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Le Cercle
Le Cercle is a secretive, invitation-only foreign policy forum. Its focus has been opposing communism and, in the 1970s and 1980s, supporting apartheid when the group had intimate ties with and funding from South Africa. The group was described by British Conservative MP Alan Clark as "an Atlanticist society of right-wing dignitaries". History Le Cercle was established in 1952-53 by then French prime minister Antoine Pinay and French intelligence agent Jean Violet under the name ''Cercle Pinay.'' Konrad Adenauer and Franz Josef Strauss were co-founders and reconciliation between France and Germany was an important goal. Historian Adrian Hänni wrote that "The Cercle's founding vision encompassed the integration of a Christian-Catholic Europe, an aspiration reflected in the Cercle's personal membership and the countries represented in its early years." The other members of the original Cercle were from the Governments of Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands including ...
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Communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange which allocates products to everyone in the society.: "One widespread distinction was that socialism socialised production only while communism socialised production and consumption." Communist society also involves the absence of private property, social classes, money, and the state. Communists often seek a voluntary state of self-governance, but disagree on the means to this end. This reflects a distinction between a more libertarian approach of communization, revolutionary spontaneity, and workers' self-management, and a more vanguardist or communist party-driven approach through the development of a constitutional s ...
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Julian Amery
Harold Julian Amery, Baron Amery of Lustleigh, (27 March 1919 – 3 September 1996) was a British Conservative Party politician, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for 39 of the 42 years between 1950 and 1992. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1960. Amery was created a life peer upon his retirement from the House of Commons in 1992. For three decades, he was a leading figure in the Conservative Monday Club. He was the son-in-law of Conservative prime minister Harold Macmillan. His brother, John, was hanged for high treason for supporting Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy during the Second World War. Early and family life Amery was born in Chelsea, London. His father was Leo Amery, a British statesman and Conservative politician. He was educated at Eaton House, Summer Fields School, Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford. While an undergraduate, he had a brief romance with the future novelist Barbara Pym, who was six years his senior. Military service Before ...
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Rory Stewart
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (born 3 January 1973) is a British academic, diplomat, author, broadcaster, former soldier and former politician. He is the president of GiveDirectly, a visiting fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs where he teaches politics and international relations, and hosts the Rest is Politics podcast with Alastair Campbell. Previously, he served as a minister in four different departments of the UK Government. He then became a Cabinet minister as Secretary of State for International Development from May to July 2019. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Penrith and The Border from 2010 to 2019. Born in Hong Kong, Stewart was educated at the Dragon School and Eton College. After studying at Balliol College, Oxford, Stewart worked for Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service as a diplomat in Indonesia and as British Representative to Montenegro. He left the diplomatic service to undertake a two-year walk across Afghanistan, Iran, P ...
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Michael Ancram
Michael Andrew Foster Jude Kerr, 13th Marquess of Lothian, Baron Kerr of Monteviot, (born 7 July 1945), commonly known as Michael Ancram, is a British politician and life peer who served as Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party from 2001 to 2005. He was formerly styled Earl of Ancram until he inherited the marquessate in 2004. Born in London and educated at Ampleforth College, Ancram studied History at Christ Church, Oxford and read Law at the University of Edinburgh. After graduating from Edinburgh, he was called to the Scottish Bar and practised as an advocate before entering politics. He unsuccessfully contested West Lothian in 1970, but was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick and East Lothian at the February 1974 general election and served until the election held in October of that year. He re-entered parliament in 1979, representing Edinburgh South until 1987. During this time, he served as a minister at the Scotland Office in Margaret Thatcher's govern ...
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Norman Lamont
Norman Stewart Hughson Lamont, Baron Lamont of Lerwick, (born 8 May 1942) is a British politician and former Conservative MP for Kingston-upon-Thames. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1990 until 1993. He was created a life peer in 1998. Lamont was a supporter of the Eurosceptic organisation Leave Means Leave. Early life Lamont was born in Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands, where his father was the islands' surgeon. He was educated at Loretto School, Musselburgh, Scotland, and read economics at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he was Chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association and President of the Cambridge Union Society in 1964. Corporate career Before entering Parliament he worked for N M Rothschild & Sons, the investment bank, and became director of Rothschild Asset Management. Lamont currently, in addition to his role as a working peer, is a director of and a consultant to various companies in the financial sector. He is a director o ...
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Jean Violet
Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jean Pierre Polnareff, a fictional character from ''JoJo's Bizarre Adventure'' Places * Jean, Nevada, USA; a town * Jean, Oregon, USA Entertainment * Jean (dog), a female collie in silent films * "Jean" (song) (1969), by Rod McKuen, also recorded by Oliver * ''Jean Seberg'' (musical), a 1983 musical by Marvin Hamlisch Other uses * JEAN (programming language) * USS ''Jean'' (ID-1308), American cargo ship c. 1918 * Sternwheeler Jean, a 1938 paddleboat of the Willamette River See also *Jehan * * Gene (other) * Jeanne (other) * Jehanne (other) * Jeans (other) * John (other) John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Te ...
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Private Intelligence Agency
A private intelligence agency (PIA) is a private sector (non-governmental) or quasi-non-government organization devoted to the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information, through the evaluation of public sources (OSINT or Open Source INTelligence) and cooperation with other institutions. Some private intelligence agencies obtain information deceptively or through on-the-ground activities for clients. Private agencies have made their services available to governments as well as individual consumers; they have also sold their services to large corporations with an interest or investment in the category (e.g. crime, disease, corruption, etc.) or the region (e.g. Middle East, Vietnam, Prague, etc.) or to investigate perceived threats such as environmental groups or human rights groups. Some private intelligence agencies use online perception management, social media influencing/manipulation campaigns, strategic disinformation (such as fake news production/propaganda produc ...
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Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime minister and the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century. As prime minister, she implemented economic policies that became known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked briefly as a research chemist, before becoming a barrister. She was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970–1974 government. In 1975, she defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Leader of the Opposition, the first woman to lead a major poli ...
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Guillaume Long
Guillaume Jean Sebastien Long (born 22 February 1977) is an Ecuadorian former politician and academic who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador and Human Mobility, in the government of Rafael Correa. He was previously the Minister of Culture and Heritage, and Minister of Knowledge and Human Talent. Long later became Ecuador's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, before resigning in January 2018 over strong disagreements with President Moreno. Early life and education Long was born in Créteil, a suburb of Paris, France, in 1977, to a French mother and a British father. He completed his studies at the University of London, where he earned a PhD at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, a Masters in Political Science and a Bachelor in History at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Long first went to Latin America at the age of 18 and spent some extended time traveling in Central America before arriving in Ecuador in 1996. Politic ...
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Jonathan Aitken
Jonathan William Patrick Aitken (born 30 August 1942) is a British author, Church of England priest, former prisoner and former Conservative Party politician. Beginning his career in journalism, he was elected to Parliament in 1974 (serving until 1997), and was a member of the cabinet during John Major's premiership from 1992 to 1995. That same year, he was accused by '' The Guardian'' of misdeeds conducted under his official government capacity. He sued the newspaper for libel in response, but the case collapsed, and he was subsequently found to have committed perjury during his trial. In 1999, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison, of which he served seven months. Following his imprisonment, Aitken became a Christian and later became the honorary president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 2019. Family Aitken's parents were Sir William Traven Aitken, KBE, a former Conservative MP, and The Honourable Penelope, Lady Aitken, MB ...
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The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published on Saturday 26 March 2016, leaving only the online edition. The newspaper was controlled by Tony O'Reilly's Irish Independent News & Media from 1997 until it was sold to the Russian oligarch and former KGB Officer Alexander Lebedev in 2010. In 2017, Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel bought a 30% stake in it. The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. The website and mobile app had a combined monthly reach of 19,826,000 in 2021. History 1986 to 1990 Launched in 1986, the first issue of ''The Independent'' was published on 7 October in broadsheet format.Dennis Griffiths (ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992'', London & Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p. 330 It was pro ...
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Alan Clark Diaries
British politician Alan Clark kept a regular diary from 1955 until August 1999 (during his second spell as a Member of Parliament) when he was incapacitated due to the onset of the brain tumour which was to be the cause of his death a month later. The last month of his life would be chronicled by his wife, Jane. *Volume 1 ''Diaries: In Power 1983–1992'' (1993) *Volume 2 ''Diaries: Into Politics 1972–1982'' (2000) *Volume 3 ''Diaries: The Last Diaries 1993–1999'' (2002) Alan Clark published his diaries covering the period 1983 to 1992 after he left the House of Commons, deciding not to seek re-election to his Plymouth Sutton seat. Published in 1993 and known simply as ''Diaries'' (although later subtitled ''In Power''), they have been recognised as a definitive account of the downfall of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Before his death in 1999, Clark had started work on the prequel to the 1983–1992 ''Diaries'' to cover his entry in politics, from seeking a Conservat ...
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