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                           <title><![CDATA[That's my seat!]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[The Queen's throne in the House of Lords Chamber is the official throne of the United Kingdom. Made of 23.5 carat gold, it's only used at the State opening of Parliament....]]></description>
                           <link><![CDATA[thats-my-seat]]></link>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:00:53</pubDate>
                           
</item><item>
                           <title><![CDATA[Flying the flag]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[The only foreign flag to have flown over Parliament is the Stars and Stripes - in 1917 when the USA joined the First World War. The Union Flag normally flutters from the the Palace of Westminster's Victoria Tower, except for state opening by the Queen, when the Royal Standard is raised....]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:27:31</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Game, set and match]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Wimbledon fortnight got underway on the same day as the House of Commons elected a new speaker. But did you know that victorious John Bercow MP, used to be Britain's top junior tennis player?...]]></description>
                           <link><![CDATA[game-set-and-match]]></link>
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                           <pubDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:48:32</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Riding two horses at once?]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Former Brigg MP and resident of Healing, John Maunsell Richardson, twice won the Grand National. In 1873, he rode Disturbance to victory and the following year he won again, this time on Reugney. Read more about the MPs for this area in the Local and Family History Section of my website and you may find out which Grimsby MP had at least one illegitmate daughter! Not a piece of information you will find in the official biographies....]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
</item><item>
                           <title><![CDATA[Heads you lose]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Whatever happened to Oliver Cromwell's
head? The Lord Protector of England was buried in 1658. But not for
long. Three years later, his decaying body was dug up and taken to
London's Tyburn to be hung and then 'beheaded'. While his body was
reburied, Oliver's head wasn't so lucky. It was stuck on a spike
and displayed in Westminster Hall - the oldest part of the Houses
of Parliament. Oliver's head stayed stuck on
its spike for 25 years before going on its travels, which
included being hidden up a chimney, becoming a stage prop (Hamlet
possibly?) as well as being put on display as a curio in a...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
</item><item>
                           <title><![CDATA[Firsts for women]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[First woman elected to Parliament: Countess Constance Markievicz First woman MP to take her seat: Viscountess Nancy Astor First Conservative woman MP: Viscountess Nancy Astor First Liberal woman MP: Margaret Wintringham First British-born woman MP: Margaret Wintringham First Labour woman to be elected: Susan Lawrence MP First Labour women to take the oath: Dorothea Jewson MP First woman minister: Margaret Bonfield MP First woman cabinet minister: Margaret Bonfield MP First woman whip: Harriet Slater MP First woman speaker: Betty Boothroyd MP First woman PM: Margaet Thatcher MP First 100 woman elected in one election: 1997 election when 101 Labour women...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
</item><item>
                           <title><![CDATA[Clock wise]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Big Ben
is the big bell in the Palace of Westminister’s 314ft tall clock
tower. Visitors are can climb the clock tower – there are 393
steps....]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
</item><item>
                           <title><![CDATA[Loadsamoney]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[With all
this talk of the quite rich (£4 million plus the inheritance when
he gets it) Conservative wannabe Chancellor, George Osborne,
schmoozing hideously rich Russians, got me thinking. Just who are
the wealthiest politicians in the world? The richest I can find is,
yes, a Russian. Suleiman Kerimov, a Russian senator, is worth an
eye-watering $17.5 billion. Next we have the Mayor of New York,
Michael Bloomberg. Now a lot has been made of the fact
that Mayor Bloomberg takes a salary of just $1 to be
mayor, but that rather overlooks the fact he already has more than
$11 billion to his name. Coming in at number three...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
</item><item>
                           <title><![CDATA[You can leave your hat on]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[In 1784, PM William
Pitt the Younger introduced a tax on men’s hats. A fairly basic hat
costing 4 shillings incurred a tax of three pence. An expensive
creation costing 12 shillings or more carried a tax of 2 shillings
(1 shilling equals about £3.50 today). It may seem quirky to us
today, but it was reasoned at the time that a humble man would buy
perhaps just one cheap hat, whereas the wealthy would purchase many
expensive hats. Some milliners and people tried to get out of
paying the tax (tax avoidance is nothing new!) by saying that their
headgear wasn’t actually a hat. So in 1804 the...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
</item><item>
                           <title><![CDATA[I say aye and nay?]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Rather than abstaining, a British MP in the House of Commons can
vote both for and against a motion at the same time....]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Leading loony]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[The
former leader of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, the late
Screaming Lord Sutch, simultaneously stood against all three main
party leaders in the 1992 General Election – gaining 728 votes
against Tory PM John Major, 547 against Labour leader Neil Kinnock
and a mere 338 against Paddy Ashdown of the Lib
Dems....]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
</item><item>
                           <title><![CDATA[Leading lights]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[From 1922 until 1997,
all leaders of the Tory Party became Prime Minister – Andrew Bonar
Law, Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain, Sir Winston Churchill,
Sir Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Edward
Heath, Margaret Thatcher and Sir John Major....]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
</item><item>
                           <title><![CDATA[First among equals?]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[Up to
1922, there was no official leader of the Conservative Party as both the Leader of the House of Commons and the Leader of the
House of Lords were regarded
as equal....]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Take me to your leader]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[With all the talk about
the Labour leadership, visitors to the site have suggested some
leadership trivia. More than happy to oblige. Leaders of the Labour
Party from 1906 1906-08 Keir
Hardie 1908-10 Arthur Henderson 1910-11 George Nicoll Barnes 1911-14 Ramsay MacDonald 1914-17 Arthur Henderson 1917-21 William Adamson 1921-22 John Robert Clynes 1922-23 Ramsay
MacDonald 1931-32 Arthur Henderson 1932-35 George Lansbury 1935-55 Clement Atlee 1955-60 Hugh Gaitskell 1960-76 Harold Wilson 1976-80 James Callaghan 1980-83 Michael Foot 1983-92 Neil Kinnock 1992-94 John Smith 1994-94 Margaret Beckett 1994-07 Tony Blair 2007-?? Gordon Brown The six highlighted leaders also became Prime
Minister....]]></description>
                           <link><![CDATA[3fa400ce-c931-3e14-8dcf-f89cc5b61e5d]]></link>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
</item><item>
                           <title><![CDATA[In a spin]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[The term 'spin
doctor' derives from the game of baseball and was probably first
used poltically by American president and former actor,
Ronald Reagan. He used the term ‘spin control’ to describe his
public relations staff. He took the term from baseball where spin
would be put on the pitched ball to fox the person batting, ie,
trying to get the best for your team....]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
</item><item>
                           <title><![CDATA[Birds of a feather]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[The Palace of
Westminster has a pigeon problem - their droppings play havoc with
all that guilding apparently. The solution? Birds of prey are
brought in to swoop around the rooftops to scare off their
feathered brethren....]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
</item><item>
                           <title><![CDATA[All White]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[The White House was
first painted white in 1814 after restoration following smoke
damage caused by fires set by...the British!...]]></description>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
</item><item>
                           <title><![CDATA[The white stuff]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[The numeral on the door
of the 10 Downing Street is...white. The door itself is painted
black....]]></description>
                           <link><![CDATA[1422d0eb-547b-a8c4-d95e-880238ba545a]]></link>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
</item><item>
                           <title><![CDATA[Through the key hole]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[The door to Number 10
Downing Street has no key hole - it can be opened only from the
inside. And what is the colour of the number 10 on the door? Think
about it...answer in the next political trivia
posting....]]></description>
                           <link><![CDATA[74d04171-3c49-3834-f910-62bd785a410d]]></link>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
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                           <title><![CDATA[Speak First]]></title>
                           <description><![CDATA[July 2008 marks the
25th anniversary of both Tony Blair's and Gordon Brown's maiden
speeches in the House of Commons - 6 July and 27 July 1983
respectively. So TB got in ahead of GB back then,
too! Here's an extract from
TB's: I am a Socialist not through
reading a textbook that has caught my intellectual fancy, nor
through unthinking tradition, but because I believe that, at its
best, Socialism corresponds most closely to an existence that is
both rational and moral. It stands for co-operation, not
confrontation; for fellowship, not fear. It stands for equality,
not because it wants people to be the same but because only through
equality in...]]></description>
                           <link><![CDATA[b95ce928-a789-ed34-29af-a8355bd46801]]></link>
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                           <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov -0001 12:00:00</pubDate>
                           
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