Waltham Forest Theatre is situated in Lloyds Park, but will be demolished shortly as the council are unable to fund the only theatre in the borough. A vigorous local campaign was launched to save it.
Many established poets live in Waltham Forest, such as Pascale Petit, Jacqueline Gabbitas and Meryl Pugh, as well as others who are known on the poetry circuit: Aisling Fahey, Rob Auton, Dave Bryant, Joelle Taylor, David Floyd and Emma Hammond. The Waltham Forest Poetry Society Stanza meets up monthly at Ye Olde Rose and Crown to share poems-in-progress and have a beer. www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/membership/stanzas/londonnorth/
Eton Manor in Leyton forms the northern part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. During the Olympic Games the area will house three Olympic-size swimming pools, one sychronised swimming pool and one water polo pool. These pools will be used for athlete training.
During the Paralympic Games, Eton Manor will host the Wheelchair Tennis events, with temporary seating for 10,500 spectators.
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London Buses routes 20, 34, 48, 55, 56, 58, 66, 69, 97, 123, 145, 158, 179, 212, 215, 230, 257, 275, 308, 313, 357, 379, 385, 397, 444, W11, W12, W13, W14, W15, W16, W19, School buses route 675, other route 505, 853 and Night route N8, N26, N38, N55 and N73.
Other notable people such as Footballer and former England Captain David Beckham, I, Claudius star Derek Jacobi, former Essex and England Cricket Captain Graham Gooch, film director and producer Alfred Hitchcock were also born in the borough, the heavy metal band Iron Maiden was formed in Leyton and Eastenders actress Rita Simons born in Leytonstone. The poet Pascale Petit, shortlisted twice for the TS Eliot poetry prize, lives in Walthamstow.
* Saint-Mandé, France Wandsbeck, Germany
Friendship Links have also been established with:
* St John's, Antigua and Barbuda Roseau, Dominica Mirpur, Pakistan
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| Honorific-prefix | The Right Honourable |
|---|---|
| Name | David Miliband |
| Honorific-suffix | MP |
| Office | Shadow Foreign Secretary |
| Leader | Harriet Harman Ed Miliband |
| Term start | 11 May 2010 |
| Term end | 8 October 2010 |
| Predecessor | William Hague |
| Successor | Yvette Cooper |
| Office2 | Foreign Secretary |
| Primeminister2 | Gordon Brown |
| Term start2 | 28 June 2007 |
| Term end2 | 11 May 2010 |
| Predecessor2 | Margaret Beckett |
| Successor2 | William Hague |
| Office3 | Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs |
| Primeminister3 | Tony Blair |
| Term start3 | 5 May 2006 |
| Term end3 | 27 June 2007 |
| Predecessor3 | Margaret Beckett |
| Successor3 | Hilary Benn |
| Office4 | Minister of State for Communities and Local Government |
| Primeminister4 | Tony Blair |
| Term start4 | 5 May 2005 |
| Term end4 | 5 May 2006 |
| Predecessor4 | Position established |
| Successor4 | Ruth Kelly (Secretary of State) |
| Office5 | Head of the Number 10 Policy Unit |
| Term start5 | 1997 |
| Term end5 | 2001 |
| Primeminister5 | Tony Blair |
| Succeeded5 | Andrew Adonis |
| Constituency mp6 | South Shields |
| Majority6 | 12,312 (41%) |
| Term start6 | 7 June 2001 |
| Predecessor6 | David Clark |
| Birth date | July 15, 1965 |
| Birth place | London, United Kingdom |
| Spouse | Louise Shackelton |
| Party | Labour |
| Religion | None (atheist) |
| Alma mater | Corpus Christi College, Oxford Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Website | Official website |
Born in London, Miliband studied at Oxford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and 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.
Miliband spent the next few years in various junior ministerial posts, including at the Department for Education and Skills, before becoming Environment Secretary. His tenure in this post saw climate change consolidated as a priority for UK policymakers. On the succession of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, Miliband was promoted to Foreign Secretary, at 41, the youngest person to hold the post since David Owen 30 years earlier. In September 2010 Miliband narrowly lost the Labour leadership election to his brother Ed. On 29 September 2010, he announced that to avoid "constant comparison" with his brother Ed, and because of the "perpetual, distracting and destructive attempts to find division where there is none, and splits where they don't exist, all to the detriment of the party's cause", he would not stand for the shadow cabinet.
He was the first British cabinet member to have a blog, though claims of excessive cost to the taxpayer provoked some controversy. In January 2007 Miliband sparked minor controversy by saying there was no evidence organic food was better than conventionally grown produce, though he later clarified that he was referring specifically to health benefits.
Miliband is an advocate for international awareness of climate change and believes the cooperation of all nations is needed for environmental reform. Miliband's focuses include food retail waste management and greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural industries. He believes that the EU should go further in two areas: a low carbon global economy and global action on climate change. He also wants Europe to increase its economic competitiveness. By switching over to a low carbon economy, he plans to tackle climate change. He hopes to ensure a stable price on energy by securing an energy source and announced the Government's plans to legislate for carbon reductions at the United Nations General Assembly.
In August 2006, in an effort to put environmental reform into action, Miliband developed a place for a collaborative "environmental contract" to be developed on a Defra Wiki site. It was subsequently linked to by blogger Paul Staines, and mocked, after which further edits by guest users were temporarily prevented. Miliband's emphasis on the necessity of an entirely cooperative effort to effectively instigate a low carbon lifestyle worldwide has led him to advocate an open dialogue among citizens about environmental issues through web-based blogging. Whilst Environment Secretary, Miliband called for all 27 nations of the European Union to unify in backing proposals to cut harmful emissions by 30% by 2020.
Miliband has floated the idea of every citizen being issued with a "Carbon Credit Card" to improve personal carbon thrift. Miliband claims individuals have to be empowered to tackle global warming — "the mass mobilising movement of our age".
Hillary Rodham Clinton, February 2009.]]
Miliband's first Foreign Office questions session as Foreign Secretary in the House of Commons was on 3 July 2007. On the morning of 13 December 2007, Miliband stood in for Prime Minister, Gordon Brown at the official signing ceremony in Lisbon of the EU Reform Treaty, which was attended by all other European heads of government. Brown was otherwise engaged at the House of Commons, appearing before the Liaison Committee, and travelled to Portugal to sign the treaty in the afternoon.
On 5 February 2009, Miliband made a statement to the House of Commons concerning Guantanamo Bay detainee and former British resident Benyam Mohammed. A week later Mohamed’s American lawyer Yvonne Bradley flew to Britain to urge the Foreign Office to press harder for his release. On 23 February 2009, Benyam Mohammed returned to Britain and was granted temporary residence.
Miliband could be seen as a leader of a different set of "next generation" Blairite Ministers - a "Blairites for Brown" group - whom political commentators usually identify as David Miliband, Andy Burnham, James Purnell and Liam Byrne, several of whom have already prospered under Brown. There is reported to be little difference between this group and Brownites of the same generation, notably Ed Miliband, and the husband and wife ministerial couple of Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper.
Miliband's support for Brown has been seen as an effort among his generation to prevent the Blairite/Brownite division continuing, as some Labour Party members see this division as having been more a product of historical personal rivalries arising from the 1994 leadership deal, rather than limited policy differences over public services. Political commentator Andrew Rawnsley of The Observer wrote in 2002 that "He is on the Left of the New Labour spectrum. He is a believer—in a way that Blair is not entirely—in Continental social democracy".
The Daily Mirror, a Labour supporting newspaper which had backed Miliband in his leadership campaign, lamented his failure to win as a "sad waste of a huge talent".
The Daily Telegraph's investigation of expenses claims by Members of Parliament reported that Miliband had claimed for gardening expenses and approximately £30,000 in repairs, decorations, and furnishings for his constituency home in South Shields. A spokesperson said: "At every stage, David Miliband followed the procedures and rules as laid out by the parliamentary authorities".
In an interview with CNN in 2009, Miliband stated that he grew up in a secular setting, and describes himself as an atheist with a "huge respect" for people of faith.
Category:1965 births Category:Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Category:British Jews Category:British people of Polish descent Category:British Secretaries of State Category:British Secretaries of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Category:British special advisers Category:Ed Miliband Category:English atheists Category:Jewish atheists Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs Category:Living people Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies Category:People from London Category:UK MPs 2001–2005 Category:UK MPs 2005–2010 Category:UK MPs 2010–
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Nazir Ahmed, Baron Ahmed (born 1958) is a member of the House of Lords, having become the United Kingdom's first Muslim life peer in 1998. Many of his political activities relate to the Islamic community both in the UK and abroad, and he has often attracted controversy. He was a member of the Labour Party, until he was expelled from it on 25 February 2009, after receiving a custodial sentence for dangerous driving.
In 1998 Ahmed was appointed to the House of Lords, becoming the first Muslim life peer as Baron Ahmed, of Rotherham in the County of South Yorkshire. Lord Ahmed took his oath on the Qur'an. At the age of 40, he was also one of the youngest peers to achieve this position. As a Muslim peer, much of his activities relate to the Muslim community, both at home and internationally. Ahmed led one of the first delegations on behalf of the British Government on the Muslim pilgrimage of the Hajj, to Saudi Arabia and has advocated legislation against religious discrimination, international terrorism and forced marriages.
At home, Ahmed speaks on wider equality issues, and has spoken several times on issues of race, religion and gender. He is seen as one of the leaders of the Muslim community in Britain. He claims to have tried to calm tensions following the aftermath of the 11 September attacks in 2001. However, on 23 February 2005, he hosted a book launch in the House of Lords for the controversial Israel Shamir, during which the latter claimed, among other things: “The Jews like an Empire... This love of Empire explains the easiness Jews change their allegiance... Simple minds call it ‘treacherous behaviour’, but it is actually love of Empire per se.” Although this invitation raised some controversy, Ahmed firmly refused to discuss the matter.
In August 2006 he was a signatory to an open letter to Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, criticising the UK's foreign policy. In 2007 he responded to the award of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie by claiming he was appalled, stating that Rushdie had 'blood on his hands'.
In September 2007, Ahmed flew to Islamabad with Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in a bid to end Sharif's exile from the country by military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who had ousted him in a coup d'état. Ahmed negotiated with police to allow Sharif to enter the airport terminal and pass through customs, but Sharif was arrested later, and deported.
After the reform of the House of Lords, Ahmed took over from Lord Sudeley to act as Host for the Forum for Stable Currencies.
On 19 June 2007 Lord Ahmed criticised the honouring of Salman Rushdie with a knighthood because of what Lord Ahmed saw as Rushdie's offensiveness to Islam. He was reported to have said, "It's hypocrisy by Tony Blair who two weeks ago was talking about building bridges to mainstream Muslims, and then he's honouring a man who has insulted the British public and been divisive in community relations." "This man not only provoked violence around the world because of his writings, but there were many people who were killed around the world. Forgiving and forgetting is one thing, but honouring the man who has blood on his hands, sort of, because of what he did, I think is going a bit too far." He also said on BBC Radio 4's PM programme that he had been appalled by the award to a man he accused of having 'blood on his hands'.
In June 2008, political editor of Newsnight, Michael Crick, reported that Ahmed had been rumoured to be preparing to defect to the Conservative Party, but that he had denied this.
Born in the region, Ahmed has a personal interest in seeing a peaceful resolve to the ongoing bloody dispute in Kashmir and seeks international mediation to achieve this. As well as being an active figure in the Indian Subcontinent, he has worked on the plight of Muslims around the world ranging from the collapse of former Yugoslavia, especially to the Bosniaks and Palestinians. He has been on many delegations to the Arab world, the US, Eastern Europe, Africa, the former states of the USSR and the Far East, meeting with heads of state to discuss their respective problems and how he may be able to assist them.
Ahmed helps with various charitable causes and is on the board of several organisations from local groups such as his position as President of South Yorkshire Victim Support, to international bodies such as his board membership on the SAARC Foundation.
On 25 July 2005 Lord Ahmed, while interviewing with Robert Siegel on National Public Radio said that the suicide bombers of 7/7 had an "identity crisis" and, that "unfortunately, our imams and mosques have not been able to communicate the true message of Islam in the language that these young people can understand." Christopher Orlet of The American Spectator did not agree with Lord Ahmed's "identity crisis." He said, "That's not an identity crisis, Lord Ahmed, that's religious psychopathy. That's a bloodthirstiness that makes Dracula look like a teetotaler." Lord Ahmed did acknowledge, "the community leaders and religious leaders, who have kept very close contacts with South Asia and the Middle East rather than keeping a good contact with the British society where we live."
On 30 November 2006, the New Statesman 'revealed' that Lord Ahmed campaigned against his fellow Muslim and Labour parliamentarian Shahid Malik during the Dewsbury election in 2005. Ahmed instead backed Sayeeda Warsi, vice-chair of the Conservative Party, a personal friend. According to the New Statesman's report, Warsi "welcomed Lord Ahmed's support". The New Statesman confirmed that Lord Ahmed denies supporting the Conservative Party in any way.
On the 11th of February Melanie Phillips (columnist) claimed that Lord Ahmed had threatened to "bring a force of 10,000 Muslims to lay siege to the Lords if the campaigning anti-Islamist Dutch MP Geert Wilders was allowed to speak" at a broadcast of the film Fitna Mr Wilder's had been invited by Peers from the House of Lords to debate issues of social inclusion. This claim was later denied by Lord Ahmed although House of Lords' authorities had determined to provide adequate security if necessary, in the event, the film Fitna was broadcast as planned but Mr Wilders denied entry to the UK, this meanwhile led many commentators to deplore the action by the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith as appeasement.
On 1 December 2008, Lord Ahmed appeared at Sheffield Magistrates' Court in connection with a charge of dangerous driving. Lord Ahmed admitted sending and receiving five text messages on his phone while driving two minutes before the crash, and pleaded guilty to the charge before him. He was banned from driving until his sentencing. On 22 December, Sheffield Magistrates' Court referred the case for sentencing at the Crown Court on 19 January due to its "aggravating features". This was later put back until 25 February. Lord Ahmed was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, which meant he would serve six actual weeks in jail and was disqualifed from driving for 12 months. On 12 March 2009 Lord Ahmed was freed by the Court of Appeal. Lady Justice Hallett said it was important to state that Ahmed's offence was one of dangerous driving, not of causing death by dangerous driving. Hallett said that there was "little or nothing" Ahmed could have done to avoid the collision and that after being knocked unconscious, he had come to and 'risked his life trying to flag down other vehicles to stop them colliding with the Audi or his car'. She said that while his prison sentence had been justified, the court had been persuaded it could now take an "exceptional" course and suspend the sentence for 12 months. Lord Ahmed was freed just 16 days into his sentence.
Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:Kashmiri people Category:British politicians of South Asian descent Category:Councillors in Yorkshire and the Humber Category:Labour Party (UK) life peers Category:British politicians convicted of crimes Category:British politicians convicted of driving offences Category:English Muslims Category:English people of Pakistani descent Category:Alumni of the University of Sheffield Category:Pakistani immigrants to the United Kingdom Category:People from Mirpur District
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