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disasters/4bc7d9278e.json:0

disasters

Flooding

2019 South Sulawesi floods he province of South Sulawesi experiences flooding annually. Due to development of a low-pressure area in the Timor Sea coupled with increased humidity in the wet season, the rainfall levels in the area increased significantly, with the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency issuing an extreme weather warning between 21 and 26 January 2019. ne of the dams in the province, the Bili-Bili Dam which lies on the Jeneberang River, has suffered from silting, coupled with the critical condition of the river's catchment area due to agricultural use. he heavy rainfalls caused the Jeneberang River to overflow, resulting in the overfilling of the Gowa Regency's Bili-Bili Dam and forcing the water gates to be opened. he water level in parts of Makassar reached roof level in excess of 1.5 metres (4.9 ft). ther rivers in the province, such as the Walanae River also overflowed, causing further damage in other locations. By 25 January, the flooding had not receded fully, with some residents of Makassar still displaced. 68 people were reported killed as of 25 January 2019, in addition to 6 missing. Most of the confirmed deaths were recorded in Gowa Regency, which suffered 45 dead. ome of the deaths were due to electrocution, while others were caused by the landslides. he flooding directly impacted 10 regencies or cities, with 3,321 people being evacuated from 78 villages according to the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB). 5,825 people were recorded to be "impacted" by the flood, and 32 houses were confirmed to be swept away, with 25 further houses heavily damaged, 14 damaged, and 5 buried under landslides. 2,694 houses, 11,433 hectares (28,250 acres) of farmland were inundated, alongside damage to various public facilities. he Indonesian Police reported 7,364 people in evacuation sites in Makassar, Gowa and Jeneponto. An official noted that the flooding was "the worst in a decade". he Trans-Sulawesi Highway was impacted, being cut off for 20 hours. Floodwater damaged pumps in Maros, disrupting the distribution of freshwater. outh Sulawesi governor Nurdin Abdullah estimated that the financial damages in Jeneponto Regency alone will be in excess of Rp 100 billion (USD 7 million). he Governor of South Sulawesi Nurdin Abdullah declared an emergency response period which was to last until 29 January 2019. earch and Rescue teams from various organizations - BNPB, Indonesian Police, TNI, various ministries and volunteer groups - were deployed to search for and evacuate survivors. A helicopter from the Indonesian Air Force was deployed to deliver aid to an isolated settlement in Gowa. outh Sulawesi governor Nurdin Abdullah blamed environmental damages due to illegal mining in Gowa Regency for causing the floods.

Gowa Regency was particularly hard-hit, experiencing the majority of the fatalities. The most destructive flood was caused by the overflowing of the Jeneberang River and the opening of the watergates of the Bili-Bili Dam in Gowa, though other floods also occurred elsewhere in the province.

. Here is a summary of the text in one sentence: Heavy rainfall in South Sulawesi Province in January 2019 caused severe flooding, killing 68 people, displacing thousands, and damaging infrastructure and agriculture, with the governor declaring an emergency response period.

disasters/d868c5d0ca.json:1

disasters

Massacre

Pidjiguiti massacre In the 1950s, the Portuguese conglomerate Companhia União Fabril controlled much of the commerce on the Pijiguiti docks through a subsidiary called Casa Gouveia. Although the Portuguese colonial government had enacted a number of reforms in these years to try and quell the growing anti-colonial and pro-independence sentiments in the region, low wages and poor working conditions still served as catalysts for social unrest. he first major dock-workers' strike by employees of Casa Gouveia occurred on 6 March 1956. n this occasion, the Portuguese security forces and PIDE (political police) were ordered not to use force against the striking workers, presumably to avoid escalating the conflict. he workers, realizing this development, attempted to take the docks by force, and police reinforcements were required. Arrests were eventually made, but the episode left the police humiliated. he 1956 strike was overall unsuccessful, and wages remained extremely low. he continued growing unrest among the port workers was evident even to high-ranking colonial officials, including Army Under-Secretary of State Francisco da Costa Gomes who remarked in late 1958 that a dock-workers' revolt was likely and advised the governor to grant the wage demands of the workers in the interest of stability. his advice, however, was never acted upon. Preparations for another strike were organized in late July 1959, with workers meeting under the quay palm trees to discuss the specifics. Indeed, Amílcar Cabral sometimes referred to the incident as "the massacre of Pijiguiti Quay". n the morning of 3 August, the dock-workers were set to meet with Antonio Carreira, the manager of Casa Gouveia, to negotiate their wage increase. hey had decided beforehand to stop working altogether at 3 o'clock in the afternoon should their demands not be met. he meeting did not prove fruitful, and the workers ceased their labour as planned. Carreira summoned the PIDE who arrived around 4 o'clock and demanded the workers resume their work. he strikers refused, and proceeded to barricade themselves in by closing the gates to the quay. Brandishing oars and harpoons, the strikers armed themselves in an attempt to deter the police from rushing in. he police, rather than risk defeat in open combat, opened fire on the striking workers, even throwing grenades. he workers had nowhere to run, and a number were killed within about 5 minutes. A few managed to escape via the water in their own boats, but the majority of them were pursued and arrested, or shot dead in the water. Between 25–50 workers died at the scene, along with many more wounded. News of the massacre spread quickly, and members of the revolutionary group PAIGC arrived on the scene quickly. he PAIGC were aware of the strike plans, and had endorsed the maneuver as an act of civil resistance against the colonial government. he PIDE quickly arrested PAIGC members, including Carlos Correia. he PAIGC's involvement gave the colonial authorities a convenient scapegoat on which to lay the blame for the unrest. he authorities blamed the PAIGC of fomenting discontent among the workers, and the party's supporters had to rethink long range strategies for achieving their goals. In September 1959 Cabral and several PAIGC members met in Bissau and decided nonviolent protest in the city would not bring about change. hey concluded that the only hope for achieving independence was through armed struggle. his was the initial point in a 11-year armed struggle (1963–1974) in Portuguese Guinea that pitted 10,000 Soviet bloc-supported PAIGC soldiers against 35,000 Portuguese and African troops, and would eventually lead to independence in Cape Verde and all of Portuguese Africa after the Carnation Revolution coup of 1974 in Lisbon. he day of the massacre, 3 August, is a public day of remembrance in Guinea-Bissau. Near the docks, there is now a large black fist known as the Hand of Timba which was erected as a memorial to those killed.

The government blamed the revolutionary group African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), arresting several of its members.

. Here is a summary of the text: On August 3, 1959, Portuguese security forces opened fire on striking dockworkers in Pijiguiti, killing between 25-50 workers and wounding many others, in what became known as the Pidjiguiti massacre.

disasters/d868c5d0ca.json:2

disasters

Aftermath

Pidjiguiti massacre In the 1950s, the Portuguese conglomerate Companhia União Fabril controlled much of the commerce on the Pijiguiti docks through a subsidiary called Casa Gouveia. Although the Portuguese colonial government had enacted a number of reforms in these years to try and quell the growing anti-colonial and pro-independence sentiments in the region, low wages and poor working conditions still served as catalysts for social unrest. he first major dock-workers' strike by employees of Casa Gouveia occurred on 6 March 1956. n this occasion, the Portuguese security forces and PIDE (political police) were ordered not to use force against the striking workers, presumably to avoid escalating the conflict. he workers, realizing this development, attempted to take the docks by force, and police reinforcements were required. Arrests were eventually made, but the episode left the police humiliated. he 1956 strike was overall unsuccessful, and wages remained extremely low. he continued growing unrest among the port workers was evident even to high-ranking colonial officials, including Army Under-Secretary of State Francisco da Costa Gomes who remarked in late 1958 that a dock-workers' revolt was likely and advised the governor to grant the wage demands of the workers in the interest of stability. his advice, however, was never acted upon. Preparations for another strike were organized in late July 1959, with workers meeting under the quay palm trees to discuss the specifics. Indeed, Amílcar Cabral sometimes referred to the incident as "the massacre of Pijiguiti Quay". n the morning of 3 August, the dock-workers were set to meet with Antonio Carreira, the manager of Casa Gouveia, to negotiate their wage increase. hey had decided beforehand to stop working altogether at 3 o'clock in the afternoon should their demands not be met. he meeting did not prove fruitful, and the workers ceased their labour as planned. Carreira summoned the PIDE who arrived around 4 o'clock and demanded the workers resume their work. he strikers refused, and proceeded to barricade themselves in by closing the gates to the quay. Brandishing oars and harpoons, the strikers armed themselves in an attempt to deter the police from rushing in. he police, rather than risk defeat in open combat, opened fire on the striking workers, even throwing grenades. he workers had nowhere to run, and a number were killed within about 5 minutes. A few managed to escape via the water in their own boats, but the majority of them were pursued and arrested, or shot dead in the water. Between 25–50 workers died at the scene, along with many more wounded. News of the massacre spread quickly, and members of the revolutionary group PAIGC arrived on the scene quickly. he PAIGC were aware of the strike plans, and had endorsed the maneuver as an act of civil resistance against the colonial government. he PIDE quickly arrested PAIGC members, including Carlos Correia. he PAIGC's involvement gave the colonial authorities a convenient scapegoat on which to lay the blame for the unrest. he authorities blamed the PAIGC of fomenting discontent among the workers, and the party's supporters had to rethink long range strategies for achieving their goals. In September 1959 Cabral and several PAIGC members met in Bissau and decided nonviolent protest in the city would not bring about change. hey concluded that the only hope for achieving independence was through armed struggle. his was the initial point in a 11-year armed struggle (1963–1974) in Portuguese Guinea that pitted 10,000 Soviet bloc-supported PAIGC soldiers against 35,000 Portuguese and African troops, and would eventually lead to independence in Cape Verde and all of Portuguese Africa after the Carnation Revolution coup of 1974 in Lisbon. he day of the massacre, 3 August, is a public day of remembrance in Guinea-Bissau. Near the docks, there is now a large black fist known as the Hand of Timba which was erected as a memorial to those killed.

The incident caused PAIGC to abandon their campaign of nonviolent resistance, leading to the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence in 1963.

. Here is a summary of the text: In 1959, a dockworkers' strike in Pijiguiti, Portuguese Guinea, turned violent when police opened fire on the strikers, killing between 25-50 workers and wounding many others, leading to a shift towards armed struggle for independence.

biographies/21759691e6.json:3

biographies

Writing style and methodology

Howard Saul Becker Howard Saul Becker was born April 18, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Allan Becker (April 2, 1902 – March 27, 1988) and Donna Becker (born Bertha Goldberg; December 31, 1904 – 1997). His great-grandfather, Gershon Movsha Becker, immigrated to the United States from Lithuania. Becker began playing piano at an early age and by age 15 worked as a pianist in bars and strip joints and, later, with a campus band at Northwestern University. According to Becker, he was able to work semi-professionally because of World War II and the fact that most musicians over the age of 18 were drafted. It was through his work as a musician Becker first became exposed to drug culture, which he would later study. Becker received his undergraduate degree in sociology at the University of Chicago in 1946. While in school, Becker continued to play piano semi-professionally. According to Becker, he viewed music as his career and sociology as a hobby. ven so, he went on to get both his MA and PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Chicago school teachers. At the University of Chicago, Becker was taught in the tradition of the original Chicago School of Sociology. Becker and his colleagues, including Erving Goffman and Anselm Strauss, would later be considered part of the "second Chicago School of Sociology". he Chicago School of Sociology focused heavily on qualitative data analysis and worked with the city of Chicago as a laboratory. Much of Becker's early work was guided in the Chicago School tradition, in particular by Everett C. Hughes who served as Becker's mentor and advisor. Becker is also often labeled a symbolic interactionist, even though he doesn't accept the label. According to Becker, his academic lineage is Georg Simmel, Robert E. Park, and Everett Hughes. After receiving his PhD at the age of 23, Becker studied marijuana use at the Institute for Juvenile Research. He was later awarded a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Illinois from 1953 to 1955, and then spent three years as a research associate at Stanford University's Institute for the Study of Human Problems before beginning his teaching career. After receiving his doctorate at the University of Chicago, Becker worked for three years as an instructor in sociology and social sciences at the University of Chicago. In 1965, Becker became a professor of sociology at Northwestern University, where he taught until 1991. During his career at Northwestern, Becker also taught as a visiting professor at the University of Manchester and as a visiting scholar at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro. In 1991, Becker became a professor of sociology and, in 1996, an adjunct professor of music, at the University of Washington until he retired in 1999. Becker has also been the recipient of numerous awards and honors in his field. hese include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978–1979, the Charles Horton Cooley Award, awarded by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, in 1980, the Common Wealth Award in 1981, the Cooley/Mead Award in the Section on Social Psychology, awarded by the American Sociological Association in 1985, the George Herbert Mead Award given by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction in 1987, and the Award for a Career of Distinguished Scholarship, American Sociological Association, 1998. Becker also holds honorary degrees from Université de Paris VIII, Université Pierre Mendes-France, Grenoble, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, and École Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Lyon. Becker currently resides in San Francisco, California. He also spends three to four months out of the year in Europe, mostly in Paris. Although no longer teaching full-time, Becker continues to write and record music. In 2004, "Un sociologue en liberté: Lecture d’Howard S. Becker" by French sociologist Alain Pessin was released in France. In the book, Pessin examines Becker's work and contributions to the field of sociology. Although Becker does not claim to be a deviancy specialist, his work on the subject is often cited by sociologists and criminologists studying deviance. Becker's 1963 book "Outsiders" is credited as one of the first books on labeling theory and its application to studies of deviance. Becker explored the theory in which deviance is simply a social construction used to persuade the public to fear and criminalize certain groups. A compilation of early essays on the subject, "Outsiders" outlines Becker's theories of deviance through two deviant groups; marijuana users and dance musicians. In the book, Becker defines deviance as "not a quality of a bad person but the result of someone defining someone’s activity as bad." Becker is widely known for his work on drug culture, particularly his studies on marijuana use. Chapters three and four of "Outsiders", which were originally published in the "American Journal of Sociology" in 1953, examine how marijuana users come to be labeled as social deviants. Becker was inspired to write on the subject after reading Alfred Lindesmith's book on opium addiction. As a musician, Becker had first hand experience with drug culture and was able to obtain interview participants through his connections to the music scene. he first of the articles, "Becoming a Marihuana User", outlines how social interaction plays a role in learning to use and enjoy the effects of the drug. he second, "Marijuana Use and Social Control", describes how mechanisms of control serve to limit use of the drug and further label users as deviants. In the late 1960s, Becker wrote two additional articles on drug culture: "History, Culture and Subjective Experience: An Exploration of the Social Bases of Drug–Induced Experiences" and "Ending Campus Drug Incidents". ven though he has not written anything on drug culture since the 1970s, Becker is still widely recognized as an influential researcher in the field. Another contribution Becker made to the sociology of deviance were his studies on deviant cultures. In "Outsiders", Becker examined the formation of deviant cultures through his observations of musicians. he musicians, according to Becker, place themselves counter to non-musicians or "squares", which in turn strengthens and isolates them as a deviant culture. Another important contribution Becker makes through his studies of deviant culture is the concept of "deviant careers". In the case of musicians, Becker examines the consequences of an individual choosing an occupation that is already located within a deviant group and how this in turn labels the actor choosing the career as deviant. Becker's work on deviant careers is greatly influenced by the work of his mentor Everett Hughes. Becker's work on deviance has solidified him as one of the founders of labeling theory. Labeling theory is based on the idea that a social deviant is not an inherently deviant individual, rather they become deviant because they are labeled as such. In the first chapter of "Outsiders", Becker explains: According to Becker, not all individuals who are labeled deviant must remain deviant, however once labeled deviant it becomes more likely an individual will take deviant paths. In 1973, Becker rereleased "Outsiders" with a final chapter titled "Labeling Theory Reconsidered." In the chapter, Becker responds to critics who argue that labeling theory fails to provide an etiological explanation of deviance or an explanation of how individuals come to commit deviant acts in the first place. Becker explains that the theory was not meant to be taken as an overarching theory of deviance, nor was it meant to explain deviant behaviors as simply the product of outside influence. Rather, labeling theory was meant to "focus attention on the way labeling places the actor in circumstances which make it harder for him to continue the normal routines of everyday life and thus provoke him to "abnormal" actions." After writing his dissertation, Becker grew an interest in the sociological study of art. Becker believed that the field was underdeveloped and consisted mainly of thinly veiled value judgements of particular artists. Unlike previous work in the sociology of art, Becker approached art as "collective action" and studied art as an occupation. ne of Becker's main contributions to the field was the idea of art as a product of collective action. In his 1982 book "Art Worlds", Becker describes how a work of art is formed through the coordination of many individuals. According to Becker, without each of the individuals who produce materials necessary to construct art, it becomes difficult if not impossible to create art. Becker also references how the division of labor plays a role in the creation of art work, in that the work of many individuals goes into the production of the tools and routines of the artist. In addition to the tools necessary for the process of creation, Becker also emphasizes the role of shared meaning plays in ascribing value to art. In other words, Becker believes without a common understanding of a work's value, it is difficult for it to have any social resonance. In addition to "Art Worlds", Becker has written numerous essays on the sociology of art. wo volumes of these essays have been translated in French; "Paroles et Musique" and "Propos sur l'art". Also, in 2006, Becker edited and contributed to "Art from Start to Finish", a compilation of sociological essays addressing the question of how an artists decides when a work is finished. Along with his writings on the subject, Becker also taught a course on the sociology of art. In addition to Becker's contributions to sociological theory, he has also written extensively on the practice of sociology. In "Writing for Social Scientists" (1986), Becker offers advice to individuals interested in social science writing. According to Becker, the book is composed of information he learned from students while teaching a seminar at Northwestern University on sociological writing style. In an interview, Becker states "bad sociological writing cannot be separated from the theoretical problems of the discipline." hus, Becker advises scholars to write in a direct style, avoiding the passive voice and abstract nouns. In "Tricks of the Trade", Becker outlines his ideas on sociological methods. he book focuses on Becker's belief that it is impossible to establish a method of research independent of the situation it is being used in. According to Becker, the principles of social research he describes in the book are based primarily on what he learned from his professors and colleagues at the University of Chicago. Furthermore, Becker promotes systematic data collection and rigorous analysis as a way to make sense of social world. In "Telling About Society", considered the third installment in Becker's series of writing guides, Becker argues that socially produced texts, or artifacts can be valuable sources of information about the society which has produced them. As in earlier works, he stresses the importance of studying the activities and processes which have created these artifacts, as opposed to just studying the objects themselves.

Becker also wrote extensively on sociological writing styles and methodologies.

and focus on summarizing the text about Howard Saul Becker.

biographies/21759691e6.json:4

biographies

Sociology of deviance and labeling theory

Howard Saul Becker Howard Saul Becker was born April 18, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Allan Becker (April 2, 1902 – March 27, 1988) and Donna Becker (born Bertha Goldberg; December 31, 1904 – 1997). His great-grandfather, Gershon Movsha Becker, immigrated to the United States from Lithuania. Becker began playing piano at an early age and by age 15 worked as a pianist in bars and strip joints and, later, with a campus band at Northwestern University. According to Becker, he was able to work semi-professionally because of World War II and the fact that most musicians over the age of 18 were drafted. It was through his work as a musician Becker first became exposed to drug culture, which he would later study. Becker received his undergraduate degree in sociology at the University of Chicago in 1946. While in school, Becker continued to play piano semi-professionally. According to Becker, he viewed music as his career and sociology as a hobby. ven so, he went on to get both his MA and PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Chicago school teachers. At the University of Chicago, Becker was taught in the tradition of the original Chicago School of Sociology. Becker and his colleagues, including Erving Goffman and Anselm Strauss, would later be considered part of the "second Chicago School of Sociology". he Chicago School of Sociology focused heavily on qualitative data analysis and worked with the city of Chicago as a laboratory. Much of Becker's early work was guided in the Chicago School tradition, in particular by Everett C. Hughes who served as Becker's mentor and advisor. Becker is also often labeled a symbolic interactionist, even though he doesn't accept the label. According to Becker, his academic lineage is Georg Simmel, Robert E. Park, and Everett Hughes. After receiving his PhD at the age of 23, Becker studied marijuana use at the Institute for Juvenile Research. He was later awarded a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Illinois from 1953 to 1955, and then spent three years as a research associate at Stanford University's Institute for the Study of Human Problems before beginning his teaching career. After receiving his doctorate at the University of Chicago, Becker worked for three years as an instructor in sociology and social sciences at the University of Chicago. In 1965, Becker became a professor of sociology at Northwestern University, where he taught until 1991. During his career at Northwestern, Becker also taught as a visiting professor at the University of Manchester and as a visiting scholar at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro. In 1991, Becker became a professor of sociology and, in 1996, an adjunct professor of music, at the University of Washington until he retired in 1999. Becker has also been the recipient of numerous awards and honors in his field. hese include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978–1979, the Charles Horton Cooley Award, awarded by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, in 1980, the Common Wealth Award in 1981, the Cooley/Mead Award in the Section on Social Psychology, awarded by the American Sociological Association in 1985, the George Herbert Mead Award given by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction in 1987, and the Award for a Career of Distinguished Scholarship, American Sociological Association, 1998. Becker also holds honorary degrees from Université de Paris VIII, Université Pierre Mendes-France, Grenoble, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, and École Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Lyon. Becker currently resides in San Francisco, California. He also spends three to four months out of the year in Europe, mostly in Paris. Although no longer teaching full-time, Becker continues to write and record music. In 2004, "Un sociologue en liberté: Lecture d’Howard S. Becker" by French sociologist Alain Pessin was released in France. In the book, Pessin examines Becker's work and contributions to the field of sociology. Although Becker does not claim to be a deviancy specialist, his work on the subject is often cited by sociologists and criminologists studying deviance. Becker's 1963 book "Outsiders" is credited as one of the first books on labeling theory and its application to studies of deviance. Becker explored the theory in which deviance is simply a social construction used to persuade the public to fear and criminalize certain groups. A compilation of early essays on the subject, "Outsiders" outlines Becker's theories of deviance through two deviant groups; marijuana users and dance musicians. In the book, Becker defines deviance as "not a quality of a bad person but the result of someone defining someone’s activity as bad." Becker is widely known for his work on drug culture, particularly his studies on marijuana use. Chapters three and four of "Outsiders", which were originally published in the "American Journal of Sociology" in 1953, examine how marijuana users come to be labeled as social deviants. Becker was inspired to write on the subject after reading Alfred Lindesmith's book on opium addiction. As a musician, Becker had first hand experience with drug culture and was able to obtain interview participants through his connections to the music scene. he first of the articles, "Becoming a Marihuana User", outlines how social interaction plays a role in learning to use and enjoy the effects of the drug. he second, "Marijuana Use and Social Control", describes how mechanisms of control serve to limit use of the drug and further label users as deviants. In the late 1960s, Becker wrote two additional articles on drug culture: "History, Culture and Subjective Experience: An Exploration of the Social Bases of Drug–Induced Experiences" and "Ending Campus Drug Incidents". ven though he has not written anything on drug culture since the 1970s, Becker is still widely recognized as an influential researcher in the field. Another contribution Becker made to the sociology of deviance were his studies on deviant cultures. In "Outsiders", Becker examined the formation of deviant cultures through his observations of musicians. he musicians, according to Becker, place themselves counter to non-musicians or "squares", which in turn strengthens and isolates them as a deviant culture. Another important contribution Becker makes through his studies of deviant culture is the concept of "deviant careers". In the case of musicians, Becker examines the consequences of an individual choosing an occupation that is already located within a deviant group and how this in turn labels the actor choosing the career as deviant. Becker's work on deviant careers is greatly influenced by the work of his mentor Everett Hughes. Becker's work on deviance has solidified him as one of the founders of labeling theory. Labeling theory is based on the idea that a social deviant is not an inherently deviant individual, rather they become deviant because they are labeled as such. In the first chapter of "Outsiders", Becker explains: According to Becker, not all individuals who are labeled deviant must remain deviant, however once labeled deviant it becomes more likely an individual will take deviant paths. In 1973, Becker rereleased "Outsiders" with a final chapter titled "Labeling Theory Reconsidered." In the chapter, Becker responds to critics who argue that labeling theory fails to provide an etiological explanation of deviance or an explanation of how individuals come to commit deviant acts in the first place. Becker explains that the theory was not meant to be taken as an overarching theory of deviance, nor was it meant to explain deviant behaviors as simply the product of outside influence. Rather, labeling theory was meant to "focus attention on the way labeling places the actor in circumstances which make it harder for him to continue the normal routines of everyday life and thus provoke him to "abnormal" actions." After writing his dissertation, Becker grew an interest in the sociological study of art. Becker believed that the field was underdeveloped and consisted mainly of thinly veiled value judgements of particular artists. Unlike previous work in the sociology of art, Becker approached art as "collective action" and studied art as an occupation. ne of Becker's main contributions to the field was the idea of art as a product of collective action. In his 1982 book "Art Worlds", Becker describes how a work of art is formed through the coordination of many individuals. According to Becker, without each of the individuals who produce materials necessary to construct art, it becomes difficult if not impossible to create art. Becker also references how the division of labor plays a role in the creation of art work, in that the work of many individuals goes into the production of the tools and routines of the artist. In addition to the tools necessary for the process of creation, Becker also emphasizes the role of shared meaning plays in ascribing value to art. In other words, Becker believes without a common understanding of a work's value, it is difficult for it to have any social resonance. In addition to "Art Worlds", Becker has written numerous essays on the sociology of art. wo volumes of these essays have been translated in French; "Paroles et Musique" and "Propos sur l'art". Also, in 2006, Becker edited and contributed to "Art from Start to Finish", a compilation of sociological essays addressing the question of how an artists decides when a work is finished. Along with his writings on the subject, Becker also taught a course on the sociology of art. In addition to Becker's contributions to sociological theory, he has also written extensively on the practice of sociology. In "Writing for Social Scientists" (1986), Becker offers advice to individuals interested in social science writing. According to Becker, the book is composed of information he learned from students while teaching a seminar at Northwestern University on sociological writing style. In an interview, Becker states "bad sociological writing cannot be separated from the theoretical problems of the discipline." hus, Becker advises scholars to write in a direct style, avoiding the passive voice and abstract nouns. In "Tricks of the Trade", Becker outlines his ideas on sociological methods. he book focuses on Becker's belief that it is impossible to establish a method of research independent of the situation it is being used in. According to Becker, the principles of social research he describes in the book are based primarily on what he learned from his professors and colleagues at the University of Chicago. Furthermore, Becker promotes systematic data collection and rigorous analysis as a way to make sense of social world. In "Telling About Society", considered the third installment in Becker's series of writing guides, Becker argues that socially produced texts, or artifacts can be valuable sources of information about the society which has produced them. As in earlier works, he stresses the importance of studying the activities and processes which have created these artifacts, as opposed to just studying the objects themselves.

Becker's 1963 book "Outsiders" provided the foundations for labeling theory.

and focus only on summarizing the text about Howard Saul Becker.

biographies/21759691e6.json:5

biographies

Early life and education

Howard Saul Becker Howard Saul Becker was born April 18, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Allan Becker (April 2, 1902 – March 27, 1988) and Donna Becker (born Bertha Goldberg; December 31, 1904 – 1997). His great-grandfather, Gershon Movsha Becker, immigrated to the United States from Lithuania. Becker began playing piano at an early age and by age 15 worked as a pianist in bars and strip joints and, later, with a campus band at Northwestern University. According to Becker, he was able to work semi-professionally because of World War II and the fact that most musicians over the age of 18 were drafted. It was through his work as a musician Becker first became exposed to drug culture, which he would later study. Becker received his undergraduate degree in sociology at the University of Chicago in 1946. While in school, Becker continued to play piano semi-professionally. According to Becker, he viewed music as his career and sociology as a hobby. ven so, he went on to get both his MA and PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Chicago school teachers. At the University of Chicago, Becker was taught in the tradition of the original Chicago School of Sociology. Becker and his colleagues, including Erving Goffman and Anselm Strauss, would later be considered part of the "second Chicago School of Sociology". he Chicago School of Sociology focused heavily on qualitative data analysis and worked with the city of Chicago as a laboratory. Much of Becker's early work was guided in the Chicago School tradition, in particular by Everett C. Hughes who served as Becker's mentor and advisor. Becker is also often labeled a symbolic interactionist, even though he doesn't accept the label. According to Becker, his academic lineage is Georg Simmel, Robert E. Park, and Everett Hughes. After receiving his PhD at the age of 23, Becker studied marijuana use at the Institute for Juvenile Research. He was later awarded a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Illinois from 1953 to 1955, and then spent three years as a research associate at Stanford University's Institute for the Study of Human Problems before beginning his teaching career. After receiving his doctorate at the University of Chicago, Becker worked for three years as an instructor in sociology and social sciences at the University of Chicago. In 1965, Becker became a professor of sociology at Northwestern University, where he taught until 1991. During his career at Northwestern, Becker also taught as a visiting professor at the University of Manchester and as a visiting scholar at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro. In 1991, Becker became a professor of sociology and, in 1996, an adjunct professor of music, at the University of Washington until he retired in 1999. Becker has also been the recipient of numerous awards and honors in his field. hese include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978–1979, the Charles Horton Cooley Award, awarded by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, in 1980, the Common Wealth Award in 1981, the Cooley/Mead Award in the Section on Social Psychology, awarded by the American Sociological Association in 1985, the George Herbert Mead Award given by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction in 1987, and the Award for a Career of Distinguished Scholarship, American Sociological Association, 1998. Becker also holds honorary degrees from Université de Paris VIII, Université Pierre Mendes-France, Grenoble, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, and École Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Lyon. Becker currently resides in San Francisco, California. He also spends three to four months out of the year in Europe, mostly in Paris. Although no longer teaching full-time, Becker continues to write and record music. In 2004, "Un sociologue en liberté: Lecture d’Howard S. Becker" by French sociologist Alain Pessin was released in France. In the book, Pessin examines Becker's work and contributions to the field of sociology. Although Becker does not claim to be a deviancy specialist, his work on the subject is often cited by sociologists and criminologists studying deviance. Becker's 1963 book "Outsiders" is credited as one of the first books on labeling theory and its application to studies of deviance. Becker explored the theory in which deviance is simply a social construction used to persuade the public to fear and criminalize certain groups. A compilation of early essays on the subject, "Outsiders" outlines Becker's theories of deviance through two deviant groups; marijuana users and dance musicians. In the book, Becker defines deviance as "not a quality of a bad person but the result of someone defining someone’s activity as bad." Becker is widely known for his work on drug culture, particularly his studies on marijuana use. Chapters three and four of "Outsiders", which were originally published in the "American Journal of Sociology" in 1953, examine how marijuana users come to be labeled as social deviants. Becker was inspired to write on the subject after reading Alfred Lindesmith's book on opium addiction. As a musician, Becker had first hand experience with drug culture and was able to obtain interview participants through his connections to the music scene. he first of the articles, "Becoming a Marihuana User", outlines how social interaction plays a role in learning to use and enjoy the effects of the drug. he second, "Marijuana Use and Social Control", describes how mechanisms of control serve to limit use of the drug and further label users as deviants. In the late 1960s, Becker wrote two additional articles on drug culture: "History, Culture and Subjective Experience: An Exploration of the Social Bases of Drug–Induced Experiences" and "Ending Campus Drug Incidents". ven though he has not written anything on drug culture since the 1970s, Becker is still widely recognized as an influential researcher in the field. Another contribution Becker made to the sociology of deviance were his studies on deviant cultures. In "Outsiders", Becker examined the formation of deviant cultures through his observations of musicians. he musicians, according to Becker, place themselves counter to non-musicians or "squares", which in turn strengthens and isolates them as a deviant culture. Another important contribution Becker makes through his studies of deviant culture is the concept of "deviant careers". In the case of musicians, Becker examines the consequences of an individual choosing an occupation that is already located within a deviant group and how this in turn labels the actor choosing the career as deviant. Becker's work on deviant careers is greatly influenced by the work of his mentor Everett Hughes. Becker's work on deviance has solidified him as one of the founders of labeling theory. Labeling theory is based on the idea that a social deviant is not an inherently deviant individual, rather they become deviant because they are labeled as such. In the first chapter of "Outsiders", Becker explains: According to Becker, not all individuals who are labeled deviant must remain deviant, however once labeled deviant it becomes more likely an individual will take deviant paths. In 1973, Becker rereleased "Outsiders" with a final chapter titled "Labeling Theory Reconsidered." In the chapter, Becker responds to critics who argue that labeling theory fails to provide an etiological explanation of deviance or an explanation of how individuals come to commit deviant acts in the first place. Becker explains that the theory was not meant to be taken as an overarching theory of deviance, nor was it meant to explain deviant behaviors as simply the product of outside influence. Rather, labeling theory was meant to "focus attention on the way labeling places the actor in circumstances which make it harder for him to continue the normal routines of everyday life and thus provoke him to "abnormal" actions." After writing his dissertation, Becker grew an interest in the sociological study of art. Becker believed that the field was underdeveloped and consisted mainly of thinly veiled value judgements of particular artists. Unlike previous work in the sociology of art, Becker approached art as "collective action" and studied art as an occupation. ne of Becker's main contributions to the field was the idea of art as a product of collective action. In his 1982 book "Art Worlds", Becker describes how a work of art is formed through the coordination of many individuals. According to Becker, without each of the individuals who produce materials necessary to construct art, it becomes difficult if not impossible to create art. Becker also references how the division of labor plays a role in the creation of art work, in that the work of many individuals goes into the production of the tools and routines of the artist. In addition to the tools necessary for the process of creation, Becker also emphasizes the role of shared meaning plays in ascribing value to art. In other words, Becker believes without a common understanding of a work's value, it is difficult for it to have any social resonance. In addition to "Art Worlds", Becker has written numerous essays on the sociology of art. wo volumes of these essays have been translated in French; "Paroles et Musique" and "Propos sur l'art". Also, in 2006, Becker edited and contributed to "Art from Start to Finish", a compilation of sociological essays addressing the question of how an artists decides when a work is finished. Along with his writings on the subject, Becker also taught a course on the sociology of art. In addition to Becker's contributions to sociological theory, he has also written extensively on the practice of sociology. In "Writing for Social Scientists" (1986), Becker offers advice to individuals interested in social science writing. According to Becker, the book is composed of information he learned from students while teaching a seminar at Northwestern University on sociological writing style. In an interview, Becker states "bad sociological writing cannot be separated from the theoretical problems of the discipline." hus, Becker advises scholars to write in a direct style, avoiding the passive voice and abstract nouns. In "Tricks of the Trade", Becker outlines his ideas on sociological methods. he book focuses on Becker's belief that it is impossible to establish a method of research independent of the situation it is being used in. According to Becker, the principles of social research he describes in the book are based primarily on what he learned from his professors and colleagues at the University of Chicago. Furthermore, Becker promotes systematic data collection and rigorous analysis as a way to make sense of social world. In "Telling About Society", considered the third installment in Becker's series of writing guides, Becker argues that socially produced texts, or artifacts can be valuable sources of information about the society which has produced them. As in earlier works, he stresses the importance of studying the activities and processes which have created these artifacts, as opposed to just studying the objects themselves.

Becker is often called a symbolic interactionist, although he does not align himself with the method. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Becker is considered part of the second Chicago School of Sociology, which also includes Erving Goffman and Anselm Strauss.

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newspapers

Brands and publications

Allied Press Allied Press was formed through the merger of two Dunedin newspaper companies, the "Otago Daily Times" ("ODT") and the former Evening Star, on 13 May 1975. he merger process was completed during the rest of the year following shareholder approval and other required agreements. "ODT" staff subsequently shifted into the "Evening Star" building. he "Evening Star" subsequently ceased operations on 3 November 1979 and was replaced by a weekly newspaper called "The Star". Hal Masters became the company's first chairman while the "ODT" manager Frank Dickson and Vic Cavanagh served as joint managing directors. In 1979, the Christchurch–based H.W. Smith and the tourism company Mount Cook Group attempted separate takeover bids of Allied Press by buying up shares. In response, the businessman Sir Julian Smith merged Allied Press with his company John M. Fraser and Co Ltd to form a new privately listed company called Otago Press and Produce Limited (OPP). PP was active in egg and poultry distribution, fruit and producer markets, building supplies, and real estate. he new company was led by chairman T.C. (Tom) Fraser and Deputy Chair Julian Smith, the former managing director of John M. Fraser and Co. In 1986, Smith purchased Otago Press and Produce, reestablishing Allied Press Ltd as a private business. mith became Allied Press' principal shareholder, chairman and managing director while his brother Nick became a substantial shareholder, director and business manager. n 12 June 2016, Julian Smith stepped down as managing director of Allied Press. Grant McKenzie, the Dunedin City Council's financial officer and the former director of the University of Otago's financial services, was appointed as the company's chief executive officer. While Smith remains the chairman of the company, McKenzie took over the running of Allied Press. Besides the "Otago Daily Times", Allied Press owns a majority stake in the "Greymouth Star". he company also owns a range of community and farming newspapers through the South Island including "North Canterbury News", the "Ashburton Courier", "The Timaru Courier", "Oamaru Mail", "Lakes District and Central Otago News", "Mountain Scene", "The Star" and "The Ensign". In 2018, Allied Press acquired the "Clutha Leader" from Stuff. In August 2018, Allied Press acquired the Canterbury media company Star Media, which owned a stable of community newspapers, magazines, and events including the Christchurch–based "The Star". tar Media's chairman Nick Smith also served as Allied Press' director and had previously worked for "The Star" as their advertising cadet. tar Media subsequently became a subsidiary of Allied Press. During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, Allied Press maintained the print circulation of the "Otago Daily Times" as well as its websites but suspended the circulation of its community and farming newspapers on 25 March 2020 to comply with lockdown restrictions. In April 2020, Allied Press launched a major project to upgrade its Dunedin printing press. By 14 May 2020, the Government had eased lockdown restrictions, allowing Allied Press' community newspapers and magazines to resume operations. Following the Delta variant community outbreak in August 2021, Allied Press continued publishing the "Otago Daily Times" and most of its community papers. However, it suspended publication of the "Southland Express" (Invercargill), the "Cromwell Bulletin", "The Star" (Christchurch), and Christchurch community papers due to lockdown restrictions. Allied Press is owned by Sir Julian Smith, who serves as its chairman and managing director, and his family. ther key members of the company's leadership team include director and business manager Nick Smith and operations director Ray Clarkson. he company has more than 400 employees. Allied Press has its headquarters in an imposing building in Lower Stuart Street, Dunedin. he building was formerly the home of Dunedin's "The Evening Star" prior to its amalgamation with the "Otago Daily Times" in 1979. he building houses the "Otago Daily Times" and Channel 39. he building was designed by Edmund Anscombe and built in the late 1920s and is part of a historic precinct that also includes the Dunedin Law Courts and Dunedin Railway Station. It is listed as a Category II Historic Place. Allied Press also operates several regional offices throughout the South Island including Alexandra, Amberley, Ashburton, Balclutha, Gore, Invercargill, Oamaru, Queenstown, Rangiora, Timaru, and Wanaka. Allied Press's flagship publication is the daily newspaper "Otago Daily Times". It also owns a majority stake in the "Greymouth Star" along with a range of South Island community and farming newspapers. In addition, Allied Press operates separate printing and television divisions including commercial, newsprint services, local television station Channel 39, and the Christchurch-based media company Star Media. he Canterbury media company Star Media is also a division of Allied Press. tar Media's assets including the Christchurch community newspaper "The Star", the South Island lifestyle magazine "Style", and national magazines "Kiwi Gardener", "Kiwi Gardener Quarterly" and "Rugby News". tar Media also runs several Christchurch events including the "City 2 Surf" and the "Home and Leisure Show".

The company's main asset is the "Otago Daily Times", a daily newspaper.

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biographies/5bc17293a5.json:7

biographies

Early life and career

Guillermo Díaz Díaz was born in New Jersey to Cuban parents, and grew up in Washington Heights, Manhattan. In 1994, he landed his first speaking role as Spike in Boaz Yakin's "Fresh". From there he began working on "Party Girl" as Leo, Parker Posey's roommate. His next role was a drag queen (La Miranda) in Nigel Finch's "Stonewall". In 1996, Díaz worked in Jim McKay's "Girls Town" as Dylan, after which he appeared in "I'm Not Rappaport". Díaz played Paco de la Vega al Camino Cordoba Jose Cuervo Sanchez Rodriguez Jr., a high school gang member in "High School High". He later appeared in "Freeway" as Flaco, another gang member. While in Los Angeles, he did guest spots on "ER" and "Party of Five". After finishing work on the West Coast, Díaz traveled back east to play a stoner named Eric in Brian Sloan's film "I Think I Do". A similar role followed as Scarface in the film "Half Baked". ne of his co-stars was Dave Chappelle, who later cast him in several episodes of "Chappelle's Show". In 1999, he landed a non-speaking role in "200 Cigarettes", and went on to act in both Ethan Hawke's directorial debut "Chelsea Walls" and the movie "Just One Time", where as secondary characters one critic thought that he and Jennifer Esposito provided what little "comic spark" existed in the film. Díaz played Guillermo García Gómez, a drug dealer/trafficker, in seasons 2-6 of the series "Weeds". In 2009, he starred on the series "Mercy", where his portrayal of the gay nurse Angel received negative criticism in online forums for being too flamboyant. In 2010, he appeared in the thriller film "Exquisite Corpse". After having portrayed several Mexican thugs (cholos), Díaz was cast in 2010 as a Latino gangster named Poh Boy in "Cop Out". When asked about being typecast, he said: "I [used to worry], but not really anymore. Now I'm just grateful that I'm working. I try to make everything different." In 2010, Díaz did a photoshoot for "Pinups Magazine". he photoshoot featured full frontal nudity from Díaz. In 2011, Díaz appeared alongside Britney Spears in a music video for the single "I Wanna Go", and took part in a scene referencing his character Scarface from "Half Baked". In 2012, Díaz began his role as Huck in the drama series "Scandal". Díaz was one of the many celebrities that acted in Beyoncé and Jay Z's video for "Run" in 2014. Díaz is openly gay. In 2011, he told "Out" magazine that his rough upbringing in New York City, during which he hid his sexuality so as not to become a target, ultimately made him a better actor. He said: "I went to school in the Bronx. I learned to constantly try to cover up the fact that I was gay. hat façade of being somebody I'm really not just to protect myself definitely helped with acting." He was named one of OUT Magazine's 100 most influential gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender people for 2013. Díaz has said on multiple occasions that he is a fan of Madonna. He has been to all of her tours apart from The Virgin Tour and The Who's That Girl Tour. He also has her face tattooed on his right arm. In November 2017, Díaz was nominated to "Out" magazine's "OUT100" for 2017 in recognition of his work and his visibility. In 2006, he joined the cast of a series of improv-based commercials for Sierra Mist titled "Mist Takes". A Spanish version of the advertisements began airing, and the bilingual Díaz also starred in those with other Latino comedians.

He is known for films "Half Baked", "200 Cigarettes" (1999) and "Stonewall". He is known for his role as "Huck" in the drama series "Scandal". Díaz has made guest appearances on "Chappelle's Show", "Weeds", and "Girls Town".

. Guillermo Díaz was born in New Jersey to Cuban parents and grew up in Washington Heights, Manhattan, before starting his acting career in the early 1990s.

biographies/27076bd0dc.json:8

biographies

Biography

Brendan Thomas Carr Carr holds a B.A. from Georgetown University and a J.D. from the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America. He was a law clerk for Judge Dennis Shedd of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He worked in private practice at Wiley Rein before becoming a legal advisor to Federal Communications Commission member Ajit Pai, whom he advised on wireless, public safety, and international issues. In January 2017, Carr became general counsel of the FCC. President Donald Trump nominated Carr to become a commissioner of the FCC in June 2017, and Carr was confirmed by the United States Senate in August 2017. Carr was renominated to a full five year term by President Trump in 2018 and confirmed by Congress on a voice vote on January 2, 2019. His term runs from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2023. In 2022, Carr wrote an open letter urging Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their respective app stores, arguing the platform poses a security risk.

He previously served as an aide to FCC member Ajit Pai and as the FCC's general counsel. Carr also worked as an attorney at Wiley Rein.

. Brendan Carr is a lawyer who has held various positions including law clerk, private practitioner, legal advisor, general counsel, and FCC commissioner.

biographies/e867bccb8c.json:9

biographies

Political career

Anthony Austin Street treet was born in Melbourne on 8 February 1926, one of two children born to Evora and Geoffrey Street and was raised at the family property 'Eildon', near Lismore, Victoria. His father was elected to federal parliament in 1934 and promoted to the ministry in 1938. He was killed in the 1940 Canberra air disaster, when his son was 14 years old. treet attended Melbourne Grammar School. After leaving school in 1944 he enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy and served as an able seaman aboard HMAS Norman (M 84), HMAS Queenborough and HMAS Shropshire. In 1966 Street was elected as a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Corangamite division in Victoria, Australia. He remained in this position, winning re-election, until he resigned on 18 January 1984. From 14 September 1971, during the McMahon Ministry, he was Assistant Minister assisting the Minister for Labour and National Service. In the First Fraser Ministry he became the Minister for Labour and Immigration. In the Second Fraser Ministry he served as Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations, and Minister assisting the Prime Minister for Public Service Matters. During the Third Fraser Ministry he served as minister in several posts, including Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations and Minister for Industrial Relations. wapping portfolios with Andrew Peacock, Street served as Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs during the Fourth Fraser Ministry, from 1980 until 1983. As employment minister, Street ordered the Commonwealth Employment Service to discontinue collecting its seasonal unemployment statistics on the grounds that they had become inaccurate. Responsibility was transferred to the Australian Bureau of Statistics which began issuing monthly figures. treet supported multilateralism as foreign minister, stating that "in its role as a middle power, Australia needs a foreign policy which encompasses not just bilateral relations but the multilateral diplomacy of international organisations and blocs of countries acting together". His prominent public addresses included the 1979 Alfred Deakin Memorial Lecture "Class Conflict or Common Goals" and the 1982 Roy Milne Memorial Lecture "Alliances and Foreign Policy Today". treet has held directorships in several companies and served as a Melbourne Cricket Club committee member. He runs a family property at Lismore.

He served in the House of Representatives from 1966 to 1984, representing the Division of Corangamite for the Liberal Party. He held ministerial office in the Fraser Government, serving as Minister for Labor and Immigration, Employment and Industrial Relations, Industrial Relations, and Minister for Foreign Affairs (1980–1983).

. Anthony Austin Street was a Liberal politician who served in various ministerial positions, including Minister for Labour and Immigration, Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations, and Minister for Foreign Affairs, between 1971 and 1984.

biographies/e867bccb8c.json:10

biographies

Early life

Anthony Austin Street treet was born in Melbourne on 8 February 1926, one of two children born to Evora and Geoffrey Street and was raised at the family property 'Eildon', near Lismore, Victoria. His father was elected to federal parliament in 1934 and promoted to the ministry in 1938. He was killed in the 1940 Canberra air disaster, when his son was 14 years old. treet attended Melbourne Grammar School. After leaving school in 1944 he enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy and served as an able seaman aboard HMAS Norman (M 84), HMAS Queenborough and HMAS Shropshire. In 1966 Street was elected as a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Corangamite division in Victoria, Australia. He remained in this position, winning re-election, until he resigned on 18 January 1984. From 14 September 1971, during the McMahon Ministry, he was Assistant Minister assisting the Minister for Labour and National Service. In the First Fraser Ministry he became the Minister for Labour and Immigration. In the Second Fraser Ministry he served as Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations, and Minister assisting the Prime Minister for Public Service Matters. During the Third Fraser Ministry he served as minister in several posts, including Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations and Minister for Industrial Relations. wapping portfolios with Andrew Peacock, Street served as Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs during the Fourth Fraser Ministry, from 1980 until 1983. As employment minister, Street ordered the Commonwealth Employment Service to discontinue collecting its seasonal unemployment statistics on the grounds that they had become inaccurate. Responsibility was transferred to the Australian Bureau of Statistics which began issuing monthly figures. treet supported multilateralism as foreign minister, stating that "in its role as a middle power, Australia needs a foreign policy which encompasses not just bilateral relations but the multilateral diplomacy of international organisations and blocs of countries acting together". His prominent public addresses included the 1979 Alfred Deakin Memorial Lecture "Class Conflict or Common Goals" and the 1982 Roy Milne Memorial Lecture "Alliances and Foreign Policy Today". treet has held directorships in several companies and served as a Melbourne Cricket Club committee member. He runs a family property at Lismore.

His father Geoffrey Street was also a federal government minister.

. Anthony Austin Street was born in Melbourne on 8 February 1926 and raised at the family property 'Eildon' near Lismore, Victoria.

biographies/70167bc22d.json:11

biographies

Shadow Cabinet and Deputy Leader, 1984–94

Margaret Beckett Margaret Beckett was born Margaret Mary Jackson in 1943, in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, into the family of an invalid Congregationalist carpenter father and an Irish Catholic teacher mother. Her father died early, precipitating family poverty. he had two sisters, one later a nun, the other later a doctor and mother of three. he was educated at the Notre Dame High School for Girls in Norwich, then at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, where she took a degree in metallurgy. he was an active member of the Students' Union and served on its council. In 1961, Beckett joined Associated Electrical Industries as a student apprentice in metallurgy. he joined the Transport and General Workers Union in 1964. he joined the University of Manchester in 1966 as an experiment officer in its metallurgy department, and in 1970 went to work for the Labour Party as a researcher in industrial policy. In 1973, Beckett was selected as Labour candidate for Lincoln, which the party wanted to win back from ex-Labour MP Dick Taverne, who had won the Lincoln by-election in March 1973 standing as the Democratic Labour candidate. At the February 1974 general election, Beckett lost to Taverne by 1,297 votes. Following the election, she worked as a researcher for Judith Hart, the Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign Office. Harold Wilson called another general election in October 1974, and Beckett again stood against Taverne in Lincoln. his time Beckett became the MP, with a majority of 984 votes. Almost immediately after her election she was appointed as Judith Hart's Parliamentary Private Secretary. Harold Wilson made her a Whip in 1975, and in 1976 promoted her to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Education and Science, replacing Joan Lestor, who had resigned in protest over spending cuts. he remained in that position until she lost her seat at the 1979 general election. he Conservative candidate Kenneth Carlisle narrowly won the seat with a 602-vote majority, the first time the Conservatives had won at Lincoln since 1935. he joined Granada Television as a researcher in 1979. ut of Parliament, and now known as Margaret Beckett after her marriage, she was elected to Labour's National Executive Committee in 1980, and supported left-winger Tony Benn in the 1981 Labour deputy leadership election narrowly won by Denis Healey. he was the subject of a vociferous attack from Joan Lestor at the conference. Beckett was selected to stand at the 1983 general election as the Labour candidate in the parliamentary constituency of Derby South following the retirement of the sitting MP, Walter Johnson. At the election she retained the seat with a small majority of 421 votes. In March 2022 Beckett announced she would end her parliamentary career, standing down from MP as Derby South at the next general election. Upon returning to the House of Commons, Beckett gradually moved away from the left, supporting incumbent leader Neil Kinnock against Benn in 1988. By this time she was a front bencher, as a spokeswoman on Social Security since 1984, becoming a member of the Shadow Cabinet in 1989 as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Following the 1992 general election she was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and served under John Smith as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. he became a Member of the Privy Council in 1993. he was the first woman to serve as deputy leader of the Labour Party. Following the sudden death of John Smith from a heart attack on 12 May 1994, Beckett became the acting Labour leader, the Party's constitution providing for the automatic succession of the deputy leader for the remainder of the leadership term, upon the death or resignation of an incumbent leader in opposition. In times when the party is in opposition, Labour leaders are subject to annual re-election at the time of the annual party conference; accordingly, Beckett was constitutionally entitled to remain in office as acting leader until the 1994 Conference. However, the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) rapidly decided to bring forward the election for Leader and Deputy Leader to July 1994. Beckett decided to run for the position of Leader, but came last in the subsequent leadership election, behind Tony Blair and John Prescott. he Deputy Leadership was contested at the same time; Beckett was also defeated in this contest, coming second behind Prescott. hough she failed in both contests, she was retained in the shadow cabinet by Blair as Shadow Health Secretary. A footnote to her ten-week tenure as caretaker leader of the Labour Party is that she was the leader at the time of that year's 1994 European parliament elections, which were held four weeks after she assumed the position. Labour's election campaign had been long in the planning under Smith, whose sudden death led to a "sympathy rise" in opinion polls for Labour, compounding what had already been a strong lead over the Conservatives. Consequently, Labour had a commanding victory in what was its best result in any of the eight European elections held since 1979. he two Labour leadership elections followed six weeks later on 21 July 1994 and the Labour electorate did not appear to attribute any credit for the successful European election result to Beckett's chance-ordained position as acting leader in the four weeks immediately prior to the election. Under Blair's leadership, Beckett was the Shadow Secretary of State for Health, and then from 1995 the President of the Board of Trade. he was one of the leading critics of the government when the Scott Report published its findings into the Arms-to-Iraq scandal in 1996. he Labour Party was elected to government in a landslide in the 1997 general election and Beckett held a number of senior positions in the Blair government. Following the election she was appointed President of the Board of Trade (a position whose title later reverted to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry); the first woman to have held the post. he was succeeded by Peter Mandelson in July 1998. Beckett was then Leader of the House of Commons from 1998 until her replacement by Robin Cook in June 2001. Her tenure saw the introduction of Westminster Hall debates, which are debates held in a small chamber near Westminster Hall on topics of interest to individual MPs, committee reports, and other matters that would not ordinarily be debated in the Commons chamber. Debates that take place in Westminster Hall are often more consensual and informal, and can address the concerns of backbenchers. he received admiration for her work as Leader of the House, working on this and a number of other elements of the Labour government's modernisation agenda for Parliament. In 2000, she expressed republican sympathies. Following the 2001 general election, Beckett became Secretary of State at the new Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), created after the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was abolished in the wake of perceived mismanagement of the foot and mouth disease epidemic in 2001. he new department also incorporated some of the functions of the former Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). For legal reasons, Beckett was also appointed formally as the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, which appointment she held until MAFF was finally dissolved on 27 March 2002 and the remaining functions of that were transferred to the Secretary of State at large. Beckett rejected demands for an expansion of nuclear power from a lobby including energy minister Brian Wilson and Downing Street staff. he argued there was no need for new nuclear for at least 15 years given current energy prices and generation capacity. he 2003 energy white paper stated "the current economics of nuclear power make it unattractive" and there were no proposals for new nuclear power stations. Beckett held the position of Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs until May 2006, when she was succeeded by David Miliband. Beckett was on the front line of the government's efforts to tackle climate change, and attended international conferences on the matter. In a report published on 29 March 2007 by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, she was criticised for her role in the failures of the Rural Payments Agency when she had been Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Following the 2006 local elections, Blair demoted Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and appointed Beckett as Straw's successor. he was the first woman to hold the post, and only the second woman (after Margaret Thatcher) to hold one of the Great Offices of State. he appointment came as something of a surprise, for the media and for Beckett herself; she admitted reacting to the news by saying the F-word. ome commentators claim that Beckett was promoted to Foreign Secretary because she was considered to be a 'safe pair of hands' and a loyal member of the Cabinet. Her experience at DEFRA in dealing with international climate change issues has also been cited as a factor in the move. Beckett had to adapt quickly to her diplomatic role; within a few hours of her appointment as Foreign Secretary, she flew to the United Nations in New York City for an urgent meeting of foreign ministers to discuss the Iran nuclear weapons crisis. About a month later, she came under fire for not responding quickly enough to the 2006 Lebanon War which saw Israel invade that country, although some reports suggested that the delay was caused by Cabinet division rather than Beckett's reluctance to make a public statement on the matter. Beckett is understood to have delegated European issues to the Foreign Office minister responsible for Europe, Geoff Hoon, who, following his demotion as Defence Secretary, continued to attend Cabinet meetings. Hoon and Beckett were said to have a difficult ministerial relationship. As Foreign Secretary, Beckett came in for some trenchant criticism. According to "The Times", she did not stand up well in comparison with the previous Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. "The Spectator" described her as "at heart, an old, isolationist, pacifist Leftist" and called on her to resign, and the "New Statesman" accused her of allowing the Foreign Office to become subservient to 10 Downing Street after the tenures of Straw and Robin Cook. In August 2006, 37 Labour Party members in her Derby South constituency left the party and joined the Liberal Democrats, criticising her approach to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. wo weeks earlier, Beckett's successor, David Miliband, raised concerns during a cabinet meeting about the failure of Blair and Beckett to call for an immediate ceasefire. traw and Hilary Benn, then International Development Secretary, also raised concerns. Former minister Michael Meacher said there was "despair, anger and bewilderment" in the Labour Party at the UK's failure to call for an immediate ceasefire. Upon taking office as Prime Minister, Gordon Brown made it known that Beckett would not continue as Foreign Secretary. n 28 June 2007, Brown selected David Miliband as her replacement and Beckett returned to the back benches. It was announced on 29 January 2008 that Beckett would become the new head of the Prime Minister's Intelligence and Security Committee, replacing Paul Murphy, who became the Secretary of State for Wales. Having been tipped for a possible return to the front bench in July 2008, due to her reputation as a solid media performer, Beckett returned to government in the reshuffle on 3 October 2008 as the Minister of State for Housing in the Department for Communities and Local Government. he attended Cabinet meetings, but was not a full member and was not to be entitled to vote on collective decisions. he ultimately was allowed to return due to her cabinet experience and her economic management in the past. Beckett is currently a member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation, established in October 2009. he has served as a member of the Henry Jackson Society Advisory Council. Beckett was found to have claimed £600 for hanging baskets and pot plants by "The Daily Telegraph" in the 2009 expenses scandal. As she had no mortgage or rent outstanding it was queried how she managed to claim £72,537 between 2004 and 2008 on a house in her constituency when she was renting out her London flat and living in a grace and favour flat. n 10 June 2009, Beckett announced that she wished to replace Michael Martin as Speaker of the House of Commons. he said: "I think at the moment we have got very considerable problems in Parliament. We have got to make changes... After the next election, if we have a more finely balanced chamber than we have had in the recent past, it will be a very different ball game... I hope I can help us deal with that." Beckett received 74 votes in the first round and 70 votes in the second round of the 2009 Speaker election, reaching the third place as the strongest Labour candidate both times but considerably trailing the two Conservative frontrunners John Bercow and George Young. he withdrew following the second round of voting. In August 2009, Beckett wrote to Sir Christopher Kelly, Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life which was investigating MPs' expenses. In the letter, she says the allowances do not adequately cover MPs' costs, which include political campaigns. "The Telegraph" criticised the "self-pitying" letter, saying it will fuel "concern that some MPs are not genuinely committed to reform". n 26 November 2010, Beckett was announced as the President of the NOtoAV campaign, which campaigned to retain the First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system at the 2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum. he led the campaign to success, and FPTP remains the system used in UK parliamentary elections. Beckett was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015. Later, during an interview with BBC Radio 4's "World at One", after it became known he was in the lead among the candidates, Beckett was asked if she was "a moron" for nominating Corbyn. he replied: "I am one of them". Furthermore, in January 2016, Beckett claimed that Labour would need an "unexpected political miracle" if it were to win under his leadership, and criticised Corbyn for failing to win back the trust of the electorate on welfare reform and mass immigration, saying: "I think we had the right policies towards immigration, but the simple thuggishness of the kind of Ukip and Conservative approach is easier to understand and we didn't overcome those communication difficulties ... We have to try and work on ways to overcome that – I'm not suggesting we've done it yet". he later supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election. In February 2019, however, she acknowledged during an interview with Sophy Ridge on Sky News that she was "surprised" about how Corbyn had "grown into the job" after taking on the leadership. he further claimed that veteran Conservative MP Kenneth Clarke called Corbyn a "perfectly competent" opposition leader. n 16 January 2016, Beckett released "Learning the Lessons from Defeat Taskforce Report", a 35-page report into why the Labour Party lost the general election of 2015 after the then deputy leader Harriet Harman requested Beckett investigate the reasons for Labour's failure. Labour's defeat came as a shock to pollsters, whose polls had suggested that the result would be much closer than it eventually was. Ultimately, the Conservatives won a narrow majority. he report said that explanations including Labour being "anti-business" or "anti-aspiration" were not "significant" factors, saying that "reasons for defeat should be treated with caution and require deeper analysis". Allegations that the party was overly left-wing were also allegedly unfounded as according to the report: "Many of our most 'left wing' policies were the most popular. Polls showed a wish, from voters, for us to be tougher on big business, and policies that were unpopular with many senior business people, such as the energy price freeze and the Mansion Tax, were popular with voters". he main reasons given for Labour's losses were the perceived weakness of Ed Miliband as party leader, fear of Labour's relationship with the Scottish National Party (SNP) among English voters, a perceived association with the financial crisis under the Brown ministry and "issues of connection" with voters. Labour was also said to have failed to convince voters of its welfare and immigration policies. Beckett claims: "A series of vicious and cynical attacks were mounted on some of the most vulnerable in society, in the expectation that the Labour party would do its utmost to defend them, and could be painted as the party of welfare". he report also said that it would be difficult for Labour to win next time because of changes to constituency boundaries (due in 2018), voter registration changes and restrictions on trade union funding of parties. Beckett said the party should campaign in ordinary language, focus its policy on the condition of Britain in 2020, unite for the EU referendum and draw up a five-year media strategy. he Beckett report was criticised by some on the left-wing of British politics as "show[ing] that many Labour politicians still don't really understand why they lost" and blaming factors such as the rise of the SNP on Labour's losses, rather than campaigning against austerity. thers criticised the report for being too broad and too vague in its conclusions. tephen Bush wrote in the "New Statesman" that "every bit of the Labour party will have something it can cling to" in the report: He continued: Owen Jones, a columnist for "The Guardian", said that the left should not fear the Beckett report, saying: "Let's have a full inquest, not in the interests of navel-gazing, but in the interests of winning". Many centrist and more right-wing Labour politicians have also welcomed the report. In Parliament, she is Chair of the National Security Strategy (Joint Committee), and is a former member of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament and Modernisation of the House of Commons Committee. n 24 November 2020, Beckett was elected to succeed the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association's Andi Fox as the Chair of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee. he was elected unopposed after NEC members from the left of the party staged a virtual walkout, protesting her election over then vice-chair Ian Murray from the Fire Brigades Union. Beckett was criticised after being overheard insulting a fellow NEC member during a Zoom call on 11 March 2021. Beckett thought her microphone was turned off when calling Laura Pidcock a "silly cow", after which Pidcock left the meeting. Beckett apologised immediately and told the BBC the following day: "I deeply regret the remark, which was unjustifiable." Fellow NEC members called on her to resign, while Labour's general secretary David Evans said that complaints against Beckett would be investigated. he married the chairman of her local Constituency Labour Party, Lionel Beckett, in August 1979. Beckett employed her husband as her office manager, on a salary up to £30,000. he practice of MPs employing family members has been criticised by some sections of the media on the lines that it promotes nepotism. Although MPs who were first elected in 2017 have been banned from employing family members, the restriction is not retroactive. Leo Beckett had two sons from a previous marriage, and three grandchildren. Beckett and her husband enjoyed caravan holidays throughout her political career. Leo Beckett died in 2021.

Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1992 to 1994, she briefly served as acting Leader of the Labour Party following John Smith's death. She was appointed to Neil Kinnock's Shadow Cabinet shortly afterward; she was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 1992, becoming the first woman to hold that role. When John Smith died in 1994, Beckett became leader of the Labour Party, although Tony Blair won the election to replace Smith shortly afterwards and assumed the substantive leadership.

biographies/70167bc22d.json:12

biographies

Member of Parliament

Margaret Beckett Margaret Beckett was born Margaret Mary Jackson in 1943, in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, into the family of an invalid Congregationalist carpenter father and an Irish Catholic teacher mother. Her father died early, precipitating family poverty. he had two sisters, one later a nun, the other later a doctor and mother of three. he was educated at the Notre Dame High School for Girls in Norwich, then at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, where she took a degree in metallurgy. he was an active member of the Students' Union and served on its council. In 1961, Beckett joined Associated Electrical Industries as a student apprentice in metallurgy. he joined the Transport and General Workers Union in 1964. he joined the University of Manchester in 1966 as an experiment officer in its metallurgy department, and in 1970 went to work for the Labour Party as a researcher in industrial policy. In 1973, Beckett was selected as Labour candidate for Lincoln, which the party wanted to win back from ex-Labour MP Dick Taverne, who had won the Lincoln by-election in March 1973 standing as the Democratic Labour candidate. At the February 1974 general election, Beckett lost to Taverne by 1,297 votes. Following the election, she worked as a researcher for Judith Hart, the Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign Office. Harold Wilson called another general election in October 1974, and Beckett again stood against Taverne in Lincoln. his time Beckett became the MP, with a majority of 984 votes. Almost immediately after her election she was appointed as Judith Hart's Parliamentary Private Secretary. Harold Wilson made her a Whip in 1975, and in 1976 promoted her to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Education and Science, replacing Joan Lestor, who had resigned in protest over spending cuts. he remained in that position until she lost her seat at the 1979 general election. he Conservative candidate Kenneth Carlisle narrowly won the seat with a 602-vote majority, the first time the Conservatives had won at Lincoln since 1935. he joined Granada Television as a researcher in 1979. ut of Parliament, and now known as Margaret Beckett after her marriage, she was elected to Labour's National Executive Committee in 1980, and supported left-winger Tony Benn in the 1981 Labour deputy leadership election narrowly won by Denis Healey. he was the subject of a vociferous attack from Joan Lestor at the conference. Beckett was selected to stand at the 1983 general election as the Labour candidate in the parliamentary constituency of Derby South following the retirement of the sitting MP, Walter Johnson. At the election she retained the seat with a small majority of 421 votes. In March 2022 Beckett announced she would end her parliamentary career, standing down from MP as Derby South at the next general election. Upon returning to the House of Commons, Beckett gradually moved away from the left, supporting incumbent leader Neil Kinnock against Benn in 1988. By this time she was a front bencher, as a spokeswoman on Social Security since 1984, becoming a member of the Shadow Cabinet in 1989 as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Following the 1992 general election she was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and served under John Smith as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. he became a Member of the Privy Council in 1993. he was the first woman to serve as deputy leader of the Labour Party. Following the sudden death of John Smith from a heart attack on 12 May 1994, Beckett became the acting Labour leader, the Party's constitution providing for the automatic succession of the deputy leader for the remainder of the leadership term, upon the death or resignation of an incumbent leader in opposition. In times when the party is in opposition, Labour leaders are subject to annual re-election at the time of the annual party conference; accordingly, Beckett was constitutionally entitled to remain in office as acting leader until the 1994 Conference. However, the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) rapidly decided to bring forward the election for Leader and Deputy Leader to July 1994. Beckett decided to run for the position of Leader, but came last in the subsequent leadership election, behind Tony Blair and John Prescott. he Deputy Leadership was contested at the same time; Beckett was also defeated in this contest, coming second behind Prescott. hough she failed in both contests, she was retained in the shadow cabinet by Blair as Shadow Health Secretary. A footnote to her ten-week tenure as caretaker leader of the Labour Party is that she was the leader at the time of that year's 1994 European parliament elections, which were held four weeks after she assumed the position. Labour's election campaign had been long in the planning under Smith, whose sudden death led to a "sympathy rise" in opinion polls for Labour, compounding what had already been a strong lead over the Conservatives. Consequently, Labour had a commanding victory in what was its best result in any of the eight European elections held since 1979. he two Labour leadership elections followed six weeks later on 21 July 1994 and the Labour electorate did not appear to attribute any credit for the successful European election result to Beckett's chance-ordained position as acting leader in the four weeks immediately prior to the election. Under Blair's leadership, Beckett was the Shadow Secretary of State for Health, and then from 1995 the President of the Board of Trade. he was one of the leading critics of the government when the Scott Report published its findings into the Arms-to-Iraq scandal in 1996. he Labour Party was elected to government in a landslide in the 1997 general election and Beckett held a number of senior positions in the Blair government. Following the election she was appointed President of the Board of Trade (a position whose title later reverted to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry); the first woman to have held the post. he was succeeded by Peter Mandelson in July 1998. Beckett was then Leader of the House of Commons from 1998 until her replacement by Robin Cook in June 2001. Her tenure saw the introduction of Westminster Hall debates, which are debates held in a small chamber near Westminster Hall on topics of interest to individual MPs, committee reports, and other matters that would not ordinarily be debated in the Commons chamber. Debates that take place in Westminster Hall are often more consensual and informal, and can address the concerns of backbenchers. he received admiration for her work as Leader of the House, working on this and a number of other elements of the Labour government's modernisation agenda for Parliament. In 2000, she expressed republican sympathies. Following the 2001 general election, Beckett became Secretary of State at the new Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), created after the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was abolished in the wake of perceived mismanagement of the foot and mouth disease epidemic in 2001. he new department also incorporated some of the functions of the former Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). For legal reasons, Beckett was also appointed formally as the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, which appointment she held until MAFF was finally dissolved on 27 March 2002 and the remaining functions of that were transferred to the Secretary of State at large. Beckett rejected demands for an expansion of nuclear power from a lobby including energy minister Brian Wilson and Downing Street staff. he argued there was no need for new nuclear for at least 15 years given current energy prices and generation capacity. he 2003 energy white paper stated "the current economics of nuclear power make it unattractive" and there were no proposals for new nuclear power stations. Beckett held the position of Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs until May 2006, when she was succeeded by David Miliband. Beckett was on the front line of the government's efforts to tackle climate change, and attended international conferences on the matter. In a report published on 29 March 2007 by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, she was criticised for her role in the failures of the Rural Payments Agency when she had been Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Following the 2006 local elections, Blair demoted Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and appointed Beckett as Straw's successor. he was the first woman to hold the post, and only the second woman (after Margaret Thatcher) to hold one of the Great Offices of State. he appointment came as something of a surprise, for the media and for Beckett herself; she admitted reacting to the news by saying the F-word. ome commentators claim that Beckett was promoted to Foreign Secretary because she was considered to be a 'safe pair of hands' and a loyal member of the Cabinet. Her experience at DEFRA in dealing with international climate change issues has also been cited as a factor in the move. Beckett had to adapt quickly to her diplomatic role; within a few hours of her appointment as Foreign Secretary, she flew to the United Nations in New York City for an urgent meeting of foreign ministers to discuss the Iran nuclear weapons crisis. About a month later, she came under fire for not responding quickly enough to the 2006 Lebanon War which saw Israel invade that country, although some reports suggested that the delay was caused by Cabinet division rather than Beckett's reluctance to make a public statement on the matter. Beckett is understood to have delegated European issues to the Foreign Office minister responsible for Europe, Geoff Hoon, who, following his demotion as Defence Secretary, continued to attend Cabinet meetings. Hoon and Beckett were said to have a difficult ministerial relationship. As Foreign Secretary, Beckett came in for some trenchant criticism. According to "The Times", she did not stand up well in comparison with the previous Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. "The Spectator" described her as "at heart, an old, isolationist, pacifist Leftist" and called on her to resign, and the "New Statesman" accused her of allowing the Foreign Office to become subservient to 10 Downing Street after the tenures of Straw and Robin Cook. In August 2006, 37 Labour Party members in her Derby South constituency left the party and joined the Liberal Democrats, criticising her approach to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. wo weeks earlier, Beckett's successor, David Miliband, raised concerns during a cabinet meeting about the failure of Blair and Beckett to call for an immediate ceasefire. traw and Hilary Benn, then International Development Secretary, also raised concerns. Former minister Michael Meacher said there was "despair, anger and bewilderment" in the Labour Party at the UK's failure to call for an immediate ceasefire. Upon taking office as Prime Minister, Gordon Brown made it known that Beckett would not continue as Foreign Secretary. n 28 June 2007, Brown selected David Miliband as her replacement and Beckett returned to the back benches. It was announced on 29 January 2008 that Beckett would become the new head of the Prime Minister's Intelligence and Security Committee, replacing Paul Murphy, who became the Secretary of State for Wales. Having been tipped for a possible return to the front bench in July 2008, due to her reputation as a solid media performer, Beckett returned to government in the reshuffle on 3 October 2008 as the Minister of State for Housing in the Department for Communities and Local Government. he attended Cabinet meetings, but was not a full member and was not to be entitled to vote on collective decisions. he ultimately was allowed to return due to her cabinet experience and her economic management in the past. Beckett is currently a member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation, established in October 2009. he has served as a member of the Henry Jackson Society Advisory Council. Beckett was found to have claimed £600 for hanging baskets and pot plants by "The Daily Telegraph" in the 2009 expenses scandal. As she had no mortgage or rent outstanding it was queried how she managed to claim £72,537 between 2004 and 2008 on a house in her constituency when she was renting out her London flat and living in a grace and favour flat. n 10 June 2009, Beckett announced that she wished to replace Michael Martin as Speaker of the House of Commons. he said: "I think at the moment we have got very considerable problems in Parliament. We have got to make changes... After the next election, if we have a more finely balanced chamber than we have had in the recent past, it will be a very different ball game... I hope I can help us deal with that." Beckett received 74 votes in the first round and 70 votes in the second round of the 2009 Speaker election, reaching the third place as the strongest Labour candidate both times but considerably trailing the two Conservative frontrunners John Bercow and George Young. he withdrew following the second round of voting. In August 2009, Beckett wrote to Sir Christopher Kelly, Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life which was investigating MPs' expenses. In the letter, she says the allowances do not adequately cover MPs' costs, which include political campaigns. "The Telegraph" criticised the "self-pitying" letter, saying it will fuel "concern that some MPs are not genuinely committed to reform". n 26 November 2010, Beckett was announced as the President of the NOtoAV campaign, which campaigned to retain the First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system at the 2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum. he led the campaign to success, and FPTP remains the system used in UK parliamentary elections. Beckett was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015. Later, during an interview with BBC Radio 4's "World at One", after it became known he was in the lead among the candidates, Beckett was asked if she was "a moron" for nominating Corbyn. he replied: "I am one of them". Furthermore, in January 2016, Beckett claimed that Labour would need an "unexpected political miracle" if it were to win under his leadership, and criticised Corbyn for failing to win back the trust of the electorate on welfare reform and mass immigration, saying: "I think we had the right policies towards immigration, but the simple thuggishness of the kind of Ukip and Conservative approach is easier to understand and we didn't overcome those communication difficulties ... We have to try and work on ways to overcome that – I'm not suggesting we've done it yet". he later supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election. In February 2019, however, she acknowledged during an interview with Sophy Ridge on Sky News that she was "surprised" about how Corbyn had "grown into the job" after taking on the leadership. he further claimed that veteran Conservative MP Kenneth Clarke called Corbyn a "perfectly competent" opposition leader. n 16 January 2016, Beckett released "Learning the Lessons from Defeat Taskforce Report", a 35-page report into why the Labour Party lost the general election of 2015 after the then deputy leader Harriet Harman requested Beckett investigate the reasons for Labour's failure. Labour's defeat came as a shock to pollsters, whose polls had suggested that the result would be much closer than it eventually was. Ultimately, the Conservatives won a narrow majority. he report said that explanations including Labour being "anti-business" or "anti-aspiration" were not "significant" factors, saying that "reasons for defeat should be treated with caution and require deeper analysis". Allegations that the party was overly left-wing were also allegedly unfounded as according to the report: "Many of our most 'left wing' policies were the most popular. Polls showed a wish, from voters, for us to be tougher on big business, and policies that were unpopular with many senior business people, such as the energy price freeze and the Mansion Tax, were popular with voters". he main reasons given for Labour's losses were the perceived weakness of Ed Miliband as party leader, fear of Labour's relationship with the Scottish National Party (SNP) among English voters, a perceived association with the financial crisis under the Brown ministry and "issues of connection" with voters. Labour was also said to have failed to convince voters of its welfare and immigration policies. Beckett claims: "A series of vicious and cynical attacks were mounted on some of the most vulnerable in society, in the expectation that the Labour party would do its utmost to defend them, and could be painted as the party of welfare". he report also said that it would be difficult for Labour to win next time because of changes to constituency boundaries (due in 2018), voter registration changes and restrictions on trade union funding of parties. Beckett said the party should campaign in ordinary language, focus its policy on the condition of Britain in 2020, unite for the EU referendum and draw up a five-year media strategy. he Beckett report was criticised by some on the left-wing of British politics as "show[ing] that many Labour politicians still don't really understand why they lost" and blaming factors such as the rise of the SNP on Labour's losses, rather than campaigning against austerity. thers criticised the report for being too broad and too vague in its conclusions. tephen Bush wrote in the "New Statesman" that "every bit of the Labour party will have something it can cling to" in the report: He continued: Owen Jones, a columnist for "The Guardian", said that the left should not fear the Beckett report, saying: "Let's have a full inquest, not in the interests of navel-gazing, but in the interests of winning". Many centrist and more right-wing Labour politicians have also welcomed the report. In Parliament, she is Chair of the National Security Strategy (Joint Committee), and is a former member of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament and Modernisation of the House of Commons Committee. n 24 November 2020, Beckett was elected to succeed the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association's Andi Fox as the Chair of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee. he was elected unopposed after NEC members from the left of the party staged a virtual walkout, protesting her election over then vice-chair Ian Murray from the Fire Brigades Union. Beckett was criticised after being overheard insulting a fellow NEC member during a Zoom call on 11 March 2021. Beckett thought her microphone was turned off when calling Laura Pidcock a "silly cow", after which Pidcock left the meeting. Beckett apologised immediately and told the BBC the following day: "I deeply regret the remark, which was unjustifiable." Fellow NEC members called on her to resign, while Labour's general secretary David Evans said that complaints against Beckett would be investigated. he married the chairman of her local Constituency Labour Party, Lionel Beckett, in August 1979. Beckett employed her husband as her office manager, on a salary up to £30,000. he practice of MPs employing family members has been criticised by some sections of the media on the lines that it promotes nepotism. Although MPs who were first elected in 2017 have been banned from employing family members, the restriction is not retroactive. Leo Beckett had two sons from a previous marriage, and three grandchildren. Beckett and her husband enjoyed caravan holidays throughout her political career. Leo Beckett died in 2021.

Beckett was first elected to Parliament in October 1974 for Lincoln and held junior positions in the government of Harold Wilson. In March 2022 Beckett announced that she would stand down at the next general election.

biographies/70167bc22d.json:13

biographies

In government, 1997–2001

Margaret Beckett Margaret Beckett was born Margaret Mary Jackson in 1943, in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, into the family of an invalid Congregationalist carpenter father and an Irish Catholic teacher mother. Her father died early, precipitating family poverty. he had two sisters, one later a nun, the other later a doctor and mother of three. he was educated at the Notre Dame High School for Girls in Norwich, then at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, where she took a degree in metallurgy. he was an active member of the Students' Union and served on its council. In 1961, Beckett joined Associated Electrical Industries as a student apprentice in metallurgy. he joined the Transport and General Workers Union in 1964. he joined the University of Manchester in 1966 as an experiment officer in its metallurgy department, and in 1970 went to work for the Labour Party as a researcher in industrial policy. In 1973, Beckett was selected as Labour candidate for Lincoln, which the party wanted to win back from ex-Labour MP Dick Taverne, who had won the Lincoln by-election in March 1973 standing as the Democratic Labour candidate. At the February 1974 general election, Beckett lost to Taverne by 1,297 votes. Following the election, she worked as a researcher for Judith Hart, the Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign Office. Harold Wilson called another general election in October 1974, and Beckett again stood against Taverne in Lincoln. his time Beckett became the MP, with a majority of 984 votes. Almost immediately after her election she was appointed as Judith Hart's Parliamentary Private Secretary. Harold Wilson made her a Whip in 1975, and in 1976 promoted her to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Education and Science, replacing Joan Lestor, who had resigned in protest over spending cuts. he remained in that position until she lost her seat at the 1979 general election. he Conservative candidate Kenneth Carlisle narrowly won the seat with a 602-vote majority, the first time the Conservatives had won at Lincoln since 1935. he joined Granada Television as a researcher in 1979. ut of Parliament, and now known as Margaret Beckett after her marriage, she was elected to Labour's National Executive Committee in 1980, and supported left-winger Tony Benn in the 1981 Labour deputy leadership election narrowly won by Denis Healey. he was the subject of a vociferous attack from Joan Lestor at the conference. Beckett was selected to stand at the 1983 general election as the Labour candidate in the parliamentary constituency of Derby South following the retirement of the sitting MP, Walter Johnson. At the election she retained the seat with a small majority of 421 votes. In March 2022 Beckett announced she would end her parliamentary career, standing down from MP as Derby South at the next general election. Upon returning to the House of Commons, Beckett gradually moved away from the left, supporting incumbent leader Neil Kinnock against Benn in 1988. By this time she was a front bencher, as a spokeswoman on Social Security since 1984, becoming a member of the Shadow Cabinet in 1989 as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Following the 1992 general election she was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and served under John Smith as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. he became a Member of the Privy Council in 1993. he was the first woman to serve as deputy leader of the Labour Party. Following the sudden death of John Smith from a heart attack on 12 May 1994, Beckett became the acting Labour leader, the Party's constitution providing for the automatic succession of the deputy leader for the remainder of the leadership term, upon the death or resignation of an incumbent leader in opposition. In times when the party is in opposition, Labour leaders are subject to annual re-election at the time of the annual party conference; accordingly, Beckett was constitutionally entitled to remain in office as acting leader until the 1994 Conference. However, the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) rapidly decided to bring forward the election for Leader and Deputy Leader to July 1994. Beckett decided to run for the position of Leader, but came last in the subsequent leadership election, behind Tony Blair and John Prescott. he Deputy Leadership was contested at the same time; Beckett was also defeated in this contest, coming second behind Prescott. hough she failed in both contests, she was retained in the shadow cabinet by Blair as Shadow Health Secretary. A footnote to her ten-week tenure as caretaker leader of the Labour Party is that she was the leader at the time of that year's 1994 European parliament elections, which were held four weeks after she assumed the position. Labour's election campaign had been long in the planning under Smith, whose sudden death led to a "sympathy rise" in opinion polls for Labour, compounding what had already been a strong lead over the Conservatives. Consequently, Labour had a commanding victory in what was its best result in any of the eight European elections held since 1979. he two Labour leadership elections followed six weeks later on 21 July 1994 and the Labour electorate did not appear to attribute any credit for the successful European election result to Beckett's chance-ordained position as acting leader in the four weeks immediately prior to the election. Under Blair's leadership, Beckett was the Shadow Secretary of State for Health, and then from 1995 the President of the Board of Trade. he was one of the leading critics of the government when the Scott Report published its findings into the Arms-to-Iraq scandal in 1996. he Labour Party was elected to government in a landslide in the 1997 general election and Beckett held a number of senior positions in the Blair government. Following the election she was appointed President of the Board of Trade (a position whose title later reverted to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry); the first woman to have held the post. he was succeeded by Peter Mandelson in July 1998. Beckett was then Leader of the House of Commons from 1998 until her replacement by Robin Cook in June 2001. Her tenure saw the introduction of Westminster Hall debates, which are debates held in a small chamber near Westminster Hall on topics of interest to individual MPs, committee reports, and other matters that would not ordinarily be debated in the Commons chamber. Debates that take place in Westminster Hall are often more consensual and informal, and can address the concerns of backbenchers. he received admiration for her work as Leader of the House, working on this and a number of other elements of the Labour government's modernisation agenda for Parliament. In 2000, she expressed republican sympathies. Following the 2001 general election, Beckett became Secretary of State at the new Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), created after the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was abolished in the wake of perceived mismanagement of the foot and mouth disease epidemic in 2001. he new department also incorporated some of the functions of the former Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). For legal reasons, Beckett was also appointed formally as the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, which appointment she held until MAFF was finally dissolved on 27 March 2002 and the remaining functions of that were transferred to the Secretary of State at large. Beckett rejected demands for an expansion of nuclear power from a lobby including energy minister Brian Wilson and Downing Street staff. he argued there was no need for new nuclear for at least 15 years given current energy prices and generation capacity. he 2003 energy white paper stated "the current economics of nuclear power make it unattractive" and there were no proposals for new nuclear power stations. Beckett held the position of Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs until May 2006, when she was succeeded by David Miliband. Beckett was on the front line of the government's efforts to tackle climate change, and attended international conferences on the matter. In a report published on 29 March 2007 by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, she was criticised for her role in the failures of the Rural Payments Agency when she had been Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Following the 2006 local elections, Blair demoted Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and appointed Beckett as Straw's successor. he was the first woman to hold the post, and only the second woman (after Margaret Thatcher) to hold one of the Great Offices of State. he appointment came as something of a surprise, for the media and for Beckett herself; she admitted reacting to the news by saying the F-word. ome commentators claim that Beckett was promoted to Foreign Secretary because she was considered to be a 'safe pair of hands' and a loyal member of the Cabinet. Her experience at DEFRA in dealing with international climate change issues has also been cited as a factor in the move. Beckett had to adapt quickly to her diplomatic role; within a few hours of her appointment as Foreign Secretary, she flew to the United Nations in New York City for an urgent meeting of foreign ministers to discuss the Iran nuclear weapons crisis. About a month later, she came under fire for not responding quickly enough to the 2006 Lebanon War which saw Israel invade that country, although some reports suggested that the delay was caused by Cabinet division rather than Beckett's reluctance to make a public statement on the matter. Beckett is understood to have delegated European issues to the Foreign Office minister responsible for Europe, Geoff Hoon, who, following his demotion as Defence Secretary, continued to attend Cabinet meetings. Hoon and Beckett were said to have a difficult ministerial relationship. As Foreign Secretary, Beckett came in for some trenchant criticism. According to "The Times", she did not stand up well in comparison with the previous Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. "The Spectator" described her as "at heart, an old, isolationist, pacifist Leftist" and called on her to resign, and the "New Statesman" accused her of allowing the Foreign Office to become subservient to 10 Downing Street after the tenures of Straw and Robin Cook. In August 2006, 37 Labour Party members in her Derby South constituency left the party and joined the Liberal Democrats, criticising her approach to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. wo weeks earlier, Beckett's successor, David Miliband, raised concerns during a cabinet meeting about the failure of Blair and Beckett to call for an immediate ceasefire. traw and Hilary Benn, then International Development Secretary, also raised concerns. Former minister Michael Meacher said there was "despair, anger and bewilderment" in the Labour Party at the UK's failure to call for an immediate ceasefire. Upon taking office as Prime Minister, Gordon Brown made it known that Beckett would not continue as Foreign Secretary. n 28 June 2007, Brown selected David Miliband as her replacement and Beckett returned to the back benches. It was announced on 29 January 2008 that Beckett would become the new head of the Prime Minister's Intelligence and Security Committee, replacing Paul Murphy, who became the Secretary of State for Wales. Having been tipped for a possible return to the front bench in July 2008, due to her reputation as a solid media performer, Beckett returned to government in the reshuffle on 3 October 2008 as the Minister of State for Housing in the Department for Communities and Local Government. he attended Cabinet meetings, but was not a full member and was not to be entitled to vote on collective decisions. he ultimately was allowed to return due to her cabinet experience and her economic management in the past. Beckett is currently a member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation, established in October 2009. he has served as a member of the Henry Jackson Society Advisory Council. Beckett was found to have claimed £600 for hanging baskets and pot plants by "The Daily Telegraph" in the 2009 expenses scandal. As she had no mortgage or rent outstanding it was queried how she managed to claim £72,537 between 2004 and 2008 on a house in her constituency when she was renting out her London flat and living in a grace and favour flat. n 10 June 2009, Beckett announced that she wished to replace Michael Martin as Speaker of the House of Commons. he said: "I think at the moment we have got very considerable problems in Parliament. We have got to make changes... After the next election, if we have a more finely balanced chamber than we have had in the recent past, it will be a very different ball game... I hope I can help us deal with that." Beckett received 74 votes in the first round and 70 votes in the second round of the 2009 Speaker election, reaching the third place as the strongest Labour candidate both times but considerably trailing the two Conservative frontrunners John Bercow and George Young. he withdrew following the second round of voting. In August 2009, Beckett wrote to Sir Christopher Kelly, Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life which was investigating MPs' expenses. In the letter, she says the allowances do not adequately cover MPs' costs, which include political campaigns. "The Telegraph" criticised the "self-pitying" letter, saying it will fuel "concern that some MPs are not genuinely committed to reform". n 26 November 2010, Beckett was announced as the President of the NOtoAV campaign, which campaigned to retain the First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system at the 2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum. he led the campaign to success, and FPTP remains the system used in UK parliamentary elections. Beckett was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015. Later, during an interview with BBC Radio 4's "World at One", after it became known he was in the lead among the candidates, Beckett was asked if she was "a moron" for nominating Corbyn. he replied: "I am one of them". Furthermore, in January 2016, Beckett claimed that Labour would need an "unexpected political miracle" if it were to win under his leadership, and criticised Corbyn for failing to win back the trust of the electorate on welfare reform and mass immigration, saying: "I think we had the right policies towards immigration, but the simple thuggishness of the kind of Ukip and Conservative approach is easier to understand and we didn't overcome those communication difficulties ... We have to try and work on ways to overcome that – I'm not suggesting we've done it yet". he later supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election. In February 2019, however, she acknowledged during an interview with Sophy Ridge on Sky News that she was "surprised" about how Corbyn had "grown into the job" after taking on the leadership. he further claimed that veteran Conservative MP Kenneth Clarke called Corbyn a "perfectly competent" opposition leader. n 16 January 2016, Beckett released "Learning the Lessons from Defeat Taskforce Report", a 35-page report into why the Labour Party lost the general election of 2015 after the then deputy leader Harriet Harman requested Beckett investigate the reasons for Labour's failure. Labour's defeat came as a shock to pollsters, whose polls had suggested that the result would be much closer than it eventually was. Ultimately, the Conservatives won a narrow majority. he report said that explanations including Labour being "anti-business" or "anti-aspiration" were not "significant" factors, saying that "reasons for defeat should be treated with caution and require deeper analysis". Allegations that the party was overly left-wing were also allegedly unfounded as according to the report: "Many of our most 'left wing' policies were the most popular. Polls showed a wish, from voters, for us to be tougher on big business, and policies that were unpopular with many senior business people, such as the energy price freeze and the Mansion Tax, were popular with voters". he main reasons given for Labour's losses were the perceived weakness of Ed Miliband as party leader, fear of Labour's relationship with the Scottish National Party (SNP) among English voters, a perceived association with the financial crisis under the Brown ministry and "issues of connection" with voters. Labour was also said to have failed to convince voters of its welfare and immigration policies. Beckett claims: "A series of vicious and cynical attacks were mounted on some of the most vulnerable in society, in the expectation that the Labour party would do its utmost to defend them, and could be painted as the party of welfare". he report also said that it would be difficult for Labour to win next time because of changes to constituency boundaries (due in 2018), voter registration changes and restrictions on trade union funding of parties. Beckett said the party should campaign in ordinary language, focus its policy on the condition of Britain in 2020, unite for the EU referendum and draw up a five-year media strategy. he Beckett report was criticised by some on the left-wing of British politics as "show[ing] that many Labour politicians still don't really understand why they lost" and blaming factors such as the rise of the SNP on Labour's losses, rather than campaigning against austerity. thers criticised the report for being too broad and too vague in its conclusions. tephen Bush wrote in the "New Statesman" that "every bit of the Labour party will have something it can cling to" in the report: He continued: Owen Jones, a columnist for "The Guardian", said that the left should not fear the Beckett report, saying: "Let's have a full inquest, not in the interests of navel-gazing, but in the interests of winning". Many centrist and more right-wing Labour politicians have also welcomed the report. In Parliament, she is Chair of the National Security Strategy (Joint Committee), and is a former member of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament and Modernisation of the House of Commons Committee. n 24 November 2020, Beckett was elected to succeed the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association's Andi Fox as the Chair of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee. he was elected unopposed after NEC members from the left of the party staged a virtual walkout, protesting her election over then vice-chair Ian Murray from the Fire Brigades Union. Beckett was criticised after being overheard insulting a fellow NEC member during a Zoom call on 11 March 2021. Beckett thought her microphone was turned off when calling Laura Pidcock a "silly cow", after which Pidcock left the meeting. Beckett apologised immediately and told the BBC the following day: "I deeply regret the remark, which was unjustifiable." Fellow NEC members called on her to resign, while Labour's general secretary David Evans said that complaints against Beckett would be investigated. he married the chairman of her local Constituency Labour Party, Lionel Beckett, in August 1979. Beckett employed her husband as her office manager, on a salary up to £30,000. he practice of MPs employing family members has been criticised by some sections of the media on the lines that it promotes nepotism. Although MPs who were first elected in 2017 have been banned from employing family members, the restriction is not retroactive. Leo Beckett had two sons from a previous marriage, and three grandchildren. Beckett and her husband enjoyed caravan holidays throughout her political career. Leo Beckett died in 2021.

After Labour returned to power in 1997, Beckett became a member of Tony Blair's government initially as President of the Board of Trade.

biographies/70167bc22d.json:14

biographies

Post-Blair years

Margaret Beckett Margaret Beckett was born Margaret Mary Jackson in 1943, in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, into the family of an invalid Congregationalist carpenter father and an Irish Catholic teacher mother. Her father died early, precipitating family poverty. he had two sisters, one later a nun, the other later a doctor and mother of three. he was educated at the Notre Dame High School for Girls in Norwich, then at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, where she took a degree in metallurgy. he was an active member of the Students' Union and served on its council. In 1961, Beckett joined Associated Electrical Industries as a student apprentice in metallurgy. he joined the Transport and General Workers Union in 1964. he joined the University of Manchester in 1966 as an experiment officer in its metallurgy department, and in 1970 went to work for the Labour Party as a researcher in industrial policy. In 1973, Beckett was selected as Labour candidate for Lincoln, which the party wanted to win back from ex-Labour MP Dick Taverne, who had won the Lincoln by-election in March 1973 standing as the Democratic Labour candidate. At the February 1974 general election, Beckett lost to Taverne by 1,297 votes. Following the election, she worked as a researcher for Judith Hart, the Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign Office. Harold Wilson called another general election in October 1974, and Beckett again stood against Taverne in Lincoln. his time Beckett became the MP, with a majority of 984 votes. Almost immediately after her election she was appointed as Judith Hart's Parliamentary Private Secretary. Harold Wilson made her a Whip in 1975, and in 1976 promoted her to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Education and Science, replacing Joan Lestor, who had resigned in protest over spending cuts. he remained in that position until she lost her seat at the 1979 general election. he Conservative candidate Kenneth Carlisle narrowly won the seat with a 602-vote majority, the first time the Conservatives had won at Lincoln since 1935. he joined Granada Television as a researcher in 1979. ut of Parliament, and now known as Margaret Beckett after her marriage, she was elected to Labour's National Executive Committee in 1980, and supported left-winger Tony Benn in the 1981 Labour deputy leadership election narrowly won by Denis Healey. he was the subject of a vociferous attack from Joan Lestor at the conference. Beckett was selected to stand at the 1983 general election as the Labour candidate in the parliamentary constituency of Derby South following the retirement of the sitting MP, Walter Johnson. At the election she retained the seat with a small majority of 421 votes. In March 2022 Beckett announced she would end her parliamentary career, standing down from MP as Derby South at the next general election. Upon returning to the House of Commons, Beckett gradually moved away from the left, supporting incumbent leader Neil Kinnock against Benn in 1988. By this time she was a front bencher, as a spokeswoman on Social Security since 1984, becoming a member of the Shadow Cabinet in 1989 as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Following the 1992 general election she was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and served under John Smith as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. he became a Member of the Privy Council in 1993. he was the first woman to serve as deputy leader of the Labour Party. Following the sudden death of John Smith from a heart attack on 12 May 1994, Beckett became the acting Labour leader, the Party's constitution providing for the automatic succession of the deputy leader for the remainder of the leadership term, upon the death or resignation of an incumbent leader in opposition. In times when the party is in opposition, Labour leaders are subject to annual re-election at the time of the annual party conference; accordingly, Beckett was constitutionally entitled to remain in office as acting leader until the 1994 Conference. However, the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) rapidly decided to bring forward the election for Leader and Deputy Leader to July 1994. Beckett decided to run for the position of Leader, but came last in the subsequent leadership election, behind Tony Blair and John Prescott. he Deputy Leadership was contested at the same time; Beckett was also defeated in this contest, coming second behind Prescott. hough she failed in both contests, she was retained in the shadow cabinet by Blair as Shadow Health Secretary. A footnote to her ten-week tenure as caretaker leader of the Labour Party is that she was the leader at the time of that year's 1994 European parliament elections, which were held four weeks after she assumed the position. Labour's election campaign had been long in the planning under Smith, whose sudden death led to a "sympathy rise" in opinion polls for Labour, compounding what had already been a strong lead over the Conservatives. Consequently, Labour had a commanding victory in what was its best result in any of the eight European elections held since 1979. he two Labour leadership elections followed six weeks later on 21 July 1994 and the Labour electorate did not appear to attribute any credit for the successful European election result to Beckett's chance-ordained position as acting leader in the four weeks immediately prior to the election. Under Blair's leadership, Beckett was the Shadow Secretary of State for Health, and then from 1995 the President of the Board of Trade. he was one of the leading critics of the government when the Scott Report published its findings into the Arms-to-Iraq scandal in 1996. he Labour Party was elected to government in a landslide in the 1997 general election and Beckett held a number of senior positions in the Blair government. Following the election she was appointed President of the Board of Trade (a position whose title later reverted to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry); the first woman to have held the post. he was succeeded by Peter Mandelson in July 1998. Beckett was then Leader of the House of Commons from 1998 until her replacement by Robin Cook in June 2001. Her tenure saw the introduction of Westminster Hall debates, which are debates held in a small chamber near Westminster Hall on topics of interest to individual MPs, committee reports, and other matters that would not ordinarily be debated in the Commons chamber. Debates that take place in Westminster Hall are often more consensual and informal, and can address the concerns of backbenchers. he received admiration for her work as Leader of the House, working on this and a number of other elements of the Labour government's modernisation agenda for Parliament. In 2000, she expressed republican sympathies. Following the 2001 general election, Beckett became Secretary of State at the new Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), created after the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was abolished in the wake of perceived mismanagement of the foot and mouth disease epidemic in 2001. he new department also incorporated some of the functions of the former Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). For legal reasons, Beckett was also appointed formally as the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, which appointment she held until MAFF was finally dissolved on 27 March 2002 and the remaining functions of that were transferred to the Secretary of State at large. Beckett rejected demands for an expansion of nuclear power from a lobby including energy minister Brian Wilson and Downing Street staff. he argued there was no need for new nuclear for at least 15 years given current energy prices and generation capacity. he 2003 energy white paper stated "the current economics of nuclear power make it unattractive" and there were no proposals for new nuclear power stations. Beckett held the position of Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs until May 2006, when she was succeeded by David Miliband. Beckett was on the front line of the government's efforts to tackle climate change, and attended international conferences on the matter. In a report published on 29 March 2007 by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, she was criticised for her role in the failures of the Rural Payments Agency when she had been Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Following the 2006 local elections, Blair demoted Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and appointed Beckett as Straw's successor. he was the first woman to hold the post, and only the second woman (after Margaret Thatcher) to hold one of the Great Offices of State. he appointment came as something of a surprise, for the media and for Beckett herself; she admitted reacting to the news by saying the F-word. ome commentators claim that Beckett was promoted to Foreign Secretary because she was considered to be a 'safe pair of hands' and a loyal member of the Cabinet. Her experience at DEFRA in dealing with international climate change issues has also been cited as a factor in the move. Beckett had to adapt quickly to her diplomatic role; within a few hours of her appointment as Foreign Secretary, she flew to the United Nations in New York City for an urgent meeting of foreign ministers to discuss the Iran nuclear weapons crisis. About a month later, she came under fire for not responding quickly enough to the 2006 Lebanon War which saw Israel invade that country, although some reports suggested that the delay was caused by Cabinet division rather than Beckett's reluctance to make a public statement on the matter. Beckett is understood to have delegated European issues to the Foreign Office minister responsible for Europe, Geoff Hoon, who, following his demotion as Defence Secretary, continued to attend Cabinet meetings. Hoon and Beckett were said to have a difficult ministerial relationship. As Foreign Secretary, Beckett came in for some trenchant criticism. According to "The Times", she did not stand up well in comparison with the previous Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. "The Spectator" described her as "at heart, an old, isolationist, pacifist Leftist" and called on her to resign, and the "New Statesman" accused her of allowing the Foreign Office to become subservient to 10 Downing Street after the tenures of Straw and Robin Cook. In August 2006, 37 Labour Party members in her Derby South constituency left the party and joined the Liberal Democrats, criticising her approach to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. wo weeks earlier, Beckett's successor, David Miliband, raised concerns during a cabinet meeting about the failure of Blair and Beckett to call for an immediate ceasefire. traw and Hilary Benn, then International Development Secretary, also raised concerns. Former minister Michael Meacher said there was "despair, anger and bewilderment" in the Labour Party at the UK's failure to call for an immediate ceasefire. Upon taking office as Prime Minister, Gordon Brown made it known that Beckett would not continue as Foreign Secretary. n 28 June 2007, Brown selected David Miliband as her replacement and Beckett returned to the back benches. It was announced on 29 January 2008 that Beckett would become the new head of the Prime Minister's Intelligence and Security Committee, replacing Paul Murphy, who became the Secretary of State for Wales. Having been tipped for a possible return to the front bench in July 2008, due to her reputation as a solid media performer, Beckett returned to government in the reshuffle on 3 October 2008 as the Minister of State for Housing in the Department for Communities and Local Government. he attended Cabinet meetings, but was not a full member and was not to be entitled to vote on collective decisions. he ultimately was allowed to return due to her cabinet experience and her economic management in the past. Beckett is currently a member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation, established in October 2009. he has served as a member of the Henry Jackson Society Advisory Council. Beckett was found to have claimed £600 for hanging baskets and pot plants by "The Daily Telegraph" in the 2009 expenses scandal. As she had no mortgage or rent outstanding it was queried how she managed to claim £72,537 between 2004 and 2008 on a house in her constituency when she was renting out her London flat and living in a grace and favour flat. n 10 June 2009, Beckett announced that she wished to replace Michael Martin as Speaker of the House of Commons. he said: "I think at the moment we have got very considerable problems in Parliament. We have got to make changes... After the next election, if we have a more finely balanced chamber than we have had in the recent past, it will be a very different ball game... I hope I can help us deal with that." Beckett received 74 votes in the first round and 70 votes in the second round of the 2009 Speaker election, reaching the third place as the strongest Labour candidate both times but considerably trailing the two Conservative frontrunners John Bercow and George Young. he withdrew following the second round of voting. In August 2009, Beckett wrote to Sir Christopher Kelly, Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life which was investigating MPs' expenses. In the letter, she says the allowances do not adequately cover MPs' costs, which include political campaigns. "The Telegraph" criticised the "self-pitying" letter, saying it will fuel "concern that some MPs are not genuinely committed to reform". n 26 November 2010, Beckett was announced as the President of the NOtoAV campaign, which campaigned to retain the First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system at the 2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum. he led the campaign to success, and FPTP remains the system used in UK parliamentary elections. Beckett was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015. Later, during an interview with BBC Radio 4's "World at One", after it became known he was in the lead among the candidates, Beckett was asked if she was "a moron" for nominating Corbyn. he replied: "I am one of them". Furthermore, in January 2016, Beckett claimed that Labour would need an "unexpected political miracle" if it were to win under his leadership, and criticised Corbyn for failing to win back the trust of the electorate on welfare reform and mass immigration, saying: "I think we had the right policies towards immigration, but the simple thuggishness of the kind of Ukip and Conservative approach is easier to understand and we didn't overcome those communication difficulties ... We have to try and work on ways to overcome that – I'm not suggesting we've done it yet". he later supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election. In February 2019, however, she acknowledged during an interview with Sophy Ridge on Sky News that she was "surprised" about how Corbyn had "grown into the job" after taking on the leadership. he further claimed that veteran Conservative MP Kenneth Clarke called Corbyn a "perfectly competent" opposition leader. n 16 January 2016, Beckett released "Learning the Lessons from Defeat Taskforce Report", a 35-page report into why the Labour Party lost the general election of 2015 after the then deputy leader Harriet Harman requested Beckett investigate the reasons for Labour's failure. Labour's defeat came as a shock to pollsters, whose polls had suggested that the result would be much closer than it eventually was. Ultimately, the Conservatives won a narrow majority. he report said that explanations including Labour being "anti-business" or "anti-aspiration" were not "significant" factors, saying that "reasons for defeat should be treated with caution and require deeper analysis". Allegations that the party was overly left-wing were also allegedly unfounded as according to the report: "Many of our most 'left wing' policies were the most popular. Polls showed a wish, from voters, for us to be tougher on big business, and policies that were unpopular with many senior business people, such as the energy price freeze and the Mansion Tax, were popular with voters". he main reasons given for Labour's losses were the perceived weakness of Ed Miliband as party leader, fear of Labour's relationship with the Scottish National Party (SNP) among English voters, a perceived association with the financial crisis under the Brown ministry and "issues of connection" with voters. Labour was also said to have failed to convince voters of its welfare and immigration policies. Beckett claims: "A series of vicious and cynical attacks were mounted on some of the most vulnerable in society, in the expectation that the Labour party would do its utmost to defend them, and could be painted as the party of welfare". he report also said that it would be difficult for Labour to win next time because of changes to constituency boundaries (due in 2018), voter registration changes and restrictions on trade union funding of parties. Beckett said the party should campaign in ordinary language, focus its policy on the condition of Britain in 2020, unite for the EU referendum and draw up a five-year media strategy. he Beckett report was criticised by some on the left-wing of British politics as "show[ing] that many Labour politicians still don't really understand why they lost" and blaming factors such as the rise of the SNP on Labour's losses, rather than campaigning against austerity. thers criticised the report for being too broad and too vague in its conclusions. tephen Bush wrote in the "New Statesman" that "every bit of the Labour party will have something it can cling to" in the report: He continued: Owen Jones, a columnist for "The Guardian", said that the left should not fear the Beckett report, saying: "Let's have a full inquest, not in the interests of navel-gazing, but in the interests of winning". Many centrist and more right-wing Labour politicians have also welcomed the report. In Parliament, she is Chair of the National Security Strategy (Joint Committee), and is a former member of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament and Modernisation of the House of Commons Committee. n 24 November 2020, Beckett was elected to succeed the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association's Andi Fox as the Chair of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee. he was elected unopposed after NEC members from the left of the party staged a virtual walkout, protesting her election over then vice-chair Ian Murray from the Fire Brigades Union. Beckett was criticised after being overheard insulting a fellow NEC member during a Zoom call on 11 March 2021. Beckett thought her microphone was turned off when calling Laura Pidcock a "silly cow", after which Pidcock left the meeting. Beckett apologised immediately and told the BBC the following day: "I deeply regret the remark, which was unjustifiable." Fellow NEC members called on her to resign, while Labour's general secretary David Evans said that complaints against Beckett would be investigated. he married the chairman of her local Constituency Labour Party, Lionel Beckett, in August 1979. Beckett employed her husband as her office manager, on a salary up to £30,000. he practice of MPs employing family members has been criticised by some sections of the media on the lines that it promotes nepotism. Although MPs who were first elected in 2017 have been banned from employing family members, the restriction is not retroactive. Leo Beckett had two sons from a previous marriage, and three grandchildren. Beckett and her husband enjoyed caravan holidays throughout her political career. Leo Beckett died in 2021.

In 2007, Beckett was not initially given a position by new Prime Minister Gordon Brown; after she had spent a period on the backbenches, Brown appointed her to his cabinet as Minister of State for Housing and Planning in 2008.

companies/bc5759dae7.json:15

companies

Operations

Renishaw plc he Company was founded by Sir David McMurtry and John Deer in 1973. McMurtry had needed to measure fuel pipes on a prototype jet engine: at the time, coordinate-measuring machine sensors featured rigid styli, which required manual positioning on the surface and which yielded poor repeatability when measuring delicate components. o meet this need, McMurtry invented a touch-trigger probe device, which he then patented. he probe featured an elegant 'kinematic' location for a spring-loaded stylus, providing a highly repeatable seated position for the stylus combined with the compliance needed to measure such components. Renishaw was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in November 1984. In 2006 the Company bought 'itp', a German manufacturer of precision styli. In early 2009 the global recession reached Renishaw, resulting in a large proportion of the workforce being placed "at risk". ince 2009, Renishaw has seen a turnaround in business, with orders doubling within a year, and the company stating that it had "recovered strongly since the worldwide recession". In 2010 Renishaw bought a stake (and subsequently took complete control) of Measuring Devices Ltd, a company providing a range of services in the field of surveying equipment. In 2011 Renishaw purchased the 400,000 sq ft Bosch plant in Miskin, Wales. Renishaw specialises in industrial metrology and spectroscopy and sells its products in the major markets around the world. he company's strategy has been to grow organically sustained by patented innovations. he company's product portfolio has since expanded into touch probes for CNC machine tools, calibration systems that optimise the performance of CNC machinery, linear encoder systems, rotary encoder systems, additive manufacturing machines, dental CAD/CAM systems, Raman spectroscopy and medical devices for functional neurosurgery applications. Renishaw's main offices are situated in an old watermill from the industrial revolution, with several new buildings on a 26-acre ( 110,000 m2 ) site. It is a nature oriented site, with dozens of birds (including ducks and swans) and a large lake. he site is also close to the village of Charfield, slightly west of the market town of Wotton-Under-Edge. he company has a machine shop located at Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, and an assembly facility at Woodchester, both near Stroud. here are further assembly facilities in Dublin (Ireland) and Pune (India). Renishaw also has research facilities located in Wotton-under-Edge, Edinburgh and Ljubljana. n 2 March 2021, David McMurtry and John Deer indicated that they wished to dispose of their entire holdings in Renishaw, comprising some 53% of the shares, as 'we recognise that neither of us is getting any younger'. he Renishaw board then announced that it was launching a formal sale process for the entire company. his process was terminated on 7 July 2021, the board concluding that none of the proposals met their objectives.

The company specialises in healthcare, spectroscopy and manufacturing. It is involved in additive manufacturing.

. Here is a summary of Renishaw plc: Renishaw plc was founded in 1973 by Sir David McMurtry and John Deer; it specializes in industrial metrology and spectroscopy, and has grown organically through patented innovations.

companies/bc5759dae7.json:16

companies

History

Renishaw plc he Company was founded by Sir David McMurtry and John Deer in 1973. McMurtry had needed to measure fuel pipes on a prototype jet engine: at the time, coordinate-measuring machine sensors featured rigid styli, which required manual positioning on the surface and which yielded poor repeatability when measuring delicate components. o meet this need, McMurtry invented a touch-trigger probe device, which he then patented. he probe featured an elegant 'kinematic' location for a spring-loaded stylus, providing a highly repeatable seated position for the stylus combined with the compliance needed to measure such components. Renishaw was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in November 1984. In 2006 the Company bought 'itp', a German manufacturer of precision styli. In early 2009 the global recession reached Renishaw, resulting in a large proportion of the workforce being placed "at risk". ince 2009, Renishaw has seen a turnaround in business, with orders doubling within a year, and the company stating that it had "recovered strongly since the worldwide recession". In 2010 Renishaw bought a stake (and subsequently took complete control) of Measuring Devices Ltd, a company providing a range of services in the field of surveying equipment. In 2011 Renishaw purchased the 400,000 sq ft Bosch plant in Miskin, Wales. Renishaw specialises in industrial metrology and spectroscopy and sells its products in the major markets around the world. he company's strategy has been to grow organically sustained by patented innovations. he company's product portfolio has since expanded into touch probes for CNC machine tools, calibration systems that optimise the performance of CNC machinery, linear encoder systems, rotary encoder systems, additive manufacturing machines, dental CAD/CAM systems, Raman spectroscopy and medical devices for functional neurosurgery applications. Renishaw's main offices are situated in an old watermill from the industrial revolution, with several new buildings on a 26-acre ( 110,000 m2 ) site. It is a nature oriented site, with dozens of birds (including ducks and swans) and a large lake. he site is also close to the village of Charfield, slightly west of the market town of Wotton-Under-Edge. he company has a machine shop located at Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, and an assembly facility at Woodchester, both near Stroud. here are further assembly facilities in Dublin (Ireland) and Pune (India). Renishaw also has research facilities located in Wotton-under-Edge, Edinburgh and Ljubljana. n 2 March 2021, David McMurtry and John Deer indicated that they wished to dispose of their entire holdings in Renishaw, comprising some 53% of the shares, as 'we recognise that neither of us is getting any younger'. he Renishaw board then announced that it was launching a formal sale process for the entire company. his process was terminated on 7 July 2021, the board concluding that none of the proposals met their objectives.

It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

. Here is a summary of the text about Renishaw plc: Renishaw plc was founded in 1973 by Sir David McMurtry and John Deer after McMurtry invented a touch-trigger probe device to measure fuel pipes on a prototype jet engine.

companies/34204829a2.json:17

companies

Further developments (1996–2005)

Mlekara Subotica AD Mlekara Subotica was founded on 4 March 1955 in Subotica under the name "Co – operative Dairy - Independent Business Organization ". In 1957, Mlekara Subotica purchased its first used trucks, a batch pasteurizer with ribbed cooler and a separator pasteurizer. At that time, the first chemical analyses of milk quality, regarding acidity analyses and the assessment of milk fat content were made. In May 1959 "Co- operative Dairy" became Mlekara Subotica. In 1963, instead of milk churns, glass packaging for milk and yogurt were introduced. In 1968, Mlekara Subotica is awarded with a Yugoslav Oscar for packaging, more precisely for plastic cup packaging for sour cream. New, so called “Dutch tanks” for the production of cheese were purchased. In 1972, Mlekara Subotica had moved to a new location. It meant better working conditions and a significant increase in the number of employees involving their better qualification structure. he period of 1966 and onwards is the age of modernization. Mlekara Subotica was equipped with a roller-type milk drying installation. New vehicles were bought, as well as a fuel oil driven steam boiler and a number of milk cooling devices. In 1975, a new, 100.000 liters per day capacity spray drier was put into operation. At that time, the production program of Mlekara Subotica consisted of: Sonja pasteurized milk, fermented milk drinks, cheeses, butter and powder milk. In 1978, Mlekara purchased a combined installation and another spray drier for processing milk, fruit and vegetables, thus ensuring safety in supplying final consumers with dairy product, as well as its buyers - companies from the confectionery industry and bakeries, as well as fodder producers. he development of the new powder milk production facility was finished. Another roller was bought for drying milk for powder milk, as well as a two-stage evaporation plant, a compressor, then a new "freezing” water line, a brand new vehicles and a whole range of minor investments was implemented. In 1985, Mlekara Subotica celebrated three decades of successful and continuous growth of operations. he company processed over 56 million raw milk and other dairy products, and had 265 employees. Mlekara Subotica had grown into one of the biggest dairy companies in Yugoslavia, at the same time occupying a significant market share in the processing industry group on the level of the country. he period between 1986 and 1995 was marked by the building of the cheese plant, where quark and soft white cheese were produced. Mlekara Subotica introduced the technology of creamy cheese spreads. he production of instant powder products started in 1989. Mlekara Subotica opened a representative office and a shop in Belgrade, and started the cooperation with C-Market. At the same time, another representative office and a shop were opened in Ćuprija together with the company Firma Pomoravlje, as well as the company’s own branch office and shop in Niš. Major investments in new machines “tetra rex” and “elopak”, provided eco-friendly paper packaging of short shelf-life liquid products. he investment in the Aseptic A3 sterilizing line, in the amount of about 2 million Swiss Francs enabled tetra-pak packaging of aseptic milk, chocolate milk and juices, and it provided a more serious presence in the center of former Yugoslavia, since product shelf-life was prolonged. ignificant funds were invested in primary production. In this period, about 1.800 calf heifers, 400 milking machines and about 100 cooling devices were purchased. In 1995, Mlekara Subotica welcomes the fourth decade completely solvent and free from any debt, with investments financed solely from the company’s own funds. he activities of Mlekara Subotica were categorized by the trend of growth in the field of raw milk receptions and in technical –technological and marketing areas. From a simple co – operative dairy Mlekara Subotica has successfully managed to develop into a factory, which can today bee measured by the European standards. Mlekara Subotica had processed more than 1.3 billion liters of milk. he quantities processed today are one hundred times more than at the very beginning! During 2003, the full automation of the fermented dairy product plant was finished, and it consisted of new equipment for milk standardization, milk and fermented cream pasteurization and homogenization, fermented dairy product production (yogurt, fermented milk, fermented cream, new probiotic and low-calorie drinks). ogether with the British Salford Investment Fund, which is the majority owner of Mlekara Subotica from November 2003, the investments into new technologies were continued. In the same year, the buy-up of about 60 million liters of milk were planned, hence the emphasis was given to the development of family farms. At present, there are 72 family farms owned by Mlekara Subotica, and by the end of the year another 30 farms will be developed, where milk production can be measured by European standards. hese efforts will ensure extra quality raw milk. he laboratory equipped for microbiological and chemical control and for the control of the cows’ health safety has started to work recently. his lab is an additional link in the chain of internal quality control. In 2005, Mlekara was certificated to ISO 9001:2000. he HACCP system for controlled production has also been introduced in the company, and it will enable export to EU countries and the countries of the region. he implementation of the quality management standard initiated several strategically significant technical-technological and constructional investments. In 2008, the application area of BRC Standard was extended to the full production range, while in the year 2009 HALAL standard has also been implemented which defines the conditions for food producers and so could be exported in the countries with mostly Muslim population. hanks to the intensive joint work with the Veterinary Administration, the positive assessment by the European Commission, Mlekara Subotica was on the list. he Commission’s decision was a confirmation of quality and the safety of products, which results in a 30 million euro investment of Danube Foods Group in all aspects of business since it became the majority owner in 2003. In 2010, Mlekara Subotica adapted and improved its operations according to modern concepts of environmental protection and introduced the environmental management system ISO 14001:2004. he entire system of production and business was brought to the required level when the control of the EU commission was announced in the first quarter of 2010, thus confirmed the decision of the Veterinary Inspection of Serbia which approved the export of products of Mlekara Subotica to the EU. In 2011 was brought another standard to Mlekara Subotica called IFS V5, which improved the food safety and product quality, as well as should be increase security and confidence of consumers and among all improve cost efficiency in the food chain. In February 2015, the investment fund Mid Europa Partners bought "Danube Foods Group" (which at the time owned Mlekara Subotica) for a sum of 575 million euros. Later, Mlekara Subotica was merged into the Serbian largest dairy products company Imlek, thus way ceasing company's operations; company's facilities in Subotica have since been used by Imlek.

Mlekara Subotica produced fresh milk and yogurt. It exported its products to the countries in the region as well as in the European Union.

.

companies/34204829a2.json:18

companies

The modernization (1966–1975)

Mlekara Subotica AD Mlekara Subotica was founded on 4 March 1955 in Subotica under the name "Co – operative Dairy - Independent Business Organization ". In 1957, Mlekara Subotica purchased its first used trucks, a batch pasteurizer with ribbed cooler and a separator pasteurizer. At that time, the first chemical analyses of milk quality, regarding acidity analyses and the assessment of milk fat content were made. In May 1959 "Co- operative Dairy" became Mlekara Subotica. In 1963, instead of milk churns, glass packaging for milk and yogurt were introduced. In 1968, Mlekara Subotica is awarded with a Yugoslav Oscar for packaging, more precisely for plastic cup packaging for sour cream. New, so called “Dutch tanks” for the production of cheese were purchased. In 1972, Mlekara Subotica had moved to a new location. It meant better working conditions and a significant increase in the number of employees involving their better qualification structure. he period of 1966 and onwards is the age of modernization. Mlekara Subotica was equipped with a roller-type milk drying installation. New vehicles were bought, as well as a fuel oil driven steam boiler and a number of milk cooling devices. In 1975, a new, 100.000 liters per day capacity spray drier was put into operation. At that time, the production program of Mlekara Subotica consisted of: Sonja pasteurized milk, fermented milk drinks, cheeses, butter and powder milk. In 1978, Mlekara purchased a combined installation and another spray drier for processing milk, fruit and vegetables, thus ensuring safety in supplying final consumers with dairy product, as well as its buyers - companies from the confectionery industry and bakeries, as well as fodder producers. he development of the new powder milk production facility was finished. Another roller was bought for drying milk for powder milk, as well as a two-stage evaporation plant, a compressor, then a new "freezing” water line, a brand new vehicles and a whole range of minor investments was implemented. In 1985, Mlekara Subotica celebrated three decades of successful and continuous growth of operations. he company processed over 56 million raw milk and other dairy products, and had 265 employees. Mlekara Subotica had grown into one of the biggest dairy companies in Yugoslavia, at the same time occupying a significant market share in the processing industry group on the level of the country. he period between 1986 and 1995 was marked by the building of the cheese plant, where quark and soft white cheese were produced. Mlekara Subotica introduced the technology of creamy cheese spreads. he production of instant powder products started in 1989. Mlekara Subotica opened a representative office and a shop in Belgrade, and started the cooperation with C-Market. At the same time, another representative office and a shop were opened in Ćuprija together with the company Firma Pomoravlje, as well as the company’s own branch office and shop in Niš. Major investments in new machines “tetra rex” and “elopak”, provided eco-friendly paper packaging of short shelf-life liquid products. he investment in the Aseptic A3 sterilizing line, in the amount of about 2 million Swiss Francs enabled tetra-pak packaging of aseptic milk, chocolate milk and juices, and it provided a more serious presence in the center of former Yugoslavia, since product shelf-life was prolonged. ignificant funds were invested in primary production. In this period, about 1.800 calf heifers, 400 milking machines and about 100 cooling devices were purchased. In 1995, Mlekara Subotica welcomes the fourth decade completely solvent and free from any debt, with investments financed solely from the company’s own funds. he activities of Mlekara Subotica were categorized by the trend of growth in the field of raw milk receptions and in technical –technological and marketing areas. From a simple co – operative dairy Mlekara Subotica has successfully managed to develop into a factory, which can today bee measured by the European standards. Mlekara Subotica had processed more than 1.3 billion liters of milk. he quantities processed today are one hundred times more than at the very beginning! During 2003, the full automation of the fermented dairy product plant was finished, and it consisted of new equipment for milk standardization, milk and fermented cream pasteurization and homogenization, fermented dairy product production (yogurt, fermented milk, fermented cream, new probiotic and low-calorie drinks). ogether with the British Salford Investment Fund, which is the majority owner of Mlekara Subotica from November 2003, the investments into new technologies were continued. In the same year, the buy-up of about 60 million liters of milk were planned, hence the emphasis was given to the development of family farms. At present, there are 72 family farms owned by Mlekara Subotica, and by the end of the year another 30 farms will be developed, where milk production can be measured by European standards. hese efforts will ensure extra quality raw milk. he laboratory equipped for microbiological and chemical control and for the control of the cows’ health safety has started to work recently. his lab is an additional link in the chain of internal quality control. In 2005, Mlekara was certificated to ISO 9001:2000. he HACCP system for controlled production has also been introduced in the company, and it will enable export to EU countries and the countries of the region. he implementation of the quality management standard initiated several strategically significant technical-technological and constructional investments. In 2008, the application area of BRC Standard was extended to the full production range, while in the year 2009 HALAL standard has also been implemented which defines the conditions for food producers and so could be exported in the countries with mostly Muslim population. hanks to the intensive joint work with the Veterinary Administration, the positive assessment by the European Commission, Mlekara Subotica was on the list. he Commission’s decision was a confirmation of quality and the safety of products, which results in a 30 million euro investment of Danube Foods Group in all aspects of business since it became the majority owner in 2003. In 2010, Mlekara Subotica adapted and improved its operations according to modern concepts of environmental protection and introduced the environmental management system ISO 14001:2004. he entire system of production and business was brought to the required level when the control of the EU commission was announced in the first quarter of 2010, thus confirmed the decision of the Veterinary Inspection of Serbia which approved the export of products of Mlekara Subotica to the EU. In 2011 was brought another standard to Mlekara Subotica called IFS V5, which improved the food safety and product quality, as well as should be increase security and confidence of consumers and among all improve cost efficiency in the food chain. In February 2015, the investment fund Mid Europa Partners bought "Danube Foods Group" (which at the time owned Mlekara Subotica) for a sum of 575 million euros. Later, Mlekara Subotica was merged into the Serbian largest dairy products company Imlek, thus way ceasing company's operations; company's facilities in Subotica have since been used by Imlek.

Other dairy products include cheese, powdered milk, and butter.

and focus on summarizing the text within the specified timeframe (1955-1975).

biographies/b9ad8c738e.json:19

biographies

Career

Nazeem Hussain Hussain was born in 1985 in Melbourne, Australia. His parents, both born in Sri Lanka, met in London before relocating to Australia in the 1970s. Following their separation when Hussain was six years old, Hussain's father returned to Sri Lanka. Hussain's father died of COVID-19 in 2021. Hussain has two sisters. Hussain studied law and science at Deakin University and worked as a tax consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers prior to entering comedy. Hussain's Netflix special ‘Nazeem Hussain: Public Frenemy’, filmed in Montreal at the Just For Laughs Festival, started streaming globally in 2019, introducing Nazeem to many new fans, and receiving critical acclaim. "Funny Or Die" and "Chortle" both listed Nazeem’s special amongst their favourites. Hussain's prime time TV comedy series "Orange Is the New Brown" aired on Channel 7 in late 2018 to overwhelmingly positive reviews. Nazeem created and starred in the sketch series, working alongside Claudia Karvan, Tim Minchin, Urzila Carlson and Kat Stewart. everal of the sketches have gone viral online, being viewed by over 10 million people. Hussain began his career as a stand-up comedian. He won the Best Newcomer Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and has twice been nominated for the Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer. 2019 saw Nazeem perform ‘Basic Idiot’, his fifth consecutive stand-up tour, to his largest audiences ever in every major Australian city. He also supported Aziz Ansari on his 2019 Australia tour. Hussain became a household name when he reached the Grand Final of Channel 10’s ‘"I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!’," having to bunk up with Dane Swan, Steve Price, Casey Donovan and Natalie Bassingthwaighte for over six weeks. Nazeem’s chosen charity was InTouch Multicultural Centre Against Domestic Violence. Hussain is perhaps best known as the creator and star of his TV show, ‘"Legally Brown’", airing for two seasons on SBS Television in 2013 & 2014. he show broke ground with its boundary-pushing content, received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for Most Outstanding Comedy at the 2015 Logie Awards. He made his American TV debut as an official correspondent for both seasons of the hit Netflix series "Bill Nye Saves the World" with American TV personality Bill Nye (popularly known as ‘Bill Nye the Science guy’). He was also invited to perform at the prestigious Montreal ‘Just for Laughs Festival’ as a part of Kevin Hart’s LOL network. A regular on international stages, Nazeem has performed around the globe, including sell-out seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, London’s Soho Theatre, all across New Zealand, Paris, Belgium, China, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States (including opening for Dave Chappelle in New York City), and a homecoming show in Sri Lanka to 2,500 people, including the Prime Minister and his wife. Hussain was a regular on the Comedy Channel’s hugely successful, ASTRA award-winning ‘"Balls of Steel Australia’". His self-created character, Calvin Khan – the Very Foreign Correspondent, saw his episodes achieve the highest ratings of the season. Nazeem also starred on the cult-hit "Salam Café" on SBS, which was nominated for a Logie Award in 2009. Hussain’s first comedy podcast "Burn Your Passport" first Comedy Podcast won "iTunes Best Comedy Podcast" of 2016, and is ranked in the 20 most listened to podcasts in Australia. Hussain’s other TV appearances include "The Project", "The Full Brazilian" (SBS), "Hughesy We Have A Problem", "The Weekly With Charlie Pickering", and ABC’s "Q&A" alongside Malcolm Turnbull. In July 2021, it was announced that Hussain will be a regular contributor on KIIS 101.1's "Jase & Lauren." Hussain has served as Treasurer and an Executive of the Islamic Council of Victoria. He appeared on the ABC's Q+A program in 2011 following the death of Osama Bin Laden in 2011 and characterised the "extra-judicial" shooting of the Al Qaeda leader as an example of the United States seeming to "always be outside that sphere of what's right", and said "with so many years of [Western] intervention in the Middle East, eventually you're going to create someone like Osama Bin Laden who is going to react in a way that you just can't control". He also criticised the Government's efforts to stop the people smuggling trade to Australia, and said it was a "myth" that the Howard Government had stopped people smuggling boat arrivals, because "You can't deter people smugglers." In a 2021 ABC program entitled "The School That Tried to End Racism", Hussain led a discussion with primary students. he program promoted critical race theory. Nazeem led a discussion with primary school children to present the comedy character Con the Fruiterer as racist. he ABC describes Hussain's own comedy as being "confrontational" in dealing with race relations, and Islam. In his 2019 "Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala" routine, he depicted Christians as pedophiles, Jews as controlling the media and money, and said of Catholic Cardinal George Pell "I hope you're enjoying prison bitch". In 2022, Hussain withdrew from participating in the Festival of Sydney because the Festival accepted a $20,000 donation from the Israeli Embassy.

He is best known as creator and star of two television comedy shows, "Legally Brown" (2013-14) and "Orange Is the New Brown" (2018). His Netflix special "Nazeem Hussain: Public Frenemy" began streaming worldwide in 2019.

. Here is a summary of Nazeem Hussain's career: Nazeem Hussain is a comedian, actor, and writer who has gained popularity through his stand-up tours, TV shows, and podcast.

biographies/b9ad8c738e.json:20

biographies

Political views and activities

Nazeem Hussain Hussain was born in 1985 in Melbourne, Australia. His parents, both born in Sri Lanka, met in London before relocating to Australia in the 1970s. Following their separation when Hussain was six years old, Hussain's father returned to Sri Lanka. Hussain's father died of COVID-19 in 2021. Hussain has two sisters. Hussain studied law and science at Deakin University and worked as a tax consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers prior to entering comedy. Hussain's Netflix special ‘Nazeem Hussain: Public Frenemy’, filmed in Montreal at the Just For Laughs Festival, started streaming globally in 2019, introducing Nazeem to many new fans, and receiving critical acclaim. "Funny Or Die" and "Chortle" both listed Nazeem’s special amongst their favourites. Hussain's prime time TV comedy series "Orange Is the New Brown" aired on Channel 7 in late 2018 to overwhelmingly positive reviews. Nazeem created and starred in the sketch series, working alongside Claudia Karvan, Tim Minchin, Urzila Carlson and Kat Stewart. everal of the sketches have gone viral online, being viewed by over 10 million people. Hussain began his career as a stand-up comedian. He won the Best Newcomer Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and has twice been nominated for the Helpmann Award for Best Comedy Performer. 2019 saw Nazeem perform ‘Basic Idiot’, his fifth consecutive stand-up tour, to his largest audiences ever in every major Australian city. He also supported Aziz Ansari on his 2019 Australia tour. Hussain became a household name when he reached the Grand Final of Channel 10’s ‘"I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!’," having to bunk up with Dane Swan, Steve Price, Casey Donovan and Natalie Bassingthwaighte for over six weeks. Nazeem’s chosen charity was InTouch Multicultural Centre Against Domestic Violence. Hussain is perhaps best known as the creator and star of his TV show, ‘"Legally Brown’", airing for two seasons on SBS Television in 2013 & 2014. he show broke ground with its boundary-pushing content, received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for Most Outstanding Comedy at the 2015 Logie Awards. He made his American TV debut as an official correspondent for both seasons of the hit Netflix series "Bill Nye Saves the World" with American TV personality Bill Nye (popularly known as ‘Bill Nye the Science guy’). He was also invited to perform at the prestigious Montreal ‘Just for Laughs Festival’ as a part of Kevin Hart’s LOL network. A regular on international stages, Nazeem has performed around the globe, including sell-out seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, London’s Soho Theatre, all across New Zealand, Paris, Belgium, China, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States (including opening for Dave Chappelle in New York City), and a homecoming show in Sri Lanka to 2,500 people, including the Prime Minister and his wife. Hussain was a regular on the Comedy Channel’s hugely successful, ASTRA award-winning ‘"Balls of Steel Australia’". His self-created character, Calvin Khan – the Very Foreign Correspondent, saw his episodes achieve the highest ratings of the season. Nazeem also starred on the cult-hit "Salam Café" on SBS, which was nominated for a Logie Award in 2009. Hussain’s first comedy podcast "Burn Your Passport" first Comedy Podcast won "iTunes Best Comedy Podcast" of 2016, and is ranked in the 20 most listened to podcasts in Australia. Hussain’s other TV appearances include "The Project", "The Full Brazilian" (SBS), "Hughesy We Have A Problem", "The Weekly With Charlie Pickering", and ABC’s "Q&A" alongside Malcolm Turnbull. In July 2021, it was announced that Hussain will be a regular contributor on KIIS 101.1's "Jase & Lauren." Hussain has served as Treasurer and an Executive of the Islamic Council of Victoria. He appeared on the ABC's Q+A program in 2011 following the death of Osama Bin Laden in 2011 and characterised the "extra-judicial" shooting of the Al Qaeda leader as an example of the United States seeming to "always be outside that sphere of what's right", and said "with so many years of [Western] intervention in the Middle East, eventually you're going to create someone like Osama Bin Laden who is going to react in a way that you just can't control". He also criticised the Government's efforts to stop the people smuggling trade to Australia, and said it was a "myth" that the Howard Government had stopped people smuggling boat arrivals, because "You can't deter people smugglers." In a 2021 ABC program entitled "The School That Tried to End Racism", Hussain led a discussion with primary students. he program promoted critical race theory. Nazeem led a discussion with primary school children to present the comedy character Con the Fruiterer as racist. he ABC describes Hussain's own comedy as being "confrontational" in dealing with race relations, and Islam. In his 2019 "Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala" routine, he depicted Christians as pedophiles, Jews as controlling the media and money, and said of Catholic Cardinal George Pell "I hope you're enjoying prison bitch". In 2022, Hussain withdrew from participating in the Festival of Sydney because the Festival accepted a $20,000 donation from the Israeli Embassy.

The ABC describes Hussain's comedy as having a "confrontational style - tackling topics like race relations".

and do not provide any additional information or opinion.

biographies/56cccc1d2b.json:21

biographies

Political career

Rick Lopes Rick Lopes has owned and managed a property management business serving West Hartford, New Britain, and Hartford, Connecticut. Rick Lopes graduated from University of Connecticut with a Bachelor's degree in Literature, as well as a second Bachelor's degree in Sociology. Lopes won a special election in 2012 against Republican candidate Peter Steele. teele and Lopes would go head to head in the 2012 General election as well. With Lopes being victorious. Lopes would win re-election in the 2014 election as well. Defeating Republican Gennaro Bizzaro. Lopes would win the 2016 and 2018 elections. Defeating Republicans James Sanders and Sharan Beloin-Saavedra respectively. In 2020, Rick Lopes did not run for re-election in the House, and instead ran against Republican State Senator Gennaro Bizzaro. Lopes would ultimately win, and help add to the Democratic majority in the Connecticut State Senate. Rick Lopes defeated Republican Incumbent Gennaro Bizzarro. Bizzaro has represented the 6th District since 2019.

Lopes won the election against Republican Incumbent Gennaro Bizzaro.

. Here is a summary of Rick Lopes' political career: Rick Lopes was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 2012 and served until 2020, winning five consecutive elections, before being elected to the Connecticut State Senate in 2020.

biographies/6fde56c067.json:22

biographies

Career

Yoon Seung-ah After being discovered on the street, Yoon Seung-ah began her career as a model, appearing in the magazines "CeCi", "Elle Girl Korea", "Vogue Girl Korea" and "Cosmopolitan Korea" and landing exclusive contracts with Nivea and J.Estina. Yoon first caught the public's eye in 2006 in Alex Chu and Ji Sun's music videos for "Very Heartbreaking Words" and "I Love You", and received the moniker of "Snail Girl." he waited to finish her art major in college before debuting, and gave up a chance to study art abroad in order to pursue her acting career. upporting roles in films and TV series followed, notably as Ha-ni's quirky best friend Min-ah in romantic comedy "Playful Kiss", and as slave-turned-swordswoman Seol in the hit period drama "Moon Embracing the Sun". In 2012, she landed her first leading role in Channel A rom-com series "Miss Panda and Mr. Hedgehog", playing a cake shop owner opposite Super Junior's Lee Donghae. Later that year, Yoon hosted the fashion reality show "Sold Out" on cable channel OnStyle. After a romantic tweet that actor Kim Mu-yeol meant to be a private message to Yoon was accidentally posted on his Twitter page, their agencies confirmed in February 2012 that the two were dating. Yoon and Kim married on April 4, 2015.

She debuted as a magazine model, and first gained attention in 2006 by appearing in two music videos by Alex Chu and Ji Sun. After finishing her art major, Yoon pursued an acting career, with supporting roles in the television series "Playful Kiss" and "Moon Embracing the Sun". She was cast in her first leading role in the 2012 cable romantic comedy "Miss Panda and Mr. Hedgehog".

. Yoon Seung-ah started her career as a model, then transitioned into acting, eventually landing her first leading role in the rom-com series "Miss Panda and Mr. Hedgehog" in 2012.