- published: 13 Oct 2012
- views: 1346
- author: Oban277
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- Alan Duncan
- Alan Haselhurst
- Alan Johnson
- Alex Salmond
- Alistair Darling
- Alma mater
- Aneurin Bevan
- Ann Widdecombe
- Arnold Savage
- Arthur Onslow
- Autism
- BBC News
- BBC Parliament
- Bernard Weatherill
- Betty Boothroyd
- Black Rod
- British Jews
- Burma
- Caroline Spelman
- Chaloner Chute
- Christian Party (UK)
- Christopher Wray
- Clement Higham
- Coat of arms
- Comprehensive school
- Conscience vote
- David Beamish
- David Blunkett
- David Cameron
- David Leakey
- David Lloyd George
- David Miliband
- Doctor (title)
- Douglas Hurd
- Ed Balls
- Edgware
- Edmund Dudley
- Edward Coke
- Edward FitzRoy
- Enoch Powell
- Exhaustive ballot
- First Class Honours
- Francis Rous
- George Osborne
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- Glandular fever
- Gordon Brown
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- Grace and favour
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- John Bussy
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- John Doreward
- John Glanville
- John Green (speaker)
- John Guildesborough
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- John Puckering
- John Say
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- Jonathan Aitken
- Journalisted
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- Julian Lewis
- Kenneth Clarke
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- Labour Party (UK)
- Leadership Institute
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- Lord Speaker
- Malcolm Rifkind
- Margaret Beckett
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- Michael Foot
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- Middlesex
- Monday Club
- Neil Kinnock
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Burma
Burma
i/ˈbɜrmə/ BUR-mə, also known as Myanmar i/ˌmjɑːnˈmɑr/ MYAHN--MAR, is a country in South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is bordered by India, Bangladesh, China, Laos and Thailand. One-third of Burma's total perimeter of 1,930 kilometres (1,200 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. At 676,578 km2 (261,227 sq mi), it is the 40th largest country in the world and the second largest country in Southeast Asia. Burma is also the 24th most populous country in the world with over 60.28 million people.
Burma is home to some of the early civilizations of Southeast Asia including the Pyu and the Mon. In the 9th century, the Burmans of the Kingdom of Nanzhao, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Empire in the 1050s, the Burmese language and culture slowly became dominant in the country. During this period, Theravada Buddhism gradually became the predominant religion of the country. The Pagan Empire fell due to the Mongol invasions (1277–1301), and several warring states emerged. In the second half of the 16th century, the country was reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty which for a brief period was the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia. The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Burma as well as Manipur and Assam. The country was colonized by Britain following three Anglo-Burmese Wars (1824–1885).
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Edgware
Coordinates: 51°37′07″N 0°16′22″W / 51.6185°N 0.2729°W / 51.6185; -0.2729
Edgware is an area in London, situated 10 miles (16.1 km) north-northwest of Charing Cross. It forms part of the London Borough of Barnet. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
It is principally a shopping and residential area and is one of the northern termini of the Northern Line. It has a bus garage, a shopping centre called The Broadwalk, a library, a large hospital—Edgware Community Hospital, and two streams—Edgware Brook and Deans Brook, both tributaries of the Silk Stream, which in turn merges with the River Brent at the Welsh Harp (Brent Reservoir).
Edgware was an ancient hamlet in the county of Middlesex. Edgware is a Saxon name meaning Ecgi's weir. Ecgi was a Saxon and the weir relates to a pond where Ecgi's people would catch fish. The Edgware parish formed part of Hendon Rural District from 1894. It was abolished in 1931 and formed part of the Municipal Borough of Hendon until 1965. The Romans made pottery at Brockley Hill, and is thought by some to be the site of Sulloniacis. Canons Park, to the north-west, was developed as an estate by James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos and was the site of his great palace Canons.
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House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster.
The House of Lords is independent from, and complements the work of, the House of Commons – they share responsibility for making laws and checking government action. Bills can be introduced into either the House of Lords or the House of Commons and members of the Lords may also take on roles as Government Ministers.
Unlike the House of Commons, most new members of the House of Lords are appointed. Membership of the House of Lords is made up of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal. There are currently 26 Lords Spiritual, who sit in the Lords by virtue of their ecclesiastical role in the established Church of England. The Lords Temporal make up the rest of the membership; of these, the majority are life peers who are appointed by the Monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister, or on the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
Membership was once a right of birth to hereditary peers but, following a series of reforms, only 92 members (as of 1 July 2011 (2011 -07-01)[update]) sitting by virtue of a hereditary peerage remain. The number of members is not fixed; as of 1 April 2012 (2012 -04-01)[update] the House of Lords has 786 members (plus 21 who are on leave of absence or otherwise disqualified from sitting), as against the fixed 650-seat membership of the House of Commons.
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Iraq
Iraq (/ɪˈræk/ ori/ɪˈrɑːk/; Arabic: العراق al-‘Irāq); officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: 
جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūriyyat al-‘Irāq), is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.
Iraq borders Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Jordan to the southwest and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (36 mi) on the northern Persian Gulf. The capital city, Baghdad is in the center-east of the country.
Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run through the center of Iraq, flowing from northwest to southeast. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia.
Historically, Iraq was the center of the Abbasid Arabic Islamic Empire. Iraq has been known to the west by the Greek toponym 'Mesopotamia' (Land between the rivers) and has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is often referred to as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing, law and the wheel. At different periods in its history, Iraq was the center of the indigenous Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Abbasid empires. It was also part of the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires, and under British control as a League of Nations mandate.
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Middlesex
Middlesex (
/ˈmɪdəlsɛks/; abbreviated Middx) is one of the 39 historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time. The county was significantly affected by the expansion of the metropolitan area of London in both the 18th and 19th centuries, such that from 1855 the south-east was administered as part of the metropolis. When county councils were initially introduced in England in 1889 about 20% of the area of Middlesex, along with a third of its population, was transferred to the County of London, and the remainder formed a smaller county, in the north-west, under the control of Middlesex County Council.
In the interwar years urban London had further expanded, with increasing suburbanisation, improvement and expansion of public transport, and the setting up of new industries outside the inner London area. After the Second World War, the population of the County of London and inner Middlesex was in steady decline, with new population growth only experienced in the outer suburbs. After a Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London, almost all of the original area was incorporated into an enlarged Greater London in 1965, with small parts transferred to neighbouring Hertfordshire and Surrey. Despite the disappearance of the county council, Middlesex is still used as an area name and was retained as a postal county; which is now an optional component of postal addresses.
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North Finchley
Coordinates: 51°37′01″N 0°10′26″W / 51.617°N 0.174°W / 51.617; -0.174
North Finchley is a suburb of London in the London Borough of Barnet, situated 7 miles (11.3 km) north-west of Charing Cross.
North Finchley is centred on Tally Ho Corner, the junction of the roads to East Finchley, Finchley Central and Whetstone.
It is primarily a residential and shopping area, with several supermarkets and many restaurants. The artsdepot, a local community arts centre including a gallery, a studio and a theatre, opened on October 23, 2004, in an attempt to revitalise the area and to fill a gap created by the demolition of the Gaumont cinema, and what had become an open air market.
The area has mainly 19th century housing ranging from quaint Victorian cottages to substantially larger Victorian double-fronted houses. There is also a dominant Edwardian style toward Woodside Park and Nether Street but with some modern houses, probably built between 1930s and 1960s, towards Friern Barnet. On Friern Barnet Lane there are some mansion style properties and on Tally-Ho corner, a development of luxury flats, above the artsdepot with views over Mill Hill and Hertfordshire. There are few Local Authority estates in the area but the largest, and still pleasant, is in Woodside Park where ex-Spice Girl Emma Bunton grew up.
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Romania
Romania (
i/roʊˈmeɪniə/ roh-MAY-nee-ə; dated: Roumania; or Rumania;Romanian: România [romɨˈni.a] (
listen)) is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Romania shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and Moldova to the northeast and east, and Bulgaria to the south.
At 238,400 square kilometers (92,000 sq mi), Romania is the ninth largest country of the European Union by area, and has the seventh largest population of the European Union with over 19 million people. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, the tenth largest city in the EU with about two million people.
The Kingdom of Romania emerged when the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were united under Prince Alexander Ioan Cuza in 1859. Independence from the Ottoman Empire was declared on 9 May 1877, and was internationally recognized the following year. At the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the Kingdom of Romania. Greater Romania emerged into an era of progression and prosperity that would continue until World War II. By the end of the War, many north-eastern areas of Romania's territories were occupied by the Soviet Union, and Romania forcibly became a socialist republic and a member of the Warsaw Pact.
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The Compton School
The Compton School is situated on Summers Lane, North Finchley, London. It is an academy school for boys and girls aged eleven to sixteen and the school years range from year 7 to year 11. It is located on the site of Finchley Manorhill School, which was progressively closed in the late 1980s. The buildings were reopened as The Compton School in 1992.
The school became a Beacon school in 1999, and has been a Technology College since 2001. It has recently become a training college as well. It has had three successive 'outstanding' OFSTED reports. Its exam results are satisfactory. In 2010 58% of the students achieved 5+ A*-C GCSE (and equivalent) including English and maths GCSEs, slightly below borough average.[1] The school is also known for its links with Woodhouse College.
Recently the school has undergone expansion, with millions of pounds invested in the buildings by the London Borough of Barnet.
Coordinates: 51°36′59.13″N 0°9′17.26″W / 51.616425°N 0.1547944°W / 51.616425; -0.1547944
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University of Essex
The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. It was established in 1963 and received its Royal Charter in 1965. The University is a member of the 1994 Group. It has 18 main teaching departments and 36 centres and institutes in subjects including biological sciences, computer science, acting, economics, business, health/human sciences, history, language and linguistics, mathematical sciences, human rights, law, literature, film studies, theatre studies, philosophy, art history, psychology, psychoanalytic studies, sociology and government.
The university's main campus is located within Wivenhoe Park in the English county of Essex, less than a mile (1.6 km) from the town of Wivenhoe & 2 miles (3.2 km) from the town of Colchester. Apart from the Wivenhoe Park campus, there is a rapidly developing campus in Southend-on-Sea (Essex's largest town), and the East 15 Acting School is based in Loughton. The University's motto, Thought the harder, heart the keener, is adapted from the Anglo-Saxon poem The Battle of Maldon.
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Woodside Park
Coordinates: 51°37′01″N 0°11′06″W / 51.617°N 0.185°W / 51.617; -0.185
Woodside Park is a suburban residential area in London. It is located in the London Borough of Barnet, in postal district N12.
The area to the east of the tube station consists predominantly of large Victorian and Edwardian houses, many of which have been converted into flats. The north-western part of the area, which can also be regarded as the part of Totteridge in N12 rather than N20, is sometimes called Woodside Park Garden Suburb and consists of semi-detached or detached 3 to 4 bedroom houses built in the 1950s. It includes the Woodside Park Club. The eastern boundary of the Garden Suburb is the Dollis Brook and the southern boundary is the Folly Brook. To the south of this Suburb is an area of 1920s and 1930s houses, where many of the roads are named after places in Sussex, such as Sussex Ring and Cissbury Ring.
Between the Garden Suburb and the Northern Line is an area originally of Victorian housing. Many of the houses, including the former residence of Spike Milligan (now marked by a blue plaque placed in 2004 - see picture in this article), have been replaced by modern housing or apartments. The estate where Emma Bunton grew up is also located in the area.
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Alan Beith
Sir Alan James Beith (born 20 April 1943) is a British Liberal Democrat politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Alan Beith was born in 1943 in Poynton, in Cheshire. He was educated at The King's School, Macclesfield, Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics graduating in 1964, and Nuffield College where he obtained a Bachelor of Letters (BLitt) degree.
In 1966 he began his career as a politics lecturer at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1969 he was elected a councillor on the Hexham District Council. In 1970 he was elected to the Corbridge Town Council. He contested the 1970 general election at Berwick-upon-Tweed but was defeated heavily by the Conservative MP Antony Lambton.
In 1973 Alan Beith was elected to the North Tynedale District Council, and later in the year Antony Lambton resigned as the MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed in great scandal. At the by-election later that year, Beith secured a victory and was elected as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Berwick-upon-Tweed on 8 November 1973 by just 57 votes.
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Alan Duncan
Alan James Carter Duncan (born 31 March 1957) is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rutland and Melton, and a Minister of State in the Department for International Development.
Duncan began his career in the oil industry with Royal Dutch Shell, and was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1992 general election. After several minor positions in the government of John Major, he played a key role in William Hague's successful bid for the Conservative leadership in 1997. He received several promotions to the Conservative front bench until he eventually joined the Shadow Cabinet after the 2005 general election and stood for the Conservative leadership in 2005 but withdrew early on because of a lack of support. Eventual winner David Cameron appointed him Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in December 2005, the title of which was changed to Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform in July 2007, now the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
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Alan Haselhurst
Sir Alan Gordon Barraclough Haselhurst (born 23 June 1937) is a British Conservative politician who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Saffron Walden and was Chairman of Ways and Means from 14 May 1997 to 8 June 2010.
Alan Haselhurst was born in South Elmsall, near Hemsworth, Yorkshire, and was educated at the King Edward's School, Birmingham, Cheltenham College, Gloucestershire, and Oriel College, Oxford. Whilst in Oxford he was the President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1958 and served as both the secretary and treasurer for two years with the Oxford Union from 1959. Before his election to Parliament, he worked in management in the chemicals industry and became an unremunerated director when his father's pharmacy was incorporated. He was the Chairman of the Manchester Youth and Community Service from 1974 until he was re-elected to Parliament.
He worked as an election agent for the Conservative MP for Hertford Robin Balniel at both the 1964 and 1966 general elections. Beginning in 1964, he served for two years as the Chairman of the National Young Conservatives. He was elected to the House of Commons at the 1970 general election for the Lancashire seat of Middleton and Prestwich, defeating the Labour MP Denis Coe by 1,042 votes. Haselhurst lost the seat at the next February 1974 general election to Labour's Jim Callaghan by just 517 votes (this is not the same James (Jim) Callaghan who later became Prime Minister, and later still Lord Callaghan of Cardiff). The Conservative MP for the Essex seat of Saffron Walden, Peter Kirk, died on 17 April 1977, and Haselhurst was selected to contest the subsequent by-election on 7 July. Alan Haselhurst won the seat with a majority of 12,437 and has remained the MP there since.
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Alan Johnson
Alan Arthur Johnson (born 17 May 1950) is a British Labour Party politician who served as Home Secretary from June 2009 to May 2010. Before that, he filled a wide variety of cabinet positions in both the Blair and Brown governments, including Health Secretary and Education Secretary. Until 20 January 2011 he was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. Johnson has been the Member of Parliament for Hull West and Hessle since 1997.
Born in London on 17 May 1950, the son of Stephen and Lillian Johnson, he was orphaned at the age of 12 when his mother died. Johnson was then in effect brought up by his older sister when the two were assigned a council flat by their child welfare officer. He passed the 11 plus exam and attended Sloane Grammar School in Chelsea, now part of Pimlico Academy, and left school at the age of 15. He then stacked shelves at Tesco before becoming a postman at 18. He was interested in music and joined two pop music bands. Johnson joined the Union of Communication Workers, becoming a branch official. He joined the Labour Party in 1971, although he considered himself a Marxist ideologically aligned with the Communist Party of Great Britain. A full-time union official from 1987, he became General Secretary of the newly formed Communication Workers Union in 1993 following a series of union mergers.
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Alex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond ( /ˈsæmənd/; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Gordon. From 1987 to 2010 he served as Member of Parliament for Banff and Buchan in the UK House of Commons. Salmond previously held the position of leader of the SNP from September 1990 until he stepped down in September 2000.
Originally from Linlithgow, West Lothian, Salmond is a graduate of the University of St Andrews, where he achieved a Joint Honours MA in Economics and History. After earning his degree he began his career in the Government Economic Service (GES), and later joined the Royal Bank of Scotland as an energy economist where he wrote and broadcast extensively for both domestic and international media outlets.
Following the establishment of the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999, he was elected MSP for Banff and Buchan, thus simultaneously representing the area as both Member of Parliament (MP) and MSP. Salmond resigned as SNP leader in 2000 and did not seek re-election to the Scottish Parliament. He did however retain his Westminster seat in the 2001 general election. Salmond was once again elected SNP leader in 2004 and the following year held his Banff and Buchan seat in the 2005 general election. In 2006 he announced his intention to contest the Gordon constituency in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, an election in which Salmond defeated the incumbent MSP and in which nationally, the SNP emerged as the largest single party. Salmond was voted First Minister by the Scottish Parliament on 16 May 2007.
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Alistair Darling
Alistair Maclean Darling (born 28 November 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1987, currently for Edinburgh South West. He served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2007 to 2010. Darling was one of only three people to have served in the Cabinet continuously from Labour's victory in 1997 until its defeat in 2010 (the others being Gordon Brown and Jack Straw).
Darling was initially appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 1997, moving to become Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in 1998. Spending four years at the department, he spent another four years as Secretary of State for Transport, also becoming Secretary of State for Scotland in 2003. Prime Minister Tony Blair moved Darling for a final time, to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in 2006, before Gordon Brown promoted Darling to Chancellor in 2007.
Alistair Darling was born in London the son of a civil engineer, Thomas, and his wife, Anna. He is the great-nephew of Sir William Darling, who was Conservative MP for Edinburgh South (1945–1957). He was educated in Kirkcaldy, and the private Loretto School,Musselburgh, East Lothian, then attended the University of Aberdeen where he was awarded a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B). He became the President of Aberdeen University Students' Representative Council.
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Aneurin Bevan
Aneurin "Nye" Bevan (pronounced /əˈnaɪrɪn/; Welsh: [aˈnəɨ.rin]; 15 November 1897 – 6 July 1960) was a Welsh Labour Party politician who was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1959 until his death in 1960. The son of a coal miner, Bevan was a lifelong champion of social justice and the rights of working people. He was a long-time Member of Parliament (MP), representing Ebbw Vale for 31 years, and became recognised as one of the leaders of the party’s left wing, and of left-wing British thought generally. His most famous accomplishment came when, as Minister of Health in the post-war Attlee government, he spearheaded the establishment of the National Health Service, which provides medical care free at point-of-need to all Britons.
Bevan was born in Tredegar, Monmouthshire, in the South Wales Valleys and on the northern edge of the South Wales coalfield, the son of miner David Bevan and Phoebe née Prothero, a seamstress. Both Bevan's parents were Nonconformists; his father was a Baptist and his mother a Methodist. One of ten children, Bevan did poorly at school and his academic performance was so bad that his headmaster made him repeat a year. At age 13, Bevan left school and began working in the local Tytryst Colliery. David Bevan had been a supporter of the Liberal Party in his youth, but was converted to socialism by the writings of Robert Blatchford in the Clarion and joined the Independent Labour Party.
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Ann Widdecombe
Ann Noreen Widdecombe (born 4 October 1947) is a former British Conservative Party politician and has been a novelist since 2000. She is a Privy Councillor and was the Member of Parliament for Maidstone from 1987 to 1997 and for Maidstone and The Weald from 1997 to 2010. She was a social conservative and a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship. She retired from politics at the 2010 general election. Since 2002 she has also made numerous television and radio appearances, including as a television presenter. She is a convert from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism.
When an MP Widdecombe was known for her strong socially conservative views, opposing the legality of abortion and supporting the re-introduction of the death penalty.
Born in Bath, Somerset, Widdecombe is the daughter of a Ministry of Defence civil servant James Murray Widdecombe and Rita N Plummer. She attended the Royal Navy School in Singapore, and a convent school in Bath. She then read Latin at Birmingham University and later attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). She worked for Unilever (1973–75) and then as an administrator at the University of London (1975–87) before entering Parliament.
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Arnold Savage
Sir Arnold Savage of Bobbing, Kent (8 September 1358 – 1410) was the English Speaker of the House of Commons from 1400 to 1402 and then again from 1403 to 1404 and a Knight of the Shire of Kent who was referred to as "the great comprehensive symbol of the English people".
He was born in Bobbing, Kent, the son and heir of Sir Arnold Savage.
He was appointed Sheriff of Kent for 1382 and 1386 and knighted in 1385. He was elected knight of the shire (MP) for Kent in 1390, 1391, 1401, 1402 and 1404, being elected speaker twice. He was constable of Queenborough castle from 1393 to 1396 and deputy constable of Dover castle. He was a member of the council of Henry IV from 1402 to 1406.
On his death in 1410 he was buried at Bobbing church. He had married Joan Echyngham, daughter of William Echyngham. He was succeeded by his son, also Arnold, who was also an MP for Kent. Their daughter Elizabeth Savage (died 1451) married Reynold Cobham, 4th Baron Cobham.
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Arthur Onslow
Arthur Onslow (1 October 1691 – 17 February 1768) was an English politician. He set a record for length of service when repeatedly elected to serve as Speaker of the House of Commons, where he was known for his integrity.
Onslow was born in Kensington, the elder son of Foot Onslow (died 1710) and his wife Susannah. He was educated at The Royal Grammar School, Guildford and Winchester College and matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford in 1708, although he took no degree. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1713, but had no great practice in law.
When George I came to the throne, Onslow's uncle Sir Richard Onslow was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. Arthur became his private secretary. When Richard left office in 1715, Arthur obtained a place as receiver general of the Post Office. He became recorder of Guildford in 1719. As his Post Office position was not compatible with a parliamentary seat, he passed it on to his younger brother Richard when he entered Parliament in 1720 for Guildford.
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Bernard Weatherill
Bruce Bernard Weatherill, Baron Weatherill, PC, DL, KStJ (25 November 1920 – 6 May 2007) was a British Conservative Party politician who became Speaker of the House of Commons.
After attending Malvern College, he was apprenticed at age 17 as a tailor to the family firm Bernard Weatherill Ltd, Sporting Tailors, later of Savile Row. He later became Director (1948), then Managing Director (1958), then Chairman (1967) of the business. After it merged with Kilgour French & Stanbury Ltd., Tailors in 1969, he became Chairman of the combined firms. He resumed his role with the company after his retirement from the House of Commons in 1992, serving as President until the firm was acquired by others in 2003. Some of the clothes he designed are preserved in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum and other museum collections.
Following his mother's advice, he always carried his tailoring thimble in his pocket as a reminder of his trade origins and the need for humility, no matter how high one rises. He said that he desired his epitaph to be "He always kept his word."
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Betty Boothroyd
Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd, OM, PC (born 8 October 1929) is a British politician, who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich and West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000, initially for the Labour Party and, from 1992 to 2000, as Speaker of the House of Commons. She was the first, and to date only, female Speaker.
Boothroyd was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, in 1929, to Archibald and Mary Boothroyd, textile workers. She was educated at council schools and went on to study at Dewsbury College of Commerce and Art. In the 1940s, she enjoyed a career as a dancer, as a member of the Tiller Girls dancing troupe.
In 1960, she travelled to the United States to see the Kennedy campaign. She subsequently began work in Washington as a legislative assistant for an American Congressman, Silvio Conte, between 1960 and 1962. When she returned to London she continued her work as secretary and political assistant to various senior Labour politicians. In 1965 she was elected to a seat on Hammersmith Borough Council, in Gibbs Green ward, where she remained until 1968.
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Caroline Spelman
Caroline Alice Spelman (née Cormack; born 4 May 1958) is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Meriden in the West Midlands since 1997. In May 2010 she became Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in David Cameron's coalition cabinet, and was sworn as a Privy Counsellor on 13 May 2010.
Born in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, Spelman attended Herts and Essex High School for Girls (now called The Hertfordshire and Essex High School), in Warwick Road, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, and received a BA First Class in European Studies from Queen Mary College, University of London.
She was Sugar Beet commodity secretary for the National Farmer's Union from 1981 to 1984. She was deputy director of the International Confederation of European Beet Growers (officially known as La Confédération Internationale des Betteraviers Européens – CIBE) in Paris from 1984–9, then a research fellow for the Centre for European Agricultural Studies (part of the University of Kent and since 2000 known as the Centre for European Agri-Environmental Economics) from 1989 to 1993. She co-owns Spelman, Cormack & Associates, a lobbying firm for the food and biotechnology industry, with her husband. Based in Dorridge (her constituency is in the Borough of Solihull).
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Chaloner Chute
Chaloner Chute (died 14 April 1659) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1654 and 1659. He was Speaker briefly in 1659.
Chute was the son of Chaloner Chute of the Middle Temple. He was admitted to Middle Temple and was called to the bar. He developed a great reputation at the bar and was defence lawyer in several high-profile cases including Sir Edward Herbert (the king's attorney-general), Archbishop Laud, the eleven members of the House of Commons charged by Fairfax and his army as delinquents, and James Duke of Hamilton. In 1653 he bought The Vyne, the Tudor palace which is located mear Sherborne St John on the outskirts of Basingstoke in Hampshire. He demolished much of the northern part of the decaying building and employed the architect John Webb, a pupil of Inigo Jones, to add the portico to the north front in the 1650s, the first of its kind on an English country house.
Chute was elected Member of Parliament for Middlesex in the Second Protectorate Parliament in 1656 (but was prevented from taking his seat). He was elected MP for Middlesex again to the Third Protectorate Parliament in 1659 and became its first Speaker. However he had to stand down because of ill health and died in April.
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Christopher Wray
Sir Christopher Wray (1524 – 7 May 1592) was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.
Wray, the third son of Thomas Wray, seneschal in 1535 of Coverham Abbey, Yorkshire, by Joan, daughter of Robert Jackson of Gatenby, Bedale, in the same county, was born at Bedale in 1524. The ancient doubts, revived by Lord Campbell as to his legitimacy, were removed by the publication in 1857 of the wills of his mother (by her second marriage wife of John Wycliffe, auditor of issues in the Richmond district) and his brother-in-law, Ralph Gower. The pedigree, however, was first traced with accuracy from the Wrays of Waisleydale by the Rev. Octavius Wray in the Genealogist.
Wray was an alumnus of Buckingham (refounded during his residence as Magdalene) College, Cambridge. Though apparently no graduate, he was a loyal son to his alma mater, and set a high value on learning. Tradition ascribes to him the adornment of the college with the rich Renaissance west porch, and a deed dated 16 July 1587 shows that he had then built or rebuilt a portion of the edifice containing three stories of four rooms apiece, which were appropriated to the use of two fellows and six scholars, whose maintenance he secured by a rentcharge. He added another fellowship by his will; two more were founded by his wife in 1591, and a fellowship and two scholarships by his second daughter in 1625.
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Clement Higham
Sir Clement Higham, Knight, of Barrow Hall, Suffolk, (died 9 March 1571), was a Member of Parliament, Speaker of the House of Commons (1554–1555), Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and a Privy Councillor to Queen Mary. He was also a barrister-at-law and a Reader and Governor of Lincoln's Inn in London.
He married (after 1528) Anne (1506–1590), daughter of Sir George Waldegrave (1483–1528) of Smallbridge in Bures St. Mary, Suffolk, by his wife Anne (d.1572), daughter of Sir Robert Drury, Lord of the Manors of Thurston, and Hawstead, Suffolk, (1455–1536). (See also Waldegrave family).
Sir Clement Higham was buried in the parish church at Barrow, Suffolk, where there is an altar tomb in the chancel with effigy brasses, arms, and long eulogistic inscription, and his heraldic coat of arms is displayed in a window at Lincoln's Inn.
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David Beamish
David Richard Beamish (born 20 August 1952; Carlisle, Cumbria, England) is a British public servant who has been the Clerk of the Parliaments, the chief clerk in the House of Lords, since 16 April 2011.
Beamish became a clerk with the House of Lords in 1974 and was promoted to Senior Clerk in 1979. He was seconded to the Cabinet Office to serve as Private Secretary (jointly) to the Leader of the House of Lords and Government Chief Whip in the Lords (1983–86). In 1987, he was appointed Chief Clerk, serving until being appointed Principal Clerk in 1993. He served as Clerk of the Journals from 1993 to 1995. He then served as Clerk of Committees and Clerk of the Overseas Office from 1995 to 2002, until returning to the Journals role, in which he served until 2005. He served as Reading Clerk from 2005 to 2007, when he was appointed Clerk Assistant (the second-ranking clerk in the Lords). He was promoted to Clerk of the Parliaments on 16 April 2011.
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David Blunkett
David Blunkett (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, having represented Sheffield Brightside from 1987 to 2010. Blind since birth, and coming from a poor family in one of Sheffield's most deprived districts, he rose to become Education and Employment Secretary, Home Secretary and Work and Pensions Secretary in Tony Blair's Cabinet following Labour's victory in the 1997 general election.
He was promoted to become Home Secretary following the 2001 general election, a position he held until 2004, when he resigned following highly publicised matters related to his personal life. Following the 2005 general election, he was appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, though he resigned from that role later that year following a large amount of media coverage relating to external business interests in the period when he did not hold a cabinet post.
Blunkett was born on 6 June 1947 at Jessop Hospital, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, with improperly developed optic nerves due to a rare genetic disorder. He grew up in an underprivileged family and in 1959, he endured a family tragedy when his father was gravely injured in an industrial accident in which he fell into a vat of boiling water while at work as a foreman for the East Midlands Gas Board and died a month later. This left the surviving family in poverty, especially since the board refused to pay compensation for two years because his father worked past the retirement age, dying at age 67.
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David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (pronunciation: /ˈkæmərən/; born 9 October 1966) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. He represents Witney as its Member of Parliament (MP).
Cameron studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford, gaining a first class honours degree. He then joined the Conservative Research Department and became Special Adviser to Norman Lamont, and then to Michael Howard. He was Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communications for seven years.
He was defeated in his first candidacy for Parliament at Stafford in 1997, but was elected in 2001 as the Member of Parliament for the Oxfordshire constituency of Witney. He was promoted to the Opposition front bench two years later, and rose rapidly to become head of policy co-ordination during the 2005 general election campaign. With a public image of a youthful, moderate candidate who would appeal to young voters, he won the Conservative leadership election in 2005.
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David Leakey
Lieutenant-General Arundell David Leakey CMG, CBE (born 1952) is a former British military commander. He was Director General of the European Union Military Staff in the Council of the European Union, Brussels. In 2010 he was appointed Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod.
Leakey was educated at Sherborne School. He read law at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.
After attending the Royal Military College Sandhurst, Leakey was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment as a Second Lieutenant in 1971. He served in the UK, Northern Ireland, Germany, Bosnia and in Canada in armoured vehicles and in tanks (Chieftain and Challenger).
After a tour at Staff College, Camberley in 1984, he was appointed Chief of Staff at 7th Armoured Brigade (Germany), Military Assistant to the Chief of the Defence Staff and then Commanding Officer of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment. He went on to be Colonel Military Operations in the Ministry of Defence with responsibility for Operations Planning and Policy affecting Eastern and Western Europe in 1993 (in which capacity he was the UK Military Representative at the Bosnia peace negotiations in Dayton), Commander of 20th Armoured Brigade in Germany in 1996 (in which role he was deployed to Bosnia) and Director of Military Operations in the Ministry of Defence in 1997.
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David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was a British Liberal politician and statesman. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the head of a wartime coalition government between the years 1916–22 and was the Leader of the Liberal Party from 1926–31.
During a long tenure of office, mainly as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was a key figure in the introduction of many reforms which laid the foundations of the modern welfare state. He was the last Liberal to be Prime Minister, as his coalition premiership was supported more by Conservatives than by his own Liberals, and the subsequent split was a key factor in the decline of the Liberal Party as a serious political force. When he eventually became leader of the Liberal Party a decade later he was unable to lead it back to power.
He is best known as the highly energetic Prime Minister (1916–22) who guided the Empire through the First World War to victory over Germany and her allies. He was a major player at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 that reordered the world after the Great War. Lloyd George was a devout evangelical and an icon of 20th century liberalism as the founder of the welfare state. He is regarded as having made a greater impact on British public life than any other 20th century leader, thanks to his leadership of the war drive, his postwar role in reshaping Europe, and his introduction of Britain's social welfare system before the war.
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David Miliband
David Wright Miliband (born 15 July 1965) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Shields since 2001, and was the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2007 to 2010. He is the elder son of the late Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband. He and his brother, current Labour Leader Ed Miliband, were the first siblings to sit in the Cabinet simultaneously since Edward, Lord Stanley, and Oliver Stanley in 1938.
Born in London, Miliband studied at Oxford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he started his career at the Institute for Public Policy Research. At 29, Miliband became Tony Blair's Head of Policy whilst the Labour Party was in opposition and was a major contributor to Labour's manifesto for the 1997 general election which brought the party to power. Blair made him head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit from 1997 to 2001, following which Miliband was elected to parliament for the North East England seat of South Shields.
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Douglas Hurd
Douglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, CH, CBE, PC (born 8 March 1930), is a British Conservative politician and novelist, who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major between 1979 and his retirement in 1995.
Born in Marlborough, Wiltshire, Hurd first entered parliament in February 1974, as MP for the Mid Oxfordshire constituency (Witney from 1983). His first government post was as Minister for Europe, from 1979-83 (being the post's inaugural holder), and served in several cabinet posts from 1984 onwards, including Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1984–85), Home Secretary (1985–89) and Foreign Secretary (1989–95). He stood unsuccessfully for the Conservative Party leadership in 1990, but retired from frontline politics during a cabinet re-shuffle in 1995.
In 1997, Hurd entered the House of Lords. Viewed as one of the Conservative Party's senior elder statesmen, he is a patron of the Tory Reform Group, and remains an active figure in public life.
Douglas Hurd was born in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, in 1930. His father Anthony Hurd (later Baron Hurd) and grandfather Sir Percy Hurd had both been Members of Parliament. Hurd attended Twyford School and Eton College. He then went on to Cambridge University, where he earned a first class degree in History at Trinity College and served as the President of the Cambridge Union Society.
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Ed Balls
Edward Michael Balls, (born 25 February 1967) is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Morley and Outwood since 2010, and is the current Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. From 2005 to 2010, he was the MP for Normanton and he served in the Cabinet from 2007 to 2010.
Balls is married to current Shadow Home Secretary and fellow Labour MP Yvette Cooper. In 2008 they were the first married couple to serve together in a British Cabinet.
Balls' father is the zoologist Michael Balls, criticised for campaigning against the grammar school system in Norfolk, then sending his son to fee-paying schools. Balls was born in Norwich and educated at Bawburgh Primary School in Norwich, Crossdale Drive Primary School in Nottinghamshire, and then the private all-boys Nottingham High School, where he played the violin. He went on to attend Keble College, Oxford, where he gained a First in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (graduating ahead of David Cameron), and later Harvard, where he was a Kennedy Scholar specialising in Economics.
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Edmund Dudley
Edmund Dudley (c. 1462 or 1471/1472 – 17 August 1510) was an English administrator and a financial agent of King Henry VII. He served as Speaker of the House of Commons and President of the King's Council. After the accession of Henry VIII, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed the next year on a treason charge. While waiting for his execution he wrote The Tree of Commonwealth.
Edmund Dudley was the son of Sir John Dudley of Atherington and a grandson of John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley. After studying at Oxford and at Gray's Inn, Dudley came under the notice of Henry VII, and is said to have been made a privy councillor at the early age of 23. In 1492 he helped to negotiate the Peace of Etaples with France and soon assisted the King in checking the lawlessness of the barons. He and his colleague Sir Richard Empson were prominent councillors of the Council Learned in the Law, a special tribunal of Henry VII's reign, which collected debts owed to the King, requested bonds as surety, and employed further financial instruments against high born and wealthy subjects. Henry VII took a strong interest in these procedures and closely supervised the accounts of the two men.
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Edward Coke
Sir Edward Coke SL PC ( /ˈkʊk/, formerly /ˈkuːk/; 1 February 1552 – 3 September 1634) was an English barrister, judge and politician considered to be the greatest jurist of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. Born into a middle class family, Coke was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge before leaving to study at the Inner Temple, where he was called to the Bar on 20 April 1578. As a barrister he took part in several notable cases, including Slade's Case, before earning enough political favour to be returned to Parliament, where he served first as Solicitor General and then as Speaker of the House of Commons. Following a promotion to Attorney General he led the prosecution in several notable cases, including Robert Devereux, Sir Walter Raleigh and the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. As a reward for his services he was first knighted, and then made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.
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Edward FitzRoy
Captain The Right Honourable Edward Algernon FitzRoy, DL (24 July 1869 – 3 March 1943) was a British Conservative politician who served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1928 until his death.
As a boy, he served as a Page of Honour to Queen Victoria.
A member of Northamptonshire County Council from 1896 to 1921, FitzRoy first entered Parliament in 1900 General election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Northamptonshire South. He was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Northamptonshire in 1901. He was re-elected during the January 1910 General Election for Northamptonshire South. He held the seat in the December 1910 General Election.
During World War I, whilst still an MP, he served in the military as a Captain of the 1st Regiment of Life Guards, was injured at the First Battle of Ypres and commanded the mounted troops of the Guards Division from 1915–16.
In the 1918 General Election, he was elected for the seat of Daventry. He held the seat in the 1922 General Election, the 1923 General Election,, the 1924 General Election, the 1929 General Election, and the 1935 General Election.
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Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, MBE (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, poet, writer, linguist and soldier. He served as a Conservative Party MP (1950–74), Ulster Unionist Party MP (1974–1987), and Minister of Health (1960–63). He attained most prominence in 1968, when he made the controversial Rivers of Blood speech against immigration. He was then controversially sacked from his position as Shadow Defence Secretary (1965–68) in the Shadow Cabinet of Edward Heath. He had few friends in the establishment, but a poll said that 74% of the population agreed with him.
However, his supporters claim that the large public following that Powell attracted may have helped the Conservatives to win the 1970 general election, and perhaps cost them the February 1974 general election, at which Powell turned his back on the Conservatives by endorsing a vote for Labour, who returned as a minority government in early March following a hung parliament. He returned to the House of Commons in October 1974 as the Ulster Unionist Party MP for the Northern Irish constituency of South Down until he was defeated in the 1987 general election.
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Francis Rous
Francis Rous or Rouse (1579 – January 1659) was an English politician and a prominent Puritan. He was also Provost of Eton, and wrote several theological and devotional works.
He was born at Dittisham in Devon in 1579, and educated at Broadgates Hall, Oxford and the University of Leiden, graduating at the former in January 1596-97, and at the latter thirteen months afterwards. In 1601 he entered the Middle Temple, but soon afterwards retired to Landrake. For some years he lived in seclusion in Cornwall and occupied himself with theological studies.
He took a leading part in Parliament: he was elected to Parliament for Cornwall in 1604 and 1656; for Truro 1626, 1640 (twice) and 1654; for Tregony 1628; and for Devon 1653. In the 1628 parliament he took part in the ferocious criticisms of Roger Mainwaring.
In the Long Parliament Rous opened the debate on the legality of William Laud's new canons on 9 December 1640, and presented the articles of impeachment against John Cosin on 15 March 1641. When the Westminster Assembly was set up, 12 June 1643, he was nominated one of its lay assessors, and on 23 September 1643 he took the Solemn League and Covenant. He was chairman of the committee for ordination of ministers constituted on 2 October 1643 following, and a member of the committee of appeals appointed for the visitation of the University of Oxford on 1 May 1647. On 16 July 1648 he was sworn of the Derby House Committee.
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George Osborne
George Gideon Oliver Osborne,MP (born 23 May 1971 in Paddington, London) is a British Conservative politician. He is the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, a role to which he was appointed in May 2010, and has been the Member of Parliament for Tatton since 2001.
Osborne is part of the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy, known in Ireland as the Ascendancy. He is the heir to the Osborne baronetcy (of Ballentaylor, in County Tipperary, and Ballylemon, in County Waterford).
He was educated at St Paul's School and Magdalen College, University of Oxford, before entering politics.
Osborne is the eldest of four sons. His father, Sir Peter Osborne, 17th Baronet, co-founded the firm of fabric and wallpapers designers Osborne & Little. His mother is Felicity Alexandra Loxton-Peacock, the daughter of artist Lady Clarisse Loxton Peacock.
Originally named Gideon Oliver, he changed his name to George when he was 13. In an interview in July 2005, Osborne said: "It was my small act of rebellion. I never liked it. When I finally told my mother she said, 'Nor do I'. So I decided to be George after my grandfather, who was a war hero. Life was easier as a George; it was a straightforward name."
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George Walden
George Gordon Harvey Walden (born 15 September 1939) is a British journalist and a former Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) who served as the Minister for Higher Education from 1985-87.
Walden worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office between 1962–83, where he specialised in the Soviet Union, China and France. He was elected as the MP for Buckingham at the 1983 general election. He served as Minister for Higher Education between 1985 and 1987. He retired from parliament at the 1997 general election. His memoirs, entitled Lucky George, were published in 1999. His other books include Time to Emigrate, New Elites: A Career in the Masses, Who is a Dandy and God won't save America.
Walden was educated at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, London, and at Jesus College, Cambridge. He and also spent periods in Moscow, Hong Kong and Harvard universities, as well as the École nationale d'administration in Paris.
Celia Walden is his daughter.
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Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007, becoming the longest-serving holder of that office in modern history. Brown has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1983, for Dunfermline East until 2005, and currently for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.
Brown became Prime Minister on 27 June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming Leader of the governing Labour Party. His tenure ended on 11 May 2010, when he resigned as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Brown was one of only three people to serve in the Cabinet continuously from Labour's victory in 1997 until its defeat in 2010, the others being Jack Straw and Alistair Darling.
Brown has a PhD in history from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as a lecturer at a further education college and a television journalist. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1983; first for Dunfermline East and since 2005 for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. As Prime Minister, he also held the offices of First Lord of the Treasury and the Minister for the Civil Service.
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Gordon Marsden
Gordon Marsden (born 28 November 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackpool South since 1997.
Marsden was educated at Stockport Grammar School, an independent school in the city of Stockport in Cheshire, followed by New College, Oxford where he attained a first-class degree in Modern History. He then went on to postgraduate studies at the Warburg Institute (part of the University of London) and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, being a Kennedy Scholar in Politics and International Relations.
Before entering Parliament he had been a tutor for the Open University since 1994, as well as a public affairs adviser to English Heritage and, for twelve years, the editor of History Today and New Socialist magazine.
Marsden first contested the seat of Blackpool South in 1992 and won it in 1997. Once elected to Parliament, Gordon served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Lord Irvine of Lairg in the Lord Chancellor's Department (2001-3), Tessa Jowell as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (2003-5) and John Denham as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and shadow communities secretary (2009-).
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Henry Powle
Henry Powle (18 October 1630 – 21 November 1692) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1660 and 1690. He was Speaker of the House of Commons from January 1689 to February 1689. He was also Master of the Rolls.
Born at Shottesbrook in 1630, he was second son of Henry Powle, who was sheriff for Berkshire in 1633, by his wife Katherine, daughter of Matthew Herbert of Monmouth. His brother Sir Richard Powle was M.P. for Berkshire in 1660–1, was knighted in 1661, and died in 1678.
Henry matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 16 December 1646. He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 11 May 1647, and became a barrister in 1654 and bencher in 1659. In April 1660 he was elected Member of Parliament for Cirencester in the Convention Parliament..
On 3 January 1671, Powle was elected MP for Cirencester again in the Cavalier Parliament. At the time he held property at Williamstrop or Quenington in Gloucestershire, and was usually described as of the latter place. He first appeared in debate in February 1673, when he attacked Lord-chancellor Shaftesbury's practice of issuing writs for by-elections during the recess without the speaker's warrant. As a result of the debate all the elections were declared void, 6 February 1673. Subsequently he opposed the Declaration of Indulgence, Charles II of England's measure of religious toleration, wishing disabilities for Catholics and dissenters to continue.
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Henry Redford
Sir Henry Redford or Retford (died ca. 1409) was a Knight of the Shire, Sheriff of Lincolnshire and the Speaker of the House of Commons.
In 1384 he served on a number of royal commissions and was knighted.
After serving with Richard II on an ill-fated Scottish campaign in 1385 he accompanied John of Gaunt in 1386 on his expedition to Spain. In 1389, 1392 and 1397 he served as High Sheriff of Lincolnshire and represented Lincolnshire in parliament as Knight of the Shire for 1400, and in 1401 was summoned to the privy council.
In 1402 he again represented Lincolnshire in the parliament that met on 1 Oct 1402 and two days later he was elected speaker. The parliament was held at Coventry before moving to Westminster (due to problems with lodgings and food), with the Lord Chancellor asking for:
Ways and means for maintaining the war against Scotland, for utterly subjecting the enemies of Wales, for wholly conquering Ireland and for defending Guienne, Calais and the Marches thereof.
Alarmed at the scale of the request, Parliament took several days to consider it, but found they couldn't come to any conclusion. On 10 October they asked permission to confer with members of the House of Lords, which the King granted under duress. As a result 4 Bishops, 4 Earls and 4 Barons were ordered to attend, and the end decision was a three-shilling tax on wine and a 15 pence tax on merchandise to sponsor the King's efforts. It is reported that Henry was so pleased with the result that he invited both houses to dine with him privately.
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Howard Flight
Howard Emerson Flight, Baron Flight (born 16 June 1948) is a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom and a member of the House of Lords. He was Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs from 1997 to 2005. He held several Shadow posts: Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury 1999-2001, Shadow Paymaster General to 2002, then Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Flight was educated at Brentwood School, Magdalene College, Cambridge and the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. From 1970 to 1998 he worked as an investment adviser and director in various banks. He stood unsuccessfully for Parliament for Bermondsey in the February and October 1974 general elections. Flight is author of All you Need to know about Exchange Rates (1989), and contributor to the book The City in Europe and the World (2005). He has been married to Christabel since 1974; they have four children: Kitty, Thomas, Josie and Maryanne.
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Humphrey Wingfield
Humphrey Wingfield (died 1545) was an English lawyer, Speaker of the House of Commons of England between 1533 and 1536.
He was the twelfth son of Sir John Wingfield of Letheringham, Suffolk, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John FitzLewis of West Horndon, Essex; Sir Richard Wingfield (1469?-1525) and Sir Robert Wingfield were his brothers. Humphrey was educated at Gray's Inn, where he was elected Lent Reader in 1517. He had been on the commission of the peace both for Essex and Suffolk since 1509 at least.
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk was a cousin of the Wingfields, Humphrey being one of his trustees. and probably through his influence Wingfield was introduced at court. In 1515 he was appointed chamberlain to Suffolk's wife Mary Tudor, Queen of France, and was apparently resident in her house. On 28 May 1517 he was nominated upon the royal commission for inquiring into illegal inclosures in Suffolk. He appears to have acted in 1518, together with his eldest brother, Sir John Wingfield, as a financial agent between the government and the Duke of Suffolk.
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Iain Duncan Smith
George Iain Duncan Smith (born 9 April 1954; often referred to by his initials "IDS") is a British Conservative politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and was previously leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to October 2003. He was first elected to parliament at the 1992 General Election as the MP for Chingford and has represented its successor constituency of Chingford and Woodford Green since the 1997 General Election.
Duncan Smith was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and served in the Scots Guards from 1975 to 1981, with service in Northern Ireland and Rhodesia. He joined the Conservative Party in 1981, and was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1992. When William Hague resigned as Conservative Party leader in 2001, Duncan Smith won the subsequent leadership election, bolstered by the support of Margaret Thatcher and his Eurosceptic ideology. Duncan Smith was the first Roman Catholic to serve as Conservative Party leader, and the first born in Scotland since Arthur Balfour.
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Iain Macleod
Iain Norman Macleod (11 November 1913 – 20 July 1970) was a British Conservative Party politician and government minister.
Iain Macleod was born at Clifford House, Skipton, Yorkshire on 11 November 1913. His parents were from the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles of Scotland. They moved to Skipton in 1907. Macleod grew up with strong personal and cultural ties to Scotland, as his parents bought in 1917 part of the Leverhulme estate on the Isle of Lewis. Macleod's father, Dr. Norman Alexander Macleod, was a well-respected general practitioner in Skipton, with a substantial poor-law practice.
He was educated at Ermysted's Grammar School in Skipton, North Yorkshire and Fettes College in Edinburgh. Macleod showed no great academic talent but did develop an enduring love of literature, especially poetry, which he read and memorised in great quantity and his results were good enough for him in 1932 to go to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he obtained a Lower Second in History three years later, in 1935.
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Jack Straw
John Whitaker "Jack" Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackburn since 1979. He served as Home Secretary from 1997 to 2001, Foreign Secretary from 2001 to 2006 and Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons from 2006 to 2007 under Tony Blair. From 2007 to 2010 he was the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain and the Secretary of State for Justice, appointed as part of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's first Cabinet. Straw is one of only three people to have served in Cabinet continuously from 1997 to 2010 (the others being Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling).
When the Labour Party lost power in May 2010, he briefly became the Shadow Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and the Shadow Deputy Prime Minister, but stood down from the frontbench after the Labour Party elected a new Shadow Cabinet.
Straw was born in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, England. One of his maternal great-grandparents was a Jewish German immigrant. Straw was brought up at Loughton, Essex by his mother, Joan Sylvia Gilbey on a council estate after his father Walter Arthur Whitaker Straw, an insurance salesman, left the family and condemned them to poverty. Walter Straw had been sent to prison in 1939 for being a conscientious objector.
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James Dyer
Sir James Dyer (1510 – 1582) was a judge and Speaker of the House of Commons during the reign of Edward VI of England.
Dyer was knighted at Whitehall on 9 April 1553, Strand Inn, preparatory 1520s, Middle Temple abt. 1530, called to the bar 1537?, bencher 1540s, serjeant-at-law 17 Oct. 1552, MP for Wells, in Somerset, and knight of the shire for Cambridgeshire 1547 and 1553, speaker of the house of commons 1553, justice of the peace for Cambridgeshire 1547, judge of the court of common pleas 1557, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas from January 1559 until his death.
"A judge of profound knowledge and judgment in the laws of the land, and principally in the form of good pleading and true entries of judgments, and of great piety and sincerity, who in his heart abhorred all corruption and deceit; of a bountiful and generous disposition, a patron and preferrer of men learned in the law and expert clerks; of singular assiduity and observation, as appears by his book of reports, all written with his own hand, and of a fine, reverend and venerable countenance and personage." (Coke, 9.14v–15)
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James Pickering
Sir James Pickering (died c. 1398) was Speaker of the House of Commons of England in 1378 (which met in Gloucester) and again from 1382 to 1383. The protestation which, as Speaker, he made for freedom of speech, and declaring the loyalty of the Commons, was the first recorded in the rolls.
He was descended from the knightly Pickering family of Killington, then in Westmorland, and was married to Elizabeth Greystoke. He owned land at Killington in Westmorland and Selby in Yorkshire and was knighted by 1361.
He was knight of the shire for Westmorland in 1362, 1365, 1377–1379 and 1382 and Cumberland in 1368. On 20 December 1368 he was commissioner of array in Westmorland, to choose twenty archers to serve under Sir William Windsor in Ireland. He served as MP for Yorkshire in 1383, 1384, 1388 and 1390, Sheriff of Yorkshire for 1389, 1393 and 1397 and MP for Yorkshire for the last time in September 1397.
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James Strangeways
James Strangeways (died ca. 1480) was Speaker of the House of Commons of England between 1461–1462.
He was the son of Sir James Strangeways of Whorlton, Yorkshire (appointed judge of the common pleas in 1426) by his wife Joan, daughter of Nicholas Orrell.
A Yorkist, he fought at the 1st battle of St Albans in 1455, Blore Heath in 1459, Wakefield in 1460, (when he was reported as killed) and Towton in 1461.
He was appointed High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1446, 1453, and 1469 and was returned for the county to the parliaments of 1449 and 1460.
He was appointed Speaker of the House of Commons in the first parliament of Edward IV, which met in November 1461. For the first time in English history the speaker addressed the king, immediately after his presentation and allowance, in a long speech reviewing the state of affairs and recapitulating the history of the civil war. The parliament transacted hardly any business other than numerous acts of attainder against Lancastrians. It was prorogued to 6 May 1462, and then dissolved. Strangeways then served on various commissions for the defence of the kingdom and suppression of rebellions, and sat regularly on the commissions of the peace for the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire.
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John Bercow
John Simon Bercow ( /ˈbɜrkoʊ/ BUR-koh; born 19 January 1963) is a British politician who has been the Speaker of the House of Commons since June 2009. Prior to his election to Speaker he was a member of the Conservative Party.
Bercow was born in Middlesex into a Jewish family and graduated from the University of Essex in 1985. In his youth, Bercow was active in the Conservative Party and was a member of several right-wing groups within the party. He served as a Councillor from 1986–1990 and unsuccessfully contested parliamentary seats in the 1987 and 1992 General Elections. In the 1997 General Election, Bercow was elected the MP for Buckingham and promoted to the shadow cabinet in 2001. He held posts in the Shadow Cabinets of Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard. In November 2002, he resigned from the Shadow Cabinet over disputes concerning the Adoption and Children Act but returned under Michael Howard in 2003. In September 2004, Bercow was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet after disagreements with leader Michael Howard.
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John Bussy
Sir John Bussy (died July 29, 1399) of Hougham in Lincolnshire was a Member of Parliament representing Lincolnshire or Rutland eleven times from 1383 to 1398 as a Knight of the Shire and was also Speaker of the House of Commons at the three Parliaments between 1393 and 1398. He was most famous for orchestrating the loss of power to an eighteen-man subcommittee.
He was the son of Sir William Bussy and Isabel Paynell, the daughter of John Paynell. He married twice; firstly in 1382 to Maud Neville, daughter of Sir Philip Neville and secondly in 1398 to Mary. He owned lands in Lincolnshire.
In 1378 secured a position with John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, as the Steward of all his lands north of the Trent. He worked for the Duke until 1397 but had by then (1391) entered the service of Richard II. He was High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1383, 1385 and 1390.
He became a close confidante and advisor of Richard and together with Sir Henry Green and Sir William Bagot became a "continual councillor". The three continual councillors went on to acquire an unsavoury reputation. When Henry Bolingbroke (King Henry IV) returned in 1399 from exile to forcibly claim his inheritance, Bussy was captured on 28 July at Bristol Castle, together with William le Scrope, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and Sir Henry Green, and the next day tried and beheaded for crimes of treason against the Kingdom.
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John Croke
Sir John Croke (1553 – 23 January 1620) was Speaker of the English House of Commons between October–December 1601. He was a lawyer and judge by profession, and was Recorder of London. Croke won the City of London constituency in his election to the 1601 parliament, and was the last Speaker before the death of Elizabeth I, in 1603.
Croke spent the early part of his career as a lawyer. He entered the Inner Temple in 1570, and received a call to the bar shortly after, becoming a "distinguished member". He was rewarded for his service as a lawyer with a silver gilt from the Lord Chancellor, Sir Christopher Hatton (d. 1591). Upon his father's death in 1584, he was deeded the Chilton manor house his grandfather had built, and Studley Priory, which he had purchased. Croke built his own manor house at Studley, though he moved his family to Chilton after his father's death.
Croke sat in the Windsor constituency in 1585, and was first elected for the City of London in 1597. He was made Lent Reader of the Inner Temple in 1596. He became Treasurer in 1598, and was subsequently appointed Recorder. Croke, in an era when intimidation of counsel was frequent, was noted for his 'discretion' in court. In 1602, Croke was involved in a divisive witchcraft case of the era, in which he performed a series of a tests on the 14-year-old accuser, Mary Glover, and the defendant, Elizabeth Jackson; he came to the conclusion that Glover was bewitched after witnessing her reaction to a disguised Jackson, and her unresponsiveness to heat, which left visible burns. The evidence obtained was used in trial, though Sir Edmund Anderson was principal judge; Jackson was convicted to one year's imprisonment, but was released early.
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John Doreward
John Doreward (died 1420) was a Serjeant-at-law and Speaker of the House
Outside the affairs of parliament, little is known of Doreward. He was apparently the son of William Doreward of Bocking, Essex who was a member of parliament for Essex in the eighteenth and twentieth parliaments of Edward III. According to James Alexander Manning, he was "of Dorewood Hall", and the name survives in 'Durward's', at Bocking in Essex and in 'Durward's Hall', between Witham and Kelvedon. At Bocking, he founded a chantry in 1397.
Doreward was appointed High Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire for 1399 and elected knight of the shire (MP) six times for Essex (1395, Jan 1397, 1399, Jan 1404, May 1413 and April 1414). He was elected Speaker of the House in 1399 and 1413.
The Constitutional History of England in its Origin and Development, vol. III, p. 18</ref> ... In the case of Sir John Cheyne, the Speaker elected in 1399, the excuse of ill-health was accepted by the king as valid; the clergy had in fact objected to the nomination; Sir John Cheyne withdrew, and John Doreward was chosen in his place.
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John Glanville
Sir John Glanville the younger (1586–2 October 1661),was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1644. He was Speaker of the English House of Commons during the Short Parliament. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.
Glanville was the son of Sir John Glanville the elder, of Broad Hinton in Wiltshire. His father was a judge and Member of Parliament. Glanville was brought up as an attorney, but entered Lincoln's Inn and was called to the bar on 6 February 1610. He was Recorder of Plymouth from 1614. He was elected Member of Parliament for Liskeard in 1614. In 1621 he was elected MP for Plymouth. He was re-elected MP for Plymouth in 1624. He was secretary to the Lord Admiral of the Fleet during the Duke of Buckingham's assault on Cádiz in 1625, and managed several of the articles of his impeachment over the next three years. He was re-elected MP for Plymouth in 1625 and opposed the Crown in the 1620s, preparing a protest against the dissolution of Parliament in 1625. He was re-elected MP for Plymouth in 1626. He was re-elected MP for Plymouth in 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. At some time he was proctor for the dean and chapter of Windsor.
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John Guildesborough
John Guildesborough or Gildesburgh (ca. 1331–1389) was Knight of the Shire for Essex and Speaker of the House of Commons of England in 1380.
He was born circa 1331 and educated at Oxford University. He was elected a Knight of the Shire to represent Essex five times between 1380 and 1388 and elected speaker of the house for both parliaments in 1380.
He married firstly Margery, daughter and coheir of Sir Henry Garnet of Wennington and secondly Elizabeth, daughter and eventual heiress of William Pembridge. He had no surviving children.
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John Henry Whitley
John Henry Whitley (1866–1935), often known as J. H. Whitley, was a respected and successful British politician whose life and career spanned a period of significant social change, from roots in the heart of the Industrial Revolution through to the inter-war period.
John Henry Whitley was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, on 8 February 1866 son of Nathan Whitley (1830–1889) from Ovenden. Nathan went on to serve as Mayor of Halifax (1876–1877), succeeding Edward Crossley, son of another local carpet manufacturer, John Crossley.
After an early education boarding at Wiseman's House, Clifton College, John Henry entered his uncle, Samuel Whitley's cotton spinning business, S. Whitley & Co. at Hanson Lane Mills, Skircoat, Halifax. Nathan was a partner in the business and took over after Samuel's death in 1884.
In 1892, John Henry married Margherita (Margaret) Virginia Marchetti. Margherita was born in Putney in 1872, a daughter of Italian, Julian (Giulio) Marchetti, who had served as an Officer under Garibaldi before settling in England to marry Anne Crossley in Halifax in 1871 and take his place in the carpet manufacturing business.
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John Puckering
Sir John Puckering (1544 in Flamborough, Yorkshire — 30 April 1596) was a lawyer, politician, Speaker of the English House of Commons, and Lord Keeper from 1592 until his death.
Puckering was born in 1544 in Flamborough, East Riding of Yorkshire, and was the second son of William Puckering. He entered Lincoln's Inn on 10 April 1559 and he was called to the bar on 15 January 1567. After some years' practice, he became a governor in 1575, and in 1577 became an elected reader in Lent. He became a sergeant at law in 1580.
Puckering became a member of parliament in 1581. On 23 November 1585, Parliament met and elected Puckering, who was returned for Bedford, as Speaker of the House of Commons. During this Parliament, a bill against Jesuits was brought up for discussion. Dr William Parry, who was later executed for high treason, said the bill was "cruel, bloody and desperate". Puckering ordered him into the custody of the sergeant-at-arms for his use of language, and after some discussion, Parry apologised and retook his seat. Puckering's skill with dispute solving and speeches was recognised, and he was elected as the Speaker in the next parliament, which opened on 15 October 1586 when he represented Gatton, Surrey. This was the parliament that decided the fate of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Puckering was heavily involved with the decision.
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John Say
Sir John Say, Kt. (died 12 April 1478) was an English courtier, MP and Speaker of the House of Commons.
He was the son of John Say, born before 1445, and his wife Maud. His brother, [Master] William Say, was Dean of the King’s Chapel, Master of the Hospital of St Anthony, London, Dean of St. Paul’s. Sir John owned land at Baas, Broxbourne, Little Berkhamsted and Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, and Lawford, Essex
Sir John Say trained as a lawyer and became a King's Serjeant, Coroner of the Marshalsea, Yeoman of the Chamber and Crown, Keeper of Westminster Palace, Squire of the Body and Privy Councillor.
In 1447 he entered Parliament as MP for Cambridge and was then in 1449 elected Knight of the Shire for Cambridgeshire, when he was also elected Speaker of the House of Commons. In June 1449 he was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and in 1449 was appointed sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk. By 1450, he was out of favor and in 1451 the Commons demanded his banishment from the court. However, he was pardoned in 1452.
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John Tyrell
Sir John Tyrrell (ca. 1382–2 April 1437) possessed the manor of Heron (in East Horndon), Essex, was Knight of the Shire for that county, and Speaker of the House of Commons.
He was born the eldest son of Walter Tyrell of Avon, Hampshire and was the nephew and heir of Sir Thomas Tyrell of Heron, Essex.
He was appointed High Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire in 1413 and again in 1423. He was elected knight of the shire for Essex 12 times between 1411 and 1437 and once for Hertfordshire in 1427. He was elected Speaker of the House three times (in 1421, 1429 and 1437).
He had the post of Chief Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster north of the Trent from 1427 until his death in 1437. He was a member of Henry VI’s council in France in 1431 and was Treasurer of the Royal Household from May 1431 until his death. He was also knighted in 1431.
He married firstly, before 1411, Alice, daughter and heiress of Sir William Coggeshall. They had six sons, including Thomas, and four daughters. He married secondly Katherine, daughter and coheiress of Sir William Burgate of Burgate, Suffolk and widow of Robert Stonham of Stonham Aspall, Suffo;k and of John Spencer of Banham, Norfolk. They had a daughter. His son and heir was Sir Thomas Tyrrell, of Heron (c. 1411 – March 28, 1476).
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John Whittingdale
John Flasby Lawrance Whittingdale OBE, (born (1959-10-16)October 16, 1959), is a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1992.
Whittingdale was educated at two independent schools: at Sandroyd School from 1968–1973, in Rushmore Park at the heart of Cranborne Chase near Tollard Royal in Wiltshire and at Winchester College in the county town of Winchester in Hampshire, followed by University College London (UCL) where he was Chairman of the UCL Conservative Society, and earned his BSc in Economics in 1982 (grade 2ii).[citation needed]
From 1982-4, Whittingdale was Head of the political section of the Conservative Research Department. He then served as Special Adviser to three successive Secretaries of State for Trade and Industry, Norman Tebbit, 1984-5; Leon Brittan, 1985-6, and Paul Channon, 1986-7. He worked on international privatisation at NM Rothschild in 1987 and in January 1988, became Political Secretary to the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Upon her resignation, Whittingdale received the OBE and he continued as her Political Secretary until his election to Parliament in 1992.[citation needed]
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Jonathan Aitken
Jonathan William Patrick Aitken (born 30 August 1942) is a former Conservative Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom for 24 years, and a former British government Cabinet minister. He was convicted of perjury in 1999 and received an 18-month prison sentence, of which he served seven months. He is currently president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
Aitken's parents were Sir William Aitken, a former Conservative MP, and Penelope Aitken, daughter of John Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby. Aitken is a great-nephew of newspaper magnate and war-time minister Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (Lord Beaverbrook). His sister is the actress Maria Aitken and his nephew is the actor Jack Davenport. He is godfather to James Abbott, the son of Labour left-winger Diane Abbott.
In 1999, DNA testing confirmed that Petrina Khashoggi, daughter of billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, was Aitken's biological child, the result of an affair with Soraya Khashoggi, née Sandra Daly, then wife of Adnan Khashoggi. His other children include twin daughters, Alexandra and Victoria Aitken, as well as his son William Aitken.
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Julian Lewis
Dr. Julian Murray Lewis (born 26 September 1951) is a British Conservative Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for New Forest East in Hampshire since the 1997 general election.
Born in Swansea, Wales, Dr. Julian Lewis was educated at Dynevor School, Swansea, at Balliol College, Oxford, from which he received an MA in Philosophy and Politics in 1977, and at St Antony's College, Oxford, from which he received a DPhil in Strategic Studies in 1981.
In 1976, with secret funding from the Freedom Association, he posed as a Labour Party moderate and briefly won control of Newham North East Constituency Labour Party, in an eventually unsuccessful attempt to reverse the deselection of the local MP, Reg Prentice. Prentice himself later joined the Conservatives.
Dr Lewis was a leading opponent of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and other Left-wing organisations, throughout the 1980s. From 1981-5, he was Research Director of the Coalition for Peace through Security. From 1985, he has been Director of Policy Research Associates. In Parliament, he actively pursues the retention and renewal of the British strategic nuclear deterrent, the UK Trident programme.
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Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Harry "Ken" Clarke, PC, QC, MP (born 2 July 1940) is a British Conservative politician, currently Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He was first elected to Parliament in 1970; and appointed a minister in Edward Heath's government in 1972. One of Britain's best-known politicians, his past government roles include Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Since 1997 he has been President of the Tory Reform Group.
Clarke was a minister throughout the 18 years of successive Conservative governments from 1979 to 1997, serving in the cabinets of both Margaret Thatcher and John Major. After the Conservative defeat in the 1997 general election Clarke became a backbencher. He has contested the Conservative Party leadership three times—in 1997, 2001 and 2005—and was defeated each time. Although he is considered popular with the general public, his pro-European integration views conflict with the modern Conservative Party's EU-sceptic stance. Notably, he is President of the Conservative Europe Group and Vice-President of the European Movement UK. Despite this conflict, and his involvement with the tobacco industry, Conservative leader David Cameron returned Clarke to the Shadow Cabinet in March 2009 as Shadow Business Secretary. When Cameron became Prime Minister in May 2010 he appointed Clarke Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice.
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Lislebone Long
Sir Lislebone Long (1613–1659), baptised Loveban, was born at Beckington, Somerset, the son of William Long of Stratton on the Fosse and Mary Lovibond. He graduated from Magdalen Hall, Oxford, 1630-31 with a B.A and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, 1640
Descended from the Longs of Wiltshire, in local affairs Long identified both before and during the civil wars with at least one of his Wiltshire relatives, Sir Walter Long, 1st Baronet of Whaddon who was an outspoken critic of the King. Like his cousin, he was a presbyterian and became an elder in parliament's presbyterian national church, with a later appointment to the parliamentary committee charged with settling the form of church government in England (1648). Following the end of royalist occupation, parliament's county committee in Somerset was revived in 1645, and Long was appointed as a member.
Long was known for his moderate stance in politics, which was also demonstrated in parliament, following his election to the Long Parliament as a recruiter MP for Wells (1645–53). He voiced his strong opposition to Pride's Purge (6 December 1648), and on the day following the purge, he acted as a teller on a critical vote. After a few occasional appearances, he eventually absented himself from the House of Commons in protest. He became a conformist by taking his dissent and resuming his seat in the Rump Parliament, although he played no part in the trial and execution of Charles I. From that point on he played an active role in the work of committees, his moderating influence reflected in government policies.
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Malcolm Rifkind
Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind KCMG, PC, QC, MP (born 21 June 1946) is a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Kensington. He served in various roles as a cabinet minister under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including Secretary of State for Scotland (1986–1990), Defence Secretary (1992–1995) and Foreign Secretary (1995–1997).
Rifkind was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh Pentlands from 1974 to 1997, when his party lost power and he lost his seat to the Labour Party. He attempted - unsuccessfully - to be re-elected in Pentlands in 2001; the constituency was abolished before the 2005 general election and he was adopted, and subsequently elected, as the Conservative candidate for Kensington and Chelsea. He announced his intention to seek the leadership of the party before the 2005 Conservative Party leadership election, but withdrew before balloting commenced. He was Chairman of the Standards and Privileges Committee of the House of Commons until the dissolution of the House of Commons on 12 April 2010. When the Kensington and Chelsea constituency was realigned to create the new seats of Chelsea and Fulham and Kensington, Rifkind stood for the latter seat and was elected at the 2010 general election with a 50.1% share of total votes cast, with a majority of 8,616 votes.
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Margaret Beckett
Margaret Mary Beckett (née Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby South since 1983, rising to become the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith, from 18 July 1992 to 12 May 1994, and briefly serving as Leader of the Party following Smith's death. She later served in the Cabinet under Tony Blair, most notably being appointed Foreign Secretary in 2006.
Beckett was first elected to Parliament in 1974 and held junior positions in the governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. She lost her seat in 1979 but returned to the House of Commons in 1983 and became a senior member of the Labour Party. She was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 1992 and was briefly its leader in 1994 following the premature death of John Smith, the first woman to occupy either role.
After Labour's victory in the 1997 general election, Beckett became a member of Tony Blair's Cabinet. Initially the President of the Board of Trade, she was later the Leader of the House of Commons and Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. In 2006, Blair appointed her Foreign Secretary, making her the first woman to hold the position, and—after Margaret Thatcher—the second woman to hold one of the Great Offices of State.
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Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS, née Roberts (born 13 October 1925) is a British politician and the longest-serving (1979–1990) British prime minister of the 20th century, and the only woman ever to have held the post. A Soviet journalist nicknamed her the "Iron Lady", which later became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As prime minister, she implemented conservative policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.
Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament (MP) 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 and became Leader of the Opposition, as well as the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became prime minister after winning the 1979 general election.
After entering 10 Downing Street, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives to reverse what she perceived as Britain's precipitous national decline. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment, until economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her re-election in 1983. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987, but her Community Charge (popularly referred to as "poll tax") was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership.
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Martin Bell
Martin Bell, OBE, (born 31 August 1938, Redisham, Suffolk) is a British UNICEF (UNICEF UK) Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 1997 to 2001.
Bell is the son of author-farmer Adrian Bell, the brother of literary translator, Anthea Bell OBE and the uncle of weblogger-banker Oliver Kamm, who served as his political adviser during his term as a Member of Parliament (MP).
He was educated at The Leys School in Cambridge and King's College, Cambridge, where he achieved a 1st Class Honours Degree in English. At Cambridge, he served on the committee of Cambridge University Liberal Club, including a term as Publicity Officer. He failed to obtain a commission during his two-year national service and served out his time as an acting corporal in the Suffolk Regiment serving in Cyprus during the emergency.
Martin Bell joined the BBC as a reporter in Norwich in 1962 as a 24-year-old, following his graduation.
He moved to London three years later, beginning a distinguished career as a foreign affairs correspondent with his first assignment in Ghana. Over the next thirty years, he covered eleven conflicts and reported from eighty countries, making his name with reports from wars and conflicts in Vietnam, Middle East, Nigeria, Angola, and in Northern Ireland (during the "Troubles").
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Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot, FRSL, PC (23 July 1913 – 3 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992. He was deputy leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980, and later became the Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983.
Associated with the Labour left for most of his career, he was a supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and British withdrawal from the European Economic Community. He was first promoted to Cabinet as Employment secretary under Harold Wilson in 1974, and later served as Leader of the House of Commons under James Callaghan. A passionate orator, he was Labour leader at the 1983 general election when the party received its lowest share of the vote since 1918.
His parallel career as a journalist included appointments as editor of Tribune, on several occasions, and the Evening Standard newspaper. Among the books he authored are Guilty Men (an attack on Neville Chamberlain and others for the policy of appeasement), a biography of Jonathan Swift (The Pen and the Sword, 1957) and a biography of Aneurin Bevan.
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Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, PC, QC, (born Michael Hecht, 7 July 1941) is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005. He had previously held cabinet positions in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including Secretary of State for Employment (1990–92), Secretary of State for the Environment (1992–93) and Home Secretary (1993–97).
Howard was born in Gorseinon, South Wales. He joined the Young Conservatives at 15 and studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1964 he was called to the Bar and became a Queen's Counsel in 1982. He became a Member of Parliament (MP) in the 1983 General Election, representing the constituency of Folkestone and Hythe. This quickly led to promotion and Howard became Minister for Local Government in 1987. Under Prime Minister John Major (1990–1997), he held several cabinet positions including Secretary of State for Employment (1990–1992) and Home Secretary (1993–1997).
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Michael Lord
Michael Nicholson Lord, Baron Framlingham (born 17 October 1938, south Manchester) is a British politician, and was Conservative Member of Parliament for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich between 1997 and 2010. He was first elected for the predecessor seat of Central Suffolk in 1983.
He was the Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means, one of the Deputy Speakers of the House of Commons, from 1997 to 2010.
He attended William Hulme's Grammar School in Whalley Range, Manchester and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he gained an MA in agriculture in 1962. He was a councillor on Bedford Borough Council (known initially as North Bedfordshire Borough Council) from 1974–77 and on Bedfordshire County Council from 1981–83.
From 1962–66, he taught general studies in a secondary modern school in North Bedfordshire. From 1966–68, he was a director of Power Line Maintenance Ltd. In 1968, he founded Lords Tree Services Ltd. From 1983, as well as being an MP, he was an arboricultural consultant. He is a former president of the Arboricultural Association.
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Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992—his leadership of the party during nearly nine years (all in opposition) making him the longest serving opposition leader in British political history.
Following Labour's defeat in the 1992 election, Kinnock resigned as party leader and after his departure from the House of Commons three years later served as a European Commissioner from 1995–2004. Until the summer of 2009 he was the Chairman of the British Council. Kinnock served as President of Cardiff University from 1998 until 2009. Today, he is regarded as one of Labour's elder statesmen.
Kinnock, an only child, was born in Tredegar, Wales. His father Gordon Herbert Kinnock was a coal miner who suffered from dermatitis and had to find work as a labourer; and his mother Mary Kinnock was a district nurse. Gordon died of a heart attack in November 1971 aged 64; Mary died the following month aged 61.
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Nicholas Hare
Sir Nicholas Hare of Bruisyard, Suffolk (c. 1484 – 31 October 1557) was Speaker of the House of Commons of England between 1539 and 1540.
He was born the eldest son of John Hare of Homersfield, Suffolk, educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and admitted to the Inner Temple in 1515. He had three sisters, who were married to MPs, and a brother, John Hare of Stow Bardolph.
He was MP for Downton, Wiltshire in 1529 and possibly Wiltshire in 1539 (when he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons), Lancaster in 1545 and Taunton in 1547. In 1539 the nunnery of Bruisyard was dissolved and assigned by Henry VIII to Sir Nicholas. He was knighted in May 1539 and eventually became Master of the Rolls (1553–1557).
In 1554 he presided at the trial of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, who had been accused of involvement in Wyatt's rebellion against the marriage of Queen Mary to Felipe of Spain.
Sir Nicholas died in Chancery Lane in 1557 and was buried in nearby Temple Church, commemorated in the south bay window of the new Inner Temple Hall. He had married Catherine, daughter and coheiress of Sir John Bassingbourne of Woodhall nr. Hatfield, Hertfordshire. They had three sons and three daughters.
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Nicholas Soames
Arthur Nicholas Winston Soames MP (born 12 February 1948), known as Nicholas Soames, is a British Conservative Party Member of Parliament for the constituency of Mid Sussex. He is also Chairman of the private security contractor Aegis.
Soames is a former Defence minister having served in the government of Sir John Major, 1994–97. His main political interests are defence, international relations, rural affairs and industry.
He was born in Croydon and is a grandson of British wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, the son of Lord and Lady Soames, a nephew of the former Defence Secretary Duncan Sandys and Diana Churchill; the journalist Randolph Churchill and the actress and dancer Sarah Churchill and a great nephew of the founders of the Scout movement, Robert Baden-Powell and Olave Baden-Powell. His brother is the industrialist Rupert Soames.
He has been married twice. His first marriage (1981–1988) was to Catherine Weatherall (the sister of Isobel Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne), by whom he has one son, Harry Soames. He married, secondly, Serena Smith (a niece of the Duchess of Grafton) in 1993. They have one son, and a daughter called Isabella Soames.
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Nick Clegg
Nicholas William Peter "Nick" Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is the British Liberal Democrat Leader since 2007 and currently the Deputy Prime Minister and Lord President of the Council (with special responsibility for political and constitutional reform) in the coalition government of which David Cameron is the Prime Minister. Clegg has been the Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2007, and a Member of Parliament (MP) representing Sheffield Hallam since 2005. He was previously a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and an award winning journalist for the Financial Times.
Clegg was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election and became the Liberal Democrats' Home Affairs spokesperson in 2006. Clegg became Deputy Prime Minister following the 2010 general election, when the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government with the Conservative Party. As well as his parliamentary roles, Clegg has contributed to many pamphlets and books on political issues. He has also had a large number of jobs, including being a skiing instructor and working in the office of a bank in Helsinki.
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Nigel Farage
Nigel Paul Farage ( /ˈfærɑːʒ/, FARR-ahzh; born 3 April 1964, Farnborough, Kent), is a British politician and is the Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), a position he also held from September 2006 to November 2009. He is a Member of the European Parliament for South East England and co-chairs the Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group.
Farage is a founding member of the UKIP, having left the Conservative Party in 1992 after they signed the Maastricht Treaty. Having unsuccessfully campaigned in European and Westminster parliamentary elections for UKIP since 1994, he gained a seat as an MEP for South East England in the 1999 European Parliament Election — the first year the regional list system was used — and was re-elected in 2004 and 2009. Farage describes himself as a libertarian and rejects the notion that he is a conservative.
In September 2006, Farage became the UKIP Leader and led the party through the 2009 European Parliament Election in which it received the second highest share of the popular vote, defeating Labour and the Liberal Democrats with over two million votes. However he stepped down in November 2009 to concentrate on contesting the Speaker John Bercow's seat of Buckingham in the 2010 general election.
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Norman Tebbit
Norman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit, CH, PC (born 29 March 1931), is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment (1981–83), Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1983–85), Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1985–87) and Chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–87). He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1992, representing the constituencies of Epping (1970–74) and Chingford (1974–92). In 1984, he was injured in the Provisional Irish Republican Army's bombing of the Conservative Party Conference in Brighton, and his wife Margaret was left permanently disabled.
Born into a working class family in Ponders End, Middlesex, Tebbit went to Edmonton County School, an academically selective state school in north London. He was then a journalist for the Financial Times before serving with the Royal Air Force, during which he flew Meteor and Vampire jets and once had to break open the cockpit canopy of a burning Mosquito aircraft to escape from it. On leaving the RAF he joined BOAC in 1953 as a pilot, during which time he was an official in the British Air Line Pilots' Association. He was elected MP for Epping in 1970 and then for Chingford in Feb 1974. He is recorded as an MP member of the Conservative Monday Club in 1970.
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Oliver Letwin
Oliver Letwin MP FRSA (born 19 May 1956, in Hampstead)[citation needed] is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he is currently the Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, and a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the constituency of West Dorset. He is also the Chairman of the Conservative Research Department and Chairman of the Conservative Party's Policy Review.
Letwin is the son of William Letwin, Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics, and conservative academic Shirley Letwin. Letwin was educated at Hall School in Hampstead and Eton College. He went on to study at Trinity College, Cambridge. Whilst a student at Cambridge, he was an active member of the Cambridge University Liberal Club. When asked about his membership of the Liberal club he explained:
"I was also a member of the Fabian Society. But I am sorry to have to tell you that this was because I was interested in the thoughts of Liberals and Fabians (and still am) rather than because I was ever a Liberal Democrat or a Fabian."
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Parmjit Dhanda
Parmjit Singh Dhanda (born 17 September 1971) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gloucester from 2001 to 2010, succeeding Tess Kingham as the Labour MP for the seat. He remains the only Minister of Indian heritage ever to have served in the British Government.
Born in London to Indian immigrants of Sikh Punjabi background; his mother was a cleaner at a local hospital, whilst his father was a lorry driver. He was educated at Mellow Lane School, a state Comprehensive School in Hayes, Middlesex, before attending the University of Nottingham, where he received a Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1993, and a MA in information technology in 1995.
Dhanda is married and lives with his family in Matson, Gloucester. Has been a member of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) since 1999. He speaks Punjabi and French, in addition to English.
Dhanda became a Labour Party organiser in West London, Hampshire and Wiltshire in 1996, then went on to be assistant national organiser with Connect in 1998 where he remained until he was elected to Westminster. He was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Hillingdon in 1998 and served on the council until 2002. He was on Labour's list for the 1999 European Parliament election, but was unsuccessful.
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Peter de la Mare
Sir Peter de la Mare (died c. 1387) was an English politician and Presiding Officer of the House of Commons during the Good Parliament of 1376.
Before becoming speaker, he worked variously as a toll collector, High Sheriff of Herefordshire in 1374, and as a steward to Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March. It was probably his connection to Mortimer that earned him his position in Parliament.
Peter de la Mare attended the Good Parliament in 1376 as a knight of the shire for Herefordshire. After being elected as Speaker, he served as a spokesman for the House of Commons in the House of Lords during the indictment of various figures close to Edward III, including his mistress Alice Perrers, who had gained an undue amount of influence over the king. However, the political influence of the Good Parliament was brief. In November 1376, Peter de la Mare was imprisoned in Nottingham Castle by John of Gaunt. Despite pleas for his release, the Bad Parliament of 1377 refused to pardon him. However, he did gain his freedom in June 1377 following the death of Edward III. Following his release de la Mare was pardoned and compensated by Richard II. He was re-elected as Speaker during the Parliament of October 1377.
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Ranulph Crewe
Sir Ranulph (or Randolph or Ranulphe) Crewe (or Crew) (1558–1646) was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.
Ranulph Crewe was the second son of John Crew of Nantwich, who is said to have been a tanner, by Alice, daughter of Humphrey Mainwaring. He attended Shrewsbury School and, in 1576, Christ's College, Cambridge, but did not take a degree. He was admitted a member of Lincoln's Inn on 13 Nov. 1577, called to the bar on 8 Nov. 1584, returned to parliament as junior member for Brackley, Northamptonshire, in 1597, elected a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1600, and Autumn Reader there in 1602. The earliest reported case in which he was engaged was tried in the Queen's Bench in Hilary term 1597-8, when he acted as junior to the attorney-general, Coke. In 1604 he was selected by the House of Commons to state objections to the adoption of the new style of king of Great Britain in the conference with the lords.
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Richard Baynard
Richard Baynard (ca. 1371–7 January 1434) was an English administrator, MP and Speaker of the House of Commons of England in 1421.
He was born the fourth son and heir of Thomas Baynard of Messing, Essex.
He was elected six times as Knight of the shire (MP) for Essex (1406, Nov 1414, Dec 1421, 1423 , 1427 and 1433). and elected Speaker of the House in Dec 1421.
He was Controller, customs and subsidies Ipswich, Suffolk (1407-1408} and Keeper of Colchester gaol, Essex before March 1417.
He died in 1434. He had married four times. Firstly Joan, secondly Joyce, daughter and heiress of John Vyne, a London draper thirdly another Joan, daughter and heiress of John Sandherst, a London chandler, and fourthly Grace, daughter of John Burgoyne, and widow of John Peyton of Easthorpe, Essex with whom he had two sons and four daughters. He was survived by his widow Grace, his natural sons Richard and Lewis and an illegitimate son, John, and two of his four daughters.
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Richard Empson
Sir Richard Empson (died 17 August 1510), minister of Henry VII, King of England, was a son of Peter Empson, an influential inhabitant of Towcester.
Educated as a lawyer he soon attained considerable success in his profession, and in 1491 was a Knight of the Shire for Northamptonshire in parliament and speaker of the House of Commons.
Early in the reign of Henry VII he became associated with Edmund Dudley in carrying out the king’s rigorous and arbitrary system of taxation, and in consequence he became very unpopular. Retaining the royal favour, however, he was knighted by sword at the creation of Prince Henry as Prince of Wales, on 18 February 1504 and was soon High Steward of the University of Cambridge, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; but his official career ended with Henry VII's death in April 1509.
Thrown into prison by order of the new king, Henry VIII, he was charged, like Dudley, with the crime of constructive treason, and was convicted at Northampton in October 1509. His attainder by parliament followed, and he was beheaded on 17 or 18 August 1510. Empson left by his wife, Jane, so far as is known, a family of two sons and four daughters, and about 1513 his estates were restored to his elder son, Thomas.
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Richard Shepherd
Richard Charles Scrimgeour Shepherd (born 6 December 1942, in Aberdeen, Scotland) is a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom. He is currently a Member of Parliament, having represented the constituency of Aldridge-Brownhills since 1979.
A Eurosceptic, Shepherd was one of the Maastricht Rebels that had the whip withdrawn over opposition to John Major's legislation on the European Union. Shepherd is also a libertarian, and had a three line whip imposed against him by Margaret Thatcher when he introduced an amendment loosening the Official Secrets Act 1911.
Shepherd was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and educated at Isleworth Grammar School (now Isleworth and Syon School) in Isleworth. He then went on to the London School of Economics where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics, and where he studied with and became a friend of Robert Kilroy-Silk. At the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, Shepherd received an Master of Science in Economics.
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Robert Broke
Sir Robert Broke SL (died 5 September 1558) was a British justice, politician and legal writer. He was the eldest son of Thomas Broke of Claverley, Shropshire and his wife Margaret. He studied at Strand Inn, and from there was admitted to Middle Temple at some point between 1525 and 1528 and studying pleading with the Prothonotary John Jenour. In 1542 he became a bencher, and read on the 1540 Statute of Limitations; the reading circulated in manuscript and was subsequently printed in 1547. His second reading was in 1551 on the subject of pleas of the crown, using chapter 18 of Magna Carta as the source, and this also circulated via manuscript before being published in 1641, almost one hundred years after his death. His legal career began in 1536 when he was appointed Common Serjeant of London on the recommendation of Henry VIII; how he gained such royal favour is unknown. He was made Recorder of London in 1545 and served as a Member of Parliament for the City of London until 1555, serving as Speaker of the House of Commons of England in 1554. Holding these offices did not stop him from pursuing private practice, and his signature is found on bills in chancery in the 1530s and 1540s. During this time he was also deputy chief steward for the Duchy of Lancaster, and was created a Serjeant-at-law in 1552.
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Robert Sheffield
Sir Robert Sheffield (died 1518) was an English lawyer and politician, Speaker of the House of Commons between 1512-1513.
He was son of Sir Robert Sheffield of South Cave, Yorkshire, by Genette, daughter and coheiress of Alexander Lownde of Butterwick, Lincolnshire. He was trained for the law in the Inner Temple, of which he became a Governor in 1511. He served as Recorder of London from 1495 to 1508. He was thus ex officio an MP for City of London in 1495, 1497, and 1504. Bernard Andreas mentions that he resigned the recordership in April 1508.
He was a commander at the Battle of Blackheath in 1497, and was knighted by Henry VII after the fight.
He was chosen knight of the shire for Lincolnshire in 1512 and 1513 and was elected speaker of the House of Commons in 1512.
In 1515 he fell foul of the church over his attempts to limit their privileges and was summoned before the Star Chamber but negotiated a pardon. Six months later he was incarcerated in the Tower of London and brought before the Chamber again and this time asked the king for mercy. However he was to die in the Tower on the 10 August 1518, and was buried in the Augustinian church, London. His will is in Testamenta Vetusta by Nicholas Harris Nicolas (p. 555).
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Roger Flower
Roger Flower or Flore (died 1427) was an English politician, 12 times MP for Rutland and four times Speaker of the House of Commons.
He was son of William Flower, sheriff of Rutland for 1383, by Elena his wife. He was returned to parliament as Knight of the Shire for the county of Rutland in 1396-7, again in 1399, 1402, 1404, and 1413-14. He was one of the feoffees of the Brigittine nunnery founded by Henry V at Syon in 1414. Still representing the county of Rutland, he was chosen speaker of the House of Commons four times—in 1416, 1417, 1419, and 1422, something unprecedented except in the case of Thomas Chaucer.
He was a lawyer with considerable private and public interests. In 1416 he was made chief steward of the Duchy of Lancaster estates north of the Trent. Besides his ancestral manor of Oakham in Rutland, he held estates in Leicestershire. He was appointed High Sheriff of Rutland for 1407 and 1412.
The probate of his will was dated 20 June 1428; Flower had died by 12 November 1427.
His first wife was Catherine, daughter and heiress of William Dalby of Exton. His second wife, Cecile, daughter of Anneys Sainon, survived him. He had five sons, Thomas, Robert, Roger, John, and William, and two daughters, Anneys and Joan, the latter being married to Sir Henry Plesyngton of Burley in Rutland, grandson of Sir Robert Plesyngton, chief baron of the exchequer in the reign of Richard II.
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Roy Jenkins
Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM, PC (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician.
The son of a Welsh coal miner who later became a union official and Labour MP, Roy Jenkins served with distinction in World War II. Elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1948, he served in several major posts in Harold Wilson's First Government. As Home Secretary from 1965–1967, he sought to build what he described as "a civilized society", with measures such as the effective abolition in Britain of capital punishment and theatre censorship, the decriminalisation of homosexuality, relaxing of divorce law, suspension of birching and the legalisation of abortion. As Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1967–1970, he pursued a tight fiscal policy later praised by Margaret Thatcher. In 1970, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, but resigned in 1972 because he supported entry to the Common Market, while the party opposed it.
When Wilson re-entered government in 1974 Jenkins returned to the Home Office, but, increasingly disenchanted by the swing to the left of the Labour Party,[citation needed] he chose to leave British politics in 1976 and was appointed President of the European Commission in 1977, serving until 1981: he was the first and to date only British holder of this office. In 1981, dismayed with the Labour Party's continuing leftward drift, he was one of the "Gang of Four" - Labour moderates who formed the Social Democratic Party (SDP). In 1982 he won a famous by-election in a Conservative seat and returned to parliament; but after disappointment with the performance of the SDP in the 1983 election he resigned as SDP leader.
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Sally Bercow
Sally Bercow (née Illman; born 22 November 1969) is the wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow. She was a housemate on Celebrity Big Brother 2011 and was evicted from the house on 26 August 2011.
Sally Illman attended Marlborough College public school, as a contemporary of the British Prime Minister's wife, Samantha Cameron, and went on to attend Keble College, Oxford, dropping out after two years. The fact that Bercow did not finish her studies at Oxford became a minor controversy in 2009 when it was revealed that she had been sacked from a City public relations firm for trying to conceal this on her CV.
She was the social secretary of the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) while at the University. It was subsequently reported in the Daily Mail that during her time with OUCA, she was involved in a social event for which OUCA booked strippers. She met her future husband at a national Conservative Students Conference.
In a 2009 interview Bercow spoke about alcoholism and one-night stands in her twenties.
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Selwyn Lloyd
John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd CH PC CBE TD (28 July 1904 – 18 May 1978), known for most of his career as Selwyn Lloyd, was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Foreign Secretary from 1955 to 1960, then as Chancellor of the Exchequer until 1962. He was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1971 to 1976.
Lloyd was educated at Fettes College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union and the Cambridge University Liberal Club. He was a Liberal Parliamentary candidate at Macclesfield in the 1929 general election, coming third.
He served as a councillor on Hoylake Urban District Council 1932–40.
During the Second World War he reached the rank of brigadier and was Deputy Chief of Staff of the British Second Army.
He was elected to the House of Commons to represent Wirral in the 1945 general election. Originally a Liberal, he became a member of the "Young Turks" faction of the Conservative Party.
When the Conservatives returned to power under Churchill in 1951, Lloyd served under Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 1951 to 1954.
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Shirley Williams
Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby PC (born 27 July 1930) is a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) and Cabinet Minister, she was one of the "Gang of Four" rebels who founded the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981. In 2001–2004, she served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, and served as Adviser on Nuclear Proliferation to Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010. Williams also serves as Professor Emerita of Electoral Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In 1980 she received an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Bath.
Born Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Catlin, Williams is the daughter of a political scientist and philosopher Sir George Catlin, and the feminist and pacifist writer Vera Brittain. She was educated at various primary schools including Mrs Spencer's School in Brechin Place, South Kensington, and Christchurch Elementary School in Chelsea, Talbot Heath School in Bournemouth, St Paul's Girls' School, London, and Somerville College, Oxford, where she was an Open Scholar. As a member of the OUDS she toured the USA playing the role of Cordelia in Shakespeare's King Lear. She was the first woman to chair the Oxford University Labour Club (1950).
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Theresa May
Theresa Mary May (née Brasier, born 1 October 1956) is a British Conservative politician who is Home Secretary in the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition government. She was elected to Parliament in 1997 as the Member of Parliament for Maidenhead, and served as the Chairman of the Conservative Party, 2003–04. Appointed to the Privy Council in 2003, she became Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Shadow Minister for Women before being appointed Home Secretary and the Minister for Women and Equality in David Cameron's Cabinet on 11 May 2010.
May was born 1 October 1956 in Eastbourne, Sussex. She is the daughter of Rev Hubert Brasier, a Church of England clergyman and Mrs Zaidee Brasier. Her education was completed at a combination of state primary, independent convent and state secondary schools. She initially attended Heythrop Primary School, Oxfordshire, followed by St. Juliana's Convent School for Girls, a Roman Catholic independent school in Begbroke, which closed in 1984. At the age of 13, she gained a place at the former Holton Park Girls' Grammar School in Wheatley in Oxfordshire. In 1971, the school was abolished and became the site of the new Wheatley Park Comprehensive School during her time as a pupil. May then attended the University of Oxford where she read Geography at St Hugh's College, taking a BA (Hons) in 1977.
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Thomas Bampfield
Thomas Bampfield or Bampfylde (c 1623 - 8 October 1693) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commonsw beween 1654 and 1660. He was Speaker of the House of Commons in 1659.
Bampfield was the son of John Bampfield of Poltimore and his wife Elizabeth Drake, daughter of Thomas Drake of Brendon Barton, Week St Mary. He matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford om 15 May 1640, aged 17. He entered Middle Temple in 1642, and was called to the bar in 1649. In 1652 he became Deputy recorder of Exeter 1652. He was J.P. for Devon from 1653 to 1665.
In 1654 Bampfield was elected Member of Parliament for Exeter in the First Protectorate Parliament. Also in 1654, he was commissioner for scandalous ministers and became Recorder of Exeter, holding the position until October 1660. In 1656 he was re-elected MP for Exeter in the Second Protectorate Parliament. He was commissioner for assessment for Devon in 1657. In 1659 he was re-elected MP for Exeter in the Third Protectorate Parliament. He held the office of Speaker from 14 April until 22 April 1659 being described as "a man of wit and learning, exactly fitted for the post".He also became an associate bencher of Middle Temple in 1659. On 14 January 1660, he presented a petition for the return of the secluded MPs to the Speaker of the Rump Parliament. He was commissioner for militia for Devon in March 1660.
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Thomas Chaucer
Thomas Chaucer (ca. 1367 – 18 November 1434) was the Speaker of the English House of Commons and son of Geoffrey Chaucer and Philippa Roet.
Chaucer seems to have done well from his father's standing (as both a poet and also an administrator); this despite suggestions that Geoffrey Chaucer fell out of favour with Henry IV. Early in life Thomas Chaucer married Matilda (Maud), second daughter and coheiress of Sir John Burghersh, nephew of Henry Burghersh. The marriage brought him large estates, and among them the manor of Ewelme, Oxfordshire. His connection with the Duke of Lancaster was also profitable to him: his mother's sister, Katherine de Roet, was Katherine Swynford, first the mistress of John of Gaunt, and then his third Duchess of Lancaster. Swynford had four children by John of Gaunt: John, Henry, Joan and Thomas Beaufort, all of whom became very powerful - John's family becoming Earls and later Dukes of Somerset, Henry a Cardinal, Thomas became Duke of Exeter, Joan, Countess of Westmorland, and grandmother of Kings Edward V and Richard III. Thomas Chaucer's Beaufort first cousins became even more powerful when their half-brother Henry IV became King. Thomas was able to buy Donnington Castle for his only daughter Alice.
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Thomas Crewe
Sir Thomas Crewe (or Crew) (1565–1634), of Stene in Northamptonshire, was an English Member of Parliament and lawyer, and served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1623 to 1625.
Crewe was a member of Gray's Inn, and a serjeant-at-law. He entered Parliament in 1604 as Member for Lichfield, and was later MP for Northampton (1621-2), Aylesbury (1623-5) and Gatton (1625). In 1621 he drew attention to himself by defying the King, declaring the liberties of Parliament to be "matters of inheritance". In 1623 he was knighted, and in the Parliament summoned that year (which first assembled in February 1624) he was elected Speaker; he served in that capacity in the two Parliaments known to history as the Happy Parliament and the Useless Parliament. In 1633, he was appointed a member of the ecclesiastical commission. He died the following year.
Crewe's son, John, followed him into Parliament, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Crew in 1661 for his role in bringing about the Restoration.
Sir Thomas Crew married Temperance Bray, daughter of Reynold Bray and Hon. Anne Vaux. He lived at Stene, Northamptonshire, and died on 31 January 1633.
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Thomas Englefield
Sir Thomas Englefield (also known as Inglefield) (ca. 1455 – 3 April 1514) was Speaker of the House of Commons.
He was born, probably in Englefield in Berkshire, around 1455, the son of John Englefield whose family had been Lords of the Manor there for many generations. His father died while he was quite young and his grandfather, Robert Englefield, had him educated in law at the Middle Temple.
He was knighted Knight of the Bath on the marriage of Prince Arthur in 1501. He held land on the Welsh border, notably in Worcestershire where he became a magistrate (JP) in 1493. He was returned to Parliament as knight of the shire (MP) for Berkshire in 1497 and 1510 and on both occasions elected Speaker of the House.
He had married Margery, daughter of Sir Richard Danvers with who he had two sons, Richard, who died young and Thomas, his heir and the father of the Catholic politician, Sir Francis Englefield.
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Thomas Fitzwilliam
Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam (died 4 Mar 1497) was Speaker of the House of Commons of England between 1489–1490.
He was born into a Lincolnshire gentry family, the son of Thomas Fitzwilliam of Mablethorpe and educated at the Inner Temple.
He was appointed recorder of Lincoln and elected MP for Lincoln in 1459. In 1467 he was returned as MP for Plympton Earle, then a seat under the control of the Crown. In 1478 he was appointed a serjeant-at-law for the Duchy of Lancaster.
After obtaining a house in Stepney, he was elected a recorder of the City of London and supported the claim of Richard III to the English throne. He nevertheless welcomed Henry Tudor after the Battle of Bosworth and became more active in government, representing London in King Henry's first parliament. He was knighted in 1486.
In 1489, in Henry's third Parliament, he was elected Speaker of the House, electing to sit as knight of the shire for Lincolshire.
He died in 1497 and was buried in Mablethorpe church. He had married Margaret Harrington (d. 1498),with whom he had at least three sons, John, George, and William. John predeceased him, and he was succeeded by John's son, another Thomas, who also died young in 1502. The estates then passed to Sir Thomas' second son, George.
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Thomas Gargrave
Sir Thomas Gargrave (1495–1579) was a Yorkshire Knight who served as High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1565 and 1569. His principal residence was at Nostell Priory, one of many grants of land that Gargrave secured during his lifetime. He was Speaker of the House of Commons and vice president of the Council of the North.
Gargrave was the son of Thomas Gargrave of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and Elizabeth, daughter of William Levett of Hooton Levitt and Normanton, West Yorkshire. Through his mother's Levett family, Gargrave was related to such Yorkshire clans as the Wickersleys and their descendants, the Swyfts (Swifts), the Reresbys, the Barnbys, the Wentworths, the Bosviles, the Mirfins and others.
He received a legal education at either Gray's Inn or the Middle Temple, and by 1521 began his career as Steward of the Household of Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy (often called Lord Darcy of the North), where Gargrave's ambition and drive were immediately apparent.
With the help of Darcy's influence, Gargrave rose quickly, being knighted in 1549 and becoming Knight of the Shire for Yorkshire in 1553, 1554 and 1555 and again in 1563, 1571 and 1572, Deputy Constable for Pontefract Castle, Steward of York Minster, Receiver of the Exchequer for Yorkshire, Master in Chancery, and Recorder for Kingston upon Hull. Gargrave's rise was meteoric, from humble steward to Knight of the Realm and one of the most powerful men in England, serving frequently on Yorkshire business and at Court.
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Thomas Lovell
Sir Thomas Lovell (died 1524) was an English soldier and administrator, Speaker of the House of Commons, Secretary to the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer.
He was fifth son of Sir Ralph Lovell of Barton Bendish in Norfolk, by Anne, daughter of Robert Toppe, alderman of Norwich; his family was Lancastrian in politics. Thomas Lovell seems to have been entered at Lincoln's Inn.
He adhered to Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, and was attainted in the first parliament of Richard III. He returned with Henry, fought at the battle of Bosworth Field, and his attainder was reversed in Henry VII's first parliament.
On 12 October 1485 he was created chancellor of the exchequer for life; on 27 October he became esquire of the king's body, with a pension, and he was advanced to be knight of the king's body before August 1487. He was also treasurer of the king's and queen's chambers.
In the parliament summoned for 7 November 1485 Lovell was chosen for Northamptonshire, and on 8 November 1485 he was elected speaker. He headed the commons on 10 December 1485, when they requested the king to marry Elizabeth of York, to whom he subsequently lent £500 on the security of her plate. On 3 July 1486 he was one of the commission to treat with the Scots. He probably continued to sit in parliament, though it is only certain that he was elected to that summoned for 16 January 1497. Sir John Mordaunt was chosen speaker in 1488.
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Thomas More
Sir Thomas More ( /ˈmɔr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More since 1935, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and was Lord Chancellor from October 1529 to 16 May 1532. He is commemorated by the Church of England as a "Reformation martyr". He was an opponent of the Protestant Reformation and in particular of Martin Luther and William Tyndale.
More coined the word "utopia" – a name he gave to the ideal and imaginary island nation, the political system of which he described in Utopia published in 1516. He opposed the King's separation from the Catholic Church and refused to accept the King as Supreme Head of the Church of England, a title which had been given by parliament through the Act of Supremacy of 1534. He was imprisoned in 1534 for his refusal to take the oath required by the First Succession Act, because the act disparaged papal power and Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. In 1535, he was tried for treason, convicted on perjured testimony and beheaded.
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Thomas Moyle
Sir Thomas Moyle (born before 1500 - died 2 October 1560, probably at Eastwell, Kent) was a commissioner for Henry VIII in the dissolution of the monasteries, and speaker of the House of Commons in the Parliament of England from 1542 to 1544.
He was the fourth son of John Moyle (died 1500, born in Cornwall, MP for Bodmin and Kentish, Cornish and Devon landowner) and Anne Darcy (his second wife, one of Sir Robert Darcy's daughters and heirs). By 1528, Thomas had followed his father's example and married an heiress, Katherine Jordeyne, one of the daughters of Edward Jordeyne (died 1514), a leading goldsmith at Cheapside with a manor at Raynham and employed at the mint in the Tower of London.
He entered politics in 1542 as the Member of Parliament for Peterborough and was elected Speaker of the House. He subsequently represented Rochester four times from 1545 to 1553 and King's Lynn in November 1554.
Moyle employed Richard Plantagenet to build Eastwell Place and (according to family tradition recorded around 1720 in Desiderata Curiosa) listened to his claims to be son of Richard III and allowed him to live in the grounds until his death in 1550.
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Thomas Nevill
Sir Thomas Nevill or Neville (by 1484–29 May 1542) was Speaker of the House of Commons of England between February 1515 - December 1515.
He was born the fifth son of George Neville, second Baron Bergavenny (1436–1492).
He trained as a lawyer and was a member of Gray's Inn. His most significant legal work lay in the field of liveries, in which he was active from about 1514, supervising the processes whereby the heirs of tenants-in-chief obtained possession of their estates.
His entry into Parliament is unclear (he probably represented Kent, but he was selected as Speaker by the House of Commons on 8 February 1515 and knighted by the king in the presence of both houses. After his term as Speaker he left Parliament but remained connected to the court in various capacities.
He died on 29 May 1542 and was buried in Mereworth church in Kent. He had married twice;firstly Katherine, daughter of Humphrey, first Baron Dacre of Gilsland, and widow of George, eighth Baron Fitzhugh, with whom he had his only child and secondly Elizabeth, widow of Robert Amadas, a London goldsmith.
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Thomas Snagge
Sir Thomas Snagge (1536–1593) was a Member of Parliament, barrister and landowner who served as Speaker of the English House of Commons, Attorney General for Ireland and as Queen's Sergeant.
Snagge was born in 1536 in Letchworth. He was the son of Thomas Snagge, the prosperous lord of the manor of Marston Moretaine in Bedfordshire. He studied law at Gray's Inn, and after being called to the bar in 1554 practiced law in London.
Snagge was elected as a knight of the shire for Bedfordshire in 1571. He was chosen by Queen Elizabeth to be Attorney General for Ireland and held this appointment from 1577 to 1580.. The Queen chose him because "the public service had been not a little hindered through the default and insufficiency of the law officers" and "her Majesty thought that a person well-chosen in England might be sent over". Snagge in fact was not particularly well-chosen: like most English settlers he disliked life in Ireland and, according to a modern writer, his official correspondence is simply a long list of complaints. In particular, he complained of the inefficiency of the Master of the Rolls in Ireland, Nicholas White, and went so far as to make an official complaint against him to the Privy Council of England. In 1580 he was appointed a Serjeant-at-law.
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Thomas Walton
Sir Thomas Walton (or Wauton or Waweton) (c1370–c1450) was an English MP and Speaker of the House of Commons.
He was born the son of John de Walton of Great Staughton, Huntingdonshire, who was a previous MP for Huntingdonshire.
Thomas first entered Parliament as MP for Huntingdonshire in January 1396 and was then re-elected in September 1396, October 1400, and September 1402. He may have sat for Bedfordshire in 1409 and 1411 (the returns for those years have been lost) but on 8 May 1413 he was recorded as MP for the county. On 3 Nov 1414 he was returned once again for his home constituency of Huntingdonshire.
He was appointed High Sheriff of Bedfordshire for 1415, and knighted in September 1418. On 18 Sep 1419 he was again elected to parliament for Bedfordshire and on 23 Nov 1420 and 24 Oct 1422 again elected for Huntingdonshire. In 1422 he served a second term as sheriff of Bedfordshire and was appointed chamberlain of North Wales. On 20 Mar 1424 he was once more elected for Bedfordshire and this time was elected Speaker of the House. He served a third and fourth term as sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1428 and 1432, serving in between in 1431 as Knight of the Shire for Bedfordshire for the last time. In 1448 he was pardoned from any obligations to hold future office and died soon afterwards.
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Thomas Widdrington
Sir Thomas Widdrington SL (died 13 May 1664) was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1664. He was speaker of the House of Commons in 1656.
Widdrington was the son of Lewis Mauntlaine, alias Widdrington of Cheeseburn Grange, near Stamfordham, Northumberland. He was a student at Christ's College, Cambridge in 1617 and was awarded BA in 1621. He entered Gray's Inn in 1619 and was called to the bar in 1625. He succeeded to the estated of his father in 1630. He was Recorder of Berwick from 1631 to 1658 and Recorder of York from 1638 to 1658. He was knighted at York on 1 April 1639.
In April 1640 Widdrington was elected Member of Parliament for Berwick in the Short Parliament. He was re-elected MP for Berwick for the Long Parliament in November 1640. As a barrister, his legal knowledge was useful during the English Civil War. In 1651 he was chosen a member of the Council of State, although he had declined to have any share in the trial of the king. He was elected MP for York in 1654 for the First Protectorate Parliament. In 1656 he was elected MP for Northumberland in the Second Protectorate Parliament and was chosen as Speaker in September 1656, and in June 1658, he was appointed Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. In 1659 and again in 1660, he was a member of the Council of State, and on three occasions he was one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal. He lost some of his offices when Charles II was restored. In 1660, he was elected MP for York in the Convention Parliament. He was elected MP for Berwick again in 1661 for the Cavalier Parliament.
wn.com/Thomas_Widdrington -
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC (born 3 April 1925), formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, is a British Labour Party politician, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for fifty years, and was also a Cabinet Minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan.
His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963. In the Labour Government of 1964–1970 he served first as Postmaster General, where he oversaw the opening of the Post Office Tower, and later as a notably "technocratic" Minister of Technology. In the period when the Labour Party was in Opposition, Benn served for a year as the Chairman of the Labour Party. In the Labour Government of 1974–1979, he returned to the Cabinet, initially serving as Secretary of State for Industry, before being made Secretary of State for Energy, retaining his post when James Callaghan replaced Wilson as Prime Minister. During the Labour Party's time in Opposition during the 1980s, he was seen as the party's prominent figure on the left, and the term "Bennite" has come to be used in Britain for someone of a more radical left-wing position.
wn.com/Tony_Benn -
Tristram Hunt
Tristram Julian William Hunt FRHistS (born 31 May 1974) is a British Labour Party politician, activist, historian, broadcaster and newspaper columnist, who is currently the Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central. He also teaches and lectures on Modern British History at Queen Mary, University of London in Mile End, East London. He has written several books and appeared as broadcaster for history programmes on television. Hunt is a regular writer for The Guardian and The Observer.
Hunt is a member of the Labour Party, and after supporting the party as an activist for several years and working as a member of the party's staff, he entered the political arena professionally, becoming an MP at the 2010 general election.
Hunt is the son of Julian Hunt, a meteorologist and leader of the Labour Group on Cambridge City Council in 1972-3, who was made a Life Peer of the British Labour Party at the request of Tony Blair in 2000. After attending University College School and Westminster School, both in London, Tristram Hunt read History at Trinity College, Cambridge and the University of Chicago, and was for a time an Associate Fellow of the Centre for History and Economics at King's College, Cambridge. His PhD, Civic thought in Britain, c.1820– c.1860, was taken at Cambridge and was awarded in 2000.
wn.com/Tristram_Hunt -
Virginia Bottomley
Virginia Bottomley, Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone, PC, DL (née Virginia Hilda Brunette Maxwell Garnett, born 12 March 1948, Dunoon, Scotland) is a British Conservative Party politician. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons from 1984 to 2005. She was raised to the peerage in 2005. Considered to be a "One Nation Conservative", Bottomley is a Life Member of the Tory Reform Group. Virginia is a member of the Supervisory Board of AkzoNobel NV, an NED on BUPA and a Trustee of The Economist Newspaper. As part of her pro-bono activities, Virginia is Chancellor of the University of Hull and Governor of the London School of Economics. She is a member of the UK Advisory Council of the International Chamber of Commerce. She has been Chair of the Board Practice at executive head hunting firm Odgers Berndtson since 2001.
Virginia Hilda Brunette Maxwell Garnett was born in Dunoon to W. John Garnett, former director of what was then called The Industrial Society, and Barbara Rutherford-Smith, former pupil of the School of St Helen and St Katharine, teacher and elected Conservative member of the Inner London Education Authority. Her aunt on her father's side was Labour Greater London Council Member Peggy Jay. She met Peter, now Sir Peter Bottomley her husband, when she was 12.
wn.com/Virginia_Bottomley -
Walter Beauchamp
Sir Walter Beauchamp (died 1 January 1430) was an English lawyer and Speaker of the House of Commons of England between March and May 1416.
He was probably the second son of Sir John Beauchamp of Powick, Worcestershire. At first he studied the law, but afterwards entered into the service of Henry IV and became an esquire in the royal household. It is likely that he fought for the king at Shrewsbury in 1403 and campaigned in the north against Archbishop Scrope and the earl of Northumberland in 1405. In 1415 he served as a ‘king's knight’ in the royal army in France, as part of the retinue of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester.
He was appointed High Sheriff of Wiltshire for 1403 and 1407. On his return from France after the battle of Agincourt he entered parliament in 1416 as Knight of the Shire for Wiltshire and on 16 March 1415/6 was chosen speaker of the House of Commons. However, Sir Walter did not hold the office long, as parliament was dissolved in the same year.
In 1417 he served in France again and was at Rouen after its capture in 1419. He remained in Normandy for two years, on his return becoming treasurer of the royal household, treasurer at war and one of the executors of Henry V's will in June 1421. Shortly afterwards he passed into the service of Queen Catherine as steward of her household. He was also selected as one of the commoners to assist in the protection of the young Henry VI.
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Wikipedia Persondata
wn.com/Wikipedia_Persondata -
William Burley
William Burley (died 10 August 1458) was MP for Shropshire nineteen times and Speaker of the House of Commons of England.
He was the eldest son of John Burley of Broncroft in Corvedale, who was himself six times MP for Shropshire.
He married twice; firstly Ellen, daughter and coheiress of John Grendon, and widow of John Brown of Lichfield; they had 2 daughters and secondly Margaret, presumed daughter of Thomas Parys of Ludlow.
He served on several commissions and as a JP and escheator for Shropshire. He was appointed High Sheriff of Shropshire for 1426. He served as knight of the shire (MP) for Shropshire 19 times between 1417 and 1455, acting as Speaker of the House for a few days in 1437 and again in 1445.
He died intestate, leaving as his heirs his daughter Joan, married to the jurist, Thomas Lyttleton of Teddesley and his grandson, William Trussell, son of his other daughter, Elizabeth.
wn.com/William_Burley -
William Catesby
William Catesby, esq. (1450 – August 25, 1485) was one of Richard III of England's principal councillors. He also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Speaker of the House of Commons during Richard's reign.
He was the son of Sir William Catesby of Ashby St Ledgers, Northamptonshire (died 1470) and Philippa, daughter and heiress of Sir William Bishopston. He was trained for the law in the Inner Temple.
As an aspiring lawyer Catesby initially progressed in the service of William, 1st Lord Hastings. He married Margaret, daughter of William La Zouche, 6th Baron Zouche of Harringworth.
He was a member of the Council that ruled during the reign of Edward V. After Richard was enthroned, Catesby was one of King Richard's closest advisors. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and as Speaker of the English House of Commons during the Parliament of 1484, in which he sat as knight of the shire for Northamptonshire. He also received a substantial grant of land from the king, enough to make him richer than most knights.
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William Cordell
Sir William Cordell (1522–1581) was Solicitor General and Master of the Rolls during the reign of Queen Mary I and Speaker of the House of Commons during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
Following the dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII granted the manor of Long Melford to Cordell.Knighted in 1558, a member of Lincoln's Inn 1538, called to the Bar 1544, bencher 1553, reader 1554, a founding member of the Russia Company, received a grant of arms for his father in 1548 and one for himself (quartering Webb) in 1549, Solicitor General to Mary I 1553, Master of the Rolls and a member of the privy council 1557, sat in five parliaments between 1545 and 1571, Speaker of the House of Commons 1558, executor to Queen Mary I, Cardinal Pole, and Archbishop Parker, founded a hospital; the Holy Trinity at Long Melford, first visitor and supporter of the foundation of St John's College, Oxford,
By his will it is found that he left charitable bequests to Cambridge and Oxford including £20 to be distributed among the poor scholars of the universities ‘unto suche as be moste towardes in vertewe and learninge’.
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William Esturmy
Sir William Esturmy or Sturmy (died 1427) was hereditary Warden of Savernake Forest, a Knight of the Shire and Speaker of the House of Commons.
He was born around 1356, the son of Geoffrey Sturmy and nephew and heir of Sir Henry Sturmy of Wolfhall in the Savernake Forest, Wiltshire. He inherited in 1381 and was knighted by October 1388.
He held the post of hereditary warden of Savernake Forest from 1381 to 1417 and from 1420 until his death in 1427. He entered politics, serving initially as knight of the shire for Hampshire in 1384 and again in 1390, but also eight times for Wiltshire and twice for Devon between then and 1422. He was elected Speaker of the House in 1404 during the reign of Henry IV, known as the Illiterate or Unlearned Parliament because the king forbid lawyers from attending. He was appointed High Sheriff of Wiltshire for 1418.
He held a number of public posts and served several times as an ambassador abroad.
He died at Wolfhall. He had married Joan Crawthorne, the widow of Sir John Beaumont of Saunton and Sherwell, Devon. They had two daughters. His daughter Maud married John Seymour and through her William Esturmy would be one of the forefathers of Jane Seymour.
wn.com/William_Esturmy -
William Hague
William Jefferson Hague MP FRSL (born 26 March 1961) is a British politician, who is the current Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001. In Parliament, he has represented the constituency of Richmond (Yorks) since 1989.
Educated at Wath-upon-Dearne Grammar School, a state grammar school, then the University of Oxford (graduating with First Class Honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics) and INSEAD, Hague was first elected to the House of Commons in a by-election in 1989. Hague rose through the ranks of John Major's government and entered the Cabinet in 1995 as the Secretary of State for Wales. Following the Conservatives' defeat in the 1997 general election, he was elected as leader of the Conservative Party. He resigned as party leader after the 2001 general election following a landslide defeat to the Labour Party. He was the first leader of the Conservatives not to have become Prime Minister since Austen Chamberlain in the early 1920s.
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William Lenthall
William Lenthall (1591 – 9 November 1662) was an English politician of the Civil War period. He served as Speaker of the House of Commons.
The second son of William Lenthall of North Leigh in Oxfordshire, a descendant of an old Herefordshire family, he was born at Henley-on-Thames. Educated at Lord Williams's School, he later left Oxford without taking a degree in 1609, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1616, becoming a bencher in 1633.
He represented Woodstock in the Short Parliament (April 1640) and Long Parliament (November 1640), for which latter Parliament he was chosen by King Charles I to be Speaker. According to Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, a worse choice could not have been made, for Lenthall was of a very timorous nature. He was treated with little respect, and was unable to control the proceedings.
On 4 January 1642, however, when King Charles I entered the House of Commons to seize five 'disruptive' members, Lenthall behaved with great prudence and dignity. Having taken the speaker's chair and looked round in vain to discover the offending members, Charles turned to Lenthall standing below, and demanded of him whether any of those persons were in the House, whether he saw any of them and where they were. Lenthall fell on his knees and replied: "May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here."
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William Oldhall
Sir William Oldhall (1390?–1460) was an English soldier and Yorkist supporter, who served as Speaker of the House of Commons of England between 1450-51.
The son and heir of Sir Edmund Oldhall of Narford, Bodney, and East Dereham, Norfolk, by Alice, daughter of Geoffrey de Fransham of the same county, he was born about 1390. As an esquire in the retinue of Thomas Beaufort, 1st Earl of Dorset, he was present at the siege of Rouen in 1418–19. He also served under Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury in the expedition for the relief of Crevant, July 1423, and won his spurs at the battle of Verneuil on 17 August 1424. About this date he was made seneschal of Normandy. In the subsequent invasion of Maine and Anjou he further distinguished himself, and was appointed constable of Montsoreau and governor of St. Laurent des Mortiers.
In the summer of 1426 Oldhall was employed in Flanders on a mission to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy concerning Jacqueline, Duchess of Gloucester, then a prisoner in the duke's hands. In October 1428 he was detached by the council of Normandy to strengthen the garrison of Argentan, then in danger of falling by treachery into the hands of Jean II, Duke of Alençon. He was present at the great council held at Westminster, 24 April–8 May 1434, on the conduct of the war in France, and also at the council of 24 February 1438–9. In 1440 he was chamberlain to Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, and a member of his council, and the following year was made feoffee to his use and that of his duchess Cecilia of certain royal manors. In the struggle for the retention of Normandy he commanded the castle of La Ferté Bernard, which fell into the hands of the French on 16 August 1449.
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William Tresham
Sir William Tresham JP (died 23 September 1450) was an English lawyer and Speaker of the House of Commons. Born in Northamptonshire, the son of Thomas Tresham of Sywell, he went on to become a major landowner in the region. He was elected as a Knight of the shire for the parliament of 1423, and again in 1427, 1429, 1432, 1433, 1435, 1439, 1442, 1445, 1447 and February and November 1449, serving in twelve successive parliaments overall. In 1424 he was also appointed a Justice of the Peace for Northamptonshire; a man born of common stock relied on advancement in his home county for advancement nationally. Having trained as a lawyer, Tresham spent intermittent periods in the service of the king, such as in 1415, when he reviewed the accounts of the King's officials in southern Wales.
It is assumed he concentrated on his legal career in the 1420s, where there are few records of his activities, but in 1430 he was appointed as a councillor to Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, and continued to receive a salary until at least 1447. In 1432 he was made one of the two Attorneys-general of Henry Beaufort, and spent much of the 1430s on various commissions of the crown, including one to Northamptonshire in 1434 to investigate the hiding of royal funds, and another in 1439 to look at the value of royal lands, again in Northamptonshire. He was employed by the royal household as an apprentice-at-law and thus secured a tie with them; this is likely why he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons for the 1439 Parliament, when there were attempts to reform the King's household.
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Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, PC, DL, FRS, Hon. RA (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British Conservative politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century, he served as Prime Minister twice (1940–45 and 1951–55). A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. He is the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States.
Churchill was born into the aristocratic family of the Dukes of Marlborough. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer; his mother, Jenny Jerome, was an American socialite. As a young army officer, he saw action in British India, the Sudan, and the Second Boer War. He gained fame as a war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns.
wn.com/Winston_Churchill
Famous quotes by John Bercow:
"But you might have been promoted by then!"
"He is the Tory who can reach beyond the Tory tribe and take us back into government."
"Ken is the most popular and charismatic Conservative and he's the Conservative who can reach beyond the Tory tribe -- he can take us back into government,"
"Ann and I have a lot in common,"
"A lot of our members will be extremely disappointed that they will not have a chance to vote for Ken. For him to be eliminated in the first round sends a very sad and worrying signal to the electorate. Some people simply can't accept being led by someone committed to Europe. The party has to decide whether it wants to win or not."
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House of Commons - John Bercow ejects Paul Flynn
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:46
- Updated: 24 Dec 2012
Paul Flynn insists on his accusation of lying and is named. The Clerk advises the Speaker throughout.
http://wn.com/House_of_Commons_John_Bercow_ejects_Paul_Flynn
Paul Flynn insists on his accusation of lying and is named. The Clerk advises the Speaker throughout.
John Bercow Vs. David Cameron - Prime Minister's Questions 29/06/11
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:22
- Updated: 04 Dec 2012
John Bercow ticks off the Prime Minister not once but twice in Prime Minister's Question Time.
http://wn.com/John_Bercow_Vs_David_Cameron_Prime_Minister's_Questions_29_06_11
John Bercow ticks off the Prime Minister not once but twice in Prime Minister's Question Time.
- published: 30 Jun 2011
- views: 54129
- author: IHateEdMiliband
Speaker John Bercow being very dismissive - House of Commons
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:39
- Updated: 12 Oct 2012
Is this an example of Boothroyd, Thomas or Weatherill skills????
http://wn.com/Speaker_John_Bercow_being_very_dismissive_House_of_Commons
Is this an example of Boothroyd, Thomas or Weatherill skills????
- published: 11 Oct 2012
- views: 646
- author: Oban277
John Bercow speech to become Speaker
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:39
- Updated: 07 Dec 2012
John Bercow explains why he should be elected the new Speaker of the House of Commons in the UK. The Father of the House, Alan Williams, was the presiding officer of the Commons during the election process.
http://wn.com/John_Bercow_speech_to_become_Speaker
John Bercow explains why he should be elected the new Speaker of the House of Commons in the UK. The Father of the House, Alan Williams, was the presiding officer of the Commons during the election process.
- published: 25 Jun 2009
- views: 9334
- author: Medeasbiggestfan
Obama welcomed by John Bercow
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:32
- Updated: 30 Nov 2012
Obama in London 25 May 2011. Great welcome speech by John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons. We welcome President Obama too, with hope and prayers, that with our Prime Minister Cameron our great nations will work together to achieve global peace, and try to end all conflicts and wars.
http://wn.com/Obama_welcomed_by_John_Bercow
Obama in London 25 May 2011. Great welcome speech by John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons. We welcome President Obama too, with hope and prayers, that with our Prime Minister Cameron our great nations will work together to achieve global peace, and try to end all conflicts and wars.
- published: 25 May 2011
- views: 10218
- author: Dial4Peace
Commons speaker John Bercow interviewed (06May12)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 18:28
- Updated: 09 Dec 2012
The House of Commons speaker John Bercow is interviewed by Murnaghan on a number of issues. Recorded from Sky News, Murnaghan, 06 May 2012.
http://wn.com/Commons_speaker_John_Bercow_interviewed_06May12
The House of Commons speaker John Bercow is interviewed by Murnaghan on a number of issues. Recorded from Sky News, Murnaghan, 06 May 2012.
- published: 06 May 2012
- views: 900
- author: liarpoliticians2
Division! Clear the Lobby. John Bercow in the House of Commons. 20th March 2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:41
- Updated: 31 Jul 2012
"DIVISION, CLEAR THE LOBBY." No sooner does one vote take place than another comes along. Just another day at the office for The Speaker John Bercow.
http://wn.com/Division!_Clear_the_Lobby_John_Bercow_in_the_House_of_Commons_20th_March_2012
"DIVISION, CLEAR THE LOBBY." No sooner does one vote take place than another comes along. Just another day at the office for The Speaker John Bercow.
- published: 20 Mar 2012
- views: 4347
- author: simonvaughan69
PMQs: John Bercow - Order! Behave Like An Adult Or Get Out - 13/07/2011
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:52
- Updated: 23 Dec 2012
This funny as f*ck clip is taken from Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday 13th July 2011. Click the link below to SUBSCRIBE to the 'News of the World Phone Hacking' YouTube channel @ www.youtube.com For upto date news on the hacking scandal, follow me on Twitter @ twitter.com It shows Rt Hon John Bercow MP - Member of Parliament for Buckingham & Speaker of the House of Commons trying to bring some quiet to the proceedings! In the clip Bercow shouting "order" eight (8) times to Childrens Minister Tim Loughton & then after he says: "I say to the Childrens Minister, try to clam down & behave like an adult & if you can't, if it's beyond you, leave the chamber - get out, we'll manage without you." QUALITY!!! Thanks to the BBC. Wednesday 13th July 2011
http://wn.com/PMQs_John_Bercow_Order!_Behave_Like_An_Adult_Or_Get_Out_13_07_2011
This funny as f*ck clip is taken from Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday 13th July 2011. Click the link below to SUBSCRIBE to the 'News of the World Phone Hacking' YouTube channel @ www.youtube.com For upto date news on the hacking scandal, follow me on Twitter @ twitter.com It shows Rt Hon John Bercow MP - Member of Parliament for Buckingham & Speaker of the House of Commons trying to bring some quiet to the proceedings! In the clip Bercow shouting "order" eight (8) times to Childrens Minister Tim Loughton & then after he says: "I say to the Childrens Minister, try to clam down & behave like an adult & if you can't, if it's beyond you, leave the chamber - get out, we'll manage without you." QUALITY!!! Thanks to the BBC. Wednesday 13th July 2011
- published: 13 Jul 2011
- views: 14684
- author: NOTWPhoneHacking
David Cameron Mocks John Bercow's Kaleidoscope - Prime Minister's Questions 21/03/12
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:49
- Updated: 14 Dec 2012
The long running feud between David Cameron and Speaker John Bercow continues as Cameron mocks a speech made on 20th March 2012 by Bercow about the Queen being "a kaleidoscope Queen of a kaleidoscope country".
http://wn.com/David_Cameron_Mocks_John_Bercow's_Kaleidoscope_Prime_Minister's_Questions_21_03_12
The long running feud between David Cameron and Speaker John Bercow continues as Cameron mocks a speech made on 20th March 2012 by Bercow about the Queen being "a kaleidoscope Queen of a kaleidoscope country".
- published: 21 Mar 2012
- views: 14588
- author: IHateEdMiliband
Rt Hon John Bercow MP gives lecture on Parliamentary Reform
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 80:59
- Updated: 26 Oct 2012
The Speaker of the House of Commons, Rt Hon John Bercow MP, gave a lecture on Parliamentary Reform at the University of Hull this week as part of the Politics 50 celebrations.
http://wn.com/Rt_Hon_John_Bercow_MP_gives_lecture_on_Parliamentary_Reform
The Speaker of the House of Commons, Rt Hon John Bercow MP, gave a lecture on Parliamentary Reform at the University of Hull this week as part of the Politics 50 celebrations.
- published: 19 Mar 2012
- views: 343
- author: marcomshull
Sally Bercow and Speaker John Bercow MP talk about autism on ITV1's Lorraine - 16/07/12
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:35
- Updated: 23 Aug 2012
This is Sally and Speaker John Bercow MP's first ever joint television interview on ITV1's Lorraine programme. The couple talk to Lorraine about what family life is like raising a child with autism as their son Oliver, aged eight, has high-functioning autism. They also discussed why they support Ambitious about Autism and the £100000 donation to the charity Sally achieved by appearing in Celebrity Big Brother 2011.
http://wn.com/Sally_Bercow_and_Speaker_John_Bercow_MP_talk_about_autism_on_ITV1's_Lorraine_16_07_12
This is Sally and Speaker John Bercow MP's first ever joint television interview on ITV1's Lorraine programme. The couple talk to Lorraine about what family life is like raising a child with autism as their son Oliver, aged eight, has high-functioning autism. They also discussed why they support Ambitious about Autism and the £100000 donation to the charity Sally achieved by appearing in Celebrity Big Brother 2011.
- published: 23 Aug 2012
- views: 688
- author: ambitiousaboutautism
Was John Bercow's speech out of 'order'?
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:41
- Updated: 19 Dec 2012
Much to David Cameron's apparent chagrin, the Speaker of the Commons calls Her Majesty "a kaleidoscope Queen of a kaleidoscope country".
http://wn.com/Was_John_Bercow's_speech_out_of_'order'?
Much to David Cameron's apparent chagrin, the Speaker of the Commons calls Her Majesty "a kaleidoscope Queen of a kaleidoscope country".
- published: 20 Mar 2012
- views: 11627
- author: telegraphtv
John Bercow - before he was famous - Commons Speech
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:13
- Updated: 23 Nov 2012
He may give himself a row in this.
http://wn.com/John_Bercow_before_he_was_famous_Commons_Speech
Parliament and the Public: Strangers or Friends? - The Rt Hon John Bercow
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 49:59
- Updated: 25 Jul 2012
How can the House of Commons engage more effectively with the public which it serves? Can modern technology assist this enterprise? Thetranscript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: www.gresham.ac.uk Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. www.gresham.ac.uk
http://wn.com/Parliament_and_the_Public_Strangers_or_Friends?_The_Rt_Hon_John_Bercow
How can the House of Commons engage more effectively with the public which it serves? Can modern technology assist this enterprise? Thetranscript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: www.gresham.ac.uk Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. www.gresham.ac.uk
- published: 24 Jul 2012
- views: 107
- author: GreshamCollege
![John Bercow gets Angry and Shouts Himself Hoarse at PMQ's [HD]](http://web.archive.org./web/20121227025641im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SEU1-c1TjUM/default.jpg "John Bercow gets Angry and Shouts Himself Hoarse at PMQ's [HD]")
John Bercow gets Angry and Shouts Himself Hoarse at PMQ's [HD]
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:37
- Updated: 19 Dec 2012
http://wn.com/John_Bercow_gets_Angry_and_Shouts_Himself_Hoarse_at_PMQ's_HD_
UKIP Nigel Farage VS The Speaker John Bercow in Buckingham General Election 2010
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:28
- Updated: 03 Nov 2012
http://wn.com/UKIP_Nigel_Farage_VS_The_Speaker_John_Bercow_in_Buckingham_General_Election_2010
Interview with Sally and John Bercow about being parents of a boy with autism (October 2012)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:33
- Updated: 28 Nov 2012
Interview with Sally and Speaker John Bercow MP about being parents of a boy with autism, Oliver, and why they're Parent Patrons of Ambitious about Autism. Find out more about Ambitious about Autism: www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk
http://wn.com/Interview_with_Sally_and_John_Bercow_about_being_parents_of_a_boy_with_autism_October_2012
Interview with Sally and Speaker John Bercow MP about being parents of a boy with autism, Oliver, and why they're Parent Patrons of Ambitious about Autism. Find out more about Ambitious about Autism: www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk
- published: 05 Oct 2012
- views: 1095
- author: ambitiousaboutautism
John Bercow at UKYP 2012 Sitting (House of Commons)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:25
- Updated: 30 Nov 2012
The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow speaks to BYC about his day at the UKYP Annual Sitting (2012) @ the House of Commons.
http://wn.com/John_Bercow_at_UKYP_2012_Sitting_House_of_Commons
The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow speaks to BYC about his day at the UKYP Annual Sitting (2012) @ the House of Commons.
- published: 30 Nov 2012
- views: 33
- author: BritishYouthCouncil
UKYP Annual Sitting 2012 - Rt. Hon. John Bercow MP Q&A;
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:19
- Updated: 16 Aug 2012
The Rt. Hon. John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons, takes questions from the floor at the 2012 Annual Sitting of the UK Youth Parliament.
http://wn.com/UKYP_Annual_Sitting_2012_Rt_Hon_John_Bercow_MP_Q&A;
The Rt. Hon. John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons, takes questions from the floor at the 2012 Annual Sitting of the UK Youth Parliament.
- published: 16 Aug 2012
- views: 42
- author: BritishYouthCouncil
XX-th aniversary of the School: John Bercow, speaker of the House of Commons
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:19
- Updated: 13 Nov 2012
XX-th aniversary of the School: John Bercow, speaker of the House of Commons
http://wn.com/XX-th_aniversary_of_the_School_John_Bercow,_speaker_of_the_House_of_Commons
XX-th aniversary of the School: John Bercow, speaker of the House of Commons
- published: 13 Nov 2012
- views: 31
- author: MoscowSchool
Change for Burma! Interview with John Bercow MP
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:24
- Updated: 19 Sep 2012
John Bercow MP speaks of his commitment to Burma and why you should take part in the Change for Burma! campaign
http://wn.com/Change_for_Burma!_Interview_with_John_Bercow_MP
John Bercow MP speaks of his commitment to Burma and why you should take part in the Change for Burma! campaign
- published: 16 Sep 2008
- views: 987
- author: Christian Solidarity
UKIP Nigel Farage standing against speaker John Bercow in General Election 2010
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:14
- Updated: 01 Nov 2012
http://wn.com/UKIP_Nigel_Farage_standing_against_speaker_John_Bercow_in_General_Election_2010
John Bercow imitates Tony Benn
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:29
- Updated: 21 Sep 2012
John Bercow imitates Tony Benn "The Speaker, Behind the Scenes" BBC Radio 4, 10th June 2012
http://wn.com/John_Bercow_imitates_Tony_Benn
John Bercow imitates Tony Benn "The Speaker, Behind the Scenes" BBC Radio 4, 10th June 2012
- published: 21 Sep 2012
- views: 93
- author: SittingDownWith
photo: Creative Commons / Axou
24 Dec 2012
Steve Jobs was controversial in life, and now his high-tech mega-yacht is associated with a controversy long after his death. The former Apple CEO's ship was impounded in Amsterdam in the middle of a financial battle over a disputed bill. Phillippe Starck, a French product designer and architect, has alleged that Jobs' heirs owe him 3 million euros for his work on Venus, the 256-foot yacht Jobs commissioned before his death ... ... ....(size: 2.6Kb)
photo: Creative Commons / Giorgione
24 Dec 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling ... I was unprepared for what occurred then ... And maybe this is why that in John's Apocalypse, or the Book of Revelation, the terrifying term "Beast" is (again) reserved for a violent and aggressive individual(s) and empire(s) ... 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John's Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity ... 9 ... 10. ....(size: 6.3Kb)
photo: AP / Musadeq Sadeq
24 Dec 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan policewoman shot and killed an American adviser outside the police headquarters in Kabul on Monday, the latest in a rising tide of insider attacks by Afghans against their foreign allies, senior Afghan officials said. The woman, identified as Afghan police Sgt ... The woman was taken into Afghan custody shortly after the attack ... As many Afghans, the policewoman uses only one name ... Col ... Gen. John C ... John D ... ....(size: 4.6Kb)
photo: AP / Hasan Jamali
26 Dec 2012
The six Gulf states have sharpened their tone against their neighbour Iran, demanding an immediate halt to its "interference" in their internal affairs while urging action to halt mass killings and violations of international law in Syria ... The council said they "reject and denounce" Iran's "continued interference" in their internal affairs that increase regional tension and threaten security and stability ... 419 Source.. Agencies. Share ... ....(size: 18.7Kb)
noodls
21 Dec 2012
(Source. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer). Accelerating progress towards achieving criminal and social justice for all continues to be a priority for the Trust, as it has been since Stephen's death in 1993 ... Speakers at the event included Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, Home Secretary Theresa May and Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice Damian Green ... It's a time for reflection but also for looking ahead ... (noodl....(size: 4.0Kb)
noodls
19 Dec 2012
(Source. University of Ulster) ... She has also recently been elected to the national executive committee of the Political Studies Association (PSA) and masterminded the 2012 Political Studies Association's Annual Conference in Belfast which attracted more than 500 delegates and keynote speakers including David Blunkett MP, John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons and Baroness D'Souza, Speaker of the House of Lords ... distributed by....(size: 2.8Kb)
The Independent
17 Dec 2012
An independent investigation set up to examine allegations of historic child abuse in North Wales has received information from 105 victims in just one month ... The new inquiry was announced by Home Secretary Theresa May last month and 105 victims have come forward so far, the NCA confirmed today ... We will do so ... He was named on social networking site Twitter by users including Sally Bercow, wife of John Bercow, the Commons Speaker ... PA ....(size: 4.6Kb)
Bloomberg
17 Dec 2012
A sequence of yoga poses cannot be copyrighted, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled. The Dec ... copyright protection for yoga exercises ... The U.S. Copyright Office in June said that a sequence couldn’t be protected under copyright laws ... 3 ... 8 ... The libel lawsuit against Sally Bercow, the spouse of House of Commons Speaker John Bercow, was filed Dec ... Bercow and other Twitter users who have more followers were threatened with tougher legal action....(size: 18.5Kb)
The Daily Telegraph Australia
14 Dec 2012
SALLY Bercow is being sued for £50,000 by Lord McAlpine after she sent an online message linking him to sex abuse at a care home. Bercow, the wife of the British government's House of Commons Speaker John Bercow, faces an expensive court battle after she used Twitter to name the former Conservative Party treasurer following a botched BBC investigation, Daily Mail reported....(size: 3.3Kb)
Bloomberg
14 Dec 2012
sued the wife of House of Commons Speaker John Bercow. Alastair McAlpine, 70, had threatened to sue Sally Bercow and other Twitter users for libel after they allegedly posted or re-posted on Twitter defamatory statements when the BBC wrongly implied he sexually abused a boy in the 1970s. McAlpine sued Bercow on Dec ... Bercow and other Twitter users who ......(size: 2.1Kb)
Skynews
13 Dec 2012
Sally Bercow, the wife of the Commons Speaker, is being sued for libel over a tweet which allegedly linked a former Conservative politician to false child abuse allegations. ... The peer's name was then widely mentioned on the internet, including social networking site Twitter, by users including Mrs Bercow, wife of John Bercow, comedian Alan Davies and Guardian columnist George Monbiot....(size: 4.0Kb)
Skynews
13 Dec 2012
Sally Bercow, the wife of the Commons Speaker, is being sued for libel over a tweet which allegedly linked a former Conservative politician to false child abuse allegations. ... The peer's name was then widely mentioned on the internet, including social networking site Twitter, by users including Mrs Bercow, wife of John Bercow, comedian Alan Davies and Guardian columnist George Monbiot....(size: 4.0Kb)
Belfast Telegraph
13 Dec 2012
Sally Bercow, the wife of the Commons Speaker, is being sued for libel over a tweet which allegedly linked a former Conservative politician to false child abuse allegations ... The peer's name was then widely mentioned on the internet, including social networking site Twitter, by users including Mrs Bercow, wife of John Bercow, comedian Alan Davies and Guardian columnist George Monbiot....(size: 2.9Kb)
BBC News
13 Dec 2012
The Speaker's wife, Sally Bercow, is being sued for libel over a tweet she posted linking a former Tory politician to false claims of child abuse ... Ex-Labour council candidate Mrs Bercow, 43, is the wife of John Bercow, the speaker of the House of Commons ... Mrs Bercow temporarily deactivated her Twitter account after the incident but has since reinstated it....(size: 2.3Kb)
noodls
13 Dec 2012
(Source. OU - The Open University). Over 150 cross-party MPs and peers; honorary graduates; and charity partners last night attended an invite-only reception at the residence of the Rt Hon John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons, in Westminster to learn about the University's impact on promoting learning and contributing to economic growth ... Speaking after the event, Martin Bean said ... ENDS. Notes to editors ... distributed by ... (noodl....(size: 4.0Kb)
photo: AP / Scott Heppell
11 Dec 2012
More than 150,000 people who borrowed money from Northern Rock cannot legally be required to pay interest and could be in line for refunds, the Treasury has admitted. By James Kirkup. 12.54PM GMT 11 Dec 2012. Comments ... Previous. of Companies. Next. Lloyds Banking Group ... OBR ... Mr Osborne insisted he had been entirely transparent, but John Bercow, the Speaker, told him the disclosure “could have been better done.” ... ....(size: 11.4Kb)
Newstrack India
10 Dec 2012
The wife of the current Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow has complained on Twitter that her husband failed to bed her on their 10th wedding anniversary. Sally Bercow embarrassed her other half John, 49, in a 2am tweet, the Daily Star reported ......(size: 2.2Kb)
| The Right Honourable John Bercow MP |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Speaker of the House of Commons | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 22 June 2009 |
|
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Preceded by | Michael Martin |
| Shadow Secretary of State for International Development | |
| In office 6 November 2003 – 23 September 2004 |
|
| Leader | Michael Howard |
| Preceded by | Caroline Spelman |
| Succeeded by | Alan Duncan |
| Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury | |
| In office 18 September 2001 – 23 July 2002 |
|
| Leader | Iain Duncan Smith |
| Preceded by | Oliver Letwin |
| Succeeded by | Howard Flight |
| Member of Parliament for Buckingham |
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 1 May 1997 |
|
| Preceded by | George Walden |
| Majority | 12,529 (25.9%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1963-01-19) 19 January 1963 (age 49) Edgware, Middlesex, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Not applicable |
| Other political affiliations |
Conservative (1986–2009) |
| Spouse(s) | Sally Bercow (née Illman) |
| Children | Oliver Freddie Jemima |
| Residence | London |
| Alma mater | University of Essex |
| Religion | Judaism |
John Simon Bercow ( /ˈbɜrkoʊ/ BUR-koh; born 19 January 1963) is a British politician who has been the Speaker of the House of Commons since June 2009. Prior to his election to Speaker he was a member of the Conservative Party.
Bercow was born in Middlesex into a Jewish family and graduated from the University of Essex in 1985. In his youth, Bercow was active in the Conservative Party and was a member of several right-wing groups within the party. He served as a Councillor from 1986–1990 and unsuccessfully contested parliamentary seats in the 1987 and 1992 General Elections. In the 1997 General Election, Bercow was elected the MP for Buckingham and promoted to the shadow cabinet in 2001. He held posts in the Shadow Cabinets of Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard. In November 2002, he resigned from the Shadow Cabinet over disputes concerning the Adoption and Children Act but returned under Michael Howard in 2003. In September 2004, Bercow was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet after disagreements with leader Michael Howard.
Following the resignation of the Speaker, Michael Martin, Bercow announced his intention to stand for the Speakership election on 22 June 2009 and was successful. He was re-elected to this post on 18 May 2010 following unsuccessful challenges in the General Election.[1]
Contents |
Early life and career[link]
Bercow was born to a British Jewish family in Edgware, Middlesex.[2] His paternal grandparents were Jews who arrived in Britain from Romania a century ago.[3][4] The son of a taxi driver, Bercow attended Frith Manor Primary School in Woodside Park, and Finchley Manorhill, a large comprehensive school in North Finchley. In his youth, Bercow had been ranked Britain's No.1 junior tennis player. However, a bout of glandular fever ended his chances of pursuing a career as a professional tennis player.[5]
Bercow graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Government from the University of Essex in 1985.[6] Professor Anthony King remembers: "When he was a student here, he was very right-wing, pretty stroppy, and very good. He was an outstanding student."[6] As a young activist, Bercow was a member of the right-wing Conservative Monday Club, becoming Secretary of its Immigration and Repatriation Committee. However, at the age of 20 he left the club, citing the views of many of the club's members as his reason.[7] In 1981 Bercow had stood as a candidate for the national executive of the Monday Club and called for a programme of "assisted repatriation" of immigrants.[8]
After graduating from university, Bercow was elected as the last National Chairman of the Federation of Conservative Students (FCS) from 1986–87.[6] The FCS was then broken up by the Chairman of the Conservative Party, Norman Tebbit, after one of its members had accused previous Tory PM Harold McMillan of war crimes in extraditing Cossacks to the Soviet Union.[9] Bercow attracted the attention of the Conservative leadership, and in 1987 he was appointed by Tebbit as Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Collegiate Forum (the successor organisation of the FCS) to head the campaign for student support in the run-up to the 1987 General Election.
After a spell in merchant banking, Bercow joined the lobbying firm Rowland Sallingbury Casey (part of Saatchi & Saatchi) in 1988, becoming a board director within five years.
With fellow Conservative Dr Julian Lewis, Bercow ran an Advanced Speaking and Campaigning course for over ten years, which trained over 600 Conservatives (including several current MPs) in campaigning and communication techniques. He has also lectured in the United States to students of the Leadership Institute.[10]
Political career[link]
Councillor[link]
In 1986, Bercow was elected as a Conservative Councillor in the London Borough of Lambeth. He served as a Councillor for four years. In 1987, he was appointed the youngest Deputy Group Leader in the United Kingdom.[11]
Special adviser[link]
In 1995, Bercow was appointed as a Special Adviser to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Jonathan Aitken. After Aitken's resignation to fight a libel action, Bercow served as a Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for National Heritage, Virginia Bottomley.
Parliamentary career[link]
Bercow was an unsuccessful Conservative candidate in the 1987 General Election in Motherwell, and again at the 1992 General Election in Bristol South. In 1996, he paid £1,000 to hire a helicopter so that he could attend the selection meetings for two safe Conservative parliamentary seats on the same day – Buckingham and Surrey Heath – and was selected as the candidate for Buckingham. He has referred to the hiring of the helicopter as "the best £1,000 I have ever spent".[11]
Bercow was first elected to Parliament in the 1997 General Election as the MP for Buckingham with a majority of 12,386. He then increased his majority, having been re-elected at the 2005 General Election by a margin of 18,129 votes. He was also re-elected at the 2010 General Election, but with a reduced majority of 12,529 votes.
Bercow rose quickly through the opposition's junior offices. He was appointed a frontbench spokesman for Education and Employment in June 1999, and then a frontbench spokesman for Home Affairs in July 2000, before being brought into the Shadow Cabinet in 2001 by the Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith. He served as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from September 2001 – July 2002, and as Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions from July–November 2002. During this first spell on the frontbench, Bercow publicly stated that he did not think he was ruthless enough to reach the top of politics.[12] In November 2002, when the Labour government introduced the Adoption and Children Act, which would allow unmarried gay and heterosexual couples to adopt children, Duncan Smith imposed a three-line whip requiring Conservative MPs to vote against the bill rather than allowing a free vote. In protest, Bercow defied the whips and voted with the government arguing that it should be a free vote. He then resigned from the frontbench.[13] As a backbencher he was openly critical of Duncan Smith's leadership, declaring that he was about as likely to "meet an Eskimo in the desert" as Duncan Smith was to win the next general election.[14]
In November 2003, the new Conservative Leader Michael Howard appointed Bercow as Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. However, he went on to clash with Howard over taxes, immigration and Iraq,[15] and was sacked from the frontbench in September 2004 after telling Howard that Ann Widdecombe was right to have said that there was "something of the night about him".[16]
Bercow has a long-standing interest in Burma and frequently raised issues of democracy and genocide in the country. In 2006 he was made a Patron of the Tory Reform Group.[17] In 2001, he also supported the ban on MPs becoming members of the Monday Club, an organisation of which he is a former member (see above).[18]
Bercow was formerly the Treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal Peoples,[19] an APPG composed of over 30 cross-party MPs who aim to raise parliamentary and public awareness of tribal peoples.[20]
Opposition MP of the Year[link]
In 2005, Bercow won the Channel Four/Hansard Society Political Award for 'Opposition MP of the Year'. He said:
I shall treasure this award and I am extremely grateful to my colleagues for it. Winning it has raised the question of what is good opposition. I think that the public is fed up with one politician simply ranting at another politician for the sake of it. The public deserves to see a more measured and constructive approach to politics. In addition to pursuing a wide variety of local issues, I have attempted to question, probe and scrutinise the Government in the House of Commons on important national and international topics which concern people. Over the last 12 months, I have constantly pressed the case for reform of world trade rules to give the poorest people on the planet a chance to sell their products and improve their quality of life. The plight of the people of Darfur, Western Sudan, has also been a regular theme. They have suffered too much for too long with too little done about the situation. I shall go on arguing for Britain to take the lead in the international community in seeking decisive action for peace and justice.[21]
Rumours of defection[link]
Following the defection of Conservative MP Quentin Davies to the Labour Party in June 2007, there were persistent rumours[22] that Bercow was likely to be the next Conservative MP to leave the Party.
Despite these rumours, Bercow did not defect to the Labour Party. However, in September 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that Bercow had accepted an advisory post on the Labour government's review of support for children with speech, language and communication special needs. The Conservative Party Chairman, Caroline Spelman, confirmed that this appointment was with the consent of the Conservative Party.[23] Bercow had a long-term interest in this topic. As he mentioned in a speech in the House of Commons on 1 February 2008,[24] his son Oliver has been diagnosed with autism.
The Bercow Review[link]
In 2008, John Bercow was asked by Labour Cabinet members Ed Balls and Alan Johnson to produce a substantial review of children and families affected by speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). After the report, the government pledged £52 million to raise the profile of SLCN within the education field.
The review looks at the extreme consequences that communication problems can lead to – from initial frustration at not being able to express oneself, to bullying or being bullied at school, fewer job prospects and even the descent into criminality.[25][26]
The interim report highlighted a number of core issues: that speech, language and communication are not only essential life skills but fundamental human rights; that early identification of problems and intervention is important to avoid social problems later on; and that the current system of treatment is patchy, i.e. there is a need for services to be continually provided for children and families from an early age.[27][28]
Role in expenses scandal[link]
Until 2008/09 Bercow usually claimed the maximum available amount for the 'Additional Costs Allowance' to pay for the cost of staying away from his main home. However, in 2007/08 and 2008/09 his total expenses were amongst the lowest claimed by MPs (coming 631st and 640th, respectively, out of 645 and 647).[29]
During the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal, it was revealed that Bercow changed the designation of his second home on more than one occasion – meaning that he avoided paying capital gains tax on the sale of two properties. He also claimed just under £1,000 to hire an accountant to fill in his tax returns. Bercow denied any wrongdoing, but agreed to pay £6,508 to cover any tax that he may have had to pay to HM Revenue and Customs.[30]
Speaker of the House of Commons[link]
Bercow had long campaigned quietly to become Speaker[31] and was touted as a successor to Michael Martin. On 20 May 2009, he officially announced his intention to stand in the Speakership election, which had been triggered by Martin's resignation, and launched his manifesto for the job.[32] In the first round of the election on 22 June, Bercow received 179 votes – more than any other candidate, but short of the majority required for victory. In the third and final round of voting later that day, he defeated Sir George Young by 322 votes to 271,[33] and was approved by the Queen at 10 pm that night as the 157th Speaker.
Bercow's election as Speaker was controversial because he is believed to have had the support of very few MPs from his own Party. Fellow Conservative MPs generally viewed Bercow with distrust because of his changing political views (having moved over the years from being very right-wing to become more socially liberal, leading to clashes with past party leaders), his acceptance of an advisory role from the Labour government (a party he had often been rumoured to be on the verge of joining), his general lack of good relations with fellow MPs from his own party, and his vigorous campaigning for the Speaker's job. It has been speculated that he received the votes of as few as three of his fellow Conservative MPs. However, he received the votes of a large number of Labour MPs, many of whom were angered at the way they perceived Michael Martin to have been hounded out of the job and wanted his replacement to be someone who was not a favourite of the Conservative Party.[34][35]
Bercow is the first Jewish Speaker,[36] the first Speaker to have been elected by an exhaustive ballot, and the first Speaker not to wear traditional court robes while presiding over the House of Commons.[37] However, in accordance with tradition, Bercow does now display his coat of arms at Speaker's House.[38]
According to some MPs, Conservatives believe that Bercow has behaved in a biased manner as Speaker.[39]
Speaker's residence controversy[link]
Within weeks of taking office as Speaker, Bercow ordered a redecoration and refurbishment of the Speaker's grace and favour apartment in the Palace of Westminster, buying a large television and a DVD player; the work cost £20,659 and was paid for by Parliament. It followed previous extensive work on the apartment under the previous Speaker.[40] Publicity was given to a bill of more than £600 for food and drink in the Palace of Westminster in April 2010, when the Financial Controller of the House of Commons wrote informing Bercow that there were "items which have been outstanding for at least two months" on it; it was paid later in the month.[41]
2010 General Election[link]
The Speaker of the House of Commons is traditionally seen as outside party politics, and is often not challenged by the main parties at general elections, including the 2010 general election. In September 2009 Nigel Farage resigned his leadership of the United Kingdom Independence Party to challenge Bercow, asserting: "This man represents all that is wrong with British politics today. He was embroiled in the expenses saga and he presides over a Parliament that virtually does nothing."[42][43] John Stevens, another candidate, found support for his campaign from Martin Bell.[44] Bercow also faced opposition from the British National Party and the Christian Party.[45]
As Bercow lacked a formal party endorsement and therefore a campaign team, he sought to build one and a group of his supporters known as 'Friends of Speaker Bercow' solicited donations for the campaign. They aimed to raise £40,000. When one of their letters was received by a member of the UK Independence Party, the recipient referred it to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, complaining that it appeared that Bercow's fundraising campaign was operating from the Speaker's Office, which is required to remain politically neutral.[46] The Commissioner declined to launch an investigation because of the lack of evidence of involvement of the Speaker's Office.[47]
1911 Centenary Lectures[link]
To mark the centenary of the Parliament Act 1911, Bercow commissioned a series of 11 lectures throughout 2011 covering some of the main political figures of the century. Each lecture was given to an invited audience in Speaker's House and was recorded for broadcast on BBC Parliament. The subjects were:[48]
- David Lloyd George by Lord Morgan, 11 January
- F. E. Smith by Sir Peter Tapsell MP, 1 February
- Nancy Astor by Shirley Williams, 29 March
- Sir Winston Churchill by Nicholas Soames MP, 26 April
- Aneurin Bevan by Gordon Marsden MP, 17 May
- Enoch Powell by Lord Norton of Louth, 14 June
- Michael Foot by Lord Kinnock, 12 July
- Iain Macleod by Lord Hurd, 6 September
- Roy Jenkins by Lord Adonis, 25 October
- Margaret Thatcher by John Whittingdale MP, 15 November
- Tony Benn by Tristram Hunt MP, 6 December
Great Offices of State Lectures[link]
Following the centenary lectures, Bercow instituted a new 11 lecture series for 2012 on the subject of the 'Great Offices of State' (those of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary). In introducing the first lecture, Bercow noted that his assistant had spotted that there were 11 sitting Members who had served in one or more of these offices but had not been Prime Minister, and that all had accepted his invitation to give a lecture. The lecturers were:
- Kenneth Clarke (Home Secretary 1992-93, Chancellor of the Exchequer 1993-97), 24 January
- Alistair Darling (Chancellor of the Exchequer 2007-10), 20 February
- Theresa May (Home Secretary since 2010), 26 March
- Malcolm Rifkind (Foreign Secretary 1995-97), 23 April
- David Blunkett (Home Secretary 2001-04), 15 May
Future lecturers are Margaret Beckett (Foreign Secretary 2006-07), William Hague (Foreign Secretary since 2010), Alan Johnson (Home Secretary 2009-10), David Miliband (Foreign Secretary 2007-10), George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer since 2010) and Jack Straw (Home Secretary 1997-2001, Foreign Secretary 2001-06).
References[link]
- ^ The Speaker of the House, although an elected member of Parliament, is considered to be outside party politics and therefore not usually opposed in General Elections
- ^ Elgot, Jessica. "New Jewish ministers and the Miliband rivalry". The Jewish Chronicle. http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/31823/new-jewish-ministers-and-miliband-rivalry.
- ^ Woolf, Marie (2 August 2004). "John Bercow: 'I have been to Sudan ... seen the poorest people on the planet. They need our help'". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/john-bercow-i-have-been-to-sudan--seen-the-poorest-people-on-the-planet-they-need-our-help-551108.html. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
- ^ Rayner, Gordon (26 June 2009). "Speaker John Bercow called for 'assisted repatriation' of immigrants". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/5651054/Speaker-John-Bercow-called-for-assisted-repatriation-of-immigrants.html. Retrieved 29 June 2009.
- ^ The 10 who want to be called Mr Speaker, East Anglian Daily Times, 17 June 2009
- ^ a b c "Essex graduate new speaker, Colchester Campus, Government, 23 June 2009". University of Essex. 23 June 2009. http://www.essex.ac.uk/events/event.aspx?e_id=613. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ Isaby, Jonathan (4 November 2002). "Profile: John Bercow". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2396507.stm. Retrieved 28 January 2009.
- ^ Rayner, Gordon; Bingham, John (10 July 2010). "Speaker John Bercow called for 'assisted repatriation' of immigrants". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/5651054/Speaker-John-Bercow-called-for-assisted-repatriation-of-immigrants.html. Retrieved 11 July 2010.
- ^ John Stevens (21 August 1986). "Tories sue student editor over Macmillan war crimes charges". Sydney Morning Herald: p. 9. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yapWAAAAIBAJ&pg=4507,3865568.
- ^ John Bercow: Little Mr Turncoat in an awfully big chair, The Sunday Times, 28 June 2009
- ^ a b Wheeler, Brian (24 June 2009). "The John Bercow story". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8114399.stm. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ Sam Coates, "Burning ambition of man who won in spite of his own party", The Times, 23 June 2009, p 6.
- ^ "Tory resigns over adoption vote". BBC News. 4 November 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2396213.stm. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
- ^ "Brian Reade – News Columnists". Daily Mirror. 18 November 2010. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/brianreade/tm_column_date=09012003-name_index.html. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ Bercow Says He's Relieved to Quit U.K. Conservatives bloomberg.com, 26 June 2009
- ^ Profile: Commons Speaker, John Bercow, The Guardian, 22 June 2009
- ^ About People page, Tory Reform Group
- ^ "Tory MPs resign from far-right club". BBC News. 7 October 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk_politics/1584463.stm. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
- ^ Dod, Charles Roger; Dod, Robert Phipps (2010). Dod's parliamentary companion. 178. Dod's Parliamentary Companion Ltd.. p. 1025. ISBN 0-905702-89-1.
- ^ "All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal Peoples website". Appg-tribalpeoples.org.uk. http://www.appg-tribalpeoples.org.uk/. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ "Opposition MP of the Year for 2005". Buckingham Conservative Association. 8 February 2005. http://www.buckinghamconservative.co.uk/ourmp_opposition.htm. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
- ^ "Bercow defection is expected at time of maximum embarrassment". ConservativeHome.com. 14 July 2007. http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2007/07/bercow-defectio.html. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
- ^ "Mercer and Bercow to advise Brown". BBC News. 3 September 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6975708.stm. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
- ^ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 1 Feb 2008 (pt 0004)". Publications.parliament.uk. 1 February 2008. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080201/debtext/80201-0004.htm. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ "The Bercow Review". http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/slcnaction/bercow-review.shtml. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
- ^ Bercow, John (2008). The Bercow Report. Department for Education (UK). http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationdetail/page1/DCSF-00632-2008. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
- ^ "Bercow Review: Speech, Language & Communication Services for Children and Young People Must Improve". Department for Children, Schools and Families. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2008_0056. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
- ^ Bercow, John (2008). Bercow Review of Services for Children and Young people (0–19) with Speech, Language and Communication Needs – Interim Report. Department for Education (UK). http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationdetail/page1/D16-7520-0308. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
- ^ "John Bercow MP, Buckingham". TheyWorkForYou.com. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/john_bercow/buckingham#expenses. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ Rayner, Gordon (23 June 2009). "Speaker election: John Bercow's expenses claims back in spotlight". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5606352/Speaker-election-John-Bercows-expenses-claims-back-in-spotlight.html. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
- ^ Carr, Simon (29 February 2008). "The Sketch: Bercow makes a play for the big chair". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/simon-carr/the-sketch-bercow-makes-a-play-for-the-big-chair-789345.html. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
- ^ Watt, Nicholas (20 May 2009). "John Bercow says he is ready for the Speaker's role". The Guardian (UK). http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/20/commons-speaker-michael-martin-john-bercow. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
- ^ "Election of the Speaker". News.parliament.uk. 21 April 2010. http://news.parliament.uk/2009/06/election-of-the-speaker-latest/. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ Farewell to tights as new Speaker John Bercow presides over Commons, The Times, 24 June 2009
- ^ Laws, sausages, speakers, The Economist, 25 June 2009
- ^ "British lawmakers elect first Jewish speaker". JTA. 23 June 2009. http://jta.org/news/article/2009/06/23/1006053/british-lawmakers-elect-first-jewish-speaker. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ Webster, Philip (24 June 2009). "Farewell to tights as new Speaker John Bercow presides over Commons". The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6565099.ece. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
- ^ Speaker Bercow's coat of arms
- ^ Watson, Roland (7 February 2011). "UK speaker urged to back disabled MP". http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/uk-speaker-urged-to-back-disabled-mp/story-e6frg6so-1226001390316.
- ^ Porter, Andrew (4 August 2009). "MPs' expenses: speaker John Bercow's £20,000 bill for apartment". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5974009/MPs-expenses-speaker-John-Bercows-20000-bill-for-apartment.html. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
- ^ Watt, Holly (28 April 2010). "General Election 2010: Speaker John Bercow warned over Parliament bar bill". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7642219/General-Election-2010-Speaker-John-Bercow-warned-over-Parliament-bar-bill.html. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
- ^ "Farage to stand against Bercow". The Spectator. http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/5304556/farage-to-stand-against-bercow.thtml. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ Smith, Jon (3 September 2009). "Farage to stand against speaker Bercow". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/farage-to-stand-against-speaker-bercow-1781152.html. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
- ^ "In Buckingham, the Bell tolls for Blair". The Independent. 16 April 2010. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/in-buckingham-the-bell-tolls-for-blair-1946381.html. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
- ^ "Buckingham". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/election2010/results/constituency/a79.stm. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
- ^ Jagger, Suzy; Baldwin, Tom (25 February 2010). "Complaint over fundraising letter from Friends of Speaker Bercow". The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7040324.ece. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
- ^ "No inquiry into actions of Friends of Speaker Bercow – Local". Bucks Herald. http://www.bucksherald.co.uk/generalelection/No-inquiry-into-actions-of.6155541.jp. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ "Speaker's lectures: Centenary of the Parliament Act". BBC Parliament. 9 December 2011. http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_commons/newsid_9487000/9487828.stm.
External links[link]
- Debrett's People of Today
- John Bercow MP official constituency website
- The Speaker official Parliament website
- Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
- Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
- Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
- Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
- Voting record at PublicWhip.org
- Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
- Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
- Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
- Articles authored at Journalisted
- APPG for Tribal Peoples – Official website
- News articles
- Profile: Commons Speaker, John Bercow, David Hencke, The Guardian, 22 June 2009
- The John Bercow story, Brian Wheeler, BBC News, 24 June 2009
- Getting the House in order, James Macintyre, Prospect magazine, 20 July 2011
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by George Walden |
Member of Parliament for Buckingham 1997–present |
Incumbent |
| Preceded by Michael Martin |
Speaker of the House of Commons 2009–present |
Incumbent |
| Order of precedence in England and Wales | ||
| Preceded by Nick Clegg as Lord President of the Council |
Gentlemen as Speaker of the House of Commons |
Succeeded by The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers as President of the Supreme Court |
| Order of precedence in Scotland | ||
| Preceded by David Cameron as Prime Minister |
Gentlemen as Speaker of the House of Commons |
Succeeded by Alex Salmond as Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland |
| Order of precedence in Northern Ireland | ||
| Preceded by Nick Clegg as Lord President of the Council |
Gentlemen as Speaker of the House of Commons |
Succeeded by The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers as President of the Supreme Court |
|
|||||||||||
.svg)
| Officers of the House of Commons and the House of Lords | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| House of Commons | House of Lords | ||
| Speaker | John Bercow | Lord Speaker | The Baroness D'Souza |
| Leader of the House of Commons | Sir George Young, Bt. | Leader of the House of Lords | The Lord Strathclyde |
| Serjeant at Arms | Lawrence Ward | Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod | Lt-Gen. David Leakey |
| Clerk of the House and Chief Executive | Robert Rogers | Clerk of the Parliaments | David Beamish |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Bercow, John |
| Alternative names | Rt Hon John Bercow MP |
| Short description | British politician |
| Date of birth | 19 January 1963 |
| Place of birth | Edgware, Middlesex, England |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bercow
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is about the British Prime Minister. For other uses, see David Cameron (disambiguation).
| The Right Honourable David Cameron MP |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 11 May 2010 |
|
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Deputy | Nick Clegg |
| Preceded by | Gordon Brown |
| Leader of the Opposition | |
| In office 6 December 2005 – 11 May 2010 |
|
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair Gordon Brown |
| Preceded by | Michael Howard |
| Succeeded by | Harriet Harman |
| Leader of the Conservative Party | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 6 December 2005 |
|
| Preceded by | Michael Howard |
| Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills | |
| In office 6 May 2005 – 6 December 2005 |
|
| Leader | Michael Howard |
| Preceded by | Tim Yeo |
| Succeeded by | David Willetts |
| Member of Parliament for Witney |
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 7 June 2001 |
|
| Preceded by | Shaun Woodward |
| Majority | 22,740 (39.4%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | David William Donald Cameron (1966-10-09) 9 October 1966 (age 45) London, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Samantha Sheffield (1996–present) |
| Children | Ivan Reginald Ian (Deceased) Nancy Gwen Arthur Elwen Florence Rose Endellion |
| Residence | 10 Downing Street |
| Alma mater | Brasenose College, Oxford |
| Religion | Church of England (Anglican) |
| Website | Party website |
David William Donald Cameron (pronunciation: /ˈkæmərən/; born 9 October 1966) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. He represents Witney as its Member of Parliament (MP).[1]
Cameron studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford, gaining a first class honours degree. He then joined the Conservative Research Department and became Special Adviser to Norman Lamont, and then to Michael Howard. He was Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communications for seven years.
He was defeated in his first candidacy for Parliament at Stafford in 1997, but was elected in 2001 as the Member of Parliament for the Oxfordshire constituency of Witney. He was promoted to the Opposition front bench two years later, and rose rapidly to become head of policy co-ordination during the 2005 general election campaign. With a public image of a youthful, moderate candidate who would appeal to young voters, he won the Conservative leadership election in 2005.[2]
In the 2010 general election held on 6 May, the Conservatives won 307 seats in a hung parliament. After five days of intense negotiations, Cameron formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. The 43-year-old Cameron became the youngest British Prime Minister since the Earl of Liverpool 198 years earlier.[3] Cameron leads the first coalition government of the United Kingdom since the Second World War.
Contents |
Family[link]
See also: Family of David Cameron and Samantha Cameron
David Cameron is the younger son of stockbroker Ian Donald Cameron (12 October 1932 – 8 September 2010)[4] and his wife Mary Fleur (née Mount, born 1934,[5] a retired Justice of the Peace, daughter of Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet).[6] His father, Ian, was born with both legs deformed and underwent repeated operations to correct them. Cameron's parents were married on 20 October 1962.[5] He was born in London, and brought up in Peasemore, Berkshire.[7] Cameron has a brother, Allan Alexander (born 1963, a barrister and QC)[8] and two sisters, Tania Rachel (born 1965) and Clare Louise (born 1971).[5][9] His father was born at Blairmore House, a country house near Huntly, Aberdeenshire, and died near Toulon in France on 8 September 2010.[10] Blairmore was built by his great-great-grandfather, Alexander Geddes,[11] who had made a fortune in the grain trade in Chicago, and returned to Scotland in the 1880s.[12]
Through his paternal grandmother, Enid Agnes Maud Levita, Cameron is a direct descendant of King William IV by his mistress Dorothea Jordan. This illegitimate line consists of five generations of women starting with Elizabeth Hay, Countess of Erroll, née FitzClarence, William and Jordan's sixth child,[13] through to Cameron's grandmother (thereby making Cameron a 5th cousin of Queen Elizabeth II).[14] Cameron's paternal forebears also have a long history in finance. His father Ian was senior partner of the stockbrokers Panmure Gordon, in which firm partnerships had long been held by Cameron's ancestors, including David's grandfather and great-grandfather,[9] and was a Director of estate agent John D. Wood. David Cameron's great-great grandfather Emile Levita, a German-Jewish financier (and descendant of Renaissance scholar Elia Levita) who obtained British citizenship in 1871, was the director of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China which became Standard Chartered Bank in 1969.[14] His wife, Cameron's great-great grandmother, was a descendant of the wealthy Danish Jewish Rée family on her father's side.[15][16] One of Emile's sons, Arthur Francis Levita (died 1910, brother of Sir Cecil Levita),[17] of Panmure Gordon stockbrokers, together with great-great-grandfather Sir Ewen Cameron,[18] London head of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, played key roles in arranging loans supplied by the Rothschilds to the Japanese Central Banker (later Prime Minister) Takahashi Korekiyo for the financing of the Japanese Government in the Russo-Japanese war.[19]
Cameron's maternal grandfather was Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet, an Army officer and the High Sheriff of Berkshire, and Cameron's maternal great-grandfather was Sir William Mount, 1st Baronet, CBE, Conservative MP for Newbury 1918–1922. Cameron's great-great grandmother was Lady Ida Matilda Alice Feilding. His great-great-great grandfather was William Feilding, 7th Earl of Denbigh, GCH, PC, a courtier and Gentleman of the Bedchamber.[20] His mother's cousin, Sir Ferdinand Mount, was head of 10 Downing Street's Policy Unit in the early 1980s. Cameron is the nephew of Sir William Dugdale, brother-in-law of Katherine, Lady Dugdale (died 2004) Lady-in-Waiting to HM The Queen since 1955,[21][22] and former Chairman of Aston Villa Football Club. Birmingham born documentary film-maker Joshua Dugdale is his cousin.[23]
Education[link]
From the age of seven, Cameron was educated at two independent schools: at Heatherdown Preparatory School at Winkfield, in Berkshire, which counts Prince Andrew and Prince Edward among its alumni. Due to good academic grades, Cameron entered its top academic class almost two years early.[24] At the age of thirteen, he went to Eton College in Berkshire, following his father and elder brother.[25] Eton is often described as the most famous independent school in the world,[26] and "the chief nurse of England's statesmen".[27] His early interest was in art. Cameron was in trouble as a teenager, six weeks before taking his O-Levels, when he was named as having smoked cannabis.[2] He admitted the offence and had not been involved in selling drugs, so he was not expelled, but was fined, prevented from leaving school grounds, and given a "Georgic" (a punishment which involved copying 500 lines of Latin text).[28]
Cameron passed 12 O-levels, and then studied three A-Levels in History of Art, History and Economics with Politics. He obtained three 'A' grades and a '1' grade in the Scholarship Level exam in Economics and Politics.[29] The following autumn he passed the entrance exam for Oxford University, where he was offered an exhibition.[30]
After leaving Eton in 1984,[31] Cameron started a nine month gap year. He worked as a researcher for Tim Rathbone, Conservative MP for Lewes and his godfather. In his three months he attended debates in the House of Commons.[32] Through his father, he was then employed for a further three months in Hong Kong by Jardine Matheson as a 'ship jumper', an administrative post.[33]
Returning from Hong Kong he visited the then Soviet Union, where he was approached by two Russian men speaking fluent English. Cameron was later told by one of his professors that it was 'definitely an attempt' by the KGB to recruit him.[34]
Cameron then began his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at Brasenose College, Oxford.[35] His tutor, Professor Vernon Bogdanor, described him as "one of the ablest"[36] students he has taught, with "moderate and sensible Conservative" political views.[9] Guy Spier, who shared tutorials with him, remembers him as an outstanding student; "We were doing our best to grasp basic economic concepts. David - there was nobody else who came even close. He would be integrating them with the way the British political system is put together. He could have lectured me on it, and I would have sat there and taken notes.."[37] When commenting in 2006 on his former pupil's ideas about a "Bill of Rights" to replace the Human Rights Act, however, Professor Bogdanor, himself a Liberal Democrat, said, "I think he is very confused. I've read his speech and it's filled with contradictions. There are one or two good things in it but one glimpses them, as it were, through a mist of misunderstanding".[38]
While at Oxford, Cameron was a member of the elite student dining society the Bullingdon Club, which has a reputation for an outlandish drinking culture associated with boisterous behaviour and damaging property.[39] A photograph showing Cameron in a tailcoat with other members of the club, including Boris Johnson, surfaced in 2007, but was later withdrawn by the copyright holder.[40] Cameron's period in the Bullingdon Club is examined in the Channel 4 docu-drama When Boris Met Dave broadcast on 7 October 2009.[41] Cameron graduated in 1988 with a first class honours degree.[42]
Early political career[link]
Conservative Research Department[link]
After graduation, Cameron worked for the Conservative Research Department between September 1988[43] and 1993. A feature on Cameron in The Mail on Sunday on 18 March 2007 reported that on the day he was due to attend a job interview at Conservative Central Office, a phone call was received from Buckingham Palace. The male caller stated, "I understand you are to see David Cameron. I've tried everything I can to dissuade him from wasting his time on politics but I have failed. I am ringing to tell you that you are about to meet a truly remarkable young man."[44]
In 1991, Cameron was seconded to Downing Street to work on briefing John Major for his then bi-weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions. One newspaper gave Cameron the credit for "sharper [...] despatch box performances" by Major,[45] which included highlighting for Major "a dreadful piece of doublespeak" by Tony Blair (then the Labour Employment spokesman) over the effect of a national minimum wage.[46] He became head of the political section of the Conservative Research Department, and in August 1991 was tipped to follow Judith Chaplin as Political Secretary to the Prime Minister.[47]
However, Cameron lost to Jonathan Hill, who was appointed in March 1992. He was given the responsibility for briefing Major for his press conferences during the 1992 general election.[48] During the campaign, Cameron was one of the young "brat pack" of party strategists who worked between 12 and 20 hours a day, sleeping in the house of Alan Duncan in Gayfere Street, Westminster, which had been Major's campaign headquarters during his bid for the Conservative leadership.[49] Cameron headed the economic section; it was while working on this campaign that Cameron first worked closely with Steve Hilton, who was later to become Director of Strategy during his party leadership.[50] The strain of getting up at 4:45 am every day was reported to have led Cameron to decide to leave politics in favour of journalism.[51]
Special Adviser[link]
The Conservatives' unexpected success in the 1992 election led Cameron to hit back at older party members who had criticised him and his colleagues, saying "whatever people say about us, we got the campaign right," and that they had listened to their campaign workers on the ground rather than the newspapers. He revealed he had led other members of the team across Smith Square to jeer at Transport House, the former Labour headquarters.[52] Cameron was rewarded with a promotion to Special Adviser to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Norman Lamont.[53]
Cameron was working for Lamont at the time of Black Wednesday, when pressure from currency speculators forced the Pound sterling out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. At the 1992 Conservative Party conference, Cameron had difficulty trying to arrange to brief the speakers in the economic debate, having to resort to putting messages on the internal television system imploring the mover of the motion, Patricia Morris, to contact him.[54] Later that month Cameron joined a delegation of Special Advisers who visited Germany to build better relations with the Christian Democratic Union; he was reported to be "still smarting" over the Bundesbank's contribution to the economic crisis.[55]
Lamont fell out with John Major after Black Wednesday and became highly unpopular with the public. Taxes needed to be raised in the 1993 Budget, and Cameron fed the options Lamont was considering through to Conservative Central Office for their political acceptability to be assessed.[56] However, Lamont's unpopularity did not necessarily affect Cameron: he was considered as a potential "kamikaze" candidate for the Newbury By-election, which includes the area where he grew up.[57] However, Cameron decided not to stand.
During the by-election, Lamont gave the response "Je ne regrette rien" to a question about whether he most regretted claiming to see "the green shoots of recovery" or admitted "singing in his bath" with happiness at leaving the ERM. Cameron was identified by one journalist as having inspired this gaffe; it was speculated that the heavy Conservative defeat in Newbury may have cost Cameron his chance of becoming Chancellor himself, even though as he was not a Member of Parliament he could not have been.[58] Lamont was sacked at the end of May 1993, and decided not to write the usual letter of resignation; Cameron was given the responsibility to issue to the press a statement of self-justification.[59]
Home Office[link]
After Lamont was sacked, Cameron remained at the Treasury for less than a month before being specifically recruited by Home Secretary Michael Howard; it was commented that he was still "very much in favour".[60] It was later reported that many at the Treasury would have preferred Cameron to carry on.[61] At the beginning of September 1993, Cameron applied to go on Conservative Central Office's list of Prospective Parliamentary Candidates.[62]
According to Derek Lewis, then Director-General of Her Majesty's Prison Service, Cameron showed him a "his and hers list" of proposals made by Howard and his wife, Sandra. Lewis said that Sandra Howard's list included reducing the quality of prison food, although Sandra Howard denied this claim. Lewis reported that Cameron was "uncomfortable" about the list.[63] In defending Sandra Howard and insisting that she made no such proposal, the journalist Bruce Anderson wrote that Cameron had proposed a much shorter definition on prison catering which revolved around the phrase "balanced diet", and that Lewis had written thanking Cameron for a valuable contribution.[64]
During his work for Howard, Cameron often briefed the media. In March 1994, someone leaked to the Press that the Labour Party had called for a meeting with John Major to discuss a consensus on the Prevention of Terrorism Act. After an enquiry failed to find the source of the leak, Labour MP Peter Mandelson demanded assurance from Howard that Cameron had not been responsible, which Howard gave.[65][66] A senior Home Office Civil Servant noted the influence of Howard's Special Advisers saying previous incumbents "would listen to the evidence before making a decision. Howard just talks to young public school gentlemen from the party headquarters."[67]
Carlton[link]
In July 1994, Cameron left his role as Special Adviser to work as the Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communications.[68] Carlton, which had won the ITV franchise for London weekdays in 1991, was a growing media company which also had film distribution and video producing arms. In 1997 Cameron played up the Company's prospects for digital terrestrial television, for which it joined with Granada television and BSkyB to form British Digital Broadcasting.[69] In a roundtable discussion on the future of broadcasting in 1998 he criticised the effect of overlapping different regulators on the industry.[70]
Carlton's consortium did win the digital terrestrial franchise but the resulting company suffered difficulties in attracting subscribers. In 1999 the Express on Sunday newspaper claimed Cameron had rubbished one of its stories which had given an accurate number of subscribers, because he wanted the number to appear higher than expected.[71] Cameron resigned as Director of Corporate Affairs in February 2001 in order to fight for election to Parliament, although he remained on the payroll as a consultant.[72]
Parliamentary candidacy[link]
Having been approved for the Candidates' list, Cameron began looking for a seat. He was reported to have missed out on selection for Ashford in December 1994 after failing to get to the selection meeting as a result of train delays.[73] Early in 1996, he was selected for Stafford, a new constituency created by boundary changes, which was projected to have a Conservative majority.[74] At the 1996 Conservative Party Conference he called for tax cuts in the forthcoming Budget to be targeted at the low paid and to "small businesses where people took money out of their own pockets to put into companies to keep them going".[75] He also said the Party, "Should be proud of the Tory tax record but that people needed reminding of its achievements ... It's time to return to our tax cutting agenda. The socialist Prime Ministers of Europe have endorsed Tony Blair because they want a federal pussy cat and not a British lion."[76]
When writing his election address, Cameron made his own opposition to British membership of the single European currency clear, pledging not to support it. This was a break with official Conservative policy but about 200 other candidates were making similar declarations.[77] Otherwise, Cameron kept very closely to the national party line. He also campaigned using the claim that a Labour Government would increase the cost of a pint of beer by 24p; however the Labour candidate David Kidney portrayed Cameron as "a right-wing Tory". Stafford had a swing almost the same as the national swing, which made it one of the many seats to fall to Labour: David Kidney had a majority of 4,314.[78][79]
In the round of selection contests taking place in the run-up to the 2001 general election, Cameron again attempted to be selected for a winnable seat. He tried out for the Kensington and Chelsea seat after the death of Alan Clark,[80] but did not make the shortlist.
He was in the final two but narrowly lost at Wealden in March 2000,[81] a loss ascribed by Samantha Cameron to his lack of spontaneity when speaking.[82]
On 4 April 2000 Cameron was selected as prospective candidate (PPC) for Witney in Oxfordshire. This had been a safe Conservative seat but its sitting MP Shaun Woodward (who had worked with Cameron on the 1992 election campaign) had "crossed the floor" to join the Labour Party; newspapers claimed Cameron and Woodward had "loathed each other",[83] although Cameron's biographers Francis Elliott and James Hanning describe them as being "on fairly friendly terms".[84] Cameron put a great deal of effort into "nursing" his potential constituency, turning up at social functions, and attacking Woodward for changing his mind on fox hunting to support a ban.[85]
During the election campaign, Cameron accepted the offer of writing a regular column for The Guardian's online section.[86] He won the seat with a 1.9% swing to the Conservatives and a majority of 7,973.[87][88]
Member of Parliament[link]
Upon his election to Parliament, he served as a member of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, a prominent appointment for a newly elected MP. Cameron's proposed that the Committee launch an inquiry into the law on drugs,[89] and urged the consideration of "radical options".[90] The report recommended a downgrading of Ecstasy from Class A to Class B, as well as moves towards a policy of 'harm reduction', which Cameron defended.[91]
Cameron determinedly attempted to increase his public profile, offering quotations on matters of public controversy. He opposed the payment of compensation to Gurbux Singh, who had resigned as head of the Commission for Racial Equality after a confrontation with the police;[92] and commented that the Home Affairs Select Committee had taken a long time to discuss whether the phrase "black market" should be used.[93] However, he was passed over for a front bench promotion in July 2002; Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith did invite Cameron and his ally George Osborne to coach him on Prime Minister's Questions in November 2002. The next week, Cameron deliberately abstained in a vote on allowing same-sex and unmarried couples to adopt children jointly, against a whip to oppose; his abstention was noted.[94] The wide scale of abstentions and rebellious votes destabilised the Iain Duncan Smith leadership.
In June 2003, Cameron was appointed as a shadow minister in the Privy Council Office as a deputy to Eric Forth, who was then Shadow Leader of the House. He also became a vice-chairman of the Conservative Party when Michael Howard took over the leadership in November of that year. He was appointed as the Opposition frontbench local government spokesman in 2004, before being promoted into the shadow cabinet that June as head of policy co-ordination. Later, he became Shadow Education Secretary in the post-election reshuffle.[95]
From February 2002[96] until August 2005 he was a non-executive director of Urbium PLC, operator of the Tiger Tiger bar chain.[97]
Leadership of the Conservative Party[link]
Leadership election[link]
Main article: Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2005
Following the Labour victory in the May 2005 general election, Michael Howard announced his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party and set a lengthy timetable for the leadership election. Cameron announced formally that he would be a candidate for the position on 29 September 2005. Parliamentary colleagues supporting him initially included Boris Johnson, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, then Shadow Defence Secretary and deputy leader of the party Michael Ancram, Oliver Letwin[98] and former party leader William Hague.[99] Despite this, his campaign did not gain significant support prior to the 2005 Conservative Party Conference. However his speech, delivered without notes, proved a significant turning point. In the speech he vowed to make people, "feel good about being Conservatives again" and said he wanted, "to switch on a whole new generation."[100]
In the first ballot of Conservative MPs on 18 October 2005, Cameron came second, with 56 votes, slightly more than expected; David Davis had fewer than predicted at 62 votes; Liam Fox came third with 42 votes and Kenneth Clarke was eliminated with 38 votes. In the second ballot on 20 October 2005, Cameron came first with 90 votes; David Davis was second, with 57, and Liam Fox was eliminated with 51 votes.[101] All 198 Conservative MPs voted in both ballots.
The next stage of the election process, between Davis and Cameron, was a vote open to the entire Conservative party membership. Cameron was elected with more than twice as many votes as Davis and more than half of all ballots issued; Cameron won 134,446 votes on a 78% turnout, beating Davis's 64,398 votes.[102] Although Davis had initially been the favourite, it was widely acknowledged that Davis's candidacy was marred by a disappointing conference speech, whilst Cameron's was well received. Cameron's election as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition was announced on 6 December 2005. As is customary for an Opposition leader not already a member, upon election Cameron became a member of the Privy Council, being formally approved to join on 14 December 2005, and sworn of the Council on 8 March 2006.[103]
Cameron's appearance on the cover of Time in September 2008 was said by the Daily Mail to present him to the world as 'Prime Minister in waiting'.[104]
Reaction to Cameron as leader[link]
Cameron's relative youth and inexperience before becoming leader have invited satirical comparison with Tony Blair. Private Eye soon published a picture of both leaders on their front cover, with the caption "World's first face transplant a success".[105] On the left, New Statesman has unfavourably likened his "new style of politics" to Tony Blair's early leadership years.[106] Cameron is accused of paying excessive attention to image, with ITV News broadcasting footage from the 2006 Conservative Party Conference in Bournemouth which showed him wearing four different sets of clothes within the space of a few hours.[107] Cameron was characterised in a Labour Party political broadcast as "Dave the Chameleon", who would change what he said to match the expectations of his audience. Cameron later claimed that the broadcast had become his daughter's "favourite video".[108] He has also been described by comedy writer and broadcaster Charlie Brooker as being "like a hollow Easter egg with no bag of sweets inside" in his Guardian column.[109]
On the right, Norman Tebbit, former Chairman of the Conservative Party, has likened Cameron to Pol Pot, "intent on purging even the memory of Thatcherism before building a New Modern Compassionate Green Globally Aware Party".[110] Quentin Davies MP, who defected from the Conservatives to Labour on 26 June 2007, branded him "superficial, unreliable and [with] an apparent lack of any clear convictions" and stated that David Cameron had turned the Conservative Party's mission into a "PR agenda".[111] Traditionalist conservative columnist and author Peter Hitchens has written that, "Mr Cameron has abandoned the last significant difference between his party and the established left", by embracing social liberalism[112] and has dubbed the party under his leadership "Blue Labour", a pun on New Labour.[113] Cameron responded by calling Hitchens a "maniac".[114] Daily Telegraph correspondent and blogger Gerald Warner has been particularly scathing about Cameron's leadership, arguing that it is alienating traditionalist conservative elements from the Conservative Party.[115]
Cameron is reported to be known to friends and family as "Dave", though he invariably uses "David'" in public.[116] Critics often refer to him as "Call me Dave", implying populism in the same way as "Call me Tony" was used in 1997.[117] The Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein has condemned those who attempt to belittle Cameron by calling him 'Dave'.[118]
Shadow Cabinet appointments[link]
His Shadow Cabinet appointments have included MPs associated with the various wings of the party. Former leader William Hague was appointed to the Foreign Affairs brief, while both George Osborne and David Davis were retained, as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and Shadow Home Secretary respectively. Hague, assisted by Davis, stood in for Cameron during his paternity leave in February 2006.[119] In June 2008 Davis announced his intention to resign as an MP, and was immediately replaced as Shadow Home Secretary by Dominic Grieve, the surprise move seen as a challenge to the changes introduced under Cameron's leadership.[120]
In January 2009 a reshuffle of the Shadow Cabinet was undertaken. The chief change was the appointment of former Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke as Shadow Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Secretary, David Cameron stating that "With Ken Clarke's arrival, we now have the best economic team." The reshuffle saw eight other changes made.[121]
European Conservatives and Reformists[link]
During his successful campaign to be elected Leader of the Conservative Party, Cameron pledged that the Conservative Party's Members of the European Parliament would leave the European People's Party group, which had a "federalist" approach to the European Union.[122] Once elected Cameron began discussions with right-wing and eurosceptic parties in other European countries, mainly in eastern Europe, and in July 2006 he concluded an agreement to form the Movement for European Reform with the Czech Civic Democratic Party, leading to the formation of a new European Parliament group, the European Conservatives and Reformists, in 2009 after the European Parliament elections.[123] Cameron attended a gathering at Warsaw's Palladium cinema celebrating the foundation of the alliance.[124]
In forming the caucus, which had 54 MEPs drawn from eight of the 27 EU member states, Cameron reportedly broke with two decades of Conservative cooperation with the centre-right Christian Democrats, the European People's Party (EPP),[125] on the grounds that they are dominated by European federalists and supporters of the Lisbon treaty.[125] EPP leader Wilfried Martens, former prime minister of Belgium, has stated "Cameron's campaign has been to take his party back to the centre in every policy area with one major exception: Europe. ... I can't understand his tactics. Merkel and Sarkozy will never accept his Euroscepticism."[125] The left-wing New Statesman magazine reported that the US administration had "concerns about Cameron among top members of the team" and quoted David Rothkopf in saying that the issue "makes Cameron an even more dubious choice to be Britain's next prime minister than he was before and, should he attain that post, someone about whom the Obama administration ought to be very cautious."[126]
Shortlists for Parliamentary Candidates[link]
Similarly, Cameron's initial "A-List" of prospective parliamentary candidates has been attacked by members of his party,[127] with the policy now having been discontinued in favour of gender balanced final shortlists. These have been criticised by senior Conservative MP and Prisons Spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe as an "insult to women", Widdecombe accusing Cameron of "storing up huge problems for the future."[128][129] The plans have since led to conflict in a number of constituencies, including the widely reported resignation of Joanne Cash, a close friend of Cameron, as candidate in the constituency of Westminster North following a dispute described as "a battle for the soul of the Tory Party".[129]
2010 general election[link]
Main article: United Kingdom general election, 2010
The Conservatives had last won a general election in 1992. The general election of 2010 resulted in the Conservatives, led by Cameron, winning the largest number of seats (306). This was, however, 20 seats short of an overall majority and resulted in the nation's first hung parliament since February 1974.[130] Talks between Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg led to an agreed Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition.
Prime Minister[link]
Main article: Premiership of David Cameron
On 11 May 2010, following the resignation of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister and on his recommendation, Queen Elizabeth II invited Cameron to form a government.[131] At age 43, Cameron became the youngest British Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool, who was appointed in 1812.[3] In his first address outside 10 Downing Street, he announced his intention to form a coalition government, the first since the Second World War, with the Liberal Democrats.
Cameron outlined how he intended to "put aside party differences and work hard for the common good and for the national interest."[3] As one of his first moves Cameron appointed Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, as Deputy Prime Minister on 11 May 2010.[131] Between them, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats control 363 seats in the House of Commons, with a majority of 76 seats.[132] On 2 June 2010, when Cameron took his first session of Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) as Prime Minister, he began by offering his support and condolences to those affected by the shootings in Cumbria.[133]
On 5 February 2011, Cameron criticised the failure of 'state multiculturalism', in his first speech as PM on radicalisation and the causes of terrorism.[134]
Policies and views[link]
Main article: Political positions of David Cameron
Self-description of views[link]
Cameron describes himself as a "modern compassionate conservative" and has spoken of a need for a new style of politics, saying that he was "fed up with the Punch and Judy politics of Westminster".[135] He has stated that he is "certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite."[136] He has also claimed to be a "liberal Conservative", and "not a deeply ideological person."[137] As Leader of the Opposition, Cameron stated that he did not intend to oppose the government as a matter of course, and would offer his support in areas of agreement. He has urged politicians to concentrate more on improving people's happiness and "general well-being", instead of focusing solely on "financial wealth".[138] There have been claims that he described himself to journalists at a dinner during the leadership contest as the "heir to Blair".[139] He believes that British Muslims have a duty to integrate into British culture, but notes that they find aspects such as high divorce rates and drug use uninspiring, and that "Not for the first time, I found myself thinking that it is mainstream Britain which needs to integrate more with the British Asian way of life, not the other way around."[140]
Daniel Finkelstein has said of the period leading up to Cameron's election as leader of the Conservative party that "a small group of us (myself, David Cameron, George Osborne, Michael Gove, Nick Boles, Nick Herbert I think, once or twice) used to meet up in the offices of Policy Exchange, eat pizza, and consider the future of the Conservative Party".[141]
Cameron co-operated with Dylan Jones, giving him interviews and access, to enable him to produce the book Cameron on Cameron.[142]
Cameron favours legalising same-sex marriage.[143]
Parliamentary votes[link]
During November 2001, Cameron voted to modify legislation allowing people detained at a police station to be fingerprinted and searched for an identifying birthmark to be applicable only in connection with a terrorism investigation.[144] In March 2002, he voted against banning the hunting of wild mammals with dogs,[145] being an occasional hunter himself.[146] In April 2003, he voted against the introduction of a bill to ban smoking in restaurants.[147] In June 2003, he voted against NHS Foundation Trusts.[148] Also in 2003, he voted to keep the controversial Section 28 clause.[149]
In March 2003, he voted against a motion that the case had not yet been made for the Iraq War,[150] and then supported using "all means necessary to ensure the disarmament of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction".[151] In October 2003, however, he voted in favour of setting up a judicial inquiry into the Iraq War.[152] In October 2004, he voted in favour of the Civil Partnership Bill.[153] In February 2005, he voted in favour of changing the text in the Prevention of Terrorism Bill from "The Secretary of State may make a control order against an individual" to "The Secretary of State may apply to the court for a control order ..."[154] In October 2005, he voted against the Identity Cards Bill.[155]
Criticism of other parties and politicians[link]
Cameron criticised Gordon Brown (when Brown was Chancellor of the Exchequer) for being "an analogue politician in a digital age" and referred to him as "the roadblock to reform".[156] He has also said that John Prescott "clearly looks a fool" in light of allegations of ministerial misconduct.[157] During a speech to the Ethnic Media Conference on 29 November 2006, Cameron also described Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, as an "ageing far left politician" in reference to Livingstone's views on multiculturalism.[158]
Since becoming prime minister, he has reacted to press reports that Brown could be the next head of the International Monetary Fund by hinting that he may block Brown from being appointed to the role, citing the huge national debt that Brown left the country with as a reason for Brown not being suitable for the role.[159]
Cameron has accused the United Kingdom Independence Party of being "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists, mostly,"[160] leading UKIP leader Nigel Farage to demand an apology for the remarks. Right-wing Conservative MP Bob Spink, who later defected to UKIP, also criticised the remarks,[161] as did the Daily Telegraph.[162]
Cameron was seen encouraging Conservative MPs to join the standing ovation given to Tony Blair at the end of his last Prime Minister's Question Time; he had paid tribute to the "huge efforts" Blair had made and said Blair had "considerable achievements to his credit, whether it is peace in Northern Ireland or his work in the developing world, which will endure".[163]
In 2006, Cameron made a speech in which he described extremist Islamic organisations and the British National Party as "mirror images" to each other, both preaching "creeds of pure hatred".[164] Cameron is listed as being a supporter of Unite Against Fascism.[165]
Cameron, in late 2009, urged the Lib Dems to join the Conservatives in a new "national movement" arguing there was "barely a cigarette paper" between them on a large number of issues. The invitation was rejected by the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, who attacked Cameron at the start of his party's annual conference in Bournemouth, saying that the Conservatives were totally different from his party and that the Lib Dems were the true "progressives" in UK politics.[166]
Political commentary[link]
Allegations of social elitism[link]
While Leader of the Conservative Party, Cameron has been accused of reliance on "old-boy networks"[167] and attacked by his party for the imposition of selective shortlists of prospective parliamentary candidates.[127]
The Guardian has accused Cameron of relying on "the most prestigious of old-boy networks in his attempt to return the Tories to power", pointing out that three members of his shadow cabinet and 15 members of his front bench team were "Old Etonians".[167] Similarly, The Sunday Times has commented that "David Cameron has more Etonians around him than any leader since Macmillan" and asked whether he can "represent Britain from such a narrow base."[168] Former Labour cabinet minister Hazel Blears has said of Cameron, "You have to wonder about a man who surrounds himself with so many people who went to the same school. I'm pretty sure I don't want 21st-century Britain run by people who went to just one school."[169]
Some supporters of the party have accused Cameron's government for cronyism on the front benches, with Sir Tom Cowie, working-class founder of Arriva and former Conservative donor, ceasing his donations in August 2007 due to disillusionment with Cameron's leadership, saying, "the Tory party seems to be run now by Old Etonians and they don't seem to understand how other people live." In reply, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said when a party was changing, "there will always be people who are uncomfortable with that process".[170]
In a response to Cameron at Prime Minister's Questions in December 2009, Gordon Brown addressed the Conservative Party's inheritance tax policy, saying it "seems to have been dreamed up on the playing fields of Eton". This led to open discussion of "class war" by the mainstream media and leading politicians of both major parties, with speculation that the 2010 general election campaign would see the Labour Party highlight the backgrounds of senior Conservative politicians.[171][172]
Raising teaching standards[link]
At the launch of the Conservative Party's education manifesto in January 2010, Cameron declared an admiration for the "brazenly elitist" approach to education of countries such as Singapore and South Korea and expressed a desire to "elevate the status of teaching in our country". He suggested the adoption of more stringent criteria for entry to teaching and offered repayment of the loans of maths and science graduates obtaining first or 2.1 degrees from "good" universities. Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, said "The message that the Conservatives are sending to the majority of students is that if you didn't go to a university attended by members of the Shadow Cabinet, they don't believe you're worth as much." In response to the manifesto as a whole, Chris Keates, head of teaching union NASUWT, said teachers would be left "shocked, dismayed and demoralised" and warned of the potential for strikes as a result.[173][174][175]
South Africa[link]
In April 2009, The Independent reported that in 1989, while Nelson Mandela remained imprisoned under the apartheid regime, David Cameron had accepted a trip to South Africa paid for by an anti-sanctions lobby firm. A spokesperson for Cameron responded by saying that the Conservative Party was at that time opposed to sanctions against South Africa and that his trip was a fact-finding mission. However, the newspaper reported that Cameron's then superior at Conservative Research Department called the trip "jolly", saying that "it was all terribly relaxed, just a little treat, a perk of the job. The Botha regime was attempting to make itself look less horrible, but I don't regard it as having been of the faintest political consequence." Cameron distanced himself from his party's history of opposing sanctions against the regime. He was criticised by Labour MP Peter Hain, himself an anti-apartheid campaigner.[176]
Turkey and Israel[link]
In a speech in Ankara in July 2010, Cameron stated unequivocally his support for Turkey's accession to the EU, citing economic, security and political considerations, and claimed that those who opposed Turkish membership were driven by "protectionism, narrow nationalism or prejudice".[177][178] In that speech, he was also critical of Israeli action during the Gaza flotilla raid and its Gaza policy, and repeated his opinion that Israel had turned Gaza into a "prison camp",[177] having previously referred to Gaza as "a giant open prison".[179] These views were met with mixed reactions.[180][181][182]
At the end of May 2011, Cameron stepped down as patron of the Jewish National Fund[183][184] the first British prime minister not to be patron of the charity in the 110 years of its existence.[185]
Allegations of recreational drug use[link]
During the leadership election, allegations were made that Cameron had used cannabis and cocaine recreationally before becoming an MP.[186] Pressed on this point during the BBC programme Question Time, Cameron expressed the view that everybody was allowed to "err and stray" in their past.[187] During his 2005 Conservative leadership campaign he addressed the question of drug consumption by remarking that "I did lots of things before I came into politics which I shouldn't have done. We all did."[187]
Cameron and Andy Coulson[link]
In 2007 Cameron appointed Andy Coulson, former editor of the News of the World as his director of communications. Coulson had resigned as the paper's editor following the conviction of a reporter in relation to illegal phone hacking, although stating that he knew nothing about it.[188][189] In June 2010 Downing Street confirmed Coulson's annual salary as £140,000, the highest pay of any special adviser to UK Government.[190] In January 2011 Coulson left his post, saying coverage of the phone hacking scandal was making it difficult to give his best to the job.[188] In July 2011 he was arrested and questioned by police in connection with further allegations of illegal activities at the News of the World, and released on bail. Despite a call to apologise for hiring Coulson by the leader of the opposition Ed Miliband, Cameron defended the appointment, saying that he had taken a conscious choice to give someone who had screwed up a second chance.[191][192] On 20 July, in a special parliamentary session at the House of Commons, arranged to discuss the News of the World phone hacking scandal, Cameron said that he "regretted the furore" that had resulted from his appointment of Coulson, and that "with hindsight" he would not have hired him.[193][194] Coulson was detained and charged with perjury by Strathclyde Police on 30 May 2012.[195][196]
Standing in opinion polls[link]
In the first month of Cameron's leadership, the Conservative Party's standing in opinion polls rose, with several pollsters placing it ahead of the ruling Labour Party. While the Conservative and Labour Parties drew even in early spring 2006, following the May 2006 local elections various polls once again generally showed Conservative leads.[197][198]
When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister on 27 June 2007, Labour moved ahead and its ratings grew steadily at Cameron's expense, an ICM poll[199] in July showing Labour with a seven point lead in the wake of controversies over his policies. An ICM poll[200][201] in September saw Cameron rated the least popular of the three main party leaders. A YouGov poll for Channel 4[202] one week later, after the Labour Party Conference, extended the Labour lead to 11 points, prompting further speculation of an early election.
Following the Conservative Party Conference in the first week of October 2007, the Conservatives drew level with Labour[203] When Brown declared he would not call an election for the autumn,[204] a decline in his and Labour's standings followed. At the end of the year a series of polls showed improved support for the Conservatives[205] giving them an 11 point lead over Labour. This decreased slightly in early 2008,[206] and in March the Conservatives had their largest lead in opinion polls since October 1987, at 16 points.[207] In May 2008, following the worst local election performance from the Labour Party in 40 years, the Conservative lead was up to 26 points, the largest since 1968.[208]
In December 2008, a ComRes poll showed the Conservative lead had decreased dramatically [209] though by February 2009 it had recovered to reach 12 points.[210] A period of relative stability in the polls was broken in mid-December 2009 and by January 2010 some polls were predicting a hung parliament[211][212]
A YouGov poll on party leaders conducted on 9–10 June 2011 found 44% of the electorate thought he was doing well and 50% thought he was doing badly, whilst 38% thought he would be the best PM, 23% preferred Ed Miliband and 35% didn't know.[213]
Until his veto on treaty changes to the European Union in December 2011 amid the Eurozone crisis, most opinion polls that year had shown a slim Labour lead. However, many opinion polls showed that the majority of voters felt that Cameron made the right decision,[214] Subsequent opinion polls have shown a narrow lead for the Conservatives ahead of Labour.[215]
Personal life[link]
Cameron married Samantha Gwendoline Sheffield, the daughter of Sir Reginald Adrian Berkeley Sheffield, 8th Baronet and Annabel Lucy Veronica Jones (now The Viscountess Astor), on 1 June 1996 at the Church of St Augustine of Canterbury, East Hendred, Oxfordshire.[5] The Camerons have had four children. Their first child, Ivan Reginald Ian, was born on 8 April 2002 in Hammersmith and Fulham, London,[216] with a rare combination of cerebral palsy and a form of severe epilepsy called Ohtahara syndrome, requiring round-the-clock care. Recalling the receipt of this news, Cameron is quoted as saying: "The news hits you like a freight train... You are depressed for a while because you are grieving for the difference between your hopes and the reality. But then you get over that, because he's wonderful."[217] Ivan died at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London, on 25 February 2009, aged six.[218]
David and Samantha Cameron have two daughters, Nancy Gwen[219] (born 2004), and Florence Rose Endellion (born 24 August 2010),[220] and a son, Arthur Elwen (born 2006).[221][222] Cameron took paternity leave when his second son was born, and this decision received broad coverage.[223] It was also stated that Cameron would be taking paternity leave after his second daughter was born.[220] His second daughter, Florence Rose Endellion, was born on 24 August 2010, three weeks prematurely, while the family was on holiday in Cornwall. Her third given name, Endellion, is taken from the village of St Endellion near where the Camerons were holidaying.[224][225]
A Daily Mail article from June 2007 quoted Sunday Times Rich List compiler Philip Beresford, who had valued the Conservative Leader for the first time, as saying: "I put the combined family wealth of David and Samantha Cameron at £30 million plus. Both sides of the family are extremely wealthy."[226] Another estimate is £3.2 million, though this figure excludes the million-pound legacies Cameron is expected to inherit from both sides of his family.[227][228]
In early May 2008, David Cameron decided to enroll his daughter Nancy at a State school. The Camerons had been attending its associated church,[229] which is near the Cameron family home in North Kensington, for three years.[230] Cameron's constituency home is in Dean, Oxfordshire, and the Camerons are key members of the Chipping Norton set. [231]
On 8 September 2010 it was announced that Cameron would miss Prime Minister's Questions in order to fly to southern France to see his father, Ian Cameron, who had suffered a stroke with coronary complications. Later that day, with David and other family members at his bedside, Ian died.[232][233] On 17 September 2010, Cameron attended a private ceremony for the funeral of his father in Berkshire, which prevented him from hearing the address of The Pope to Westminster Hall, an occasion he would otherwise have attended.[234]
Cameron supports Aston Villa Football Club.[235] He also owns a cat, Larry, who lives at 10 Downing Street.[236]
Cycling[link]
He regularly uses his bicycle to commute to work. In early 2006 he was photographed cycling to work followed by his driver in a car carrying his belongings. His Conservative Party spokesperson subsequently said that this was a regular arrangement for Cameron at the time.[237] Cameron's bicycle was stolen in May 2009 while he was shopping. It was recovered with the aid of The Sunday Mirror.[238] His bicycle has since been stolen again from near his house.[239] He is an occasional jogger and has raised funds for charities by taking part in the Oxford 5K and the Great Brook Run.[240][241]
Faith[link]
Speaking of his religious beliefs, Cameron has said: "I've a sort of fairly classic Church of England faith".[242] He states that his politics "is not faith-driven", adding: "I am a Christian, I go to church, I believe in God, but I do not have a direct line."[243] On religious faith in general he has said: "I do think that organised religion can get things wrong but the Church of England and the other churches do play a very important role in society."[242]
Questioned as to whether his faith had ever been tested, Cameron spoke of the birth of his severely disabled eldest son, saying: "You ask yourself, 'If there is a God, why can anything like this happen?'" He went on to state that in some ways the experience had "strengthened" his beliefs.[243]
Styles[link]
- David Cameron Esq (1966–2001)
- David Cameron Esq MP (2001–2005)
- The Rt Hon David Cameron MP (2005–)
Ancestry[link]
Among Cameron's ancestors is King William IV, who is his 5-times great-grandfather through an illegitimate daughter who was the mother of Agnes Duff, Countess Fife, who is shown in the ancestry chart below.[citation needed]
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See also[link]
References[link]
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- ^ Boden, Nicola (2010-09-09). "David Cameron's father dies in France after suffering a stroke while on holiday". London: Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1310200/David-Camerons-father-dies-France-suffering-stroke-holiday.html.
- ^ a b c d "David William Donald Cameron". The Peerage.com. http://www.thepeerage.com/p17890.htm. Retrieved 4 June 2010.
- ^ Debrett's Peerage 2011, p. B 714
- ^ Elliott, Francis; Hanning, James (2007), Cameron: the Rise of the New Conservative, HarperPress, ISBN 0-00-724366-9
- ^ "A. A. Cameron", Who's Who
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- ^ a b David Cameron ‘could be a direct descendant of Moses’ Times Online, 10 July 2009
- ^ Fischer, Joseph Hartvig Philip Rée og hans slægt; udg. paa Foranledning af Eduard Rée. Copenhagen, 1912, pp. 47, 56, 59, 61, 62 & 64
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- ^ JOHN DOWER and JAGO LEE Our Boys from the Bullingdon: The early years of David Cameron and Boris Johnson Daily Mail, 26 September 2009
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- ^ Cameron Minor's schooldays: How his extraordinary life at his exclusive prep school helped shape our PM
- ^ Francis Elliott and James Hanning (18 March 2007), "The many faces of Mr. Cameron", The Mail on Sunday (London), http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=442913&in_page_id=1770, retrieved 4 September 2007
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- ^ House of Commons Hansard Debates for 12 Oct 2004 (pt 34), archived from the original on 30 June 2007, http://web.archive.org/web/20070630192558/http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmhansrd/vo041012/debtext/41012-34.htm#41012-34_div256, retrieved 17 September 2007
- ^ House of Commons Hansard Debates for 28 Feb 2005 (pt 40), archived from the original on 26 August 2007, http://web.archive.org/web/20070826160700/http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmhansrd/vo050228/debtext/50228-40.htm#50228-40_div101, retrieved 19 September 2007
- ^ House of Commons Hansard Debates for 18 Oct 2005 (pt 35), archived from the original on 23 November 2007, http://web.archive.org/web/20071123131539/http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/vo051018/debtext/51018-35.htm#51018-35_div60, retrieved 20 September 2007
- ^ "Cameron attacks 'past it' Brown", BBC News Online, 22 March 2006. Retrieved 6 November 2006.
- ^ "Cameron: Prescott looks a 'fool'", BBC News Online, 2 May 2006. Retrieved 6 November 2006.
- ^ "Cameron attacks 'outdated' mayor", BBC News Online, 30 November 2006. Retrieved 30 November 2006.
- ^ "Cameron hints at blocking Brown bid for IMF job". BBC News. 19 April 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13127225.
- ^ Nick Assinder, "UKIP and Cameron's war of words", BBC News Online, 4 April 2006. Retrieved 6 November 2006.
- ^ Brendan Carlin, "Tory MP defends Ukip in racist row", Telegraph, 6 April 2006. Retrieved 6 November 2006.
- ^ "UKIP deserves better", Telegraph, 5 April 2006. Retrieved 6 November 2006.
- ^ "Cameron praises Blair achievement", BBC News Online, 27 June 2007. Retrieved 4 September 2007.
- ^ Hélène Mulholland (29 January 2007). "Muslim extremists are mirror image of BNP, says Cameron". Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/jan/29/religion.politics. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
- ^ Founding signatories, Unite Against Fascism, http://uaf.org.uk/about/founding-signatories/, retrieved 17 April 2010
- ^ Wheeler, Brian (20 September 2009). "Clegg rejects Tory alliance call". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8264994.stm. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
- ^ a b Taylor, Matthew (12 August 2006), "Under the Green Oak, an old elite takes root in Tories", The Guardian (London), http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1843008,00.html, retrieved 15 February 2010
- ^ Robert Winnett and Holly Watt, "Focus: Reservoir toffs", Times Online, 8 October 2006. Retrieved 6 November 2006.
- ^ Greg Hurst, "Class attack by Blears on Tories", Times Online, 21 November 2006. Retrieved 28 November 2006.
- ^ Donor condemns Cameron leadership, BBC News, 7 August 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6934329.stm, retrieved 24 August 2007
- ^ Hall, Macer (3 December 2009), "Gordon Brown unleashes "class war" attack on David Cameron", Daily Express, http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/143798/Gordon-Brown-unleashes-class-war-attack-on-David-Cameron, retrieved 15 February 2010
- ^ Collins, Nick (21 January 2010), "The class war: British politics ahead of the general election", Daily Telegraph (London), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7044016/The-class-war-British-politics-ahead-of-the-general-election.html, retrieved 15 February 2010
- ^ Kirkup, James (7 February 2010), "David Cameron pledges 'brazen elitism' in teaching", Daily Telegraph (London), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/david-cameron/7014885/David-Cameron-pledges-brazen-elitism-in-teaching.html, retrieved 15 February 2010
- ^ Garner, Richard (18 January 2010), "'Only for elite' fear over Tory teaching deal", The Independent (London), http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/only-for-elite-fear-over-tory-student-loans-deal-1871847.html, retrieved 15 February 2010
- ^ "Teachers union warn David Cameron faces class war", Daily Mirror, 19 January 2010, http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/01/19/cam-s-facing-a-class-war-115875-21978076/, retrieved 15 February 2010
- ^ Jane Merrick, James Hanning (26 April 2009), "Cameron's freebie to apartheid South Africa", The Independent (London), http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/revealed-camerons-freebie-to-apartheid-south-africa-1674367.html
- ^ a b "PM's speech in Turkey". Number10.gov.uk. 27 July 2010. http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/speeches-and-transcripts/2010/07/pms-speech-in-turkey-53869. Retrieved 5 June 2011. "I am here to make the case for Turkey's membership of the European Union and to fight for it."
- ^ "Cameron 'anger' at slow pace of Turkish EU negotiations". BBC News. 27 July 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10767768.
- ^ Nicholas Watt; Harriet Sherwood (27 July 2010). "David Cameron: Israeli blockade has turned Gaza Strip into a 'prison camp'". The Guardian.
- ^ Simon Round (16 September 2010). "Interview: Gideon Levy: The veteran Israeli journalist says his country has behaved unacceptably over Gaza". The Jewish Chronicle. http://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/the-simon-round-interview/38184/interview-gideon-levy. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
- ^ Joel J. Sprayregen (9 August 2010), "Coping with Turkey's Islamist Lurch", American Thinker, http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/08/coping_with_turkeys_islamist_l.html, retrieved 5 June 2011.
- ^ Zalman Shoval (2 August 2010). "David Cameron looking both ways". The Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=183421. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
- ^ Harriet Sherwood (29 May 2011). "David Cameron resigns as patron of the Jewish National Fund". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/may/29/david-cameron-resigns-patron-jnf?INTCMP=SRCH. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
- ^ Jonny Paul (2 June 2011). "Cameron denies political pressure led to JNF resignation". The Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=223268. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
- ^ Robyn Rosen (2 June 2011). "Cameron's JNF split: it was Israel". The Jewish Chronicle. http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/49789/camerons-jnf-split-it-was-israel. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
- ^ Nicholas Lezard, "What cocaine says about you", Guardian Unlimited, 10 November 2005. Retrieved 6 November 2006.
- ^ a b "Cameron pressed on drugs question", BBC News, 14 October 2005. Retrieved 26 July 2008.
- ^ a b Torin Douglas (2011-01-21). "BBC News - Andy Coulson quits Downing Street communications role". Bbc.co.uk. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12251456. Retrieved 2011-10-30.
- ^ Merrick, Jane; Hanning, James; Chorley, Matt; Brady, Brian (2011-07-10). "The Battle of Wapping, Mk II - Press, Media". London: The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/the-battle-of-wapping-mk-ii-2310041.html. Retrieved 2011-10-30.
- ^ ^ "David Cameron's PR director Andy Coulson paid £140,000". The BBC. 10 June 2010. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
- ^ "News of the World phone hacking: Cameron announces public inquiries into Press regulation". London: Dailymail.co.uk. 2011-09-07. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012505/News-World-phone-hacking-Cameron-announces-public-inquiries-Press-regulation.html. Retrieved 2011-10-30.
- ^ Prime Minister's 'gross error of judgment' over former editor Andy Coulson - News - Scotsman.com
- ^ "David Cameron: 'I regret hiring Andy Coulson'". thisislondon.co.uk. 20 July 2011. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23971364-david-cameron-faces-questions-over-party-links-to-phone-hack-suspect.do. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
- ^ "'Sorry' David Cameron sees values of hindsight". London: The Independent. 20 July 2011. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sorry-david-cameron-sees-values-of-hindsight-2317454.html. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
- ^ Rose, Gareth (31 May 2012). "Scottish police charge Andy Coulson with Tommy Sheridan trial perjury". scotsman.com. http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/top-stories/scottish-police-charge-andy-coulson-with-tommy-sheridan-trial-perjury-1-2326534. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
- ^ Carrell, Severin; Wintour, Patrick (30 May 2012). "Andy Coulson charged with perjury". guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/may/30/andy-coulson-charged-with-perjury. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
- ^ "Current voting intention", UKPollingReport.co.uk
- ^ Knowles, Daniel, "David Cameron", Daily Telegraph (London), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/david-cameron/, retrieved 15 June 2009
- ^ Patrick Hennessy and Melissa Kite "Gordon Brown has biggest lead over Tories" Sunday Telegraph, 15 July 2007
- ^ "The swing against Cameron" The Guardian, 19 September 2007
- ^ Julian Glover and Patrick Wintour, "Brown effect propels Labour to election-winning lead", The Guardian, 30 June 2007. Retrieved 30 June 2007.
- ^ "Ratings boost for Brown as defection talk rattles Tories" The Guardian, 26 September 2007
- ^ "Cameron bounces back" The Guardian, 5 October 2007
- ^ "Brown rules out autumn election" BBC News, 6 October 2007
- ^ "Tories 15-yr high"[dead link] News of the World, 2 December 2007
- ^ "Happy in Europe but still best friends with the US" The Guardian, 26 January 2008
- ^ "Support for Labour hits 25-year low", The Sunday Times, 16 March 2008.
- ^ YouGov, Sun survey results, YouGov, http://www.yougov.co.uk/extranets/ygarchives/content/pdf/Sun%2008%2005%2008%20toplines.pdf
- ^ Voting Intention UK Polling Report, 3 December 2008
- ^ Julian Glover (23 February 2009), "ICM opinion poll", The Guardian (London), http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/23/icm-poll-february-2009, retrieved 28 May 2009
- ^ Tom Clark (14 December 2009), "Tory lead cut to nine points in Guardian/ICM poll", The Guardian (London), http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/dec/14/tory-lead-nine-points-guardian-icm-poll, retrieved 31 January 2010
- ^ Walters, Simon (31 January 2010), "Tory poll lead slips as party denies David Cameron rift with George Osborne", Daily Mail (London), http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1247426/Tory-poll-lead-slips-party-denies-David-Cameron-rift-George-Osborne.html, retrieved 31 January 2010
- ^ The Party Leaders[dead link] YouGov 14-Jun-2011
- ^ Simon Walters (11 December 2011). "David Cameron got it right: Most voters agree with PM vetoing EU treaty changes | Mail Online". London: Dailymail.co.uk. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2072616/David-Cameron-got-right-Most-voters-agree-PM-vetoing-EU-treaty-changes.html. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
- ^ "Cameron's EU veto wipes out Labour poll lead". Politics.co.uk. 2011-12-11. http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2011/12/11/cameron-s-eu-veto-wipes-out-labour-poll-lead. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
- ^ "Births England and Wales 1984–2006". Find My Past. http://www.findmypast.com/BirthsMarriagesDeaths.jsp. Retrieved 13 April 2010. [dead link]
- ^ Quoted in "Focus: Can Boy Wonder save the Tories?", The Sunday Times, 9 October 2005
- ^ Cameron's eldest son Ivan dies, BBC News, 25 February 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7909562.stm, retrieved 25 February 2009
- ^ "I want to be Gwen says Mrs Cameron", Daily Express, 25 August 2007
- ^ a b "Camerons announce birth of fourth child". BBC News. 24 August 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11074163. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
- ^ "Arthur Elwen Cameron meets the public", Evening Standard, 17 February 2007
- ^ David Cameron's wife expecting baby The Guardian, 22 March 2010
- ^ White, Roland (5 February 2006), Cameron puts in for spot of paternity leave, London: Times Online, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article727123.ece
- ^ "Camerons reveal daughter's name". BBC News (BBC). 25 August 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11089358. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
- ^ Croft, Adrian (24 August 2010). "UK PM David Cameron's wife gives birth to baby girl". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67N3DN20100824. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
- ^ Zoe Brennan, "'Dave' Cameron says he's in touch with reality ... but with so much wealth and blue blood you have to wonder", Daily Mail, 16 June 2007; Retrieved 8 January 2008
- ^ Samira Shackle, Stephanie Hegarty and George Eaton The new ruling class New Statesman 1 October 2009
- ^ Glen Owen The coalition of millionaires: 23 of the 29 member of the new cabinet are worth more than £1m... and the Lib Dems are just as wealthy as the Tories Mail on Sunday, 23 May 2010
- ^ Dr Russell Lloyd. "St Mary Abbots Church". St Mary Abbots Church. http://www.stmaryabbotschurch.org/. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
- ^ Leaders make state school choices BBC News, 9 May 2008
- ^ Caroline Dewar (2012-03-05). "Who's who in the Chipping Norton set". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/interactive-graphics/9124278/Whos-who-in-the-Chipping-Norton-set.html. Retrieved 2012-05-06.
- ^ Tapsfield, James (8 September 2010). "David Cameron's father dies after stroke". London: The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-camerons-father-dies-after-stroke-2073550.html. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
- ^ "David Cameron's father seriously ill after stroke". The London Evening Standard. 8 September 2010. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23875455-david-camerons-father-seriously-ill-with-stroke.do. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
- ^ 2:46AM BST 17 Sep 2010 (2010-09-17). "David Cameron attends father's funeral". London: Telegraph.co.uk. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/david-cameron/8009233/David-Cameron-attends-fathers-funeral.html. Retrieved 2010-11-23.
- ^ Lisa Smith "David Cameron not bothered by Euro clash – he's a Villa fan" Birmingham Post, 20 May 2008, retrieved 21 May 2008
- ^ "Larry the cat to join David Cameron in Downing Street". BBC News. 15 February 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12460596. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
- ^ Hypocrisy claim over Cameron bike, BBC News, 28 April 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4953922.stm, retrieved 4 August 2009
- ^ Cameron reunited with stolen bike, BBC News, 27 July 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7527403.stm, retrieved 4 August 2009
- ^ Cameron's bicycle is stolen again, BBC News, 6 May 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8035603.stm, retrieved 4 August 2009
- ^ David Cameron nearly runs out of puff in five-mile charity run for children's hospital Daily Mail (20 April 2009) Retrieved on 28 December 2009
- ^ David Cameron runs in charity mud race BBC News (28 December 2009) Retrieved on 28 December 2009
- ^ a b Geordie Greig David Cameron: Would I sack George Osborne? Yes absolutely if I have to ..., London Evening Standard, 6 November 2009. Retrieved 6 November 2009.
- ^ a b "The birth of disabled son tested my faith: Cameron", Daily Mail (London), 26 July 2007, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-471083/The-birth-disabled-son-tested-faith-Cameron.html, retrieved 28 December 2009
Further reading[link]
- Matt Beech and Simon Lee. The Cameron-Clegg Government: Coalition Politics in an Age of Austerity (2011)
- Timothy Heppell and David Seawright, eds. Cameron and the Conservatives: The Transition to Coalition Government (Palgrave Macmillan; 2012) 268 pages
External links[link]
| Find more about David Cameron on Wikipedia's sister projects: | |
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Quotations from Wikiquote |
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Source texts from Wikisource |
- David Cameron official website
- David Cameron official Conservative Party profile
- Number 10 Official Number 10 website
- Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
- Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
- Voting record at PublicWhip.org
- Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
- Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
- Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
- Articles authored at Journalisted
- David Cameron collected news and commentary at Al Jazeera English
- David Cameron collected news and commentary at The Guardian
- David Cameron's columns (2001–2004) as Conservative Party diarist at The Guardian
- David Cameron collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- David Cameron collected news and commentary at The Telegraph
- David Cameron at TED Conferences
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- David Cameron at the Internet Movie Database
- Works by or about David Cameron in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- The David Cameron story, Brian Wheeler, BBC News, 6 December 2005
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Shaun Woodward |
Member of Parliament for Witney 2001–present |
Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Tim Collins |
Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills 2005 |
Succeeded by David Willetts |
| Preceded by Michael Howard |
Leader of the Opposition 2005–2010 |
Succeeded by Harriet Harman |
| Preceded by Gordon Brown |
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 2010–present |
Incumbent |
| Minister for the Civil Service 2010–present |
||
| First Lord of the Treasury 2010–present |
||
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Michael Howard |
Leader of the Conservative Party 2005–present |
Incumbent |
| Order of precedence in England and Wales | ||
| Preceded by John Sentamu as Archbishop of York |
Gentlemen as Prime Minister |
Succeeded by Nick Clegg as Lord President of the Council |
| Order of precedence in Scotland | ||
| Preceded by William Hewitt as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland |
Gentlemen as Prime Minister |
Succeeded by John Bercow as Speaker of the House of Commons |
| Order of precedence in Northern Ireland | ||
| Preceded by Kenneth Clarke as Lord Chancellor |
Gentlemen as Prime Minister |
Succeeded by Nick Clegg as Lord President of the Council |
|
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Cameron, David |
| Alternative names | The Right Honourable David Cameron MP |
| Short description | Prime Minister of the United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 9 October 1966 |
| Place of birth | Oxfordshire, England |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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| Sally Bercow | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1969-11-22) 22 November 1969 (age 42) |
| Occupation | Political activist, media personality and writer |
Sally Bercow (née Illman;[1] born 22 November 1969)[2] is the wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow. She was a housemate on Celebrity Big Brother 2011 and was evicted from the house on 26 August 2011.
Contents |
Early life[link]
Sally Illman attended Marlborough College public school, as a contemporary of the British Prime Minister's wife, Samantha Cameron, and went on to attend Keble College, Oxford, dropping out after two years.[3] The fact that Bercow did not finish her studies at Oxford became a minor controversy in 2009 when it was revealed that she had been sacked from a City public relations firm for trying to conceal this on her CV.[3]
She was the social secretary of the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) while at the University. It was subsequently reported in the Daily Mail that during her time with OUCA, she was involved in a social event for which OUCA booked strippers.[4] She met her future husband at a national Conservative Students Conference. [3]
In a 2009 interview Bercow spoke about alcoholism and one-night stands in her twenties.[5]
Personal life[link]
She has three children; her eldest son is autistic.[6] She stated that she would not send her children to a grammar school because of her opposition to selection at the age of eleven.
Political career[link]
Sally Bercow addressed two Conservative Party Conferences[7] and her husband became a Conservative MP at the 1997 General Election. However, she changed her political allegiance during the founding days of New Labour and campaigned actively for Tony Blair whilst campaigning for her husband (then partner) to win his seat. In 2010, she stood as a Labour candidate for the St James ward of Westminster City Council, receiving 868 votes, 1,000 fewer than her nearest successful opponent.[8] Bercow is on the approved list of candidates for members of Parliament for the Labour Party and actively campaigned for the election of Ed Balls as leader of the Labour Party. The Daily Telegraph has suggested that Bercow is politicising her husband's neutral role.[9] John Bercow has rejected this criticism stating "the obligation of impartiality does not apply to my wife who is not my chattel".[10] Bercow has also appeared on Question Time, with Andy Burnham, Francis Maude and George Galloway, where she was highly critical of the Health and Social Care Bill. Bercow has repeatedly mentioned her desire to become a Labour MP and has revealed that she would like to become the Labour candidate for the marginal Brighton Kemptown seat at the next election, but hinted about concerns over boundary changes turning the seat into a semi-safe Tory seat[11] however it is said that she is being lined up to stand for Holborn and St Pancras if Frank Dobson retires at the next election.[12].
Publicity exposure[link]
On 11 November 2010 Bercow appeared as a panelist on the BBC's comedy-news show Have I Got News For You.
On 3 February 2011 she attracted criticism for appearing to capitalise on her husband's position, when a photograph of her wearing only a bed sheet, with the House of Commons in the background, appeared in the London Evening Standard free newspaper.[13] In the article, she was quoted as saying "becoming Speaker has turned my husband into a sex symbol",[14] although she later claimed, in a radio interview; "It was just meant to be a bit of fun, but obviously it has completely backfired on me and I look a complete idiot."[15] The author of a biography of John and Sally Bercow, Bobby Friedman, has claimed that John "read the riot act" to her after the bed sheet photo was published.
On 18 August 2011 Bercow entered the Big Brother House as a housemate on Channel 5's Celebrity Big Brother 2011.[16] She claimed to have chosen this as her way of 'upsetting the establishment'.[17] On 26 August she became the first person to be evicted.[18]
Bercow is currently considering the possibility of being a TV presenter.[19] In January 2012, Bercow took part in When Paddy Met Sally on Channel 5 with her fellow Big Brother housemate, Paddy Doherty.
She is also a columnist for the Daily Star Sunday [20]
She has been an occasional panellist on The Wright Stuff since 2011.
References[link]
- ^ "Profile: John Bercow", BBC News, 22 June 2009
- ^ "Party girl in the house", scotsman.com, Saturday 20 August 2011
- ^ a b c Simon Walters; Glen Owen (25 November 2009). "Speaker's wife lost job over Oxford degree that wasn't". MailOnline (London: Associated Newspapers Ltd). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1229912/Speakers-wife-lost-job-Oxford-degree-wasnt.html?ITO=1490. Retrieved 7 February 2010.
- ^ "Mrs Speaker and Terry the Minder... the male stripper who became Britain's most notorious rapist", Mail Online, 27 June 2009
- ^ Sam Coates (3 December 2009). "Sally Bercow reveals past full of binge-drinking and one-night stands". The Times (London: Times Newspapers Ltd). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6942945.ece. Retrieved 7 February 2010.
- ^ "'Two bottles a day, one-night stands, my life was out of control'". Thisislondon.co.uk. 2009-12-04. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article/article-23778796-sally-bercow-two-bottles-a-day-one-night-stands-my-life-was-out-of-control.do. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
- ^ Friedman. Bercow: Rowdy Living in the Tory Party. Gibson Square.
- ^ "Local elections 2010: Sally Bercow loses council race", 8 May 2010
- ^ Allegra Stratton (4 December 2009). "Sally Bercow's attack on David Cameron puts pressure on Speaker". The Guardian (London: Guardian News and Media Limited). http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/dec/04/sally-bercow-david-cameron-comment. Retrieved 7 February 2010.
- ^ Ann Treneman (15 January 2010). "Never a dull moment watching the John and Sally Bercow show". The Times (London: Times Newspapers Ltd). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/parliamentary_sketch/article6988527.ece. Retrieved 7 February 2010.
- ^ http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/9381096.Sally_Bercow_considers_standing_as_Brighton_MP/?ref=twtrec
- ^ https://www.politicshome.com/uk/article/22322/so_solid_sallys_new_title.html?sort=popular
- ^ Sally Bercow "London's sexiest places ... for power lovers", ES magazine, 4 February 2011
- ^ Rashid Razaq and Tom Harper (3 February 2011). "Our bedroom secrets by Sally Bercow - 'Becoming Speaker has turned my husband into a sex symbol'". thisislondon.co.uk (London Evening Standard). http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23920176-our-bedroom-secrets-by-sally-bercow---becoming-speaker-has-turned-my-husband-into-a-sex-symbol.do. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
- ^ Hélène Mulholland "Sally Bercow: Bedsheet photo made me look an idiot", The Guardian, 4 February 2011
- ^ "Celebrity Big Brother 2011: The full line-up | Mail Online". London: Dailymail.co.uk. 19 August 2011. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2027554/Celebrity-Big-Brother-2011-The-line-up.html. Retrieved 2011-08-18.
- ^ Ben Todd (2011-08-20). "Sally Bercow on Celebrity Big Brother 2011: 'I used my feminine wiles to join show' | Mail Online". London: Dailymail.co.uk. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2027679/Sally-Bercow-Celebrity-Big-Brother-2011-I-used-feminine-wiles-join-show.html. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
- ^ "www.bbc.co.uk/news". Bbc.co.uk. 2011-08-26. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14689488. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
- ^ "Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | Big Brother :: Sally Bercow: I want to do a wife swap with Paddy Doherty". Express.co.uk. 2011-08-29. http://www.express.co.uk/features/view/267841. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
- ^ {{cite web|url=http://www.dailystar.co.uk/columnists/view/230280/Boob-clinics-take-the-pip/
External links[link]
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Bercow, Sally |
| Alternative names | Illman, Sally (birthname) |
| Short description | British political activist |
| Date of birth | 22 November 1969 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Sally_Bercow
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Bercow
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Nigel Farage MEP |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 5 November 2010 |
|
| Preceded by | Jeffrey Titford |
| In office 27 September 2006 – 27 November 2009 |
|
| Preceded by | Roger Knapman |
| Succeeded by | Lord Pearson of Rannoch |
| Member of the European Parliament for South East England |
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 15 July 1999 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1964-04-03) 3 April 1964 (age 48) Kent, England, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | UK Independence Party |
| Spouse(s) | Gráinne Hayes (1988-1997, divorced) Kirsten Mehr (1999-present) |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | Dulwich College |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Website | Nigel Farage MEP |
Nigel Paul Farage ( /ˈfærɑːʒ/, FARR-ahzh;[1] born 3 April 1964, Farnborough, Kent), is a British politician and is the Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP),[2] a position he also held from September 2006 to November 2009. He is a Member of the European Parliament for South East England and co-chairs the Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group.
Farage is a founding member of the UKIP, having left the Conservative Party in 1992 after they signed the Maastricht Treaty. Having unsuccessfully campaigned in European and Westminster parliamentary elections for UKIP since 1994, he gained a seat as an MEP for South East England in the 1999 European Parliament Election — the first year the regional list system was used — and was re-elected in 2004 and 2009. Farage describes himself as a libertarian and rejects the notion that he is a conservative.
In September 2006, Farage became the UKIP Leader and led the party through the 2009 European Parliament Election in which it received the second highest share of the popular vote, defeating Labour and the Liberal Democrats with over two million votes. However he stepped down in November 2009 to concentrate on contesting the Speaker John Bercow's seat of Buckingham in the 2010 general election.
At the 2010 General Election, Farage failed to unseat John Bercow and received only the third highest share of the vote in the constituency. Shortly after the polls opened on 6 May 2010, Nigel Farage was injured in an aircraft crash in Northamptonshire. The two-seated PZL-104 Wilga 35A had been towing a pro-UKIP banner when it flipped over and crashed shortly after takeoff. Both Farage and the pilot were hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries.[3]
In November 2010, Farage successfully stood in the 2010 UKIP leadership contest,[4] following the resignation of its leader, Lord Pearson of Rannoch. Farage was also ranked 41st (out of 100) in The Daily Telegraph's Top 100 most influential right-wingers poll in October 2009, citing his media savvy and his success with UKIP in the European Elections.[5] Farage was ranked 58th in the 2010 list compiled by Iain Dale and Brian Brivati for the Daily Telegraph.
Contents |
Background[link]
Farage was educated at Dulwich College before joining a commodity brokerage firm in London. He ran his own brokerage business from the early 1990s until 2002. In his early 20s Farage was diagnosed with testicular cancer but made a full recovery.[6]
Farage has been married twice. He married Gráinne Hayes in 1988, with whom he had two children: Samuel (1989) and Thomas (1991). In 1999 he married Kirsten Mehr, a German national, by whom he has two more children, Victoria (born 2000) and Isabelle (born 2005).[7]
Farage has also penned his own memoirs, entitled "Fighting Bull." It outlines the founding of UKIP and his personal and political life so far.
Political career[link]
Conservative Party[link]
Active in the Conservative Party from his school days, Farage left the party in 1992 when John Major's government signed the Treaty on European Union at Maastricht.
UKIP and the European Parliament[link]
Farage became a founding member of UKIP in 1993.
He was elected to the European Parliament in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and 2009. Farage is presently the leader of the thirteen-member UKIP contingent in the European Parliament, and co-leader of the multinational eurosceptic group, Europe of Freedom and Democracy.
UKIP party leadership[link]
On 12 September 2006, Farage was elected leader of UKIP with 45% of the vote, 20% ahead of his nearest rival.[8] He pledged to bring discipline to the party and to maximise UKIP's representation in local, parliamentary and other elections.[citation needed] In a PM programme interview on BBC Radio 4 that day he pledged to end the public perception of UKIP as a single-issue party and to work with allied politicians in the Better Off Out campaign, committing himself not to stand against the MPs who have signed up to that campaign (ten in all at this moment).
At his maiden speech to the UKIP conference on 8 October 2006, he told delegates that the party was "at the centre-ground of British public opinion" and the "real voice of opposition". Farage said: "We've got three social democratic parties in Britain — Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative are virtually indistinguishable from each other on nearly all the main issues" and "you can't put a cigarette paper between them and that is why there are nine million people who don't vote now in general elections that did back in 1992."[9]
At 10pm on 19 October 2006, Farage took part in a three-hour live interview and phone-in with James Whale on national radio station talkSPORT. Four days later, Whale announced on his show his intention to stand as UKIP's candidate in the 2008 London Mayoral Election. Farage said that Whale "not only has guts, but an understanding of what real people think". However Whale later decided not to stand and UKIP was represented by Gerard Batten.[10] He stood again for UKIP leadership in 2010 after his successor Lord Pearson stood down.[4] On the 5th November 2010 it was announced Farage had won the leadership contest.[11]
Westminster elections[link]
Farage had unsuccessfully contested UK parliamentary elections for UKIP five times, both before and after his election as an MEP in 1999. Under the 2002 European Union decision to forbid MEPs from holding a dual mandate, if he was ever elected to the House of Commons, he would have to resign his seat as an MEP.
When he contested the Bromley & Chislehurst constituency in a May 2006 by-election, organised after the sitting MP representing it, eurosceptic Conservative Eric Forth, died, Farage came third, winning 8% of the vote, beating the Labour Party candidate. This was the second-best by-election result recorded by UKIP out of 25 results, and the first time since the Liverpool Walton by-election in 1991 that a party in government had been pushed into fourth place in a parliamentary by-election on mainland Britain.
2010 UK General election[link]
On 4 September 2009 Farage resigned as leader of UKIP to concentrate on his campaign to become Member of Parliament for Buckingham at Westminster in the 2010 general election.[12] He later told Times journalist Camilla Long that UKIP internal fights took up too much time.[13]
He stood against Buckingham MP John Bercow, the newly elected Speaker of the House of Commons, despite a convention that the speaker, as a political neutral, is not normally challenged in his or her bid for re-election by any of the major parties.[14]
On 6 May, on the morning the polls opened in the election, just before eight o'clock Farage was involved in a light aircraft crash, suffering injuries described as non-life-threatening. A spokesperson told the BBC that "it was unlikely Mr Farage would be discharged from hospital today [6 May][15] Although his injuries were originally described as minor, his sternum and ribs were broken, and his lung punctured.[16] The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) report said that the aeroplane was towing a banner, which caught in the tailplane, forcing the nose down.[17]
Farage came third with 8,401 votes. Bercow was re-elected, and in second place with 10,331 votes was John Stevens, a former Conservative MEP who campaigned as an independent accompanied by "Flipper the Dolphin" (a reference to MPs flipping second homes).[18]
On 1 December 2010, the pilot of the aircraft involved in the accident was charged with threatening to kill Farage. He was also charged with threatening to kill an AAIB official involved in the investigation into the accident.[19] In April 2011, Justin Adams was found guilty of making death threats. The judge said the defendant was "clearly extremely disturbed" at the time the offences happened adding "He is a man who does need help. If I can find a way of giving him help I will."[20]
Alternative Vote referendum, May 2011[link]
Farage declared himself personally in favour of the Alternative Vote system of May 2011, saying first-past-the-post is a "nightmare" for UKIP. However, the party's stance has to be decided by its central policy making committee.[21]
May 2012 London Mayor & Local elections[link]
In a "bizarre cock-up," UKIP forgot to put their party name on their candidate's ballot paper for the London mayoral election, 2012[22], Laurence Webb appearing as "A fresh choice for London." Farage admitted the mistake describing it as an internal error.[22]
Interviewed by the following Sunday by Andrew Neil and asked about "the game plan", Farage welcomed the "average 13% vote" across the country, and stated that the party was preparing for County council in 2013, European elections in 2014 and a general election in 2015.[23] The party was no longer just a protest vote, it would have a full manifesto with policies including selective schools, help to small businesses by "getting rid of excessive labour practices" and an energy policy not based on wind turbines.[23] UKIP was here to stay ..frankly the Tory Eurosceptics were in the wrong party and would be better off joining UKIP. Asked what would happen to UKIP if the Tories made a Manifesto commitment to a European referendum, Farage said they had already failed to honour a "cast iron" commitment for a referendum on the Lisbon treaty.[23]
Challenging Farange's viewpoint, Neil said UKIP aspired to come top of the European elections but whilst UKIP wanted to join the big time, they were still seen as "unprofessional, amateur and even unacceptable" after their press officer called Baroness Warsi "a bitch".[23] Farage regretted "the wrong choice of words" but further described Warsi as "the lowest grade chairman the Tory party has ever had."[23] Neil then mocked the so called internal error which had made Farage "a joke".[23] "The blunt truth is" UKIP "didn't win any more seats, the performance in London was terrible and they were still a one man band."[23] Farage conceded London was a failure but they had won council seats elsewhere. He invited Tories who couldn't stand Cameron to help him.[23]
Controversies and whistleblowing[link]
Copyright infringement[link]
In 1999 the BBC spent four months filming a documentary about his European elections campaign but didn't show it. Farage, then head of UKIP's South East office, asked for a video and got friends to make illegal copies which were sold for £5 through the UKIP magazine. Surrey Trading Standards investigated and Farage has admitted the offence.[24]
Expenses disclosure[link]
In May 2009, The Guardian reported that Farage had said in a speech to the Foreign Press Association that over ten years as a member of the European Parliament he received £2 million of taxpayers' money in staff, travel, and other expenses on top of his £64,000 a year salary.[25]
The former Europe Minister, Denis MacShane, said that this showed that Farage was "happy to line his pockets with gold". Farage called this a "misrepresentation",[26] pointing out that the money had been used to promote UKIP's message and staff salaries, not his own salary, but he welcomed the focus on the issue of MEP expenses, claiming that "[o]ver a five year term each and every one of Britain's 78 MEPs gets about £1 million. It is used to employ administrative staff, run their offices and to travel back and forth between their home, Brussels and Strasbourg."[27]
Jacques Barrot[link]
On 18 November 2004, Farage announced in the European Parliament that Jacques Barrot, the French Commissioner designate, had been barred from elected office in France for 2 years, after being convicted in 2000 of embezzling £2 million from government funds and diverting it into the coffers of his party. He claimed that French President Jacques Chirac had granted Barrot amnesty. Although initial BBC reports claimed that, under French law, it was illegal even to mention the conviction,[28] the prohibition in question only applies to French officials in the course of their duties.[29] The president of the Parliament, Josep Borrell, enjoined him to retract his comments under threat of "legal consequences".[30] However, the following day it was confirmed that Barrot had received an 8 month suspended jail sentence in the case, and that this had been quickly expunged by the amnesty decided by Chirac and his parliamentary majority. The Commission's president, Jose Manuel Barroso admitted that he had not known of Barrot's criminal record when appointing him as a Commission vice-president.[citation needed] The Socialist and Liberal groups in the European Parliament then joined UKIP in demanding the resignation of Barrot for failing to disclose the conviction during his confirmation hearings.
José Manuel Barroso[link]
During the spring of 2005, Farage requested that the European Commission disclose where the individual Commissioners had spent their holidays. The Commission did not provide the information requested, on the basis that the Commissioners had a right of privacy. The German newspaper Die Welt reported that the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso had spent a week on the yacht of the Greek shipping billionaire Spiro Latsis. It emerged soon afterwards that this had occurred a month before the Commission under Barroso's predecessor Romano Prodi approved 10.3 million euro of Greek state aid for Latsis' shipping company.[31] It also became known that Peter Mandelson, then a member of the Commission, had accepted a trip to Jamaica from an unrevealed source.
Farage persuaded around 75 MEPs from across the political divide to back a motion of no confidence in Barroso, which would be sufficient to compel Barroso to appear before the European Parliament to be questioned on the issue.[32] The motion was successfully tabled on 12 May 2005, and Barroso appeared before Parliament[33] at a debate on 26 May 2005. The motion was heavily defeated. A Conservative MEP, Roger Helmer, was expelled from his group, the European People's Party - European Democrats (EPP-ED) in the middle of the debate by that group's leader Hans-Gert Poettering as a result of his support for Farage's motion.
Joseph Daul[link]
In January 2007, the French farmers' leader Joseph Daul was elected the new leader of the European People's Party–European Democrats (EPP-ED), the European Parliamentary grouping which then included the British Conservatives. The UK Independence Party almost immediately revealed that Daul had been under judicial investigation in France since 2004 as part of an inquiry into the alleged misuse of public funds worth €16 million (£10.6 million) by French farming unions."[34] It was not suggested that Daul had personally benefited, but was accused of "complicity and concealment of the abuse of public funds." Daul accused Farage of publicising the investigation for political reasons and threatened to sue Farage, but did not do so though the court dropped all charges against him.
Prince Charles[link]
Prince Charles gave a speech to the European Parliament on 14 February 2008, in which he called for EU leadership in the war against climate change. During the standing ovation that followed, Farage was the only MEP to remain seated and went on to describe the Prince's advisers as "naïve and foolish at best."[35] Farage continued: "How can somebody like Prince Charles be allowed to come to the European Parliament at this time to announce he thinks it should have more powers? It would have been better for the country he wants to rule one day if he had stayed home and tried to persuade Gordon Brown to give the people the promised referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon." The leader of the UK Labour Party's MEPs, Gary Titley, accused Farage of anti-Royalism. Titley said: "I was embarrassed and disgusted when the Leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage, remained firmly seated during the lengthy standing ovation Prince Charles received. I had not realised Mr Farage's blind adherence to right wing politics involved disloyalty and discourtesy to the Royal Family. He should be thoroughly ashamed of himself and should apologise to the British people he represents."[35]
Herman Van Rompuy[link]
After the speech of Herman Van Rompuy on 24 February 2010 in the European parliament, Farage—to protests from other MEPs—addressed the first long-term President of the European Council saying that he has the "charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of low grade bank clerk".[36] Farage questioned the legitimacy of Van Rompuy's appointment asking "Who are you? I'd never heard of you, nobody in Europe had ever heard of you", he also asserted that Van Rompuy's "intention is to be the quiet assassin of European democracy and of European nation states."[36] In the same speech he also referred to Belgium, the home of Van Rompuy, as "pretty much a non-country".[37] Van Rompuy commented afterwards, "There was one contribution that I can only hold in contempt, but I'm not going to comment further."[36] After refusing to apologise for behaviour that was, in the words of the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, "inappropriate, unparliamentary and insulting to the dignity of the House", Farage was reprimanded and had his right to ten days' allowance (expenses) rescinded.[38] [39]
The President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, said after his meeting with Farage:
I defend absolutely Mr Farage's right to disagree about the policy or institutions of the Union, but not to personally insult our guests in the European Parliament or the country from which they may come. [. . .] I myself fought for free speech as the absolute cornerstone of a democratic society. But with freedom comes responsibility - in this case, to respect the dignity of others and of our institutions. I am disappointed by Mr Farage's behaviour, which sits ill with the great parliamentary tradition of his own country. I cannot accept this sort of behaviour in the European Parliament. I invited him to apologise, but he declined to do so. I have therefore - as an expression of the seriousness of the matter - rescinded his right to ten days' daily allowance as a Member.[39]
Questioned by Camilla Long, Farage declared of his speech "it wasn't abusive, it was right."[13]
European economic governance[link]
He spoke of the EU being "German-dominated" in a speech at the European-Parliament on 18 November 2011.[40]
Views on the euro[link]
From taking office as a UKIP MEP in 1999, Farage has often voiced opposition to the "euro project". His argument is that "a one size fits all interest rate" cannot work for countries with structurally different economies, often using the example of Greece and Germany to emphasise contrast. He predicted the need for 'bailouts' before European Commission and European Central Bank officials admitted that these steps would be necessary. Specifically, Farage predicted that Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain would all require such assistance. To date, Spain is the only predicted country that has not asked for a 'bailout'. Although Spain and Italy have both had indirect assistance from the ECB, whereby secondary government bonds are bought by the central bank, they are prohibited from purchasing new bonds. Farage warns: "You can ignore the markets if you want to, but in time the markets will not ignore you". Farage also reinforces Germany's argument that Italy "should never have joined the euro".
Farage predicts that if the situation continues it will lead to violence due to the people's inability to "determine their own futures through the ballot box" as it will become the only "logical" tool to enable them to escape from their "economic prison" i.e. the Eurozone. He proclaims "I can only hope and pray that the euro project is destroyed by the markets before that really happens."
Farage strongly opposes the use of 'bailouts' and claims that "buying your own debt with tax payers money" will not solve the problem and that, "if we do, the next debt crisis won't be a country", "it will be the European Central Bank itself".[41][42]
Electoral performance[link]
Nigel Farage has contested several elections under the United Kingdom Independence Party banner:
- Itchen, Test and Avon, European Parliament Election 1994 - 12,423 votes, representing 5.2% of total votes cast
- Eastleigh by-election, 1994 - 952, 1.4%
- Salisbury, 1997 general election - 3,332, 5.7%
- European Parliament election, 1999 - elected member for South East England from party list
- Bexhill and Battle, 2001 general election - 3,474, 7.8%
- European Parliament election, 2004 - elected member for South East England from party list
- South Thanet, 2005 general election - 2,079, 5.0%
- Bromley and Chislehurst by-election, 2006 - 2,307, 8.0%
- European Parliament election, 2009 - elected member for South East England from party list.
- Buckingham, 2010 general election - 8,410, 17.4%
Footnotes[link]
- ^ "Farage vs Paxman". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K27fm4lyWm0. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
- ^ "Nigel Farage Re-Elected UKIP Party Leader". http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/UKIP-Nigel-Farage-Re-Elected-As-Leader-Of-The-UK-Independence-Party-Taking-Over-From-Lord-Pearson/Article/201011115795811?lpos=Politics_Carousel_Region_3&lid=ARTICLE_15795811_UKIP%3A_Nigel_Farage_Re-Elected_As_Leader_Of_The_UK_Independence_Party%2C_Taking_Over_From_Lord_Pearson. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
- ^ Edwards, Richard (7 May 2010). "Daily Telegraph". London: The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7685912/General-Election-2010-Ukips-Nigel-Farage-has-lucky-escape-after-election-stunt-plane-crash.html. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
- ^ a b Andrew Sparrow "Nigel Farage to stand for Ukip leadership again", The Guardian, 3 September 2010
- ^ Dale, Iain; Brivati, Brian (5 October 2009). "Daily Telegraph". London: The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/6256390/Top-100-most-influential-Right-wingers-50-1.html. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
- ^ Simon Hattenstone. "Nigel Farage, Ukip: 'Other party leaders live in a PC world.' | Politics". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/05/nigel-farage-ukip-interview. Retrieved 2012-04-06.
- ^ Watts, Robert (2007-03-11). "Making plans with Nigel". London: The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/11/nukip11.xml. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ "Politics | UKIP 'voice of British majority'". London: BBC News Online. 2006-10-07. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5415252.stm?ls.
- ^ [2][dead link]
- ^ "UKIP: Nigel Farafe Re-Elected As Leader Of the UK Independence Party, Taking Over From Lord Pearson". Sky News. 5 November 2010. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/UKIP-Nigel-Farage-Re-Elected-As-Leader-Of-The-UK-Independence-Party-Taking-Over-From-Lord-Pearson/Article/201011115795811?lpos=Politics_First_UK_News_Article_Teaser_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15795811_UKIP:_Nigel_Farage_Re-Elected_As_Leader_Of_The_UK_Independence_Party,_Taking_Over_From_Lord_Pearson. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
- ^ Farage to quit as UKIP Leader, UKIP website, Retrieved 4 September 2009
- ^ a b Camilla Long "Nigel Farage: Brimming over with bile and booze", The Times, 21 March 2010
- ^ "Farage to stand against Speaker". London: BBC News Online. 2009-09-03. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8235626.stm.
- ^ Nigel Farage injured in plane crash in Northamptonshire, BBC News Website, Retrieved 6 May 2010
- ^ Nigel Farndale (2010-11-18). "Nigel Farage: born to rant". London: Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/ukip/8128877/Nigel-Farage-born-to-rant.html. Retrieved 2010-11-23.
- ^ "AAIB Bulletin: 11/2010 G-BWDF 6 May 2010 at 0659 hrs". Air Accidents Investigation Branch. http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources/PZL-104%20Wilga%2035A,%20G-BWDF%2011-2010.pdf. Retrieved 2010-11-23.
- ^ Dowling, Tim (7 May 2010). "Election results: Ukip's Nigel Farage finishes behind John Bercow and Flipper". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/07/nigel-farage-ukip-john-bercow. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
- ^ "Crash pilot 'threatened to kill UKIP's Nigel Farage'". BBC News online. 1 December 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-11886985. Retrieved 1 December 2010.
- ^ "Nigel Farage death threats crash pilot guilty". BBC News online. 14 April 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-13082655. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ^ "AV referendum: Where parties stand". BBC News. 13 January 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11609887. Retrieved 11-02-2011.
- ^ a b George Eaton (4 May 2012). "How UKIP became "Fresh Choice for London"". New Statesman. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/how-ukip-became-fresh-choice-london. Retrieved 1 Jun 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Nigel Farage calls on Conservative MPs to join UKIP". BBC news. 6 May 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17974787. Retrieved 1 Jun 2012.
- ^ Robert Watts "Making plans with Nigel", Sunday Telegraph, 11 March 2007
- ^ Helm, Toby (2009-05-24). "Ukip leader boasts of his £2m in expenses | Politics | The Observer". London: Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/24/mps-expenses-ukip-nigel-farage. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
- ^ "McShane misses the point on expenses - UK Independence Party". Ukip.org. 2009-05-19. http://www.ukip.org/content/latest-news/1053-mcshane-misses-the-point-on-expenses. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
- ^ "MEP expense spotlight turns focus to EU - UK Independence Party". Ukip.org. 2009-05-25. http://www.ukip.org/content/latest-news/1068-mep-expense-spotlight-turns-focus-to-eu. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
- ^ "BBC NEWS | Europe | Profile: Jacques Barrot". Newswww.bbc.net.uk. 2004-11-22. http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/2/hi/europe/4032113.stm. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
- ^ The prohibition contained in the French penal code against mentioning crimes covered by an amnesty only concerns French officials who may hear of such crimes in the course of their duties (CP L133-11), and does not apply generally (L133-10).
- ^ "Impressions on the new European Commission (2), 18/11/2004 - MEP Nigel Farage replies to Parliament President Josep Borrell who urged him to reflect on his comments and the possible legal consequences.". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPLkcgaWc0o. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
- ^ Castle, Stephen (2005-05-26). "Barroso survives confidence debate over free holiday with Greek tycoon - Europe, World - The Independent". London: News.independent.co.uk. http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article223215.ece. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
- ^ "Bloomberg.com". Bloomberg.com. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=aFq2hOeCcYZc&refer=europe. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
- ^ "Europe | Barroso rebuffs yacht questions". London: BBC News. 2005-05-25. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4578261.stm. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
- ^ Waterfield, Bruno (2007-01-13). "EU Right's new leader at heart of funds inquiry". London: Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/13/wdaul13.xml. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
- ^ a b "Politics | UKIP anger at prince's EU speech". London: BBC News. 2008-02-14. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7245183.stm. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
- ^ a b c "Tirade against 'damp rag' EU president shocks MEPs". London: BBC News. 2010-02-24. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8535121.stm. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
- ^ EUX.TV YouTube channel - Nigel Farage harangues EU President Herman van Rompuy Uploaded on 24 February 2010; Retrieved 27 February 2010
- ^ "MEP Nigel Farage fined over 'insulting' tirade". BBC News. 2010-03-02. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8544904.stm. Retrieved 2010-03-21.
- ^ a b "EP President Jerzy BUZEK on MEP Nigel FARAGE - 68659". European Parliament. 2010-03-03. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/eng-internet-publisher/eplive/expert/shotlist/20100303SHL92842. Retrieved 2010-03-21.
- ^ Going Viral: Nigel Farage on 'German- dominated' EU at the Daily Mail
- ^ ""Nigel Farage - Europe Trapped Inside an Economic Prison" (A collage of speeches by UKIP Leader Nigel Farage MEP in the European Parliament in Strasbourg and Brussels as Co-President of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (EFD). Excerpts relate to the euro currency crisis leading up to the bailouts of Greece (May 2010), Ireland (November 2010) and Portugal (April 2011). Video credit ~ europarl: http://www.youtube.com/user/europarl)". 22 April 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVJ-MdikNr0. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
- ^ | europarl speech archives, with full list of all of Mr Farage's speeches in plenary that are referred to in my original source video | accessdate=2011-04-27
References[link]
- 2002 Amnesty law
- Penal Code, articles L133-9, L133-10, L133-11
External links[link]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nigel Farage |
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Nigel Farage |
- Nigel Farage MEP Official website
- Nigel Farage on Twitter
- Nigel Farage Profile at European Parliament website
- UKIP MEPs Official website of the UK Independence Party in the European Parliament
- Europe of Freedom and Democracy Political group in the European Parliament
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| Preceded by Jeffrey Titford |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Farage, Nigel |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | British politician |
| Date of birth | 3 April 1964 |
| Place of birth | Kent, United Kingdom |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| The Right Honourable Tony Benn |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| President of the Stop the War Coalition | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 21 September 2001 |
|
| Vice President | Lindsey German |
| Preceded by | Office created |
| Secretary of State for Energy | |
| In office 10 June 1975 – 4 May 1979 |
|
| Prime Minister | Harold Wilson James Callaghan |
| Preceded by | Eric Varley |
| Succeeded by | David Howell |
| Secretary of State for Industry | |
| In office 5 March 1974 – 10 June 1975 |
|
| Prime Minister | Harold Wilson |
| Preceded by | Peter Walker (at DTI) |
| Succeeded by | Eric Varley |
| Chairman of the Labour Party | |
| In office 20 September 1971 – 25 September 1972 |
|
| Leader | Harold Wilson |
| Preceded by | Ian Mikardo |
| Succeeded by | William Simpson[disambiguation needed  ] |
| Minister of Technology | |
| In office 4 July 1966 – 19 June 1970 |
|
| Prime Minister | Harold Wilson |
| Preceded by | Frank Cousins |
| Succeeded by | Geoffrey Rippon |
| Postmaster General | |
| In office 15 October 1964 – 4 July 1966 |
|
| Prime Minister | Harold Wilson |
| Preceded by | Reginald Bevins |
| Succeeded by | Edward Short |
| Member of Parliament for Chesterfield |
|
| In office 1 March 1984 – 7 June 2001 |
|
| Preceded by | Eric Varley |
| Succeeded by | Paul Holmes |
| Majority | 24,633 (46.5%) |
| Member of Parliament for Bristol South East |
|
| In office 20 August 1963 – 9 June 1983 |
|
| Preceded by | Malcolm St Clair |
| Succeeded by | Constituency Abolished |
| Majority | 1,890 (3.5%) |
| In office 30 November 1950 – 17 November 1960 |
|
| Preceded by | Stafford Cripps |
| Succeeded by | Malcolm St Clair |
| Majority | 13,044 (39%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (1925-04-03) 3 April 1925 (age 87) Marylebone, London, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse(s) | Caroline DeCamp (m. 1949–2000) |
| Children | Stephen, Hilary, Melissa, Joshua |
| Alma mater | New College, Oxford |
| Religion | Agnostic[1] – United Reformed Church[citation needed] |
| Website | Official website |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | Royal Air Force |
| Rank | Pilot Officer |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC (born 3 April 1925), formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, is a British Labour Party politician, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for fifty years, and was also a Cabinet Minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan.
His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963.[2] In the Labour Government of 1964–1970 he served first as Postmaster General, where he oversaw the opening of the Post Office Tower, and later as a notably "technocratic" Minister of Technology. In the period when the Labour Party was in Opposition, Benn served for a year as the Chairman of the Labour Party. In the Labour Government of 1974–1979, he returned to the Cabinet, initially serving as Secretary of State for Industry, before being made Secretary of State for Energy, retaining his post when James Callaghan replaced Wilson as Prime Minister. During the Labour Party's time in Opposition during the 1980s, he was seen as the party's prominent figure on the left, and the term "Bennite" has come to be used in Britain for someone of a more radical left-wing position.[3]
Benn has topped several polls to find the most popular politician in Britain.[4] He has also been described as "one of the few UK politicians to have become more left-wing after holding ministerial office."[5] Since leaving Parliament, Benn has become more involved in the grass-roots politics of demonstrations and meetings, as opposed to parliamentary activities, and has been the President of the Stop the War Coalition for the last decade. He has also been a vegetarian since the 1970s.
Contents |
Biography[link]
Early life and family[link]
Benn was born in London on 3 April 1925.[6] Benn's paternal grandfather was John Benn (a successful politician who had been created a baronet in 1914) and his father William Wedgwood Benn was a Liberal Member of Parliament who later crossed the floor to the Labour Party. He was appointed Secretary of State for India by Ramsay MacDonald in 1929, a position he held until 1931. He was elevated to the House of Lords, with the title of Viscount Stansgate in 1941; the new wartime coalition government was short of working Labour peers in the upper house.[7] From 1945 to 1946, he was the Secretary of State for Air in the first majority Labour Government.
Both his grandfathers, John Benn (who founded a publishing company)[8] and Daniel Holmes, were also Liberal MPs (respectively, for Tower Hamlets, Devonport and Glasgow Govan).[9] Benn's contact with leading politicians of the day thus dates back to his earliest years as a result of his family's profile; he met Ramsay MacDonald when he was five,[10] David Lloyd George when he was twelve and Mahatma Gandhi in 1931, while his father was Secretary of State for India.
Benn's mother Margaret Eadie (née Holmes) (1897–1991), was a dedicated theologian, feminist and the founder President of the Congregational Federation. She was a member of the League of the Church Militant, which was the predecessor of the Movement for the Ordination of Women – in 1925 she was rebuked by Randall Thomas Davidson, then-Archbishop of Canterbury, for advocating the ordination of women. His mother's theology had a profound influence on Benn, as she taught him that the stories in the Bible were based around the struggle between the prophets and the kings and that he ought in his life to support the prophets over the kings, who had power, as the prophets taught righteousness.[11]
Benn was a pupil at Westminster School and later studied at New College, Oxford where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics and was elected President of the Oxford Union in 1947. In later life, Benn attempted to remove public references to his private education from Who's Who; in the 1975 edition his entry stated "Education—still in progress". In the 1976 edition, almost all details of his biography were omitted save for his name, jobs as a Member of Parliament and as a Government Minister, and address; the publishers confirmed that Benn had sent back his draft entry with everything else struck through.[12] In the 1977 edition, Benn's entry disappeared entirely.[13] In October 1973 he announced on BBC Radio that he wished to be known as "Mr Tony Benn" and his book Speeches from 1974 is credited to "Tony Benn".
Benn met US-born Caroline Middleton DeCamp (born 13 October 1926, Cincinnati, Ohio) over tea at Worcester College in 1949 and nine days later he proposed to her on a park bench in the city. Later, he bought the bench from Oxford City Council and installed it in the garden of their home in Holland Park. Tony and Caroline had four children—Stephen, Hilary, Melissa and Joshua, and ten grandchildren. Caroline Benn died of cancer on 22 November 2000, aged 74, after a prominent career as an educationalist.[14]
In July 1943, Benn joined the Royal Air Force.[15] His father and brother Michael (who was later killed in an accident) were already serving in the RAF in 1943. Whilst holding the rank of pilot officer, Tony Benn served as a pilot in South Africa and Rhodesia.[16]
Benn's children have also been active in politics; his first son Stephen served as an elected Member of the Inner London Education Authority from 1986 to 1990. His second son Hilary served as a councillor in London, and stood for Parliament in 1983 and 1987, finally becoming the Labour MP for Leeds Central in 1999. He served as Secretary of State for International Development from 2003 to 2007, and then as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs until 2010. This makes him the third generation of his family to have sat in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, a rare distinction for a modern political family in Britain. Benn's granddaughter Emily Benn fought and ultimately lost the seat of East Worthing and Shoreham in 2010,[17] becoming the Labour Party's youngest ever candidate in the process.[18] Tony Benn is a first cousin once removed of the late actress Dame Margaret Rutherford.[19]
Member of Parliament[link]
Following his Second World War service as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, Benn worked briefly as a BBC Radio producer. On 1 November 1950, he was unexpectedly selected to succeed Sir Stafford Cripps as the Labour candidate for Bristol South East, after Cripps stood down because of ill-health, and won the seat in a by-election on 30 November 1950.[20] Anthony Crosland helped him get the seat as he was the MP for nearby South Gloucestershire at the time. Upon taking the oath on 4 December 1950[21] Benn became the youngest MP, or "Baby of the House" for one day, being succeeded by Thomas Teevan, who was two years younger but took his oath a day later.[22] He became the "Baby" again in 1951, when Teevan was not re-elected. In the 1950s, Benn held middle-of-the-road or soft left views, and was not associated with the young left wing group around Aneurin Bevan.[23]
Peerage reform[link]
Benn's father had been created Viscount Stansgate in 1942 when Winston Churchill increased the number of Labour peers to aid political work in the House of Lords; at this time, Benn's elder brother Michael was intending to enter the priesthood and had no objections to inheriting a peerage. However, Michael was later killed in an accident while on active service in the Second World War, and this left Tony Benn as the heir to the peerage. He made several attempts to renounce the succession, but they were unsuccessful.[23]
In November 1960, Viscount Stansgate died, and as a result Benn automatically became a peer and was thus prevented from sitting in the House of Commons. Insisting on his right to abandon his peerage, Benn fought to retain his seat in a by-election caused by his succession on 4 May 1961. Although he was disqualified from taking his seat, the voters of Bristol South-East re-elected him regardless. An election court found that the voters were fully aware that Benn was disqualified, and declared the seat won by the Conservative runner-up, Malcolm St Clair, who was at the time also the heir presumptive to a peerage.[2]
Outside Parliament, Benn continued his campaign, and eventually the Conservative Government of the time accepted the need for a change in the law.[24] The Peerage Act 1963, allowing renunciation of peerages, was given the Royal Assent and became law shortly after 6 pm on 31 July 1963. Benn was the first peer to renounce his title, at 6.22 pm that day. Malcolm St. Clair, fulfilling a promise he had made at the time of his seating, then accepted the office of Stewardship of the Manor of Northstead, thereby disqualifying himself from the House (outright resignation being impermissible). Benn returned to the Commons after winning a by-election on 20 August 1963.[23]
In government (1964–1970)[link]
In the 1964 Government of Harold Wilson, Benn was appointed Postmaster General; during his time in that position, he oversaw the opening of what was then the UK's tallest building, the Post Office Tower, and the creations of the Postal Bus Service and Girobank. He proposed issuing stamps without the Sovereign's head, but this met with private opposition from the Queen. Instead, the portrait was reduced to a small profile in silhouette, a format that is still used on commemorative stamps today.[25] Benn also led the government's campaign to close down the many off-shore pirate radio stations of the time, a campaign that forms the centrepiece of the 2009 film The Boat That Rocked, and was responsible for introducing the Marine Broadcasting Offences Bill.[26] By the time the bill became law in 1967, Benn had been promoted to the post of Minister of Technology, which included specific responsibility for overseeing the development of Concorde and the formation of International Computers Ltd. The period also saw government involvement in industrial rationalisation, and the merger of several car companies to form British Leyland. [27] Labour lost the 1970 election to Edward Heath's Conservatives, and upon Heath's application to join the European Economic Community, Benn campaigned in favour of a referendum on the UK's membership. The Shadow Cabinet voted to support a referendum on 29 March 1972, and as a result Roy Jenkins resigned as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.
In government (1974–1979)[link]
In the Labour Government of 1974, Benn was appointed Secretary of State for Industry, where he set up worker cooperatives in struggling industries, the best known being at Meriden, which kept Triumph Motorcycles in production until 1983. In 1975, he was appointed Secretary of State for Energy, immediately following his ultimately unsuccessful campaign for a "No" vote in the referendum on the UK's membership of the EEC. By his own admission in his diary (25 October 1977), Benn "loathed" the EEC; he claimed it was "bureaucratic and centralised" and "of course it is really dominated by Germany. All the Common Market countries except the UK have been occupied by Germany, and they have this mixed feeling of hatred and subservience towards the Germans".[28]
Harold Wilson resigned as Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister in March 1976. Benn entered the subsequent leadership contest and came fourth with 37 votes in the first ballot. Benn then withdrew from the second ballot and supported Michael Foot for the leadership, although James Callaghan eventually won. Despite not receiving his support in the vote, Callaghan kept Benn as Energy Secretary. Later in the autumn of 1976, there was a sterling crisis, and then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey sought to gain a loan from the International Monetary Fund. Benn publicly circulated the Cabinet minutes from the 1931 National Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald, which cut unemployment benefits in order to secure a loan from American bankers and resulted in the inadvertent splitting of the Labour Party. Callaghan allowed Benn to put forward his "alternative economic strategy", which consisted of a siege economy. However this plan would later be rejected by the Cabinet.[29]
Move to the Left[link]
By the end of the 1970s, Benn had migrated to the left-wing of the Labour Party. He attributed this political shift to his experience as a Cabinet Minister in the 1964–1970 Labour Government. Benn wrote:
As a minister, I experienced the power of industrialists and bankers to get their way by use of the crudest form of economic pressure, even blackmail, against a Labour Government. Compared to this, the pressure brought to bear in industrial disputes is minuscule. This power was revealed even more clearly in 1976 when the IMF secured cuts in our public expenditure. These lessons led me to the conclusion that the UK is only superficially governed by MPs and the voters who elect them. Parliamentary democracy is, in truth, little more than a means of securing a periodical change in the management team, which is then allowed to preside over a system that remains in essence intact. If the British people were ever to ask themselves what power they truly enjoyed under our political system they would be amazed to discover how little it is, and some new Chartist agitation might be born and might quickly gather momentum.[30]
Benn's philosophy consisted of a form of syndicalism, economic planning, greater democracy in the structures of the Labour Party and observance of Party conference decisions by the Party leadership;[31] he was vilified in the right-wing press, and his enemies implied that a Benn-led Labour Government would implement a type of East European socialism.[32] Conversely, Benn was overwhelmingly popular with Labour activists. A survey of delegates at the Labour Conference of 1978 found that by large margins they supported both Benn for the leadership and many Bennite policies.[33]
He publicly supported Sinn Féin and the unification of Ireland, although in 2005 he suggested to Sinn Féin leaders that Sinn Féin abandon its long-standing policy of not taking seats at Westminster. Sinn Féin argue that to do so would recognise Britain's claim over Northern Ireland, and the Sinn Féin constitution prevents its elected members from taking their seats in any British-created institution.[34]
In opposition[link]
In a keynote speech to the Labour Party Conference of 1980, shortly before the resignation of party leader James Callaghan and election of Michael Foot as successor, Benn outlined what he envisaged the next Labour Government would do. "Within days", a Labour Government would grant powers to nationalise industries, control capital and implement industrial democracy; "within weeks", all powers from Brussels would be returned to Westminster and then they would abolish the House of Lords by creating one thousand peers and then abolishing the peerage. Benn received tumultuous applause from the audience.[35]
In 1981, he stood for election against the incumbent Denis Healey for the post of Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, disregarding the appeal from Michael Foot either to stand for the leadership, or to abstain from inflaming the party's divisions. Benn defended his decision with insistence that it was "not about personalities, but about policies." The contest was extremely closely fought in the summer of 1981, and Healey eventually won by a margin of barely 1%. The decision of several moderate left-wing MPs, including Neil Kinnock, to abstain from supporting Benn triggered the split of the Campaign Group from the Left of the Tribune Group.[36]
After Argentina had invaded the Falkland Islands in April 1982, Benn argued that the dispute should be settled by the United Nations and that the British Government should not send a task force to recapture the islands. The task force was sent and the Falklands were soon back in British control. In a subsequent debate in the Commons, Benn's demand for "a full analysis of the costs in life, equipment and money in this tragic and unnecessary war" was rejected by Margaret Thatcher, who stated that "he would not enjoy the freedom of speech that he put to such excellent use unless people had been prepared to fight for it".[37]
In 1983, Benn's Bristol South East constituency was abolished by boundary changes, and he subsequently lost the battle to stand in the new seat of Bristol South to Michael Cocks. Rejecting offers from the new seat of Livingston in Scotland, Benn contested Bristol East, losing to Conservative candidate Jonathan Sayeed in what was perceived to be a shock result. He was selected for the next Labour seat to fall vacant, and was elected as MP for Chesterfield in a by-election after Eric Varley resigned his seat to head Coalite. On the day of the by-election, 1 March 1984, The Sun newspaper ran a hostile feature article "Benn on the Couch" which purported to be the opinions of an American psychiatrist.[38] In the intervening period, since Benn's defeat in Bristol, Michael Foot had stepped down after the general election in June 1983 (which saw Labour return a mere 209 MPs) and was succeeded in October of that year by Neil Kinnock.[39]
Benn was a prominent supporter of the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike and of his long-standing friend, the National Union of Mineworkers leader Arthur Scargill. Some miners, however, considered Benn's 1977 industry reforms to have caused problems during the strike; firstly, that they led to huge wage differences and distrust between miners of different regions; and secondly, that the controversy over balloting miners for these reforms made it unclear as to whether a ballot was needed for a strike or whether it could be deemed as a "regional matter" in the same way that the 1977 reforms had been.[40][41]
In June 1985, three months after the miners admitted defeat and ended their strike, Benn introduced the Miners' Amnesty (General Pardon) Bill in the Commons which would have extended an amnesty to all miners imprisoned during the strike. This would have included two men convicted of murder (later reduced to manslaughter) for the killing of David Wilkie, a taxi driver driving a non-striking miner to work in South Wales during the strike.[42]
Benn later stood for election as Party Leader in 1988, against Neil Kinnock, following Labour's third successive defeat in the 1987 general election, and lost again, on this occasion by a substantial margin.[43] During the Gulf War, he visited Baghdad to persuade Saddam Hussein to release the hostages who had been captured.[44] He was also one of the very few MPs to oppose the Kosovo War. In 1991, with Labour still in opposition and another general election due by June 1992, he proposed the Commonwealth of Britain Bill, which involved abolishing the British Monarchy in favour of the United Kingdom becoming a "democratic, federal and secular commonwealth"; in effect, a republic with a written constitution. It was read in Parliament a number of times until his retirement at the 2001 election, but never achieved a second reading.[45] He presented an account of his proposal in Common Sense: A New Constitution for Britain.[46]
Retirement[link]
Tony Benn did not stand at the 2001 general election; as he explained it, he was "leaving parliament in order to spend more time on politics".[47] Along with Edward Heath, Benn was given the privilege of being able to continue using the House of Commons Library and Members' refreshment facilities by the Speaker. Shortly after his retirement, he was approached by the Stop the War Coalition, and was asked to become its President, an offer he accepted.[44] He thus became a leading figure of the British opposition to the War on Iraq, and in February 2003 he travelled to Baghdad to again meet, and interview, Saddam Hussein. The interview was shown on British television.[48] He also spoke out against the Iraq war at the February 2003 protest in London organised by the Stop the War Coalition, attended by over 1 million people.[49] In February 2004 and 2008, he was re-elected President of the Stop the War Coalition.[50]
He has toured with a one-man stage show and also appears a few times each year in a two-man show with folk singer Roy Bailey. In 2003, his show with Bailey was voted 'Best Live Act' at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.[51] In 2002 he opened the "Left Field" stage at the Glastonbury Festival. In October 2003, Benn was a guest of British Airways on the last-ever scheduled Concorde flight from New York to London.[52] In June 2005, Benn was a panellist on a special edition of BBC1's Question Time. The special edition was edited entirely by a school age film crew selected by a BBC competition.[53]
On 21 June 2005, Benn presented a programme on democracy as part of the Channel 5 series Big Ideas That Changed The World, he presented a left-wing view of democracy as the means to pass power from the "wallet to the ballot". He argued that traditional social democratic values were under threat in an increasingly globalised world in which powerful institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Commission remain unelected and unaccountable to those whose lives they affect daily.[54]
On 27 September 2005, Benn was taken ill at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton and taken by ambulance to the Royal Sussex County Hospital after being treated by paramedics at the Brighton Centre. Benn reportedly fell and struck his head. He was to be kept in hospital for observation, but was described as being in a "comfortable condition".[55] He was subsequently fitted with an artificial pacemaker to help regulate his heartbeat.[56] In a list compiled by the magazine New Statesman in 2006, he was voted twelfth in the list of "Heroes of our Time".[57]
In September 2006, Benn joined the "Time to Go" demonstration in Manchester the day before the start of the final Labour Conference with Tony Blair as Party Leader, with the aim of persuading the Labour Government to withdraw troops from Iraq, to refrain from attacking Iran and to reject replacing the Trident missile and submarines with a new system. He spoke to the demonstrators in the rally afterwards along with other politicians and journalists, including George Galloway and members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.[58] In 2007, he appeared in an extended segment in the Michael Moore film Sicko giving comments about democracy, social responsibility, and health care.
 |
Wikinews has related news: Wikinews interviews: Tony Benn on U.K. politics |
A poll by the BBC2 The Daily Politics programme in January 2007 selected Benn as the UK's "Political Hero" with 38% of the vote, beating Margaret Thatcher with 35% and five other contenders including Alex Salmond, Leader of the Scottish National Party; Clare Short, Independent MP; Neil Kinnock, previous Labour Party Leader; Norman Tebbit, previous Conservative Party Chairman and Shirley Williams, one of the 'gang of four' who founded the Social Democratic Party.[4]
In the 2007 Labour Party leadership election, Tony Benn backed the left-wing MP John McDonnell in his ultimately unsuccessful bid. In September 2007, Benn called for the government to hold a referendum on the EU Reform Treaty.[59] In October 2007, at the age of 82, and when it appeared that a general election was about to be held, Benn reportedly announced that he wanted to stand, having written to his local Kensington and Chelsea Constituency Labour Party offering himself as a prospective candidate for the seat held by the Conservative Malcolm Rifkind.[60][61] No election, however, was ultimately held in 2007, and the Kensington and Chelsea seat was abolished.
In September 2008, Benn appeared on the DVD release for the Doctor Who story The War Machines with a vignette discussing the Post Office Tower; he became the second Labour politician, after Roy Hattersley to appear in a feature on a Doctor Who DVD.[62] Also in 2008, Benn appeared on track 12 "Pay Attention to the Human" on Colin MacIntyre's The Water album.[63]
At the Stop the War Conference 2009, he described the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as "Imperialist war(s)" and discussed the killing of American and allied troops by Iraqi or foreign insurgents, questioning whether they were in fact freedom fighters, and comparing the insurgents to a British Dad's Army, saying "If you are invaded you have a right to self defence, and this idea that people in Iraq and Afghanistan who are resisting the invasion are militant Muslim extremists is a complete bloody lie. I joined Dad's Army when I was sixteen, and if the Germans had arrived, I tell you, I could use a bayonet, a rifle, a revolver, and if I'd seen a German officer having a meal I'd have tossed a grenade through the window. Would I have been a freedom fighter or a terrorist?"[64]
In an interview published in Dartford Living in September 2009, Benn was critical of the Government's decision to delay the findings of the Iraq War Inquiry until after the General Election, stating that "people can take into account what the inquiry has reported on but they’ve deliberately pushed it beyond the election. Government is responsible for explaining what it has done and I don’t think we were told the truth."[65] He also stated that local government was strangled by Margaret Thatcher and hadn't been liberalised by New Labour.[65]
During the autumn of 2009, Tony Benn was again admitted into hospital and as a result of this, "An Evening with Tony Benn", scheduled to take place at London's Cadogan Hall was cancelled.[66] He resumed a tour of these shows in 2010. He has most recently performed his show "The Writing on the Wall" with Roy Bailey at St Mary's Church, Ashford, Kent (Sept 2011) as part of the arts venue's first Revelation St Mary's Season. [67] In July 2011 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University Of Glamorgan, Wales.[68]
In November 2011, it was reported that Benn had moved out of his home in Holland Park Avenue, London and taken up residence in a smaller £750,000 flat nearby which benefits from a warden.[69]
Diaries and biographies[link]
Benn is a prolific diarist: eight volumes of his diaries have been published (the first six collected as ISBN 0-09-963411-2, the penultimate available as ISBN 0-09-941502-X), he stopped writing them following his stroke and in April 2012 was working on the final volume due for publication in September 2012. Collections of his speeches and writings were published as Arguments for Socialism (1979), Arguments for Democracy (1981), (both edited by Chris Mullin), Fighting Back (1988) and (with Andrew Hood) Common Sense (1993), as well as Free Radical: New Century Essays (2004). In August 2003, London DJ Charles Bailey created an album of Benn's speeches (ISBN 1-904734-03-0) set to ambient groove.
He has also made public several episodes of audio diaries he made during his time in Parliament and after retirement, entitled 'The Benn Tapes', broadcast originally on BBC Radio 4. Short series of these have been played periodically on BBC Radio 7.[70] A major biography was written by Jad Adams and published by Macmillan in 1992; it was updated to cover the intervening 20 years and reissued by Biteback Publishing in 2011. Tony Benn: A Biography (ISBN 0-333-52558-2) A more recent 'semi-authorised' biography, with a foreword by Benn, was published in 2001: David Powell, Tony Benn: A Political Life, Continuum Books (ISBN 978-0826464156). An autobiography, Dare to be a Daniel: Then and Now, Hutchinson (ISBN 978-0099471530), was published in 2004.
There are substantial essays on Benn in both the Dictionary of Labour Biography by Phillip Whitehead, Greg Rosen [ed], Politicos Publishing, 2001 (ISBN 978-1902301181) and in Labour Forces: From Ernie Bevin to Gordon Brown, Kevin Jefferys [ed], I. B. Taurus Publishing, 2002 (ISBN 978-1860647437). Michael Moore dedicates his book Mike's Election Guide 2008 (ISBN 978-0141039817) to Tony Benn with: "For Tony Benn, keep teaching us".[71]
Plaques[link]
During his final years in Parliament, Benn placed three plaques within the Houses of Parliament as well as one in Highbury, North London (to commemorate the Peasants' Revolt of 1381).[72]
Two of the three parliamentary plaques are in the 'Suffragettes room' (next to the Central Lobby).
The first was placed in 1995 and reads as follows:
"This plaque is dedicated/ with respect, gratitude and affection/ to the many hundreds of thousands of men and women/ who lived and worked on these islands/ and who devoted themselves to the advancement of/ freedom, civil liberties, social justice and democracy/ who campaigned for popular representation in Parliament
Including: Wat Tyler, John Ball, William Tyndale, Thomas More, the Levellers, John Lilburne, William Walwyn, The Diggers, Gerard Winstanley, Tom Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, Robert Owen, The Tolpuddle Martyrs, the Chartists, Keir Hardie, Annie Besant, Charles Bradlaugh, Robert Tressell, the Suffragettes and Constance Markievicz
And many others whose names have never/ been recorded in our history"
The second plaque was placed in 1996 and is dedicated to all who work within the Houses of Parliament.
The third plaque is dedicated to Suffragette Emily Wilding-Davison and was placed in the broom cupboard next to the Undercroft Chapel within the Palace of Westminster where Davison is said to have hidden during the 1911 census in order to establish her address as the House of Commons.[73]
See also[link]
References[link]
- ^ Tony Benn (2007). More Time for Politics: Diaries 2001–2007. London: Hutchinson. p. 223.
- ^ a b Re Parliamentary Election for Bristol South East [1964] 2 Q.B. 257, [1961] 3 W.L.R. 577
- ^ Renton, Dave (February 1997). "Does Labour's Left Have an Alternative?". Socialist Review. http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr205/labour.htm. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ a b "The Magnificent Seven political heroes...". BBC News (BBC). 12 December 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/6161847.stm. Retrieved 4 October 2007.
- ^ "Collection – The Rt Hon Tony Benn MP –". Art in Parliament. UK Parliament. http://art.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/andrew-tift/the-rt-hon-tony-benn-mp/4761/. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ "Tony Benn – Official Website". tonybenn.com. http://www.tonybenn.com/Biography.html. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ Hale, Mark (January 2008). "Benn, William Wedgwood" (Subscription required). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online. Oxford University Press. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30705?docPos=2. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ Brodie, Marc (January 2008). "Benn, Sir John Williams" (Subscription required). Oxford National Dictionary of Biography Online. Oxford University Press. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/58236/?back=,30705. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ Stearn, Roger T (2004). "Benn, Margaret Eadie Wedgwood" (Subscription required). Oxford National Dictionary of Biography Online. Oxford University Press. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/50714/?back=,30705. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ "Tony Benn: You Ask The Questions". The Independent (London: Independent News and Media). 19 August 2005. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/tony-benn-you-ask-the-questions-503487.html. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ Benn, Tony (2003). Free Radical. Continuum. p. 226. ISBN 0-8264-6596-X. http://books.google.com/?id=UsYKitlTrdYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=tony+benn+free+radical&q.
- ^ "Mr Benn wipes away his past". The Times Diary (Times Newspapers). 18 March 1976.
- ^ "Not Out". The Times Diary (Times newspapers). 4 April 1977.
- ^ "Caroline Benn". Daily Telegraph (London: Telegraph Media Group). 24 November 2000. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1375544/Caroline-Benn.html. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ "Tony Benn". The Biography Channel. http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_story/455:0/1/Tony_Benn.htm. Retrieved 2 April 2007.
- ^ "William Wedgwood Benn". Spartacus Educational. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUbenn.htm. Retrieved 2 April 2007.
- ^ "Benn's granddaughter runs for MP". BBC News (BBC). 25 September 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7011922.stm. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ Skinitis, Alexia (10 January 2009). "Emily Benn the younger". Times Online (London: Times Newspapers). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5452741.ece. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ French, Philip (26 July 2009). "Philip French's screen legends: Margaret Rutherford". Guardian News and Media (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jul/26/screen-legends-margaret-rutherford. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ "The Benn dynasty". BBC News (BBC). 11 June 1999. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/366619.stm. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ "New Members Sworn". Hansard. House of Commons. 4 December 1950. http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1950/dec/04/new-members-sworn#S5CV0482P0_19501204_HOC_256. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ "New Members Sworn". Hansard. House of Commons. 5 December 1950. http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1950/dec/05/new-member-sworn#S5CV0482P0_19501205_HOC_264. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ a b c "Profile: Tony Benn". BBC Bristol. BBC. 4 April 2008. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/articles/2008/04/03/tony_benn_profile_feature.shtml. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ "Disclaiming a peerage". BBC News (London: British Broadcasting Corporation). 14 July 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/82121.stm. Retrieved 7 June 2008.
- ^ "A Revolution in British Stamp Design". The British Postal Museum and Archive. http://postalheritage.org.uk/exhibitions/onlineexhibitions/gentleman-on-stamps/the-david-gentleman-album. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ Lynskey, Dorian (27 March 2009). "All bands on deck: Director Richard Curtis and DJ Johnnie Walker on the making of The Boat That Rocked". The Guardian (London: Guardian News and Media). http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/mar/27/boat-that-rocked-background. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ "UK Confidential Transcripts: Tony Benn – The Labour Minister". BBC News (BBC). 1 January 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/uk_confidential/1706972.stm. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ Benn, Tony (1995). The Benn Diaries. Arrow. p. 432. ISBN 978-0-09-963411-9.
- ^ Powell, David (2003). Tony Benn: a political life (2 ed.). London & New York: Continuum. pp. 82, 84. ISBN 0-8264-7074-2. http://books.google.com/?id=dYeVIfy0by8C&pg=PA82&lpg=PA82&dq=alternative+economic+strategy+tony+benn&q=alternative%20economic%20strategy%20tony%20benn.
- ^ Benn, Tony (1988). Out of the Wilderness: Diaries 1963–67. Arrow. p. Introduction. ISBN 978-0-09-958670-8.
- ^ Kavanagh, Dennis (1990). "Tony Benn: Nuisance or Conscience?". In Kavanagh, Dennis. Politics and Personalities. Macmillan. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-333-51580-8.
- ^ Kavanagh, Dennis (1990). "Tony Benn: Nuisance or Conscience?". In Kavanagh, Dennis. Politics and Personalities. Macmillan. p. 178. ISBN 978-0-333-51580-8.
- ^ Whiteley, Ian (11 January 1980). "The Labour Party: Middle Class, Militant and Male". New Statesman: 41–42.
- ^ "Benn's call for SF to take seats". BBC News. 12 May 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/northern_ireland/4540343.stm. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ Emery, Fred (30 September 1980). "Mr Benn proposes timetable of one month to abolish Lords and leave EEC" (Subscription required). The Times, archived by Gale Group (Times Newspapers). http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/27/443/107065937w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS17008446&dyn=12!xrn_20_0_CS17008446&hst_1?sw_aep=uwesteng. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ Taylor, Gary (February 2001). "Media Review: The Transformation Of Labour". Contemporary Review (findarticle.com): 2–4. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2242/is_1621_278/ai_71712189/pg_2/?tag=content;col1. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ "House of Commons Statement: Falkland Islands". Margaret Thatcher Foundation. 15 June 1982. http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=104969. Retrieved 4 October 2007.
- ^ "Benn on the couch". The Sun (News international). 1 March 1984.
- ^ "Labour's new line-up" (Subscription required). The Times, archived by Gale Group (Times Newspapers). 3 November 1983. http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/27/443/107065937w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS51350883&dyn=21!xrn_30_0_CS51350883&hst_1?sw_aep=uwesteng. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ "Chapter 06; ...1974 strike...a conversation with miners...Labour government... ...Benn helps divide miners...". libcom.org. http://libcom.org/library/chapter-06-1974-strikea-conversation-minerslabour-government-benn-helps-divide-miners. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ Robertson, Jack (23 April 2010). "25 years after the Great Miners’ Strike". International Socialism (London: Socialist Workers Party) (126). http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=640&issue=126. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ "Miners' Amnesty (General Pardon)". Hansard. House of Commons. 28 June 1985. http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1985/jun/28/miners-amnesty-general-pardon. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ Durkin, Paul. "Leadership Elections: Labour Party" (PDF). House of Commons Library. http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-03938.pdf. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ a b Stadlen, Nick (8 December 2006). "Brief Encounter: Tony Benn". The Guardian (London: Guardian News and Media). http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/dec/08/1. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ "Commonwealth of Britain Bill". Hansard. House of Commons. http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/bills/commonwealth-of-britain-bill. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ Benn, Tony; Hood, Andrew (17 June 1993). Hood, Andrew. ed. Common Sense: New Constitution for Britain. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-09-177308-3.
- ^ Gary Younge "The stirrer", The Guardian, 20 July 2002
- ^ "Full text of Benn interview with Saddam". BBC News. 4 February 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2726831.stm. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ "'Million' march against Iraq war". BBC News. 16 February 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2765041.stm. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ "Elected positions". Stop the War Coalition. Archived from the original on 1 April 2010. http://web.archive.org/web/20100401145946/http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/20/52/. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ "Promoters' Pack – Roy Bailey & Tony Benn". Roy Bailey. http://www.roybailey.net/promotersPack/rbtb.php?PHPSESSID=50526581978a2d6f9d2fc747533000d8. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ "Concorde Aircraft Facts, Dates and History". flightlevel350.com. http://www.flightlevel350.com/Concorde_aircraft_facts.html. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ "Question Time : A question of citizenship". BBC News (BBC). 1 July 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/4642035.stm. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ Wardle, Tony (Spring 2006). "The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr Benn". Viva!LIFE (Viva!) (31). http://www.viva.org.uk/celebs/tonybenn_interview.html. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ Staff (28 September 2005). "Tony Benn 'comfortable' in hospital after fall". Guardian News and Media (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2005/sep/28/labourconference.labour2. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ "Benn gets pacemaker after fall". BBC NEWS (BBC). 1 October 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4300306.stm. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ Cowley, Jason (22 May 2006). "Heroes of our time – the top 50". New Statesman. http://www.newstatesman.com/200605220016. Retrieved 4 October 2007.
- ^ "Thousands at city's anti-war demo". BBC News. 23 September 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/5373128.stm. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ "Give us EU referendum, says Benn". BBC News (BBC). 24 September 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7011231.stm. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ "I want to be an MP again – Benn". BBC News (BBC). 4 October 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7028042.stm. Retrieved 4 October 2007.
- ^ Attewill, Fred (4 October 2007). "Benn: I want to return to parliament". The Guardian (Guardian News and Media). http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2183661,00.html. Retrieved 5 October 2007.
- ^ Wilkins, Jonathan (21 August 2008). "Doctor Who: The War Machines Review". Total SciFi Online. http://totalscifionline.com/reviews/2386-doctor-who-the-war-machines. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ Sandall, Robert (7 February 2008). "Tony Benn, pop star". Telegraph Media Group (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3670995/Tony-Benn-pop-star.html. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ Jesse Oldershaw (camera); Andy Cousins (editor) (25 April 2009) (Adobe Flash). Tony Benn – Stop the War Conference 2009 (Streaming http). Stop the War Coalition. Event occurs at 3:06. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og4K4yhQF8E.
- ^ a b Khairoun, Abdel (September 2009). "Big Benn Chimes in to Dartford" (PDF). Dartford Living. p. 10. http://www.dartfordadvertising.co.uk/uploaded_files/Dartford%20Living%20September%202009.pdf. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ "Cadogan Hall : Featured Event". cadoganhall.com. 12 October 2009. http://www.cadoganhall.com/showpage.php?pid=902. Retrieved 7 July 2011. [dead link]
- ^ "Clive Conway Celebrity Productions – An Audience With An Evening With Tony Benn". celebrityproductions.info. 2011 [last update]. http://www.celebrityproductions.info/displayer_productions.php/178/An_Evening_with_Tony_Benn. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
- ^ "University of Glamorgan honours contributions to public life, communities, science, literature, and sport". news.glam.ac.uk. 2011 [last update]. http://news.glam.ac.uk/news/en/2011/jun/28/university-glamorgan-honours-contributions-public-/. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
- ^ Richard Kay "Frail Tony Benn downsizes to £750,000 flat (well, his house was worth £3m)", Daily Mail, 1 November 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
- ^ "BBC Radio 7 Programmes – The Benn Tapes". BBC. 16 March 2009. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jr2r#synopsis. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ Goodman, Amy (1 November 2008). "Michael Moore on the Election, the Bailout, Healthcare, and 10 Proposals for the Next President by Michael Moore". Democracy Now!. ZCommunications. http://www.zcommunications.org/michael-moore-on-the-election-the-bailout-healthcare-and-10-proposals-for-the-next-president-by-michael-moore. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
- ^ "Tony Benn to unveil Islington People's Plaque commemorating the Peasants' Revolt". Islington Borough Council. 2011-06-02. http://www.islington.gov.uk/Council/CouncilNews/PressOffice/2011/06/PR4430.asp. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
- ^ "Benn's secret tribute to suffragette martyr". BBC News. 1999-03-17. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6529773.ece. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
Bibliography[link]
- Levellers and the English Democratic Tradition, Spokesman Books (1976) ISBN 978-0-85124-633-8
- Why America Needs Democratic Socialism, Spokesman Books (1978) ISBN 978-0-85124-266-8
- Prospects, Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Section (1979)
- Case for Constitutional Civil Service, Inst. for Workers' Control (1980) ISBN 978-0-901740-67-0
- Case for Party Democracy, Inst. for Workers' Control (1980) ISBN 978-0-901740-70-0
- Arguments for Socialism, Penguin Books (1980) ISBN 978-0-14-005489-7
- & Chris Mullin, Arguments for Democracy, Jonathan Cape (1981) ISBN 978-0-224-01878-4
- European Unity: A New Perspective, Spokesman Books (1981) ISBN 978-0-85124-326-9
- Parliament and Power: Agenda for a Free Society, Verso Books (1982) ISBN 978-0-86091-057-2
- & Andrew Hood, Common Sense: New Constitution for Britain, Hutchinson (1993)
- Free Radical: New Century Essays, Continuum International Publishing (2004) ISBN 978-0-8264-7400-1
- Dare to Be a Daniel: Then and Now, Hutchinson (2004) ISBN 978-0-09-179999-1
- Letters To My Grandchildren: Thoughts On The Future, Arrow Books (2010) ISBN 978-0-09-953909-4
Diaries[link]
- Out of the Wilderness: Diaries 1963–67, Hutchinson (1987) ISBN 978-0-09-170660-9
- Office Without Power: Diaries 1968–72, Hutchinson (1988) ISBN 978-0-09-173647-7
- Against the Tide: Diaries 1973–76, Hutchinson (1989) ISBN 978-0-09-173775-7
- Conflicts of Interest: Diaries 1977–80, Hutchinson (1990) ISBN 978-0-09-174321-5
- The End of an Era: Diaries 1980–90, Hutchinson (1992) ISBN 978-0-09-174857-9
- Years of Hope: Diaries 1940–62, Hutchinson (1994) ISBN 978-0-09-178534-5
- The Benn Diaries: Single Volume Edition 1940–90, Hutchinson (1995) ISBN 978-0-09-179223-7
- Free at Last!: Diaries 1991–2001, Hutchinson (2002) ISBN 978-0-09-179352-4
- More Time for Politics: Diaries 2001–2007, Hutchinson (2007) ISBN 978-0-09-951705-4
External links[link]
|
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Tony Benn |
|
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tony Benn |
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Tony Benn
- Unofficial Tony Benn site with extensive interview, articles, audio and visual
- 'Face-to-Face with Tony Benn'. Freeview video interview by the Vega Science Trust
- Tony Benn's interview with The Third Estate.
- Andrew Roth. Tony Benn Chesterfield and Bristol South East MP, The Guardian, 25 March 2001.
- Guardian web guide to the veteran leftwinger Tony Benn
- Tony Benn interview for Leftfield appearances at the Glastonbury Festival
- Tony Benn. Atomic hypocrisy: West is not in a position to take a high moral line, The Guardian, 30 November 2005.
- Amy Goodman. Interview with Tony Benn: How Britain secretly helped Israel build its nuclear arsenal, Democracy Now!, 10 March 2006.
- Benn in the 1960s as seen by Private Eye
- Audio interview with The Guardian.
- His Address to the College Historical Society of Trinity College
- Interview with Tony Benn – Radio France Internationale – 28 March 2008 – 6 minute audio – Ahead of G20 marches, London
- Tony Benn on Tony Blair: "He Is Guilty of a War Crime" – video report by Democracy Now!
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Peter Baker |
Baby of the House 1950 |
Succeeded by Thomas Leslie Teevan |
| Preceded by Stafford Cripps |
Member of Parliament for Bristol South East 1950–1960 |
Succeeded by Malcolm St Clair |
| Preceded by Thomas Leslie Teevan |
Baby of the House 1951–1954 |
Succeeded by John Eden |
| Preceded by Malcolm St Clair |
Member of Parliament for Bristol South East 1963–1983 |
Succeeded by Constituency Abolished |
| Preceded by Eric Varley |
Member of Parliament for Chesterfield 1984–2001 |
Succeeded by Paul Holmes |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Reginald Bevins |
Postmaster General 1964–1966 |
Succeeded by Edward Short |
| Preceded by Frank Cousins |
Minister of Technology 1966–1970 |
Succeeded by Geoffrey Rippon |
| Preceded by Peter Walker |
Secretary of State for Industry 1974–1975 |
Succeeded by Eric Varley |
| Preceded by Eric Varley |
Secretary of State for Energy 1975–1979 |
Succeeded by David Howell |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Ian Mikardo |
Chairman of the Labour Party 1971–1972 |
Succeeded by William Simpson[disambiguation needed ] |
| Non-profit organisation positions | ||
| Preceded by Office Created |
President of the Stop the War Coalition 2001–present |
Incumbent |
| Order of precedence in England and Wales | ||
| Preceded by James Ramsden as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council |
Gentlemen as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council |
Succeeded by Sir Edward du Cann as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council |
| Order of precedence in Scotland | ||
| Preceded by James Ramsden as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council |
Gentlemen as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council |
Succeeded by Sir Edward du Cann as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council |
| Order of precedence in Northern Ireland | ||
| Preceded by James Ramsden as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council |
Gentlemen as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council |
Succeeded by Sir Edward du Cann as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by William Wedgwood Benn |
Viscount Stansgate 1960–1963 Disclaimed |
Succeeded by Disclaimed |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Benn, Tony |
| Alternative names | Benn, Anthony Neil Wedgwood; 2nd Viscount Stansgate |
| Short description | British politician on the left of the Labour Party |
| Date of birth | 3 April 1925 |
| Place of birth | Marylebone, London, England |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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Wiki Summary
John Simon Bercow ( /ˈbɜrkoʊ/ BUR-koh; born 19 January 1963) is a British politician who has been the Speaker of the House of Commons since June 2009. Prior to his election to Speaker he was a member of the Conservative Party.
Bercow was born in Middlesex into a Jewish family and graduated from the University of Essex in 1985. In his youth, Bercow was active in the Conservative Party and was a member of several right-wing groups within the party. He served as a Councillor from 1986–1990 and unsuccessfully contested parliamentary seats in the 1987 and 1992 General Elections. In the 1997 General Election, Bercow was elected the MP for Buckingham and promoted to the shadow cabinet in 2001. He held posts in the Shadow Cabinets of Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard. In November 2002, he resigned from the Shadow Cabinet over disputes concerning the Adoption and Children Act but returned under Michael Howard in 2003. In September 2004, Bercow was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet after disagreements with leader Michael Howard.
