Stephen Pound

Stephen Pelham Pound (born 3 July 1948) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ealing North since 1997.

Background

His father, Pelham Pound, was a journalist and literary agent whose clients included the osteopath Stephen Ward. When Ward was arrested for his role in the Profumo affair it was at Pound's home and Pound claims he had a minor role in the events leading to Ward's suicide.

Pound went to Hertford Grammar School (now called Richard Hale School) on Hale Road in Hertford. He was educated, as a mature student from 1979–84, at the London School of Economics where he gained a Diploma in Industrial Relations and a BSc in Economics. He was General Secretary of the student union from 1981-2.

He was a boxer in the Merchant Navy, when at sea from 1964–66, leading Private Eye magazine to refer to him as "Ealing North's tattooed bruiser". He also played football for Hanwell Town. He also worked as a bus conductor for London Transport, from 1966-68. He was a hospital porter from 1969-79. Prior to becoming an MP he worked for Paddington Churches Housing Association as a housing manager from 1984 until he became an MP. He was based at their office in Willesden.

David Cameron

David William Donald Cameron (/ˈkæmᵊrən/; born 9 October 1966) is an English politician who has served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2010, as Leader of the Conservative Party since 2005 and as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Witney since 2001.

Cameron studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Brasenose College, Oxford. He then joined the Conservative Research Department and became special adviser, first to Norman Lamont and then to Michael Howard. He was Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communications for seven years. Cameron first stood for Parliament in Stafford in 1997. He ran on a Eurosceptic platform, breaking with his party's then-policy by opposing British membership of the single European currency, and was defeated by a swing close to the national average. He was first elected to Parliament in the 2001 general election 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.

Ed Miliband

Edward Samuel Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician who was the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition between 2010 and 2015. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005 and served in the Cabinet from 2007 to 2010 under Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He and his brother, David Miliband, were the first siblings to sit in the Cabinet simultaneously since Edward and Oliver Stanley in 1938.

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

Miliband was elected to Parliament in 2005, succeeding the retiring Labour MP Kevin Hughes in Doncaster North. Prime Minister Tony Blair made Miliband Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office in May 2006 and when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007, he appointed Miliband Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Miliband was subsequently promoted to the new post of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, a position he held from 2008 to 2010.

Assyrians in Iraq

Assyrians in Iraq or Iraqi Assyrians, are an ethnoreligious and linguistic minority in present-day Iraq. Assyrians in Iraq are those Assyrians still residing in the country of Iraq. They are (along with the Mandeans) the indigenous people of Iraq, descending from the ancient Mesopotamians, in particular from the Akkadian peoples (Assyrians and Babylonians) who emerged in the region c.3000 BC, and the Aramean tribes who intermingled with them from the 9th century BC onwards.

Assyrians are a Semitic people who speak evolutions of the ancient eastern Aramaic dialects that have existed in Iraq since 1200 BC and retain even older Akkadian influences (the language which they originally spoke), and follow Eastern Christianity which first appeared in the region in the 1st century AD, in particular the Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church and Ancient Church of the East, while more recently others have formed protestant churches such as the Assyrian Pentecostal Church and Assyrian Evangelical Church. The vast majority of Iraqi Christians are ethnic Assyrians.