Trouble with stags In addition to next year’s royal wedding, Prince William will have to organise the royal stag party. William got into trouble in 2008 for flying a Chinook helicopter from Lincolnshire to his cousin Peter Phillips’s stag party on the Isle of Wight — at a cost of £8,716 to the public purse.
Radical cheek Phil Woolas, the first MP for 99 years to have his election to Parliament overturned, has fewer supporters than the Radical MP John Wilkes, who managed to have his election overturned four times in the Middlesex election fiasco of 1768. —Wilkes was first barred from the House of Commons in 1763 after going
Secret history John Sawers, head of MI6, defended the organisation by saying ‘secrecy is not a dirty word’. Secret history John Sawers, head of MI6, defended the organisation by saying ‘secrecy is not a dirty word’. Here are a few things which the organisation does not attempt to keep secret: — MI6 still does not
Exit stage right A new far-right movement, the English Defence League, held protests in Leicester and London. Postwar British history is full of the corpses of failed far-right parties. — The League of Empire Loyalists was a neo-Nazi party which split in 1957 over whether to allow Jews to join. Why any would want to
Among the quango; Labour leadership; Power source; Gay population Among the quangos The government is to axe 177 quangos. Here are some of the most obscure, and their stated purposes: Agricultural Dwelling House Advisory Committees 16 regional bodies which hear disputes over tied housing on farms Commission for the Compact Aids partnership between the government
Party conferences • Public-sector pay • Who we blame for the deficit • British mammals Party conferences When the Liberal party and SDP merged in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats, diehards of both parties went on alone. — Not even David Owen’s attempt finally to wind up the SDP in 1990 prevented some carrying
Papal visit Pope Benedict XVI visits Britain this week, only the second pope to do so. The first was John Paul II in 1982. Some facts and figures from his visit: — John Paul II’s native Poland was still behind the Iron Curtain and it was to be another 22 years before it joined the