Massachusetts Government Act

The Massachusetts Government Act (14 Geo. 3 c. 45) was passed by the Parliament of Great Britain, receiving royal assent on 20 May 1774. The act effectively abrogated the Massachusetts Charter of 1691 of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and gave its royally-appointed governor wide-ranging powers. The colonists said that it altered by parliamentary fiat, the basic structure of colonial government, vehemently opposed it, and would not let it operate. The act was a major step on the way to the start of the American Revolution in 1775.
Background.
The Act is one of the "Intolerable Acts" (also known as "Repressive Acts" and "Coercive Acts"), which were designed to suppress dissent and restore order in Massachusetts. The king took away the colonist voices. In the wake of the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament launched a legislative offensive against Massachusetts to control its errant behavior. British officials believed that their inability to control Massachusetts was partly rooted in the highly-independent nature of its local government. On May 2, 1774, Lord North, speaking as the head of the ministry, called on Parliament to adopt the Act on the ground that the whole colony was "in a distempered state of disturbance and opposition to the laws of the mother country."
Contents.
The Massachusetts Government Act abrogated the colony's charter and provided for a greater amount of royal control. Massachusetts had been unique among the colonies in its ability to elect members of its executive council. The act took away that right and instead gave the king the sole power to appoint and dismiss the council. Additionally, many civil offices that had been chosen by-election were now to be appointed by the royal governor. Town meetings were forbidden without consent of the governor. As Lord North explained to Parliament, the purpose of the act was "to take the executive power from the hands of the democratic part of the government."

Glasgow pub bombings

The Glasgow pub bombings were two bomb attacks in Glasgow, Scotland, carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) on 17 February 1979. The UVF bombed two pubs frequented by Catholics: the Old Barns in Calton and, 15 minutes later, the Clelland Bar in Gorbals. Five people were injured, all at the Clelland Bar. The pubs were targeted because they were allegedly used for fundraising for Irish republicans in Northern Ireland. The attack sparked fears that sectarian terrorism would erupt in Scotland as a spillover of the Troubles. Experts believe a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) veto on bombing operations in Scotland prevented the situation from escalating.
The attacks were co-ordinated by William "Big Bill" Campbell, the UVF's top commander in Scotland, who was possibly involved with the 1971 McGurk's Bar bombing in Belfast which killed 15 people according to a book published in 2012. A police investigation led to Campbell, along with eight other UVF members (which included Angus McKenna), to be sentenced at Glasgow High Court in June 1979 and jailed. Campbell received a 16-year sentence for the pub bombings as well as criminal conspiracy related to firearms and explosives. The investigation wiped out the UVF's Scotland cell. In 1995 his nephew Jason Campbell murdered a 16-year-old Celtic F.C. supporter in Bridgeton, Glasgow. He was jailed until released on parole in 2011. William Campbell died of natural causes in 1997 and received a funeral in his native Bridgeton, a loyalist stronghold, with thousands in attendance.