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Geoffrey Johnson Smith
Sir Geoffrey Johnson-Smith, (16 April 1924 – 11 August 2010) was a British Conservative politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1959 to 2001, with only a brief interruption in the 1960s. He was also a television presenter. Early life and career The son of an electrical engineer, he joined the Royal Artillery straight from Charterhouse School in 1942 and after the war was demobilised as a captain. At Lincoln College, Oxford, he read PPE. Contemporaries remembered him as Oxford's best-dressed socialist, though he always insisted he never joined the Labour Party. In his final year he and Robin Day took part in a debating tour of United States run by the English-Speaking Union. From Oxford he joined the British Information Services, serving in San Francisco, where he met his wife, Jeanne, an American doctor whom he married in 1951. He won a seat on London County Council in 1955, representing Putney, but lost it at the 1958 election. He was later a presenter of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Right Honourable
''The Right Honourable'' ( abbreviation: ''Rt Hon.'' or variations) is an honorific style traditionally applied to certain persons and collective bodies in the United Kingdom, the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations. The term is predominantly used today as a style associated with the holding of certain senior public offices in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and to a lesser extent, Australia. ''Right'' in this context is an adverb meaning 'very' or 'fully'. Grammatically, ''The Right Honourable'' is an adjectival phrase which gives information about a person. As such, it is not considered correct to apply it in direct address, nor to use it on its own as a title in place of a name; but rather it is used in the third person along with a name or noun to be modified. ''Right'' may be abbreviated to ''Rt'', and ''Honourable'' to ''Hon.'', or both. ''The'' is sometimes dropped in written abbreviated form, but is always pronounced. Countries with common or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Information Services
British Information Services (BIS) was an overt propaganda organization that was part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the government of the United Kingdom. BIS was initially formed in 1941 as an organization to promote British interests in the United States. It was later expanded to operate in countries around the world, eventually expanding to have a presence in around 40 countries. attached to British embassies. The U.S. operations of BIS had a headquarters in Washington, D.C., with offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. The New York office had a budget of £240,786 in 1949. See also * British Security Co-ordination British Security Co-ordination (BSC) was a covert organisation set up in New York City by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in May 1940 upon the authorisation of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. Its purpose was to investigate ..., a British black propaganda operation founded in 1940 References External links Catalo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2001 United Kingdom General Election
The 2001 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 7 June 2001, four years after the previous election on 1 May 1997, to elect 659 members to the House of Commons. The governing Labour Party was re-elected to serve a second term in government with another landslide victory with a 167 majority, returning 413 members of Parliament versus 419 from the 1997 general election, a net loss of six seats, though with a significantly lower turnout than before—59.4%, compared to 71.6% at the previous election. The number of votes Labour received fell by nearly three million. Tony Blair went on to become the only Labour Prime Minister to serve two consecutive full terms in office. As Labour retained almost all of their seats won in the 1997 landslide victory, the media dubbed the 2001 election "the quiet landslide". There was little change outside Northern Ireland, with 620 out of the 641 seats in Great Britain electing candidates from the same party as they did in 1997. Fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1983 United Kingdom General Election
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of the Labour Party in 1945, with a majority of 144 seats. Thatcher's first term as Prime Minister had not been an easy time. Unemployment increased during the first three years of her premiership and the economy went through a recession. However, the British victory in the Falklands War led to a recovery of her personal popularity, and economic growth had begun to resume. By the time Thatcher called the election in May 1983, opinion polls pointed to a Conservative victory, with most national newspapers backing the re-election of the Conservative government. The resulting win earned the Conservatives their biggest parliamentary majority of the post-war era, and their second-biggest majority as a single-party government, behind only the 1924 election (they earned even more seats in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
By-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumbent dying or resigning, or when the incumbent becomes ineligible to continue in office (because of a recall, election or appointment to a prohibited dual mandate, criminal conviction, or failure to maintain a minimum attendance), or when an election is invalidated by voting irregularities. In some cases a vacancy may be filled without a by-election or the office may be left vacant. Origins The procedure for filling a vacant seat in the House of Commons of England was developed during the Reformation Parliament of the 16th century by Thomas Cromwell; previously a seat had remained empty upon the death of a member. Cromwell de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Commons Of The United Kingdom
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 members known as members of Parliament (MPs). MPs are elected to represent constituencies by the first-past-the-post system and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved. The House of Commons of England started to evolve in the 13th and 14th centuries. In 1707 it became the House of Commons of Great Britain after the political union with Scotland, and from 1800 it also became the House of Commons for Ireland after the political union of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, the body became the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland after the independence of the Irish Free State. Under the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, the Lords' power to reject legislation was reduced to a delaying power. The g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rediffusion
Rediffusion was a business that distributed radio and TV signals through wired relay networks. The business gave rise to a number of other companies, including Associated-Rediffusion, later known as Rediffusion London, the first ITV (commercial television) franchisee to go on air in the UK. Rediffusion also spawned a record label, Rediffusion International Music, in 1968 (which was also responsible for the short-lived Koala label). Redifon was the name used, until 1981, for companies in the capital goods businesses of Rediffusion, namely Redifon Computers, Redifon Flight Simulation and Redifon Telecommunications. Early history Rediffusion was the trading name of Broadcast Relay Service Ltd, founded in March 1928 by Joshua Powell (9 May 1871 – October 1946). In 1929, the company introduced its first cable radio service in Hull to customers frustrated with the difficulties of tuning in weak radio broadcasts. In the customer premises, nothing more than a selector switch and l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meals-on-wheels
Meals on Wheels is a programme that delivers meals to individuals at home who are unable to purchase or prepare their own meals. The name is often used generically to refer to home-delivered meals programmes, not all of which are actually named "Meals on Wheels". Many of the housebound recipients are the elderly, and many of the volunteers are also elderly but able-bodied and able to drive automobiles. Research shows that home-delivered meal programmes significantly improve diet quality, reduce food insecurity and improve quality-of-life among the recipients. The programmes also reduce government expenditures by reducing the need of recipients to use hospitals, nursing homes or other expensive community-based services. History Meals on Wheels originated in the United Kingdom during the Blitz in the Second World War, when many people lost their homes and therefore the ability to cook their own food. The Women's Volunteer Service for Civil Defence (WVS, later WRVS) provided ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lena Jeger
Lena May Jeger, Baroness Jeger (''née'' Chivers; 19 November 1915 – 26 February 2007) was a British Labour MP during two periods. She followed her husband as Member of Parliament for Holborn and St Pancras South, holding the seat from 1953 to 1959. She retook the seat in 1964, retaining it until 1979, when she became a life peer. Early life She was born Lena May Chivers in Yorkley, Gloucestershire. Her father was a postman. She was educated at Southgate County School in north London, and read English and French at Birkbeck College, University of London. She was vice-president of the National Union of Students. She joined the civil service in 1936, initially in HM Customs & Excise. During the Second World War she worked at the Ministry of Information and the Foreign Office. A fluent Russian speaker, she edited the ''British Ally'', a newspaper published by the British government in the Soviet Union. She also worked at the British Embassy in Moscow. In 1948, she marri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cliff Michelmore
Arthur Clifford Michelmore (11 December 1919 – 16 March 2016) was an English television presenter and producer. He is best known for the BBC television programme ''Tonight'', which he presented from 1957 to 1965. He also hosted the BBC's television coverage of the Apollo Moon landings, the Aberfan disaster, the 1966 and 1970 UK general elections, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1969. Early life Michelmore was born in Cowes, Isle of Wight, on 11 December 1919, youngest of six children of insurance agent and former prison officer, police constable, and groom servant (Albert) Herbert Michelmore and Ellen, daughter of labourer Richard Alford. The Michelmores had moved to the Isle of Wight in hopes of relieving his father's tuberculosis. His father died when Michelmore was two years old, and he was raised- with five siblings- by his mother in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tonight (1957 TV Series)
''Tonight'' was a British current affairs television programme, presented by Cliff Michelmore, that was broadcast on BBC live on weekday evenings from 18 February 1957 to 18 June 1965. The producers were the future Controller of BBC1 Donald Baverstock and the future Director-General of the BBC Alasdair Milne. The audience was typically seven million viewers. BBC TV background ''Tonight'' was, like ''Six-Five Special'', created by the BBC to fill in the " Toddlers' Truce" closed period between 6.00pm and 7.00pm (the 'Truce' was officially abolished only a few days before ''Tonight'' was first broadcast). ''Tonight'' began broadcasting from the Viking studio in Kensington, known by the BBC as "studio M". It eventually transferred to one of the main studios in Lime Grove, Shepherd's Bush, west London.History of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1958 London County Council Election
An election to the County Council of London took place on 16 April 1958. The council was elected by First Past the Post with each elector having three votes in the three-member seats. The Labour Party, who had already run the council for 24 years, won their largest ever majority. Campaign The Labour Party were optimistic about making gains, and targeted seats in Battersea South, Clapham, Lewisham West, Wandsworth Central and Woolwich West. The Conservatives targeted the marginal Labour-held constituencies of Barons Court, Kensington North and Paddington North. Their manifesto argued that the Labour Party were wasting money; they proposed reducing rates, and encouraged Londoners to move to new towns. The Liberal Party stood 31 candidates, but reports suggested that they were hampered by poor organisation, and were not optimistic of taking a seat. The Communist Party of Great Britain and the Independent Labour Party each stood four candidates, while the Socialist Party ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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