Cash For Questions
The "cash-for-questions affair" was a political scandal of the 1990s in the United Kingdom. It began in October 1994 when ''The Guardian'' newspaper alleged that London's most successful parliamentary lobbyist, Ian Greer of Ian Greer Associates, had bribed two Conservative Members of Parliament to ask parliamentary questions and perform other tasks on behalf of the Egyptian owner of Harrods department store, Mohamed Al-Fayed. Overview ''The Guardians report alleged that Al-Fayed had approached the paper and accused Ian Greer of paying then-MPs Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith to table parliamentary questions on his behalf at £2,000 a time. Smith resigned immediately after admitting to accepting payments from Al-Fayed himself, but not from Greer as ''The Guardian'' had alleged. Hamilton and Greer immediately issued libel writs in the High Court against ''The Guardian'' to clear their names. The furore prompted the then-prime minister John Major to instigate the Nolan Committee, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 170 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Parliament Of The United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and the overseas territories. Parliament is bicameral but has three parts, consisting of the sovereign (King-in-Parliament), the House of Lords, and the House of Commons (the primary chamber). In theory, power is officially vested in the King-in-Parliament. However, the Crown normally acts on the advice of the prime minister, and the powers of the House of Lords are limited to only delaying legislation; thus power is ''de facto'' vested in the House of Commons. The House of Commons is an elected chamber with elections to 650 single-member constituencies held at least every five years under the first-past-the-post system. By constitutional convention, all government mini ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Andrew Bowden
Sir Andrew Bowden (born 8 April 1930) is a British Conservative Party politician. From 2004 to 2010, he was an international consultant at Global Equities Corporation. Early life Bowden was born the son of William Victor Bowden, a solicitor, and Francesca Wilson. He was educated at Ardingly College. He started his career as a sales executive. He served as a councillor on Wandsworth Borough Council from 1956 to 1961 and as national chairman of Young Conservatives from 1960 to 1961. Bowden worked in the paint industry from 1955 to 1968. Parliamentary career He entered the House of Commons on his fourth attempt in 1970 by gaining the Brighton Kemptown seat from the Labour Party. As well as fighting Kemptown in the previous election, he had fought Hammersmith North in 1955 and Kensington North in 1964. He remained Member of Parliament for Kemptown until his defeat by Labour's Desmond Turner in the 1997 election.Siobhan RyanEx-MP's wife to sue hospital over fall '' The Argus ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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House Of Fraser
House of Fraser (also operating as Frasers) is a British department store group with 44 locations across the United Kingdom, which is now part of Frasers Group. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. By 1891, it was known as Fraser & Sons. The company grew steadily during the early 20th century, and after the Second World War a large number of acquisitions transformed the company into a national chain. From 1936, the company expanded substantially through acquisitions, including Scottish Drapery Corporation (1952), Binns (1953), Barkers of Kensington (1957), Dickins & Jones and the Harrods group (1959), and J J Allen and Colson's (1969). In 1948, the company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange. Later acquisitions included Howells (1972) and Army & Navy Stores (1973). The group was purchased by the Al Fayed family in 1985 for £615million, beating out Tiny Rowland for control. By 1993, the management of the group were making attempts to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Peter Hordern
Sir Peter Maudslay Hordern, DL, PC (born 18 April 1929) is a British Conservative Party politician. Early life Hordern was born on 18 April 1929 and was the son of Captain Charles Hubert Hordern MBE and grandson of Rt. Rev. Hugh Maudslay Hordern (Bishop of Lewes). He was educated at Geelong Grammar School, Australia and Christ Church, Oxford. He served with the 60th Rifles from 1947 to 1949, joining the regiment of his father and great-uncle, Brig. General Gwyn Venables Hordern CB, CMG, JP. He then became a Member of the Stock Exchange. Political career Hordern served as Member of Parliament for Horsham from 1964 to 1974, for Horsham and Crawley from 1974 to 1983 and for Horsham once again from 1983 to 1997. He was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1993. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for West Sussex. He was a member of the Public Accounts Committee from 1970 to 1987, Chairman of the Finance Committee from 1970 to 1972 and Chairman of the Public ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Skoal (tobacco)
Skoal is a brand of smokeless tobacco. Skoal is produced by the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company (USSTC), which is a subsidiary of Altria. It is considered a high-priced product within the dipping tobacco market. Skoal was first produced by USSTC in 1934. "Skoal" is an Anglicisation of '' skål'', a term used often in Scandinavia to announce a toast of friendship, with connotations of well-wishing. Nicotine level A study conducted by scientists at R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company using both the nicotine levels and free nicotine Levels in common tobacco brands produced in 2006 generated the following ranked results: Advancements in measurement. Using another measurement criteria known as the free nicotine level, a level which is generated mathematically using the nicotine levels and the pH level of the tobacco brand, the results are ranked on the chart below: Nicotine level rankings The results of this 2006 study on traditional moist snuff's most common varieties in terms of ni ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michael Brown (British Politician)
Michael Russell Brown (born 3 July 1951) is a British political journalist, noted as a former Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 to 1997. Early life Brown was educated at the Andrew Cairns Secondary Modern School, Sussex, and the University of York, where he was friends with, and a contemporary of both Harvey Proctor and Christine Hamilton (née Holman).Sleaze: The Corruption of Parliament. David Leigh and Ed Vulliamy Page 50 He was a member of Alcuin College and the York University Conservative Association. After studying for a year at Middle Temple, he worked as a graduate management trainee for Barclays Bank from 1972 to 1974 then as a lecturer and tutor at Swinton Conservative College from 1974 to 1975. From 1975 to 1976, he was a part-time research assistant to Michael Marshall MP, working for Nicholas Winterton MP from 1976 to 1979. Westminster Brown was selected for the marginal constituency of Brigg and Scunthorpe and was elected at the 1979 ge ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Standards And Privileges Committee
The Standards and Privileges Committee is a former committee of the United Kingdom House of Commons that existed from 1995 to 2013. The committee was established in 1995 to replace the earlier Committee of Privileges. It consisted of 10 Members of Parliament that sat to make recommendations to the House on complaints of breach of parliamentary privilege. It was itself replaced in January 2013, when it was split into the Committee on Standards and the Committee of Privileges, in order to allow the Committee of Standards to employ lay members. The committee was appointed by the House of Commons to oversee the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is an officer of the British House of Commons. The work of the officer is overseen by the Commons Select Committee on Standards. The current commissioner is Kathryn Stone. Duties The commissioner i .... It examined the arrangements for the compilation, maintenance and accessi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Liberal Democrats (UK)
The Liberal Democrats (commonly referred to as the Lib Dems) are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. Since the 1992 general election, with the exception of the 2015 general election, they have been the third-largest UK political party by the number of votes cast. They have 14 Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, 83 members of the House of Lords, four Members of the Scottish Parliament and one member in the Welsh Senedd. The party has over 2,500 local council seats. The party holds a twice-per-year Liberal Democrat Conference, at which party policy is formulated, with all party members eligible to vote, under a one member, one vote system. The party served as the junior party in a coalition government with the Conservative Party between 2010 and 2015; with Scottish Labour in the Scottish Executive from 1999 to 2007, and with Welsh Labour in the Welsh Government from 2000 to 2003 and from 2016 to 2021. In 1981, an electoral alliance was established b ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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]   |
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Tatton (UK Parliament Constituency)
Tatton is a constituency in Cheshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Esther McVey, a Conservative. Constituency profile Tatton comprises the north-western part of the Cheshire East unitary authority, including the towns of Knutsford and Wilmslow, and a number of villages such as Alderley Edge, Chelford, Handforth and Mobberley, in Cheshire. It also covers a small, north-east, part of the Cheshire West and Chester unitary authority, including some of the outskirts of Northwich. The seat largely comprises prosperous villages and small towns, many of which have high property prices, set amidst Cheshire countryside, featuring country parks, hills, recreation grounds and golf courses. The area was previously dominated by countryside; however, since the 1950s, it has developed a largely built-up, suburban character, being located on the fringes of Greater Manchester. The largest centres of population are Alderley Edge, Wilmslow and Knutsford. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Martin Bell
Martin Bell, (born 31 August 1938) is a British UNICEF (UNICEF UK) Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician who became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 1997 to 2001. He is sometimes known as "the man in the white suit". Background Bell is the son of author-farmer Adrian Bell, compiler of the first ever ''Times'' crossword. He is the brother of literary translator Anthea Bell (who died in 2018) and the uncle of Oliver Kamm, now a ''Times'' leader writer who served as his political adviser during his term as a Member of Parliament (MP). His preparatory school was Taverham Hall School, just outside Norwich in Norfolk and he was then educated at The Leys School in Cambridge. He then studied at King's College, Cambridge, where he achieved a first-class honours degree in English. He served on the committee of Cambridge University Liberal Club, including a term as Publicity Officer. He failed to obtain a commission during his two-yea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |