title: Wisbech

text: Charles Kingsley's 1850 novel "Alton Locke" has a character Bob Porter referring to the gibbeting of two Irish reapers at Wisbech River after trial for murder. Wisbech and Fenland Museum has a headpiece that was used with the gibbet in a similar case in the 18th century.


title: Wisbech

text: Wisbeach and its river Nene (or Nen), wooden piling and riverport, two stations are mentioned by Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) who dined at the Whyte Harte hotel, North Brink.


title: Wisbech

text: Wisbech was one of eight towns featured in "Old Towns Revisited" published by Country Life Ltd in 1952.


title: Wisbech

text: Travel writer Nicholas Wollaston's (1927–2007) visit to the town produced a chapter in his 1965 book.


title: Wisbech

text: There are two free newspapers distributed within the town and online, the "Wisbech Standard" (owned by Archant) and the' "Fenland Citizen" (owned by Iliffe Media).


title: Wisbech

text: Several free local magazines are published online and distributed: "The fens" (monthly), "Discovering Wisbech" (monthly), "The Wisbech Post" (quarterly), and the "Fenland Resident" (quarterly).


title: Wisbech

text: According to a study looking into immigration patterns, Wisbech was once identified as the seventh "most English" town in Britain by Sky News. However, on 16 February 2008 a report in the "Daily Express" titled "Death of a Country Idyll" wrote about how the influx of Eastern European immigrants may have caused an increase in crime. Then on 20 February 2008 "The Fenland Citizen" contained an article opposing the "Daily Express" article.


title: Wisbech

text: On 14 May 2011 Wisbech featured in "The Guardian" "Let's Move to..." column: Tom Dyckhoff highlighted the Georgian streets, cinemas, local community groups and poor rail links.


title: Wisbech

text: In November 2018 Wisbech featured in an article in the "Daily Telegraph" by Jack Rear entitled "The spirited English town with some of Britain's best forgotten history".


title: Wisbech

text: "Wisbech Merchants' Trail" was updated and released as a map and booklet and as a free mobile app in August 2019. There are 17 brass plaques at historical sites around the town.


title: Wisbech

text: The town council produces an annual "Official Town Guide and Map" published by Local Authority Publishing Co Ltd. There is also an online version.


title: Wisbech

text: Like the rest of the United Kingdom, Wisbech experiences an oceanic climate, but Cambridgeshire is one of the driest counties in the British Isles along with Essex. February is the driest month, whilst October is the wettest. In temperature terms, both January and December are the coldest months, whilst August is the warmest.


title: LGBT rights in North Korea

text: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in North Korea are likely to face social challenges due to their sexuality or gender identity. However, homosexuality is not illegal.


title: LGBT rights in North Korea

text: Homosexuality and transgender issues are not formally addressed in the penal code. Criminal sanctions are sometimes levied against homosexuality or non-conforming gender expression deemed to be "against the socialist lifestyle", however it is unclear whether or not these are directly linked to their identities or gender expression. 2009 revisions of the national penal code may contain provisions that could potentially be used against LGBT people in a discriminatory manner, depending on interpretation. While punishment is rare, it has been reported by "The Korea Times" that North Korea has executed a lesbian couple for being influenced by capitalism and bringing corruption of public morals.


title: LGBT rights in North Korea

text: Article 193 outlaws the creation, distribution or possession of "decadent" culture, where as Article 194 outlaws sexually explicit media as well as engaging in "decadent" behavior.


title: LGBT rights in North Korea

text: The Constitution of North Korea, last revised in 2019, does not explicitly address discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.


title: LGBT rights in North Korea

text: The Constitution does broadly guarantee its citizens many civil, cultural, economic and political rights, including "enjoy equal rights in all spheres of State and public activities".


title: LGBT rights in North Korea

text: The North Korean military law mandates celibacy during the first 10 years of service for all enlistees. Reportedly, male soldiers regularly break this rule by engaging in casual heterosexual and homosexual affairs; these homosexual relationships have been described as situational sexual behavior rather than a sexual orientation, and may result in execution.


title: LGBT rights in North Korea

text: In 2008 and 2011, North Korea opposed both the "joint statements on ending acts of violence and related human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity" at the United Nations that condemn violence and discrimination against LGBT people. Its precise reasons for doing so remain unclear.


title: LGBT rights in North Korea

text: North Korean propaganda, much like the state-controlled media, almost always depicts homosexuality as a characteristic of Western (and particularly American) morality. In the short story "Snowstorm in Pyongyang" (평양에서 눈보라, published 2000), captured crewmen of the USS "Pueblo" implore their North Korean captors to allow them to engage in gay sex.


title: LGBT rights in North Korea

text: In 2014, after the United Nations Human Rights Council published a report on human rights in North Korea advising a referral to the International Criminal Court, the official Korean Central News Agency responded with an article that included homophobic insults against report author Michael Kirby, who is openly gay. The KCNA's article went on to state that gay marriage "can never be found in the DPRK boasting of the sound mentality and good morals, and homosexuality has become a target of public criticism even in Western countries, too. In fact, it is ridiculous for such gay to sponsor dealing with others' human rights issue."


title: LGBT rights in North Korea

text: Defectors have testified that most North Koreans are unaware of the concepts of sexual orientation other than heterosexual exists. Most LGBT people only realized after they had defected that the ideas of homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgender identity exist. Due to cultural differences while close same-sex relationships exist they are seen differently from the western concepts of homosexuality. Same sex behavior is reported to be present in the military specially in remote regions between young soldiers and senior officers. Cross-dressing is also reported to exist. Such behavior is said to be largely tolerated but are not a major social issue or a topic of discussion in North Korean society compared to South Korea.


title: Imine

text: In organic chemistry, an imine ( or ) is a functional group or organic compound containing a carbon–nitrogen double bond (). The nitrogen atom can be attached to a hydrogen or an organic group (R). The carbon atom has two additional single bonds. Imines are common in synthetic and naturally occurring compounds and they participate in many reactions.


title: Imine

text: For ketimines and aldimines, respectively, the five core atoms (CC=NX and C(H)C=NX, X = H or C) are coplanar. Planarity results from the sp-hybridization of the mutually double-bonded carbon and the nitrogen atoms. The C=N distance is 1.29-1.31 Å for nonconjugated imines and 1.35 Å for conjugated imines. By contrast, C-N distances in amines and nitriles are 1.47 and 1.16 Å, respectively. Rotation about the C=N bond is slow. Using NMR spectroscopy, both E- and Z-isomers of aldimines have been detected. Owing to steric effects, the E isomer is favored.


title: Imine

text: Usually imines refer to compounds with the general formula RC=NR, as discussed below. In the older literature, imine refers to the "aza"-analogue of an epoxide. Thus, "ethylenimine" is the three-membered ring species aziridine CHNH. The relationship of imines to amines having double and single bonds can be correlated with imides and amides, as in succinimide vs acetamide.


title: Imine

text: Imines are related to ketones and aldehydes by replacement of the oxygen with an NR group. When R = H, the compound is a primary imine, when R is hydrocarbyl, the compound is a secondary imine. If this group is "not" a hydrogen atom, then the compound can sometimes be referred to as a Schiff base. When R is OH, the imine is called an oxime, and when R is NH the imine is called a hydrazone.


title: Imine

text: A primary imine in which C is attached to both a hydrocarbyl and a H is called a primary aldimine; a secondary imine with such groups is called a secondary aldimine. A primary imine in which C is attached to two hydrocarbyls is called a primary ketimine; a secondary imine with such groups is called a secondary ketimine.


title: Imine

text: N-Sulfinyl imines are a special class of imines having a sulfinyl group attached to the nitrogen atom.


title: Imine

text: Imines are typically prepared by the condensation of primary amines and aldehydes or ketones. Ketones undergo similar reactions, but less commonly than aldehydes. In terms of mechanism, such reactions proceed via the nucleophilic addition giving a hemiaminal -C(OH)(NHR)- intermediate, followed by an elimination of water to yield the imine (see alkylimino-de-oxo-bisubstitution for a detailed mechanism). The equilibrium in this reaction usually favors the carbonyl compound and amine, so that azeotropic distillation or use of a dehydrating agent, such as molecular sieves or magnesium sulfate, is required to favor of imine formation. In recent years, several reagents such as Tris(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)borate [B(OCHCF)], pyrrolidine or titanium ethoxide [Ti(OEt)] have been shown to catalyse imine formation.


title: Imine

text: Rarer than primary amines is the use of ammonia to give a primary imine. In the case of hexafluoroacetone, the hemiaminal intermediate can be isolated.


title: Imine

text: Primary ketimines can be synthesized via a Grignard reaction with a nitrile. This method is known as Moureu-Mignonac ketimine synthesis. For example, benzophenone imine can also be synthesized by addition of phenylmagnesium bromide to benzonitrile followed by careful hydrolysis (lest the imine be hydrolyzed):


title: Imine

text: The chief reaction of imines, often undesirable, is their hydrolysis back to the amine and the carbonyl precursor.


title: Imine

text: Somewhat like the parent amines, imines are mildly basic and reversibly protonate to give iminium salts:


title: Imine

text: Alternatively, primary imines are sufficiently acidic to allow N-alkylation, as illustrated with benzophenone imine:


title: Imine

text: Imines are common ligands in coordination chemistry. Particularly popular examples are found with Schiff base ligands derived from salicylaldehyde, the salen ligands. Metal-catalyzed reactions of imines proceed through such complexes. In classical coordination complexes, imines bind metals through nitrogen. For low-valent metals, η-imine ligands are observed.


title: Imine

text: Very analogous to ketones and aldehydes, primary imines are susceptible to attack by carbanion equivalents. The method allow for the synthesis of secondary amines:


title: Imine

text: Imines are reduced via reductive amination. An imine can be reduced to an amine via hydrogenation for example in a synthesis of "m"-tolylbenzylamine:


title: Imine

text: The asymmetric reduction of imines has been achieved by hydrosilylation using a rhodium-DIOP catalyst. Many systems have since been investigated.


title: Imine

text: Owing to their enhanced electrophilicity, iminium derivatives are particularly susceptible to reduction to the amines. Such reductions can be achieved by transfer hydrogenation or by the stoichiometric action of sodium cyanoborohydride. Since imines derived from unsymmetrical ketones are prochiral, their reduction defines a route to chiral amines.


title: Imine

text: Unhindered aldimines tend to cyclize, as illustrated by the condensation of methylamine and formaldehyde, which gives the hexahydro-1,3,5-triazine.


title: Imine

text: Imine polymers (polyimines) can be synthesised from multivalent aldehydes and amines. The polymerisation reaction proceeds directly when the aldehyde and amine monomers are mixed together at room temperature. In most cases, (small) amounts of solvent may still be required. Polyimines are particularly interesting materials because of their application as vitrimers. Owing to the dynamic covalent nature of the imine bonds, polyimines can be recycled relatively easily. Furthermore, polyimines are known for their self-healing behaviour.


title: Imine

text: Imines are intermediates in the alkylation of amines with formic acid in the Eschweiler-Clarke reaction.


title: Imine

text: A methylene transfer reaction of an imine by an unstabilised sulphonium ylide can give an aziridine system.


title: Imine

text: Imines are common in nature. The pyridoxal phosphate-dependent enzymes (PLP enzymes) catalyze myriad reactions involving aldimines (or Schiff bases).


title: World Painted Blood

text: World Painted Blood is the eleventh studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer. It was released through American Recordings and Sony Music on November 3, 2009 and was produced by Greg Fidelman and executively produced by Rick Rubin. It is the band's only album produced by Greg Fidelman and the last with guitarist Jeff Hanneman and drummer Dave Lombardo. With much anticipation for the album after 2006's "Christ Illusion", members of Slayer began revealing information about the album beginning in early 2009.


title: World Painted Blood

text: There were four different artworks released for the album, each of which completed one-fourth of a map that when put together illustrates the earth painted with red. There are eleven tracks on the album, with origins illustrating death and destruction, war, serial killers, and the Apocalypse. "World Painted Blood" is the final Slayer studio album to feature their full original lineup with Lombardo before he departed from the band, and Hanneman before his death, both in 2013. It is also the band's final album to be released through American Recordings, as well as the final collaboration between Slayer and label owner Rubin, who had worked with the band as their producer or executive producer since "Reign in Blood" (1986).


title: World Painted Blood

text: Three singles were released from the album: "Psychopathy Red", "Hate Worldwide", and "World Painted Blood". The album received generally positive reviews from music critics. It was praised by "The A.V. Club", who said that the "resounding success in that regard: It's eclectic, but never self-consciously so." "Hate Worldwide" and "World Painted Blood" were both nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 52nd and 53rd Grammy Awards, respectively. The album peaked at number two on the US Top Hard Rock Albums chart, as well as twelve on the "Billboard" 200 and forty-one on the United Kingdom album chart.


title: World Painted Blood

text: "World Painted Blood" marked the first time that the band wrote material in the studio rather than entering the studio fully prepared with lyrics. The fact that they were not prepared made guitarist Kerry King skeptical. King related: "I was kind of thinking, 'Man, this could be the first record in a long time that's got a little bit of filler,'" he acknowledges. "But I think every song came out great. I was concerned some would sound similar, and every one is completely different. It's cool how it worked out." The majority of the lyrics and music were written by guitarist Jeff Hanneman. Kerry King stated: "I like when Jeff writes as much as he did for this record. When you have one guy doing most of the writing you only get one perspective. A lot of Jeff's stuff has a very punky vibe this time; the stuff I write sounds thrashy but with a hint of punk, and when Jeff writes the stuff is more punk with a hint of thrash. It works together well." Unlike 2006's "Christ Illusion", the band was "under-ready" with their lyrics and music.


title: World Painted Blood

text: The album was recorded in Los Angeles, California with producer Greg Fidelman from late January and March 2009. There were 13 songs recorded for the album, but only 11 appear on the album. In May 2009, King said of the album: "I think this one has a little bit of everything—more so than anything we've done since "Seasons". So I would imagine people are gonna compare it to that one." The band had recorded thirteen songs for the album, seven written by lead guitarist Jeff Hanneman and six by King, although not all of them were included. King later confirmed the album's release date was pushed back to late summer 2009. An article on Slayer's website confirmed the album's name. On August 20, 2009, Roadrunner Records confirmed the track listing. Thom Jurek of Allmusic said the production "takes a different tack altogether for this guitar-manic crew." A listening party for "World Painted Blood" was held on October 30, 2009 at Duff's Brooklyn in Williamsburg, New York. The event started at 9:00 pm


title: World Painted Blood

text: During the recording of "World Painted Blood", King used BC Rich Guitars, Marshall Amplifiers and Cabs, Dunlop strings and picks, EMG pickups, and Korg tuners. Hanneman used ESP guitars, Marshall Amplifiers and Cabs, Dunlop strings and picks, Monster Cables, and Shure Wireless System. Vocalist/bassist Araya used ESP basses, Marshall Bass Amplifiers and Cabs, EMG Pick-Ups, Dunlop Picks and accessories, and MXR Effects. Lombardo used Tama Drums, Paiste cymbals, Pro-Mark drum sticks, and Evans drum heads.


title: World Painted Blood

text: Record producer Greg Fidelman said that "the fact that the songs were still new and fresh to them, and they hadn't been playing them for six months in rehearsal, kept the vibe and excitement in the studio very high." Vocalist Tom Araya said that there "are two principal music writers in this band, so you're going to get a combination of speed and heaviness," and later said that the "writing is really aggressive and fast, while Jeff likes things to be fast, but with melodies and grooves. In making this album, we seemed to share the same vision from song ideas to titles; when we get together as Slayer, it just happens, nothing is contrived, it's not thought out, we just do it, and we did that with this new album." Lombardo said that Hanneman's writing and performance had "gone back to this great punk energy, especially with 'Psychopathy Red'."


title: World Painted Blood

text: Allmusic said that it expressed moods such as Harshness, Fiery, Confidence, Rowdiness, Aggressiveness, Rebellious, Cathartic, Anger, and Hostility. It also is categorized in genres like speed metal and heavy metal. Thom Jurek said Lombardo's percussion beats "are WAAAAAAAY up in the mix," and said that "you can understand every word, even on the thrashers" about Tom Araya's vocal style. "[T]he guitars are simply further down in the mix and sometimes it becomes difficult to discern Araya's bass. Therefore, the first listen or two to World Painted Blood might be a bit confusing for the seasoned Slayer fan, but that changes quickly, and the sound of those drums blasting in one's head will become a more than welcome presence in the mix."


title: World Painted Blood

text: The album's title track was said by band members to be the continuation of "Final Six", which was an outtake from their previous album. "Final Six" origins deal with the apocalypse. "Human Strain" deals with apocalyptic origins as well. The track was explained by guitarist Jeff Hanneman to initially be about the human race dying off by a mutative disease. The title of "Public Display of Dismemberment" refers to the consequences that countries outside of the United States give to citizens for crimes. Tom Araya said that "Unit 731" is "very similar to Josef Mengele in the sense that it was a medical unit in the military, which was a Japanese military unit, actually. They did kind of the same thing; they tested the limits of the human body and recorded it for scientific purposes." "Playing With Dolls" is about a child witnessing a serial killer. "Beauty Through Order" is about Elizabeth Báthory, the most prolific female serial killer. Jeff Hanneman explained: "I've been meaning to write a song about that for a long time. I couldn't figure out the angle, I was thinking, 'How does a woman write? I can't write like a woman I'm a guy!' Then I just figured, 'Well, she's evil; she has lots of power and killed people.' So I just started writing and the lyrics and they came out." Slayer revealed to "Revolver" that the track "Snuff" has no lyrical concept. "Psychopathy Red" was inspired by the Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo.


title: World Painted Blood

text: "Psychopathy Red", a song inspired by the Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, was made available as a "limited edition, blood-red vinyl seven-inch vinyl" disc on April 18, 2009 as part of the third annual Record Store Day. The song premiered on October 29, 2008, on a YouTube stream. Originally, "Psychopathy Red" was going to be a b-side of "World Painted Blood", but after there was access to it on the internet, they decided to add it to the album's track list.


title: World Painted Blood

text: On July 28, the song "Hate Worldwide" was released as a CD-single, exclusively available at Hot Topic stores. The song was available on the internet before November 2008 and until July 2009, it had been streamed more than a half-million times. "Hate Worldwide" was released as a limited-edition single on October 20, 2009, through Columbia Records as a CD. The song was made available exclusively at Hot Topic stores and was streamed at Hot Topic's ShockHound.com. The composition was written by Kerry King who said "It's a really cool track, and Tom's voice sounds incredible on it. The last line in the song's chorus is '..spread a little hate worldwide,' and that's what we've been doing for 25 years." Along with five other songs, "Hate Worldwide" was nominated for a Best Metal Performance Grammy Award, but lost to "Dissident Aggressor" by Judas Priest, which ironically Slayer covered 22 years earlier on their 4th studio album "South of Heaven", (Priest's 2010 Grammy Award winning version, was a live recording, taken from the 2009 album "").


title: World Painted Blood

text: The title track, "World Painted Blood", was released as a seven-inch single on November 26, 2010, and was limited to 2500 copies. It included the b-side "Atrocity Vendor". A music video for the song had already been released on June 16, 2010. The single was exclusively released through the Metal Club record store chain. The song itself was said by the band to be a continuation of "Final Six", a bonus track on the special edition of Slayer's 2006 album "Christ Illusion", and deals with the end of the world. Araya and Hanneman have said "World Painted Blood" is "one of the more classic Slayer songs". A music video has been made for "Beauty Through Order", however, it has been removed from most online sources.


title: World Painted Blood

text: The album earned generally positive reviews. On Metacritic, it holds a score of 78 out of 100 based on 11 reviews.


title: World Painted Blood

text: "Sounding," said "Classic Rock", "like it was recorded in a studio where the amps were set to "FUCK YOU" rather than 11 and armed with a dual attack of heavy and heaviest, Slayer's 10th studio album [sic] offers a remarkable clarity of vision and strength of identity."


title: World Painted Blood

text: "Quite frankly we were beginning to wonder if they still had an album like this left in them," said Greg Moffitt of the BBC. "A few of the songs command the attention with the insistence of old… [The album is] a deliciously wicked ride." AllMusic's Thom Jurek awarded the album three and a half stars, saying, "In many ways it could be "Reign In Blood Revisited"… Some compositions on this new recording have more of the band's early–style melody in them, with lightning flare–up riffs between verses: quick unexpected guitar pyrotechnics; and blast beat power drumming from Dave Lombardo pushing it all into red."


title: World Painted Blood

text: Leonard Pierce of "The A.V. Club" remarked on the "burden" that "weighs particularly heavy on bands that made their reps with intensity and innovation; Slayer, in particular, was perceived as wandering in the wilderness during the years Paul Bostaph sat behind the drum kit." He rewarded the album with an A−, describing it as "eclectic, but never self-consciously so. It rarely flags in intensity, and it's good enough that if it were inserted in Slayer’s discography right after "Seasons In The Abyss" — the record it most resembles — it would be an almost seamless transition." Adrien Begrand of PopMatters gave the album eight out of ten stars, saying, "It's a slight improvement on "Christ Illusion", as more than on any of their previous five albums, the foursome of guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, bassist/vocalist Tom Araya, and drummer Dave Lombardo find themselves revisiting the seminal styles of their 1986–88 heyday." About.com's Chad Bowar and MusicOMH gave the album four out of five stars.


title: World Painted Blood

text: Blabbermouth's Ryan Ogle gave it 7.5 out of 10 and said it "jumps into fairly aggressive thrash gallop, but doesn't really have that 'straight-for-the-throat' feel you'd expect from track one."


title: World Painted Blood

text: "World Painted Blood" sold 41,000 copies in the United States in its first week, landing it at number twelve on the "Billboard" 200. It had sold 160,000 copies in the US as of February 2015. The album peaked at number seven in Germany and debuted at forty–one on the UK Albums Chart. "Hate Worldwide" was nominated for Best Metal Performance in 2009, and the title track was nominated for the same award a year later, but lost to Iron Maiden's "El Dorado".


title: World Painted Blood

text: In June 2009, it was announced that the album would be released in the late summer of 2009. The album was released on November 3, 2009. The album's artwork was revealed on September 15, 2009. Four different covers were equally shipped for a standard that when put together, they create a world map covered in blood. The album has four special collector's edition CD covers, and each of them "display one-fourth of a provocative continental map illustrated with human skulls and bones; when placed together, the four images form a complete and grisly map of the world." Each album has a blood-red, transparent top panel, with the map displayed beneath it. The full map is also seen in a sleeve of the double-digipak edition of "World Painted Blood."


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: The Monument to the Battle of the Nations (, sometimes shortened to Völki or Schlachti) is a monument in Leipzig, Germany, to the 1813 Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations. Paid for mostly by donations and the city of Leipzig, it was completed in 1913 for the 100th anniversary of the battle at a cost of six million goldmarks.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: The monument commemorates the defeat of Napoleon's French army at Leipzig, a crucial step towards the end of hostilities in the War of the Sixth Coalition. The coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden were led by Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg. There were Germans fighting on both sides, as Napoleon's troops also included conscripted Germans from the left bank of the Rhine annexed by France, as well as troops from his German allies of the Confederation of the Rhine.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: The structure is tall. It contains over 500 steps to a viewing platform at the top, from which there are views across the city and environs. The structure makes extensive use of concrete, and the facings are of granite. It is widely regarded as one of the best examples of Wilhelmine architecture. The monument is said to stand on the spot of some of the bloodiest fighting, from where Napoleon ordered the retreat of his army. It was also the scene of fighting in World War II, when Nazi forces in Leipzig made their last stand against U.S. troops.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: Following the French Revolution, France had waged a number of wars against its European neighbours. Napoleon Bonaparte had taken control of the country, first as Consul from 1799, and reigned as Emperor of the French under the title Napoleon I since 1804. Over the course of the hostilities, the Holy Roman Empire had ceased to exist following the abdication of Emperor Francis II, bowing to Napoleon's pressure, including the foundation of the Confederation of the Rhine from various former members of the Empire.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: The War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809 had ended with another defeat for the joint forces of the Austrian Empire, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal against the French and their German allies. Following Napoleon's unsuccessful invasion of Russia in 1812, Prussia joined the countries already at war with France to begin the War of the Sixth Coalition in March 1813. During the early part of the campaign, the allied forces against Napoleon suffered defeats at Großgörschen (2 May) and Bautzen (20–21 May), being driven back to the river Elbe. However, due to lack of training in his newly recruited soldiers, Napoleon was unable to take full advantage of his victories, allowing his enemies to regroup. Following a ceasefire, Austria rejoined the Coalition on 17 August. The French advantage in numbers was now reversed, with the Coalition forces counting 490,000 soldiers to Napoleon's 440,000.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: Between 16 and 19 October 1813, the Battle of the Nations outside Leipzig was the decisive one in the war, cementing the French defeat and temporarily ending Napoleon's rule. The Emperor was exiled to Elba in May 1814, but briefly returned to power the following year, before being permanently banished following his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. The Battle of the Nations was fought between France and their German allies against a coalition of Russian, Austrian, Prussian, and Swedish forces. About half a million soldiers were involved and at the end of the battle, around 110,000 men had lost their lives, with many more dying in the days after in field hospitals in and around the city. The scope of the fighting was unprecedented.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: In the immediate aftermath, both the Battle of Leipzig as well as the Wars of Liberation ("Befreiungskriege"), as they became known in Germany, soon established a controversial and divided culture of remembrance. For liberal thinkers and young, educated students, many of whom had fought in the wars, they resembled a starting point for a potential German unification into a national state. This sentiment was embodied in the mythologization of the "Freikorps" and "Landwehr" regiments, volunteer fighters against the French rule. On the other side, the monarchs of the German states as well as conservatives highlighted the role the princes had played in the struggle against Napoleon, seeing a growing desire for a German national state as an attack on their royal and noble positions.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: Ernst Moritz Arndt, a leading liberal and nationalistic writer, called for a commemoration of the battle throughout Germany. The anniversary on 19 October should be marked by festivities with "burning fires, festive 'folk' clothing, oak wreaths, and the ringing of bells". In fact, the first anniversary of the battle was marked by celebrations across the German countries, including bonfires. However, in some territories such as Baden and Württemberg, such celebrations were prohibited, while in the Kingdom of Hanover, they were incorporated into the festivities around George III's jubilee on 23 October. In Berlin, the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia, the main celebration was organised by the "Turner" movement, gymnastic clubs led by nationalist Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. Taking place at the Hasenheide, a park outside Berlin, the event was attended by several tens of thousands of people. Similar celebrations were held the following years. These included the Wartburg Festival in 1817, a nationalistic event commemorating both Martin Luther's stay at the Wartburg as well as the Battle of Leipzig. However, following the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819 both the "Burschenschaften", the nationalistic student groups, as well as the "Turners", were outlawed, and commemoration of the Battle of Leipzig subsided over the following years. In the 1840s, the "Association for the Celebration of October 19" was established in Leipzig, partly reviving the remembrance of the event, however, only the anniversaries in 1838 and 1863 were "forcefully expressed". In 1863, for the battle's 50th anniversary, the city of Leipzig put up large festivities, inviting representatives from 200 German cities and several hundred veterans. The celebrations included nationalistic songs and the reading of poems, with between 25,000 and 30,000 people in attendance.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: Shortly after the Battle of Leipzig, Arndt called for a monument to be built at the site. He demanded that it "has to be constructed in such a way that it can be seen from all the streets around from which the allied armies moved to the bloody decisive battle. If it is to be seen, it has to be large and splendid – like a collosus, a pyramid, a Cologne Cathedral". His plans included a high mound surrounded by oak groves, with a large cross on top. However, lack of political will prevented such a monument of being built at the time. Arndt, together with the painter Caspar David Friedrich, worked on a monument for Gerhard von Scharnhorst, who had died from injuries sustained in the Battle of Großgörschen, but received no support from state officials. In a letter to Arndt, Friedrich lamented in March 1814: "I am not at all surprised, that no memorials are being erected, neither to mark the great cause of the "Volk", nor to the manganimous deeds of great German men. As long as we remain man-servants to the princes, nothing of this sort will happen." Other people came forward with plans for a large memorial as well, including Karl Sieveking and August von Kotzebue, the latter of whom suggested a tall Roman column with an Iron Cross on top, symbolising the victory of Germany against France, the "modern Rome". The architect Friedrich Weinbrenner proposed a fortress to be built outside Leipzig, at the top of which a pyramid was to be placed, with the quadriga that Napoleon had taken from the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin situated on it. On the other side of the political spectrum, the nobleman Adolph von Seckendorff put forward the plan for a simple monument to the Saxon government, which would bear an inscription reading "To the liberation of a strong land, Alexander, Franz, and Friedrich Wilhelm", honouring the three monarchs who led the fight against Napoleon. While none of the proposals for Leipzig gained any support, a monument for the Wars of Liberation was erected in Berlin in 1821. Designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, it was a miniature of a gothic church tower situated on top of the Kreuzberg, bearing the names of twelve battles fought against the French. Its inscription, "From the king to the people who, at his call, nobly sacrificed their blood and chattels to the Fatherland", highlighted the role of the monarch over that of the people.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: On the first anniversary of the battle, in 1814, a tall wooden cross was placed as a monument on the village green close to the burned out church in Probstheida. Attached to it was a collection box for donations in order to rebuild the church. Originally envisioned by both the citizens of Leipzig as well as the Russian military command as the place for annual celebration of the battle, the cross was removed by the winter of the same year, following the division of the Kingdom of Saxony at the Congress of Vienna. In 1817, a monument to Józef Poniatowski, a Marshal of the French Empire who had died in the battle, was placed by his sister and Polish veterans near the battle site. After the establishment of the "Association for the Celebration of October 19", more small monuments started to be built. The family of Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg also placed a monument in his honour at the site, in 1838. In 1843, a sandstone monument was erected at "Napoleon Hill", where the Emperor had supposedly watched the battle. Two years later, the local government of Leipzig established another monument, commemorating the entrance of the victorious forces into the city. Until 1863, seven memorial stones were also placed to mark decisive points of the battle, which still remain to this day. In the same year, on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig, city officials also funded the restoration of the monument they had erected in 1845. During the same festivities, a cornerstone for a future grand monument was placed, and 23 cities from all around Germany, including Vienna, Hanover, and Dresden, pledged money for its construction. However, the Unification of Germany and the subsequent foundation of the German Empire temporarily halted plans for a monument, since public conscience turned towards the more recent military victories. The commemoration of the Battle of Leipzig as a decisive one in German history was replaced by the Battle of Sedan and the city of Leipzig erected a monument to the German unification in its centre in 1888. Steffen Poser, head of the Museum of the Monument for the Battle of the Nations, wrote: "[T]he foundation of the German Empire deprived the monument project of what had been its basis for legitimacy so far—namely, the desire for German unification, the "leitmotif", which had been missing at the time."


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: In 1894, Clemens Thieme (), a member of the ' (Association for the History of Leipzig) learned during a meeting of the association about the past plans to build a monument. Interested in resuming the project, Thieme, who was also a member of the Apollo masonic lodge, proposed the project during a meeting and gained the support of his fellow masons. Later that same year, he founded the ' (Association of German Patriots) which raised, by means of donations and a lottery, the funds necessary to construct the monument for the 100th anniversary. The projected cost was set at ℳ6,000,000 (€ in 2022). The following year, the city of Leipzig donated a site for the construction.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: Two competitions to find a design were held in 1895 and 1896 and gathered a large number of entries with prizes for the best handed out. However, the "Patriotenbund" was unhappy with the results on the grounds that they were not innovative enough and none were eventually chosen for the monument. Bruno Schmitz, an architect from Berlin who had won fourth prize in the competitions, was ultimately commissioned to submit the final design by the Patriotic Association. He had earlier designed both the Kyffhäuser Monument in Thuringia as well as the "Deutsches Eck" in Koblenz. The financing, which had originally been thought to rely solely on donations and a lottery, ran out, leading the city of Leipzig to subsidise the remaining costs.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: A ground-breaking ceremony was held prior to the start of construction on 18 October 1898, the 85th anniversary of the battle. A total of of earth were moved in the following two years until suitable subsoil for the foundation was found. Construction then commenced in mid-September 1900, at which time the original foundation stone from 1863 was moved to the new location. The foundation slab, times in area and thick, was constructed from concrete, as was a total of about 90 per cent of the entire monument. Concrete, a relatively new material at the time, was used for the first time in such a large structure. Proponents in expert literature argued for an iron construction as granting more stability, but the factors of cost and higher creative freedom ultimately led to the use of concrete. Work on the foundations alone took five years. In total, 26,500 granite blocks and of concrete were used for the entire structure. Due to the use of state-of-the-art machineries, such as traction engines, lifts, a concrete mixer, and a cable railway for transporting gravel, construction was finished on schedule, in time for the 100th anniversary of the battle in 1913.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: On the 18th of October 1913 the Völkerschlachtdenkmal was inaugurated in the presence of about 100,000 people including the emperor Wilhelm II, and all the reigning sovereign rulers of the German states.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: Schmitz constructed the monument over an artificial hill and selected a pyramidal shape for a clear view of the surroundings. The base is square. The main structure, at , is as of 2013 still the tallest monument in Europe. Poser places the monument in a line of tradition of similar national monuments of the 19th century. The design deviates consciously from the style of the Wilhelmine period of the time, as the architects attempted to develop a distinctly German style in architecture and sculpture. A "multitude of symbols and metaphors", as Poser writes, "makes a clear characterisation of the Monument difficult even today." Many of the sculptures reflect the masonic ideas of the members of the "Patriotenbund", aimed at introducing them to the general public through the monument. Unlike many monuments and buildings of the era, the monument lacks classicist style elements, instead borrowing from the architecture of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Thieme, who made frequent adjustments to Schmitz's design, most often under the premise of cutting costs, worked together with the Art Nouveau sculptors Christian Behrens and his apprentice Franz Metzner. Following Behrens' death in 1905, Metzner completed the work, mainly on the sculptures on the inside and top of the monument.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: At the front side of the monument, a high and wide relief depicts a battle scene. The centre piece of the relief is a sculpture of the Archangel Saint Michael, symbolising the personification of God's support for the German soldiers. Above Michael, an engraving reads ""Gott mit uns"" ["God with us"]. To either side of the archangel, furies carry the firebrand of war, while two eagles symbolise the "newly won freedom". On both sides of the relief, lateral staircases with 136 steps lead to the second story and the entrance of the crypt. The staircases are decorated with large heads of Emperor Frederick I, better known as "Barbarossa", reminding of the myth of a sleeping emperor and "as expressions of the people's hopes for better times". At the top of the monument, of the outside of the dome roof, stand twelve warrior statues, each composed of 47 granite blocks and tall, meant to remind of the Germans' will to defend themselves. In the inaugural text about the monument, these statues were described as "guardians of freedom and pillars of justice".


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: In the circle-shaped crypt on the first floor, sixteen statues of warriors (') are present, symbolically standing guard, two each in front of a total of eight high death masks. The crypt was meant as a symbolic tomb for the fallen soldiers of the battle. In the ' (Hall of Fame) on the second floor, four large sculptures are placed facing each other, each meant to symbolise an alleged virtue of the German people (bravery, strength of faith, people's strength, and sacrifice). Each of these sculptures is tall. Towering above the crypt is a high dome. Leading towards it, pillared windows are decorated with 96 smaller sculptures representing the suffering in war. The dome itself is filled with "324 almost life-sized equestrian statues representing the homecoming of the victors". The dome, in diameter, creates unusual acoustics which allow for concerts to take place within the inner hall. From the crypt, 364 steps lead visitors to the observation platform on top of the monument.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: Schmitz also planned to create an accompanying complex for ceremonies that would include a court, a stadium and parade grounds. However, only a reflecting pool and two processional avenues were ultimately completed. Surrounding the monument are oaks, considered to have been a symbol of masculine strength and endurance to the Germanic people of antiquity. The oaks are complemented by evergreens, symbolising feminine fecundity, and they are located in a subordinate position to the oaks.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: Beginning in the interwar period and later after the ascension to power by Adolf Hitler, the Monument was a frequent meeting ground for Nazi party rallies. During WW2, an anti-aircraft gun (Flak) position was established on top of the monument. When the US Army captured Leipzig on April 18, 1945, the monument was the last stronghold in the city to surrender. 300 soldiers, men of the Volkssturm and boys of the Hitler Youth under the command of Oberst Hans von Poncet, were holding out in the monument, but after a direct artillery hit inside the structure, von Poncet was convinced to surrender following long negotiations.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: During the period of Communist rule in East Germany from 1949 to 1989, the government of the GDR was unsure whether it should allow the monument to stand, since it was considered to represent the steadfast nationalism of the period of the German Empire. Eventually, it was decided that the monument be allowed to remain, since it represented a battle in which Russian and German soldiers had fought together against a common enemy, and was therefore representative of "" (Russo-German brotherhood-in-arms)—although some Germans fought for the French side in the battle.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: In 1956, the opening ceremony of the Gymnastics and Sports Festival took place in the memorial complex; the authorities stated that the monument could be interpreted as a symbol of "long-standing German-Russian friendship". The festival planners focused the spirit of the celebrations on German history, and the ceremony as a symbol of the desired German union.


title: Monument to the Battle of the Nations

text: Within a year of the monument's completion, it became apparent that water penetrating through the joints between the natural stone ashlars and the concrete core was a problem. Some stone pieces were moved significantly by ice and frost, while water entered the core with no way to escape, since dampening technology was not available for decades after the construction had finished. As an effect, stairs and pathways became crooked. Moreover, shelling by U.S. troops at the end of the war had left damages to the rear side of the monument not addressed during the time of Communist rule. In addition, the effects of nature and pollution had blackened the outside of the structure significantly. Until the 1990s, no considerable efforts had been made to renovate the monument. In 2003, such measures were ultimately begun, with a target end date of 2013, the 200th anniversary of the battle, for their completion. The black discolouring of the façade was gradually removed. The pavement in front of the monument was redone, while a large shell hole dating from World War II was patched up. Not all damages of war were removed however, deliberately leaving open some signs of bullets or shell splinters as a reminder. A new drainage system was added to the structure to safeguard the building from damage through water. The monument was also made wheel-chair accessible for the first time through the addition of a lift. While some work could not be finished until 2013, the work on the outside reflection pool was finished in 2018. Some more restoration is still set to be completed .


title: New Deal coalition

text: The New Deal coalition was an American political coalition that supported the Democratic Party beginning in 1932. The coalition is named after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs, and the followup Democratic presidents. It was composed of voting blocs who supported them. The coalition included labor unions, blue collar workers, racial and religious minorities (especially Jews, Catholics, and African-Americans), rural white Southerners, and intellectuals. Besides voters the coalition included powerful interest groups: Democratic party organizations in most states, city machines, labor unions, some third parties, universities and foundations. It was largely opposed by the Republican Party, the business community, and rich Protestants. In creating his coalition, Roosevelt was at first eager to include liberal Republicans and some radical third parties, even if it meant downplaying the "Democratic" name. By the 1940s, the Republican and third party allies had mostly been defeated. In 1948 the Democratic Party stood alone and survived the splits that created two splinter parties.


title: New Deal coalition

text: The coalition made the Democratic Party the majority party nationally for decades. Democrats lost control of the White House only in 1952 and 1956. They typically controlled both Houses of Congress before the 1990s. The coalition began to weaken with the collapse of big city machines after 1940, the steady decline of labor unions after 1970, the bitter factionalism during the 1968 election, the turn of white Northern ethnics and Southern whites toward conservatism on racial issues, and the rise of Neoliberalism under the Presidency of Ronald Reagan with its opposition to regulation.


title: New Deal coalition

text: The Great Depression in the United States began in 1929 and was blamed on Republicans and their big business allies. Republican president Herbert Hoover opposed federal relief efforts as unwarranted, believing that market actors and local governments were better suited to address the situation. As the depression worsened, voters became increasingly dissatisfied with this approach and came to view President Hoover as indifferent to their economic struggles. Franklin Roosevelt won a landslide in 1932 and spent his 12 years in office building a powerful nationwide coalition and keeping his partners from squabbling with each other.


title: New Deal coalition

text: Over the course of the 1930s, Roosevelt forged a coalition of liberals, labor unions, Northern religious and ethnic minorities (Catholic, Jewish and Black), and Southern whites. These voting blocs together formed a majority of voters and handed the Democratic Party seven victories out of nine presidential elections (1932–1948, 1960, 1964), as well as control of both houses of Congress during all but four years between the years 1932–1980 (Republicans won small majorities in 1946 and 1952). Political scientists describe this realignment as the "Fifth Party System", in contrast to the Fourth Party System of the 1896–1932 era that proceeded it.


title: New Deal coalition

text: City machines had major roles to play. Most important, the New Deal coalition had to carry entire states, not just cities. The largest possible landslide was needed, and the city machines came through in 1940, 1944, and 1948. They kept the voters by providing federal jobs aimed at the unemployed—the Civil Works Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps (where the boys' wages went to the unemployed father), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and especially the Works Progress Administration (WPA). A representative transition came in Pittsburgh, which had long been a Republican stronghold with a promise of prosperity. The worsening depression enabled the Democrats to convince some Republicans to switch parties, while mobilizing large numbers of ethnics who had not voted before. Democrats capitalized on Roosevelt's popularity to win the 1933 mayoral race. The WPA then played a critical role in the consolidation of the Democratic machine. By 1936 the Democrats had a majority in the registration rolls for the first time since the Civil War. That November FDR won 70% of the Pittsburgh vote.


title: New Deal coalition

text: The president in 1933 wanted to bring all major groups together, business and labor, banker and borrower, farms and towns, liberals and conservatives. The escalating attacks from the right, typified by the American Liberty League led by his old friend Al Smith spoiled the dream. Sensing how quickly public opinion was becoming more radical, Roosevelt moved left. He attacked big business. His major innovations now were social security for the elderly, the WPA for the unemployed, and a new labor relations act to support and encourage labor unions. Running for reelection in 1936, Roosevelt personalized the campaign and downplayed the Democratic Party name. In contrast to his 1933 position as a neutral moderator between business and workers, he now became a strong labor union supporter. He crusaded against the rich upper class, denouncing the "economic royalists". He worked with third parties on the left: the Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party, the Wisconsin Progressive Party, and the American Labor Party (ALP) in New York state. In New York City collaborated closely with Republican Fiorello La Guardia, against the conservatives of Tammany Hall who had controlled city hall. La Guardia was the candidate of the ad-hoc City Fusion Party, winning the mayoralty in 1933 and reelection in 1937 and 1941. La Guardia was also the nominee of the American Labor Party (ALP), a union-dominated left-wing group that supported Roosevelt in 1936, 1940 and 1944. The role of the ALP was to funnel socialists who distrusted the Democratic Party into the New Deal coalition. In 1940 La Guardia chaired the nationwide Committee of Independent Voters for Roosevelt; in return the president put him in charge of the Office of Civilian Defense. He retired and was replaced as mayor in 1945 by William O'Dwyer, the Tammany candidate.


title: New Deal coalition

text: Roosevelt's top aide in distributing patronage was James Farley, who served simultaneously as chair of the New York State Democratic Party, chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and Postmaster General in FDR's cabinet, as well as FDR's campaign manager in 1932 and 1940. He handled traditional patronage for the Post Office. He helped with the new agencies aimed at the unemployed, especially the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps, as well as other job agencies. He helped state and local Democratic organizations set up systems to select likely candidates for the federal payroll. In the 1940s most of the big city machines collapsed, with a few exception such as Chicago and Albany, New York.


title: New Deal coalition

text: Being a voter or a Democrat was not a prerequisite for a relief job. Federal law specifically prohibited any political discrimination regarding WPA workers. Vague charges were bandied about at the time. The consensus of experts is that: “In the distribution of WPA project jobs as opposed to those of a supervisory and administrative nature politics plays only a minor in comparatively insignificant role." However those who were hired were reminded at election time that FDR created their job and the Republicans would take it away. The great majority voted accordingly.


title: New Deal coalition

text: After the end of the Great Depression around 1941 the next challenge was to keep Democratic majorities alive. It seemed impossible after the GOP landslide in 1946. Journalist Samuel Lubell found in his in-depth interviews of voters after the 1948 presidential election that Democrat Harry Truman, not Republican Thomas E. Dewey, seemed the safer, more conservative candidate to the "new middle class" that had developed over the previous 20 years. He wrote that, "to an appreciable part of the electorate, the Democrats had replaced the Republicans as the party of prosperity."


title: New Deal coalition

text: In 1952 and 1956 Republican Dwight Eisenhower had been able to temporarily peel several elements of the coalition into the Republican column, notably some Northern farmers and manual workers and middle class voters in the Border South. In the 1960 election, John F. Kennedy and his running mate Lyndon Johnson won back Southern voters.


title: New Deal coalition

text: After the smashing reelection victory of President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, the heavily Democratic Congress passed a raft of liberal legislation. Labor union leaders claimed credit for the widest range of liberal laws since the New Deal era, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; the War on Poverty; aid to cities and education; increased Social Security benefits; and Medicare for the elderly. The 1966 elections were an unexpected disaster, with defeats for many of the more liberal Democrats. According to Alan Draper, the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Action (COPE) was the main electioneering unit of the labor movement. It ignored the white backlash against civil rights, which had become a main Republican attack point. The COPE assumed falsely that union members were interested in issues of greatest salience to union leadership, but polls showed this was not true. The members were much more conservative. The younger ones were much more concerned about taxes and crime, and the older ones had not overcome racial biases. Furthermore a new issue—the War in Vietnam—was bitterly splitting the liberal coalition into hawks (led by Johnson and Vice-President Hubert Humphrey) and doves (led by Senators Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy.


title: New Deal coalition

text: The coalition began to fall apart by late 1965, largely due to the declining influence of labor unions and a backlash to the Vietnam War, racial integration, urban riots, and the counterculture of the 1960s. Meanwhile, Republicans made major gains by promising lower taxes and control of crime.


title: New Deal coalition

text: During the 1960s, new issues such as civil rights, the Vietnam War, affirmative action, and large-scale urban riots further split the coalition and drove many whites away. In addition after the John F. Kennedy assassination, the coalition lacked a leader of the stature of Roosevelt. The closest was Lyndon B. Johnson (president 1963–1969), who tried to reinvigorate the old coalition but was unable to hold together the feuding components, especially after his handling of the Vietnam War alienated the emerging New Left.


title: New Deal coalition

text: Beginning in the late 1960s, labor unions began to lose their members and their influence. With the economy becoming more service-oriented, the proportion of manufacturing jobs declined. Companies began relocating such jobs to Sun Belt states free of union influences, and many Americans followed. As a result, union membership steadily declined. This, combined with generally rising incomes reduced their incentive to vote Democrat. Labor unions were painted as corrupt, ineffective, and outdated by the Republican Party.


title: New Deal coalition

text: Republicans in the days of the Presidency of Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) took control of prosperity issues, because of the poor performance of Jimmy Carter (1977–1981) and because of a new economic policy of Neoliberalism, which held that regulation was bad for economic growth and that tax cuts would bring sustained prosperity. In 1994 the Republicans swept control of Congress for the first time since 1952. The response of Democratic President Bill Clinton was: “We know big government does not have all the answers. We know there's not a program for every proble...The era of big government is over.” Clinton went on to cut New Deal-inspired welfare programs and repeal some of the New Deal's restrictions on banks. Clinton largely accepted the neoliberal argument, thereby abandoning the New Deal coalition's claim to the prosperity issue.


title: New Deal coalition

text: While most Northerners supported the original civil rights movement, many conservative blue collar voters, many of them ethnics, disliked the goal of racial integration and became fearful of rising urban crime. The Republicans, first under Richard Nixon, then later under Reagan, were able to corral these voters with promises to be tough on law and order. The votes of blue-collar workers contributed heavily to the Republican landslides of 1972 and 1984, and to a lesser extent 1980 and 1988.


title: New Deal coalition

text: At the presidential level the GOP made inroads among urban, middle class white Southerners as early in 1928 and later in 1952. Reagan starting in 1980 pulled together both middle class and working class white Southerners. At the state and local level the GOP made steady gains in both white groups until reaching majority status in most of the South by 2000. Scholars debate just why the New Deal coalition collapsed so completely. Most emphasize a Southern Strategy by Republicans to appeal to a backlash against Democratic national support for civil rights. However A minority of scholars in addition to race consider demographic change. They argue that the collapse of cotton agriculture, the growth of a suburban middle class, and the large-scale arrival of Northern migrants outweighed the racist factor. Both viewpoints agree that the politicization of religious issues important to white Southern Protestants—especially abortion and gay rights—made for a strong Republican appeal.


title: New Deal coalition

text: Roosevelt wanted a coalition that was broader than just the Democratic Party. He admired old Progressives now in the GOP, such as George W. Norris of Nebraska and Senator Robert M. La Follette Jr. of Wisconsin. He disliked the conservativism of Wisconsin Democrats and preferred to work with the Progressive Party there. The Famer-Labor Party of Minnesota made an informal alliance with FDR and supported him in 1936; the Minnesota Democrats were a weak third party. The White House supported the Farmer-Labor Party (FLP) in Minnesota. Roosevelt had an informal deal with Governor Floyd B. Olson whereby the FLP would get some of the patronage, and in turn the FLP would work to block a third-party ticket against Roosevelt in 1936. The radical third parties declined rapidly after 1936 and no longer played a part in ther New Deal coalition.


title: New Deal coalition

text: As the economy began to improve in 1933–34, people loudly demanded faster action and pushed the New Dealers to the left. Labor strikes grew to large scale, especially in California and Minnesota. Textile workers launched the largest strike in national history. Senator Huey Long in Louisiana and radio priest Charles Coughlin, had both been active Roosevelt supporters in 1932. They now broke away and set up national appeals to millions of supporters, with talk of a third party to the left of Roosevelt in 1936. Long was assassinated but his followers did set up the Union Party that polled 2% of the vote in the 1936 United States presidential election. In California, Upton Sinclair, a famous novelist and socialist won the Democratic nomination for governor, on a left-wing ticket in 1934. His EPIC program promised to end poverty and unemployment by a setting up state-owned factories to hire the unemployed, and by increasing pensions for the elderly. Critics said it would flood the state with unemployed from everywhere else. Sinclair had a pension plan of his own and refused to endorse the Townsend Plan which had a strong following. The Republican candidate endorsed the Townsend Plan and won the movement's support. Sinclair was narrowly defeated by a combination of defections of prominent Democrats—including Roosevelt—as well as a massive smear campaign using Hollywood techniques and a blackout whereby all the state's newspapers opposed him and refused to cover his ideas. The Republican leadership realized the California electorate was moving left so it went along. Its 1934 platform endorsed not just the Townsend Plan but also the 30 hour work week, unemployment relief, and collective bargaining for all workers. The GOP wanted to win voted but in the process it legitimized a social welfare state as a bipartisan ideal. Consequently, the California experience helped push New Deal towards social welfare legislation, especially the WPA and Social Security. Sinclair's campaign gave aspiring Democratic leaders a boost, most notably Culbert Olson, who was elected governor in 1938. Needing an alternative to the New Deal's Social Security system, many Republicans around the country endorsed the Townsend Plan.


title: New Deal coalition

text: In the North, class and ethnicity proved decisive factors in the New Deal coalition as shown by polling data in presidential and congressional elections from 1936 through 1968. Blue collar workers average 63% Democratic. White collar workers, representing the middle class, averaged 43% Democratic. In terms of religion northern white Protestants were 42% Democratic, white Catholics were 68% Democratic. Social class and religious affiliation added had separate effects that could add together, so that Catholic blue collar workers were 76% Democratic, while Protestant blue collar workers were only 52% Democratic. Throughout the period better educated higher income middle-class voters were more Republican so that the average Northern Protestant white collar voter was 69% Republican, while a Catholic counterpart was only 41% Republican. A Gallup poll of listees in "Who's Who" in early 1936 showed that only 31% planned to vote for Roosevelt. Nationwide, Roosevelt won 36% of the votes of business and professional voters in 1940, 48% of lower level white collar workers, 66% of blue collar workers, and 54% of farmers.


title: New Deal coalition

text: The strongest component of the New Deal coalition were the ethnic groups: Here is the distribution of party identification in 1944:


title: New Deal coalition

text: The New Dealers made a major, successful effort to build up labor unions, especially through the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. In addition, Democratic-led state governments were much more favorable to unions than the pro-business Republicans had been. In 1940 FDR won 64% of non-union manual workers, 71% of AFL members, and 79% of CIO members. Union membership grew rapidly during World War II. In 1944 FDR won 56% of non-union manual workers, 69% of AFL members, and 79% of CIO members. Truman in 1948 had similar results.


title: New Deal coalition

text: The more militant industrial unions, led by John L. Lewis formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and split off from the more traditional American Federation of Labor in 1938. Both federations added members rapidly, but they feuded bitterly. Both supported Roosevelt and the New Deal Coalition. The nationwide wave of labor strikes in 1937-38 alienated many voters, and the split weakened the New Deal coalition. The most controversial labor leader was John L. Lewis, head of the coal miners; he headed the CIO 1938–1941. Lewis was an isolationist and broke with Roosevelt and endorsed his Republican opponent in the 1940 election, a position demanded by the pro-Soviet far left element in the CIO. Nevertheless, CIO members voted for Roosevelt and Lewis was forced to leave the CIO, taking his United Mine Workers of America union along.


title: New Deal coalition

text: City Democratic machines had a new role to play. Traditionally the goal of winning power in the city was facilitated by keeping the vote low and under close watch. As part of the national New Deal coalition, the machines had to carry the state's electoral vote. That required turning out the largest possible majorities. They did this by converting some Republicans, mobilizing large numbers who had never voted before. Milton Rakove states: "Holding the South and delivering thumping majorities in the big cities of the North insured national hegemony for the Democratic party." The new majorities did not matter in the great 1936 landslide, but they were decisive in 1940. A third of the electorate lived in the 106 cities with a population of 100,000 or more. They were 61% for FDR. The South had a sixth of the electorate and FDR won 73%. The remaining half of the electorate--the non-metropolitan North--voted 53% for the Republican Wendell Willkie. The largest possible landslide was needed, and the city machines came through in 1940, 1944, and 1948. In the 1920s strong big city Republican machines were common. During the Great Depression their support plunged, and they were displaced by Democratic machines in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis, and elsewhere. Across the urban North blacks deserted the GOP and were welcomed into the Democratic machine.


title: New Deal coalition

text: Ethnics and Catholics were concentrated in large cities, which gave them a more Democratic hue. The 103 largest cities with a population of 100,000 or more in 1950 were Democratic strongholds, typically with former machines that had faded away during and after World War II. The largest cities averaged 66% for FDR in 1932 and 1936, compared to 58% of the rest of the country. The cities dropped 5 points to 61% for FDR in 1940 and 1944, while the rest dropped 7 points to 51%.


title: New Deal coalition

text: The big-city machines faded away in the 1940s with a few exceptions that lingered a bit such as Albany and Chicago. Local Democrats in most cities were heavily dependent on the WPA for patronage; when it ended in 1943, there was full employment and no replacement patronage source was created. Furthermore, World War II brought such a surge of prosperity that the relief mechanism of the New Deal was no longer needed.


title: New Deal coalition

text: Labor unions crested in size and power in the 1950s but then went into steady decline. They continue to be major backers of the Democrats, but with so few members, they have lost much of their influence. From the 1960s into the 1990s, many jobs moved to the Sun Belt free of union influences, and the Republican Party frequently painted unions as corrupt and ineffective.


title: New Deal coalition

text: Intellectuals gave increasing support to Democrats since 1932. The Vietnam War, however, caused a serious split, with the New Left unwilling to support most of the Democratic presidential nominees. Since the 1990s, the growing number of Americans with a post-graduate degree have supported Democrats. In recent years, White Americans with a college degree have tended to support the Democratic Party, especially among younger voters, while non-college graduates are more likely to support the Republican Party—a reversal of the pattern before 2000.


title: New Deal coalition

text: White Southerners abandoned cotton and tobacco farming, and moved to the cities where the New Deal programs had much less impact. Beginning in the 1950s, the southern cities and suburbs started voting Republican. The white Southerners believed the support that northern Democrats gave to the Civil Rights Movement to be a direct political assault on their interests, which opened the way to protest votes for Barry Goldwater, who, in 1964, was the first Republican to carry the Deep South. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton lured many of the Southern whites back at the level of presidential voting, but by 2000, white males in the South were 2–1 Republican and, indeed, formed a major part of the new Republican coalition. Since the 2010s, young, white, and non-Evangelical Southerners with a college degree have been trending towards the Democratic Party, particularly in states such as Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas.


title: New Deal coalition

text: The European ethnic groups came of age after the 1960s. Ronald Reagan pulled many of the working-class social conservatives into the Republican party as Reagan Democrats. Many middle-class ethnic minorities saw the Democratic party as a working class party, and preferred the GOP as the middle class party. In addition, while many supported the 1964 Civil Rights Act, they were generally opposed to racial integration, and also supported the Republican stance against rising urban crime. However, the Jewish community has continued to vote largely Democratic: 74% voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, 78% in 2008, and 69% in 2012.


title: New Deal coalition

text: African Americans grew stronger in their Democratic loyalties and in their numbers. From the 1930s into the 1960s, black voters in the North began trending Democrat, while those in the South were largely disenfranchised. Following the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, black voters became a much more important part of the Democrat voter base. Their Democratic loyalties have cut across all income and geographic lines to form the single most unified bloc of voters in the country, with over 87% of black voters voting for the Democratic presidential candidate since 2008.


title: Jumanji (TV series)

text: Jumanji (also known as Jumanji: The Animated Series) is an American animated television series that was inspired by the 1995 film based on the 1981 children's picture book of the same name. The series ran for three seasons from September 8, 1996 to March 11, 1999. In 1996, it was carried by the UPN Kids block on UPN, but later seasons were syndicated under the Bohbot Kids Network syndicated block.


title: Jumanji (TV series)

text: "Jumanji" was produced by Adelaide Productions and was the first show made by that company, with character designs by Everett Peck.


title: Jumanji (TV series)

text: Judy and Peter Shepherd are two kids that found a board game called "Jumanji". Each turn, the two of them were given a "game clue" and then sucked into the jungle until they solved their clue. They meet Alan Parrish, who was trapped in Jumanji because he had never seen his clue. Judy and Peter would help Alan try to leave the game, providing the characters' motivation during the series. Also, Peter would sometimes be transformed into various animals whenever he cheated, sometimes using the abilities of whatever animal he becomes to an advantage. The kids also free another player trapped longer than Alan. Unlike Alan, he saw his clue but never solved it, but with the kids' help he solves it. He called himself the Master of Jumanji and tried to get other people to solve his clue for him, but once Alan points out that his clue (the Gateless Gate) is an illusion of Jumanji's and he accepts it, it solves his clue.


title: Jumanji (TV series)

text: It's also revealed that like Judy and Peter, Alan would never have been able to survive his first day in Jumanji without help, as he possessed poor survival skills at the time. Ironically, his help came in the form of Judy and Peter from the future (to him anyway) who help him survive and teach him a few of the survival tricks they'd learned from him. In return, the 10-year-old version of Alan helps Judy and Peter return to their time, but later hits his head and forgets meeting them.


title: Jumanji (TV series)

text: In the first episode, Alan reveals that there have been other players of the game throughout time, many of whom left their toys in the cave which is part of his home, but not all of them survived the game. In the final episode, using a crystal that shows the past, the kids and Alan find his clue by observing his roll and what the game said, and figure out why he never saw it: right after he rolled his mom called him to dinner and as he was leaving, the clue displayed while he had his back turned and he got sucked in. Once he knew his clue, Alan solved it with Judy and Peter's help and escaped Jumanji. Outside, the kids decide to destroy the Jumanji game now that Alan's free.


title: Jumanji (TV series)

text: In the series, it is revealed that Jumanji is sentient to a degree and on occasion has sucked in Judy and Peter if they make it "angry".


title: Jumanji (TV series)

text: While the show followed the movie's plot, there were a few changes such as the exclusion of Bonnie Hunt's character Sarah Whittle and the age and relationship of the policeman Carl Bentley (played by David Alan Grier in the film) was changed somewhat.


title: Jumanji (TV series)

text: In the original film and picture book, the board game's hazards would manifest in the real world, while in the animated show, the game's participants would be transported to a world ostensibly inside the game itself, an aspect carried through to the and its related films.


title: Jumanji (TV series)

text: In Jumanji, there are many dangerous characters. Many appear only once or have background appearances in some episodes. These villains include:


title: Jumanji (TV series)

text: In 1996, it was carried by the UPN Kids block on UPN, but later seasons were syndicated by BKN. The series was also shown by CITV in the United Kingdom, TRTÉ in the Republic of Ireland and on Russian RTR channel. It has aired in Pakistan on Cartoon Network in English and currently airs on Filmax in Urdu and on Aruj TV in Pushto.


title: Jumanji (TV series)

text: Episodes of the show are available on iTunes and Hulu. The show was rerun on Kabillion on Demand. The show has also been released through YouTube.


title: Jumanji (TV series)

text: On August 28, 2012, Sony Pictures released "Jumanji: The Complete First Season" on DVD in region 1. This was a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively in the US and is part of the "Sony Pictures Choice Collection" in partnership with Warner Bros. online store. It is also available through Amazon.com and their CreateSpace MOD program.


title: Jumanji (TV series)

text: Mill Creek Entertainment re-released season 1 on DVD in Region 1 on February 17, 2015, followed by complete series on DVD in Region 1 in August 2017.


title: Chelsea Harris

text: Chelsea Harris (born March 30, 1990) is an American actress best known for roles on "Designated Survivor" and "Snowpiercer". Currently, she stars on "The Neighborhood" as Necie."


title: Chelsea Harris

text: Chelsea Harris had a recurring appearance as Tricia Sims on "Designated Survivor". She was later cast in "", which was a new step for her. "I have to be super honest... growing up, Star Trek was on TV, but I never really got into it when I was younger. I was watching Disney Channel." Getting cast in the series opened her taste for the Sci-Fi genre and she was cast in a recurring role for season two of "Snowpiercer".


title: President of Nicaragua

text: The president of Nicaragua (), officially known as the president of the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the head of state and head of government of Nicaragua. The office was created in the Constitution of 1854. From 1825 until the Constitution of 1839, the head of state of Nicaragua was styled simply as Head of State ("Jefe de Estado"), and from 1839 to 1854 as Supreme Director ("Supremo Director").


title: President of Nicaragua

text: The presidential term was set at five years from 1985 to 1990, seven years from 1990 to 1997, and was reduced to five years again in 1997.


title: President of Nicaragua

text: From 1990 to 2009, the president was barred from immediate reelection. An incumbent president could run again after waiting five years, but if successful would have to leave office for good at the end of his second, nonconsecutive term. However, in 2009, the Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional ban on immediate reelection was unenforceable. In 2014, the legislature amended the constitution to allow the president to run for an unlimited number of five-year terms.


title: Elizabeth Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire

text: Elizabeth Christiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (13 May 1758 – 30 March 1824) was an English aristocrat and letter writer. She is best known as Lady Elizabeth Foster, the close friend of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. Elizabeth supplanted the Duchess, gaining the affections of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire and later marrying him. Several of her letters are preserved.


text: Known as Bess, she was born Elizabeth Christiana Hervey on 13 May 1758, in a small house in Horringer, St Edmundsbury, Suffolk. Her father, Frederick Hervey, Bishop of Derry, later became the fourth Earl of Bristol. She had three brothers, including John, Lord Hervey and Frederick, 1st Marquess of Bristol; and two sisters, Lady Mary Erne and Louisa, Countess of Liverpool.


text: In 1776, Elizabeth married Irishman John Thomas Foster (1747–1796). He was a first cousin of the brothers John Foster, last Speaker of the (united) Irish House of Commons, and Bishop (William) Foster. The Fosters had two sons, Frederick (3 October 1777 – 1853) and Augustus John Foster (1780–1848). Their only daughter, also named Elizabeth, was born prematurely on 17 November 1778 and lived only eight days.


text: When her father succeeded as the earl in 1779, she became "Lady" Elizabeth Foster. The couple resided after 1779 with her parents at Ickworth House in Suffolk. The marriage was not a success, and the couple separated within five years, after Bess received reports of an "intrigue" between Foster and her maid, Madam Wagniere. Despite knowing that she would be destitute, Bess wrote to Foster, "it is my fixt wish & determination not to return to you." Foster retained custody of their sons and did not allow the boys to see Bess for 14 years.


text: In May 1782, Bess met the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire in Bath, and quickly became Georgiana's closest friend. From this time, she lived in a triad with Georgiana and her husband, William, the 5th Duke of Devonshire, for about 25 years. She bore two illegitimate children by the Duke: a daughter, Caroline St Jules, and a son, Augustus (later Augustus Clifford, 1st Baronet), who were raised at Devonshire House with the Duke's legitimate children by Georgiana. Georgiana grew ill and died in 1806; three years later, Bess married the duke and became the Duchess of Devonshire. He died two years later.


text: Bess is also said to have had affairs with several other men, including Cardinal Ercole Consalvi, John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, Count Axel von Fersen, Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, and Valentine Quin, 1st Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl. Quin joined the Duchess as her travelling physician in Rome in December 1820, and afterwards attended her in that city during her fatal illness in March 1824.


text: Lady Elizabeth was a friend of the French author Madame de Staël, with whom she corresponded from about 1804.


title: Norway Debate

text: The Norway Debate, sometimes called the Narvik Debate, was a momentous debate in the British House of Commons from 7 to 9 May 1940, during the Second World War. The official title of the debate, as held in the "Hansard" parliamentary archive, is Conduct of the War. Scheduled in advance, it was initiated by an adjournment motion enabling the Commons to freely discuss the progress of the Norwegian Campaign. The debate quickly brought to a head widespread dissatisfaction with the overall conduct of the war by Neville Chamberlain's government.


title: Norway Debate

text: At the end of the second day, there was a division of the House for the members to hold a no confidence motion. The vote was won by the government but by a drastically reduced majority. That led on 10 May to Chamberlain's resignation as prime minister and the replacement of his war ministry by a broadly based coalition government, which under Winston Churchill governed the United Kingdom until after the end of the war in Europe in May 1945.


title: Norway Debate

text: Chamberlain's government was criticised not only by the Opposition but also by respected members of his own Conservative Party. The Opposition forced the vote of no confidence, in which over a quarter of Conservative members voted with the Opposition or abstained, despite a three-line whip. There were calls for national unity to be established by formation of an all-party coalition, but it was not possible for Chamberlain to reach agreement with the opposition Labour and Liberal parties. They refused to serve under him, although they were willing to accept another Conservative as prime minister. After Chamberlain resigned as prime minister (he remained Conservative Party leader), they agreed to serve under Churchill.


title: Norway Debate

text: In 1937, Neville Chamberlain, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, succeeded Stanley Baldwin as prime minister, leading a National Government overwhelmingly composed of Conservatives but supported by small National Labour and Liberal National parties. It was opposed by the Labour and Liberal parties. Faced with an irredentist Nazi Germany, Chamberlain attempted to avert war by a policy of appeasement, abandoned only after Germany became more overtly expansionist with the annexation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. One of the strongest critics of both appeasement and Nazi aggression was Conservative backbencher Winston Churchill who, although he was one of the country's most prominent political figures, had last held government office in 1929. After Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany. Chamberlain thereupon created a war cabinet into which he invited Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty. It was at this point that a government supporter (possibly David Margesson, the Government Chief Whip) noted privately:


title: Norway Debate

text: Once Germany had rapidly overrun Poland in September 1939, there was a sustained period of military inactivity for over six months that has been called the "Phoney War". On 3 April 1940, Chamberlain said in an address to the Conservative National Union that Hitler "had missed the bus". Only six days later, on 9 April, Germany launched an attack in overwhelming force on neutral and unsuspecting Norway after swiftly occupying Denmark. In response, Britain sent land and naval forces to assist the Norwegians.


title: Norway Debate

text: Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, had direct responsibility for the conduct of naval operations in the Norwegian campaign. Before the German invasion, he had pressed the Cabinet to ignore Norway's neutrality, mine its territorial waters and be prepared to seize Narvik, in both cases to disrupt the export of Swedish iron ore to Germany during winter months, when the Baltic Sea was frozen. He had, however, advised that a major landing in Norway was not realistically within Germany's powers. Apart from the naval success at Narvik, the Norwegian campaign went badly for the British forces, generally because of poor planning and organisation but essentially because military supplies were inadequate and, from 27 April, the Allies were obliged to evacuate.


title: Norway Debate

text: When the House of Commons met on Thursday, 2 May, Labour leader Clement Attlee asked: "Is the Prime Minister now able to make a statement on the position in Norway?" Chamberlain was reluctant to discuss the military situation because of the security factors involved but did express a hope that he and Churchill would be able to say much more next week. He went on to make an interim statement of affairs but was not forthcoming about "certain operations (that) are in progress (as) we must do nothing which might jeopardise the lives of those engaged in them". He asked the House to defer comment and question until next week. Attlee agreed and so did Liberal leader Archibald Sinclair, except that he requested a debate on Norway lasting more than a single day.


title: Norway Debate

text: Attlee then presented Chamberlain with a private notice in which he requested a schedule for next week's Commons business. Chamberlain announced that a debate on the general conduct of the war would commence on Tuesday, 7 May. The debate was keenly anticipated in both Parliament and the country. In his diary entry for Monday, 6 May, Chamberlain's Assistant Private Secretary John Colville wrote that all interest centred on the debate. Obviously, he thought, the government would win through but after facing some very awkward points about Norway. Some of Colville's colleagues including Lord Dunglass, who was Chamberlain's Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) at the time, considered the government position to be sound politically, but less so in other respects. Colville worried that "the confidence of the country may be somewhat shaken".


title: Norway Debate

text: The Commons sitting on Tuesday, 7 May 1940, began at 14:45 with Speaker Edward FitzRoy in the Chair. There followed some private business matters and numerous oral answers to questions raised, many of those being about the British Army.


title: Norway Debate

text: With these matters completed, the debate on the Norwegian Campaign began with a routine adjournment motion (i.e., "that this house do now adjourn"). Under Westminster rules, in debates like this which are held to allow for wide-ranging discussion of a variety of topics, the issue is not usually put to a vote.


title: Norway Debate

text: At 15:48, Captain David Margesson, the Government Chief Whip, made the adjournment motion. The House proceeded to openly discuss "Conduct of the War", specifically the progress of the Norwegian Campaign, and Chamberlain rose to make his opening statement.


title: Norway Debate

text: Chamberlain began by reminding the House of his statement on Thursday, 2 May, five days earlier, when it was known that British forces had been withdrawn from Åndalsnes. He was now able to confirm that they had also been withdrawn from Namsos to complete the evacuation of Allied forces from central and southern Norway (the campaign in northern Norway continued). Chamberlain attempted to treat the Allied losses as unimportant and claimed that British soldiers "man for man (were) superior to their foes". He praised the "splendid gallantry and dash" of the British forces but acknowledged they were "exposed ... to superior forces with superior equipment".


title: Norway Debate

text: Chamberlain then said he proposed "to present a picture of the situation" and to "consider certain criticisms of the government". He stated that "no doubt" the withdrawal had created a shock in both the House and the country. At this point, the interruptions began as a Labour member shouted: "All over the world".


title: Norway Debate

text: Chamberlain sarcastically responded that "ministers, of course, must be expected to be blamed for everything". This provoked a heated reaction with several members derisively shouting: "They missed the bus!" The Speaker had to call on members not to interrupt, but they continued to repeat the phrase throughout Chamberlain's speech and he reacted with what has been described as "a rather feminine gesture of irritation". He was eventually forced to defend the original usage of the phrase directly, claiming that he would have expected a German attack on the Allies at the outbreak of war when the difference in armed power was at its greatest.


title: Norway Debate

text: Chamberlain's speech has been widely criticised. Roy Jenkins called it "a tired, defensive speech which impressed nobody". Liberal MP Henry Morris-Jones said Chamberlain looked "a shattered man" and spoke without his customary self-assurance. When Chamberlain insisted that "the balance of advantage lay on our side", Liberal MP Dingle Foot could not believe what he was hearing and said Chamberlain was denying the fact that Great Britain had suffered a major defeat. The backbench Conservative MP Leo Amery said Chamberlain's speech left the House in a restive and depressed, though not yet mutinous, state of mind. Amery believed that Chamberlain was "obviously satisfied with things as they stood" and, in the government camp, the mood was actually positive as they believed they were, in John Colville's words, "going to get away with it".


title: Norway Debate

text: Clement Attlee responded as Leader of the Opposition. He quoted some of Chamberlain's and Churchill's recent confident assertions about the likely victory of the British. Ministers' statements and, even more so, the press, guided (or deliberately left uncorrected) by the government, had painted far too optimistic a picture of the Norwegian campaign. Given the level of confidence created, the setback had generated widespread disappointment. Attlee now raised the issue of government planning which would be revisited by several later speakers:


title: Norway Debate

text: Chamberlain had announced additional powers being granted to Churchill which amounted to him having direction of the Chiefs of Staff. Attlee seized on this as an example of government incompetence, though without blaming Churchill, by saying:


title: Norway Debate

text: Attlee struck a theme here that would recur throughout the debate – that the government was incompetent but not Churchill himself, even though he was part of it, as he had suffered from what Jenkins calls a misdirection of his talents. Jenkins remarks that Churchill's potential had not been fully utilised and, most importantly, he was clean of the stain of appeasement.


title: Norway Debate

text: Chamberlain had been heckled during his speech for having "missed the bus" and he made his case worse by desperately trying, and failing, to excuse his use of that expression a month earlier. In doing so, he provided Attlee with an opportunity. During the conclusion of his response, Attlee said:


title: Norway Debate

text: Attlee's closing words were a direct attack on all Conservative members, blaming them for shoring up ministers whom they knew to be failures:


title: Norway Debate

text: Leo Amery said later that Attlee's restraint, in not calling for a division of the House (i.e., a vote), was of greater consequence than all his criticisms because, Amery believed, it made it much easier for Conservative members to be influenced by the debate's opening day.


title: Norway Debate

text: Sir Archibald Sinclair, the leader of the Liberals, then spoke. He too was critical and began by comparing military and naval staff efficiency, which he considered proven, with political inefficiency:


title: Norway Debate

text: He drew from Chamberlain the admission that whilst troops had been held in readiness to be sent to Norway, no troopships had been retained to send them in. Sinclair gave instances of inadequate and defective equipment and of disorganisation reported to him by servicemen returning from Norway. Chamberlain had suggested that Allied plans had failed because the Norwegians had not put up the expected resistance to the Germans. Sinclair reported that the servicemen "paid a high tribute to the courage and determination with which the Norwegians fought alongside them. They paid a particular tribute to the Norwegian ski patrols. Norwegians at Lillehammer for seven days held up with rifles only a German force with tanks, armoured cars, bombing aeroplanes and all the paraphernalia of modern war".


title: Norway Debate

text: He concluded his speech by calling for Parliament to "speak out (and say) we must have done with half-measures (to promote) a policy for the more vigorous conduct of the war".


title: Norway Debate

text: The rest of the first day's debate saw speeches both supporting and criticising the Chamberlain government. Sinclair was followed by two ex-soldiers, Brigadier Henry Page Croft for the Conservatives and Colonel Josiah Wedgwood for Labour. Derided by Labour, Croft made an unconvincing case in support of Chamberlain and described the press as "the biggest dictator of all".


title: Norway Debate

text: Wedgwood denounced Croft for his "facile optimism, that saps the morale of the whole country". Wedgwood warned of the dangers inherent in trying to negotiate with Hitler and urged prosecution of the war by "a government which can take this war seriously".


title: Norway Debate

text: Attending the debate was National Labour MP Harold Nicolson who was arguably the pre-eminent diarist of British politics in the twentieth century. He took special notice of a comment made by Wedgwood which, in Nicolson's view, transformed "an ordinary debate (into) a tremendous conflict of wills". Wedgwood had asked if the government was preparing any plan to prevent an invasion of Great Britain. A Conservative MP interrupted and asked him if he had forgotten the Royal Navy. Wedgwood countered that with:


title: Norway Debate

text: Moments later, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes arrived in the chamber and caused a stir because he was resplendent in his uniform with gold braid and six rows of medals. He squeezed into a bench just behind Nicolson who passed him a piece of paper with Wedgwood's remark scribbled on it. Keyes went to the Speaker and asked to be called next as the honour of the navy was at stake, though he had really come to the House with the intention of criticising the Chamberlain government.


title: Norway Debate

text: When Wedgwood sat down, the Speaker called Keyes, the Conservative Member for Portsmouth North, who began by denouncing Wedgwood's comment as "a damned insult". The House, especially David Lloyd George, "roared its applause". Keyes quickly moved on and became the debate's first Tory rebel. As Jenkins puts it, Keyes "turned his guns on Chamberlain" but with the proviso that he was longing to see "proper use made of Churchill's great abilities".


title: Norway Debate

text: Keyes was a hero of the First World War representing a naval town and an Admiral of the Fleet (though no longer on the active list). He spoke mostly on the conduct of naval operations, particularly the abortive operations to retake Trondheim. Keyes told the House:


title: Norway Debate

text: It was 19:30 when Keyes sat down to "thunderous applause". Nicolson wrote that Keyes' speech was the most dramatic he had ever heard, and the debate from that point on was no longer an investigation of the Norwegian Campaign but "a criticism of the government's whole war effort".