Portal:Politics

Selected article

The privilege of peerage is the body of special privileges belonging to members of the British peerage. It is distinct from Parliamentary privilege, which applies to those peers serving in the House of Lords, and members of the House of Commons, during and forty days before and after a Parliamentary session. The privileges have been lost and eroded over time. Only three survived into the 20th century: the right to be tried by other peers of the realm instead of juries of commoners, freedom from arrest in civil (but not criminal) cases, and access to the Sovereign to advise him or her on matters of state. The right to be tried by other peers was abolished in 1948. Legal opinion considers the right of freedom from arrest as obsolete. The remaining privilege was recommended for formal abolition in 1999, and may be retained, arguably, by peers whether members of the House of Lords or not. Peers have other rights that do not formally comprise the privilege of peerage. For example, they are entitled to use coronets and supporters on their achievements of arms.

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Parliament House is the meeting facility of the Parliament of Australia located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The building was designed by Mitchell/Giurgola Architects and opened on 9 May 1988 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. At the time of the construction, it was the most expensive building in the world at more than A$1.1 billion.

Did you know...

• ...that in the 1930s, Australia was home to a paramilitary Fascist organization called the New Guard?
• ...that politicians discuss the ways in which they and their families have suffered because of Oprahization?
• ...that Democratic and Republican plans for the 2012 United States federal budget both focus on deficit reduction, but differ in their changes to taxation, entitlement programs, and research funding?
• ...that Conservative Party candidate Bernard Trottier won a seat in the 41st Canadian Parliament by defeating the incumbent Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada in the 2011 federal election?
• ...that the Brown Dog affair, a Edwardian era vivisection controversy, led to massive riots?
• ...that when the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a "free-market think tank," criticized Al Gore's energy use, CNN mistakenly called the organization an environmental group?

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Selected biography

John Sidney McCain III (born 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election. During the Vietnam War, he nearly lost his life in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. In October 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He was a prisoner of war until 1973. McCain experienced episodes of torture, and refused an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer. His war wounds left him with lifelong physical limitations. While generally adhering to conservative principles, McCain at times has had a media reputation as a "maverick" for his willingness to disagree with his party on certain issues. He secured the Republican nomination in 2008 after coming back from early reversals, but lost to Democratic candidate Barack Obama in the general election.

News and Current Events

• December 12: North Korea successfully launches long range rocket
• December 10: Three dead after setting themselves on fire in Tibet
• December 8: Hillary Clinton condemns violence in Northern Ireland
• December 6: Tanks, APCs deployed to presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt after deadly clashes
• December 6: Sandra Fluke gives keynote speech at Nebraska women's health event
• December 5: Clashes in Egypt between supporters and opponents of president Morsi turn deadly
• December 2: Leaked Syrian government emails indicate weapons supplied to Hamas
• November 30: Sandra Fluke nominated by Time magazine for Person of the Year
• November 28: Thousands protest constitutional decree in Tahrir Square, Egypt
• November 23: Terror suspects arrested in connection with bombing public bus in Israel

Other current events:

• Iran's nuclear program
• United States debt-ceiling crisis
• European sovereign-debt crisis

In this month

• December 7, 2003 – the Conservative Party of Canada is formed.
• December 13, 2000 – The U.S. Supreme Court stops the Florida presidential recount, effectively giving the state, and the Presidency, to George W. Bush.
• December 6, 2005 – David Cameron becomes the 26th Leader of the British Conservative Party
• December 15, 2005 – Parliamentary elections are held in Iraq.
• December 17, 2005 – Evo Morales wins the presidential elections in Bolivia, ousting incumbent Eduardo Rodriguez and becoming the country's first indigenous leader.
• December 18, 1834 – Sir Robert Peel publishes the Tamworth Manifesto which lays the foundation for the modern British Conservative Party.
• December 30, 2006 – Former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein is hanged.

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