McGarvie Model

The McGarvie Model is a proposition for change to the Australian Constitution to remove references to the monarchy and establish a republic. It is also known as the "Australian Democracy Model".
The model was developed by former Governor of Victoria Richard McGarvie and originally submitted to the Republic Advisory Committee in 1993. At the Constitutional Convention of 1998, it was the second most popular model of the four voted upon.
Under the McGarvie Model, a Constitutional Council would appoint and dismiss the head of state, the Governor-General. The Constitutional Council would be bound to act in accordance with the Prime Minister's advice by a convention backed by the penalty of public dismissal for breach.
The three members of the Constitutional Council, who can act by majority, are determined automatically by constitutional formula, with places going first to former Governors-General (with priority to the most recently retired), and excess places going (on the same basis) in turn to former state governors, lieutenant-governors (or equivalent), judges of the High Court or judges of the Federal Court.
The tenure of the head of state would be under the same arrangements as the existing practice for the current Governor-General. The head of state would also have the same range of powers as the current Governor-General, but, except for the reserve powers, they could only be exercised on the advice of the Federal Executive Council or a Minister. Otherwise there would be no codification of the constitutional conventions.
The only eligibility requirement for a head of state under the McGarvie Model would be Australian citizenship because the process for selecting the head of state is designed to ensure a non-political head of state.
Supporters of the model claim that, although described as "no-risk but uninspiring" and occasionally as "elitist", it has the considerable advantage of being developed by one with experience as a governor and hence a working knowledge of how the system of governorship actually functions in Australia. They claim it is straightforward, easily implemented, demonstrates twin requirements of practicality and principle, and keeps the separation of powers intact.
Legal commentators have remarked that the McGarvie Model is broadly consistent with the constitution's existing arrangements under the monarchy and that it requires the least change to constitutional practice.
Some republicans have been critical of the appointment process in the McGarvie model and argue that a model without any public participation in its selection mechanism would not be successful in any referendum to change the constitution.


British Empire in fiction

The British Empire has often been portrayed in fiction. Originally such works described the Empire because it was a contemporary part of life; nowadays fictional references are also frequently made in a steampunk context.
Historical events.
This section includes fiction that attempts to re-create historical events.
Period fiction.
This section deals with fictional characters set within the wider backdrop of the British Empire.
Prose.
Set on an isolated Island
Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe: Crusoe finds himself stranded on an isolated Island. From a few belongings he rebuilds English civilization and christens a tribesman. A drama fueled by capitalism, Christian faith and efforts to 'colonialize' and 'civilize' both the island and the tribesman.
Other fiction.
This section also has works with fictional characters set in the Empire, but also include supernatural or fantastical elements.
Alternative histories.
The alternate history section details books that examine what would have happened if history had unfolded differently. A common feature of stories written by American authors is a British victory in the revolutionary war. For novels in which Britain is defeated by Nazi Germany in 1940, see Axis victory in World War II and .
Speculative futures.
There are many examples of speculative fiction were a British empire different from the historical empire is featured, but these cannot be called alternative realities, as they are not written from the point of view of a change in the past but as speculations about the future.


Grunde Almeland

Grunde Kreken Almeland (born 29 March 1991) is a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party.
He served as a deputy representative to the Parliament of Norway from Oslo during the term 2017–2021. When Ola Elvestuen was appointed to Solberg's Second Cabinet in January 2018 he moved up to full representative. He was the deputy leader of the Young Liberals of Norway until October 2017 and studied law at the University of Oslo until becoming an MP.


Charles Batteux

Charles Batteux (6 May 171314 July 1780) was a French philosopher and writer on aesthetics.
Life.
Batteux was born in Alland'Huy-et-Sausseuil, Ardennes, and studied theology at Reims. In 1739 he came to Paris, and after teaching in the colleges of Lisieux and Navarre, was appointed to the chair of Greek and Roman philosophy in the Collège de France.
His 1746 treatise "Les beaux arts réduits à un même principe" (translated into English as "The Fine Arts Reduced to a Single Principle", trans. James O. Young, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015) was an attempt to find a unity among existing theories of beauty and taste on "a single principle", and its views were widely accepted, not only in France but throughout Europe.
According to P. O. Kristeller,
The reputation thus gained, confirmed by his translation of Horace (1750), led to Batteux's becoming a member of the Académie des Inscriptions (1754) and of the Académie française (1761). His "Cours de belles lettres" (1765) was afterwards included with some minor writings in the large treatise, "Principes de la littérature" (1774). His philosophical writings were "La morale d'Épicure tirée de ses propres écrits" (1758), and the "Histoire des causes premières" (1769). In consequence of the freedom with which in this work he attacked the abuse of authority in philosophy, he lost his professorial chair.
His last and most extensive work was a "Cours d'études à l'usage des élèves de l'école militaire" in forty-five volumes.
In "Les Beaux Arts", Batteux developed a theory influenced by John Locke through Voltaire's sceptical sensualism. He held that the fine arts are arts ("assemblages of rules for doing well"), for producing fine or beautiful things ("which please" of themselves), always "in imitation of "la belle nature"" and requiring genius.
Applying this principle to the art of poetry, and analysing, line by line and even word by word, the works of great poets, he deduced the law that the beauty of poetry consists in the accuracy, beauty and harmony of individual expression.
His "Histoire des causes premières" was among the first attempts at a history of philosophy, and in his work on Epicurus, following on Gassendi, he defended Epicureanism against the general attacks made against it.
Strictly in Aesthetics terms Batteux sets the single principle for fine arts in imitation of nature, and this in terms of ideal of perfection to make an harmonious whole: "let's choose the most beautiful parts of nature, to make an exquisite whole, more perfect then nature, but never ending to be natural". In this concept, clearly, Batteux follows a long tradition, present at least in Leon Battista Alberti; as well as for the expression of fine arts, present in Giovanni Battista Armenini and more back in Sebastiano Serlio.


Stephen Berry (politician)

Stephen Berry (born 14 February 1983) is a perennial candidate in New Zealand national and local politics, running on libertarian or right-wing positions.
Biography.
Berry calls himself a "Manurewa native". He attended St. Annes Primary School. He then attended Manurewa Intermediate and spent year 9 and 10 at James Cook High School, where he played cricket for Weymouth.
He ran as an independent candidate in the 2002 Mount Roskill general election and the 2011 Tāmaki general election. He served as spokesman of minor political party Libertarianz, running for Libertarianz in the 2004 Auckland City mayoral election. He also ran in the 2013 Auckland mayoral election for right-wing group Affordable Auckland, coming third with 13,650 votes.
He was leader of Affordable Auckland and criticised money spent on a private bathroom and dressing room hidden behind a bookcase being built behind Auckland Mayor Len Brown's new office. He called it "highly inappropriate and a really bad look". He demanded Len Brown's donors be made public, following a $273,375.22 donation from the New Auckland Council Trust. He criticised Auckland Transport for $41,500 spent on a party for 1700 staff and family at The Cloud, including entertainment from The X Factor winner Jackie Thomas. He said Auckland Transport wasn't hearing the clear message at the local body elections on responsible spending of ratepayers' money "when they throw enormous parties like this".
With Berry as leader, Affordable Auckland organised a "Stand Down Len Brown" march up Queen Street in February 2014, following Len Brown's sex scandal and a report that found he failed to declare more than $39,000 in free hotel rooms and upgrades. He and spokesman Will Ryan said the march was not so much about Mr Brown's private life as his undeclared activities and poor financial management. The protest attracted 300 people.
In the 2014 New Zealand general election, he ran for ACT in the Upper Harbour electorate and was 6th on the party list. He said "In 21st century New Zealand politics, homosexuality is so acceptable as to hardly be an issue at all." He also ran in the 2016 Auckland mayoral election. At the first Auckland mayoral debate, he said groups such as Auckland 2040 were "neighbourhood busybodies... artificially inflating the cost of property". He pulled out of the race and endorsed centre-right candidate John Palino.
In the 2017 New Zealand general election, he stood for ACT in the East Coast Bays electorate and was 5th on the party list. He said he would abolish the Rural Urban Boundary and open up space for 600,000 homes to impact the price of housing. He also said he would scrap the Resource Management Act. He served as ACT's 2017 spokesperson for Health and LGBT issues. During the election, he defended hate speech against transgender people as a right. Following these comments, he was booed and laughed at by the audience at an election forum in Wellington, hosted by Rainbow Wellington. He said a colleague had told him it was easier to come out as gay in the ACT Party than it was to come out as an ACT supporter amongst gay friends.
He spoke at the Free Speech Coalition protest in July 2018, following far-right Canadian activists Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern being denied an Auckland Council venue and unable to secure a venue for their New Zealand tour. He said "Look the thing about free speech is that we’ve all got that in common. We’ve got different reasons for it being in common."
He ran for ACT in the 2018 Northcote by-election, achieving fourth place. Berry's dream for Northcote was a new six-lane motorway over the harbour at Point Chevalier, revived from a 1972 Ministry of Works plan, to fix the Onewa Road congestion. This would be funded by using $58 billion raised by putting up the age to receive superannuation to 67. This was described by others as a "rather crazy motorway plan" and the "stupidest of stupid ideas". Tackling traffic congestion in Northcote was a priority for Berry in this race.
In the 2020 New Zealand general election, he contested the Pakuranga electorate for ACT and was ninth on the party list, but resigned from running in September 2020, citing "physical exhaustion". He was the only openly gay representative of ACT at the time. He was ninth on the ACT Party list and ACT New Zealand got 10 seats, which means if he had stayed in the race and ACT got the same result, then he would have been elected as Member of Parliament. After resigning as a candidate in the 2020 general election, he has finished with politics and now hosts the "Mr Berry Mr Berry" show on YouTube, where he shares political commentary and clips from his stand-up comedy routines.
In January 2021, he was permanently suspended from Twitter. This was part of the culling of more than 70,000 "QAnon-related accounts", including President Donald Trump, following the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol. He said he did not approve of what Twitter was doing, but he said Twitter owns the platform and has the right to do as it wishes, even if it's something he disagrees with.
Personal life.
Berry is gay and an atheist. He lives in Forrest Hill on Auckland's North Shore with his husband. He is also a manager for a supermarket chain.
Electoral history.
2004 Auckland City mayoral election.


Prince Edward Island Liberal Party

The Prince Edward Island Liberal Party (officially the Prince Edward Island Liberal "Association") is a political party in the province of Prince Edward Island, Canada. The PEI Liberals are affiliated with the federal Liberal Party of Canada.
History.
The party was created when PEI was a British colony by reformers who agitated for the system of responsible government. This was granted by the British crown to the colony in 1851.
George Coles was its dominant figure in its first decades. While initially supportive of Canadian Confederation, Coles and the Liberals soured on the project, and it was not until 1873 that the island joined Canada as a means of relieving the PEI government's severe debts.
The early party supported the abolition of school fees, and a resolution to the "Land Question" that divided the province. The Liberals supported land reform through the state acquisition of large landed estates. These estates were broken up and turned over to tenants and squatters.
The Liberals have been one of only two parties forming government on the island since 1851, the other being the Conservatives. The Liberals have formed government more often, but not in recent times. In practice, there is little to distinguish the two parties from each other: both lean towards the centre of the political spectrum. The Liberals being slightly to the left and the Conservatives (Tories) slightly to the right.
Traditionally, the Tories have done better among Protestant voters, while Liberals have had more support from Catholics. Politics on the island, however, has never been sectarian, and both parties have always had voters and members from both populations. Indeed, it has been the custom until recently for a Liberal incumbent of one denomination to be opposed by a Tory challenger of the same denomination and vice versa. This had tended to minimise religious sectarianism within the parties. The Liberals have also traditionally enjoyed the support of the province's small Acadian population concentrated in "Prince County" at the west end of the island. Conservative support has tended to be greater on the eastern half of the island.
In the past forty years the most significant figures in the party have been Alexander B. Campbell and, later, Joe Ghiz. Liberal governments in the 1960s and 1970s under Campbell supported diversification of the province's agricultural economy. Government incentives were provided to attract manufacturing and tourism. Under Ghiz in the 1980s, the Liberals opposed free trade between Canada and the United States, and the federal Tory government's decision to close a military base on the island. The party's enthusiasm for economic intervention in the economy had waned since the Campbell years.
Ghiz resigned in 1993 and was succeeded by Catherine Callbeck. Callbeck was the third female premier in Canadian history and, after the 1993 election, the first to lead her party to victory in a general election. After three and a half years, Callbeck resigned and was succeeded by Keith Milligan, under whom the Liberals were defeated in the 1996 election, falling to 8 seats. Wayne Carew was elected leader in 1999, and saw the party's fortunes fall further, winning a single seat in the 2000 election. Robert Ghiz, son of Joe Ghiz, was elected leader in 2003.
After more than ten years in opposition, the Liberals returned to government in the 2007 election, and were re-elected in 2011. Ghiz resigned in 2015 and was succeeded as party leader and premier by Wade MacLauchlan, who lead the Liberals to a third victory in 2015. After twelve years in government, the Liberals were defeated in the 2019 election, and were reduced to third party status for the first time in their history, behind the Progressive Conservatives and the Greens.


Esterina Tartman

Esterina Tartman (, born 9 November 1957) is an Israeli politician. She served as a member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu between 2006 and 2009.
Political career.
Tartman entered the Knesset in February 2006, two months before the end of the 16th Knesset's term after Yisrael Beiteinu had split from the National Union and gained another seat. She retained her seat in the 2006 elections.
Since the start of the 17th Knesset's term, Tartman has made a number of controversial acts. In October 2006 she stated that she would introduce a bill to remove Knesset Members who were deemed to be anti-Israeli, though she later backed down and did not submit the bill after a request from Knesset speaker Dalia Itzik.
In January 2007 Tartman submitted a bill to the Knesset that would curb the authority of the Supreme Court to overturn government legislation. Later in the month Tartman hit the headlines after saying Labour's nomination of Raleb Majadele a Muslim Arab for a Ministerial position was a "lethal blow to Zionism". Majadele's Ministerial position was eventually confirmed by a cabinet vote, though Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman abstained from voting.
Despite her controversial remarks, in February 2007, Lieberman nominated her to take the position of Tourism Minister which had been vacated by Isaac Herzog during a cabinet reshuffle caused by Yisrael Beiteinu's addition to Ehud Olmert's coalition. In response, Israeli Arab MK Ahmad Tibi stated the move was "a lethal blow to sanity and tolerance". Since her nomination, she has said she would propose revoking the citizenship of Israeli Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews who refused to sign a declaration of their loyalty to Israel. Further controversy followed when the major newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth revealed that she does not hold a Master's degree despite claiming so in her CV and in television interviews. Despite Lieberman insisting she was still the party's only candidate, after much media pressure, Tartman announced that she was withdrawing her candidacy for the post, with Yitzhak Aharonovich announced as her replacement.
Prior to her political career, Tartman won a claim in the High Court that she was "52% disabled" and that she could only work four hours a day due to a car accident she had been involved in during the mid–1990s, though the limitation only applied for one year. She was also awarded 2.5 million shekels. The claim detailed that she had memory, concentration and attention problems. When beginning her political career she stated that the "Knesset is easy work - inconsistent and consisting mostly of talk".
Tartman lost her seat in the 2009 elections.


Battle of Vargas Swamp

Battle of Vargas Swamp () was a battle that occurred near Paipa, on July 25, 1819. A joint Venezuelan and New Granadan army commanded by Simón Bolívar was trying to prevent Spanish forces from arriving at Santafe de Bogotá, which was lightly defended, before they did. Bolívar's army successfully bested the royalist army in spite of the exhaustion of the troops after climbing the Páramo de Pisba, and crossing the swamp. This battle and the next victory over the Spanish by the Boyacá Bridge secured the independence of New Granada.
Battle.
During the action the left flank of the Patriot army was outflanked and withdrew in disorder. The British Legions played a decisive role in recovering the situation when their commander James Rooke led the 2nd Rifles in a bayonet charge against the Spanish defenses on the hills, gaining the position at great cost. A cavalry attack by a force of Venezuelan Lancers then decided the outcome of the battle, turning defeat into victory.
The battle is commemorated in the Vargas Swamp Lancers memorial.


Michael Walker (economist)

Michael Augustus Walker (born 1945, in Corner Brook, Newfoundland) is a Canadian economist. He is best known as the founder of the Fraser Institute. He is a journalist, broadcaster and consultant.
Biography.
Walker earned a BA from St. Francis Xavier University, and went on to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario. He worked at the Bank of Canada and the Federal Department of Finance. He then taught at the University of Western Ontario and Carleton University. Under his leadership, a series of conferences were started in the mid-1980s to measure economic freedom and rank countries accordingly.
A prominent spokesman in the media for free market causes, he founded the Fraser Institute in 1974. He was its Executive Director until 2005, and remains a Senior Fellow. He considers himself a libertarian. In 2010 he received an honorary doctorate degree from Universidad Francisco Marroquín.


John Enys

Lieutenant Colonel John Enys (17 December 1757 – 30 July 1818) was a British Army officer who served during the American Revolution.
Family and education.
He was born on 17 December 1757, in Cornwall, England to John Enys and his wife Lucy Basset. John was the youngest of six children and spent much of his childhood at Eton. While at Eton John would contract the deadly illness of small pox but would be one of the lucky ones to recover.
American Revolution.
As a younger son of a rich family a military career was chosen for him and his father purchased an Ensign's commission in the 29th Regiment of Foot on 21 April 1775, just as the American Revolutionary War was starting in England's North American colonies.
On 21 March 1776, the 29th, along with John Enys, set sail for Quebec City to relieve the besieged city. Quebec City had been under siege by the Continental Army all winter. Faced with a reinforced British Army the Americans retreated towards Montreal, Quebec. John would see his first action on 8 June 1776 at the Battle of Trois-Rivières in which the Americans were defeated by Gen. Guy Carleton's British Forces.
John was also present with Gen. Carlton's naval squadron on Lake Champlain at the Battle of Valcour Island on 11 October 1776, as Benedict Arnold's American naval squadron was defeated. But the time that it took to prepare and fight the battle had cost the British any chance of further advance that year. John and the rest of the 29th were sent to Montreal for winter quarters.
The campaign of 1777, led by Lt. General John Burgoyne, saw John Enys and the 8 battalion companies of the 29th Regt. left behind in Canada.
With the defeat of Burgoyne's army at Saratoga and loss of the 29th Regiment's light Infantry company in October 1777, John was promoted to Lieutenant on 16 February 1778 and placed into a composite "Ranger" company that took over the duties normally performed by the light infantry company of the regiment.
In the Autumn of 1778, John and his Ranger company took part in a raid down the eastern side of Lake Champlain burning crops, farms and other militarily useful supplies. Known as Carleton's Raid after its overall commander Major Christopher Carleton, also of the 29th Regt., who was the nephew of Guy Carlton.
In 1780, the Ranger company took part in a much larger raid along the western shore of Lake Champlain to Lake George and as far as the Hudson River at Fort Edward. This raid was a part of the Burning of the Valleys that had multiple raids taking place over northern New York and Vermont during the fall of 1780.
Post Revolutionary War.
With the American Revolution winding down, John left on leave in July 1782 to visit his family back in Cornwall. While still on leave, John was promoted to the rank of Captain on 25 January 1783, but was soon placed on half-pay as the army cut back it forces with the end of the American Revolution.
John and his brother Francis then spent the summer of 1783 touring Scotland visiting castles, the Antonine Wall and other places of interest.
1784 saw John called back to active service with the 29th Regt. which was still in Canada. Over the next 3 years, John would serve at Montreal, Kingston, Ontario and Fort Niagara. While at the remote outposts of Kingston and Niagara, John found little else to do except for fishing for the abundant trout and salmon in the lakes and streams. In October, the 29th received orders to return to England. John took this time to take another leave and tour the new nation of the United States. John would spend 6 months touring from New England to Virginia before returning to active duty with the Regt. back in England.
French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.
On 1 March 1794, John was promoted to the rank of major for the outstanding recruiting done by the regiment to be at full strength. On 1 June, the 29th served as marines on board the fleet of Admiral Richard Howe in his defeat of a French fleet in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Major Enys was ordered to stay in England to command a large detachment of sick men in February 1795, as the 29th was ordered to the West Indies. As soon as the men were better, they were sent to the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel to guard against French invasion.
With the return of the bulk of the regiment from the West Indies in 1796, John was promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel of the 29th Regt. on 6 September 1796.
In response to a French landing in Ireland, the 29th and its commander John Enys were sent there with the 100th Regiment of Foot to reinforce those troops already there. Though not engaged in the battle, the 29th did take many French prisoners fleeing from the battle.
Next for Lt. Col. Enys was Holland where a force of British and Russian soldiers under the command of the Duke of York were sent to try and drive the French out of the Netherlands in 1799. Though successful in the small battles that took place, the British and Russian troops soon left with the Netherlands still part of the French Empire.
Retirement.
On 20 March 1800, John Enys retired from the active life of a soldier. He was given an expensive inscribed sword from the officers of the 29th Regiment in which he had served for all of his 25 years in the Army. This was not usually the case as officers would often move from regiment to regiment to advance their military career. John never married and after retirement moved to Bath, where he often took the waters to help with his rheumatism and died on 30 July 1818.
In 1976, the journal he kept while in North America was published under the title "The American Journal of Lt. John Enys". In 2010 the National Maritime Museum Cornwall and the Enys family unveiled a birch bark canoe brought back from North America by John Enys. The canoe is to be donated to the Canadian Canoe Museum after being displayed in the main hall of the Museum until September 2011.


Steven Schwartz (psychologist)

Steven Schwartz (; born 5 November 1946) is an American and Australian academic and, until late 2012, the Vice Chancellor of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He was previously Vice Chancellor of Brunel University in the UK and of Murdoch University in Western Australia. He is a trained psychologist and served both as senior academic and researcher, then as a university corporate manager. His style of management was controversial and attracted considerable opposition. He defended his record by saying that he wished universities to be more market-oriented, research-focused, accountable, transparent and held to higher standards, in the hope of improving university profiles and attracting more students, funding and researchers. Throughout his career he was successful in establishing new schools and facilities at the universities he was involved with.
Biography.
Education and early years.
Steven Schwartz was born in New York City in 1946. After attending public schools, he entered Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He was a National Merit Scholar finalist and he received a New York State Regent Scholarship. After leaving the City University of New York, he was commissioned an officer in the Public Health Service serving at the National Institute of Mental Health before completing a PhD degree at Syracuse University as a US Public Health Service Fellow. He has also worked as a journalist, authoring many articles for research journals, magazines and newspapers.
Academic career.
He began his academic career teaching at the Northern Illinois University. This led him to University of Texas Medical Branch where he was a full-time researcher in psychiatry. In 1978 he moved to Australia to take up the position of Senior Lecturer in clinical psychology at the University of Western Australia in Perth. In 1980, he transferred to the University of Queensland first as Reader and then as Professor of Psychology. He also served as visiting professor at Stanford University in 1983 and Harvard University in 1987.
Over these years, Schwartz's research spanned clinical psychology, psychiatry, public health and medical decision making. He published over 100 articles in scientific journals, and 13 books including "Medical Judgement and Decision Making" (with Timothy Griffin), "Childhood Psychopathology" (with James Johnson, two editions), "Pavlov’s Heirs" and a well-known textbook on abnormal psychology, "Abnormal Psychology, A Developmental Approach".
Schwartz was named one of the 100 highest cited researchers in his field and he received many recognitions including a World Health Organization Fellowship, a NATO fellowship and the Australian Academy of Science-Royal Society (London) Exchange Fellowship. He was elected by his peers to the Academy of Social Sciences and he was elected Morris Leibovitz Fellow at the University of Southern California. Schwartz is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and the Australian Institute of Management. He was a visiting Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford and he won the Brain Research Award of the British Red Cross Society. He was elected the first President of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society in Australia and was awarded the distinguished Career Scientist Award by the National Institutes of Health. He served on the editorial boards of many scientific journals and was a fellow of many learned societies.
In 1988 he was appointed Head of the University of Queensland Psychology Department and then elected by the academic staff of the university to be President of the Academic Board, a position to which he was re-elected for a second term. His experience as Head and then President gave him an interest in administration which he followed by moving back to Perth to take up the position of Executive Dean in the School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Australia. He was the first medical Dean in Australia who was not a medical doctor. Although there was some scepticism about this among the medical establishment, Schwartz overcame this and his management came to the attention of the Murdoch University search committee which appointed Schwartz Vice Chancellor in 1996.
Vice chancellorships.
Murdoch University.
During his tenure at Murdoch University he introduced a number of Feeder Colleges, restructured the University to become more research-focused and developed new courses to attract additional students. He also designed and built a branch campus at Rockingham (which won the Prime Minister's Institutional Award in 1998). To provide a permanent endowment for the University, he undertook a $100 million land development program, which included a housing estate, obtained ISO9000 quality approval for administrative functions, outsourced non-core business operations such as catering, won the WA Premier's Award for public sector management in 2000, the Prime Minister's National Employer of the Year in 2000, the Telstra National Employer of the Year 2000 and 2002, the Prime Minister's Teaching Award 1998 and began a mentoring program for women. In 2001, in the midst of union activity over a new contract and the protection of low enrolment courses, the members of the local union branch issued a vote of no confidence in him.
Brunel University.
At the end of 2002, Schwartz was appointed Vice Chancellor of Brunel University in the United Kingdom: a university with 2,400 staff, 13,000 students and a yearly budget of £140+ million. Brunel had decided under Michael Sterling, the previous VC, to refocus its mission on research. To help achieve this goal, the university under Schwartz sought to hire new research active staff, and, to help fund this, to reduce the number of non-research active staff (43 eventually accepted voluntary redundancy). The redundancy programme was highly controversial and was fiercely resisted by staff unions who ran a highly personalised campaign against Schwartz. As a part of the repositioning of the university, the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences was closed and the staff that didn't leave were redeployed (and one accepted voluntary redundancy). Despite the depleted staff base, Geography was still deemed strong enough to be returned in the 2008 RAE when it received an average score of 2.15 out of a possible 5. Schwartz's changes were supposed to produce increased research output and RAE ratings, bolstering the economic viability of the university. Brunel moved up the university league tables, (but has since fallen back), international income doubled, entry scores of students rose, the first venture capital trust for a university was established, and management was completely restructured. Similar to the experience at Murdoch, cutbacks led to staff action, including picketing and paid ads on Google.
In 2004, Schwartz was asked by the British government to chair an inquiry into university admissions. This inquiry became the focus of much political interest and media coverage. The Schwartz report was completed in September 2004 and its recommendations were far-reaching and controversial. The reports can be found at Schwartz also led a national project on ethics for universities sponsored by the Council for Industry and Higher Education and Universities UK.
In 2007 a tribunal found Schwartz guilty of victimisation by an employment tribunal after he publicly implied that two members of Brunel staff had made unwarranted claims against the university. In 2005, after the two staff members had lost claims of race discrimination against the university, Professor Schwartz emailed all of the staff criticising the pair (although neither were named). Bemoaning the expense of defending the cases, he referred to the two as having made "unwarranted demands for money" and described their claims as "unfounded", "unmeritorious" and "futile". The tribunal concluded that the claimants' sense of grievance was reasonable and justified: "Professor Schwartz's assertion that the claimants had made unwarranted demands for money was an implicit assertion of dishonesty on their part," it said. The earlier tribunal, while dismissing the cases of discrimination, had accepted that they were made in good faith. The tribunal awarded the two claimants £7,500 each as compensation for injury to their feelings, and said that, as Professor Schwartz and the university were equally responsible, so each should be liable for half of each award.
Macquarie University.
In 2006, Schwartz left Brunel, returning to Australia to take up the position of Vice Chancellor at Macquarie University where he made similar changes to those imposed at Brunel. Arguing that he sought to refocus the university around peaks of research excellence, he said that this would mean "moving from teaching the subjects teachers want to teach to the subjects students want to learn; ensuring institutional success rather than ensuring morale; and decentralising responsibility and accountability". He added more than 85 new research active staff, including a new group of postgraduate medical researchers, attracted hundreds of millions in new development funds and the university rose in the Shanghai Jiao Tong ratings. In June, 2012, Macquarie was ranked 16 in the world in the QS rankings of 50 universities under 50 years of age and 32 in the world by a similar poll published by the THES In both cases, Macquarie was ranked first or tied first in Australia. In May 2008, he announced a search for an additional 43 staff. Schwartz has had to deal with a difficult legacy. There were run-ins with the former Vice-Chancellor, Di Yerbury.
Union action was taken over staff contract conditions and issues regarding faculty and department funding. Schwartz has overseen considerable cuts to the university's infrastructure (though actually $1 billion was spent on infrastructure during his tenure including the new library, Macquarie University Hospital, the Hearing Hub and the Cochlear Building).
Schwartz had:
Macquarie University announced on 13 April 2012 that Professor S Bruce Dowton would succeed Schwartz as Vice-Chancellor. Schwartz left the role after six years in office and is the university's shortest serving Vice Chancellor. Schwartz was 66 at retirement and his contract had already been extended by two years. He went on to a visiting position at Oxford University.
Other roles.
Schwartz is the Chairman of the Australian-American Fulbright Commission and a member of the advisory boards of the Asia Society, the Global Foundation and the Centre for Independent Studies, an Australasian libertarian thinktank "actively engaged in supporting a free enterprise economy and a free society under limited government where individuals can prosper and fully develop their talents". He is the Chair of the Minister's Advisory Committee on the Bologna Process. He also represents Australia on the Council of the University of the South Pacific.


FreeRight

FreeRight (, LD) is a liberal-conservative political association in Italy.
LD was launched by Gianfranco Fini, former leader of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), National Alliance (AN) and Future and Freedom (FLI), former minister of Foreign Affairs, former deputy prime minister and former president of the Chamber of Deputies, in October 2013.
The association's leading principles are patriotism (i.e. not nationalism), legality, liberty and European integration. In Fini's words, "if the political and cultural community of the right is able to work in the near future to express original ideas in line with its traditional values and if new leaders emerge, the political right will resume its path in a credible way" and he "will try [...] to give a contribution of ideas and proposals in order to define the countenance of an Italian right finally alike [...] to several European formations." In this respect, Fini has long hinted that he might return to active politics and expressed interest in the creation of a party representing both the traditional and the "moderate" right, as opposed to the "populism" supposedly espoused by Brothers of Italy and Lega Nord, AN's historical nemesis.


Operation Ares

Operation Ares is a science fiction novel by American writer Gene Wolfe, published as a paperback original by Berkley Books in 1970. It was his first novel. While no later editions were issued in the United States, a hardcover edition was released in the UK market by Dobson Books in 1977, followed by a Fontana paperback in 1978. The title is sometimes rendered "Operation ARES".
The novel originated from a short story written by Wolfe in 1965. He submitted the story to Damon Knight, who suggested that Wolfe expand it into a novel. Wolfe completed the novel, then titled "The Laughter at Night" in 1967, and sold it to Berkley Books. Wolfe and his editor, Donald R. Bensen, cut about 20% of the manuscript's 100,000-word length for publication.
"Operation Ares" depicts a dystopian future where the United States is controlled by an anti-technological leftist regime. The story traces protagonist John Castle's conflict with the government and his increasing involvement with a rebellion backed by a Martian colony which has severed its ties to the U.S. government. While occasionally cited as a libertarian text, Wolfe himself attributes its politics to his being "much more a doctrinaire conservative when I was a good deal younger.
Reception.
Joanna Russ found the novel unsatisfying, saying "I know what Mr. Wolfe can do when he sets his mind to it; "Ares" is far below his best." She described it as "a convincing, quiet, low-keyed, intelligent book which somehow fades out into nothing" and, despite praising Wolfe's technique, concluded it was "a failure, shadowy and inconclusive."
Larry McCaffery characterized "Ares" as "a generally undistinguished first novel."
in 2007, Wolfe said "I don't think "Operation Ares" is a very good novel," adding that in 1970, he "wasn't really skillful enough to write a good novel."


Robert Craufurd

Major-General Robert Craufurd (5 May 1764 – 23 January 1812) was a British soldier. Craufurd was born at Newark, Ayrshire, the third son of Sir Alexander Craufurd, 1st Baronet (see Craufurd Baronets), and the younger brother of Sir Charles Craufurd. After a military career which took him from India to the Netherlands, in 1810 in the Napoleonic Peninsular War he was given command of the Light Division, composed of the elite foot soldiers in the army at the time, under the Duke of Wellington. Craufurd was a strict disciplinarian and somewhat prone to violent mood swings which earned him the nickname "Black Bob". He was mortally wounded storming the lesser breach in the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo on 19 January 1812 and died four days later.
Early life.
Like Sir John Moore, the Craufurd family originated from Ayrshire. Alexander Craufurd lived at Newark Castle, and Thirdpart, Ayrshire. They were the cadet line of the Craufurds of Auchenames represented the old line of the Craufurds of Loudoun. The castle was sold by Alexander's grandfather, who was a friend of the Duke of Buccleuch, and then went to live in England in Essex. He was created a baronet in 1781. His eldest son became Sir James, the second baronet. Robert's sibling and second brother, Charles was also a British Army soldier.
Career.
Military prodigy.
Craufurd entered the army aged fifteen. He enlisted as an Ensign with the 25th Foot in 1779, serving four years as a subaltern. By aged nineteen he was already a company commander. He spent some time at Berlin in 1782, studying the tactics of the army of Frederick the Great and translated into English the official Prussian treatise on the Art of War. Together with his brother Charles, he attended King Frederick the Great's Review of the troops at Potsdam by personal invitation.
As captain in the 75th Regiment from 1787, he first saw active service against Tippoo Sahib in 1790–92, while serving under Lord Cornwallis. His distinguished service was praised earning seniority in Captaincies among the purchased commissions. Robert returned to England on leave to help his brother, Colonel Charles. His knowledge of German, a rare accomplishment in the British Army at the end of the eighteenth century, caused him to the given the post of military attaché at Coburg’s headquarters of the Austrian army in 1794 to 1796.
In 1798 Craufurd was sent as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General on General Lake's staff to quash the Irish rebellion against General Humbert. His abilities were recognised by Generals Cornwallis and Lake who reported well of his performance to the War Office. A year later, due to his German language skills, he was British commissioner on Suvorov's staff when Russia invaded Switzerland. At the end of 1799, Craufurd was on the staff in the Helder Expedition led by the Duke of York.
Family life.
Robert had married on 7 February 1800 at St Saviour's Church, Mary Frances, daughter of Henry Holland, Esquire of Hans Place, Chelsea, and granddaughter of the landscape designer Lancelot "Capability" Brown. He was very fond of his wife, and, to the exasperation of his General officer commanding, regularly requested 'furlough' home to see his young love. At the time he often talked to family of retiring from the army altogether. It was also at this time that he developed a correspondence with the Secretary at War, William Windham. They became firm friends. From 1801 to 1805, Craufurd (by then a lieutenant-colonel) sat in parliament for East Retford, but in 1807 he resigned to concentrate on soldiering.
The Buenos Aires Expedition.
On 30 October 1805, Craufurd was promoted to full colonel and put in command of his own regiment. He was ordered on an expedition to South America. In 1806 on the promise of another promotion to Brigadier-general he took ship to Rio de Janeiro. The British commander-in-chief General Whitelocke was based at Montevideo. Craufurd's brigade was two squadrons of 6th Dragoon Guards, the 5th Dragoon Guards, 36th Regiment, 45th Regiment, and 88th Regiments of Foot, and five companies of 95th Rifles, totaling 4,200 men. The broad objective was the conquest of Chile. Craufurd departed from Falmouth docks on 12 November 1806. Sailing south to the Cape of Good Hope with "Instructions" from Mr Windham. General Samuel Auchmuty and Admiral Murray were despatched to report back to the Pittite ministry, who wanted the capture of Buenos Ayres. They had already left London on 9 October.
The flotilla arrived with 8,000 men on board on 15 June 1807, when the armies were finally united at Buenos Ayres. Whitelocke refused to act, and was accused by Robert Craufurd of cowardice. He was supported in London by his brother Charles, who had a network of aristocratic contacts. Whitelocke would not countenance an attack on General Liniers army. The British advanced into the town; Craufurd wrote he wanted to attack the ramparts, but was prevented by the superior officer. The Spanish colonial forces retreated, retrenched the streets and deployed heavy artillery. Craufurd's brigade was forced to retreat to the Convent of Saint Domingo, they could hear the guns fall silent; his brigade was surrounded by 5,000 of the enemy and forced to surrender at 4 pm. A total of 1,070 officers and men were killed or severely wounded; Craufurd and Coadjutor Edmund Pack of Royal Horse Guards were incensed. They offered to shoot the 'traitor' when they returned to Hythe: Whitelocke compounded the treason when Liniers offered to return prisoners and 71st Regiment; he agreed and surrendered Montevideo, also promising to withdraw from the River Plate.
Writing in 1891 the biographer Alexander Craufurd states that General Craufurd, and apparently many other officers were "under the impression that Whitelocke was a traitor as well as a time and vacillating fool, but I have failed to find in the account of the court-martial any solid evidence in support of this impression".
Peninsular campaigns.
In October 1808, Craufurd sailed for Corunna with Sir David Baird’s contingent to reinforce the army under Sir John Moore. Moore had marched his forces by several routes to Salamanca. The two forces joined up at Mayorga on 20 December 1808. Moore was then able to reorganise the army and Craufurd was given command of the 1st Flank Brigade, composed of the 1/43rd, 1/52nd and 2/95th. Intelligence revealed that, apart from the corps of Marshal Soult to his front, Napoleon was advancing at speed from Madrid. Moore was fearful that the army could be overwhelmed by much superior forces and their line of retreat to the sea, some 250 miles more to port evacuation, could be cut off. On 24 December he order the retreat to Corunna. Craufurd’s Brigade formed part of the rearguard under Maj. General Sir Edward Paget. His regiments were heavily engaged in the earlier part of the retreat. The Commissariat was delayed. There was no food. In freezing winter snow and fog they marched at double-quick pace fighting off much larger forces. On 31 December Moore ordered the army to divide. The two Flank Brigades of Craufurd (with 1,900 men) and Brigadier Charles Alten (with 1,700 men) were ordered along a southerly route via Orense to Vigo while the main column continued on the Corunna Road.
 On New Years Day 1809, they climbed the steep mountain passes. Men died in the snow of hunger, others found food along the way. It became a trial of the greatest intensity, although it was only the road and the elements against which they had to battle; they were not pursued by the French. A week later at Orense they were starving, marching in rags. They reached the port on 12th but awaited for stragglers before embarking for England.
An important Memoir was that from Rifleman Harris, whose eloquence was descriptive. He expressed the men's pride in the courage, despite severe discipline of the officers.
 Craufurd had "a severe look and a scowling eye", wrote Harris. William Napier thought the brigadier "very attentive to the men". But "willfulness and folly" was treated very severely by lashings. Unusually for so harsh a disciplinarian, Craufurd was admired and trusted by his men and Harris had no doubt about his role in saving his command: “No man but one formed of stuff like General Craufurd could have saved the brigade from perishing altogether; and if he flogged two, he saved hundreds from death by his management … He seemed an iron man; nothing daunted him – nothing turned him from his purpose. War was his very element and toil and danger seemed to call forth only an increasing determination to surmount them … I shall never forget Craufurd if I live for a hundred years I think. He was in everything a soldier."
On 25 May 1809, Craufurd embarked at Dover for Portugal with his brigade consisting of the 43rd Foot, 52nd Foot and the 95th Rifles. Delayed at The Downs and Isle of Wight by bad weather, they arrived three weeks later on 18 June. Had they been on time Craufurd's force might have joined Wellington at Talavera. At Lisbon the brigade purchased packhorses, and accompanied by Capt Hew Ross' troop of Horse Artillery, they marched to join the main army. By 20 July they had reached Zarza Mayor and on 22 July were at Coria. On the 27th the Light Brigade marched to Navalmoral. Before dawn on the morning of the 28th Craufurd started his attempt to join Sir Arthur Wellesley before the French attacked him at Talavera. The march which followed is one almost unparalleled in military annals. Whilst the distance ‘as the crow flies’ from Navalmoral to Talavera is a little over thirty-eight miles, the actual marching distance is about forty-two miles and probably more owing to the turn and windings of the road. In the full heat of Spanish summer and in full regimental kit, the soldiers suffered from a terrible thirst. Their march was driven on by the growling of the cannon in the distance and they left only a few weakly men at Oropesa. In spite of covering about 45 miles in 26 hours, Craufurd arrived too late to participate in the battle.
In early 1810 Wellington obtained intercepted secret letters from Marshall Soult to the King of Spain of the planned attack on Ciudad Rodrigo. The bulk of the army was moved into northern Portugal. On 1 March Craufurd’s Light Brigade become The Light Division. Initially he had 2,500 men from the first battalions of the 43rd, 52nd and 95th together with a troop of horse artillery and one regiment of 500 cavalry from the 1st Hussars of the King’s German Legion. On 28 March these were augmented by 1,000 men from two battalions of Portuguese Caçadores, the 1st and 2nd. The latter of these units was afterwards changed for the 3rd, which was reckoned the most efficient corps that could be selected from Marshal Beresford’s command. The cavalry force was also increased by two squadrons of the 16th Light Dragoons and, in early July, by the addition of three squadrons of the 14th Light Dragoons.
Robert Craufurd, though only a brigadier, and junior of his rank, had been chosen by Wellington to take charge of his outpost line because he was one of the very few officers then in the Peninsula in whose ability his Commander-in-Chief had perfect confidence. Only with Craufurd, Hill and Beresford, did he ever condescend to enter into explanation and state reasons. In one letter to Craufurd, Wellington writes "Nothing can be of greater advantage to me than to have the benefit of your opinions on "any" subject."

In 1810 Craufurd was burning to vindicate his reputation and show that the confidence which Wellington placed in him was not undeserved. He could not forget that he was four years older than Beresford, five years older than Wellington, eight years older than Hill, yet but a junior brigadier-general in charge of a division. Though senior in the date of his first commission to nearly all the officers in the Peninsular Army. Craufurd was six years junior to Picton and one year junior to Hope.
The Light Division was pushed forward to the Spanish frontier, and lay in the villages about Almeida, with its outposts pushed forward to the line of the River Águeda. From March to July 1810 Craufurd accomplished the extraordinary feat of guarding a front of 40 miles against an active enemy of six-fold force, without suffering his line to be pierced, or allowing the French to gain any information whatever of the host in his rear. He was in constant and daily touch with Ney’s corps, yet was never surprised, and never thrust back save by absolutely overwhelming strength; he never lost a detachment, never failed to detect every move of the enemy, and never sent his commander false intelligence. This was the result of system and science, not merely of vigilance and activity.

Whilst there were four bridges, there were also some fifteen fords between Ciudad Rodrigo and the mouth of the Águeda, which were practicable in dry weather for all arms, and several of them could be used even after a day or two of rain. Special report were made of the state of the fords every morning and the rapidity of its rises was particularly marked. Beacons were prepared on conspicuous height so as to communicate information as to the enemy’ offensive movements. As Napier remarked in his History, "seven minutes" sufficed for the division to get under arms in the middle of the night, and a quarter of an hour, night or day, to bring it in order of battle to its alarm posts, with baggage loaded and assembled at a convenient distance to the rear.
The first test of the efficiency of Craufurd’s outpost system was made on the night of 19–20 March, when Ferey, commanding the brigade of Loison’s divisions which lay at San Felices, assembled his six voltigeur companies before dawn and made a dash at the old Roman bridge of Barba del Puerco. He had the good luck to bayonet the sentries at the bridge before they could fire and was halfway up the rough 230 metres ascent from the bridge to the village (today called Puerto Seguro), when Beckwith’s detachment of the 95th Rifles, roused and armed in ten minutes were upon him. They drove him down the defile and chased him back across the river with the loss of two officers and forty-five men killed and wounded. Beckwith’s riflemen lost only one officer with three men killed and ten men wounded from the three companies engaged.
Craufurd's operations on the Coa and Águeda in 1810 were daring to the point of rashness; the drawing on of the French forces into what became the Combat of the Coa in particular was a rare lapse in judgement. Although Wellington censured him for his conduct, he later wrote “... I cannot accuse a man who I believe has meant well, and whose error was one of judgement, not of intention." [see Craufurd’s Life pp. 149–50]
The conduct of the renowned Light Division at Bussaco is described by Napier in one of his most vivid passages.
The winter of 1810–1811, Craufurd spent in England, and his division was commanded in the interim by another officer. He reappeared on the field of the Fuentes de Oñoro to the cheers of his men. Wellington had left the 7th Division exposed on his right flank. On the 5 May 1811 Masséna launched a heavy attack on the weak British-Portuguese flank, led by Montbrun's dragoons and supported by the infantry divisions of Marchand, Mermet, and Solignac. Right away, two 7th Division battalions were roughed up by the French light cavalry. This compelled Wellington to send reinforcements to save it from annihilation. This was only achieved by the efforts of the Light Division and the British and King's German Legion cavalry who made a textbook fighting withdrawal.
Robert Craufurd was promoted to Major-General on 4 June 1811.
Death at Ciudad Rodrigo.
On 19 January 1812, as he stood on the glacis of Ciudad Rodrigo, directing the stormers of the Light Division, he fell mortally wounded. His body was carried out of action by his staff officer, Lieutenant Shaw of the 43rd, and, after lingering four days, he died.
He was buried in the breach of the fortress where he had met his death, and a monument in St Paul's Cathedral commemorates Craufurd and Mackinnon, the two generals killed at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo.
Major-General Craufurd was nicknamed 'Black Bob'. The nickname is supposed to refer to his habit of heavily cursing when losing his temper, his nature as a strict disciplinarian and even to his noticeably dark and heavy facial stubble. During the First World War, a "Lord Clive" class monitor was named for him, HMS "General Craufurd".
References.
Attribution:


Civil Party (Costa Rica)

The Civil Party of Costa Rica was a political grouping that arose in 1893 in sight of the 1894 Costa Rican general election. Initially it acted without a candidate, but later it postulated Navy Secretary of War Rafael Yglesias Castro, who won the electoral vote in the second level election. Subsequently, the party participated in the mid-term election of 1896 for the renewal of half of the Congress, and postulated the re-election of Rafael Yglesias Castro for the 1898 election, in which the opposition refrained from participating. In the 1902 presidential elections it did not nominates any candidate and endorses Ascensión Esquivel Ibarra.
The Civil Party had an eminently personal character, around the figure of Rafael Yglesias Castro, with some liberal and populist ideas, but without actually having a clearly defined ideological line. It returned to the political scene in the presidential elections of 1910 and 1913, to nominate Yglesias Castro, but the results of the elections were adverse. Neither managed to elect him as a deputy in the legislative elections of 1915, with which the party virtually disappeared from the Costa Rican political scene.


French Arms Tavern

The French Arms Tavern (also known as the Thirteen Stars, Blazing Star Tavern, City Tavern and City Hotel) was a structure in Trenton, New Jersey, that served as the capitol of the United States and meeting place of the Congress of the Confederation from November 1, 1784, to December 24, 1784. The building was located at the southwest corner of King (now Warren) and Second (now State) Streets from 1730 until 1837.
History.
Historian William Backes described the original building as "a stone house two stories high with gable roof. The building measured 45 feet front by 53 feet in depth, with a kitchen in the rear containing rooms for servants on the second floor. It was the handsomest and most commodious house in Trenton in its day." From 1740 until 1742 it was the official residence of Royal Governor Lewis Morris.
During the Second Battle of Trenton, it was involved in "one of the most brutal military murders" of the New Jersey campaign when Reverend John Rosburgh was bayonetted to death by Hessian troops.
From April 1, 1780, until February 1781 it was known as the Thirteen Stars and run by Jacob Bergen. In 1781, John Cape, upon becoming the proprietor, changed the name to the French and Indian Arms, commonly referred to as the French Arms Tavern. In 1783, Jacob Bergen returned to operate the tavern again. It was extensively renovated in 1784, combining the rooms on the first floor into one room known as the Long Room. Moore Furman, James Ewing, and Conrad Knotts signed a lease with Bergen for annual payment of 150 pounds for "the use and purpose of Congress of the United States to set in."
It continued to be known as the French Arms Tavern until being leased to Francis Witt on January 4, 1785 and renamed the Blazing Star.
From December 11 to December 18, 1787, it served as the meeting location for the New Jersey ratification convention for the United States Constitution.
On April 1, 1789, Henry Drake took over the tavern and renamed it the City Tavern. It was here on April 21, 1789, that George Washington, journeying to New York for his inauguration, dined after being received by the citizens of Trenton at the Assunpink Creek Bridge.
In 1836, the First Mechanics and Manufacturers Bank purchased the property, tore down the tavern and constructed a new two-story building on the site. The building is currently occupied by a branch of Wells Fargo.


The Freedom Association

The Freedom Association (TFA) is a pressure group in the United Kingdom that describes itself as non-partisan, centre-right and libertarian, which has links to the Conservative Party and UK Independence Party (UKIP). TFA was founded in 1975 as the National Association for Freedom (NAFF) and gained public prominence through its anti-trade union campaigns. Its popularity grew after campaigning against perceived abuses to individual freedom including big business, big government, organised labour and Irish terrorist activities. By the end of the 1970s the organisation had around 20,000 members.
In the 1980s, TFA campaigned against sporting sanctions imposed on apartheid-era South Africa – earning a judicial rebuke after taking unsuccessful legal action to overturn the International Cricket Council ban on touring teams, which it saw as an imposition on cricketers' freedom. TFA has also campaigned against the UK's membership of the European Union and against perceived partiality at the BBC, having in the past exerted pressure to secure an "impartiality clause" in the Broadcasting Act 1990. The Association's honorary President is Christopher Gill. The current Chief Executive of The Freedom Association is Simon Richards.
Origin.
The Freedom Association was founded in 1975 as the National Association for Freedom (NAFF) by the Viscount De L'Isle, Norris McWhirter, Ross McWhirter and John Gouriet. Ross McWhirter had drawn up a fifteen-point "Charter of Rights and Liberties" before being murdered by the Provisional IRA in November 1975. NAFF was renamed The Freedom Association in late 1978. Andrew Gamble reported shortly after that the renaming was undertaken in order to avoid confusion with the similar National Front.
Political stance.
The Freedom Association describes itself as "a non-partisan, centre-right, libertarian pressure group". In their study of the use of litigation by pressure groups, Carol Harlow and Richard Rawlings call TFA "an avowedly conservative group". Marina Hyde, writing in "The Guardian", has called the organisation a "charmless libertarian pressure group".
Principles.
The organisation describes itself as having seven core principles, namely individual freedom, personal and family responsibility, the rule of law, limited government, free market economy, national parliamentary democracy and strong national defences. Writing in 1989, Michael White differentiated between TFA's brand of libertarianism and that of civil liberties campaigners, arguing that: "The unavoidable fact is that TFA represents that ancient tradition of English concepts of freedom, easily traceable to "Magna Carta", which see liberty in terms of freedoms from restraints and obligations, not civil rights and duties enunciated by Jefferson in the rebellious American colonies, by Tom Paine and the revolutionaries of 1789".
Party links.
The group has no formal party political affiliations but historically most members of TFA have also been associated with the Conservative Party. In May 1978, this led to former Conservative minister William van Straubenzee accusing TFA of "extremist infiltration" of his party. TFA has been described as the "conservative wing of the Conservative Party". Since 2007, TFA has been running fringe events at the Conservative Party conference with speakers such as Daniel Hannan and John Redwood and groups including the Taxpayers' Alliance.
Leadership.
The Freedom Association's council includes Honorary Chairman: Sir Mark Worthington OBE, Honorary President: Christopher Gill RD, Conservative members of parliament Christopher Chope, Philip Davies, Philip Hollobone, Gerald Howarth, and Andrew Rosindell, former Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan, former UKIP MEP Roger Helmer, former Conservative member of the Scottish Parliament Brian Monteith, and three peers, Lord Stoddart, cross-bencher Baroness Cox, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, a former leader of UKIP and Walter Sweeney, a former Conservative M.P.. The Chief Executive is Simon Richards, assisted by Rory Broomfield, Director, and Andrew Allison, Head of Campaigns.
Campaigns.
Trade unions.
In the 1970s, the founders regarded the power of the UK trade union movement as excessive and out of control. Soon after its formation the National Association for Freedom as TFA was then known became involved in a number of industrial disputes providing support to both employers and non-unionised workers to counter to the power of the Trades Unions. The best known of these actions was "Operation Pony Express" during the Grunwick dispute. Harold Walker, the Labour Secretary of State for Employment between 1976 and 1979, was strongly critical of NAFF's activities, claiming the group was an "ultra right-wing political organisation" which "sought to interfere in industrial disputes, with harmful consequences". Following the election of the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, the Association "suffered a slow decline in membership". In January 1989, "The Guardian"'s Michael White reported that TFA "no longer has the power or glory it enjoyed when it was Thatcherism's extra-parliamentary advance guard against a fading Labour government and its union allies."
Apartheid-era South Africa.
In the 1980s, TFA campaigned in support of the right of England cricketers to tour in apartheid-era South Africa. In 1989, when the International Cricket Conference (ICC) passed a resolution formalising sanctions against players, coaches and administrators who worked in South Africa, Norris McWhirter described the decision as "a crushing blow against cricketers' freedom to trade". TFA had obtained a criminal summons against the ICC, alleging blackmail but this was subsequently quashed in the High Court, where the judge Lord Taylor ruled that TFA's application was "an abuse of the process of the court" and was "launched solely as a device to disrupt or embarrass the International Cricket Conference". The organisation was later revealed to have received funding from the South African government.
In 1988, the association threatened to seek a legal injunction against the BBC to prevent the broadcaster from broadcasting the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute from Wembley Stadium. A group of Conservative MPs and TFA objected to the possibility that the broadcast would include a message from Mandela or "other anti-apartheid propaganda." The threat was dropped, "in the hope that the BBC [would] not broadcast any attempt to use the concert for promoting the African National Congress or similar anti-apartheid bodies."
National identity cards.
In 2010 the group campaigned against the proposed introduction of national identity cards, which they deemed to be a threat to civil liberties. Previously, in the 1980s, some prominent supporters of TFA, such as Sir Rhodes Boyson had strongly supported the introduction of ID cards.
Better Off Out.
In April 2006 TFA launched Better Off Out - a campaign for the UK to leave the EU. This has attracted the support of one Labour, one UKIP and twelve Tory MPs, plus a number of MEPs, Peers, academics, journalists and influential business figures. It was officially launched in Parliament by Philip Davies, despite criticism from Conservative party leader David Cameron. Signatories to the campaign include Daniel Hannan, Douglas Carswell, Philip Hollobone, Jeffrey Donaldson, David Nuttall, Austin Mitchell, David Campbell-Bannerman, Nigel Farage, Gerard Batten, Roger Helmer, and Patrick Minford.
During the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, Better Off Out played a role in the campaign.
The BBC and the licence fee.
The Freedom Association also has a campaign called Axe the TV tax, with the objective of abolishing the BBC licence fee. It opposes the BBC on what it perceives as bias, particularly with regard to the European Union prior to the referendum on the UK's future membership. It has called for the BBC to be funded instead by subscription instead, arguing that the sheer pace of technological change will render the licence fee redundant. John Whittingdale, a Council member of the Freedom Association, was appointed Secretary of State for Culture in 2015. Following a debate in Parliament on the issue in March 2017, the Association expressed a hope that it could work with MPs to make sure at the end of the BBC's present Charter period, the licence fee would become "a relic of the past".
Libel Reform.
As part of their commitment to freedom of speech, the Freedom Association wants to see reform of libel law in the UK. They believe that the use of superinjunctions and defamation law effectively acts as a limit on free speech.
"Magna Carta" in the 21st century.
The Freedom Association considers "Magna Carta" to be one of the most fundamental documents in English Law. The Association produced a book, "Magna Carta in the 21st Century: Modern Britain and The Erosion of Freedom" which highlighted how the traditions of "Magna Carta" were being usurped by legal traditions from elsewhere in the world. The book is designed for school children, to educate them about the core concepts of English legal traditions. In doing so, the Association hoped it could enhance the understanding of both "Magna Carta" and the conditions necessary for a legal system to be free from corruption. In 2015, on the 800th anniversary of "Magna Carta", The Freedom Association held a number of events with The Hampden Trust and the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies across England to debate the relevance of the Great Charter in the 21st Century.
Vaping.
In 2016, the Freedom Association launched the Freedom to Vape campaign. It aims to lobby the Government to remove the regulations imposed on the vaping industry by the European Union's Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) 2016. The campaign, receiving support and funding from the vaping industry, also wants to raise awareness of the difference between vaping and smoking combustible tobacco and to set up a ‘freedom-to-vape’ scheme for businesses who welcome vapers.
Freedom Association Societies.
Beginning in 2009, the Association initiated a programme to create localised "Freedom Association Societies" at universities throughout the United Kingdom. The first such group was established at the University of York followed by another founded at the University of Exeter by John Gill, the grandson of Christopher Gill, the Association's President. Other Freedom Association Societies have since been established at Bath Spa University, the University of Birmingham, Brighton University, Cambridge University, Cardiff University, Portsmouth University and both the University of Southampton and Southampton Solent University. In the 1980s, TFA ran a Campaign for Student Freedom, against the National Union of Students.
Political events.
The Freedom Zone.
The Freedom Zone is a fringe event run by the Freedom Association, focusing on topical political issue through discussions with politicians and commentators, which has been run at party conferences since 2008. Most recently, they attended the 2014 Conservative Party Conference, where they held discussions on "Magna Carta", Policing, UKIP and the EU. Speakers at the Freedom Zone have included Eric Pickles, Daniel Hannan, Hugh Orde, Dominic Raab, Fraser Nelson, Paul Staines, Peter Lilley, John Whittingdale, Ruth Lea and Nigel Farage.
The Freedom Zone is always held outside the "secure zone" of the main Conservative party conference, because the Freedom Association states that it has been banned from the main venue since 2006, when it was told that there was no space within the zone for its stand. It therefore promote debates of more controversial issues, which normally do not feature in the main debate such as during the 2013 Freedom Zone, when they held a debate on the issue of Tory defection to UKIP - "Why I left v Why I'm staying", having already invited Nigel Farage to speak the day before. The Freedom Zone has also been to the UKIP and Liberal Democrat Conference in 2011 and the Labour Party Conference in 2012.
Pub quizzes.
The Freedom Association also hold pub quizzes, usually with Jacob Rees-Mogg as quizmaster, in Westminster that have, according to Iain Dale, gained a "cult status".
Freedom in the City.
Held regularly in the City of London, Freedom in the City events provide an opportunity for those working in the City to hear from political speakers.
Magna Carta Day Pimm's & Politics Boat Trip.
Restarted in 2013 after a 19-year hiatus, the Magna Carta Day Pimm's & Politics Boat Trip is a day-long river cruise down the Thames from Windsor to Runnymede. Guests are welcomed on board the cruise with a glass of Pimms and a buffet lunch. The cruise always includes a line-up of speakers who in the past have included Daniel Hannan MEP, Robert Halfon MP and Christopher Gill.
Margaret Thatcher Birthday Weekend.
Established following the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, annually the TFA organises a weekend in Grantham, the birthplace of Margaret Thatcher, to celebrate her legacy on the date of her birth. Taking place at the Best Western Angel & Royal Hotel, attendees have the opportunity to hear from speakers who worked with Margaret Thatcher and those who now promote the values which Margaret Thatcher held dear.
Freedom Festival.
Beginning in 2014, the Freedom Festival is a weekend conference dedicated to freedom and liberty. Held in Bournemouth each March, delegates are able to play an active part in discussions and debates about the big political, economic and moral issues. Past speakers have included Daniel Hannan, Mark Littlewood, Matthew Elliott and Tim Congdon.
Other organisations that have participated at the Freedom Festival have included the Adam Smith Institute, Big Brother Watch, Conservative Way Forward, the Centre for Policy Studies, the Institute of Economic Affairs, the TaxPayers’ Alliance and Global Britain. In 2015, they held their inaugural Freedom Zone North Conference in Harrogate.
Publications.
The Freedom Association produces many publications on a range of issues through the charity, the Hampden Trust. Recent publications include "In Defence of the City", a collection of essays by financial commentators and professionals about the role of financial services in the UK and their contribution to the UK economy with an introduction by Mark Littlewood, Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs, and "Commonwealth, Common-trade, Common-growth", a book advocating a move towards increased trade with Commonwealth countries amidst high growth in developing countries.
During 2015, the Freedom Association produced a number of publications celebrating the 800th anniversary of "Magna Carta" and published, with the help of the Hampden Trust, a new "Magna Carta for the 21st Century". In addition, the Freedom Association publishes a number of reports on the EU through its Better Off Out campaign, such as "The EU's Effect on the UK's Place in the World", which was submitted to the government for their balance of competences review.
"Freedom Today".
The Freedom Association also publishes a quarterly newsletter entitled "Freedom Today", which features a number of articles from TFA supporters.
British Tea Party movement.
The Freedom Association has expressed an interest in establishing a British equivalent of the American Tea Party movement, though its director, Simon Richards, stated in October 2010 that he was worried that such a project could be hijacked by extremist groups such as the English Defence League.


Francis de Rottenburg

Major-General Francis de Rottenburg, baron de Rottenburg (4 November 1757 – 24 April 1832) was a military officer and colonial administrator who served in the armies of the Kingdom of France and later the United Kingdom.
Early life and service.
Franz von Rottenburg was born in Danzig, Kingdom of Prussia (now Gdańsk in Poland) 4 November 1757, son of Franz Gottlieb von Rottenburg (2 April 1725 – 2 March 1799) and Anna Maria Brunati (20 April 1739 – 15 October 1799). He served in the French army, under the name de Rottenburg rather than von Rottenburg, from March 1782 to September 1791, his service ending during the early years of the French Revolution, then returning to Danzig and commanding a battalion of infantry in Tadeusz Kościuszko's uprising. In December 1795, de Rottenburg joined the British Army, serving in Hompesch's Hussars, a unit of foreign-born troops. In 1796 he helped to establish Hompesch's Light Infantry, which later became part of the 5th Battalion of the 60th Regiment of Foot. This battalion was formed mainly from German émigrés. De Rottenburg rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the unit, and commanded it during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and the capture of Suriname in 1799.
De Rottenburg wrote a series of manuals (initially in German) which became the basis for the training of riflemen and light infantry under Sir John Moore. He later commanded a brigade of light troops in the Walcheren Campaign.
Service in North America.
De Rottenburg was promoted to Major General on the staff in British North America and arrived in Canada in 1810. When the War of 1812 with the United States broke out, he assumed command of the Montreal district. He assumed responsibility for both the civil and military leadership of Lower Canada on two occasions during the absence of Sir George Prevost, the commander in chief.
In 1813, he succeeded Major General Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe as military and civil commander in Upper Canada. He was accused of neglecting civil duties and of being unduly cautious in his military decisions. He refused to send reinforcements to Major General Henry Procter, commanding on the Detroit frontier, and this ultimately led to the British defeats at the Battle of Lake Erie and the Battle of Moraviantown. He later imposed martial law in the Eastern and Johnstown districts to force farmers to sell supplies to the army, an unpopular move which his successor repealed but was nevertheless forced to reimpose upon all of Upper Canada.
In December 1813, de Rottenburg was succeeded by Lieutenant General Sir Gordon Drummond, and returned to his previous posts in Lower Canada. Later in 1814, substantial British reinforcements arrived in Canada. Sir George Prevost prepared to invade the United States by way of Lake Champlain. He placed de Rottenburg in command of a division of three brigades (led by Major Generals Manley Power, Thomas Brisbane and Frederick Philipse Robinson). However, Prevost personally led the campaign, which was defeated at the Battle of Plattsburgh. Prevost, de Rottenburg and their staffs were criticised by the three brigade commanders, all of whom had seen much action in the Peninsular War, for their lack of fortitude at Plattsburgh.
Later life.
De Rottenburg was recalled to Britain in December 1814 and left Quebec in July 1815. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Hanoverian Order in 1817 and Knight Bachelor on 12 February 1818. He was promoted to Lieutenant General on 12 August 1819. He died in Portsmouth on 24 April 1832.
Family.
De Rottenburg had married Juliana Wilhelmina Carolina von Orelli, the daughter of Johann Ulrich von Orelli, a Neapolitan general, in Bratislava on 4 January 1802. They had one son and one daughter. Son George Frederick de Rottenburg was a British Army officer who arrived in Canada in 1830s and was militia officer in Upper Canada. Rottenburg left Canada in 1852.


Daniel Benlulu

Daniel Benlulu (, born 6 May 1958) is a former Israeli politician who served a member of the Knesset for Likud between 2003 and 2006.
Biography.
Born in Morocco to Moroccan-Jewish parents, Benlulu made aliyah to Israel in 1969.
In late 2002 he won 20th place on the Likud list for the January 2003 elections (a spot reserved for candidates from the coastal plain), and entered the Knesset when the party won 38 seats. During his first term as an MK, he chaired the House Committee and the Joint Committee for the Knesset Budget.
For the 2006 elections he was placed 16th on the Likud list, but lost his seat when the party won only 12 mandates.


Menorcan Union

Menorcan Union (, UMe; ) was a regional liberal party in Menorca. It was registered as a party since 1993. However, until 2009 it did not start its political activity. It gathered people from different municipal parties in Menorca, like Independents for Es Castell (IPEC), Union of Centrists of Menorca (UCM), and Social Action.
UMe joined Majorcan Union (UM) in the Balearic Islands to participate in the 2009 European election with the Coalition for Europe, obtaining 546 votes (2.5%) in Menorca. In the 2011 local election, the formation obtained four local councillors in Menorca.
In 2012, it merged into the new balearic regionalist formation Proposta per les Illes, along with Regionalist League of the Balearic Islands (IB–Lliga), Convergence for the Isles (CxI), and Es Nou Partit.


Civilization Party

The Egypt Civilization Party, or El-Hadara, is a small, secular, liberal political party established in Egypt in 2011. Formerly part of the Moderate Current Coalition, it describes itself as "in the center: in the right-wing economically, and left-wing socially."
The party was founded by Mohamed al-Sawy, one of the two Al-Hadara members to be elected to the People's Assembly in the 2011-2012 parliamentary elections. Another prominent party member is Hatem Khater, head of the Egyptian Food Bank.


Olav Benum

Olav Benum (5 September 1897 – 27 June 1990) was a Norwegian elected official and politician with the Liberal Party.
Biography.
He was born at Beitstad in Nord-Trøndelag, Norway.
He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Nord-Trøndelag in 1945, and was re-elected on three occasions. He had previously served as a deputy representative during the term 1937–1945.
Benum was deputy mayor of Vemundvik municipal council in 1934–1937, and mayor in 1937–1941 and 1945. At the same time he was a member of Nord-Trøndelag county council. He later became a member of Namsos city council during the terms 1963–1967 and 1967–1971. Again, during the same time he became involved in the county council. He served as deputy county mayor in 1963–1966 and county mayor in 1966–1967.
Outside politics he worked as an agronomist. In the Norwegian Agrarian Association he was a member of the board from 1946 to 1953. From 1942 to 1945, during the German occupation of Norway, he fled to Stockholm, Sweden and worked at the Norwegian legation there.
Other sources.
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Old Talbott Tavern

The Old Talbott Tavern, also known as the Old Stone Tavern, a historic tavern built in 1779, is located in the Bardstown Historic District of Bardstown, Kentucky, across from the historic Nelson County Courthouse. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 30, 1973.
According to tradition, the tavern has never closed since its opening in 1779. It is rumored as well to have guests that have never checked out. Each room is named after a historical person who is said to haunt the corresponding room. It is likely the oldest surviving building in the state of Kentucky.
History.
The Old Talbott Tavern was built in 1779, a year before the settlement of Salem (later renamed Bardstown) began, making it the "oldest western stagecoach stop" still in operation. According to an old map of Bardstown, the lot was originally purchased by a man named Hynes; the tavern was called the Hynes Hotel. It was strategically located near the end of the stagecoach road that once led east to Philadelphia and Virginia. George Rogers Clark used it as a resource base during the end of the American Revolutionary War; Daniel Boone stayed here, and the exiled Louis-Philippe of France, stayed at the tavern on October 17, 1797, with a member of his entourage painting murals that were rediscovered in the 20th century and were on display until the 1998 fire.
Visitors in the 19th century included future presidents Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, and Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln's parents stayed at the tavern when a court ruling went against them, leading the family to move to Indiana when Lincoln was only seven years old. Other prominent figures who visited the tavern were Henry Clay, the inventor of steamboats John Fitch, environmentalist John James Audubon, songwriter Stephen Foster, and Jesse James, who is said to have been the cause of the bullet holes in the murals as he was drunk and shooting at the birds in the tree on the mural.
George Talbott purchased the tavern in 1886. Within two years, six of his children died in the tavern.
Queen Marie of Romania is known to have lunched at the tavern in 1926. Likewise, World War II general George Patton once visited the tavern.
Throughout its history, the tavern has been called different names: Hynes House, Bardstown Hotel, Chapman's House, Shady Bower Hotel, the Newman House, Talbott Hotel, Talbott Tavern, and the Old Stone Tavern. The Talbott Tavern was the official name from 1885 to 1968.
On March 7, 1998, a fire damaged the tavern, severely damaging the roof and second floor. The fire also damaged the Louis-Philippe murals, which have still not been restored. The renovations to repair the fire damage were described as "generic". The Old Talbott Tavern reopened on November 8, 1999.
The Old Talbott Tavern currently serves as both a restaurant and a five-room bed and breakfast. A writer for "Travel and Leisure" magazine described it as having "slightly spooky charm". It has been featured on Food Network and Travel Channel, and was once ranked the 13th most haunted inn in the United States.
The inn's most famous ghost is the outlaw Jesse James. It is believed that until now, he still visits the inn. If you visit the hotel, you can still see the painting riddled with bullet holes which Jesse James put there himself. There are also reports of a mysterious woman who continues her haunting of the hotel.
It is next to the historic Nelson County Jail.
Construction.
The original tavern consisted of the present eastern section, built of stone walls two feet thick and heavy ceiling timbers, with two separate fireplaces to cook the food. It originally had two guest rooms on the second floor: one for men and one for women, as individual rooms for guests did not become widespread in the United States until the early 19th century. The brick western section was built a century later.


Hetz (political party)

Hetz (, lit. "Arrow", also an acronym for "Hilonit Tzionit", , "Secular Zionist") was a secularist political party in Israel.
History.
Hetz was formed in the aftermath of the breakup of Shinui towards the end of the 16th Knesset. Avraham Poraz, Shinui's second-in-command after Tommy Lapid was unexpectedly beaten in the race to head the party's list for the 2006 elections by Ron Levintal.
In response to the result, Poraz decided to break away from Shinui. He was joined by ten other Shinui MKs (out of a total of 15), including Lapid. They formed the Secular Faction on 26 January 2006, though on 5 February, Hemi Doron and Eliezer Sandberg left the new party to establish National Home.
Poraz tried to set up Hetz as a new party in January 2006; however, it was too late to register a new party for the election. He tried to form a union with Tafnit, which rejected it. Eventually the party ran with the minor Citizen and State party, which was re-branded as Hetz for the elections. Lapid was presented as the honorary leader.
However, a combination of the split with Shinui (who also ran in the elections with Levintal as head), the founding of centrist party Kadima and Shinui's lack of progress in implementing their agenda in the previous Knesset (despite being the second largest party in the coalition, hardly any of their campaign pledges had been realised) meant that the party had lost much of its supporter base. Ultimately the party won only 10,113 votes (0.33%), far below the 2% electoral threshold. Their only consolation was beating Shinui, who received only 4,675 votes (0.16%).
Prior to the 2009 elections it was announced that the party would be running a joint list with the Greens, with Poraz receiving one of the top five places on the list. However, the agreement was later cancelled and Hetz did not run.
In 2012 Hetz was taken over by Tzipi Livni to form the basis of the Hatnuah party, also inheriting the NIS 1.8 million in the party's bank account. Once seven MKs defected from Kadima and joined the party, Poraz announced that they now "represent Hetz in the Knesset".
Ideology.
Hetz's policies mirrored those of Shinui in being centrist and liberal with a strong secular leaning. The party promised to introduce a constitution, separate religion and state, allow civil marriage and repeal many of the country's arrangements that they claim strongly benefit the Orthodox population (such as large child benefits (many Orthodox having 10 or more children), exemption from military service and payments to yeshivas).


David Bitan

David Bitan (, born 8 April 1960) is an Israeli lawyer and politician. He currently serves as a member of the Knesset for Likud. Israeli attorney general Avichai Mandelblit announced on 26 January 2020 that Bitan would be indicted for "bribery, fraud and breach of trust, as well as money laundering and tax offenses" following a hearing.
Biography.
David Bitan was born in Kenitra, Morocco and immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of five. During his national service in the Israel Defense Forces, he served as a combat medic. He then studied law at Tel Aviv University. After graduating with an LL.B in 1987 and receiving a law license, he worked as an attorney and later opened his own law firm.
Bitan is married to Hagit, and they have two daughters.
Political career.
A member of Likud, he became a member of Rishon LeZion City Council in 1988 after becoming head of the party's Rishon LeZion branch. He went on to become Deputy Mayor of the city.
He was placed 21st on the Likud list for the 2013 Knesset elections, but was moved down to 35th place after Likud agreed to run a joint list with Yisrael Beiteinu. With the alliance winning 31 seats, Bitan did not become a Knesset member. Prior to the 2015 elections he was placed 16th on the Likud list, taking the place reserved for the coastal plain. He was elected to the Knesset as Likud won 30 seats.
In October 2017, Bitan was investigated by police for alleged bribery. He was suspected of received money from businessmen to pay off a massive debt while Deputy Mayor of Rishon LeZion. On 7 March 2019, the Israeli police recommended bribery charges against Bitan. He was nominated to be Minister of Agriculture on 5 January 2020, but withdrew on 10 January prior to a Knesset vote on his appointment.


Rafael Moya Murillo

 Rafael Moya Murillo (October 24, 1799 – November 15, 1864) was a Costa Rican politician and businessman. He was the son of José Moya y Saborido and Micaela Murillo y Rojas. He worked as a farmer and became one of the largest coffee growers in the province of Heredia. He also took an interest in mining and trade. In 1844 he was elected to the Costa Rican Senate. As the oldest senator he was temporarily put in charge of the country's head of State on November 29, 1844 and held that position until April 30, 1845.
He got votes in the presidential election of 1847 and a considerable number of electors supported his presidential candidacy in the election of 1849, which was won by Juan Rafael Mora Porras.
He died in Heredia, Costa Rica, on November 15, 1864.


Tsuen Wan Community Network

Tsuen Wan Community Network () is a local political group based in Tsuen Wan founded in 2015. In a historic pro-democracy landslide in 2019 District Council election, the group won one seat in the Tsuen Wan District Council.
History.
The group was formed in 2015 as a Tsuen Wan-based community group. Its leader Lam Sek-tim ran in the 2015 District Council election against Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) legislator Chan Han-pan in Yeung Uk Road but lost. It was part of the Community Network Union, a localist political alliance of six community groups led by pro-independence Ventus Lau. The Tsuen Wan Community Network later quit the Union in 2018.
Lam Sek-tim ran in Yeung Uk Road in the 2019 District Council election again and defeated Chan Han-pan's successor Ng Chun-yu with narrow margin of 174 votes in the pro-democracy historic landslide victory.


Movement of New Forces

Movement of New Forces (, "Rukh Novykh Syl") is a Ukrainian political party that was founded as the "Party of Harmonious Development" on February 11, 2015 and renamed in February 2017 by Mikheil Saakashvili.
History.
After autumn 2015 attempts and negotiations were launched to form a political party around then Governor of Odessa Oblast Mikheil Saakashvili and members of the parliamentary group Interfactional Union "Eurooptimists", Democratic Alliance and possibly Self Reliance. This project collapsed in June 2016.
On 11 November 2016, Saakashvili announced the establishment of a new Ukrainian political party. This was done four days after he resigned as Governor of Odessa Oblast, blaming President Petro Poroshenko personally for enabling corruption in Odessa and in Ukraine overall. On 27 November 2016 this party (now named "Movement of New Forces") held its first rally in Kyiv. In August of that same year Saakashvili was allegedly in talks to create another liberal party with ex-deputy general prosecutors Vitaly Kasko, David Sakvarelidze, MP , and others. In July 2016, Chumak stated that a future party called Wave would be led by Saakashvili.
In late February 2017, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine registered Movement of New Forces officially as a political party. On 24 December 2016, Saakashvili claimed that the new party had "already registered 25,000 members."
In April 2017, the party Volia and Movement of New Forces announced they would merge. At the same time, according to Saakashvili, nine Ukrainian mayors joined this new association.
In July 2017, the Movement of New Forces and the political movement Spravedlivost of Valentyn Nalyvaichenko created a "joint action headquarters".
On 26 July 2017, President Poroshenko issued a decree stripping party leader Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship. In Ukraine only Ukrainian citizens can lead political parties or be elected to its parliament. David Sakvarelidze became the acting party leader.
In October 2017, the Committee of Voters of Ukraine prepared an appeal to the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption with a request to check the activities of 21 parties including the Movement of New Forces and Our Ukraine because of the presence of signs of shadow financing. The reason for initiating the verification of the
Movement of New Forces was the lack of reporting on the Agency's website for the second quarter of 2017.
On 5 December 2017, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko stated that Saakashvili had received half a million dollars from Ukrainian oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko for organizing protests. It was stated that Kurchenko provided funds to seize Saakashvili's power in Ukraine and expected that in return criminal cases would be closed and control over his assets restored. Records of Saakashvili allegedly talking to Sergei Kurchenko have been released. Saakashvili denied the allegations. Three criminal proceedings were registered on the facts of the protests of December 17.
After Saakashvili (after being first deported to Poland) relocated to the Netherlands in February 2018 he only has an advisory role in the party.
In December 2018 the party Volia reversed its decision to merge with the party. Volia party leader (and member of the Ukrainian parliament) Yury Derevyanko stated Volia would not merge because Movement of New Forces leader Saakashvili was more interested in his native Georgia then in Ukrainian politics. Derevyanko also claimed that 90% of local council members of Movement of New Forces had joined Volia.
On 29 May 2019 Saakashvili returned to Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelensky returned his Ukrainian citizenship; but
Saakashvili soon stated that he had no political ambitions in Ukraine.
The party in June 2019 stated it intended to run in the late July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election. On 23 June 2019 the Central Election Commission of Ukraine refused party members to register for the July parliamentary election because allegedly the 10 June party congress had violated the party’s statute. Two days later the Administrative Court of Kyiv overturned this Central Election Commission decision. On 19 July 2019, the leader of the Movement of New Forces party Mikheil Saakashvili called on his supporters to vote for the Servant of the People party at the 2019 parliamentary election. At these elections, Saakashvili himself was first on its party list, Movement of New Forces failed to win any parliamentary seats gaining 0.46% of the total votes while the election had a 5% election threshold (43.16% voted for Servant of the People). The party also failed to win a constituency seat. It had participated in 9 constituencies where its most successful candidate's election result was 2.54%, the second best candidate gained 1.8%. Viola also did not win any parliamentary seats in the election.
In the 2020 Ukrainian local elections 1 person won a local seat on behalf of the party.
Management.
The party's Political Council includes Mikheil Saakashvili, Yuri Derevyanko, David Sakvarelidze and Olga Galabala.
Political positions.
In April 2017 party leader Saakashvili proposed "building of a large wall" to "temporarily isolate ourselves" from the separatist Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic in order to "concentrate on the rest of Ukraine." Saakashvili is confident in the return under control of the Ukrainian Government of these separatist territories, but only "after we defeat corruption and begin rapid development."
Early June 2019 party leaders Sakvarelidze and Saakashvili stated that the party wanted "to support the new wave brought by the team of (recently elected) Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky".