre, on Foregate Street. Although featuring two tracks Foregate Street consists of two bi-directional single working lines, one of which is the Birmingham to Worcester line while the other is the Cotswold Line, which Shrub Hill also serves.

Worcester Shrub Hill is located just outside the city centre on Shrub Hill Road. The station is on the Cotswold Line as well being a spur off the Birmingham to Worcester line. Unlike Foregate Street, Shrub Hill does not have single working lines. Being the much bigger of Worcester's stations, due to a large number of tracks and sidings, Shrub Hill is often used as a stabling point and a through route for freight trains.

Both stations frequently serve Birmingham via Droitwich Spa, then either lines being firstly via Kidderminster and Stourbridge mostly Birmingham Snow Hill (with some going this way to Birmingham New Street) and Birmingham Moor Street then onwards perhaps to Warwick or secondly via Bromsgrove and University and Birmingham New Street which trains are run by London Midland.

London is also served frequently by both stations via the Cotswold Line and, infrequently, via the Birmingham-Bristol/Gloucester-Swindon/Bristol-London lines. Train services to Oxford and London Paddington are operated by First Great Western.

Although connected to the Birmingham-Bristol 'Cross Country' mainline only two miles away, Worcester is not served by Inter City Cross Country services therefore making Worcestershire the only county in England where Inter City Cross Country services pass through but do not stop in during normal scheduled timetables. The proposed station, Worcestershire Parkway is expected to end this.^{[citation needed]}

Bus[link]

The main operator of bus services in and around the city is First Midlands, while Diamond Bus Company, trading as Red Diamond, and Worcestershire County Council, trading as Woosh, operate many other services. A few other smaller operators provide services in Worcester, most notably Astons (Veolia Transport) and Bromyard Omnibus Company. The terminus and interchange for many bus services in Worcester is Crowngate Bus Station located in the city centre.

Park and ride[link]

There are two park and ride sites serving Worcester, one located off the A38 in the Perdiswell area of the city and the other located at Worcester Rugby Football Club's Sixways Stadium next to junction 6 of the M5 motorway.

Perdiswell site[link]

A direct and limited stop bus service (W1), operated by Worcestershire County Council under the Woosh name, runs every ten minutes between the Perdiswell site and the cityity centre and vice versa, between 7am and 6:45pm Monday to Saturday.

The stops on the W1 service are at: • Perdiswell Park & Ride • St Stephen’s Church (Barbourne area) • St George’s Square (Barbourne area) • Little London for Royal Grammar School (Barbourne area) • Foregate Street Rail Station (city centre) • Worcester Bus Station (city centre)

Sixways Stadium site[link]

Two circular bus services (W2 and W3), operated by Worcestershire County Council under the Woosh name, link the Sixways site to the Worcestershire Royal Hospital and the government offices on Whittington Road, Monday to Friday.

Air[link]

Worcester's nearest major airport is Birmingham International which by train is via Birmingham New Street and then on a London Euston train for 10 minutes non-stop or a stopping train slightly longer.

Assumed to be approximately 45 minutes by road via the M5 and M42 motorways.

Education[link]

Worcester is home to the University of Worcester, which was awarded university status in 2005 by HM Privy Council. From 1997 to 2005 it was known as University College Worcester (UCW) and prior to 1997 it was known as Worcester College of Higher Education. From 2005 to 2010 it was the fastest growing university in the UK, more than doubling its student population. The University is also home to the independent Worcester Students Union institution. The city is also home to two colleges, Worcester Sixth Form College and Worcester College of Technology.

High schools[link]

The High schools located in the city are Bishop Perowne CofE College, Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College, Christopher Whitehead Language College, Tudor Grange Academy Worcester (on the site of the defunct Elgar High School), Nunnery Wood High School and New College Worcester which caters for blind and partially sighted students from the ages of 11 to 18.

Independent schools[link]

Worcester is also the seat of three independent schools. The Royal Grammar School, founded in 1291, and Alice Ottley School merged in 2007. The King's School, Worcester was re-founded in 1541 under King Henry VIII. Saint Mary's Convent School, now the only all-girls school in the city, is the third private school in the city. Other independent schools include the Independent Christian school, the River School in Fernhill Heath.

Sport[link]

Entrance to the Worcester King George's Field.

• Worcester Warriors, an Aviva Premiership Rugby Union team who play at Sixways Stadium.
• Worcestershire County Cricket Club whose home ground is New Road.
• Blue Square Conference South side Worcester City F.C. who play at St George's Lane.
• Worcester St Johns Cycling Club
• Worcester Wolves, a professional basketball team in the British Basketball League.
• Worcester Racecourse is on an open area known as "Pitchcroft" on the east bank of the River Severn.
• Worcester has King George's Field in memorial to King George V.
• Worcester Rowing Club which is situated near the city centre on the River Severn.
• University of Worcester Rowing Club which shares accommodation with Worcester Rowing Club.
• University of Birmingham Rowing Club
• Worcester Athletics Club who meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Nunnery Wood Sports Centre
• Worcester University Climbing and Mountaineering Club

Culture[link]

Festivals and shows[link]

Every three years Worcester becomes home to the Three Choirs Festival, which dates from the eighteenth century and is credited with being the oldest music festival in Europe. The location of the festival rotates each year between the Cathedral Cities of the Three Counties, Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester. Famous for its championing of English music, especially that of Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst, Worcester last hosted the festival in August 2011.

The Worcester Festival is a relatively new venture established in 2003. Held in late August, the festival consists of a variety of music, theatre, cinema and workshops, as well as the already established Beer Festival, which runs as an event within the Worcester Festival.

For one weekend the city plays host to the Worcester Music Festival. Now in its 4th year (2011) the festival comprises a weekend original music by predominantly local bands and musicians. All performances are free, and take place throughout the city centre in bars, clubs, community buildings, churches and the library. In 2010 the festival comprised 230 unique acts.

Worcester Festival ends with a spectacular firework display on the banks of the River Severn on the Monday of the August bank holiday.

The Victorian-themed Christmas Fayre is a major source of tourism every December. Elton John came to the Worcestershire Cricket Ground, New Road on Saturday 9 June 2006. Status Quo came to Sixways Stadium (Worcester Warriors) on Saturday 28 July 2007.

The twelfth CAMRA Worcester Beer and Cider festival took place for three days from the 17 August 2010^[26] and was held as usual on Pitchcroft Race Course.

The Worcester Beer, Cider and Perry festival is the largest beer festival within the West Midlands with the 2009 event being attended by 11,000 people.

Arts and cinema[link]

Famous 18th century actress Sarah Siddons made her acting début here at the Theatre Royal in Angel Street. Her sister, the novelist Ann Julia Kemble Hatton,^[27] otherwise known as Ann of Swansea, was born in the city. Matilda Alice Powles, better known as Vesta Tilley, a leading male impersonator and music hall artiste was born in Worcester.

In present-day Worcester the Swan Theatre^[28] stages a mixture of professional touring and local amateur productions. The Countess of Huntingdon's Hall^[28] is a historic church now used as venue for an eclectic range of musical performances, while the Marrs Bar^[29] is a venue for gigs and stand-up comedy. Worcester has two multi-screen cinemas; a Vue Cinema complex located on Friar Street, and an Odeon Cinema on Foregate Street – both of which were 3D-equipped by March 2010.

In the northern suburb of Northwick is the Art Deco Northwick Cinema. Built in 1938 it contains one of the only two remaining interiors in Britain designed by John Alexander (the original perspective drawings are still held by RIBA). It was a bingo hall from 1966 to 1982 and then empty until 1991; it was then run as a music venue until 1996, and was empty again until autumn 2006 when it became an antiques and lifestyle centre, owned by Grey's Interiors, who were previously located in the Tything.^{[citation needed]}

There are a number of other arts organisations in Worcester. Based at the university and also at Bishop Perowne C of E Performing Arts College is C&T (formerly Collar & Tie), an educational theatre company that specialises in theatre for young people tackling topical issues using a blend of drama and new media technologies.^[30]

Media[link]

Worcester is home to Worcester News, Worcester Standard and Berrow's Worcester Journal newspapers and radio stations Free Radio & BBC Hereford & Worcester.

Twinning and planned twinning[link]

Worcester is twinned with the German city of Kleve, the Parisian commune of Le Vésinet, and its larger American namesake Worcester, Massachusetts.^[31]

In February 2009 Worcester City Council's Twinning Association began deliberating an application to twin Worcester with the Palestinian city of Gaza. Councillor Alan Amos introduced the application, which was passed at its first stage by a majority of 35-6.^[32] The proposal was later rejected by the Executive Committee of the City of Worcester Twinning Association for lack of funding due to its present commitment to existing twinning projects.^[33]

Notable people[link]

Edward Elgar

• Composer Sir Edward Elgar's father ran a music shop at the end of High Street; a statue of Elgar stands near the original location of that shop. His birthplace is a short way outside Worcester in the village of Broadheath.
• Hannah Snell, famous for impersonating a man and being enlisted in the Royal Marines in the 18th century was born and brought up here.
• Sir Charles Hastings, founder of the British Medical Association lived in Worcester for most of his life. The newly built Worcestershire Royal Hospital stands in a road named in his honour.
• William Stephenson 2007 British streetluge and buttboard champion and 2009 world number three streetluger and number two buttboarder was born and lives in Worcester.
• Philip Henry Gosse, naturalist, was born in the city in 1810.
• Sir Thomas Brock, sculptor most famous for the Imperial Victoria Memorial in London was born here in 1847.
• Edward Leader Williams, designer of the Manchester Ship Canal, was born and brought up in Worcester, living at Diglis House (now the Diglis House Hotel) with his brother, noted landscape artist Benjamin Williams Leader.
• William Morris, Lord Nuffield, (founder of Morris Motors Limited and philanthropist), spent the first three years of his life in the city.
• Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, poet and author, famously known as "Woodbine Willy", was for some time the Vicar of St. Paul's Church in the city. He rose to fame during World War I when he became an army chaplain, his sermons and poetry helping boost morale to the troops. He acquired his nickname from his habit of handing out "Woodbine" cigarettes to the men in the trenches.
• Mrs. Henry Wood writer, was born in Worcester.
• Fay Weldon writer, was born in Worcester.
• Revd Thomas Davis, hymn-writer, was born in Worcester in 1804. He is an ancestor of the Duchess of Cambridge.
• Worcester was home to electronic music producer and collaborator Mike Paradinas and his record label Planet Mu, until the label moved to London in 2007.
• Dave Mason musician, singer, songwriter and guitarist, was born in Worcester.
• Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power of experimental music group Fuck Buttons were both brought up in Worcester.
• Ernest Payne was born in Worcester and rode for the local Worcester St Johns Cycling Club. He won a gold medal in the team pursuit at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.
• Sheila Scott, aviatrix
• James White (1775–1820), founder of the first advertising agency in 1800 in London, was born in Worcester.
• Ann Hatton, writer of the Kemble family was born in Worcester.

See also People from Worcester.

See also[link]

• List of Bishops of Worcester
• Worcester Cathedral
• Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum
• Worcester Porcelain Museum

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article about Worcester.

• Worcester City Council
• Worcester at the Open Directory Project

v t e Districts of the West Midlands Region Herefordshire Herefordshire Shropshire Shropshire Telford and Wrekin Staffordshire Cannock Chase East Staffordshire Lichfield Newcastle-under-Lyme South Staffordshire Stafford Staffordshire Moorlands Stoke-on-Trent Tamworth Warwickshire North Warwickshire Nuneaton and Bedworth Rugby Stratford-on-Avon Warwick West Midlands Birmingham Coventry Dudley Sandwell Solihull Walsall Wolverhampton Worcestershire Bromsgrove Malvern Hills Redditch Worcester Wychavon Wyre Forest

Henry Balfour Gardiner (7 November 1877 – 28 June 1950) was an English musician, composer, and teacher.

Between his conventional education at Charterhouse School and New College, Oxford, where he obtained only a pass degree, Gardiner was a piano student at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main, where he was taught by Iwan Knorr and Lazzaro Uzielli, who had been a pupil of Clara Schumann. He belonged to the Frankfurt Group, a circle of composers who studied at the Hoch Conservatory in the late 1890s. Gardiner collected folk songs in Hampshire (1905-1906),^[1], taught music briefly at Winchester College (1907), and composed. His works included compositions in a variety of genres, including two symphonies, but many of his scores are lost and only a very limited amount of his music survives.

His best-known work Evening Hymn (1908), a setting of the Compline hymn Te lucis ante terminum, is a lush, romantic work for eight-part choir and organ, of dense harmonies. For most of the time, it sits in four parts, though the treble, alto, tenor, and bass parts all subdivide at various points. It is considered a classic of the English choral repertoire and is still regularly performed as an anthem at evensong in Anglican churches.

The fame of this work has overshadowed his surviving orchestral works, which include Overture to a Comedy and the Delius-like A Berkshire Idyll.

Gardiner's most important work, arguably, was his promotion as a conductor of contemporary British and colonial composers, notably in a series of concerts at Queen's Hall London in 1912-1913. The composers represented included Arnold Bax, Frederic Austin, Gustav Holst, Percy Grainger, Roger Quilter, Cyril Scott and Norman O'Neill. (The last four had also studied with him at Frankfurt.) He financed these concerts himself; he continued to be notably generous with his personal fortune, paying for a private benefit performance of The Planets for Gustav Holst in 1918, and purchasing Frederick Delius's house at Grez-sur-Loing to enable him to continue living in it at the end of his life.

Gardiner gave up composing in 1925 largely because he was intensely self-critical: much of his lost music was probably destroyed by him. Thereafter, he devoted himself to a pioneering afforestation programme on his Dorset farm.

He died in 1950, aged 72. He was the great-uncle of the conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

References[link]

• Stephen Banfield with Stephen Lloyd New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 1980, rep 1994, vol 7, 163
• Cyril Scott, 'The late Balfour Gardiner and our Student Days', Music Teacher xxix (1950) 396

Notes[link]

This article is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (November 2010)

Tokio Hotel
Tokio Hotel, 2010. L-R: Georg Listing, Bill Kaulitz, Tom Kaulitz, and Gustav Schäfer
Background information
Origin	Magdeburg, Germany
Genres	Pop rock,[1][2] alternative rock,[3] emo,[4] glam rock,[5] power pop,[6][7][8][9]
Years active	2001–present
Labels	Universal Music Germany, Cherrytree, Interscope
Website	www.tokiohotel.com
Members
Bill Kaulitz Tom Kaulitz Georg Listing Gustav Schäfer

Tokio Hotel is a rock band from Germany, founded in 2001 by singer Bill Kaulitz, guitarist Tom Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bassist Georg Listing.^[10] The quartet have scored four number one singles and have released three number one albums in their native country, selling nearly 5 million CDs and DVDs there.^[11] After recording an unreleased demo-CD under the name "Devilish" and having their contract with Sony BMG Germany terminated, the band released their first German-language album, Schrei, as Tokio Hotel on Universal Music Germany in 2005. Schrei sold more than half a million copies worldwide^[12] and spawned four top five singles in both Germany and Austria. In 2007, the band released their second German album Zimmer 483 and their first English album Scream which have combined album sales of over one million copies worldwide and helped win the band their first MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct. The former, Zimmer 483, spawned three top five singles in Germany while the latter, Scream, spawned two singles that reached the top twenty in new territories such as France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. In September 2008, they won in the US their first MTV Video Music Award (VMA) for Best New Artist. In October 2008, they won four awards including Best International Artist and Song of the year at Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica (MTV Video Music Awards Latin America) held in Mexico. Tokio Hotel became the first German band ever to win an award at the MTV VMAs and also at the MTV Latin America Awards. They also picked up the Headliner award at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 held in Liverpool on November 6, 2008 and the Award for Best Group on November 5, 2009 at the MTV Europe Music Award (EMA) held in Berlin. They won an Award for Best World Stage Performance on November 7, 2010 at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Madrid. In July 2011, they became the first German band to win an MTV Video Music Awards Japan (VMAJ). And won MTV's 2012 Musical March Madness.

History[link]

[edit] Formation (2001 - 2004)

Tokio Hotel by vocalist Bill Kaulitz and guitarist Tom Kaulitz, who are identical twin brothers, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bass-guitarist Georg Listing. The four met in 2001 after a live show in a Magdeburg-Club, where Listing and Schäfer, who knew each other from music school, watched from the audience while Bill and Tom Kaulitz played on the stage.^[13][14] Under the name Devilish, the band soon began playing in talent shows and small concerts.^[15] After Bill Kaulitz's participation in a children's Star Search in 2003 at age thirteen (which he lost in the quarter-final), he was discovered by music producer Peter Hoffmann. Devilish changed their name to Tokio Hotel: "Tokio", the German spelling of the Japanese city Tokyo, due to a love of the city, and "Hotel" due to their constant touring and living in hotels.^[13] Soon after Sony BMG took them under contract, Hoffmann hired David Jost and Pat Benzner into the team of creators and authors, and had them give the teens instruction on songwriting and instrument playing; most of the songs of the first album were written by Hoffmann, Jost and Benzer (including the singles "Scream" and "Rescue me" which were completely written by them), only the single "Unendlichkeit" was written completely by Tokio Hotel themselves. Shortly before release of their first album, Sony terminated their contract. The band is now one of the biggest modern acts from Germany and the biggest in 20 years.

[edit] Schrei (2005 - 2006)

Bill Kaulitz performing in Hessisch-Lichtenau, Germany in 2006.

In 2005, Universal Music Group took Tokio Hotel under contract and developed a marketing plan. Their first single, "Durch den Monsun" ("Through the Monsoon"), quickly rose in the charts, appearing on the German official Media Control single chart at #15 on August 20, 2005 and eventually reaching #1 on August 26, 2005; it also reached #1 on the Austrian singles chart. Their second single, "Schrei" ("Scream"), climbed to the #5 position in the German charts. These two songs were written by singer Bill Kaulitz together with their group of producers Peter Hoffmann, David Jost, Pat Benzer and Dave Roth. Their debut album, Schrei, was released on September 19, 2005, and was certified triple gold by the BVMI in 2006 for selling over 300,000 copies in Germany.^[16] In 2006, a third and fourth single, "Rette mich" ("Rescue Me") and "Der letzte Tag" ("The Final Day"), were released; both reached #1 as well. "Der letzte Tag" contained a B-side called "Wir schließen uns ein", which was also accompanied by a music video.

[edit] Zimmer 483 (2007 - 2008)

The first single off their second album Zimmer 483 (Room 483), called "Übers Ende der Welt" (later re-released in English under the name "Ready, Set, Go!"), was released on January 26, 2007 and quickly reached #1 in Germany and Austria, and #2 in France. Zimmer 483 was released in Germany on February 23, 2007, along with a deluxe edition of the album containing a DVD. The album's second single, "Spring nicht" ("Don't Jump") was released on April 7. The tour accompanying the release of the album, The Zimmer 483 Tour, was scheduled to start in March 2007, but was delayed by two weeks because the band members wished to have a different stage design. A third single, "An deiner Seite (Ich bin da)" ("By Your Side"), was released on November 16. The single contains the B-side "1000 Meere" ("1000 Oceans"), for which a music video was also produced. On April 28, 2008 Tokio Hotel released their single "Heilig" but no music video for the single was released, because of the tight schedule they had.

[edit] Scream (2007 - 2008)

Tokio Hotel's first English language album, Scream, was released on June 4, 2007 throughout Europe. In Germany, the album was released as Room 483 in order to emphasize the continuity with their last German album Zimmer 483. Scream contains English versions of a selection of songs from their German-language albums Scream and Zimmer 483. "Monsoon", the English-language version of "Durch den Monsun", was the first single from the album. "Ready, Set, Go!" (the translation of "Übers Ende der Welt") was released as the album's second single and "Don't Jump" (the translation of "Spring nicht") as the third single. A video for "Scream", the English-language version of their 2005 hit "Schrei", was also recorded, and was released to the iTunes Store in early March 2008.

Tokio Hotel gave their first concert in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2007. "Ready, Set, Go!" was released in the UK as the band's first single on August 27, 2007. The song reached #77 in the UK Singles Chart.

Tokio Hotel won an MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct on November 1, 2007 and were also nominated for Best Band. They performed "Monsoon" at the event.

Tokio Hotel released their first US single, simply called "Tokio Hotel", in late 2007. The single contains the tracks "Scream" and "Ready, Set, Go!", and was available exclusively at Hot Topic stores. Their second US single, "Scream America", was released on December 11, 2007. The single contains the track "Scream" and a remix of "Ready, Set, Go!" by AFI's Jade Puget. In February 2008, the band toured North America for five dates starting in Canada and finishing up in New York.^[17] After appearing and performing live on MuchMusic, while touring in Canada, "Ready, Set, Go!" entered the MuchOnDemand Daily 10, a countdown of videos chosen by viewers. It remained there for over a week, then returned to the top of the MOD Daily 10 chart on April 8. "Scream" was released in Canada on March 25 and in the US on May 6. The "1000 Hotels" European Tour began on March 3, 2008 in Brussels and continued to locations including The Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Scandinavia, and was scheduled to finish on April 9; during the concert in Marseille, France on March 14, Bill started to experience vocal problems.^[18] He let the audience sing more frequently than normal and instead of the original 21 songs that were on the set list, they only played 16 songs. Bill apologized, in German, for his bad singing and explained that he was sick. Two days later, the band canceled Lisbon, Portugal concert minutes before it was supposed to commence. The rest of the "1000 Hotels" Tour and a scheduled North American Tour were cancelled following an announcement in Bild by the band's manager that Bill Kaulitz had to undergo surgery to remove a cyst on his vocal cords.^[19][20]

Bill Kaulitz had been putting strain on his voice after playing 43 concerts in the 1000 Hotels tour without vacation.^[21] He had to undergo Larynx surgery on March 30 to remove a cyst that had formed on his vocal cords.^[22] The cyst was the result of a throat infection that went untreated.^[23] Following his surgery, Bill was unable to speak for twelve days, and had four weeks of vocal rehabilitation.^[24] If Bill had continued singing the rest of the tour, his voice would have eventually been permanently damaged.^[18][25] Tokio Hotel started performing again in May 2008^[26] and after that they embarked on a 2nd part of their 1000 Hotels European Tour adding many Open Air concerts and wrapping up the tour on July 13 in Werchter, Belgium.

[edit] North American Tours and Humanoid (2009 - 2010)

This section is outdated. Please update this section to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (November 2010)

Tokio Hotel embarked on a second tour of North America in August 2008, which included a performance at the Bamboozled festival in New Jersey. The band's music video for "Ready Set Go!" was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards,^[27] where they also won the award for Best New Artist.^[28] They returned to North America again in October 2008 for a month long tour of concerts and record store signings. In December 2008, a behind-the scenes DVD called Tokio Hotel TV – Caught on Camera was released. It contains footage from Tokio Hotel TV and backstage feature stories of the previous year on disc one entitled "History – The very best of Tokio Hotel TV!". A deluxe edition contains a second disc entitled "Future – The road to the new Album!" which features footage of the band on promotion tours and preparing for their third studio album.^[29]

In between the North American tours, the band returned to their record studio in Hamburg to record their third studio album, Humanoid, which, according to their producer David Jost, is currently set for release on October 2 in Germany & October 6, 2009 in the U.S.^[30][31][32] This is despite earlier statements predicting a March/April 2009 release or a May/June 2009 release.^[33][34][35] The album was recorded in both German and English with both versions were released simultaneously worldwide.^[34][35]

On August 10, it was announced on MTV news that the first German single would be "Automatisch" and its English counterpart, "Automatic", would also be released as a first single in the United States. On August 20, MTV Buzzworthy released a video which previewed "Automatic" and Cherrytree Records announced that the English version of the song would be released in the US on September 22.^[36][37] Nevertheless, the video for the single was released on September 3.

On November 2, it was announced on Tom's Blog that the second English single would be "World Behind My Wall" and its German counterpart, "Lass uns laufen", would be the second German single.^[38] The music videos for both versions were released on December 14 and December 15.

On June 24, the live music video for their single, "Dark Side of the Sun" was released on the band website.

On July 20, 2010 they released their second live album Humanoid City Live from Milan, Italy On November 22, 2010, their new song "Hurricanes and Suns," premiered on the Greek radio station Mad Radio. It was included in the bonus track on all versions of "Tokio Hotel: Best Of," a compilation album of their most successful songs. As well as the single for the 'Best of' release. The album will also include "Mädchen aus dem All", the first song the band recorded in a studio.

On December 14, 2010 their 'Best of' was released. December 2 was the World Premiere of the video for "Hurricanes and Suns" on their Official Website. On April 28, 2011 they received the "Fan Army FTW" award at the MTV O Music Awards, the networks first online award show. A clip of Bill and Tom thanking their fans was played after the winner was announced.

Tokio Hotel performed their first concert in Asia (excluding their concert in Israel) at the Audi Showcase in Singapore, followed shortly by the TM Connects With Tokio Hotel event in Malaysia, promoting the sales of their album Humanoid. They concluded the series of mini-concerts with Taiwan. They returned to Malaysia a couple of months later to perform at MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia 2010. They performed in Tokyo on December 15, 2010, after their South American Tour concluded in Distrito Federal, Mexico on December 2, 2010. In February, 2011 Tokio Hotel travelled to Japan to complete a second promo tour. A number of TV appearances and media interviews took place between February 8 and February 11.

On June 24, 2011 Tokio Hotel performed in Japan at “The Next Premium Night Tokio Hotel in Tokyo". The event was presented by Audi A1 and 150 fans were chosen to win tickets to attend the show. The event was the band's first acoustic performance in Japan. On June 25, 2011 the band performed live at the MTV Video Music Aid Japan in Tokyo. The show, which was formerly called the Video Music Awards Japan, was used as a music benefit to raise money for the Japanese Red Cross in order to help those who were affected by the recent earthquake.

Modeling and commercials[link]

This section is outdated. Please update this section to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (January 2010)

On January 19, 2010, lead singer Bill Kaulitz teamed up with twins Dean and Dan Caten of DSquared to walk the runway at a fashion event in Milan.^[39] Kaulitz made two appearances, as he opened and closed DSquared's Menswear Autumn/Winter 2010 show to Tokio Hotel song "Screamin".^[40]

Car maker Audi hired the two frontmen to star in their new advertising campaign to attract the younger generation. They were featured in an episode of Tokio Hotel TV (on Tokio Hotel's website) and also in a commercial.^[41]

On August 4, 2010, Tom Kaulitz got his own Reebok shoe commercial.^[42] Reebok signed the 20-year-old Tokio Hotel guitarist and sneaker addict to model shoes for the company. "At home, I created a little room like a little storage room," he said of his sneakers. He also said that he gets 10 new pairs a week.^[42]

Best Of Tokio Hotel (2010)[link]

At 13th December in Germany and 14th December internationally Tokio Hotel released their first compilation album named "Best Of". It comes in two languages: english and german. It contains the most popular songs from all the previous albums and two new songs: "Hurricanes and Suns" (was recorded for Humanoid but not included in it) and "Mädchen aus dem All" (was recorded for Schrei but not included in it).There is a deluxe edition too which comes with both german and english versions of album and a bonus DVD with all Tokio Hotel's music videos and "making of" scenes.

[edit] New album and duet with Far East Movement (2011 - present)

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2012)

After finishing "Welcome To Humanoid City Tour" Bill and Tom with their manager David Jost moved to Los Angeles and still are living there. They said they are working on the new album, which will be released in the late 2012. Paparazzies caught Bill, Tom and Gustav in a shop in Los Angeles. MTV said the new album will be named "Dark Anthem".^[43]. Bill and Tom released an app named "BTK Twins" for iOS (16 January 2012),^[44] and Android(19 December 2011),^[45] for keeping in touch with their fans. Here Bill and Tom post their photos, videos and text messages, and fans can leave messages for posts. Bill and Tom answer to these comments very often. The app costs 2.99$, and if a user wants to leave comments besides watching only he must pay 0.99$ a month. Tokio Hotel launched a service named "VIP Call".^[46] Fans may pay 4.99 Euros for a month or 3.49 Euros for 3 months and Tokio Hotel call them and leave audio messages. Fans can even ask them questions and Tokio Hotel will answer to them. On 18 May 2012 Far East Movement released an album named "Dirty Bass". In it there is a song named "If I Die Tomorrow" which is a duet with Bill. Far East Movement accepted there will be a music video released for "If I Die Tomorrow" soon. Bill Kaulitz will take part in shootings too.

Band members[link]

• Bill Kaulitz - lead vocals
• Tom Kaulitz - guitar, piano, backing vocals
• Georg Listing - bass, keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals
• Gustav Schäfer - drums, percussion, backing vocals

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• Schrei (2005)
• Zimmer 483 (2007)
• Scream (2007)
• Humanoid (2009)
• Best Of (2010)

Awards[link]

Since the release of the "Durch den Monsun" single in 2005, Tokio Hotel have gone on to win 104 awards in various categories and countries.

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tokio Hotel

• Official site
• Cherrytree records profile
• Interscope records profile
• Tokio Hotel on MySpace
• Tokio Hotel on Facebook
• Tokio Hotel on Twitter
• Tokio Hotel on MTV

Cold storage may refer to:

• A form of refrigerated storage
• Tim Wright (musician), a musician also known as CoLD SToRAGE
• Cold Storage (supermarket), a supermarket found in Singapore and Malaysia
• COLD (Computer Output to Laser Disk)
• Cold Storage, a 1951 animated short film starring Pluto (Disney)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

The Right Honourable Ed Miliband MP
Miliband in August 2010
Leader of the Opposition
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 September 2010
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Deputy	Harriet Harman
Preceded by	Harriet Harman
Leader of the Labour Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 September 2010
Deputy	Harriet Harman
Preceded by	Gordon Brown
Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
In office 3 October 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Chris Huhne
Minister for the Cabinet Office Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 28 June 2007 – 3 October 2008
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Hilary Armstrong
Succeeded by	Liam Byrne
Minister for the Third Sector
In office 6 May 2006 – 28 June 2007
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Phil Hope
Member of Parliament for Doncaster North
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Kevin Hughes
Majority	10,909 (26.3%)
Personal details
Born	Edward Samuel Miliband (1969-12-24) 24 December 1969 (age 42) London, England, UK
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Justine Thornton (m. 2011–present)
Relations	Ralph Miliband (father) David Miliband (brother)
Alma mater	Corpus Christi College, Oxford London School of Economics

Edward Samuel Miliband (born 24 December 1969)^[1] is a British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the South Yorkshire constituency of Doncaster North since 2005 and served in the Cabinet from 2007 to 2010 under Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He and his brother, David Miliband, were the first siblings to sit in the Cabinet simultaneously since Edward, Lord Stanley, and Oliver Stanley in 1938.

Born in London, Miliband graduated from Corpus Christi College, Oxford and the London School of Economics, becoming first a television journalist and then a Labour Party researcher, before rising to become one of Chancellor Gordon Brown's confidants and Chairman of HM Treasury's Council of Economic Advisers.

As Prime Minister, Gordon Brown appointed Miliband as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on 28 June 2007. He was subsequently promoted to the new post of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, a position he held from 3 October 2008 to 11 May 2010. On 25 September 2010, he was elected Leader of the Labour Party.

Background and early life[link]

Born in London, Miliband is the younger son of Polish Jewish immigrants. His mother, Marion Kozak, a human rights campaigner and early CND member, survived the Holocaust thanks to being protected by Roman Catholic Poles.^[2][3][4] His father, Ralph Miliband, was a Belgian-born Marxist academic, who fled with his parents to England during World War II.^[5][3] Due to his father's employment as a teacher, Miliband spent two spells living in Boston, Massachusetts, one year when he was seven, and one junior high school term when he was twelve.^[6]

Miliband was educated at Primrose Hill Primary School, Camden and then Haverstock Comprehensive School in Chalk Farm, North London. He completed his A Levels and was a violinist whilst at school.^[7] As a teenager, he reviewed films and plays on LBC Radio's Young London programme as one of its "Three O'Clock Reviewers", and worked as an intern to Tony Benn.^[8] Miliband read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, taking a Bachelor of Arts, followed by the London School of Economics, where he obtained a Masters in Economics.^[7]

Early political career[link]

Special adviser[link]

Miliband worked as special advisers Gordon Brown from 1997 to 2002.^[9] In 1999, Miliband was involved in the process of building Labour's manifesto for the forthcoming Scottish Parliament elections.^[10] Initially doing so in an informal capacity, he was spotted leaving the Scottish Labour Party's headquarters on the night that a key policy meeting was held, involving the Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar and senior party officials, to consider the party's election strategy and details of Labour's manifesto. As a result, Miliband temporarily resigned from his post as a Special Adviser at the Treasury, to work on the Scottish election campaign full-time.^[11] It was reported that part of Miliband's Scottish role was to take charge of Labour's rebuttal operation.^[12]

Harvard[link]

On 25 July 2002, it was announced that Miliband would take a 12-month unpaid sabbatical from the Treasury to be a visiting scholar at the Centre for European Studies of Harvard University for two semesters.^[13] He spent his time at Harvard teaching economics,^[14] and stayed there after September 2003 for an additional semester teaching a course titled "What's Left? The Politics of Social Justice".^[15] During this time, he was granted "access" to Senator John Kerry and reported to Brown on the Presidential hopeful's progress.^[16] Returning to the UK after Christmas, in January 2004 he was appointed Chairman of HM Treasury's Council of Economic Advisers as a replacement for Ed Balls, with specific responsibility for directing the UK's long-term economic planning.^[17]

Member of Parliament[link]

In early 2005, Miliband resigned from the Treasury to stand for election. Kevin Hughes, then the Labour MP for Doncaster North, announced in February of that year that he would be standing down at the next election due to being diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Miliband applied for selection to be the Labour candidate in the safe Labour seat and won, beating off a close challenge from Michael Dugher, then a special advisor to Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.^[18] Gordon Brown visited Doncaster North during the general election campaign to support his former adviser.^[19] Miliband was elected to Parliament on 5 May 2005, with over 50% of the vote and a majority of 12,656. He made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 23 May, responding to comments made by future Speaker John Bercow.^[20] In Tony Blair's cabinet reshuffle in May 2006, he was made the Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office, as Minister for the Third Sector, with responsibility for voluntary and charity organisations.^[21][22]

Cabinet[link]

In June 2007, when Brown became Prime Minister, Miliband was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and promoted to the Cabinet.^[23] This meant that he and his brother David Miliband became the first brothers to serve in Cabinet since Edward and Oliver Stanley in 1938.^[24] He was given the task of drafting Labour's manifesto for the next general election.^[25]

On 3 October 2008, Miliband was promoted to Secretary of State for the newly-created Department of Energy and Climate Change^[26] in a Cabinet reshuffle. On 16 October, Miliband announced that the British government would legislate to oblige itself to cut greenhouse emissions by 80% by 2050, rather than the 60% cut in carbon dioxide emissions previously announced.^[27]

Miliband with Richard Lambert, Director of the CBI, at Climate Change Summit 2008

Whilst Secretary of State, Miliband attended the UK premiere of The Age of Stupid, where he was ambushed by actor Pete Postlethwaite, who threatened to return his OBE and vote for any party other than Labour if the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station was given the go-ahead by the government.^[28] A month later, Miliband announced a change to the government's policy on coal, saying that new coal-fired power station would be able to receive government consent unless they could effectively capture and bury 25% of the emissions they produces immediately, with a view to seeing that rise to 100% of emissions by 2025. This, a government source told the Guardian, effectively represented “a complete rewrite of UK energy policy for the future”.^[29]

Miliband represented the UK at the 2009 Copenhagen Summit, from which emerged a global commitment to provide an additional US$10 billion a year to fight the effects of climate change, with an additional $100 billion a year provided by 2020.^[30] The conference was not able to achieve a legally-binding agreement. Miliband accused China of deliberately foiling attempts at a binding agreement; China explicitly denied this, accusing British politicians of engaging in a "political scheme".^[31]

During the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal, Miliband was named by the Daily Telegraph as one of the "saints" of the scandal, due to his claiming one of the lowest amounts of expenses in the House of Commons and submitting no claims that later had to be paid back.^[32]

Leadership of the Labour Party[link]

Leadership election[link]

Miliband giving his first leader's speech at the 2010 Labour Party Conference

Following the formation of the coalition government on 11 May 2010, Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party with immediate effect. In accordance with the Labour constitution, Deputy Leader Harriet Harman took over as Acting Leader and Leader of the Opposition. On 14 May 2010, following his brother's announcement of his own candidacy the day earlier, Miliband announced that he would stand as a candidate for the leadership of the Labour Party.^[33] He launched his campaign during a speech given at a Fabian Society conference at the School of Oriental and African Studies^[34][35] and was nominated by 62 fellow Labour MPs. The other candidates were left-wing backbencher Diane Abbott, Shadow Education Secretary Ed Balls, Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham and his elder brother, Shadow Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

On 23 May, former Labour Leader Neil Kinnock announced that he would endorse Miliband's campaign to become the next Leader, saying that he had "the capacity to inspire people" and that he had "strong values and the ability to 'lift' people".^[36] Other senior Labour figures who backed Miliband included former Deputy Leaders Roy Hattersley and Margaret Beckett. By 9 June, the deadline for entry into the Labour leadership contest, Miliband had been nominated by just over 24% of the Parliamentary Labour Party, double the amount required. By September, Miliband had received the support of six trade unions, including both Unite and UNISON, 151 of the Constituency Labour Parties, three affiliated socialist societies, and half of the Labour MEPs.^[37]

Ed Miliband won the election, the result of which was announced on 25 September 2010, after second, third and fourth preferences votes were counted, with the support of 50.654% of the electoral college, defeating his brother by 1.3%.^[38] In the fourth and final stage of the redistribution of votes after three candidates had been eliminated, Ed Miliband led in the trade unions and affiliated organisations third of the electoral college (19.93% of the total to David's 13.40%), but in both the MPs and MEPs section (15.52% to 17.81%), and Constituency Labour Party section (15.20% to 18.14%), came second. In the final round, Ed Miliband won with a total of 175,519 votes to David's 147,220 votes.^[39]

Leader of the Opposition[link]

Miliband conducting a public Q&A in November 2011

On becoming Leader of the Labour Party on 25 September 2010, Miliband also became Leader of the Opposition. At the age of 40, he was the youngest Labour Leader since World War II.^[40] He had his first Prime Minister's Questions as Labour Leader on 13 October 2010, raising questions about the government's announced removal of a non-means tested child benefit.^[41] During the 2011 military intervention in Libya, Miliband supported UK military action against Colonel Gaddafi.^[42] Miliband spoke at a large "March for the Alternative" rally held in London on 26 March 2011 to protest against cuts to public spending, though he was criticised by some for comparing it to the anti-apartheid and American civil rights movements.^[43][44][45]

A June 2011 poll result from Ipsos MORI found Labour 2 percentage points ahead of the Tories, but Miliband's personal rating was low, being rated as less popular than Iain Duncan Smith at a similar stage in his opposition leadership.^[46] The same organisation's polling did find that Miliband's personal ratings in his first full year of leadership were better than David Cameron's during his first full year as Conservative Leader in 2006 however.^[47]

In July 2011, following the revelation that the News of the World had paid private investigators to hack into the phones of Milly Dowler, as well as the families of murder victims and deceased servicemen, Miliband called for News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks to resign, urged David Cameron to establish a public and judge-led inquiry into the scandal and announced that he would force a Commons vote on whether to block the News International bid for a controlling stake in BSkyB. He also called for the Press Complaints Commission to be abolished – later repeated by Cameron and Nick Clegg – and called into question Cameron's judgement in hiring former News of the World editor Andy Coulson to be his Director of Communications.^[48] Cameron later took the unusual step of saying that the government would back Miliband's motion that the BSkyB bid should be dropped, and an hour before Miliband's motion was due to be debated, News International announced that it would drop it.^[49][50]

Following the riots in England in August 2011, Miliband called for a public inquiry into the events, and insisted that society had "to avoid simplistic answers". The call for a government inquiry was rejected by David Cameron, prompting Miliband to say that he would set up his own.^[51] In a BBC Radio 4 interview shortly after the riots, Miliband spoke of an irresponsibility that not only applied to the people involved in the riots, but "wherever we find it in our society. We've seen in the past few years...MPs' expenses, what happened in the banks". Miliband also stated that Labour did not do enough to tackle moral problems during their 13 years in office.^[52] In December 2011 Miliband appointed Tim Livesey, a former adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to be his full-time Chief of Staff.^[53]

In his first speech of 2012, Miliband said that if Labour won the next general election that the times would be difficult economically, but that Labour was still the only party capable of delivering "fairness". He also said he would tackle "vested interests", citing energy and rail companies.^[54] Following the announcement in late January 2012 that the Chief Executive Officer of the nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland, Stephen Hester, would receive a bonus worth £950,000, Miliband called the amount "disgraceful", and urged David Cameron to act to prevent the bonus. Cameron refused, saying that it was a matter for the RBS board, leading Miliband to announce that Labour would force a Commons vote on whether or not the government should block it. Hester announced that he would forego his bonus, and Miliband said that Labour would carry on with a Commons vote regardless, focussing instead on the bonuses of other RBS executives.^[55][56] Following George Galloway's unexpected win in the March by-election in Bradford West, Miliband announced he would lead an inquiry into the result, saying, it "could not be dismissed as a one-off".^[57] In April 2012, in the midst of a debate about the nature of political party funding, Miliband called on David Cameron to institute a £5,000 cap on donations from individuals and organisations to political parties, after it had been suggested that the government favoured a cap of £50,000.^[58]

Local elections[link]

Miliband's first electoral tests as Labour Leader came in the elections to the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and various councils across England, excluding London on 5 May 2011. The results for Labour were described as a "mixed bag", with the party performing well in Wales – falling just one seat short of an overall majority and forming the next Welsh Government on its own – and making large gains from the Liberal Democrats in northern councils, including Sheffield, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. Results were less encouraging in the south of England however, and results in Scotland were described as a "disaster", with Labour losing nine seats to the SNP, which went on to gain the Parliament's first ever majority.^[59] Miliband commented positively in regard to the results and said that following the poor showings in Scotland "lessons must still be learnt".^[59][60]

Miliband launched Labour's campaign for the 2012 local elections with a speech in Birmingham, accusing the government of "betrayal", and claiming that it "lacked the values" that Britain needed.^[61] The results for Labour were described as a "big success", with the party building on its performance the previous year in the north of England and Wales, consolidating its position in northern cities and winning control of places such as Cardiff and Swansea.^[62] Labour also performed well in the Midlands and South of England, winning control of a number of councils including Birmingham, Norwich, Plymouth and Southampton.^[62] Labour were less successful in Scotland than England and Wales, but results were nevertheless encouraging, as Labour were able to retain control of Glasgow despite predictions that they would not.^[62] Overall, Labour gained over 800 councillors and control of 22 councils.^[62]

Shadow Cabinet appointments[link]

The first election to the Shadow Cabinet that took place under Miliband's leadership was on 7 October 2010. Ending days of speculation, David Miliband announced that he would not seek election to the Shadow Cabinet on 29 September, the day nominations closed, saying he wanted to avoid "constant comparison" with his brother Ed.^[63] The three other defeated candidates for the Labour leadership all stood in the election, though Diane Abbott failed to win enough votes to gain a place. Following the election, Miliband unveiled his Shadow Cabinet on 8 October 2010. Amongst others he appointed Alan Johnson as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Yvette Cooper was chosen as Shadow Foreign Secretary, and both defeated Labour leadership candidates Ed Balls and Andy Burnham were given senior roles, becoming Shadow Home Secretary and Shadow Education Secretary respectively. Burnham was additionally given responsibility for overseeing Labour's election co-ordination. Sadiq Khan, who managed Miliband's successful leadership campaign, was appointed Shadow Justice Secretary and Shadow Lord Chancellor, and continuing Deputy Leader Harriet Harman continued to shadow Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, as well as being made Shadow International Development Secretary.^[64] Alan Johnson would later resign from his position, stepping down for "personal reasons" on 20 January 2011, necessitating Miliband's first reshuffle, in which he made Balls Shadow Chancellor, Cooper Shadow Home Secretary and Douglas Alexander Shadow Foreign Secretary.^[65]

On 24 June 2011, it was reported that Miliband was seeking to change the decades-old rule that Labour's Shadow Cabinet would be elected every two years, instead wanting to adopt a system where he alone had the authority to select its members. Miliband later confirmed the story, claiming that the rule represented "a legacy of Labour's past in opposition".^[66] On 5 July, Labour MPs voted overwhelmingly to back the rule change, paving the way for NEC and Conference approval, which was attained in September 2011.^[67] This allows Miliband to be the first Leader of the Labour Party to have the authority to pick his own Shadow Cabinet.^[68]

On 7 October 2011, Miliband reshuffled his Shadow Cabinet. John Denham, John Healey and Shaun Woodward announced that they were stepping down, whilst Meg Hillier, Ann McKechin and Baroness Scotland also left the Shadow Cabinet. Veteran MPs Tom Watson, Jon Trickett, Stephen Twigg and Vernon Coaker were promoted to the Shadow Cabinet, as were several of the 2010 intake, including Chuka Umunna, Margaret Curran and Rachel Reeves, with Liz Kendall and Michael Dugher given the right to attend Shadow Cabinet. Lord Wood and Emily Thornberry were also made Shadow Cabinet attendees.^[69]

On 15 May 2012, Miliband appointed Owen Smith to replace Peter Hain – who retired from frontline politics – as Shadow Welsh Secretary, and also promoted Jon Cruddas to the Shadow Cabinet, putting him in charge of overseeing Labour's ongoing policy review with a view to draft Labour's manifesto for the next election.^[70]

Policies and views[link]

Self-description of views[link]

Miliband speaking at the 2007 Labour
Party Conference

Miliband has described himself as a new type of Labour politician, looking to move beyond the divisiveness of Blairism and Brownism, and calling for an end to the "factionalism and psychodramas" of Labour's past. He has also repeatedly spoken of the requirement for a "new politics".^[71] During the Labour leadership campaign, he described himself as a socialist, and has spoken out against some of the actions of the Blair Government, including criticising its record on civil liberties and stating that he would not have backed the Iraq War.^[72] He has also made calls for the UK to adopt a "capitalism that works for the people".^[73] Though he wasn't in Parliament at the time of the 2003 vote, he remains a strong critic of the Iraq War.^[74] He has, however, backed UK military action and intervention in Afghanistan and Libya respectively. He also backs same-sex marriage, supports making the UK's 50p top rate of tax permanent, as well as the institution of a new financial transaction tax, mutualising Northern Rock, putting limits on top salaries, scrapping tuition fees in favour of a graduate tax, implementing a living wage policy and the scrapping of the ID cards policy, and has spoken in favour of a "National Care Service".^[75][76]

Though Labour remained officially neutral, he in a personal capacity supported the ultimately unsuccessful "Yes to AV" campaign in the Alternative Vote referendum on 5 May 2011, saying that it would benefit Britain's "progressive majority".^[77][78] In September 2011, Miliband stated that a future Labour Government would immediately cut the cap on tuition fees for university students from £9,000 per year to £6,000, though he also stated that he remained committed to a graduate tax in the long-run.^[79] Together with Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, Miliband has also promoted a "five-point plan for jobs and growth" aimed at helping the UK economy, involving extending the bonus tax on banks pioneered by Alistair Darling, bringing forward planned long-term investment to help reduce unemployment, cutting the rate of VAT from 20% back to 17.5%, cutting VAT on home improvements to 5% for a temporary one year period, and instigating a one year national insurance break to encourage employers to hire more employees.^[80] Miliband has also endorsed the Blue Labour trend in the Labour Party, which was founded by Maurice Glasman . Blue Labour talks about family and friendships at the heart of society, rather than just material wealth, it also offers a very strong critique of the free-market as well as the big state. This was seen to have influenced his 2011 Conference Speech, signalling "predatory and productive capitalism".^[81][82]

In March 2012 Miliband pledged his support for same sex marriage. As he signed an equal marriage pledge, he said, "I strongly agree gay and lesbian couples should have an equal right to marry and deserve the same recognition from the state and society as anyone else."^[83]

Comments on other politicians[link]

Miliband has criticised Conservative Leader and Prime Minister David Cameron for "sacrificing everything on the altar of deficit reduction", and has accused him of being guilty of practising "old politics", citing alleged broken promises on areas such as crime, policing, bank bonuses, and child benefit.^[84]

Miliband has also been particularly critical of Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg following the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement, accusing him of "betrayal" and of "selling-out" his party's voters. He has also stated that he would demand the resignation of Nick Clegg as a precursor to any future Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition.^[85] In the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum, Miliband refused to share a platform with Clegg, stating that he had become "too toxic" a brand, and that he would harm the "Yes to AV" campaign. He did, however, share platforms during the campaign with former Liberal Democrat Leaders Lord Ashdown and Charles Kennedy, as well as current Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Simon Hughes, the Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas and Business Secretary Vince Cable, among others.^[86] Since becoming Labour Leader, Miliband has made a number of speeches aimed at winning over disaffected Liberal Democrats, identifying a difference between the "Orange Book" Lib Dems who were closer to the Conservatives and Lib Dems who were on the centre-left, offering the latter a role in helping Labour's policy review.^[84]

Miliband has previously spoken positively of his brother David, praising his record as Foreign Secretary, and saying that "his door was always open" following David's decision not to stand for the Shadow Cabinet in 2010.^[87] When asked to choose the greatest British Prime Minister, Miliband answered with Labour's post-war Prime Minister and longest-serving Leader, Clement Attlee.^[88] He has also spoken positively of his two immediate predecessors as Labour Leader, former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, praising their leadership and records in government.^[89]