title: Guy Debord

text: In the early 1960s Debord began to direct the SI toward an end of its artistic phase, eventually expelling members such as Jorn, Gallizio, Troche, and Constant—the bulk of the "artistic" wing of the SI—by 1965. Having established the situationist critique of art as a social and political critique, one not to be carried out in traditional artistic activities, the SI began, due in part to Debord's contributions, to pursue a more concise theoretical critique of capitalist society along Marxist lines.


title: Guy Debord

text: With Debord's 1967 work, "The Society of the Spectacle", and excerpts from the group's journal, "Internationale Situationniste", the Situationists began to formulate their theory of the spectacle, which explained the nature of late capitalism's historical decay. In Debord's terms, situationists defined the spectacle as an assemblage of social relations transmitted via the imagery of class power, and as a period of capitalist development wherein "all that was once lived has moved into representation". With this theory, Debord and the SI would go on to play an influential role in the revolts of May 1968 in France, with many of the protesters drawing their slogans from Situationist tracts penned or influenced by Debord.


title: Guy Debord

text: In 1972, Debord disbanded the Situationist International after its original members, including Asger Jorn and Raoul Vaneigem, quit or were expelled. (Vaneigem wrote a biting criticism of Debord and the International.) Debord then focused on filmmaking with financial backing from the movie mogul and publisher Gérard Lebovici (éditions Champ Libre), until Lebovici's mysterious death. Debord was suspected of Lebovici's murder. Distraught by the accusations and his friend's death, Debord took his films and writings out of production until after his death. He had agreed to have his films released posthumously at the request of the American researcher, Thomas Y. Levin. Debord's two most recognized films are "Society of the Spectacle" (1973) and "" (1978).


title: Guy Debord

text: After dissolving the Situationist International, Debord spent his time reading, and occasionally writing, in relative isolation in a cottage at Champot with Alice Becker-Ho, his second wife. He continued to correspond on political and other issues, notably with Lebovici and the Italian situationist Gianfranco Sanguinetti. He focused on reading material relating to war strategies, e.g. Clausewitz and Sun Tzu, and he designed a war game with Alice Becker-Ho.


title: Guy Debord

text: Debord married twice, first to Michèle Bernstein and then Alice Becker-Ho. Debord had affairs with other women, including Michèle Mochot-Bréhat. Bernstein wrote a vaguely fictional but detailed account of the open relationships Mochot and she had with Debord in her novel "All The King's Horses".


title: Guy Debord

text: Just before Debord's death, he filmed (although did not release) a documentary, "Son art et son temps" ("His Art and His Times"), an autobiography of sorts that focused primarily on social issues in Paris in the 1990s. It has been suggested that his dark depiction of this period was a suicide note of sorts. Both Debord's depression and alcohol consumption had become problematic, resulting in a form of polyneuritis. Perhaps to end the suffering caused by these conditions, Debord died by suicide on 30 November 1994. This was not the first time he attempted to end his life.


title: Guy Debord

text: Debord's suicide is as controversial as it is unclear. Some assert it was a revolutionary act related to his career. Due to his involvement with the radical Situationist International (SI), as well as his sadness at 'the society as a spectacle' being considered a cliché in later life, many think that Debord felt hopeless about the very society he was trying to shed light on. Debord was said to be "victim of the Spectacle he fought". Among the many commentaries on Debord's demise, one scholar noted: "Guy Debord did not kill himself. He was murdered by the thoughtlessness and selfishness of so-called scholars (primarily trendy lit-criters) who colonized his brilliant ideas and transformed his radical politics into an academic status symbol not worth the pulp it's printed on…"


title: Guy Debord

text: Guy Debord's best known works are his theoretical books, "The Society of the Spectacle" and "Comments on the Society of the Spectacle". In addition to these he wrote a number of autobiographical books including "Mémoires", "Panégyrique", "Cette Mauvaise Réputation...", and "Considérations sur l'assassinat de Gérard Lebovici". He was also the author of numerous short pieces, sometimes anonymous, for the journals "Potlatch", "Les Lèvres Nues", "Les Chats Sont Verts", and "Internationale Situationniste". The "Society of the spectacle" was written in an "interesting prose", unlike most writings in that time or of that nature. For Debord, the Spectacle is viewed as false representations in our real lives. The Spectacle is a materialized worldview. The spectacle 'subjects human beings to itself'.


title: Guy Debord

text: Debord was deeply distressed by the hegemony of governments and media over everyday life through mass production and consumption. He criticized both the capitalism of the West and the dictatorial communism of the Eastern bloc for the lack of autonomy allowed to individuals by both types of governmental structure. Debord postulated that Alienation had gained a new relevance through the invasive forces of the 'spectacle' – "a social relation between people that is mediated by images" consisting of mass media, advertisement, and popular culture. The spectacle is a self-fulfilling control mechanism for society. Debord's analysis developed the notions of "reification" and "fetishism of the commodity" pioneered by Karl Marx and Georg Lukács. Semiotics was also a major influence, particularly the work of his contemporary, Roland Barthes, who was the first to envisage bourgeois society as a spectacle, and to study in detail the political function of fashion within that spectacle. Debord's analysis of "the spectaclist society" probed the historical, economic, and psychological roots of the media and popular culture. Central to this school of thought was the claim that alienation is more than an emotive description or an aspect of individual psychology: rather, it is a consequence of the mercantile form of social organization that has reached its climax in capitalism, as theorized by Herbert Marcuse of the Frankfurt School.


title: Guy Debord

text: The Situationist International (SI), a political/artistic movement organized by Debord and his colleagues and represented by a journal of the same name, attempted to create a series of strategies for engaging in class struggle by reclaiming individual autonomy from the spectacle. These strategies, including "dérive" and "détournement," drew on the traditions of Lettrism. As founder of the SI, it has been suggested that Debord felt driven to generalize and define the values, ideas, and characteristics of the entire group, which may have contributed to his hand-picking and expulsion of members. The hierarchical and dictatorial nature of the SI existed, however, in the groups that birthed it, including the Letterists and the Surrealists.


title: Guy Debord

text: Debord's first book, "Mémoires", was bound with a sandpaper cover so that it would damage other books placed next to it.


title: Guy Debord

text: Debord has been the subject of numerous biographies, works of fiction, artworks, and songs, many of which are catalogued in the bibliography by Shigenobu Gonzalves, "Guy Debord ou la Beauté du Negatif."


title: Guy Debord

text: Often, it is suggested that Debord was opposed to the creation of art, however, Debord writes in the Situationist International magazine ("Contre le Cinema") that he believes that "ordinary" (quotidian) people should make "everyday" (quotidian) art; art and creation should liberate from the spectacle, from capitalism, and from the banality of everyday life in contemporary society. In "The Society of the Spectacle," Debord argues that it is the price put on art that destroys the integrity of the art object, not the material or the creation itself. It is important to note that Debord does not equate art to "the spectacle."


title: Guy Debord

text: Debord began an interest in film early in his life when he lived in Cannes in the late 1940s. Debord recounted that, during his youth, he was allowed to do very little other than attend films. He said that he frequently would leave in the middle of a film screening to go home because films often bored him. Debord joined the Lettrists just as Isidore Isou was producing films and the Lettrists attempted to sabotage Charlie Chaplin's trip to Paris through negative criticism.


title: Guy Debord

text: Overall, Debord challenged the conventions of filmmaking; prompting his audience to interact with the medium instead of being passive receivers of information. As a matter of fact, his film "Hurlements" exclusively consists of a series of black and white screens and silence with a bit of commentary dispersed throughout. Debord directed his first film, "Hurlements en faveur de Sade" in 1952 with the voices of Michèle Bernstein and Gil Wolman. The film has no images represented; instead, it shows bright white when there is speaking and black when there is not. Long silences separate speaking parts. The film ends with 24 minutes of black silence. People were reported to have become angry and left screenings of this film. The script is composed of quotes appropriated from various sources and made into a montage with a sort of non-linear narrative.


title: Guy Debord

text: Later, through the financial support of Michèle Bernstein and Asger Jorn, Debord produced a second film, "Sur le passage de quelques personnes à travers une assez courte unité de temps", which combined scenes with his friends and scenes from mass media culture. This integration of Debord's world with mass media culture became a running motif climaxing with "The Society of the Spectacle". Debord wrote the book "The Society of the Spectacle" before writing the movie. When asked why he made the book into a movie, Debord said, "I don't understand why this surprised people. The book was already written like a script". Debord's last film, "Son Art et Son Temps", was not produced during his lifetime. It worked as a final statement where Debord recounted his works and a cultural documentary of "his time".


title: Guy Debord

text: "Complete Cinematic Works" (AK Press, 2003, translated and edited by Ken Knabb) includes the scripts for all six of Debord's films, along with related documents and extensive annotations.


title: Guy Debord

text: On 29 January 2009, fifteen years after his death, Christine Albanel, Minister of Culture, classified the archive of his works as a "national treasure" in response to a sale request by Yale University. The Ministry declared that "he has been one of the most important contemporary thinkers, with a capital place in history of ideas from the second half of the twentieth century." Similarly, Debord once called his book, "The Society of the Spectacle", "the most important book of the twentieth century". He continues to be a canonical and controversial figure particularly among European scholars of radical politics and modern art.


title: Rick Edwards

text: Richard Philip "Rick" Edwards (born 20 May 1979) is an English television presenter, journalist, and author. Edwards presented T4 for four years, and has also presented "Tool Academy", "Freshly Squeezed", "E4 Music", and much of Channel 4's 2012 Paralympics coverage. Edwards also hosted the "Fighting Talk" radio show on BBC Radio 5 Live. As a journalist, he has written for "The Observer", the "Evening Standard" and "HuffPost". From 2017 to 2021, he has been the presenter of the BBC quiz show "Impossible", and since November 2021 he has co-hosted the BBC Radio 5 Live breakfast show (replacing Nicky Campbell),


title: Rick Edwards

text: Edwards was born on 20 May 1979 at Enfield to Philip G. Edwards and his wife Patricia A. nee Galloway


title: Rick Edwards

text: He went to Portsmouth Grammar School and later attended Pembroke College, Cambridge, studying mathematics originally before changing to natural sciences after his first year. He performed stand-up and sketch shows during his time at university.


title: Rick Edwards

text: Edwards hosted a Saturday evening radio show on XFM entitled "The Weekender" for several years, hosting his last show on 10 January 2009. He also formed part of the BBC presenting team for their coverage of the Reading and Leeds Festival. In 2011, Edwards began hosting E4's "Tool Academy", a reality TV show about fed-up girlfriends who have enrolled their underperforming other halves in a school in which "tools become men". During the 2012 Paralympics, Edwards formed part of the Channel 4 commentary team as well as co-presenting "That Paralympic Show" with Ade Adepitan.


title: Rick Edwards

text: In 2013, Edwards began co-presenting political discussion show "Free Speech" for BBC Three alongside Tina Daheley. During the 2015 general election, they presented a series of "Free Speech" specials.


title: Rick Edwards

text: As a writer, his original film, Burger Van Champion, was commissioned as part of C4’s Coming Up strand in 2013 and was described by the Observer as ‘a remarkable debut’ and by Time Out as ‘funny, touching [and] superbly written’.


title: Rick Edwards

text: In July 2015, Edwards began presenting ITV2 panel show, "Safeword" which returned for a second series in 2016.


title: Rick Edwards

text: Edwards currently hosts the podcast Science(ish) alongside Dr Michael Brooks, which delves into the science behind popular films. The series proved such a hit that the duo were commissioned by Atlantic to write a book of the same name, "Science(ish): The Peculiar Science Behind The Movies", which was published in October 2017 and ranked number 1 in the Physics, Cosmology, and Humorous Essays Amazon charts for several weeks as well as achieving a position of 21 in the overall book charts. The podcast itself has topped the iTunes Science & Medicine chart.


title: Rick Edwards

text: In March 2016, Edwards landed the anchor role on Sky's "DC Fancast" alongside Bec Hill. He claims this is a true highlight of his career. In January 2017, Edwards began presenting "!mpossible", a daytime BBC One quiz show.


title: Rick Edwards

text: From March 2019, Edwards costarred in History's miniseries "River Hunters", alongside YouTuber and river-hunter Beau Ouimette.


title: Rick Edwards

text: In September 2021 BBC Radio 5 Live announced that it had hired Edwards to host its new breakfast show alongside Rachel Burden. The new-look 5 Live Breakfast launch took place on 8 November 2021 following Nicky Campbell’s move to a slot later in the day.


title: Rick Edwards

text: Edwards has said that he has a very poor sense of smell due to sniffing pure ammonia while in school. Edwards supported green organisation Global Cool in 2010 as part of their Traincation campaign, along with his friend George Lamb.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: Sir David Rowat Barclay (27 October 1934 – 10 January 2021) and Sir Frederick Hugh Barclay (born 27 October 1934), commonly referred to as the "Barclay Brothers" or "Barclay Twins", were British billionaires. They were identical twin brothers and, up until the death of David in 2021, had joint business interests primarily in media, retail and property.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: "The Sunday Times" Rich List of 2020 estimated their wealth at £7 billion. They earned a reputation for avoiding publicity and have often been described as reclusive.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: David's son, Aidan, manages their UK businesses. Their businesses have been accused of tax avoidance, by placing assets under ownership of companies registered abroad and controlled through trusts. Their Press Holdings company owns "Apollo" and "The Spectator" magazines and, through a wholly owned subsidiary (Press Acquisitions Limited), they also own Telegraph Group Limited, parent company of "The Daily Telegraph" and "The Sunday Telegraph".


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In 1993, the brothers bought the lease of the island of Brecqhou, off the coast of Sark, Brecqhou being one of the smallest of the Channel Islands.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: The Barclay brothers were born within ten minutes of each other in Hammersmith, London, to Scottish parents Beatrice Cecilia (née Taylor; died 1989) and her husband, Frederick Hugh Barclay, a travelling salesman. The couple had eight other children. Frederick Sr. died when the brothers were twelve years old, and they left school four years later in 1950 to work in the accounts department at the General Electric Company before setting up as painters and decorators.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In 1955, David married Zoe Newton, who had trained as a ballet dancer, at St John the Baptist Church, Holland Road, Kensington. Zoe Barclay pursued a modelling career and became the most photographed and highly paid model in Britain of her time, appearing on the front of popular magazines such as "Picturegoer". She appeared on television and in the Dairy Council advertisements as the "drinka pinta milka day" girl.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: By the end of the 1950s, the brothers were running Candy Corner, tobacconists and confectioners, on the edge of Kensington. However, in November 1960 the business folded when Frederick and Douglas were made bankrupt at the High Court after their landlord seized the shop because they were in breach of the terms of the lease. A notice in the "London Gazette" at that time announced the bankruptcies, listing a former business interest of Frederick, then aged 26, and Douglas, two years his junior, as builders and decorators called Barclay Brothers based at the Barclay family home.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: Meanwhile, David was registered as a director of Hillgate Estate Agents in 1962, with his wife Zoe as a co-director (she had given up her modelling career to concentrate on her young sons, Aidan, Howard and Duncan). By 1968, however, Frederick was running the family businesses, replacing Zoe on the Hillgate board. He had obtained the discharge of his bankruptcy after David paid the creditors. During this time they redeveloped old boarding houses in London, and made them into hotels.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: Between 1968 and 1974, the twins received increasingly large loans from the Crown Agents, a government agency designed to help the colonies and developing countries do business in Britain. In 1970, they bought Gestplan Hotels, which operated the exclusive Londonderry House Hotel in Park Lane, from a group of Lebanese bankers.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In the mid-1970s, Frederick met and married Hiroko Asada (née Kuzusaka), a familiar figure among Japanese society in London; she had a son from her previous marriage, Ko Asada Barclay, who is married to Sara Love.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: From the late 1960s onwards, the Barclay brothers continued to build up stakes in businesses such as breweries and casinos. In 1975, they bought the Howard Hotel, overlooking the Thames at Temple Place. In 1983, they bought Ellerman, the brewing and shipping group, for £45m. They later sold its brewing division for £240m. They used the proceeds to buy the Ritz Hotel in London's Piccadilly in 1995. They spent £370 million on Gotaas-Larsen, a Bermuda-based shipping company, and £200 million on the Automotive Financial Group, a motor retail chain in 1994. The brothers were involved in philanthropy, and were knighted in 2000 for their support of medical research, to which they have donated an estimated £40 million between 1987 and 2000.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In 2004 they were listed in 42nd place with an estimate of £750 million on "The Sunday Times" Rich List, and in 2006 they were ranked 24th with a value of £1,800m. In 2012, they topped the Media Rich List with an estimate of £2.25 billion.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In May 2021 the court ordered Frederick to pay his wife £100m on a divorce she initiated, the judge criticising Frederick for selling a yacht contrary to the orders of the court. The court said he had "completely ignored those orders, sold the yacht, and applied the equity for his own use. I regarded that behaviour as reprehensible" … "[He] is a public figure who should have been aware of the potential consequences of disobedience of court orders and his behaviour in the proceedings should not be allowed to pass completely under the radar”. On 28 July 2022, a high court judge ruled that Frederick's ex-wife of 34 years had failed to prove he was in contempt of court for not paying her a £100m divorce settlement. However, he was told he faced a potential jail sentence after a judge found him in contempt of court for failing to pay his ex-wife £245,000 in legal fees and monthly maintenance costs.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In 1983, the brothers purchased brewing and shipping group Ellerman for £45m. They later sold its brewing division (for £240m), and in late 1985 its shipping business (to its management). The Ellerman deal helped the Barclays develop the strategy of buying companies, breaking them up and profiting from the real estate. The technique of approaching an insider to obtain an advantage also set a precedent for later deals: the Barclays approached the Ellerman non-executive chairman, David Scott, at a secret meeting in Monte Carlo. Scott recalled in his memoirs that David Barclay requested an exclusive option to buy the firm, and to keep it secret from all but two directors, in return for a promise that Scott would stay on as non-executive chairman. However, moments after signing the sale document, Scott was handed a letter (by the Barclays' lawyer) demanding his immediate resignation on grounds that he had been indiscreet about the offer.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In 2002, the brothers purchased the Liverpool-based retail company Littlewoods from its founders, the Moores family, for £750 million. The deal was bankrolled by HBOS, which also took a 5% equity stake in the brothers' bidding vehicle, LW Investments. The brothers merged the company with their earlier purchase, The Very Group, to form Littlewoods Shop Direct Home Shopping Limited, which operates a majority share of the United Kingdom's home shopping market. They also closed and sold off the Littlewoods department store chain, with the largest parcel of 120 properties being purchased by Associated British Foods for leasing mainly to its subsidiary Primark, while other stores were leased to Marks & Spencer, New Look and British Home Stores.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: Two years after the brothers' acquisition of Littlewoods Ltd., HM Revenue and Customs repaid the company VAT that it had charged in breach of EU law. Since October 2004, more than £200 million in overpaid VAT and £268 million in simple interest was repaid to the company. However, Littlewoods argued that the company was owed a compounded interest rate and subsequently sued HMRC for £1 billion.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: Delivery company Yodel has received criticism for its poor service in the past, but has improved over recent years. Yodel (which operates via Home Delivery Network Ltd.) suffered a £130 million loss in 2011.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In October 2006, the Barclays sold handbag.com for £22 million. This was almost all profit: they acquired the website after it was set up as a joint venture between Hollinger International and the Boots Group in 1999. The Handbag group was a collection of four websites designed for female users: the high fashion getlippy.com, the fashion and home life-focused allaboutyou.com, a "specialist pregnancy site" gomamatoday.com and handbag.com.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: On 2 February 2009, it was announced that the brothers' The Very Group had purchased the brand names of Woolworths and Ladybird children's clothing for an undisclosed amount, from Deloitte, the administrators of the failed Woolworths Group.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In 1992, the Barclay brothers entered the newspaper publishing industry by buying "The European" newspaper, formerly part of Robert Maxwell's holdings. The weekly paper became a high-end business tabloid, but closed in 1998.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In 1995, they bought "The Scotsman" newspaper, and in 1996 appointed former "Sunday Times" editor Andrew Neil to oversee their publishing interests. On 19 December 2005, the Barclays sold The Scotsman Publications Ltd, itself then part of Press Holdings Group, for £160 million to Johnston Press. The Barclays had owned these publications for a decade, and said they intended to use the capital raised on their other interests. During their ownership of "The Scotsman", the newspaper had seven editors in nine years (see The Scotsman: Editors).


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In 1998 they bought and relaunched the "Sunday Business" newspaper with editor Jeff Randall. It became a weekly magazine "The Business" in 2006, and was merged into "The Spectator" in 2008.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In July 2004, the Barclays bought The Telegraph Group (now Telegraph Media Group), which includes "The Daily Telegraph", "The Sunday Telegraph", and "The Spectator" after months of intense bidding and lawsuits. "The Telegraph Group" was owned by Hollinger Inc. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the newspaper group controlled by the Canadian-born British businessman Conrad Black. As part of a February 2004 judgment, an American judge, Leo Strine, accused the Barclay brothers of being "less than fully candid", adding they had "remained silent while Lord Black misled the Hollinger Inc. International board", remarks that incurred the brothers' wrath, with David branding the criticisms "grossly unfair".


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: The brothers' period as newspaper proprietors has been more tumultuous than their property interests. At the Telegraph Group, Murdoch MacLennan made over 100 journalists redundant in 2006, prompting the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) to consider strike action. "The Sunday Telegraph" editor Dominic Lawson was sacked and replaced by Sarah Sands in June 2005, but Sands lasted just nine months. Patience Wheatcroft from "The Times" was appointed editor in March 2006. She was replaced by Ian McGregor one year later. In February 2015, Peter Oborne, the Chief Political Correspondent resigned from the newspaper in protest at its editorial direction. Jason Seiken was made editor-in-chief and chief content officer of Telegraph Media Group in October 2013, but announced his departure after 18 months in April 2015.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In October 2019, it was announced that the brothers were seeking to sell the Telegraph Group amid speculation that their business interests were in some difficulty.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: "The Guardian" has stated that the brothers are tax exiles, and although they reside, at least some of the time, in Monaco (giving Avenue de Grande Bretagne, Monte Carlo as their address) they operate their businesses from an office in the United Kingdom. When asked if he was a tax exile, Frederick stated that he lived abroad for health reasons. The corporate tax arrangements of the Ritz Hotel, purchased and refurbished by the brothers in 1995, were the subject of a December 2012 investigation by BBC's "Panorama" current affairs television programme, which found the hotel had paid no corporation tax in the UK for 17 years, after legally claiming reliefs.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In 1993, the Barclay brothers bought the "tenement" of the island of Brecqhou, a small sister island of Sark, one of the Channel Islands. Their mock-Gothic castle on Brecqhou, designed by Quinlan Terry, features granite walls, battlements, two swimming pools and a helicopter pad. Since their purchase of the tenement of Brecqhou, the Barclays have been in several legal disputes with the government of Sark over such issues as the Barclays' violation of Sark's law banning motor cars. They have also expressed a desire to make Brecqhou politically independent from Sark – building on the research of William Toplis, the painter, and others, who argued that Brecqhou was not a part of the fief of Sark.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In the mid-1990s, the brothers petitioned the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, challenging Sark's inheritance law, which mandated their island be left to David's oldest son. The brothers wanted to will their estate equally to their four children. Sark's legislature decided to amend the inheritance law, allowing residents to leave property to any one of their children. In 2002, the brothers claimed their property tax was too high, particularly since they maintained Brecqhou's paths and dock. Fearing more litigation, Sark officials cut the Barclays' tax rate.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: In 2008 (partially due to legal activity by the Barclay brothers), Sark dismantled its 443-year-old feudal system of government on the premise that this was necessary to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights. On 16 January 2008 and 21 February 2008, the Chief Pleas approved a law which introduced a 30-member chamber, with 28 members elected in Island-wide elections, one hereditary member and one member appointed for life. On 9 April 2008, the Privy Council approved the Sark law reforms, and the first elections under the new law were held in December 2008.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: On 11 December 2008, the Barclay brothers were in the news for pulling out their investments (which included hotels) from the island of Sark, causing 170 staff to be made redundant, after local voters did not support candidates championed by the Barclay brothers. The brothers had previously warned that if the voters chose to bring back the 'establishment' Sark leaders that are still aligned with the feudal lord then they would pull out of Sark.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: After the 2008 election, the brothers claimed that the presence of two unelected figures on Sark's government – the seigneur and the seneschal, the local judge – was unjustifiable. They took their fight to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, arguing that the two roles break human rights laws that protect the rights of citizens to elect lawmakers. Their challenge was dismissed, but the Barclays said they would continue to fight, taking their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: On 28 March 2012, BBC Radio 4 dedicated part of its "Today" programme to analysis of the Barclay brothers' role in Sark. It reported that the islanders were protesting against bullying and intimidation by representatives of the Barclays after a story in their local paper had prompted the only doctor to leave the island. The doctor had used a boat rather than the Barclays' helicopter to transport a patient who was having a seizure to hospital on Guernsey, which was reported in the Barclays' paper as negligent. Despite support from the patient's family and the local BMA, the doctor left Sark after the story, leaving the island without a doctor.


title: David and Frederick Barclay

text: On 25 February 2020, the High Court in London was told that Frederick and his daughter Amanda were secretly recorded for several months after David's sons Alistair, Aidan and Howard bugged the Ritz Hotel conservatory. Alistair Barclay had been seen handling an alleged bugging device. As of February 2020, Aidan Barclay, his son Andrew and two brothers face legal action for misuse of private information, breach of confidence and breach of data protection laws. CCTV footage released by Frederick to the media on 18 May 2020 shows Alistair Barclay handling the alleged bugging device in the conservatory of the Ritz Hotel "where Sir Frederick liked to conduct business meetings and smoke cigars." According to court documents, a second bug was supplied by private investigation firm Quest Global Limited.


title: Shantanu

text: Shantanu (Sanskrit: शंतनु) is a character in the Mahabharata, described as the ruler of the Kuru Kingdom with his capital at Hastinapura. He was a descendant of the Bharata race, a forebear of the lineage of the Lunar dynasty, and the great-grandfather of the Pandavas and the Kauravas.


title: Shantanu

text: The ruler was the youngest son of King Pratipa of Hastinapura and had been born during the latter's latter years. His eldest brother, Devapi, had leprosy, and had given up his inheritance to become a hermit. The middle son, Bahlika, (or Vahlika) abandoned his paternal kingdom, and had started living with his maternal uncle in Balkh, subsequently inheriting his kingdom. Shantanu, thus, ascended the throne of Hastinapura.


title: Shantanu

text: He is best known for being the father of Bhishma (also known as Devavrata), among the mightiest warriors of the epic.


title: Shantanu

text: The meaning of the name can be explained by nirukti available in Adi Parva, through which Sri Nityānanda Miśra elaborates its meaning as "the one who amplifies sukha (happines) for others". Monier-Williams translates "śaṁ-tanu" as "wholesome for the body".


title: Shantanu

text: The Sambhava Parva of Mahabharata says that the old men of his kingdom who were touched by this monarch not only felt an indescribable sensation of pleasure but also became restored to youth. Therefore, this monarch was called Santanu.


title: Shantanu

text: In his previous birth, there was a powerful king of the Ikshvaku dynasty named Mahabhisha. He possessed many virtuous qualities, and after performing a thousand Ashvamedha Yagnas and a hundred Rajasuya Yagnas (to qualify as emperor), he had attained heaven after his death. Once he got an opportunity to visit the court of Brahma where all the Devas and the Ganga were also present. While the celestials were worshipping Brahma, a wind blew and displaced Ganga's clothes revealing her body. Everybody present there bent their heads except Mahabhisha who kept gazing at her. Upon seeing this act, Brahma lost his temper and cursed him to be born a mortal. Ganga who also relished the mortal act was cursed to be born as human and come back only after breaking Mahabhisha's heart. Mahabhisha then requested Brahma that he, Mahabhisha, be born as the son of Kuru king Pratipa and his wish was granted by Brahma.


title: Shantanu

text: The Kuru king Pratipa was once meditating. At that time Ganga took the form of a beautiful woman, approached the king and sat on his right thigh. When he asked her what she wanted, Ganga requested him to become her husband. Pratipa however refused since he had taken a vow not to lust for anybody, and also that she had sat on his right thigh and according to traditions a man's right thigh was for his daughter or daughter-in-law while the left thigh was for his wife. He then proposed that she marry his son, to which she agreed.


title: Shantanu

text: A child was born to Pratipa and his wife Sunanda in their old age. He was named Shantanu because when he was born his father had controlled his passions by ascetic penances. Pratipa then installed Shantanu as king of Hastinapura and retired into the woods to perform penances. Bahlika who was elder than Shantanu also gave permission to him for becoming the king of Hastinapura.


title: Shantanu

text: Shantanu saw a beautiful woman on the banks of the river Ganga and asked her to marry him. She agreed but with one condition: that Shantanu would never ask any questions about her actions. They married and later she gave birth to a son. But she drowned the child. Shantanu could not ask her the reason, because of his promise, lest she would leave him. One by one, seven sons were born and drowned by Ganga.


title: Shantanu

text: When Ganga was about to drown the eighth son, Shantanu, devastated, could not restrain himself and confronted her. Finally, Ganga explained to King Shantanu about Brahma's curse given to Mahabhisha and her. Then she told him that their eight children were Eight Vasu's who were cursed by Vasishtha to be born on earth as mortal humans. However, when they pacified him, he limited his curse and told them that they would be freed from this curse upon their birth as humans. So she released the seven of them from human life by drowning them all. However, the Vasu Dyaus was cursed to live a long life and not to have a wife or have children. But the sage Vashishtha also gave a boon to him that he would be virtuous, conversant with all the holy scriptures and will be an obedient son to his father. Ganga said she would take him to train him properly for the King's throne and status. With these words, she disappeared along with the child while Shantanu was struck with grief thinking about spending the rest of his life without her.


title: Shantanu

text: Shantanu, filled with grief from the loss of his wife and son, began to practise Brahmacharya and ruled his kingdom extremely well. By merely adopting virtuous behaviour, Shantanu was easily able to conquer the entire world without lifting weapons. All the kings declared Shantanu as Emperor and his reign was a peaceful one. Shantanu gave up hunting and gained popularity from his subjects.


title: Shantanu

text: One day, while walking along the banks of the Ganga, Shantanu saw that the river had become shallow. While searching for the cause of this phenomenon, he came across a handsome young boy who had checked the river's flow with his celestial weapon. The young boy was his son, however, he didn't recognize him because he could see him only for a few moments after he was born. The boy recognized that he was his father, however, he didn't reveal it to him instead he disappeared from his sight using his power of illusion. Shantanu upon seeing this wondered whether the boy was actually his son and called upon Ganga to show the boy to him. Ganga having thus appeared revealed to him that the boy was actually his son Devavrata and that he was taught the knowledge of the holy scriptures by the sage Vasishtha and the art of warfare by Parshurama. After revealing the truth about Devavrata she told Shantanu to take him to Hastinapura. Upon reaching the capital Shantanu crowned Devavrata as the heir-apparent to the throne.


title: Shantanu

text: Although Shantanu was pained from his separation from Ganga, he was overjoyed upon receiving such an accomplished son. He performed seven Ashvamedha Yagnas on the banks of Yamuna with the help of Devavrata.


title: Shantanu

text: Four years later, Shantanu while travelling near the banks of Yamuna smelled a sweet scent coming from an unknown direction. While searching for the cause of the scent, he came across Satyavati from whom the smell of scent was coming. Satyavati was an adopted daughter of the chief of the fishermen of her village. Upon seeing her, Shantanu fell in love with her and desired to marry her. Upon asking for his consent, her father agreed to the marriage on the condition that Satyavati's son would inherit the throne of Hastinapura.


title: Shantanu

text: King Shantanu was unable to give his word on accession as his eldest son Devavrata was the heir to the throne and was forlorn. Devavrata, however, realised the cause of his sorrowm and for the sake of his father, gave his word to the chief that he would renounce all his claims to the throne, in favour of Satyavati's children. To reassure the skeptical chief further, he also vowed lifelong celibacy to ensure that future generations borne of Satyavati would also not be challenged by his offspring. Upon hearing this vow he immediately agreed to the marriage of Satyavati and Shantanu. Devavrata was named as Bhishma (one who has taken a terrible vow) by the celestials because of the terrible oath he took. Upon returning with Satyavati to Hastinapura he told about his vow to his father. Upon hearing about this Shantanu became highly impressed and gave him a boon that he will only die if he wants to. Shantanu and Satyavati went on to have two sons, Chitrāngada and Vichitravirya. After Shantanu's death, Chitrangada became king of Hastinapur.


title: State Farm Arena

text: State Farm Arena (formerly Philips Arena) is a multi-purpose arena located in Atlanta, Georgia. The arena serves as the home venue for the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s Atlanta Hawks. It also served as home to the National Hockey League's Atlanta Thrashers from 1999 to 2011, before the team moved to Winnipeg, as well as the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)'s Atlanta Dream from 2008 to 2016 and 2019, and the temporary Home of the Georgia Tech Basketball in 2011. It opened in 1999 at a cost of $213.5 million, replacing the Omni Coliseum. It is owned by the Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority and operated by the Hawks, owned by Tony Ressler along with a group of investors including Grant Hill.


title: State Farm Arena

text: The arena seats 19,050 for basketball and 17,624 for ice hockey. The largest crowd ever for an Atlanta Hawks basketball game at the arena was Game 6 of the 2008 Eastern Conference First Round on May 2, 2008 (against the Boston Celtics), where there was an announced attendance of 20,425. The arena includes 92 luxury suites, 9 party suites, and 1,866 club seats. For concerts and other entertainment events, the arena can seat 21,000.


title: State Farm Arena

text: The arena was originally laid out in a rather unusual manner, with the club seats and luxury boxes aligned solely along one side of the playing surface, and the general admission seating along the other three sides (the arrangement was later emulated in Ford Field, Addition Financial Arena, Soldier Field, Levi's Stadium, and other venues). This layout was a vast contrast to many of its contemporaries, which have their revenue-generating luxury boxes and club seats located in the 'belly' of the arena, thus causing the upper deck to be 2–4 stories higher. The layout at Philips was done so as to be able to bring the bulk of the seats closer to the playing surface while still making available a sufficient number of revenue-raising club seats and loges. Renovations in 2017–18 removed the upper levels of the suite wall in favor of premium seating spread throughout the arena, turning those upper areas to standard seating.


title: State Farm Arena

text: On the exterior, angled steel columns supporting the roof facing downtown spell out "ATLANTA." The side facing the Georgia World Congress Center originally spelled out "CNN" (whose headquarters adjoins the arena), but that section has since been altered to accommodate a Taco Mac restaurant. The GWCC/CNN Center rail station below the arena provides access to MARTA public transportation.


title: State Farm Arena

text: Amsterdam-based technology company Philips purchased the initial naming rights to the arena in February 1999 for $185 million over 20 years. In February 2018, it was reported that Philips would not renew its naming rights agreement for the arena when it expired in June 2019, primarily due to Philips' withdrawal from the consumer electronics market in 2013. On August 29, 2018, State Farm purchased the naming rights to the arena, in a 20-year deal that cost $175 million.


title: State Farm Arena

text: For the 2007–2008 season, State Farm Arena utilized the new "see-through" shot clock units which allow spectators seated behind the basket to see the action without having the clocks interfere with their view, joining FedExForum, Wells Fargo Center, TD Garden, United Center, Phoenix Suns Arena and the Spectrum Center. Video advertising panels replaced the traditional scrolling panels.


title: State Farm Arena

text: During the late 1980s and early 1990s, many cities started building new state-of-the-art sporting venues for their NBA and/or NHL franchises, or in hopes of attaining one. Many of these arenas had modern amenities for their high-end customers, such as luxury boxes, club seats, and large, posh club-level concourses; some even had practice facilities on-site. These attractions were rarely found in arenas constructed in the early 1970s, when the Omni Coliseum was built. However, it was likely that the Omni would have had to be replaced in any event. It had been built using Cor-Ten weathering steel that was intended to seal itself, ensuring it would last for decades. However, the Omni's designers didn't account for Atlanta's humid climate. The Cor-Ten steel never stopped rusting, causing the arena to deteriorate faster than anticipated.


title: State Farm Arena

text: Ted Turner, owner of the Hawks at the time, wanted to bring the NHL back to Atlanta; the city's first NHL team, the Atlanta Flames, had moved to Calgary in 1980. However, the NHL determined that the Omni was not suitable even as a temporary facility due to its structural problems and lack of amenities. The league told Turner that it would only grant an expansion team on condition that a new arena be in place for the prospective team's inaugural season. After much consideration of possible other sites both in Downtown Atlanta and in the suburbs, it was decided that the Omni would be demolished in 1997, and a new arena would be built in the same location; the Omni was demolished on July 26, 1997. The Hawks split their games between the Georgia Dome and Alexander Memorial Coliseum for the next two seasons while Philips Arena was under construction.


title: State Farm Arena

text: Philips Arena held its first event with a September 1999 concert by the musician Sir Elton John. The Omni's "center-hung scoreboard" now hangs in the lobby of Philips Arena, where it still displays the Omni's logo along with those of Philips Arena, the Hawks, and the Thrashers (who never played in The Omni). The scoreboard still functions and displays information relevant to the game taking place in the arena. On April 2, 2009, Philips Arena achieved LEED for Existing Building: Operations and Maintenance certification as specified by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). It was the world's first LEED certified NBA/NHL arena. It has been nicknamed the "Highlight Factory", due to the number of exciting plays, or highlights, that occur and Philips' history with lights and electronics.


title: State Farm Arena

text: On March 14, 2008, an EF2 Tornado struck near the Arena as part of a tornado outbreak that hit the city. The arena only received minor exterior damage.


title: State Farm Arena

text: The arena hosted the NBA All-Star Game in 2003 and the Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball tournament in 2012.


title: State Farm Arena

text: The first playoff game in any professional league played in Philips Arena was in 2005, when the Georgia Force of the Arena Football League hosted, and won, its first home playoff game. The first NHL playoff game in Philips Arena was in 2007, the Thrashers' only appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The first NBA playoff game in Philips Arena was in 2008, when the Hawks made the 2008 NBA Playoffs after an eight-season drought of missing the playoffs. On April 10, 2011, the Thrashers lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5–2, in their final game. Tim Stapleton scored the final goal for the Thrashers in team history.


title: State Farm Arena

text: The venue had been named the site of the 2005 Southeastern Conference Women's Basketball Tournament; however, when the NHL announced in early 2004 that the 55th NHL All-Star Game, scheduled for February 2005 would be held in Atlanta, arena officials withdrew the Southeastern Conference women's basketball tournament – which was then moved 140 miles to the northeast along Interstate 85 to the BI-LO Center in Greenville, South Carolina. Oddly, the arena would not even be the host of that planned All-Star Game due to the 2004–05 NHL lockout. As a result, Atlanta became the second (San Jose being the first) city to lose a planned All-Star Game because of a labor dispute. Philips Arena would later be announced as home to the 56th NHL All-Star Game in 2008. Also, Philips Arena hosted game three of the 2010 WNBA Finals, where the Seattle Storm defeated the Atlanta Dream.


title: State Farm Arena

text: In 2013, Philips Arena hosted the finals of the men's NCAA Division II and Division III college basketball championships. The events were held as an undercard to the 2013 NCAA Final Four held at the Georgia Dome, in celebration of the 75th edition of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship.


title: State Farm Arena

text: The arena hosted UFC 88, UFC 145, UFC 201, and UFC 236 in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2019 respectively. Philips Arena also hosted the 2011 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony, the night before WrestleMania XXVII which was held at the Georgia Dome. Philips Arena also hosted Royal Rumble (2002), Backlash (2007), Royal Rumble (2010), Hell in a Cell (2012), Survivor Series (2015), and WWE Day 1. An edition of WCW Monday Nitro was also held when the arena was known as 'The Philips Arena' on June 5, 2000. The arena hosted the February 19, 2020 episode of "AEW Dynamite" featuring All Elite Wrestling's first-ever Steel cage match.


title: State Farm Arena

text: State Farm Arena is among the busiest arenas for concerts in the world, having sold well over 550,000 concert tickets in 2007 and ranked as the third-busiest arena in the U.S. in 2011. State Farm has hosted such concerts as Elton John, The Who, and The Weeknd.


title: State Farm Arena

text: Every year in January, the State Farm Arena hosts one of the largest Christian college aged conferences: Passion Conference. The conference typically takes place over the first weekend in the new year and features big names in the Christian world such as Louie Gigilio, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Kristian Stanfill, John Piper, rap artist Lecrae and many more. The conference is typically sold out.


title: State Farm Arena

text: Shortly after acquiring the Hawks and the operating rights to Philips Arena on June 24, 2015, Tony Ressler announced his intentions of remodeling the arena to keep the Hawks in Downtown Atlanta at a cost between $150 million and $250 million. The proposed renovation would rebuild the entire seating bowl to optimize its sightlines for basketball and remove the wall of suites which dominate one side of the arena and replace them with a more traditional suite configuration. The Hawks are also in discussions with the city about building a mixed-use entertainment district similar to L.A. Live around Philips Arena, to better connect it to other nearby attractions such as Centennial Olympic Park and Mercedes-Benz Stadium. On November 1, 2016, the Hawks and the city of Atlanta reached a financing agreement on renovating Philips Arena, with the city contributing $142.5 million and the Hawks $50 million plus cost overruns to the project. With the renovation, the Hawks signed a lease extension lasting through June 30, 2046, with an early termination penalty of $200 million plus the remaining balance of the arena's bonds.


title: State Farm Arena

text: The first phase of renovations, completed during the Hawks' 2017 off-season, removed the upper levels of the suite wall, reducing the total number of suites from 90 to 40, and added the Courtside Club behind one of the baskets. Renovations for 2018 were described by Hawks chief operating officer Thad Sheely as a "gut rehab". The arena renovations brought new premium seating areas, connected 360-degree concourses, a new center-hung videoboard three times larger than its predecessor as well as additional videoboards in the corners of the upper decks, new dining options including a bar and grill operated by country group Zac Brown Band and other unique features including an in-arena barber shop operated by Atlanta rapper Killer Mike and Topgolf suites. Over of former office and storage space within the arena was repurposed as "fan space". The first ticketed event at the renovated State Farm Arena was So So Def's 25th anniversary concert on October 21, 2018, while the Hawks' first regular season home game took place on October 24 against the Dallas Mavericks.


title: State Farm Arena

text: Due to the renovations conflicting with the WNBA schedule, the Dream announced that they would move their 2017 and 2018 home schedules to McCamish Pavilion on the campus of Georgia Tech, mirroring the Hawks' move to the same venue (then known as Alexander Memorial Coliseum) between the time the Omni was razed and State Farm Arena was built. With the release of the 2019 WNBA schedule on December 18, 2018, the Dream confirmed that they would be returning to State Farm Arena. However, following the conclusion of the 2019 WNBA regular season, team officials indicated that the Dream would not be returning to State Farm Arena for the next season (which would be in 2021 due to the 2020 WNBA season being played in a COVID-19 bubble), citing disagreements with the Hawks' management. On October 18, 2019, the Dream announced that they would move to the Gateway Center Arena in suburban College Park, sharing the venue with the Hawks' NBA G League affiliate, the College Park Skyhawks.


title: Pithovirus

text: Pithovirus, first described in a 2014 paper, is a genus of giant virus known from two species, Pithovirus sibericum, which infects amoebas and Pithovirus massiliensis. It is a double-stranded DNA virus, and is a member of the nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses clade. The 2014 discovery was made when a viable specimen was found in a 30,000-year-old ice core harvested from permafrost in Siberia, Russia.


title: Pithovirus

text: The genus name "Pithovirus", a reference to large storage containers of ancient Greece known as pithoi, was chosen to describe the new species. A specimen of "Pithovirus" measures approximately 1.5 μm (1500 nm) in length and 0.5 μm (500 nm) in diameter, making it the largest virus yet found. It is 50% larger in size than the "Pandoraviridae", the previous largest-known viruses, and is larger than "Ostreococcus", the smallest eukaryotic cell, although "Pandoravirus" has the largest viral genome, containing 1.9 to 2.5 megabases of DNA.


title: Pithovirus

text: "Pithovirus" has a thick, oval wall with an opening at one end. Internally, its structure resembles a honeycomb.


title: Pithovirus

text: The genome of "Pithovirus" contains 467 distinct genes, more than a typical virus but far fewer than the 2556 putative protein-coding sequences found in "Pandoravirus". Thus, its genome is far less densely packed than any other known virus. Two-thirds of its proteins are unlike those of other viruses. Despite the physical similarity with "Pandoravirus", the "Pithovirus" genome sequence reveals that it is barely related to that virus, but more closely resembles members of "Marseilleviridae", "Megaviridae", and "Iridoviridae". These families all contain large icosahedral viruses with DNA genomes. The "Pithovirus" genome has 36% GC-content, similar to the "Megaviridae", in contrast to greater than 61% for pandoraviruses.


title: Pithovirus

text: "Pithovirus"' genome is one circular, double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) chromosome of about 610,000 base pairs (bp), encoding approximately 467 open reading frames (ORFs), which translate into 467 different proteins. The genome encodes all the proteins needed to produce mRNA; these proteins are present in the purified virions. "Pithovirus" therefore undergoes its entire replication cycle in its host's cytoplasm, rather than the more typical method of taking over the host's nucleus.


title: Pithovirus

text: "Pithovirus sibericum" was discovered in a 30,000-year-old sample of Siberian permafrost by Chantal Abergel and Jean-Michel Claverie of Aix-Marseille University. The virus was discovered buried below the surface of a late Pleistocene sediment. It was found when riverbank samples collected in 2000 were exposed to amoebas. The amoebas started dying and when examined were found to contain giant virus specimens. The authors said they got the idea to probe permafrost samples for new viruses after reading about an experiment that revived a similar aged seed of "Silene stenophylla" two years earlier. The "Pithovirus" findings were published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" in March 2014. Although the virus is harmless to humans, its viability after being frozen for millennia has raised concerns that global climate change and tundra drilling operations could lead to previously undiscovered and potentially pathogenic viruses being unearthed. However, other scientists dispute that this scenario poses a real threat.


title: Pithovirus

text: A modern species in the genus, "Pithovirus massiliensis", was isolated in 2016. The core features like the order of ORFs and orphan genes (ORFans) are well conserved between the two known species.


title: Pithovirus

text: The rate of mutation of the genome has been estimated to be 2.23 × 10 substitutions/site/year. The authors have suggested that these viruses evolved at least hundreds of thousands of years ago.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Nicholas John Griffin (born 1 March 1959) is a British politician and white supremacist who represented North West England as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2014. He served as chairman and then president of the far-right British National Party (BNP) from 1999 to 2014, when he was expelled from the party.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Born in Barnet, Griffin was educated at Woodbridge School in Suffolk. He joined the National Front at the age of 14 and, following his graduation from the University of Cambridge, became a political worker for the party. In 1980 he became a member of its governing body, and later wrote articles for several right-wing magazines. He was the National Front's candidate for the seat of Croydon North West in 1981 and 1983, but left the party in 1989. In 1995 he joined the BNP and in 1999 became its leader. He stood as the party's candidate in several elections and became a member of the European Parliament for North West England in the 2009 European elections.


title: Nick Griffin

text: In 1998, Griffin was convicted of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred, for which he received a suspended prison sentence. In 2006 he was acquitted of separate charges of inciting racial hatred. Griffin has been criticised for many of his comments on political, social, ethical and religious matters, but after becoming leader of the BNP he sought to distance himself from some of his previously held positions, which included Holocaust denial. Events where Griffin has been invited to participate in public debates or political discussions have proven controversial and often resulted in protests and cancellations.


title: Nick Griffin

text: The son of former Conservative councillor Edgar Griffin (who was expelled from the Conservatives amid accusations of racism) and his wife Jean, Nicholas John Griffin was born on 1 March 1959 in Barnet and moved to Southwold in Suffolk aged eight. He was educated at Woodbridge School before winning a sixth-form scholarship to the independent Saint Felix School in Southwold, one of only two boys in the all-girls school.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Griffin read Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" when he was 14, and "found all but one chapter extremely boring". He joined the National Front in 1974, while he was still 14, though he had to pretend he was 15, and at the age of 16 is reported to have stayed at the home of National Front organiser Martin Webster. In a four-page leaflet written in 1999, Webster claimed to have had a homosexual relationship with Griffin, then the BNP's publicity director. Griffin has denied any such relationship.


title: Nick Griffin

text: From 1977, Griffin studied history, then law, at Downing College, Cambridge. His affiliation with the National Front was revealed during a Cambridge Union debate, and his photograph was published in a student newspaper. He later founded the Young National Front Student organisation. He graduated with a lower second-class honours degree in law (2:2), and a boxing blue, having taken up the sport following a brawl in Lewisham with a member of an anti-fascist party. He boxed three times against Oxford in the annual Varsity match, winning twice and losing once. In an interview with "The Independent", he said he gave it up because of a hand injury. He is a fan of Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe, and an admirer of Amir Khan.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Following his graduation, Griffin became a political worker at the National Front headquarters. As a teenager he had accompanied his father to a National Front meeting, and by 1978, he was a national organiser for the party. He helped set up the White Noise Music Club in 1979, and several years later worked with white power skinhead band, Skrewdriver. In 1980, he became a member of the party's governing body, the National Directorate, and in the same year launched "Nationalism Today" with the aid of Joe Pearce, then editor of the NF youth paper "Bulldog". As a National Front member, Griffin contested the seat of Croydon North West twice, in the 1981 by-election and 1983 general election, securing 1.2% and 0.9% of the vote.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Membership of the National Front declined significantly following the election of the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher. As a result, the party became more radicalised, and a dissatisfied Griffin, along with fellow NF activists Derek Holland and Patrick Harrington, began to embrace the ideals of Italian fascist Roberto Fiore, who had arrived in the UK in 1980. By 1983, the group had broken away to form the NF Political Soldier faction, which advocated a revival of country "values" and a return to feudalism with the establishment of nationalist communes. Writing for "Bulldog" in 1985, Griffin praised the black separatist Louis Farrakhan, but his comments were unpopular with some members of the party. He also attempted to form alliances with Libya's Muammar al-Gaddafi and Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, and praised the efforts of Welsh nationalist movement Meibion Glyndŵr.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Following a disagreement with Harrington (who subsequently formed the Third Way), and objections over the direction the party was heading, in 1989, Griffin left the National Front. Along with Holland and Fiore, he helped form the International Third Position (ITP), a development of the Political Soldier movement, but left the organisation in 1990. In the same year, he lost his left eye when a discarded shotgun cartridge exploded in a pile of burning wood, and since then he has worn a glass eye. The accident left him unable to work, and owing to other financial problems he subsequently petitioned for bankruptcy (the accident occurred in France, where he later lost money in a failed business project). For several years thereafter, he abstained from politics and was supported financially by his parents. He later stewarded a public Holocaust denial meeting hosted by David Irving.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Griffin re-entered politics in 1993 and, in 1995, at the behest of John Tyndall, joined the British National Party (BNP). He also became editor of two right-wing magazines owned by Tyndall, "Spearhead" and "The Rune". Referring to the election of the BNP's first councillor, Derek Beackon, at a 1993 council by-election in Millwall, he wrote:


title: Nick Griffin

text: Tyndall, also previously in the National Front, had founded the BNP in 1982, but his "brutal, streetfighting background" and admiration for Hitler and the Nazis had made any kind of respectability impossible. In his 1999 leadership campaign, Griffin embarked on a strategy to make the party electable, by taking it away from Tyndall's extremist image. He was helped by Tyndall's lack of familiarity with the mainstream media, and in the party's September election he defeated Tyndall to become head of the BNP. One of Griffin's changes included moderating the party's emphasis on the removal of multiculturalism, a policy it claims has a destructive influence on both immigrant and British cultures. Griffin pledged to eliminate "the three Hs: hobbyism, hard talk and Hitler". This realignment was designed to position the BNP alongside successful European far-right groups, such as the French "Front National". Street protests were replaced by electoral campaigning, and some policies were moderated (the compulsory repatriation of ethnic minorities was instead made voluntary). Other policies included the introduction of capital punishment for paedophiles, rapists, drug dealers and some murderers, and corporal punishment for less serious crimes such as juvenile delinquency. Griffin's image as a Cambridge-educated family man was in contrast to the extremist image presented by the BNP under Tyndall's leadership. In October 1999, Nick Griffin, supported by Tony Lecomber stood against Tyndall for leadership of the BNP. John Tyndall received just 30% of the votes, while Griffin the majority, 70%.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Griffin stood as his party's candidate in several English elections after joining the BNP. In 2000, he stood in West Bromwich West, in a by-election triggered by the resignation of Betty Boothroyd. He came fourth, with 794 votes (4.21% of those cast). Following the Oldham race riots he ran in Oldham West and Royton in the 2001 general election. He received 6,552 votes (16%), coming third ahead of the Liberal Democrats, but closely behind the second place Conservatives, who received 7,076 votes. He again stood for election in the Oldham Council election, for a seat representing the Chadderton North ward. He came second to the Labour candidate, receiving 993 votes (28%). In the 2004 European Parliament election, when he was the BNP candidate for the North West England constituency, the party received 134,959 votes (6.4% of those cast), but won no seats. In the 2005 general election he contested Keighley in West Yorkshire, and polled 4,240 votes (9.2%), finishing in fourth place.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Griffin was the BNP candidate in the 2007 Welsh National Assembly Elections, in the South Wales West region. The BNP received 8,993 votes (5.5% of those cast), behind the Labour party's 58,347 votes (35.8%). In October 2007, he was an unsuccessful candidate in the Thurrock Council election. In November 2008, the entire membership list of the BNP was posted on the Internet (though the list may have included lapsed members of the party and people who had expressed an interest in joining the party, but had not signed up). Griffin claimed that he knew the identity of the individual responsible, describing him as a hard-line senior employee who had left the party in the previous year. He welcomed the publicity that the story generated, using it to describe the common perception of the average BNP member as a "skinhead oik" as untrue.


title: Nick Griffin

text: He was elected as a member of the European Parliament for North West England in the 2009 European Elections. The BNP polled 943,598 votes (6.2%), gaining two MEPs. Griffin and fellow MEP Andrew Brons were subsequently pelted with eggs as they attempted to stage a celebratory press conference outside the Houses of Parliament. A second venue – a public house near Manchester – was chosen the following day. A line of police blocked a large group of protesters, who chanted "No platform for Nazi Nick" and "Nazi scum off our streets". Griffin viewed the election as an important victory, claiming that his party had been demonised and blocked from holding public meetings. "In Oldham alone there have been hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on employing bogus community workers to keep us out. To triumph against that level of pressure as a political party has never been done before."


title: Nick Griffin

text: In May 2009, he was invited by the BNP representative on the London Assembly, Richard Barnbrook, to accompany him to a Buckingham Palace garden party hosted by Queen Elizabeth II. The invitation prompted objections from several organisations and public figures, including the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, and the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight. Griffin declined this first invitation, out of fear of embarrassing the Queen via association, but when invited personally in 2010 he accepted:


title: Nick Griffin

text: The Palace later decided to deny Griffin entry to the event, claiming that he had used his invitation "for party political purpose through the media", and citing security concerns. Griffin claimed the decision was an "absolute scandal", and appeared to be "a rule invented for me".


title: Nick Griffin

text: In September 2009, he appealed to party activists for £150,000 of extra funding for the BNP. In the letter, he said that the party's ailing fortunes were a direct result of "attacks on the party". He also defended questions by the Electoral Commission about the transparency of BNP funding. In November 2009, Griffin was a witness at the trial of an Asian man, Tauriq Khalid, at Preston Crown Court. The prosecution claimed that in November 2008 Khalid repeatedly drove past a demonstration that Griffin was attending, and on the second occasion shouted "white bastards". Khalid admitted shouting derisory comments at Griffin and other demonstrators, telling the jury he shouted "Nick Griffin, you fucking wanker" and "Get the fuck out of Burnley, you're not welcome here", but denied shouting "white bastard". Griffin gave evidence against Khalid, and affirmed that Khalid had shouted "white bastard" at him. Griffin said the man "leaned out of the car and pointed at me and made a gun and gang gesture", and that he threatened him by shouting "I'm going to ...". Griffin said he had left the demonstration early, fearing for his safety. The 23-year-old defendant denied his comments had any racial intent, and was found not guilty. Griffin later commented "I think it's unfortunate and I think it's wrong, but that's the jury's right. They saw all the evidence, I accept their decision. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it."


title: Nick Griffin

text: In the 2010 general election he contested the Barking constituency polling 6,620 votes and finishing in third place. In 2011, following the loss of many of the council seats the BNP held in England, Griffin narrowly survived a leadership challenge.


title: Nick Griffin

text: In 2010, Griffin announced that by 2013 he would stand down as leader, to focus on his European Parliament election campaign. He lost his seat in Europe in the May 2014 European election and stepped down as BNP leader on 19 July 2014, becoming the organisation's president. But on 1 October, the party announced that it had expelled Griffin, who, it claimed, was "deliberately fabricating a crisis" and leaking "damaging and defamatory allegations". Following his departure from the BNP, he founded British Unity, which he describes as "a growing team of experienced nationalist publicists and militants". He was a founder-member of the European far-right party, the Alliance for Peace and Freedom (APF) in 2015. In 2018, a new APF board was elected with Griffin as the vice-president.


title: Nick Griffin

text: In 1998, Griffin was convicted of violating section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, relating to the offence of 'publishing or distributing racially inflammatory written material' in issue 12 of "The Rune", published in 1996. Griffin's comments in the magazine were reported to the police by Alex Carlile, then the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire. Following a police raid at Griffin's home, he was charged with distributing material likely to incite racial hatred. Fellow BNP member Paul Ballard was also charged, but entered a guilty plea and did not stand trial. Griffin pleaded not guilty, and was tried at Harrow Crown Court. He called the French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson and the nationalist Osiris Akkebala as witnesses, was found guilty and given a nine-month sentence, suspended for two years, and a £2,300 fine. Ballard was given a six-month sentence, also suspended for two years. He said:


title: Nick Griffin

text: Griffin claimed that the law under which he was convicted was an unjust law and he therefore had no obligation to follow it. He was secretly recorded by the ITV programme "The Cook Report" in 1997 describing Carlile as "this bloody Jew ... whose only claim is that his grandparents died in the Holocaust".


title: Nick Griffin

text: Transcripts released under a 2014 Freedom of Information (FOI) request by "The Guardian" claimed that everything he did could be summed up as follows: "We must secure the existence of our race and a future for white children. Everything I do is related to building a nationalist movement through which peaceful persuasion and through the ballot box can place us in a position whereby those 14 words can be carried out." He reiterated his contention of Jewish control over the media, as well as his prior stance on Holocaust denial, and said that his aim was to "[take] political power so as to be able to institute changes, to undo the population shift which has taken place since 1948 with the first Immigration Act, to peacefully and as humanely as possible reverse that and to return Britain to being a homogeneous white nation".


title: Nick Griffin

text: On 14 December 2004, Griffin was arrested at his home in Wales, on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred, over remarks he made about Islam in an undercover BBC documentary titled "The Secret Agent". He was questioned at a police station in Halifax, West Yorkshire, before being freed on police bail. He said that the arrest was "an electoral scam to get the Muslim block vote back to the Labour party" and that the Labour government was attempting to influence the results of the following year's general election.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Griffin's arrest was made two days after those of John Tyndall and several other people, over remarks they had made in the same programme. Following its broadcast on 15 July 2004, the police began an investigation into the programme's contents. The following April he was charged with four offences of using words or behaviour intended or likely to stir up racial hatred. The trial began in January 2006. Griffin stood alongside fellow party activist Mark Collett, who faced similar charges. Prosecuting, Rodney Jameson QC told the jury of six speeches that the accused had made in the Reservoir Tavern in Keighley on 19 January 2004. Reading excerpts from them, he claimed that they included threatening, abusive and insulting words directed at "people of Asian ethnicity", with the intention of "stirring up racial hatred".


title: Nick Griffin

text: Griffin was also accused of calling murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence a drug dealer and bully who stole younger pupils' dinner money. In the witness box he defended himself by quoting passages from the Qur'an, saying that his comments describing Islam as a "vicious, wicked faith" were attacking not a race, but a religion. During the two-week trial he used a laptop to post daily updates on a blog on the BNP's website. In his closing address, defence barrister Timothy King QC said:


title: Nick Griffin

text: Griffin and Collett were cleared of half the charges against them—the jury remained divided on the other charges, and a retrial was ordered. On 10 November 2006, after five hours of deliberations, the jury cleared them of all charges. They were met outside the court by about 200 supporters, who Griffin addressed with a megaphone. He attacked Tony Blair and the BBC, and defended the BNP's right to freedom of speech. BNP Deputy Chairman Simon Darby later claimed that had Griffin been convicted, the BNP leader planned to go on hunger strike.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Following his election as BNP leader, Griffin was invited to participate in debates at several universities. In November 2002, the Cambridge Union Society invited him to take part in a debate the following January. Titled "This house believes that Islam is a threat to the west", the resolution was controversial; alongside more moderate speakers, one of those invited was Abu Hamza al-Masri, a fundamentalist Muslim cleric. Some participants threatened to withdraw, and several official bodies criticised the invitations. The two had met earlier in the year, in a debate chaired by Rod Liddle, then editor of BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme. He was also invited by the Cambridge Forum to a debate on extremism in December 2002, with Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Öpik. The venue was changed twice after protests from property owners, but the threat of a violent confrontation between the Anti-Nazi League and BNP supporters forced the president of the Cambridge Forum, Chris Paley, to cancel the event. Paley called the decision an "own goal" for the values of free speech, and Öpik criticised it, emphasising his belief in "people's right to make their own decisions in a democracy".


title: Nick Griffin

text: In February 2005, Griffin was asked to take part in a debate on multiculturalism at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He was invited by the president of the students' debating society, who said "We believe that the only way to get the truth of what the BNP are saying and to combat them is to do it in public in a debate." The move was attacked by anti-racist groups, some of whom refused to participate in the discussion. Griffin said "I am coming up because I was invited by the students at the university because they have a debate on an intelligent subject on which I have something to say. The people against it are the usual bunch of people who cannot win the argument and refuse to stand on a platform." The society withdrew the invitation before the event was to take place.


title: Nick Griffin

text: In May 2007, Griffin was invited to address a meeting at the University of Bath by politics student and BNP youth leader Danny Lake. Lake wanted Griffin to visit the university and explain the BNP's policies to lecturers and students. The invitation was viewed by some as an attempt by the party to establish a foothold on the university campus. Eleven union general secretaries wrote to the university's vice-chancellor and asked her to reconsider the decision to allow the meeting. A large protest was planned, and following students' concerns over their personal safety, the University cancelled the invitation.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Several months later, the Oxford Union invited Griffin to speak at a forum on the limits of free speech, along with other speakers including David Irving. The invitation was condemned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission head Trevor Phillips and the president of the Oxford Students' Union. The Conservative MP Dr Julian Lewis resigned his membership of the Union. A rally against the invitation was held at Oxford Town Hall on 20 November, and included the Oxford Students' Union president, the National Union of Students black students' officer, and the Trades Union Congress south east regional secretary. Representatives of Unite Against Fascism also attended, as well as the University of Oxford's Jewish student chaplain. Several Holocaust survivors spoke at the rally. Stephen Altmann-Richer, co-president of the Oxford University Jewish Society, said "I don't think these people should be invited to the Oxford Union, by having them speak, it legitimises their views ..." On the night of the debate, about 50 protesters forced their way into the venue, and a crowd of hundreds gathered outside carrying banners bearing anti-racist slogans and voicing anti-BNP chants. Police blocked the entrances to the building, and removed the protesters encamped inside. Griffin was accompanied into the premises by security guards. The event was eventually split between two rooms, with Griffin speaking in one, and Irving in the other; many Union Society members were unable to gain access. Although many present found the debate objectionable, some were supportive of both Griffin and Irving's right to freedom of speech. The Oxford Union later endorsed the debate as a success.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Griffin travelled to the United States and spoke at Clemson University and Texas A&M University, but the reception he received in October 2007 at Michigan State University was markedly different from that in the other venues. Intending to address the "overpopulation of Islamists in Europe", he was repeatedly interrupted, to the point where the event became a question and answer session. He was heckled by hostile elements of the audience, and at one point the fire alarm was activated.


title: Nick Griffin

text: On 22 October 2009, Griffin took part in the BBC's topical debate programme, "Question Time", as a representative of the BNP. He appeared alongside Bonnie Greer, Jack Straw, Baroness Warsi and Chris Huhne. He was challenged by members of the studio audience, and questioned by host David Dimbleby on comments he had previously made on the Holocaust. He was also critical of Islam. His invitation followed the election of two BNP MEPs to the European Parliament, and led to significant debate over the merits of the BBC's decision. The appearance sparked a protest outside the BBC Television Centre prior to the recording of the programme, in which an estimated 500 people picketed the front entrance of the complex, many chanting anti-Nazi slogans and others trying to break into the building to stop the programme being filmed. Some got past the police and security, but were expelled. Six protesters were arrested, and three police officers were injured, one needing hospital treatment.


title: Nick Griffin

text: The programme was watched by an estimated 8.2 million viewers, more than three times the average figure for "Question Time", and on a comparable level with prime time entertainment shows. Griffin's appearance dominated the following day's media; a follow-up report in the "New York Times" said that "the early reading by many of Britain's major newspapers was that Mr. Griffin lost heavily on points."


title: Nick Griffin

text: In a press conference held on 23 October, Griffin stated that he would make a formal complaint about the format of the programme, which he said was "... not a genuine "Question Time"; that was a lynch mob". He suggested that he should appear again, but that "... [we] should do it properly, and talk about the issues of the day", and added, "That audience was taken from a city that is no longer British ... That was not my country any more. Why not come down and do it in Thurrock, do it in Stoke, do it in Burnley? Do it somewhere where there are still significant numbers of English and British people, and they haven't been ethnically cleansed from their own country."


title: Nick Griffin

text: Griffin describes himself as a "moderniser", and "new nationalist", and after his election as leader of the BNP, according to "The Guardian" contributor Francis Wheen, was "contemptuous" of the party's traditional supporters. He changed the BNP's traditional focus on immigration and race, to a defence of what it sees as "our traditional principles against the politically correct agenda" espoused by mainstream politicians. He has portrayed himself as a defender of free speech, and has repeatedly spoken out against multiculturalism. During 2000, he attempted to further the BNP's popular appeal by targeting specific groups, including lorry drivers—some of whom were at the time engaged in mass protests against fuel prices—and farmers. The BNP also produced a journal devoted to rural matters.


title: Nick Griffin

text: The BNP's constitution grants its chairman full executive power over all party affairs, and Griffin thus carried sole responsibility for the party's legal and financial liabilities, and had the final say in all decisions affecting the party.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Upon his election to the European Parliament Griffin unsuccessfully tried to form an alliance with right-wing parties, which would have entitled the group members to extra funding. He also held talks with other far-right European parties, such as Vlaams Belang and Jobbik. The BNP maintains ties with Roberto Fiore and fascist groups across Europe. Griffin criticised Gordon Brown's Labour government for its attitude towards the BNP, accusing it of treating elected representatives of the BNP as "second-class citizens". Following his election, in a press conference held at a public house in Manchester, he criticised the privatisation of national industries, such as the railway network, and accused MPs generally of being involved in this "... giant looting of Britain". He accused private corporations and the "ruling elite" in Britain of building a "Eurocratic state", a process he called "Mussolini fascism ... under Gordon Brown." He supported the Gurkhas, stating that the BNP would allow them and their families entry to the country for medical treatment "for as long as they needed treatment, or for as long as they lived." He also suggested the removal of 100,000 Muslims "disloyal to Britain" and their replacement with the Gurkhas.


title: Nick Griffin

text: After assuming control of the party, Griffin sought to move it away from its historic identity, although on the BBC's "Newsnight" on 26 June 2001 he stated that Hindus and whites had both been targeted in the "Muslim" riots of 2001, and in the August 2001 issue of "Identity" (a BNP publication) he said that radical Muslim clerics wanted "... militant Muslims to take over British cities with AK-47 rifles". When interviewed in August 2009 for RT, he distanced himself from the present-day National Front, which he claimed is "... a group of skinheads running around with no political direction, other than that we suspect which their masters give them." On "The Politics Show" on 9 March 2003, he appeared to accept ethnic minorities who were already legally living in the country, and, on 6 March 2008, he was again interviewed on "Newsnight"; when told of a poll that demonstrated that most working-class Britons were more concerned about drugs and alcohol than immigration, he linked the UK's drug problem with Islam, specifically Pakistani immigrants. His inclusion on the programme was criticised by contributor and radio presenter Jon Gaunt, who branded the decision as "pathetic". When asked by "The Times" about concerns that his recent success was presaged in Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech, Griffin replied:


title: Nick Griffin

text: In a June 2009 interview with "Channel 4 News", Griffin claimed that "There's no such thing as a black Welshman", which was criticised by Vaughan Gething, the first black president of the Welsh NUS and the Welsh TUC, and the first black candidate for the National Assembly for Wales. Commenting on Griffin's claim, he said "on that basis, most white people wouldn't qualify. It's quite clear that Nick Griffin just doesn't accept that black British people or black Welsh people are entitled to call themselves proper, full citizens of the country." Griffin's interview with "Channel 4 News" was in response to a decision by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to investigate the BNP's membership criteria, which, it stated, "appeared to discriminate on the grounds of race and colour, contrary to the Race Relations Act." He rejected claims that the BNP was "acting unlawfully" and said "... because we are here, as it was pointed out, for specific ethnic groups—it's nothing to do with colour, your reporter there said that we'll only lift a finger for white people—that's a simple lie."


title: Nick Griffin

text: Following the Admiral Duncan pub bombing by former BNP member David Copeland, Griffin stated "The TV footage of dozens of 'gay' demonstrators flaunting their perversion in front of the world's journalists showed just why so many ordinary people find these creatures so repulsive." The BNP states that, privately, homosexuality should be tolerated, but that it "should not be promoted or encouraged". It opposed the introduction of civil partnerships and wishes to ban what it perceives as the promotion of homosexuality in schools and the media.


title: Nick Griffin

text: A series of messages he posted in October 2012 on the social network Twitter, regarding a discrimination claim won by a gay couple, sparked widespread opprobrium. Cambridgeshire police investigated the tweets, which included the couple's address and a suggestion that a "British Justice team" would give them "a bit of drama", but took no further action.


title: Nick Griffin

text: In 2012, although he denied being "anti-gay", he said that civil partnerships undermined "the institution of marriage, and as a result of that, children will die over the next few years, because they'll be brought up in homes which aren't married". In 2009, he also said that "a lot of people find the sight of two grown men kissing in public really creepy. I understand that homosexuals don't understand that but that's how a lot of us [Christians] feel." He also suggests that gay pride marches "[verge] on heterophobia which, like its twin Christianophobia, is on the rise."


title: Nick Griffin

text: Writing for "The Rune", Griffin praised the wartime Waffen SS and criticised the Royal Air Force for its bombing of Nazi Germany. At Coventry Cathedral, he distributed leaflets that referred to "mass murder" during the Second World War bombing of Dresden.


title: Nick Griffin

text: In the 1990s Griffin stated his political ideology could be summed up by the Fourteen Words, which are usually quoted as: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children". During a police interview in 1998, he said that "everything I do is related to building a nationalist movement through which [...] those 14 words can be carried out".


title: Nick Griffin

text: In a BBC interview on 8 June 2009, Griffin said that "global warming is essentially a hoax" and that it "is being exploited by the liberal elite as a means of taxing and controlling us and the real crisis is peak oil". He was a representative of the European Parliament at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference, where he repeated his claim that global warming is a hoax, and called advocates of action on climate change such as Al Gore "mass murderers" by supporting biofuels, claiming that their use would lead to the "third and the greatest famine of the modern era". A Greenpeace spokesman said, "In reality the environmental and development groups he has been disparaging have been in the forefront of concerns about biofuels. Griffin's claims that climate change is a hoax is one of many curious things going on between his ears."


title: Nick Griffin

text: His comments on the Holocaust (which he once referred to as "the Holohoax") made as an editor of "The Rune" demonstrate negationism. He criticised Holocaust denier David Irving for admitting that up to four million Jews might have died in the Holocaust; he wrote "True Revisionists will not be fooled by this new twist to the sorry tale of "The Hoax of the Twentieth Century"." In 1997, he told an undercover journalist that he had updated Richard Verrall's booklet "Did Six Million Really Die?" and, in the same year, he wrote "Who are the Mindbenders?", about a perceived domination of the media by Jewish figures. Despite this, the BNP had a Jewish councillor, Patricia Richardson, and spokesman Phil Edwards has stated that the party also has Jewish members. The BNP has stated that it does not deny the Holocaust, and that "Dredging up quotes from 10, 15, 20 years ago is really pathetic and, in a sense, rather fascist." In an interview with the BNP deputy leader Simon Darby, Griffin said that the English Defence League was a "Zionist false flag operation", and added that the organisation is "a neo-con operation".


title: Nick Griffin

text: In an interview with the BBC on 8 July 2009, during a discussion on European immigration, he proposed that the EU should sink boats carrying illegal immigrants, to prevent them from entering Europe. Although the interviewer, BBC correspondent Shirin Wheeler, implied that Griffin may have wished the EU to "murder people at sea", he quickly corrected her by saying: "I didn't say anyone should be murdered at sea—I say boats should be sunk, they can throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya" (a staging post for migrants from Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa).


title: Nick Griffin

text: Griffin's father, Edgar Griffin (born 1921, Brighton, East Sussex) was previously a long-standing Conservative Party member, and from 1959 to 1965 a councillor for the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone. He was also a councillor on Waveney District Council during the 1980s. Griffin's mother, Jean (née Thomas), whom Edgar married in 1950, was an unsuccessful BNP candidate for Enfield North in the 1997 general election, in Chingford & Woodford Green for the 2001 general election and for London in the 1999 European elections. Nick Griffin has one sister.


title: Nick Griffin

text: Griffin lives with his family in Shropshire, a rural county northwest of Birmingham, in England. He is married to Jackie Griffin, a former nurse who also acts as his assistant; the couple have four children, some of whom have been actively involved with the party. He was declared bankrupt in January 2014. In March 2017, Griffin expressed a desire to emigrate to Hungary within six months. In May 2017, Griffin was banned from Hungary as he was perceived to be a "national security threat", according to security sources cited in the Hungarian weekly newspaper "Magyar Narancs".


title: Aqib Talib

text: Aqib Talib (born February 13, 1986) is a former American football cornerback. He played college football at the University of Kansas, where he received consensus All-American honors, and was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round of the 2008 NFL Draft. Talib also played for the New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, and Los Angeles Rams, winning Super Bowl 50 with Denver. In 2020, he made his debut as an analyst for NFL on Fox.


title: Aqib Talib

text: Aqib Talib was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to parents Theodore Henry and Okolo Talib in a Muslim household. Talib is the youngest of four siblings; he has two older sisters, Saran and Kai, and an older brother, Yaqub. As the youngest of four children, he was named Aqib which means "the last one" in Arabic. His last name, Talib, means "student." Aqib's parents divorced when he was young, and he spent much of his childhood between Ohio and New Jersey. When Talib was in the eighth grade, his mother moved to Richardson, Texas, with him and his older brother.


title: Aqib Talib

text: Talib attended Berkner High School in Richardson, Texas, and lettered in football, basketball, and track. In football, as a senior, he was named Berkner High School's Defensive Back of the Year while garnering first-team all-district and first-team all-city honors. In track & field, he was a member of the 4 × 100m (43.05) and 4 × 200m (1:32.77) relay squads.


title: Aqib Talib

text: As a college football prospect during his senior year, Talib was rated as a two-star recruit by Rivals.com. He was recruited by Kansas, Wyoming, Tulsa, Arizona, Kansas State, and Baylor. He chose to sign a National Letter of Intent to play for Kansas.


title: Aqib Talib

text: Talib attended the University of Kansas, where he played for the Kansas Jayhawks football team from 2004 to 2007.


title: Aqib Talib

text: Talib established himself as one of the best defensive college football players in the country as a junior, and was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American. He also continued to play sparingly as a wide receiver, catching four touchdown passes through the first nine games. Against rival Kansas State, Talib preserved a victory by intercepting a Josh Freeman pass in the final moments of the game. He also returned an interception 102 yards for a touchdown against Florida International. After the 2007 season, Talib was a unanimous All-American selection.


title: Aqib Talib

text: In the 2008 Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech, Talib returned an interception for a touchdown thrown by Tyrod Taylor and was named the game's Most Valuable Player. He announced on January 6, 2008 that he would forgo his senior season and enter the 2008 NFL Draft.


title: Aqib Talib

text: Talib was added to the Kansas Ring of Honor in 2017 along with his Orange Bowl Championship teammate Anthony Collins.


title: Aqib Talib

text: As one of the nation's top cornerback prospects, Talib received an invitation to the 2008 NFL Combine, held at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana.


title: Aqib Talib

text: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected Talib in the first round (20th overall) of the 2008 NFL Draft. He was the third cornerback selected, behind Leodis McKelvin and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. He became the first Kansas player to be drafted in the first round since 1993 when Dana Stubblefield was drafted 26th overall by the San Francisco 49ers. Talib also became the second cornerback ever taken by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round since they selected Rod Jones in the 1986 NFL Draft.


title: Aqib Talib

text: On July 25, 2008, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed Talib to a four-year, $14 million contract that included $8 million guaranteed.


title: Aqib Talib

text: While attending the NFL's rookie symposium, Talib got into a fight with fellow rookie and teammate Cory Boyd. He also overslept and missed a flight to Canton, Ohio for a mandatory rookie function at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Talib also missed team meetings during organized team activities and training camp his rookie season. Throughout training camp, Talib competed for a job as one of the starting cornerbacks against Phillip Buchanon. Head coach Jon Gruden named Talib the third cornerback on the depth chart behind veteran Ronde Barber and Phillip Buchanon to begin the regular season.