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House Of Cards (novel)
''House of Cards'' is a political thriller novel by British author Michael Dobbs. Published in 1989, it tells the story of Francis Urquhart, a fictional Chief Whip of the Conservative Party, and his amoral and manipulative scheme to become leader of the governing party and, thus, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. A television adaptation, written by Andrew Davies and produced by the BBC was aired in 1990. A six-part radio adaptation of the first novel, written by Neville Teller aired on BBC Radio 4 in 1996. In 2013, the serial and the Dobbs novel were the basis for a US television adaptation set in Washington, D.C., commissioned and released by Netflix. The novel was followed by two sequels: ''To Play the King'' and '' The Final Cut''. Both were adapted for television by the BBC and aired in 1993 and 1995 respectively. Background Michael Dobbs began working for the Conservative Party in 1977, and from 1986 to 1987, served as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Chief of Staf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Dobbs
Michael John Dobbs, Baron Dobbs (born 14 November 1948) is a British Conservative politician and author, best known for his ''House of Cards'' trilogy. Early life and education Michael Dobbs was born on 14 November 1948 in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, the son of nurseryman Eric and Eileen Dobbs. He was educated at Hertford Grammar School, Cheshunt Grammar School, and Christ Church, Oxford. After graduating from Oxford in 1971 with a third-class BA in philosophy, politics and economics, Dobbs moved to the United States. He attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1977 with an MA, MALD, and a PhD in nuclear defence studies. His doctoral thesis was published as ''China and SALT: Dragon Hunting in a Multinuclear World''. In 2007, Dobbs gave the Alumni Salutation at Fletcher. Early career Dobbs' studies at The Fletcher School were funded by a job as feature writer for ''The Boston Globe'', where he worked as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1987 United Kingdom General Election
The 1987 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive general election victory for the Conservative Party, and second landslide under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the Earl of Liverpool in 1820 to lead a party into three successive electoral victories. The Conservatives ran a campaign focusing on lower taxes, a strong economy and strong defence. They also emphasised that unemployment had just fallen below the 3 million mark for the first time since 1981, and inflation was standing at 4%, its lowest level since the 1960s. National newspapers also continued to largely back the Conservative Government, particularly '' The Sun'', which ran anti-Labour articles with headlines such as "Why I'm backing Kinnock, by Stalin". The Labour Party, led by Neil Kinnock following Michael Foot's resignation in the aftermath of their l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secretary Of State For Education
The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office holder works alongside the other Department for Education#Ministers, Education ministers. The corresponding shadow minister is the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, and the work of the Secretary of State is also scrutinised by the Education Select Committee. The current education secretary is Gillian Keegan. Responsibilities Corresponding to what is generally known as an education minister in many other countries, the education secretary's remit is concerned primarily with England. This includes: * Early years * Children's social care * Teacher recruitment and retention * The National Curriculum for England, national curriculum * School improvement * Acad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was founded by Arthur B. Sleigh in 1855 as ''The Daily Telegraph & Courier''. Considered a newspaper of record over ''The Times'' in the UK in the years up to 1997, ''The Telegraph'' generally has a reputation for high-quality journalism, and has been described as being "one of the world's great titles". The paper's motto, "Was, is, and will be", appears in the editorial pages and has featured in every edition of the newspaper since 19 April 1858. The paper had a circulation of 363,183 in December 2018, descending further until it withdrew from newspaper circulation audits in 2019, having declined almost 80%, from 1.4 million in 1980.United Newspapers PLC and Fleet Holdings PLC', Monopolies and Mergers Commission (1985), pp. 5–16. Its si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of House Of Cards Trilogy Characters
This article is about characters in the ''House of Cards'' trilogy other than Francis Urquhart. The trilogy consists of three separate four part serials, ''House of Cards'', ''To Play the King'' and '' The Final Cut'', all based on identically-titled novels by Michael Dobbs. Elizabeth Urquhart Elizabeth Urquhart (Diane Fletcher) (created Countess Urquhart after her husband's death), is Francis Urquhart's wife. She appears to have a great deal of power over her husband, and often identifies his powers and abilities, or persuades him to use a given situation to his advantage. When Prime Minister Henry Collingridge overlooks Francis for a Cabinet promotion, it is Elizabeth who encourages Francis to plot to remove Collingridge and take office himself. In series one episode two, she also suggests Francis begin an affair with Mattie Storin so that he may further secure her trust and loyalty, and thus better use his position to feed information to her, thereby influencing her articles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Night Of The Long Knives (1962)
In British politics, the "Night of the Long Knives" was a major Cabinet reshuffle that took place on 13 July 1962. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismissed seven members of his Cabinet, one-third of the total. The speed and scale of the reshuffle caused it to be associated by its critics with the 1934 Night of the Long Knives in Nazi Germany. The reshuffle took place against a backdrop of declining Conservative popularity in Britain. Conservative candidates fared poorly in several by-elections, losing ground to Liberal candidates. Concerned that traditional Conservative voters were expressing their disapproval with the government's economic policies by switching to the Liberals, Harold Macmillan planned to replace his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Selwyn Lloyd, with Reginald Maudling. Lloyd had already clashed with Macmillan over his economic strategies, and Maudling was considered to be more amenable to the economic policies Macmillan wished to implement. The reshuffle was als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Caricatured as "Supermac", he was known for his pragmatism, wit and unflappability. Macmillan was badly injured as an infantry officer during the First World War. He suffered pain and partial immobility for the rest of his life. After the war he joined his family book-publishing business, then entered Parliament at the 1924 general election. Losing his seat in 1929, he regained it in 1931, soon after which he spoke out against the high rate of unemployment in Stockton-on-Tees. He opposed the appeasement of Germany practised by the Conservative government. He rose to high office during the Second World War as a protégé of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In the 1950s Macmillan served as Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under Anthony Eden. When ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cabinet Reshuffle
A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the Head of State changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in parliamentary systems, than in systems where cabinet heads must be confirmed by a separate legislative body, and occur at pleasure in autocratic systems without suitable checks-and-balances. A shadow cabinet reshuffle may take place to change positions in a shadow cabinet. In parliamentary systems Cabinet reshuffles happen in parliamentary systems for a variety of reasons. Periodically, smaller reshuffles are needed to replace ministers who have resigned, retired or died. Reshuffles are also a way for a premier to "refresh" the government, often in the face of poor polling numbers; remove poor performers; and reward supporters and punish others. It is common after elections, even if the party in power is retained, as the prime minister's read ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cabinet Of The United Kingdom
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the senior decision-making body of His Majesty's Government. A committee of the Privy Council, it is chaired by the prime minister and its members include secretaries of state and other senior ministers. The Ministerial Code says that the business of the Cabinet (and cabinet committees) is mainly questions of major issues of policy, questions of critical importance to the public and questions on which there is an unresolved argument between departments. History Until at least the 16th century, individual officers of state had separate property, powers and responsibilities granted with their separate offices by royal command, and the Crown and the Privy Council constituted the only co-ordinating authorities. In England, phrases such as "cabinet counsel", meaning advice given in private, in a cabinet in the sense of a small room, to the monarch, occur from the late 16th century, and, given the non-standardised spelling of the day, it is oft ... [...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] |
Member Of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members often have a different title. The terms congressman/congresswoman or deputy are equivalent terms used in other jurisdictions. The term parliamentarian is also sometimes used for members of parliament, but this may also be used to refer to unelected government officials with specific roles in a parliament and other expert advisers on parliamentary procedure such as the Senate Parliamentarian in the United States. The term is also used to the characteristic of performing the duties of a member of a legislature, for example: "The two party leaders often disagreed on issues, but both were excellent parliamentarians and cooperated to get many good things done." Members of parliament typically form parliamentary groups, sometimes called caucuse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minor Characters In The House Of Cards Trilogy
This article is about characters in the ''House of Cards'' trilogy other than Francis Urquhart. The trilogy consists of three separate four part serials, ''House of Cards'', ''To Play the King'' and '' The Final Cut'', all based on identically-titled novels by Michael Dobbs. Elizabeth Urquhart Elizabeth Urquhart (Diane Fletcher) (created Countess Urquhart after her husband's death), is Francis Urquhart's wife. She appears to have a great deal of power over her husband, and often identifies his powers and abilities, or persuades him to use a given situation to his advantage. When Prime Minister Henry Collingridge overlooks Francis for a Cabinet promotion, it is Elizabeth who encourages Francis to plot to remove Collingridge and take office himself. In series one episode two, she also suggests Francis begin an affair with Mattie Storin so that he may further secure her trust and loyalty, and thus better use his position to feed information to her, thereby influencing her articles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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