After the Scottish Labour Party's defeat in the 2015 general election (with Murphy himself losing his seat), Murphy resigned as party leader.
Ermine Street
Ermine Street is the name of one of the main Roman roads in Britain. It ran from London ("Londinium") to Lincoln ("Lindum Colonia") and York ("Eboracum"). The original Roman name for the road is not known.
Ermine Street is also called the Old North Road from London to where it joins the A1 near Godmanchester.
The alternative route (in blue) was built to allow transport in all weather. The direct route crosses the River Humber, a tidal estuary of the rivers Trent and Ouse. In bad weather crossing would have been impossible. The Humber is too wide for the Romans to have built a bridge, therefore some kind of ferry must have been used.
Islamic Azad University
Islamic Azad University (, "Dāneshgāh-e Āzād-e Eslāmi") is a private university system based in Iran. The university was founded in 1982. It is the world's third largest university. 1.5 million students study there. The university has over 100 branches across Iran and also in other countries such as the emirate of Dubai and the United Kingdom. Over the years, the university has become richer. It is estimated to be worth between $20 and $25 billion.
Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Aman Khan (born 8 October 1970) is a British politician. He is the Mayor of London since 8 May 2016. He was the Shadow Justice Secretary in Ed Miliband's and Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet. He was the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Tooting.
Khan was born at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, London, to Pakistani immigrants. He grew up in Earlsfield, London.
Khan worked as a human rights solicitor until the 2005 General Election when he was elected as an MP. He became the Minister of State for Transport from June 2009 to May 2010 and when Ed Miliband became leader of the Labour Party, he was made the Shadow Justice Secretary.
Khan was chosen to be the Labour Party candidate in the 2016 London mayoral election. On 6 May 2016, Khan was elected to the office of mayor by winning 57% of the vote. He became the first Muslim to be elected mayor of a British capital city. He became mayor on 8 May.
Vince Cable
Sir John Vincent "Vince" Cable (born 9 May 1943 in York, England) is a British politician. He was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2017 to 2019. Cable was the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government. He is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Twickenham.
Vince Cable studied economics at university and became an economic advisor to the Kenyan government in 1966.
He was an advisor to the British government and to the Commonwealth Secretary-General in the 1970s and 1980s. He served as Chief Economist for the oil company Shell from 1995 to 1997. In the 1970s, Cable was active in the Labour Party and became a Glasgow councillor. However, in 1982, he joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) which would go on to form the Liberal Democrats and he unsuccessfully contested seats in the elections of 1983, 1987 and 1992 until being elected as the MP for the London constituency of Twickenham in the 1997 general election.
He was the main economics spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats from 2003 to 2010 and became the Liberal Democrats' Deputy Leader in 2006. In May 2010, a coalition government was formed between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats and Vince Cable was made the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. He has promised a 'very radical overhaul' of the state pensions system. He resigned from his position as Deputy Leader in May 2010.
After Tim Farron resigned, Cable said he would stand for leader. No other MP decided to stand against him and Cable became leader on 20 July 2017.
Cable announced in September 2018 that he would resign as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in May 2019. He later changed his retirement date to whenever "Brexit is resolved or stopped". On 24 May 2019, Cable said he would step down as party leader on 23 July. He was replaced by Deputy Jo Swinson on 22 July 2019.
Cable was a contestant in the BBC's Christmas 2010 "Strictly Come Dancing" contest. He did not win. Cable was the second politician to appear on the show, after Ann Widdecombe.
Fosse Way
Fosse Way was one of the main Roman roads in Britain. Its route was unusual, because despite its length it went nowhere near London. It went directly from the south-west coast to the midland east coast. It linked Exeter ("Isca Dumnoniorum") in South West England to Lincoln ("Lindum Colonia") in the East Midlands. The road went via Ilchester ("Lindinis"), Bath ("Aquae Sulis"), Cirencester ("Corinium") and Leicester ("Ratae Corieltauvorum").
It joined Akeman Street and Ermin Way at Cirencester, crossed Watling Street at "Venonis" (High Cross) south of Leicester, and joined Ermine Street at Lincoln.
The word "Fosse" is derived from the Latin "fossa", meaning "ditch". For the first few decades after the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43, the Fosse Way marked the western frontier of Roman rule in Iron Age Britain. It is possible that the road began as a defensive ditch that was later filled in and converted into a road, or possibly a defensive ditch ran alongside the road for at least some of its length.
It is remarkable for its extremely direct route. From Lincoln to Ilchester in Somerset is a distance of 182 miles. The road is never more than six miles from a straight line.
Place names with words like -cester or -chester are derived from the Latin "castra", meaning 'military camp'. 'Street' is derived from the Latin "strata", meaning a paved road.
Fosse Way still exists. In places it is a major road, in others a country path. The A46 between Lincoln and Leicester is on the Fosse Way. From Bath to Ilchester the A37 follows the Fosse, and from Ilchester to Exeter the A30/A303 roads follow the Fosse for the most part.
The Roman road is, quite simply, the shortest route possible.
Ann Widdecombe
Ann Noreen Widdecombe (born 4 October 1947 in Bath, Somerset, England) is a British former politician. She was the Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Maidstone and The Weald from 1987 to 2010.
Widdecombe is the daughter of a Ministry of Defence civil servant James Murray Widdecombe and Rita N Plummer. She attended the Royal Navy School in Singapore, and a convent school in Bath. She then read Latin at Birmingham University and later attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). She worked for Unilever (1973–75). She was then an administrator at the University of London (1975–87) before entering Parliament.
She was first elected to the House of Commons at the 1987 General Election. From 1995 to 1997, she was the Minister of State for Prisons. Ann Widdecombe served in William Hague's shadow cabinet from 1997 to 2001. Widdecombe retired from politics at the 2010 general election.
Throughout her political career, Widdecombe was socially conservative and converted from the Church of England to Catholic Church in 1992 after the Church of England voted to allow female priests.
She is a committed animal lover. She is one of the few Conservative MPs to have consistently voted for the ban on fox hunting.
Widdecombe was a contestant in the 2010 series of "Strictly Come Dancing". In 2002 she took part in a Louis Theroux television documentary. It showed her life, both in and out of politics. She was cast as herself in an episode of the science-fiction drama "Doctor Who".
On 23 April 2012, Widdecombe presented an hour-long documentary for BBC Radio 5 Live. It was "Drunk Again: Ann Widdecombe Investigates", looking at how the British attitude to getting drunk has changed over the last few years.
Ian Paisley