A metropolitan borough is a type of local government district in England, and is a subdivision of a metropolitan county. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts. However all of them have been granted or regranted royal charters to give them borough status (as well as some with city status). Metropolitan boroughs are effectively unitary authority areas, since the abolition of metropolitan county councils by the Local Government Act 1985.

The term metropolitan borough was also used for administrative subdivisions of London between 1900 and 1965. The present boroughs in London are known as London Boroughs rather than metropolitan boroughs.

The current metropolitan boroughs were created in 1974 as subdivisions of the new metropolitan counties which were created to cover the six largest urban areas in England outside Greater London. The new districts replaced the previous system of county boroughs, municipal boroughs, urban and rural districts. The districts typically have populations of 174,000 to 1.1 million.

Steve Day is Britain's best known deaf stand-up comedian.

Day was a finalist in the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award in 2000, and a finalist in the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year in 2002.

Day has had several one-man shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe: "Deaf in the Afternoon" (2002), "A Night at the Pictures" (2005), "Comprehensive Steve Day" (2006), "A Night at the Pictures (2007), Should I Stay or Should I Go? (2008)", and "Run, deaf Boy, Run" (2011).

In 2005, Day performed as part of "Abnormally Funny People", with Steve Best, Liz Carr, Tanyalee Davis, Chris McCausland and Simon Minty. He still makes occasional performances as part of the group, most recently a promotional video for the Disability Rights Commission. He tours extensively around the UK.

He writes a daily blog, which is one of the most read blogs on Myspace.

His 2007 Edinburgh Show "Deafy's Island Discs" was rated 5 stars, and 2011's Run deaf Boy Run 4 stars.

Day has appeared on and written for several BBC Radio 4 shows.

Eric Jack Pickles (born 20 April 1952) is a British Conservative Party politician. Pickles was appointed Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government of the coalition government headed by Prime Minister David Cameron on 12 May 2010.

He was the Chairman of the Conservative Party until being replaced by Baroness Warsi in May 2010 and has been Member of Parliament for Brentwood and Ongar in Essex since 1992. He was Co-Chairman of the Joint Committee Against Racism between 1982 and 1987.

Pickles is a member of the controversial Peniel Pentecostal Church, a local "happy clappy" church located in Pilgrims Hatch, Brentwood, Essex.

Born in Keighley, Yorkshire, he went to Greenhead Grammar School (which became Greenhead High School and is now University Academy Keighley) on Greenhead Road in Utley, north Keighley, then attended Leeds Polytechnic. He was born into a Labour supporting family – his great grandfather was one of the founders of the Independent Labour Party, and described himself as "massively inclined" towards communism as a boy – but he joined the Conservative Party in 1968 after the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia.

Ezra Isaac Levant (born 1972) is a Canadian media personality, conservative political activist and author. He is the founder and former publisher of the Western Standard, is a broadcaster and columnist for Sun Media and has written several books on politics and public policy.

Born in Calgary, Levant holds a commerce degree from the University of Calgary and a law degree from the University of Alberta. His great-grandfather emigrated to Canada in 1903 from Russia to establish a homestead near Drumheller, Alberta. Levant grew up in a suburb of Calgary. He attended a Jewish day school in his childhood before transferring to a public junior high school.

Levant campaigned for the Reform Party of Canada as a teenager and joined it as a university student. In 1992, while at the University of Calgary, his two-person team won the "best debating" category in the Intercollegiate Business Competition held at Queen's University. In 1994, he was featured in a Globe and Mail article on young conservatives after accusing the University of Alberta of racism for instituting an affirmative action program of hiring women and aboriginal professors. His actions outraged aboriginal law students, feminists, and a number of professors, and he was called to a meeting with the assistant dean who advised him of the university's non-academic code of conduct and defamation laws. As head of the university's speakers committee, Levant organized a debate between Doug Christie, a lawyer known for his advocacy in defence of Holocaust deniers and accused Nazi war criminals, and Thomas Kuttner, a Jewish lawyer from the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission.