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Posted by bandick (U14360315) on Friday, 15th April 2011
It seems we have been abandoned by our host, so perhaps if I may throw one in to start the ball rolling…
Who was our first non-white MP, and when was he elected…?
Depending what you mean by non-white, I think you mean Dadabhai Naoroji who was the Liberal MP for Finsbury Central between 1892-5. He became more famous as the first President of the Indian National Congress which sought independence from Britain.
Naoroji was a very light-skinned Parsee. When Lord Salisbury, in a debate in the house of Lords, complained in a House of Lords debate about the influence of 'black' men in the Liberal Party the leader of the Liberal Peers remarked that since the noble Lord had returned from his annual holiday in the South of France (where he reportedly enjoyed the delights of nude sunbathing) he was several shades darker than Naoroji.
The second non-white (or non-indigenous British) MP to be elected (and the first to be re-elected) was Sir Mancherjee Bhownagree who was the Conservative MP for North-East Bethnal Green from 1895-1906 and, like Naoroji, also a Parsee.
Hi bandick
You definitely haven't been abandoned - but thanks for setting the History quiz question today.
It's a bit of a tricky one but has Allan D got it right?
Katy
"The only badly advised one I know is Ethelred (the Unrede-y). I am full of admiration for everyone else's knowledge of pre-Norman kings though, so will await further enlightenment"
I've only just noticed that I got this one right!! Now I am running round the house with my arms in the air and shirt over my head!
Fraid not Allen… not in my boys book of political facts anyway … although there was some contention later…
Katy… what’s happening… what’s going on…?
Raundsgirl… whooo… slow down… stop. Methinks we’ve got a wire or three crossed.
I assume you mean a UK MP but perhaps you could define "non-white" then.
Yes Allen… a UK MP of mixed European and Asian decent…
Bit of a sombre story, his later life, iirc.
But interesting too
It was from the previous quiz thread, Bandick, Message 47 I think. I actually got a question right!!
yes, and well done dear… but sorry to disappoint, that was last week… now you sit down, an ave a nice cuppa tea.
Aye, aye, Sir (sighs despondently and trudges back to the FH board)
Can't you pick up on my earlier hint? It's only 170 years ago, after all!
As you obviously have it urg… do you want to take it…? you can set much better questions…
bandick - I haven't given the answer as I'm only dipping in v. briefly & don't want to hold the quiz up. Let someone else work it out & take over.
Bit of a crib after a very heavy-handed hint from Ur-Lugal. You mean David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre who was indeed an Anglo-Indian who led a picaresque life and was elected as the Whig MP for Sudbury in the 1841 election but unseated on a petition alleging gross corruption which resulted in his constituency being disenfranchised.
Shortly afterwards his wife's family had him declared insane. However he escaped the asylum and travelled around Europe eventually returning to England to have his status revoked by an act of Indemnity. However shortly before receiving the all-clear he died in 1851.
I suppose the argument weith Naoroji is whether Sombre was ever an MP in the first place as his election was revoked although he ad taken the oath and sat in the Commons for several months.
Ur-Lugal got it, I think. I'm disqualified for cribbing.
well as you say, he was elected he had taken the oath and sat in the Commons for several months.
dont think urgs stayin in... se what the morrow brings...
Appears to be nothing so far...so just to keep the quiz running:
Two people served as ministers in the British government during both WWI and WWII - Winston Churchill was one, who was the other?
Sir John (later Viscount) Simon.
Quite right, Ur-Lugal, Simon was Attorney-General from 1913-15 and then Â鶹ԼÅÄ Secretary until he resigned over the introduction of conscription at the beginning of 1916. He was Chancellor of Exchequer at the outbreak of war and became Lord Chancellor (although outside the Cabinet) when Churchill became PM until Labour's victory in the 1945 General Election.
You can have the point but he was not the person I was thinking of. My bad. There is a more well-known figure. You should be able to supply the answer expressly.
Aitken / Beaverbrook? I thought his WWI post was for the Canadian govt.
He was certainly the Canadian Government's Representative to the Imerial General Staff for the duration and set up the Canadian War Records Office and Canadian War Memorials Fund but he was also a British politician in his own right having been elected MP for Ashton-under-Lyne in 1910. Lloyd George created him Baron Beaverbrook in 1917 and from February-September 1918 he was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with the informal title of Minister for Propaganda and Information (the Propaganda part was dropped in WWII because of its adoption by Goebbels) when he established the Central Office of Information.
In WWII he was of course Minister of Aircraft Production and Lord Privy Seal among other posts.Your go, Ur-Lugal, after having spotted my (non-)deliberate mistake.
Apologies, I think he was the Canadian Government''s representative on the Supreme War Council when it was set up in 1917 but this was separate from his role as Minister of Information in the Lloyd George Administration.
OK, then. Simon held 3 of the 4 great offices of state (Foreign Sec, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sec, Chancellor of the Exchequer) without ever getting the Top Job - Which other C20th British politician did the same?
R.A.Butler - Chancellor 1951-55, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Secretary 1957-62, Foreign Secretary 1963-4. He famously missed out on the Premiership in 1957 and 1963 but was Acting Prime Minister for three months in 1953 when both Churchill and Eden were invalids and again from December 1956 - January 1957 when Eden's health collapsed.
Jim Callaghan also occupied all 3 posts (Chancellor 1964-7, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Secretary 1967-70, Foreign Secretary 1974-6) but did manage to break the hoodoo and became PM in April 1976.
OK - away you go, Allan.
R.A.Butler was the only member of Churchill's original Cabinet in October 1951 to still be in the Cabinet when the Conservatives eventually left office 13 years later.
Who was the only member of Mrs Thatcher's original Cabinet in May 1979 to be a member of John Major's last Cabinet in May 1997?
Who's been eating my porridge?
Who killed Cock Robin?
Wasn't me, she says, tossing her blonde head.
Sorry, should have been 'It wasn't me, he said, tossing his blonde head'
Should have been:
"I, said the Sparrow, with my bow and arrow."
Am off out now, but not storming nor by helicopter.
Stop waving that mace, Lord Greystoke
I am terribly confused by all this dropping of dark hints. If you know it's Michael Heseltine, why don't you and ferval *say* it's Michael Heseltine - if it is Michael Heseltine?
Because I'm only here whilst The Gaffer feeds her livestock - it's my birthday, and we've been out for one part of the cebrelations, and will be going out for part ye second within the half hour, so I don't want to set a question. Not sure if Tsar of Liverpool is the answer, he wasn't CONTINUOUSLY inside the sideboard throughout those years, but did top & tail the period.
Because there's little quite so annoying as someone who sets a question and then vanishes for hours. I've popped back home but I'm only on this machine for a minute before I have to go again so one of you others take it away if Alan gives you the nod.
Ah, that's me told then.
Because there's little quite so annoying as someone who sets a question and then vanishes for hours. Â
I don't think I've ever done that, although - hold on, I tell a lie - I did once go to Marks and Spencers about three years ago and kept a few people waiting. A heady sense of power...
Happy Bithday, Ur-Lugal - I suspect you're a bit tiddly.
I think that message was intended for me too. Sorry I had to get medical attention but I thought everybody had given up. Ur-Lugal and SST are absolutely right of course - Tarzan's the one although he famously walked out of the Cabinet as Defence Secretary in January 1986 before being recalled to his original post of Environment Secretary by John Major in November 1990.
Your go, SST. Sorry for making you wait.
Hapy Bithday to mee
Hapy Bithday twomey
Happpy Ebay Ur-Lugal
happy barfday to me
Now I'm back, I'll offer M Heseltine as a suggested answer - although as I say he was a long time out of the cabinet. IIRC Mags' longest-serving veggie was G Howe, but he resigned (damaging her in the process) whilst she was still in the Downing Street Bunker.
Good Lord, he is well tiddly. Well, I suppose it's allowed on his birthday. Come on then, Urnungal, a sensible question, please. But no boring battleship nicknames or obscure coal-mining Dudleys.
Sorry just realised I totally missed the point of Ferval's thinly-disguised answers. Many, many apologies. Brain has been totally out of gear today. Free go for you when you get back. Dunce's cap for me. Happy birthday, Ur-Lugal.
If London's is in the fields, whose can be described as in the corrida?
(nice simple one after all these politicians)
The only 'in the fields' in London that I've ever heard of is St Martin's so, is there a bullfight on the feast day of St Martin?
Sorry, I wasn't casting narsturtiums at anyone, just explaining why I didn't posit my answer straight out.
Well you've got the right Saint ... but the rest isn't what I was looking for.
This is a google answer so if it's right I've definitely cheated. The little town of Villette d'Anthon in the Rhone-Alpes holds a race called La Corrida de la Saint Martin.
I know a Mrs Saint Martin but she has no corrida connotations - as far as I know!
No, the other St Martin's is in the UK. Missed out on promotion in 1905, to St Philip's
Inspiration strikes like a thunderbolt! Why do I overcomplicate things. Birmingham, St Martin's in the Bull Ring.
That's the one!
Away you go, ferval
Oh heck, I'm going out in about half an hour but not for very long I hope. That's more than enough time though for someone to get this.
What's the connection between Easter Island, Delphi and Hagia Sophia?
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