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Thomas Brooks (Labour Politician)
Thomas Judson Brooks, (7 July 1880 – 15 February 1958) was a British coal miner and politician who became a Labour Party Member of Parliament. A spiritualist, his main achievement was to lead the successful campaign to repeal the Witchcraft Act 1735. Working life Brooks was born on Eastfield Farm at Thurgoland near Barnsley, Yorkshire, where his father was a farmer. He attended Thurgoland Church School, and on leaving instead of following his father into farming, he became a coal miner at Glass Houghton. Active in the Yorkshire Mine Workers' Association, he became Secretary of his branch of the Union in 1911. He was elected as a Labour Party candidate to Castleford Urban District Council in 1914. Local politics In 1924 Brooks was appointed Chairman of Wakefield and Pontefract War Pension Committee and made a Justice of the Peace for the West Riding of Yorkshire. In the next year he was elected to the West Riding County Council, on which he remained until 1942 and was elected ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. The Labour Party sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. In all general elections since 1922, Labour has been either the governing party or the Official Opposition. There have been six Labour prime ministers and thirteen Labour ministries. The party holds the annual Labour Party Conference, at which party policy is formulated. The party was founded in 1900, having grown out of the trade union movement and socialist parties of the 19th century. It overtook the Liberal Party to become the main opposition to the Conservative Party in the early 1920s, forming two minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in the 1920s and early 1930s. Labour served in the wartime coalition of 1940–1945, after which Clement Attlee's Labour government established the National Health Service and expanded the welfa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rothwell (UK Parliament Constituency)
Rothwell was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Rothwell area of West Yorkshire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system. History The constituency was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918 for the 1918 general election. It was abolished for the 1950 general election. Boundaries The Urban Districts of Ardsley East and West, Emley, Flockton, Horbury, Rothwell, and Stanley; and the Rural Districts of Hunslet, and Wakefield. Members of Parliament Election results Election in the 1910s Elections in the 1920s Elections in the 1930s Elections in the 1940s General Election 1939–40: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the fol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1950 United Kingdom General Election
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first ever to be held after a full term of Labour government. The election was held on Thursday 23 February 1950, and was the first held following the abolition of plural voting and university constituencies. The government's 1945 lead over the Conservative Party shrank dramatically, and Labour was returned to power but with an overall majority reduced from 146 to just 5. There was a 2.8% national swing towards the Conservatives, who gained 90 seats. Labour called another general election in 1951, which the Conservative Party won. Turnout increased to 83.9%, the highest turnout in a UK general election under universal suffrage, and representing an increase of more than 11% in comparison to 1945. It was also the first general election to be covered on television, although the footage was not recorded. Richard Dimbleby hosted the BBC coverage of the election, which he would later do again for the 1951, 1955, 1959 and the 1964 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malcolm Gaskill
Malcolm John Gaskill FRHistS (born 22 April 1967) is an English academic historian and writer on crime, magic, witchcraft, spiritualism, and the supernatural. Gaskill was a professor in the history department of the University of East Anglia from 2011 until 2020, when he retired from teaching to give more time to writing. Early life Born in Suffolk, Gaskill grew up in Kent. He was educated at Rainham Mark Grammar School and Robinson College, Cambridge, reading History and graduating Ph.D. with a thesis on early modern England supervised by Keith Wrightson. Career Gaskill was briefly at Keele University as a lecturer for the year 1993–1994, and then at Queen’s University Belfast for the next academic year, before spending four years at Anglia Ruskin University. After that, he joined Churchill College, Cambridge, as a fellow and as Director of History Studies. In 2007, he transferred as a lecturer to the School of History of the University of East Anglia, where he was appoi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'', which do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1966. In general, the political position of ''The Times'' is considered to be centre-right. ''The Times'' is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, such as ''The Times of India'', ''The New York Times'', and more recently, digital-first publications such as TheTimesBlog.com (Since 2017). In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as , or as , although the newspaper is of nationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1951 United Kingdom General Election
The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held twenty months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats. The Labour government called a snap election for Thursday 25 October 1951 in the hope of increasing its parliamentary majority. However, despite winning the popular vote and achieving both the highest-ever total vote (until it was surpassed by the Conservative Party in 1992 and again in 2019) and highest percentage vote share, Labour won fewer seats than the Conservative Party. This was mainly due to the collapse of the Liberal vote, which enabled the Conservatives to win seats by default. The election marked the return of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister, and the beginning of Labour's thirteen-year spell in opposition. This was the third and final general election to be held during the reign of King George VI, for he died the following year on 6 February and was succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951
The Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951 was a law in England and Wales which prohibited a person from claiming to be a psychic, medium, or other spiritualist while attempting to deceive and to make money from the deception (other than solely for the purpose of entertainment). It repealed the Witchcraft Act 1735, and it was in turn repealed on 26 May 2008 by Schedule 4 of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 is a statutory instrument in the United Kingdom made under the European Communities Act 1972. It came into force on 26 May 2008. It is effectively the successor to the Trade Descriptio ... implementing the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005 which targeted unfair sales and marketing practices. It also changed section four of The Vagrancy Act of 1824 to ensure that it is still enforced with the acts. There were five prosecutions under this Act between 1980 and 1995, all resulting in conv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Monslow, Baron Monslow
Walter Monslow, Baron Monslow (26 January 1895 – 12 October 1966) was a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. Born in Wrexham, Monslow joined the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, becoming its organising secretary. He also joined the Labour Party, serving on Wrexham Rural District Council for some years until 1937. At the 1935 general election, Monslow unsuccessfully contested Newcastle upon Tyne Central. He was elected at 1945 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Barrow-in-Furness, and held the seat until he retired from the House of Commons at the general election in March 1966. On 15 June 1966, he was made a life peer as Baron Monslow, of Barrow-in-Furness in the County Palatine of Lancaster Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Private Member's Bill
A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in which a "private member" is any member of parliament (MP) who is not a member of the cabinet (executive). Other labels may be used for the concept in other parliamentary systems; for example, the label member's bill is used in the Scottish Parliament and the New Zealand Parliament, the term private senator's bill is used in the Australian Senate, and the term public bill is used in the Senate of Canada. In legislatures where the executive does not have the right of initiative, such as the United States Congress, the concept does not arise since bills are always introduced by legislators (or sometimes by popular initiative). In the Westminster system, most bills are " government bills" introduced by the executive, with private members' bills ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helen Duncan
Victoria Helen McCrae Duncan (née MacFarlane, 25 November 1897 – 6 December 1956) was a Scottish medium best known as the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act 1735 for fraudulent claims. She was famous for producing ectoplasm which was proven to be made from cheesecloth. Roach, Mary. (2007). '' Six Feet Over: Adventures in the Afterlife''. Canongate books. pp. 122–130. Early life Victoria Helen MacFarlane was born in Callander, Perthshire on 25 November 1897, the daughter of Archibald McFarlane, a slater, and Isabella Rattray. At school, she alarmed her fellow pupils with her dire prophecies and hysterical behaviour, to the distress of her mother (a member of the Presbyterian church). After leaving school, she worked at Dundee Royal Infirmary, and in 1916 she married Henry Duncan, a cabinet maker and wounded war veteran, who was supportive of her supposed paranormal talents. A mother of six, she also worked part-time in a bleach factory. Practising mediu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spiritualists' National Union
The Spiritualists' National Union (SNU) is a Spiritualist organisation, founded in the United Kingdom in 1901, and is one of the largest Spiritualist groups in the world. Its motto is ''Light, Nature, Truth''. Over its history, it has organised test cases regarding the legal status of spiritualist mediums, with regard to such matters as exemption from compulsory military National service. In legal terms, Spiritualist mediums were considered to violate such laws as the Vagrancy Act 1824, which outlawed fortune telling, and the Witchcraft Act 1735. The Union campaigned against these laws for many years. They were eventually repealed by the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951, which legalised the practice of mediums unless it was shown that they were profiting financially from a fraudulent service. This act was repealed in April 2008, and fraudulent mediums are now covered by consumer protection legislation, namely The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. It has also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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