title: Gold as an investment

text: Although central banks do not generally announce gold purchases in advance, some, such as Russia, have expressed interest in growing their gold reserves again as of late 2005. In early 2006, China, which only holds 1.3% of its reserves in gold, announced that it was looking for ways to improve the returns on its official reserves. Some bulls hope that this signals that China might reposition more of its holdings into gold, in line with other central banks. Chinese investors began pursuing investment in gold as an alternative to investment in the Euro after the beginning of the Eurozone crisis in 2011. China has since become the world's top gold consumer .


title: Gold as an investment

text: The price of gold can be influenced by a number of macroeconomic variables. Such variables include the price of oil, the use of quantitative easing, currency exchange rate movements and returns on equity markets.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Gold, like all precious metals, may be used as a hedge against inflation, deflation or currency devaluation, though its efficacy as such has been questioned; historically, it has not proven itself reliable as a hedging instrument. A unique feature of gold is that it has no default risk. As Joe Foster, portfolio manager of the New York-based Van Eck International Gold Fund, explained in September 2010:


title: Gold as an investment

text: Jewelry consistently accounts for over two-thirds of annual gold demand. India is the largest consumer in volume terms, accounting for 27% of demand in 2009, followed by China and the USA.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Industrial, dental and medical uses account for around 12% of gold demand. Gold has high thermal and electrical conductivity properties, along with a high resistance to corrosion and bacterial colonization. Jewelry and industrial demand have fluctuated over the past few years due to the steady expansion in emerging markets of middle classes aspiring to Western lifestyles, offset by the financial crisis of 2007–2010.


title: Gold as an investment

text: In recent years the recycling of second-hand jewelry has become a multibillion-dollar industry. The term "Cash for Gold" refers to offers of cash for selling old, broken, or mismatched gold jewelry to local and online gold buyers. There are many websites that offer these services.


title: Gold as an investment

text: However, there are many companies that have been caught taking advantage of their customers, paying a fraction of what the gold or silver is really worth, leading to distrust in many companies.


title: Gold as an investment

text: When dollars were fully convertible into gold via the gold standard, both were regarded as money. However, most people preferred to carry around paper banknotes rather than the somewhat heavier and less divisible gold coins. If people feared their bank would fail, a bank run might result. This happened in the USA during the Great Depression of the 1930s, leading President Roosevelt to impose a national emergency and issue Executive Order 6102 outlawing the "hoarding" of gold by US citizens. There was only one prosecution under the order, and in that case the order was ruled invalid by federal judge John M. Woolsey, on the technical grounds that the order was signed by the President, not the Secretary of the Treasury as required.


title: Gold as an investment

text: The most traditional way of investing in gold is by buying bullion gold bars. In some countries, like Canada, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, these can easily be bought or sold at the major banks. Alternatively, there are bullion dealers that provide the same service. Bars are available in various sizes. For example, in Europe, Good Delivery bars are approximately . bars are also popular, although many other weights exist, such as the , , 10 g, 100 g, 1 kg, 1 Tael (50 g in China), and 1 Tola (11.3 g).


title: Gold as an investment

text: Bars generally carry lower price premiums than gold bullion coins. However larger bars carry an increased risk of forgery due to their less stringent parameters for appearance. While bullion coins can be easily weighed and measured against known values to confirm their veracity, most bars cannot, and gold buyers often have bars re-assayed. Larger bars also have a greater volume in which to create a partial forgery using a tungsten-filled cavity, which may not be revealed by an assay. Tungsten is ideal for this purpose because it is much less expensive than gold, but has the same density (19.3 g/cm).


title: Gold as an investment

text: Good delivery bars that are held within the London bullion market (LBMA) system each have a verifiable chain of custody, beginning with the refiner and assayer, and continuing through storage in LBMA recognized vaults. Bars within the LBMA system can be bought and sold easily. If a bar is removed from the vaults and stored outside of the chain of integrity, for example stored at home or in a private vault, it will have to be re-assayed before it can be returned to the LBMA chain. This process is described under the LBMA's "Good Delivery Rules".


title: Gold as an investment

text: The LBMA "traceable chain of custody" includes refiners as well as vaults. Both have to meet their strict guidelines. Bullion products from these trusted refiners are traded at face value by LBMA members without assay testing. By buying bullion from an LBMA member dealer and storing it in an LBMA recognized vault, customers avoid the need of re-assaying or the inconvenience in time and expense it would cost. However this is not 100% sure; for example, Venezuela moved its gold because of the political risk for them. And as the past shows, there may be risk even in countries considered democratic and stable; for example in the US in the 1930s gold was seized by the government and legal moving was banned.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Efforts to combat gold bar counterfeiting include kinebars which employ a unique holographic technology and are manufactured by the Argor-Heraeus refinery in Switzerland.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Gold coins are a common way of owning gold. Bullion coins are priced according to their fine weight, plus a small premium based on supply and demand (as opposed to numismatic gold coins, which are priced mainly by supply and demand based on rarity and condition).


title: Gold as an investment

text: The Krugerrand is the most widely held gold bullion coin, with in circulation. Other common gold bullion coins include the Australian Gold Nugget (Kangaroo), Austrian Philharmoniker (Philharmonic), Austrian 100 Corona, Canadian Gold Maple Leaf, Chinese Gold Panda, Malaysian Kijang Emas, French Napoleon or Louis d'Or, Mexican Gold 50 Peso, British Sovereign, American Gold Eagle, and American Buffalo.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Coins may be purchased from a variety of dealers both large and small. Fake gold coins are common and are usually made of gold-layered alloys.


title: Gold as an investment

text: "Gold rounds" look like gold coins, but they have no currency value. They range in similar sizes as gold coins, including , , and larger. Unlike gold coins, gold rounds commonly have no additional metals added to them for durability purposes and do not have to be made by a government mint, which allows the gold rounds to have a lower overhead price as compared to gold coins. On the other hand, gold rounds are normally not as collectible as gold coins.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Gold exchange-traded products may include exchange-traded funds (ETFs), exchange-traded notes (ETNs), and closed-end funds (CEFs), which are traded like shares on the major stock exchanges. The first gold ETF, Gold Bullion Securities (ticker symbol "GOLD"), was launched in March 2003 on the Australian Stock Exchange, and originally represented exactly of gold. , SPDR Gold Shares is the second-largest exchange-traded fund in the world by market capitalization.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Gold exchange-traded products (ETPs) represent an easy way to gain exposure to the gold price, without the inconvenience of storing physical bars. However exchange-traded gold instruments, even those that hold physical gold for the benefit of the investor, carry risks beyond those inherent in the precious metal itself. For example, the most popular gold ETP (GLD) has been widely criticized, and even compared with mortgage-backed securities, due to features of its complex structure.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Typically a small commission is charged for trading in gold ETPs and a small annual storage fee is charged. The annual expenses of the fund such as storage, insurance, and management fees are charged by selling a small amount of gold represented by each certificate, so the amount of gold in each certificate will gradually decline over time.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, are investment companies that are legally classified as open-end companies or unit investment trusts (UITs), but that differ from traditional open-end companies and UITs. The main differences are that ETFs do not sell directly to investors and they issue their shares in what are called "Creation Units" (large blocks such as blocks of 50,000 shares). Also, the Creation Units may not be purchased with cash but a basket of securities that mirrors the ETF's portfolio. Usually, the Creation Units are split up and re-sold on a secondary market.


title: Gold as an investment

text: ETF shares can be sold in two ways: The investors can sell the individual shares to other investors, or they can sell the Creation Units back to the ETF. In addition, ETFs generally redeem Creation Units by giving investors the securities that comprise the portfolio instead of cash. Because of the limited redeemability of ETF shares, ETFs are not considered to be and may not call themselves mutual funds.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Gold certificates allow gold investors to avoid the risks and costs associated with the transfer and storage of physical bullion (such as theft, large bid–offer spread, and metallurgical assay costs) by taking on a different set of risks and costs associated with the certificate itself (such as commissions, storage fees, and various types of credit risk).


title: Gold as an investment

text: Banks may issue gold certificates for gold that is "allocated" (fully reserved) or "unallocated" (pooled). Unallocated gold certificates are a form of fractional reserve banking and do not guarantee an equal exchange for metal in the event of a run on the issuing bank's gold on deposit. Allocated gold certificates should be correlated with specific numbered bars, although it is difficult to determine whether a bank is improperly allocating a single bar to more than one party.


title: Gold as an investment

text: The first paper bank notes were gold certificates. They were first issued in the 17th century when they were used by goldsmiths in England and the Netherlands for customers who kept deposits of gold bullion in their vault for safe-keeping. Two centuries later, the gold certificates began being issued in the United States when the US Treasury issued such certificates that could be exchanged for gold. The United States Government first authorized the use of the gold certificates in 1863. On April 5, 1933, the US Government restricted the private gold ownership in the United States and therefore, the gold certificates stopped circulating as money (this restriction was reversed on January 1, 1975). Nowadays, gold certificates are still issued by gold pool programs in Australia and the United States, as well as by banks in Germany, Switzerland and Vietnam.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Many types of gold "accounts" are available. Different accounts impose varying types of intermediation between the client and their gold. One of the most important differences between accounts is whether the gold is held on an allocated (fully reserved) or unallocated (pooled) basis. Unallocated gold accounts are a form of fractional reserve banking and do not guarantee an equal exchange for metal in the event of a run on the issuer's gold on deposit. Another major difference is the strength of the account holder's claim on the gold, in the event that the account administrator faces gold-denominated liabilities (due to a short or naked short position in gold for example), asset forfeiture, or bankruptcy.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Many banks offer gold accounts where gold can be instantly bought or sold just like any foreign currency on a fractional reserve basis. Swiss banks offer similar service on a fully allocated basis. Pool accounts, such as those offered by some providers, facilitate highly liquid but unallocated claims on gold owned by the company. Digital gold currency systems operate like pool accounts and additionally allow the direct transfer of fungible gold between members of the service. Other operators, by contrast, allows clients to create a bailment on allocated (non-fungible) gold, which becomes the legal property of the buyer.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Other platforms provide a marketplace where physical gold is allocated to the buyer at the point of sale, and becomes their legal property. These providers are merely custodians of client bullion, which does not appear on their balance sheet.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Typically, bullion banks only deal in quantities of or more in either allocated or unallocated accounts. For private investors, vaulted gold offers private individuals to obtain ownership in professionally vaulted gold starting from minimum investment requirements of several thousand U.S.-dollars or denominations as low as one gram.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Derivatives, such as gold forwards, futures and options, currently trade on various exchanges around the world and over-the-counter (OTC) directly in the private market. In the U.S., gold futures are primarily traded on the New York Commodities Exchange (COMEX) and Euronext.liffe. In India, gold futures are traded on the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) and Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX).


title: Gold as an investment

text: As of 2009 holders of COMEX gold futures have experienced problems taking delivery of their metal. Along with chronic delivery delays, some investors have received delivery of bars not matching their contract in serial number and weight. The delays cannot be easily explained by slow warehouse movements, as the daily reports of these movements show little activity. Because of these problems, there are concerns that COMEX may not have the gold inventory to back its existing warehouse receipts.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Outside the US, a number of firms provide trading on the price of gold via contracts for difference (CFDs) or allow spread bets on the price of gold.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Instead of buying gold itself, investors can buy the companies that produce the gold as shares in . If the gold price rises, the profits of the gold mining company could be expected to rise and the worth of the company will rise and presumably the share price will also rise. However, there are many factors to take into account and it is not always the case that a share price will rise when the gold price increases. Mines are commercial enterprises and subject to problems such as flooding, subsidence and structural failure, as well as mismanagement, negative publicity, nationalization, theft and corruption. Such factors can lower the share prices of mining companies.


title: Gold as an investment

text: The price of gold bullion is volatile, but unhedged gold shares and funds are regarded as even higher risk and even more volatile. This additional volatility is due to the inherent leverage in the mining sector. For example, if one owns a share in a gold mine where the costs of production are US and the price of gold is , the mine's profit margin will be $300. A 10% increase in the gold price to will push that margin up to $360, which represents a 20% increase in the mine's profitability, and possibly a 20% increase in the share price. Furthermore, at higher prices, more ounces of gold become economically viable to mine, enabling companies to add to their production. Conversely, share movements also amplify falls in the gold price. For example, a 10% fall in the gold price to will decrease that margin to $240, which represents a 20% fall in the mine's profitability, and possibly a 20% decrease in the share price.


title: Gold as an investment

text: To reduce this volatility, some gold mining companies hedge the gold price up to 18 months in advance. This provides the mining company and investors with less exposure to short-term gold price fluctuations, but reduces returns when the gold price is rising.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Investors using fundamental analysis analyze the macroeconomic situation, which includes international economic indicators, such as GDP growth rates, inflation, interest rates, productivity and energy prices. They would also analyze the yearly global gold supply versus demand.


title: Gold as an investment

text: The performance of gold bullion is often compared to stocks as different investment vehicles. Gold is regarded by some as a store of value (without growth) whereas stocks are regarded as a return on value (i.e., growth from anticipated real price increase plus dividends). Stocks and bonds perform best in a stable political climate with strong property rights and little turmoil. The attached graph shows the value of Dow Jones Industrial Average divided by the price of an ounce of gold. Since 1800, stocks have consistently gained value in comparison to gold in part because of the stability of the American political system. This appreciation has been cyclical with long periods of stock outperformance followed by long periods of gold outperformance. The Dow Industrials bottomed out a ratio of 1:1 with gold during 1980 (the end of the 1970s bear market) and proceeded to post gains throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The gold price peak of 1980 also coincided with the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan and the threat of the global expansion of communism. The ratio peaked on January 14, 2000, a value of 41.3 and has fallen sharply since.


title: Gold as an investment

text: One argument follows that in the long-term, gold's high volatility when compared to stocks and bonds, means that gold does not hold its value compared to stocks and bonds:


title: Gold as an investment

text: Investors may choose to leverage their position by borrowing money against their existing assets and then purchasing or selling gold on account with the loaned funds. Leverage is also an integral part of trading gold derivatives and unhedged gold mining company shares (see gold mining companies). Leverage or derivatives may increase investment gains but also increases the corresponding risk of capital loss if the trend reverses.


title: Gold as an investment

text: Gold maintains a special position in the market with many tax regimes. For example, in the European Union the trading of recognised gold coins and bullion products are free of VAT. Silver and other precious metals or commodities do not have the same allowance. Other taxes such as capital gains tax may also apply for individuals depending on their tax residency. U.S. citizens may be taxed on their gold profits at collectibles or capital gains rates, depending on the investment vehicle used.


title: Guernica

text: Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the municipality of Gernika-Lumo (), whose population is 16,224 .


title: Guernica

text: On April 26, 1937, Guernica was bombed by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe, in one of the first aerial bombings. The attack inspired Pablo Picasso's painting "Guernica", depicting his outrage at the attack.


title: Guernica

text: The village is situated in the region of Busturialdea, in the valley of the Oka river. The river ends in an estuary that gives its name to the village of Guernika. Its mouth is known as Urdaibai's estuary's heart. Gernika borders on the following townships:


title: Guernica

text: The town of Guernica was founded by Count Tello on April 28, 1366, at the intersection of the road from Bermeo to Durango with the road from Bilbao to Elantxobe and Lekeitio. The strategic importance of the site was increased by the fact that it lay on a major river estuary, where vessels could dock at the port of Suso.


title: Guernica

text: In time, it took on the typical shape of a Basque town, comprising a series of parallel streets (Goienkale, Azokekale, Artekale and Barrenkale; respectively: ‘upper, market, between, lower roads’) and a transverse street called Santa María, with a church at each end of the built-up area.


title: Guernica

text: Life in the town became rigidly structured, with the aim being to preserve the privileges of the dominant middle classes. This pattern continued practically unaltered until the late 17th century.


title: Guernica

text: On a small hillock in the town, stands the Meeting House and the Tree of Gernika. By ancient tradition, Basques, and indeed other peoples in Medieval Europe, held assemblies under a tree, usually an oak, to discuss matters affecting the community.


title: Guernica

text: In Biscay, each administrative district (known as a merindad) had its appointed tree, but over the centuries, the Tree of Guernica acquired particular importance. It stood in the parish of Lumo, on a site known as Gernikazarra, beside a small shrine.


title: Guernica

text: The laws of Biscay continued to be drawn up under this tree until 1876, with each town and village in the province sending two representatives to the sessions, known as General Assemblies. This early form of democracy was recorded by the philosopher Rousseau, by the poet William Wordsworth, by the dramatist Tirso de Molina and by the composer Iparragirre, who wrote the piece called Gernikako Arbola.


title: Guernica

text: When the Domain of Biscay was incorporated into the kingdom of Castile, the king of Castile visited Guernica and swore an oath under the Tree promising to uphold the fueros or local laws of Biscay. The oath of King Ferdinand, known as the "Catholic Monarch", on June 30, 1476, is depicted in a painting by Francisco de Mendieta popularly known as El besamanos ("The Royal audience"). On July 3, 1875, during the Carlist Wars, the pretender to the throne Don Carlos also visited Guernica and swore the oath. Throughout the 19th century, there were frequent meetings under the Tree, including both General Assemblies and other political events.


title: Guernica

text: By the 18th century, there was a square at the centre of the town, flanked by the town hall, a public gaol housing prisoners from all over the Lordship of Biscay, a hospital and a poor-house for local people. Day-to-day life comprised agriculture (growing of cereals, vegetable and fruit), crafts (menders, tailors, cobblers, flax manufacturers) and trade (transportation and sale of goods and produce).


title: Guernica

text: This was also a time of continual conflicts with the neighbouring parish of Lumo over disputed land. These disputes were not finally settled until 1882, when the two parishes joined to form Gernika-Lumo.


title: Guernica

text: The first industrial concerns were set up in the early years of the 20th century. This encouraged population growth, and the town grew from 4,500 inhabitants in 1920 to 6,000 in 1936.


title: Guernica

text: On April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, Guernica was the scene of the bombing of Guernica by the Condor Legion of Nazi Germany's "Luftwaffe" and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria. According to official Basque figures, 1,654 civilians were killed, but German sources report a round figure of 300 civilians killed in the bombing, according to the German "Bundeswehr Magazine" (published in April 2007, page 94). The raid was requested by Francisco Franco to aid in his overthrowing the Basque Government and the Spanish Republican government. The town was devastated, though the Biscayan assembly and the Oak of Guernica survived. The Bombing of Guernica, which went on continuously for three hours, is considered the beginning of the Luftwaffe doctrine of terror bombing civilian targets in order to demoralize the enemy. Pablo Picasso painted his "Guernica" painting to commemorate the horrors of the bombing and René Iché made a violent sculpture the day after the bombing. It has inspired musical compositions by Octavio Vazquez ("Gernika" Piano Trio), René-Louis Baron, Lenny White, and Mike Batt (performed by Katie Melua), and poems by Paul Eluard ("Victory of Guernica"), and Uys Krige ("Nag van die Fascistiese Bomwerpers") (English translation from the Afrikaans: "Night of the Fascist Bombers"). There is also a short film from 1950, by Alain Resnais, titled "Guernica".


title: Guernica

text: Celebrations were staged in 1966 to mark the 600th anniversary of the founding of the town. As part of these celebrations, a statue of Count Tello, made by local sculptor Agustín Herranz, was set up in the Fueros Square.


title: Guernica

text: At present, Gernika-Lumo has 16,244 (2009) inhabitants. It is a town with a prosperous service sector, and is also home to industrial companies, as well as good cultural and educational amenities.


title: Guernica

text: Guernica is historically the seat of the parliament of the province of Biscay, whose executive branch is located in nearby Bilbao.


title: Guernica

text: In prior centuries, Lumo had been the meeting place of the traditional Biscayan assembly, Urduña and chartered towns like Guernica were under the direct authority of the Lord of Biscay, and Enkarterri and the Durango area had separate assemblies. All would hold assemblies under local big trees. As time passed, the role of separate assemblies was superseded by the single assembly in Guernica, and by 1512, its oak, known as the Gernikako Arbola, became symbolic of the traditional rights of the Basque people as a whole.


title: Guernica

text: The trees are always renewed from their own acorns. One of these trees (the "Old Tree") lived until the 19th century, and may be seen, as a dry stump, near the assembly house. A tree planted in 1860 to replace it died in 2004 and was in turn replaced; the sapling that had been chosen to become the official Oak of Guernica is also sick so the tree will not be replaced until the earth around the site has been restored to health.


title: Guernica

text: A hermitage was built beside the Gernikako Arbola to double as an assembly place, followed by the current house of assembly ("Biltzar Jauregia" in Basque), built in 1826.


title: Guernica

text: On April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the town was razed to the ground by German aircraft belonging to the Condor Legion, sent by Hitler to support Franco's troops. For almost four hours bombs rained down on Guernica in an "experiment" for the blitzkrieg tactics and bombing of civilians seen in later wars.


title: Guernica

text: In 1987 the 50th anniversary of the bombing was commemorated as the town hosted the Preliminary Congress of the World Association of Martyr Cities. The full congress was held subsequently in Madrid, bringing together representatives of cities all over the world. Since then, Gernika-Lumo has been a member of this association. 1988 saw the setting up of the monument "Gure Aitaren Etxea", by Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida, and in 1990 "Large Figure in a Shelter", by British sculptor Henry Moore, was erected beside it. These monuments are symbolic of Gernika-Lumo as a city of peace.


title: Guernica

text: As part of the "Symbol for Peace" movement, Gernika has twinned with several towns, including Berga (Catalonia – 1986), Pforzheim (Germany – 1988) and Boise, Idaho (United States – 1993). The twinning agreements include co-operation in the fields of culture, education and industry.


title: Guernica

text: There is a popular saying in Guernica which runs as follows: "lunes gerniqués, golperik ez". This translates roughly as "not a stroke of work gets done on Mondays". The Monday market day has for decades been considered as a holiday in the town.


title: Guernica

text: People would flock to Guernica not just from the immediate vicinity, but from all over the province, so that the town was packed. They came not just to buy or sell at the produce market, but also to eat at the town's renowned restaurants and afterwards perhaps to watch a pelota game at the local court. The Monday market has been fulfilling its age-old function of bringing people together since the times when people could not afford to travel far and it provided them with a chance to socialise. The bombing of Guernica by Nazi Germany's "Luftwaffe" and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria was deliberately chosen to occur on a Monday (April 26, 1937), because it was known that the Basque people who lived outside of Guernica proper would travel into town for the Market Day, thus affording the pilots of the German and Italian aircraft the opportunity to murder as many innocent people as possible.


title: Guernica

text: Jai alai (cesta-punta) is a form of pelota. The Guernica jai alai court is the biggest operational court of its type in the world. It was designed by Secundino Zuano, one of Spain's leading architects of the 20th century and first opened in 1963. It is acknowledged by players of the game to be the world's finest court.


title: Guernica

text: Bare-handed pelota games are held at the Santanape court. This is the most popular form of the sport.


title: David Blunkett

text: David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough from 1987 to 2015, when he stood down. Blind since birth, and coming from a poor family in one of Sheffield's most deprived districts, he rose to become Education and Employment Secretary, Home Secretary and Work and Pensions Secretary in Tony Blair's Cabinet following Labour's victory in the 1997 general election.


title: David Blunkett

text: Following the 2001 general election, he was promoted to Home Secretary, a position he held until 2004, when he resigned following publicity about his personal life. Following the 2005 general election, he was appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, though he resigned from that role later that year following media coverage relating to external business interests in the period when he did not hold a cabinet post. The Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell exonerated him from any wrongdoing in his letter of 25 November 2005.


title: David Blunkett

text: On 20 June 2014, Blunkett announced to his constituency party that he would be standing down from the House of Commons at the next general election in May 2015. The editor of the conservative "The Spectator" magazine, Fraser Nelson, commented, "He was never under-briefed, and never showed any sign of his disability ... he was one of Labour's very best MPs – and one of the very few people in parliament whose life I would describe as inspirational." Responding to a question from Blunkett on 11 March 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron said: "As a new backbencher, I will never forget coming to this place in 2001 and, in the light of the appalling terrorist attacks that had taken place across the world, seeing the strong leadership he gave on the importance of keeping our country safe. He is a remarkable politician, a remarkable man."


title: David Blunkett

text: In May 2015, he accepted a professorship in Politics in Practice at the University of Sheffield (in 2014 he was invited to be a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences), and in June 2015 he agreed to become chairman of the Board of the University of Law. In addition to his other work with charities, he was also chairman of the David Ross Multi Academy Charitable Trust from June 2015 to January 2017. He is the honorary president of the Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT).


title: David Blunkett

text: In August 2015, he was awarded a peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours. He was created Baron Blunkett, "of Brightside and Hillsborough in the City of Sheffield", on 28 September.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett was born on 6 June 1947 at Jessop Hospital, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, with improperly developed optic nerves due to a rare genetic disorder. He grew up in an underprivileged family; in 1959 he endured a family tragedy when his father was gravely injured in an industrial accident: he fell into a vat of boiling water while at work as a foreman for the East Midlands Gas Board, dying a month later. This left the surviving family in poverty, especially since the board refused to pay compensation for two years because his father worked past the retirement age, dying at age 67.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett was educated at schools for the blind in Sheffield and Shrewsbury. He attended the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford. He was apparently told at school that one of his few options in life was to become a lathe operator. Nevertheless, he won a place at the University of Sheffield, where he gained a BA honours degree in Political Theory and Institutions; one of his lecturers was Bernard Crick. He entered local politics on graduation, whilst gaining a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from Huddersfield Holly Bank College of Education (now part of the University of Huddersfield). He spent a total of six years going to evening classes and day-release classes to get the qualifications needed to go to university. He worked as a clerk typist between 1967 and 1969 and as a lecturer in industrial relations and politics between 1973 and 1981.


title: David Blunkett

text: By 1970, Blunkett was a Methodist local preacher based at Southey church in the Sheffield (North) circuit of the Methodist Connexion. He told the Methodist Recorder "My politics come directly from my religion. As a Christian I seen myself as a Socialist; not exactly a Donald Soper, but that way inclined". At that point, he was engaged to Ruth Mitchell and they planned to marry in July.


title: David Blunkett

text: In 1970, at the age of 22, Blunkett became the youngest-ever councillor on Sheffield City Council and in Britain, being elected while a mature student. He was elected on the same day as fellow Labour member Bill Michie who like Blunkett would go on to serve as a Sheffield MP. Blunkett served on Sheffield City Council from 1970 to 1988, and was Leader from 1980 to 1987. He also served on South Yorkshire County Council from 1973 to 1977. This was a time of decline for Sheffield's steel industry. Blunkett and Michie were among what political journalist Julia Langdon has described as "an energetic group of young Labour activists who emerged in Sheffield in the 1970s, a number of whom moved on to Westminster". The Conservative MP for Sheffield Hallam, Irvine Patnick, coined the phrase "Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire" to describe the left-wing politics of its local government. Although bestowed as a criticism of the radical policies being pursued by Labour councillors in the area, Langdon notes that it "was in fact happily embraced by those it was intended to denigrate". Sheffield City Council supported the National Union of Mineworkers in their 1984–85 strike, designated Sheffield a "nuclear-free zone", and set up an Anti-Apartheid Working Party. Blunkett became known as the leader of one of Labour's left-wing councils, sometimes described pejoratively as "loony left". Blunkett was one of the faces of the protest over rate-capping in 1985 which saw several Labour councils refuse to set a budget in a protest against Government powers to restrain their spending. He built up support within the Labour Party during his time as the council's leader during the 1980s, and was elected to the Labour Party's National Executive Committee.


title: David Blunkett

text: Having unsuccessfully fought Sheffield Hallam in February 1974, at the 1987 general election he was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside with a large majority in a safe Labour seat. He became a party spokesman on local government, joined the shadow cabinet in 1992 as Shadow Health Secretary and became Shadow Education Secretary in 1994.


title: David Blunkett

text: Following Labour's landslide victory in the 1997 general election, he became Secretary of State for Education and Employment, thus becoming Britain's first blind cabinet minister (Henry Fawcett, husband of suffragist Millicent Fawcett, had been a member of the Privy Council, of which the Cabinet is the executive committee, more than a century before). The role of Education Secretary was a vital one in a government whose prime minister had in 1996 described his priorities as "education, education, education" and which had made reductions in school class sizes a pledge.


title: David Blunkett

text: As Secretary of State, Blunkett pursued conservative reforms, ready to take on the teaching unions and determined to ensure basic standards of literacy and numeracy. He was rewarded with extra funding to cut class sizes, and subsequently there has since 1997 been a massive increase in literacy and numeracy, and there are 42,000 more teachers than in 1997, with doubled spending per pupil in frontline schools (and over 100,000 teaching assistants) through to 2010. A key pillar of Blunkett's work as Education Secretary was the introduction of Sure Start, a government programme which provides services for pre-school children and their families. It works to bring together early education, childcare, health and family support. In 2011, the government effectively started the abolition of Sure Start by lifting the ring fence on earmarked funding and cutting back drastically on the funds available.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett also led the massive expansion in higher education. He provided large scale investment in universities in the UK and one recent study, covering up to the decade of 2013, showed that universities are now educating more than one-quarter more students than they did previously and receiving double the income they did.


title: David Blunkett

text: Also in this position, Blunkett launched Learning and Skills Councils, created Job Centre Plus and had responsibility for the Equal Opportunities Commission, as well as establishing the Disability Rights Commission (as Home Secretary, he was also responsible for the Commission on Racial Equality – all three of these bodies were incorporated later into the Equality and Human Rights Commission).


title: David Blunkett

text: In 1999, Blunkett proposed that sex education should not be pursued until children have left primary school at 11, reportedly arguing that childhood, the "age of innocence", should not be compromised by "graphic" sex education. In 2000, while attempting to cool opposition to the proposed abolition of the Local Government Act 1988's Section 28, he issued guidelines on the importance of 'family values' in teaching children sex education.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett introduced the teaching of citizenship in schools in 1999, arguing that "We want to ensure that there's a basis of traditional knowledge that's available to all children." Citizenship education provides pupils with the knowledge, skills and understanding to become informed citizens, aware of their rights, duties and responsibilities.


title: David Blunkett

text: At the start of the Labour government's second term in 2001, Blunkett was promoted to Home Secretary, fulfilling an ambition of his. Some observers saw him a rival to Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in succeeding Blair as Prime Minister.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett was almost immediately faced with September 11 attacks on the United States. He brought in new anti-terrorism measures, including detention without trial of suspect foreign nationals who could not be extradited or deported. It caused a backbench rebellion and provoked strong opposition in the House of Lords, and Blunkett made concessions over incitement to religious hatred (later carried through by his successor) and to introduce a "sunset clause". He authorised MI5 to start collecting bulk telephone communications data on which telephone numbers called each other and when, authorised under a little understood general power under the Telecommunications Act 1984 instead of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which would have brought independent oversight and regulation. This was kept secret until announced by the then Home Secretary in 2015.


title: David Blunkett

text: As Home Secretary, he was prepared to confront the judiciary and the police, with proposals for civilian community patrols and changes to police officers' pay and working conditions. More than 7,000 police demonstrated outside Parliament in 2002.


title: David Blunkett

text: Also during his term in office, the massive upsurge in asylum claims was reversed, the Sangatte refugee camp on French soil was closed, and refugees numbers subsequently dropped from 110,000 to less than 30,000. With an additional 15,000 police officers and 6,500 Community Support Officers by 2004, crime had reached an all-time low with over a 40% drop from ten years earlier.


title: David Blunkett

text: A controversial area for Blunkett was civil liberties, and he described civil libertarianism as "airy fairy". As Education Secretary, he had repeatedly expressed the intention that, were he to become Home Secretary, he would make the then-incumbent Jack Straw, who had been criticised for being hard-line, seem over-liberal. In 2006, Martin Narey, the former director general of the prison service, claimed that Blunkett had once told him to use the army and machine guns, to deal with rioting prisoners. Blunkett has denied these allegations.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett radically overhauled 'Victorian' sex offences legislation in 2002, which modernised the sex offences laws dramatically in relation to same-sex and related issues by sweeping away the archaic laws governing homosexuality, while tightening protections against rapists, paedophiles and other sex offenders. The act closed a loophole that had allowed those accused of child rape to escape punishment by arguing the act was consensual and a new offence of adult sexual activity with a child, which covers any sex act that takes place between an adult and a child under 16, was introduced. It was supported by all major political parties in the UK.


title: David Blunkett

text: In 2004, it emerged that Blunkett had directed Home Office civil servants to closely monitor and counter the findings of MigrationWatch UK, which controversially included manipulating the timing of statistical releases to avoid criticism from the pressure group.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett resigned as Home Secretary on 15 December 2004 amidst allegations that he helped fast-track the renewal of a work permit for his ex-lover's nanny.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett thanked the Jewish community in 2005 for its "extraordinary support" when "things got difficult" in his personal and professional life and said that "I won't let you down. I feel deeply honoured when friends from the Jewish community are prepared to welcome me. I feel like one of the family." While he was born a Methodist, his son with Kimberly Quinn attended a Jewish nursery, as Quinn has Jewish heritage. In 2005, he was presented with an honorary doctorate by Haifa University. He is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.


title: David Blunkett

text: The accusations made against him in November 2004 formed part of an acrimonious public conflict playing out in the Family Court in respect of contested Contact and Responsibility Orders. Clarity about the circumstances and events leading up to and surrounding his departure emerged in the phone hacking trial of 2013/14. In 2011, Blunkett had negotiated a private £300,000 settlement with News International over the hacking of his phone. Details of the settlement were later revealed by "The Observer". On 24 June 2014, Andy Coulson, former editor of the "News of the World" and Head of Communications for David Cameron, was found guilty of a charge of conspiracy to intercept voicemails.


title: David Blunkett

text: Following the 2005 general election, Blunkett was returned to the cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, where he faced a growing pensions crisis.


title: David Blunkett

text: Two weeks before the election, Blunkett took up a directorship in a company called DNA Bioscience and bought £15,000 of shares in the company. After sustained questions over a six-month period, Blunkett was asked on 31 October 2005 to explain why he had not consulted the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments regarding the directorship. Having placed the shares into an independent trust, he said that the trustees had agreed to dispose of the shares.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett's political opponents claimed that a conflict of interest was created by him having been director of and holding shares in a company proposing to bid for government contracts to provide paternity tests to the Child Support Agency (CSA) – part of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), of which he was Secretary of State. On 2 November, a scheduled appearance before a House of Commons Select Committee was cancelled at the last minute and Blunkett was summoned to a meeting at 10 Downing Street. Later that morning, a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair confirmed Blunkett had resigned at the meeting, stating that his position had become untenable. This became the main focus of discussion at the session of Prime Minister's Questions that afternoon, and Conservative leader Michael Howard described the event as 'the beginning of the final chapter of (Blair's) administration'.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett was later found not to have broken the ministerial code. On 25 November 2005, after he had resigned, Gus O'Donnell wrote to Blunkett confirming that there was no conflict of interest, no failure to declare either Blunkett's shareholding or brief business connection with the company. O'Donnell wrote: "The issue of shareholdings and trusts and the handling of private interests more generally is of course covered quite extensively in Section 5 of the Ministerial Code. There is no ban on a Minister, or his or her immediate family members, holding such interests but where they do the Minister must ensure that no conflict arises, or appears to arise, between his or her public duties and such private interests. In terms of the handling of your interests, and those of your family, you followed correct procedure in notifying your Permanent Secretary of your interests. Neither the DWP nor the CSA were in any contractual relationship with DNA Bioscience, and the CSA's contract for biometric testing was not due to be renewed for some years."


title: David Blunkett

text: O’Donnell also confirmed that the Advisory Committee on Ministerial Appointments, which had been the bone of contention up to the beginning of November 2005, was in fact voluntary. The code was changed in 2007 to make clear that references prior to taking business appointments shortly after leaving government was to be mandatory as part of the ministerial code.


title: David Blunkett

text: Despite his resignation from the cabinet in November, Blunkett initially kept his ministerial accommodation in Belgravia, London, until he found new accommodation four months later. He also rents a cottage on the estate of Chatsworth House.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett is a Vice President of the Royal National Institute of Blind People and a vice president of the National Alzheimer's Society, and has close links with a range of other charities (local to Sheffield and nationally) including those relating to substance abuse and breast cancer, and is a Patron of the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion (enei). He is also a patron of The Micro and Anophthalmic Children's Society, a charity for children born without eyes or with underdeveloped eyes. He is also a former Honorary Chair of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA-UK) Advisory Board and was, until March 2015, Chairman of the not-for-profit International Cyber Security Protection Alliance (ICSPA).


title: David Blunkett

text: In October 2010, Blunkett proposed the creation of a 'Yorkshire Parliament' giving autonomy to the historic county with a similar funding formula to the Welsh Assembly's devolved budget, which would entitle Yorkshire to annual budget of around £24 Billion.


title: David Blunkett

text: One of his main interests is volunteering and community service. In 2011, he published a pamphlet calling for a National Volunteer Programme, which received a wide range of support, particularly among third sector organisations. Since then, Blunkett has commenced putting together and becoming a founder of the Future For Youth Foundation, which sought to tackle high levels of unemployment in young people and which concluded its work in the summer of 2015.


title: David Blunkett

text: He was a key voice in the 'No to AV' campaign in 2010–11 and has spoken out against the Government's proposed boundary changes.


title: David Blunkett

text: In September 2012, he published "In Defence of Politics Revisited", where he set out a range of proposals to increase faith in, and improve the working of, democratic politics. He was later awarded status as an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. In July 2013, Sheffield University announced Blunkett had become a Visiting Professor in the Department of Politics, in the world's first Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics.


title: David Blunkett

text: He sits on the board of the National Citizen Service Trust, a voluntary community service programme for 16- and 17-year-olds. From 2013 to 2014, he chaired a parliamentary inquiry with the Charities Aid Foundation into how giving to charities could be boosted. This reported in June 2014, making recommendations ranging from the inclusion of a ‘social action’ section on UCAS forms to the creation of a post-careers advice service, for those who are retiring but wish to continue giving in their community. This led to the National Citizen Service Act coming into law in 2017.


title: David Blunkett

text: Between June 2013 and May 2014, Blunkett led a review into local oversight of schools and the raising of standards for the leader Ed Miliband and the Shadow Education Secretary. The ‘Blunkett Report’ was published in May 2014, and called for the creation of new independent Directors of School Standards to operate between local authorities. These directors would focus on bringing greater coherence to the process of school creation, raising standards and improving local accountability.


title: David Blunkett

text: In June 2014, he announced he would not be contesting the election in the following year, stating that he had realised he would not be returning to the frontbenches. In his letter he wrote: "it is clear that the leadership of the Party wish to see new faces in Ministerial office and a clear break with the past".


title: David Blunkett

text: In 2013, Blunkett joined the advisory board of global wealth consultancy Oracle Capital Group, continuing in that role to 2017.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett became chair of the David Ross Education Trust, one of Britain's largest Multi-Academy Trusts, sponsored by Carphone Warehouse founder David Ross, in 2015. He resigned in 2017 along with several others members of board when the sponsor would not acknowledge or take action on major issues raised about governance procedures, and the blocking of an independent review initiated by Blunkett and the then Chief Executive Wendy Marshall.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett was appointed as Professor of Politics in Practice at the University of Sheffield in June 2015. In 2017, he received an Honorary Doctorate for services to government and education from the University of Huddersfield.


title: David Blunkett

text: Professor Robert D. Putnam, the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard University, speaking about David's time in the Home Office in a webinar in February 2021 said: “He was, at that time, THE most far-sighted communitarian on either side of the Atlantic that I met. We spent hours in his office – in his office at the Home Office – talking about what we could do… to bring people together, even in the face of crises that he saw before anybody else in the British political elite… David is a national treasure in the UK.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett fears intelligence agencies in the UK and abroad may be reluctant to share information because Suella Braverman became home secretary again days after resigning due to a security breach. Blunkett said in the House of Lords “Isn’t it true there could be two really unfortunate outcomes to the reappointment of the current Home Secretary? [Suella Braverman] One is that the security and intelligence services will be reluctant to provide the briefings and the openness needed. And the second is that other international security agencies will be reluctant to share with us if they are fearful that their information will be passed out of Government itself.”


title: David Blunkett

text: In October 2006, Blunkett's audio diaries were published in his book "The Blunkett Tapes: My Life in the Bear Pit". The tapes detail his time as a cabinet minister until the present date, and provide insights into the workings of the Labour cabinet. They were recorded every week, and contain his view of what was happening in Cabinet at the time, alongside contemporary reflections and more recent thoughts on the events. He also published a light-hearted dog-oriented look back at his life so far, in "On a Clear Day", published by Michael O'Mara Books in 1995.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett has also co-authored a number of publications including "Building from the Bottom" (1982), published by the Fabian Society, and "Democracy in Crisis" (1987), published by Hogarth, which described the battle between local and central government in the Thatcher years. He has also contributed chapters to many books relating to politics and social policy and has also produced research papers with the University of Sheffield. Other publications include "Ladders Out of Poverty" in 2006 and "Mutual Action, Common Purpose" in 2009 (relating to the voluntary sector).


title: David Blunkett

text: Outside politics, Blunkett enjoys a career as a popular conference and after dinner speaker. His booking agency JLA state that his speech topics include "The Political Landscape, Overcoming Adversity, Social Responsibility and Diversity." Blunkett has also given lectures and contributed to debates at the Institute of Art and Ideas.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett has made many radio and television appearances. He took part in a celebrity version of "Mastermind", where his specialist subject was Harry Potter. He finished last, scoring 11 points. He was featured on the Channel Five documentary series "Banged Up" in 2008. Blunkett also appeared as a celebrity chef, competing against Gordon Ramsay, on season 4 episode 4 of the British television series "The F Word". In 2018, Blunkett featured on the "University Challenge" Christmas editions, representing Sheffield.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett divorced his wife of 20 years, Ruth Mitchell, by whom he had three sons, in 1990. In 2004, the "News of the World" revealed a three-year affair with Kimberly Quinn, a married former publisher of "The Spectator", and the disputed parentage of their then two-year-old child. After prolonged press speculation, DNA tests showed that Blunkett was the father. In 2005, "The People" newspaper launched a cycle of media speculation about Blunkett's alleged relationship with a young woman. The newspaper later apologised, admitting that the story was entirely false.


title: David Blunkett

text: In January 2009, Blunkett announced that he was engaged to be married to Margaret Williams, a doctor in Sheffield. They married the same year.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett's guide dogs – Ruby, Teddy, Offa, Lucy, Sadie, Cosby, and Barley – became familiar characters in the House of Commons, usually sleeping at his feet on the floor of the chamber, inspiring occasional comments from Blunkett and his fellow MPs on both sides of the house. In one incident, Lucy (a cross between a black Labrador and a curly coat retriever) vomited during a speech by Conservative member David Willetts. On one occasion, his new guide dog led him to the Conservative Party benches.


title: David Blunkett

text: Blunkett was portrayed by Phil Cornwell in The Comic Strip Presents's 1992 film "Red Nose of Courage". He was parodied in the TV comedy "Believe Nothing". Satirist Alistair Beaton wrote the television film "A Very Social Secretary", for Channel 4, which was screened in October 2005. He was played by Bernard Hill. He appears regularly both on news and magazine programmes, and he was the subject of an episode of "The House I Grew up In". In 2014, the Grime MC Chronik released the track "Go Blunkett" on his critically acclaimed "Rise of the Lengman" LP.


title: Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster

text: Natalia Ayesha Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster ("née" Phillips; born 8 May 1959), is a British aristocrat, philanthropist and winemaker. She is the widow of the 6th Duke of Westminster and mother of the 7th Duke. As of 2021, the Duchess's family, specifically her son, were 12th on the "Sunday Times Rich List" with a net worth of £10.045 billion.


text: Born Natalia Ayesha Phillips, she is the youngest daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Harold "Bunnie" Phillips and Georgina "Gina" Wernher. Her paternal grandparents were Colonel Joseph Phillips and Mary Bryce, daughter of John Pablo Bryce. Her maternal grandparents were Sir Harold Wernher, 3rd Bt, and Countess Anastasia de Torby, morganatic daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia. Tally, as she is known to friends and family, had an older brother, Nicholas (1947–1991), and three older sisters, including Marita Knight and the late Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn. She and her siblings are indirect descendants of poet Alexander Pushkin and Afro-Russian engineer Abram Gannibal.


text: Natalia met Gerald Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor, at a ball at Blenheim Palace in 1977. When Natalia's maternal grandmother heard she was going out with the heir to the Duke of Westminster, she told her "Don't let him go. Don't let him go, you must come down and bring him to lunch".


text: They married the next year at St Mary's Church, Luton, near her family seat, Luton Hoo, on 17 October 1978. Natalia wore a gown designed by Sarah Butler and an antique diamond and spinel tiara which Grosvenor had bought for her that had belonged to Princess Catherine Bagration. Notable guests at the wedding included Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, and Lord Mountbatten, whose granddaughter, India Hicks, was a bridesmaid. Upon marriage, Natalia was styled as "Countess Grosvenor".


text: Four months later, Grosvenor's father died and he became the 6th Duke of Westminster, thus making Natalia the Duchess of Westminster. They have four children and six grandchildren:


text: The Duchess supports many charitable endeavours in Cheshire and across the United Kingdom, these include the Alex Moulton Charitable Trust and the Hopsice of the Good Shepherd.


text: The Duchess is godmother of William, Prince of Wales, in turn, Diana, Princess of Wales, was godmother of her daughter, Lady Edwina, and her son, Hugh, is godfather of Prince George of Wales.


text: The Duchess owns a vineyard in Portofino called "La Cappelletta" where she produces "Vermentino della Cappelletta", a Ligurian Vermentino.


title: Beijing Guoan F.C.

text: Beijing Guoan Football Club () is a professional football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in the Chaoyang District in Beijing and their home stadium is the Workers' Stadium with a seating capacity of 66,161. In early 2021, the shareholders changed from the real estate company Sinobo Group (64%) and CITIC Limited (36%) of CITIC Group to solely Sinobo Group (100%). The club is one of the four teams to have never been relegated from the league since its debut in 2004.


title: Beijing Guoan F.C.

text: The club's predecessor was called Beijing Football Club and they predominantly played in the top tier, where they won several domestic league and cup titles. On December 29, 1992 the club was recognized to become a completely professional football club making them one of the founding members of the first fully professional top tier league in China. Since then they have gone on to win their first ever professional league title in the 2009 league season as well as the 1996, 1997, 2003 and 2018 Chinese FA Cup.


title: Beijing Guoan F.C.

text: According to "Forbes", Guoan was the second most valuable football team in China, with a team value of US$167 million, and an estimated revenue of US$30 million in 2015. According to the disclosure of CITIC Pacific, the club revenue was in 2013 season. In 2015 season, the sponsorship from CITIC Securities was .


title: Beijing Guoan F.C.

text: The club's first incarnation came in 1951 when the local government sports body decided to take part in China's first fully nationalized national football league tournament and decided to form a football team with the best players from Beijing and Tianjin to create the North China team. The team name was taken from the football team in the 1910 multi-sport event Chinese National Games that also represented the same regions. The team ended up finishing fourth in their debut season and with the football league gradually expanding, the players from Beijing and Tianjin were allowed to separate and the local Beijing government sports body was allowed to reform the club as Beijing Football Club in 1955. The club made its debut appearance in the 1956 season and wore an all white home kit and all red away strip. In the 1956 campaign the club were also allowed to enter their youth team called Beijing Youth B who actually went on to win the league title while Beijing came sixth that season. The club strengthened their hold on the following seasons when they won the 1957 and 1958 league titles. With these results, the club had become a major force within Chinese football, and with the club's youth team still participating within the top tier, there was a constant supply of players coming into the team to fight for places. Being China's capital city and for their success on the field, the club had become a feeder team for the Chinese national team. This often saw the club unable to complete a full championship schedule and the youth team were often used to represent the club, which did little to diminish Beijing football and actually resulted in the youth team to win the 1963 championship for the second time, showing the strength in depth of the region of Beijing football until 1966 when the Chinese Cultural Revolution halted football within the country. When football returned to the China, Beijing won the 1973 league title in the newly re-established footballing league. While Beijing once again re-established themselves as major title contenders, they did not win any major titles until the 1982, where they won the league title, followed by the 1984 league title and the 1985 Chinese FA Cup title. After this period, Beijing's performances seemed to have declined and were relegated for the first time in their history at the end of the 1988 season, however, their time within the second tier was short lived and they won the division title and promotion to the first tier at the end of the 1990 season. In total, Beijing had won the league title five times during the old Chinese National Football League era before the club was given full professionalism in 1992.


title: Beijing Guoan F.C.

text: Beijing Guoan was formed on December 29, 1992, as a result of the Chinese football reform, which was the Chinese Football Association's attempt to professionalize the Chinese football league system. The club was set up by the CITIC Guoan of CITIC Group, a state-owned enterprise of China, and the Beijing Municipal Sports Committee. The club then took part in the 1994 Chinese Jia-A League season, making them a founding member of the first fully professional top tier league in China and changed their home colors to green to symbolize the change. In their first professional season, Beijing finished in a disappointing eighth out of twelve teams and the manager Tang Pengju was relieved of his duties. The club brought in Jin Zhiyang to manage them the following season and results under his reign improved enough for them to finish the 1995 campaign in the runners-up position. The following season Jin Zhiyang lead Beijing to their first professional trophy when he beat Jinan Taishan Jiangjun 4–1 to lift the 1996 Chinese FA Cup. Jin Zhiyang was able to retain the Cup the following year with a 2–1 victory against Shanghai Shenhua, which impressed the Chinese FA who lured him away from Beijing when they offered him a position with the Chinese national team. The assistant coach Shen Xiangfu stepped into the managerial role and in his debut season he guided the club to third within the league, however in his second season the team slid down to sixth and he left the club.


title: Beijing Guoan F.C.

text: Serbian Milovan Đorić became Beijing's first foray with a foreign manager when he joined the club at the start of the 2000 league season. His reign was exceptionally short-lived after he lost his first three games of the season before he was replaced with native coach Wei Kexing. At the start of the 2002 league season, Beijing hired their second foreign manager in Ljupko Petrović. Foreign influences continued in 2003, when the club signed a three-year endorsement contract with jointly owned South Korean company Beijing Hyundai, which resulted in the club changing its name to Beijing Hyundai to accommodate this. In 2005 Spanish football club Real Madrid went into negotiations with Beijing on a football development project. At the start of the 2007 league season two time Chinese FA Cup winner with Chongqing Lifan and Qingdao Beilaite, Lee Jang-soo was hired as the team's manager. The South Korean manager in his debut season guided the club to second within the league. By the 2009 league season, the club had returned to the Workers Stadium after it had been in renovation for the 2008 Summer Olympics under Lee Jang-soo's helm. It looked as if the club would be winning its first professional league title until a 2–0 defeat from Changchun Yatai on September 15, 2009, which saw the club slip to third place and Lee Jang-soo was unscrupulously fired with seven games remaining. Former Beijing player Hong Yuanshuo was immediately brought into the team and on the final day of the season Beijing thrashed Hangzhou Greentown 4–0 to clinch the 2009 league championship.


title: Beijing Guoan F.C.

text: Despite founded by CITIC Guoan Group, the stake of the football club was held by another subsidiary CITIC Corp., Ltd. () of CITIC Group, a Beijing incorporated SPV for a possible listing in the mainland China since 2012. (CITIC Group invited other investors to purchase the new share of CITIC Guoan Group in 2014, making the company no longer a subsidiary of CITIC Group) In 2014, CITIC Group floated by backdoor listing most of their assets to their Hong Kong-based subsidiary CITIC Pacific (renaming to CITIC Limited) including the entire share capital of "CITIC Corp.", thus the stake of the football club was indirectly floated in a stock exchange.


title: Beijing Guoan F.C.

text: On 27 December 2016, real estate company Sinobo Group participated the capital increase of the club for a reported 64% stake which was finalised on 10 January 2017, making them the largest shareholder. According to a Chinese Government database, the share capital of the club had increased from to , making Sinobo Group own 64.00% stake with par value and undisclosed share premium. The club was also renamed to Beijing Sinobo Guoan F.C. Co., Ltd..


title: Beijing Guoan F.C.

text: Three stadiums have been used as the home court of Beijing Guoan since 1994: Xiannongtan Stadium (1994–95), Workers' Stadium (1996–05, 2009–2020), Beijing Fengtai Stadium (2006–08, 2020-23) and New Beijing Workers’ Stadium (2023-)


title: Beijing Guoan F.C.

text: Beijing Guoan's fiercest and oldest rivalry is against Shanghai Shenhua and is often referred to as the Jing-Hu Derby, a.k.a. the rivalry between Beijing and Shanghai. The rivalry with Shenhua is viewed as a manifestation of the rivalry that exist between the cities on which is the most import towards the country, as one is the center of government while the other is the financial centre of modern commerce within China. With each club being able to claim to having an extensive history spanning successful periods, direct competition for silverware, however rarely coincided until the 1997 league season. With Shenhua having won the 1995 league title and Beijing having won the 1996 Chinese FA Cup both teams looked as if they had the pedigree to win silverware that season and on July 20, 1997 in a vital league game, Beijing thrashed Shenhua 9–1 at the Workers' Stadium in Beijing. It was Beijing's largest victory and Shenhua's greatest defeat ever recorded. Soon after that match, both teams met again in the 1997 FA Cup final, which saw Beijing win the cup.


title: Beijing Guoan F.C.

text: The Jing-Jin derby is a local rivalry between Beijing Guoan and neighboring Tianjin Teda (now Tianjin Jinmen Tiger). Both teams can trace their histories to the North China team before it split to form the Beijing Football Club and Tianjin Football Club. Since then both clubs have predominantly remained within the top tier of Chinese football providing a constant rivalry fixture, which has led to intense matches that have spilled out away from the stadiums and onto the streets that have led to property destruction as well as further intensifying their relationship.


title: JMM (Better Call Saul)

text: "JMM" is the seventh episode of the fifth season of the AMC television series "Better Call Saul", a spin-off series of "Breaking Bad". The episode aired on March 30, 2020, on AMC in the United States. Outside of the United States, the episode premiered on the streaming service Netflix in several countries.


title: JMM (Better Call Saul)

text: Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler get married in a civil ceremony; with spousal privilege, Jimmy can tell Kim about his cases without lying.


title: JMM (Better Call Saul)

text: Lalo Salamanca is charged under an alias with Fred Whalen's murder. Nacho Varga calls Jimmy to represent Lalo at arraignment. Lalo is remanded and directs Jimmy to obtain his release on bail, promising that if successful, Jimmy will become wealthy as a "friend of the cartel." Jimmy tests his new relationship with Kim by telling her about Lalo, including his intent not to fight for Lalo's release.


title: JMM (Better Call Saul)

text: Rich Schweikart and Kim apologize to Kevin Wachtell for the outcome of Everett Acker's case, and Kevin indicates he will let them know whether he decides to retain them. After leaving, Kim leads Rich back to Kevin's office and tells Kevin he consistently ignored their advice and that whether he retains them or obtains new lawyers, he should be more willing to listen. Kevin indicates his approval by telling them he will see them at their regular Thursday meeting.


title: JMM (Better Call Saul)

text: Mike Ehrmantraut spends time with Kaylee Ehrmantraut and tells Stacey Ehrmantraut he is past the problem that caused his recent anger. Nacho tells Mike that Lalo wants Nacho to burn down one of Gus Fring's restaurants. In Houston, Gus and other Madrigal subsidiary owners report to CEO Peter Schuler. Gus later meets with Peter and Lydia Rodarte-Quayle to update them on the meth lab's construction and warns them that Lalo remains a threat. Peter panics and Gus calms him by reminding him of an experience they shared in Santiago. Gus and Nacho later protect Nacho's role as the mole inside the Salamanca organization by burning down the Los Pollos Hermanos in Los Lunas.


title: JMM (Better Call Saul)

text: Gus wants Lalo released, so Mike provides Jimmy details about the investigation he did under an assumed name. Jimmy uses the information at the bail hearing to accuse police of witness tampering. The judge grants bail of cash. Howard Hamlin approaches Jimmy at the courthouse about working at HHM and Jimmy says he is still considering it. Howard realizes Jimmy is toying with him, including damaging his car and disrupting his recent business lunch with Clifford Main, and rescinds the offer. Jimmy continues to blame Howard for Chuck McGill's death and loudly proclaims that he is far beyond a job at HHM and that Howard means nothing to him.


title: JMM (Better Call Saul)

text: "JMM" is the directorial debut of Melissa Bernstein, an executive producer on "Breaking Bad", "Better Call Saul", and "".


title: JMM (Better Call Saul)

text: Several Easter eggs referencing "Breaking Bad" were included in this episode. Bernstein created a bookend scene for the character Peter Schuler, the CEO of Madrigal, to contrast with his death scene in the "Breaking Bad" episode "Madrigal", with both scenes starting with Peter tasting sauces from Madrigal's restaurant subsidiaries. They also brought in the use of the phrase "friend of the cartel" which Saul utters in desperation to Walt and Jesse when they abduct him in his introductory "Breaking Bad" episode "Better Call Saul," believing that Lalo provided a good way to introduce that phrase to Jimmy/Saul. Other such references include the allusion to Jimmy's previous two marriages prior to Kim, and Lydia's trademark red-soled high heel shoes.


title: JMM (Better Call Saul)

text: Alan Sepinwall for "Rolling Stone" and Melanie McFarland for "Salon" both observed that the episode's title, "JMM," could be taken three ways: as Jimmy's own initials (James Morgan McGill), as an initialism for "Justice Matters Most" (which Jimmy coins because Kim gave him the monogrammed briefcase after he decided to use the Saul Goodman name), and as an initialism for the phrase "Just Make Money" (the phrase Lalo uses to persuade Jimmy to obtain his release on bail).


title: JMM (Better Call Saul)

text: "JMM" received acclaim from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 100% Certified Fresh rating, with an average 9.08 out of 10 review score from 14 reviews. Its summary of the critical consensus is "Jimmy ties the knot, but Saul Goodman is hanging a noose over everyone's future in this diabolically satisfying installment."


title: JMM (Better Call Saul)

text: Emmy nominee Giancarlo Esposito submitted this episode for consideration for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.


title: Little owl

text: The little owl (Athene noctua), also known as the owl of Athena or owl of Minerva, is a bird that inhabits much of the temperate and warmer parts of Europe, the Palearctic east to Korea, and North Africa. It was introduced into Britain at the end of the 19th century and into the South Island of New Zealand in the early 20th century.


title: Little owl

text: This owl is a member of the typical or true owl family Strigidae, which contains most species of owl, the other grouping being the barn owls, Tytonidae. It is a small, cryptically coloured, mainly nocturnal species and is found in a range of habitats including farmland, woodland fringes, steppes and semi-deserts. It feeds on insects, earthworms, other invertebrates and small vertebrates. Males hold territories which they defend against intruders. This owl is a cavity nester and a clutch of about four eggs is laid in spring. The female does the incubation and the male brings food to the nest, first for the female and later for the newly hatched young. As the chicks grow, both parents hunt and bring them food, and the chicks leave the nest at about seven weeks of age.


title: Little owl

text: Being a common species with a wide range and large total population, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as "least concern".


title: Little owl

text: The little owl was formally described in 1769 by the Austrian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli under the binomial name "Strix noctua". The little owl is now placed in the genus "Athene" that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1822. The owl was designated as the type species of the genus by the George Robert Gray in 1841. The genus name, "Athene", commemorates the goddess, whose original role as a goddess of the night might explain the link to an owl. The species name "noctua" has, in effect, the same meaning, being the Latin name of an owl sacred to Minerva, Athena's Roman counterpart.


title: Little owl

text: The little owl is a small owl with a flat-topped head, a plump, compact body and a short tail. The facial disc is flattened above the eyes giving the bird a frowning expression. The plumage is greyish-brown, spotted, streaked and barred with white. The underparts are pale and streaked with darker colour. It is usually in length with a wingspan of for both sexes, and weighs about .


title: Little owl

text: The adult little owl of the most widespread form, the nominate "A. n. noctua", is white-speckled brown above, and brown-streaked white below. It has a large head, long legs, and yellow eyes, and its white "eyebrows" give it a stern expression. Juveniles are duller, and lack the adult's white crown spots. This species has a bounding flight like a woodpecker. Moult begins in July and continues to November, with the male starting before the female.


title: Little owl

text: The call is a querulous "kiew, kiew". Less frequently, various whistling or trilling calls are uttered. In the breeding season, other more modulated calls are made, and a pair may call in duet. Various yelping, chattering or barking sounds are made in the vicinity of the nest.


title: Little owl

text: The distribution of the little owl is widespread across Europe, Asia and North Africa. Its range in Eurasia extends from the Iberian Peninsula and Denmark eastwards to China and southwards to the Himalayas. In Africa it is present from Mauritania to Egypt, the Red Sea and Arabia. The bird has been introduced to New Zealand, and to the United Kingdom, where it has spread across much of England and the whole of Wales.


title: Little owl

text: This is a sedentary species which is found in open countryside in a great range of habitats. These include agricultural land with hedgerows and trees, orchards, woodland verges, parks and gardens, as well as steppes and stony semi-deserts. It is also present in treeless areas such as dunes, and in the vicinity of ruins, quarries and rocky outcrops. It sometimes ventures into villages and suburbs. In the United Kingdom it is chiefly a bird of the lowlands, and usually occurs below . In continental Europe and Asia it may be found at much higher elevations; one individual was recorded from in Tibet.


title: Little owl

text: This owl usually perches in an elevated position ready to swoop down on any small creature it notices. It feeds on prey such as insects and earthworms, as well as small vertebrates including amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. It may pursue prey on the ground and it caches surplus food in holes or other hiding places. A study of the pellets of indigestible material that the birds regurgitate found mammals formed 20 to 50% of the diet and insects 24 to 49%. Mammals taken included mice, rats, voles, shrews, moles and rabbits. The birds were mostly taken during the breeding season and were often fledglings, and including the chicks of game birds. The insects included Diptera, Dermaptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. Some vegetable matter (up to 5%) was included in the diet and may have been ingested incidentally.


title: Little owl

text: The little owl is territorial, the male normally remaining in one territory for life. However, the boundaries may expand and contract, being largest in the courtship season in spring. The home range, in which the bird actually hunts for food, varies with the type of habitat and time of year. Little owls with home-ranges that incorporate a high diversity of habitats are much smaller (< 2 ha) than those which breed in monotonous farmland (with home-ranges over 12 ha). Larger home-ranges result in increased flight activity, longer foraging trips and fewer nest visits. If a male intrudes into the territory of another, the occupier approaches and emits its territorial calls. If the intruder persists, the occupier flies at him aggressively. If this is unsuccessful, the occupier repeats the attack, this time trying to make contact with his claws. In retreat, an owl often drops to the ground and makes a low-level escape. The territory is more actively defended against a strange male as compared to a known male from a neighbouring territory; it has been shown that the little owl can recognise familiar birds by voice.


title: Little owl

text: The little owl is partly diurnal and often perches boldly and prominently during the day. If living in an area with a large amount of human activity, little owls may grow used to humans and will remain on their perch, often in full view, while people are around. The little owl has a life expectancy of about 16 years. However, many birds do not reach maturity; severe winters can take their toll and some birds are killed by road vehicles at night, so the average lifespan may be on the order of 3 years.


title: Little owl

text: This owl becomes more vocal at night as the breeding season approaches in late spring. The nesting location varies with habitat, nests being found in holes in trees, in cliffs, quarries, walls, old buildings, river banks and rabbit burrows. A clutch of 3 to 5 eggs is laid (occasionally 2 to 8). The eggs are broadly elliptical, white and without gloss; they measure about . They are incubated by the female who sometimes starts sitting after the first egg is laid. While she is incubating the eggs, the male brings food for her. The eggs hatch after 28 or 29 days. At first the chicks are brooded by the female and the male brings in food which she distributes to them. Later, both parents are involved in hunting and feeding them. The young leave the nest at about 7 weeks, and can fly a week or two later. Usually there is a single brood but when food is abundant, there may be two. The energy reserves that little owl chicks are able to build up when in the nest influences their post-fledgling survival, with birds in good physical condition having a much higher chance of survival than those in poor condition. When the young disperse, they seldom travel more than about . Pairs of birds often remain together all year round and the bond may last until one partner dies.


title: Little owl

text: "A. noctua" has an extremely large range. It has been estimated that there are between 560 thousand and 1.3 million breeding pairs in Europe, and as Europe equates to 25 to 49% of the global range, the world population may be between 5 million and 15 million birds. The population is believed to be stable, and for these reasons, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed the bird's conservation status as being of "least concern".


title: Little owl

text: Owls have often been depicted from the Upper Palaeolithic onwards, in forms from statuettes and drawings to pottery and wooden posts, but in the main they are generic rather than identifiable to species. The little owl is, however, closely associated with the Greek goddess Athena and the Roman goddess Minerva, and hence represents wisdom and knowledge. A little owl with an olive branch appears on a Greek tetradrachm coin from 500 BC (a copy of which appears on the modern Greek one-euro coin) and in a 5th-century B.C. bronze statue of Athena holding the bird in her hand. The call of a little owl was thought to have heralded the murder of Julius Caesar.


title: Little owl

text: In Bulgarian and Romanian folklore, the little owl is said to be a harbinger of death. In 1992, the little owl appeared as a watermark on Jaap Drupsteen’s 100 guilder banknote for the Netherlands.


title: Little owl

text: In 1843 several little owls that had been brought from Italy were released by the English naturalist Charles Waterton on his estate at Walton Hall in Yorkshire but these failed to establish themselves. Later successful introductions were made by Lord Lilford on his Lilford Hall estate near Oundle in Northamptonshire and by Edmund Meade-Waldo at Stonewall Park near Edenbridge, Kent. From these areas the birds spread and had become abundant by 1900. The owls acquired a bad reputation and were believed to prey on game bird chicks. They therefore became a concern to game breeders who tried to eliminate them. In 1935 the British Trust for Ornithology initiated a study into the little owl's diet led by the naturalist Alice Hibbert-Ware. The report showed that the owls feed almost entirely on insects, other invertebrates and small mammals and thus posed little threat to game birds.


title: Little owl

text: There is evidence that from the 19th century little owls were occasionally kept as ornamental birds. In Italy, tamed and docked little owls were kept to hunt rodents and insects in the house and garden.


title: Little owl

text: More common was keeping little owls to use them in so-called cottage hunting. This took advantage of the fact that many bird species react to owls with aggressive behaviour when they discover them during the day (mobbing). Such huntings, particularly with tawny owls, were practiced in Italy from 350 B.C. until the 20th century and in Germany from the 17th to the 20th century. In Italy, mainly skylarks were caught in this way. The main place of trade was Crespina, a small town near Pisa. Here, little owls were traditionally sold on 29 September, after being taken from their nests and raised in human care. Only since the 1990s has this trade been officially banned; however, because of the long cultural tradition for hunting with little owls, exemptions are still granted. Thus, there is still a breeding center for little owls near Crespina, which is maintained by hunters.


title: HMS Conqueror (S48)

text: HMS "Conqueror" was a British nuclear-powered fleet submarine which served in the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1990. She was the third submarine of her class, following the earlier and , that were all designed to face the Soviet threat at sea. She was built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead.


title: HMS Conqueror (S48)

text: "Conqueror" the only nuclear-powered submarine to have engaged an enemy ship with torpedoes, sinking the cruiser "General Belgrano" during the 1982 Falklands War.


title: HMS Conqueror (S48)

text: "Conqueror" was ordered on 9 August 1966 and was laid down at Cammell Laird's Birkenhead shipyard on 5 December 1967; she was launched on 28 August 1969. Construction was delayed by slow working by Cammell Laird's workforce, and sabotage of the ship's gearbox, which delayed completion by several months. "Conqueror" was finally commissioned on 9 November 1971; she was the last nuclear submarine built by Cammell Laird.


title: HMS Conqueror (S48)

text: "Conqueror", commanded by Commander Chris Wreford-Brown, was deployed during the Falklands War, setting sail from Faslane Naval Base on the Gareloch in Scotland on 3 April 1982, one day after the Argentine invasion. "Conqueror" arrived in the exclusion zone around the Falkland Islands 21 days later and was ordered to scan the area for Argentine shipping, particularly the aircraft carrier "Veinticinco de Mayo" ("25th of May").


title: HMS Conqueror (S48)

text: On 30 April, she spotted the Argentine light cruiser "General Belgrano" sailing southwest of the Falklands, just outside the exclusion zone imposed by the British on all shipping. With "Veinticinco de Mayo" approaching the islands from the north, the commander of the British carrier battle group in the South Atlantic, Rear Admiral "Sandy" Woodward, feared a pincer attack, with "General Belgrano" attacking from the south and "Veinticinco de Mayo" from the north. Woodward requested permission from his superiors to sink "General Belgrano".


title: HMS Conqueror (S48)

text: After some debate, permission to engage "General Belgrano" was sent to the submarine from the Commander-in-Chief Fleet and Task Force commander, Admiral Sir John Fieldhouse, at the Royal Navy's command centre in Northwood in the United Kingdom. In the intervening period, "General Belgrano" had retired from its attack position and turned west, since "Veinticinco de Mayo" was not yet ready to engage the British fleet. This would cause some controversy, although "General Belgrano"s captain and the Argentine government acknowledged that the attack was a legitimate act of war.


title: HMS Conqueror (S48)

text: On 2 May "Conqueror" became the first nuclear-powered submarine to sink an enemy surface ship using torpedoes, launching three Mark 8 torpedoes at "General Belgrano", two of which struck the ship and exploded. Twenty minutes later, the ship was sinking rapidly and was abandoned by her crew. "General Belgrano" was unable to issue a Mayday signal because of electrical failure; this and poor visibility meant the two escorting destroyers ARA "Piedra Buena" and ARA "Bouchard" (both also ex-United States Navy vessels) were unaware of the sinking until some hours later. A total of 323 men were killed.


title: HMS Conqueror (S48)

text: Adding to the confusion, the crew of "Bouchard" felt an impact that was possibly the third torpedo striking at the end of its run (an examination of the ship later showed an impact mark consistent with a torpedo). The two ships continued on their course westward and began dropping depth charges. By the time the ships realised that something had happened to "General Belgrano", it was already dark and the weather had worsened, scattering the life rafts.


title: HMS Conqueror (S48)

text: "Conqueror"s war did not end there. The crew of the submarine had to face Argentine Air Force attempts to locate her in the days after the attack, which had shocked the Argentine people and ruling dictatorship. "Conqueror" did not fire again throughout the war, but helped the task force by using sophisticated monitoring equipment to track Argentine aircraft departing from the mainland.


title: HMS Conqueror (S48)

text: After the war, "Conqueror" returned to Faslane, flying a Jolly Roger, a customary act of Royal Navy submarines after a kill. The flag, now in the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, featured an atom for "Conqueror" being the only nuclear submarine with a kill, crossed torpedoes for the type of weapon used, a dagger indicating a cloak-and-dagger operation, and the outline of a cruiser for what kind of ship was sunk. When asked about the incident later, Commander Wreford-Brown responded, "The Royal Navy spent thirteen years preparing me for such an occasion. It would have been regarded as extremely dreary if I had fouled it up".


title: HMS Conqueror (S48)

text: Later in 1982, "Conqueror" completed a raid to acquire a Soviet passive towed sonar array from its Polish-flagged towing vessel. The operation, a joint mission between British and American forces, was conducted on the boundary of Soviet territorial waters. "Conqueror" used cutters affixed to her bow to shear through the thick wire before silently returning to her base on the Clyde.


title: HMS Conqueror (S48)

text: On 2 July 1988 "Conqueror" was involved in a collision with the Army Sail Training Association yacht "Dalriada" south of the Mull of Kintyre. The yacht sank and four crew members were rescued.


title: HMS Conqueror (S48)

text: "Conqueror" was decommissioned in 1990 and the periscopes, captain's cabin and main control panel from the submarine's control room are on display in the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport. , "Conqueror" is one of 20 nuclear submarines still held in storage by the Ministry of Defence, awaiting final disposal.


title: Courtney Walsh

text: Courtney Andrew Walsh OJ (born 30 October 1962) is a former Jamaican cricketer who represented the West Indies from 1984 to 2001, captaining the West Indies in 22 Test matches. He is a fast bowler and considered one of the all time greats, best known for a remarkable opening bowling partnership along with fellow West Indian Curtly Ambrose for several years. Walsh played 132 Tests and 205 ODIs for the West Indies and took 519 and 227 wickets respectively. He shared 421 Test wickets with Ambrose in 49 matches. He held the record of most Test wickets from 2000, after he broke the record of Kapil Dev. This record was later broken in 2004 by Shane Warne. He was the first bowler to reach 500 wickets in Test cricket. His autobiography is entitled "Heart of the Lion". Walsh was named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1987. In October 2010, he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was appointed as the Specialist Bowling Coach of Bangladesh Cricket Team in August 2016.


title: Courtney Walsh

text: Courtney Andrew Walsh was born on 30 October 1962 in Kingston, Jamaica. He played his early cricket there with the same cricket club for which Michael Holding also played cricket—the Melbourne club. Walsh first claim to fame came in 1979 when he took 10 wickets in an innings in school cricket and three years later made his first-class cricket debut. He played 427 matches of this format between 1981 and 2001, and took 1,807 wickets at the average of 21.71, including 104 five-wicket hauls and 20 ten-wicket hauls. Walsh played first-class cricket for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club (Gloucestershire CCC) from 1985 to 1998.


title: Courtney Walsh

text: Walsh played cricket for the West Indies from 1984 to 2001, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club (Gloucestershire CCC) from 1984 to 1998, Jamaica cricket team from 1981–82 to 1999–00, Rest of the World XI in 1987 and West Indies A in 1991–92. He first played for Gloucestershire CCC in 1984 and was a mainstay of the side until 1998.


title: Courtney Walsh

text: Walsh made his Test debut against Australia in Perth in 1984, taking 2 wickets for 43 runs. He played six Test matches during the 1984–85 season, five against Australia in the 1984–85 series between the teams, and one Test against New Zealand in the home series. He took 16 wickets in the season conceding 507 runs. In the same season, Walsh also made his One Day International debut against Sri Lanka at Hobart during the World Series Cup. He took one wicket for 47 from 10 overs in the match. In the next two seasons, Walsh played a match at home against England, three matches against Pakistan and three matches against New Zealand, both outside the West Indies. He took 29 wickets from seven matches in these seasons, including a five-wicket haul against New Zealand. In 1987, Walsh was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year for his performance the previous year.


title: Courtney Walsh

text: In the 1987–88 season, Walsh toured India and played four Test matches against them, taking 26 wickets at an average of 16.80. In the first Test of the series at Feroz Shah Kotla Ground, he took six wickets for 67 runs, including five wickets for 54 runs in India's second innings. In the first innings of the second Test at Wankhede Stadium, he repeated the same performance of five for 54. In that season, Pakistan cricket team visited the West Indies and played three Tests there. In the 1987 Cricket World Cup Walsh backed out to ball and run out Saleem Jaffar as he was backing up as Pakistan required two off the last ball to qualify for the semi finals, Abdul Qadir eventually scored the winning runs and West Indies lost but Walsh was deservedly feted for his sportsmanship, he even received a hand-woven carpet from a local fan. Walsh underperformed in the series, taking only four wickets from three matches. He played four matches against England in 1988, and took 12 wickets at an average of 34.33. During the West Indies tour of Australia in 1988–89, Walsh played five Tests and took 17 wickets at 29.41. His best bowling in the series came the first innings of the first match, taking four wickets for 62 runs, including a hat-trick. He took an unusual hat-trick that covered two innings at the Brisbane Cricket Ground, dismissing Australia's Tony Dodemaide with the last ball of the first innings and Mike Veletta and Graeme Wood with his first two deliveries in the second. During that winter he also took 10 wickets in a Test match for the first time against India in Kingston.


title: Courtney Walsh

text: In 1994, he was appointed captain of the West Indies for the tours of India and New Zealand after Richie Richardson was ordered to rest because of "acute fatigue syndrome". In 1995, he took 62 Test wickets at an average of 21.75 runs per wicket, a performance which he bettered in 2000 when he took 66 Test wickets at an average of 18.69, including 34 wickets in the Test series against England at an average of 12.82 runs per wicket. Coming close to the record for a West Indian bowler of 35 wickets in a Test series (set by Malcolm Marshall in 1988). In the 1990s, his partnership with Curtly Ambrose was one of the most feared bowling attacks in world cricket.


title: Courtney Walsh

text: During the first part of his career, Walsh served as the "stock" bowler in an attack featuring Marshall, Joel Garner and later Ambrose, but after the retirement of Marshall and Garner took the role as opening bowler. His action lacked the elegance of those bowlers, but its economy and his natural athleticism ensured he was accurate and durable, even over very long spells and he used his height (about 198 cm, or six-foot-six) to extract vicious bounce. Even as he lost pace in the later stage of his career he continued to take wickets at an undiminished rate; teams tended to defend against him and Ambrose and attack the weaker third and fourth bowlers.