Coordinates	56°09′″N40°25′″N
name	The Times
type	Daily newspaper
format	Compact
price	UK£0.90 (Monday–Friday)£2 (Saturday) £1.30(Sat., Scotland)
foundation	1 January 1785
owners	News Corporation
sister newspapers	''The Sunday Times''
political	Moderate Conservative
headquarters	Wapping, London, UK
editor	James Harding
issn	0140-0460
website	www.thetimes.co.uk
circulation	502,436 March 2010 }}

''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper published in London since 1785, when it was known as ''The Daily Universal Register''.

''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' are published by Times Newspapers Limited, since 1981 a subsidiary of News International. News International is entirely owned by the News Corporation group, headed by Rupert Murdoch. Though traditionally a moderately centre-right newspaper and a supporter of the Conservatives, it supported the Labour Party in the 2001 and 2005 general elections. In 2004, according to MORI, the voting intentions of its readership were 40% for the Conservative Party, 29% for the Liberal Democrats, 26% for Labour.

''The Times'' is the original "Times" newspaper, lending its name to many other papers around the world, such as ''The New York Times'', ''The Los Angeles Times'', ''The Seattle Times'', ''The Daily Times (Malawi)'', Jimma Times (Ethiopia), ''The Times of India'', ''The Straits Times'', ''Polska The Times'' ''The Times of Malta'' and ''The Irish Times''. For distinguishing purposes it is therefore sometimes referred to, particularly in North America, as the 'London Times' or 'The Times of London'. The paper is also the originator of the ubiquitous Times Roman typeface, originally developed by Stanley Morison of ''The Times'' in collaboration with the Monotype Corporation for its legibility in low-tech printing.

The Times was printed in broadsheet format for 219 years, but switched to compact size in 2004 partly in an attempt to appeal to younger readers and partly to appeal to commuters using public transport. An American edition has been published since 6 June 2006.

Today

The newspaper's cover price in the United Kingdom is £1 on weekdays (30p for students at some university campus shops) and £1.50 on Saturday. ''The Times's'' sister paper, ''The Sunday Times'', is a broadsheet and priced at £2.20. Although ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' are both owned by News International, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp, they do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have shared the same owner only since 1967. In November 2006 ''The Times'' began printing headlines in its new font, Times Modern.

History

''The Times'' was founded by publisher John Walter on 1 January 1785 as ''The Daily Universal Register'', with Walter in the role of editor. Walter changed the title after 940 editions on 1 January 1788 to ''The Times''. In 1803, John Walter handed ownership and editorship to his son of the same name. John Walter Sr. had already spent sixteen months in Newgate prison for libel printed in ''The Times'', but his pioneering efforts to obtain Continental news, especially from France, helped build the paper's reputation among policy makers and financiers.

''The Times'' used contributions from significant figures in the fields of politics, science, literature, and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its early life, the profits of ''The Times'' were very large and the competition minimal, so it could pay far better than its rivals for information or writers.

In 1809, John Stoddart was appointed general editor, replaced in 1817 with Thomas Barnes. Under Barnes and his successor in 1841, John Thadeus Delane, the influence of ''The Times'' rose to great heights, especially in politics and amongst the City of London. Peter Fraser and Edward Sterling were two noted journalists, and gained for ''The Times'' the pompous/satirical nickname 'The Thunderer' (from "We thundered out the other day an article on social and political reform.").The increased circulation and influence of the paper was based in part to its early adoption of the steam driven rotary printing press. Distribution via steam trains to rapidly growing concentrations of urban populations helped ensure the profitability of the paper and its growing influence.

''The Times'' was the first newspaper to send war correspondents to cover particular conflicts. W. H. Russell, the paper's correspondent with the army in the Crimean War, was immensely influential with his dispatches back to England. In other events of the nineteenth century, ''The Times'' opposed the repeal of the Corn Laws until the number of demonstrations convinced the editorial board otherwise, and only reluctantly supported aid to victims of the Irish Potato Famine. It enthusiastically supported the Great Reform Bill of 1832 which reduced corruption and increased the electorate from 400 000 people to 800 000 people (still a small minority of the population). During the American Civil War, ''The Times'' represented the view of the wealthy classes, favouring the secessionists, but it was not a supporter of slavery.

The third John Walter (the founder's grandson) succeeded his father in 1847. The paper continued as more or less independent. From the 1850s, however, ''The Times'' was beginning to suffer from the rise in competition from the penny press, notably ''The Daily Telegraph'' and ''The Morning Post''.

During the 19th century, it was not infrequent for the Foreign Office to approach ''The Times'' and ask for continental intelligence, which was often superior to that conveyed by official sources.

''The Times'' faced financial extinction in 1890 under Arthur Fraser Walter, but it was rescued by an energetic editor, Charles Frederic Moberly Bell. During his tenure (1890–1911), ''The Times'' became associated with selling the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' using aggressive American marketing methods introduced by Horace Everett Hooper and his advertising executive, Henry Haxton. However, due to legal fights between the ''Britannica's'' two owners, Hooper and Walter Montgomery Jackson, ''The Times'' severed its connection in 1908 and was bought by pioneering newspaper magnate, Alfred Harmsworth, later Lord Northcliffe.

In editorials published on 29 and 31 July 1914 Wickham Steed, the ''Times'''s Chief Editor argued that the British Empire should enter World War I. On 8 May 1920, under the editorship of Wickham Steed, the ''Times'' in an editorial endorsed the anti-Semitic forgery ''The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion'' as a genuine document, and called Jews the world's greatest danger. In the leader entitled "The Jewish Peril, a Disturbing Pamphlet: Call for Inquiry", Steed wrote about ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'':

What are these 'Protocols'? Are they authentic? If so, what malevolent assembly concocted these plans and gloated over their exposition? Are they forgery? If so, whence comes the uncanny note of prophecy, prophecy in part fulfilled, in part so far gone in the way of fulfillment?".

The following year, when Philip Graves, the Constantinople (modern Istanbul) correspondent of the ''Times'', exposed ''The Protocols'' as a forgery, the ''Times'' retracted the editorial of the previous year.

In 1922, John Jacob Astor, a son of the 1st Viscount Astor, bought ''The Times'' from the Northcliffe estate. The paper gained a measure of notoriety in the 1930s with its advocacy of German appeasement; then-editor Geoffrey Dawson was closely allied with those in the government who practised appeasement, most notably Neville Chamberlain.

Kim Philby, a Soviet double agent, served as a correspondent for the newspaper in Spain during the Spanish Civil War of the late 1930s. Philby was admired for his courage in obtaining high-quality reporting from the front lines of the bloody conflict. He later joined MI6 during World War II, was promoted into senior positions after the war ended, then eventually defected to the Soviet Union in 1963.

Between 1941 and 1946, the left-wing British historian E.H. Carr was Assistant Editor. Carr was well known for the strongly pro-Soviet tone of his editorials. In December 1944, when fighting broke out in Athens between the Greek Communist ELAS and the British Army, Carr in a ''Times'' editorial sided with the Communists, leading Winston Churchill to condemn him and that leader in a speech to the House of Commons. As a result of Carr's editorial, the ''Times'' became popularly known during World War II as the threepenny ''Daily Worker'' (the price of the ''Daily Worker'' was one penny)

In 1967, members of the Astor family sold the paper to Canadian publishing magnate Roy Thomson, and on 3 May 1966 it started printing news on the front page for the first time. (Previously, the paper's front page featured small advertisements, usually of interest to the moneyed classes in British society.) The Thomson Corporation merged it with ''The Sunday Times'' to form Times Newspapers Limited.

An industrial dispute prompted the management to shut the paper for nearly a year (1 December 1978 – 12 November 1979).

The Thomson Corporation management were struggling to run the business due to the 1979 Energy Crisis and union demands. Management were left with no choice but to save both titles by finding a buyer who was in a position to guarantee the survival of both titles, and also one who had the resources and was committed to funding the introduction of modern printing methods.

Several suitors appeared, including Robert Maxwell, Tiny Rowland and Lord Rothermere; however, only one buyer was in a position to meet the full Thomson remit. That buyer was the Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

Rupert Murdoch

In 1981, ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' were bought from Thomson by Rupert Murdoch's News International. The acquisition followed three weeks of intensive bargaining with the unions by company negotiators, John Collier and Bill O'Neill.

Murdoch soon began making his mark on the paper, replacing its editor, William Rees-Mogg, with Harold Evans in 1981. One of his most important changes was the introduction of new technology and efficiency measures. In March–May 1982, following agreement with print unions, the hot-metal Linotype printing process used to print ''The Times'' since the 19th century was phased out and replaced by computer input and photo-composition. This allowed print room staff at ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' to be reduced by half. However, direct input of text by journalists ("single stroke" input) was still not achieved, and this was to remain an interim measure until the Wapping dispute of 1986, when ''The Times'' moved from New Printing House Square in Gray's Inn Road (near Fleet Street) to new offices in Wapping.

In June 1990, ''The Times'' ceased its policy of using courtesy titles ("Mr", "Mrs", or "Miss" prefixes for living persons) before full names on first reference, but it continues to use them before surnames on subsequent references. The more formal style is now confined to the "Court and Social" page, though "Ms" is now acceptable in that section, as well as before surnames in news sections.

In November 2003, News International began producing the newspaper in both broadsheet and tabloid sizes. On 13 September 2004, the weekday broadsheet was withdrawn from sale in Northern Ireland. Since 1 November 2004, the paper has been printed solely in tabloid format.

The Conservative Party announced plans to launch litigation against ''The Times'' over an incident in which the newspaper claimed that Conservative election strategist Lynton Crosby had admitted that his party would not win the 2005 General Election. ''The Times'' later published a clarification, and the litigation was dropped.

On 6 June 2005, ''The Times'' redesigned its Letters page, dropping the practice of printing correspondents' full postal addresses. Published letters were long regarded as one of the paper's key constituents. Author/solicitor David Green of Castle Morris Pembrokeshire has had more letters published on the main letters page than any known contributor – 158 by 31 January 2008. According to its leading article, "From Our Own Correspondents", removal of full postal addresses was in order to fit more letters onto the page.

In a 2007 meeting with the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications, which was investigating media ownership and the news, Murdoch stated that the law and the independent board prevented him from exercising editorial control.

In May 2008 printing of ''The Times'' switched from Wapping to new plants at Broxbourne on the outskirts of London, and Merseyside and Glasgow, enabling the paper to be produced with full colour on every page for the first time.

Controversy and image

Long considered the UK's newspaper of record, ''The Times'' is generally seen as a serious publication with high standards of journalism. It is not without trenchant critics: Robert Fisk, seven times British International Journalist of the Year, resigned as foreign correspondent in 1988 over what he saw as "political censorship" of his article on the shooting-down of Iran Air Flight 655 in July 1988. He wrote in detail about his reasons for resigning from the paper due to meddling with his stories, and the papers' pro-Israel stance.

Some allege that ''The Times''' partisan opinion pieces also damage its status as 'paper of record,' particularly when attacking interests that go against those of its parent company – News International. In 2010 it published an opinion piece attacking the BBC for being 'one of a group of' signatories to a letter criticising BSkyB share options in October 2010.

Readership profile and image

The British Business Survey 2005 named ''The Times'' as the UK's leading daily newspaper for business people. This independent survey was sponsored by ''The Financial Times'', ''The Guardian'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', ''The Economist'', and ''The Times''.

The latest figures from the national readership survey show ''The Times'' to have the highest number of ABC1 25–44 readers and the largest numbers of readers in London of any of the "quality" papers. The certified average circulation figures for November 2005 show that The Times sold 692,581 copies per day. This was the highest achieved under the last editor, Robert Thomson, and ensured that the newspaper remained ahead of ''The Daily Telegraph'' in terms of full-rate sales, although the ''Telegraph'' remains the market leader for broadsheets, with a circulation of 905,955 copies. Tabloid newspapers, such as ''The Sun'' and middle-market newspapers such as the ''Daily Mail'', at present outsell both papers with a circulation of around 3,005,308 and 2,082,352 respectively. By March 2010 the paper's circulation had fallen to 502,436 copies daily and the ''Telegraph's'' to 686,679, according to ABC figures.

Format and supplements

''The Times'' features news for the first half of the paper with the leading articles on the second page, the Opinion/Comment section begins after the first news section, the world news normally follows this. The business pages begin on the centre spread, and are followed by The Register, containing obituaries, Court & Social section, and related material. The sport section is at the end of the main paper.

''Literary Supplement''

''The Times Literary Supplement'' (TLS) is a separately-paid-for weekly literature and society magazine.

''Science Reviews''

Between 1951 and 1966 ''The Times'' published a separately-paid-for quarterly science review, ''The Times Science Review''. Remarkably, in 1953 both the newspaper and its science supplement failed to report on the discovery of the structure of DNA in Cambridge, which was reported on by both the ''News Chronicle'' and ''The New York Times''.

''The Times'' started another new (but free) monthly science magazine, ''Eureka'', in October 2009.

''Times2''

''The Times'''s main supplement was the ''times2'', featuring various lifestyle columns. It was discontinued on 1 March 2010, most of its regular features being absorbed into the main paper, the puzzles into a new supplement called ''Mind Games''. Its previous incarnation began on 5 September 2005, before which it was called ''T2'' and previously ''Times 2''. Regular features included columns by a different columnist each weekday. There was a column by Marcus du Sautoy each Wednesday, for example. The back pages were devoted to puzzles and contain sudoku, "Killer Sudoku", "KenKen", word polygon puzzles, and a crossword simpler and more concise than the main "Times Crossword". The penultimate page was "Young Times", with puzzles and news for children. All these features are now found in ''Mind Games''.

The supplement also contained arts and lifestyle features, TV and radio listings and reviews which have now become their own weekly supplements.

''The Game''

''The Game'' is included in the newspaper on a Monday, and details all the weekend's football activity (Premier League and Football League Championship, League One and League Two.) The Scottish edition of ''The Game'' also includes results and analysis from Scottish Premier League games.

Saturday supplements

The Saturday edition of ''The Times'' contains a variety of supplements. These supplements were relaunched in January 2009 as: ''Sport'', ''Weekend'' (including travel and lifestyle features), ''Saturday Review'' (arts, books, and ideas), ''The Times Magazine'' (columns on various topics), and ''Playlist'' (an entertainment listings guide).

''Saturday Review'' is the first regular supplement published in broadsheet format again since the paper switched to a compact size in 2004.

At the beginning of Summer 2011 ''Saturday Review'' switched to the tabloid format

''The Times Magazine'' features columns touching on various subjects such as celebrities, fashion and beauty, food and drink, homes and gardens or simply writers' anecdotes. Notable contributors include Giles Coren, Food And Drink Writer of the Year in 2005.

Online presence

The ''Times'' and ''Sunday Times'' have had an online presence since March 1999, originally at ''the-times.co.uk'' and ''sunday-times.co.uk'', and later at ''timesonline.co.uk''. In April 2009, the ''timesonline'' site had a readership of 750,000 readers per day.

Paywall

Rupert Murdoch argued that readers should pay for online content, and since July 2010, News International requires readers that do not already subscribe to the print edition to pay £1 per day or £2 per week to access ''Times'' and ''Sunday Times'' content.

There are now two websites, instead of one: ''thetimes.co.uk'' is aimed at daily readers, and the ''thesundaytimes.co.uk'' site at providing weekly magazine-like content.

According to figures released in November 2010 by ''The Times'', 100,000 people had paid to use the service in its first four months of operation, and another 100,000 received free access because they subscribe to the printed paper. Visits to the websites have decreased by 87% since the paywall was introduced, from 21 million unique users per month to 2.7 million.

Typeface

''The Times'' commissioned the serif typeface ''Times New Roman'', created by Victor Lardent at the English branch of Monotype, in 1931. It was commissioned after Stanley Morison had written an article criticizing ''The Times'' for being badly printed and typographically antiquated. The font was supervised by Morison and drawn by Victor Lardent, an artist from the advertising department of ''The Times''. Morison used an older font named Plantin as the basis for his design, but made revisions for legibility and economy of space. ''Times New Roman'' made its debut in the 3 October 1932 issue of ''The Times'' newspaper. After one year, the design was released for commercial sale. ''The Times'' stayed with ''Times New Roman'' for 40 years, but new production techniques and the format change from broadsheet to tabloid in 2004 have caused the newspaper to switch font five times since 1972. However, all the new fonts have been variants of the original New Roman font:

''Times Europa'' was designed by Walter Tracy in 1972 for The Times, as a sturdier alternative to the Times font family, designed for the demands of faster printing presses and cheaper paper. The typeface features more open counter spaces.

''Times Roman'' replaced Times Europa on 30 August 1982. ''Times Millennium'' was made in 1991, drawn by Gunnlaugur Briem on the instructions of Aurobind Patel, composing manager of News International. ''Times Classic'' first appeared in 2001. Designed as an economical face by the British type team of Dave Farey and Richard Dawson, it took advantage of the new PC-based publishing system at the newspaper, while obviating the production shortcomings of its predecessor Times Millennium. The new typeface included 120 letters per font. Initially the family comprised ten fonts, but a condensed version was added in 2004. ''Times Modern'' was unveiled on 20 November 2006, as the successor of ''Times Classic''. Designed for improving legibility in smaller font sizes, it uses 45-degree angled bracket serifs. The font was published by Elsner + Flake as ''EF Times Modern''; it was designed by Research Studios, led by Ben Preston (deputy editor of The Times) and designer Neville Brody.

Sponsored events

''The Times'', along with the British Film Institute, sponsors the London Film Festival (or more specifically, The Times ''bfi'' London Film Festival). As of 2005, it is Europe's largest public event for motion pictures.

''The Times'' also sponsors the Cheltenham Literature Festival and the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature at Asia House, London.

Political allegiance

''The Times'' was a traditional Conservative Party supporter, even after its 18-year rule in government was ended by the Labour landslide of 1997, but for the 2001 general election the paper declared its support for Tony Blair's Labour government, which was re-elected by a landslide. It supported Labour again in 2005, when it achieved a third successive election win, though with a reduced majority. For the 2010 general election, however, the newspaper declared its support for the Tories once again; the election ended in the Tories taking the most votes and seats but having to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in order to form a government as they had failed to gain an overall majority.

The Times had declared its support for Clement Attlee's Labour at the 1945 general election; the party went on to win the election by a landslide over Winston Churchill's Conservative government. However, the newspaper reverted to the Tories for the next election five years later. It would not switch sides again for more than 50 years.

Ownership

John Walter (1785–1803)

John Walter, 2nd (1803–1847)

John Walter, 3rd (1847–1894)

Arthur Fraser Walter (1894–1908)

Lord Northcliffe (1908–1922)

Astor family (1922–1966)

Roy Thomson (1966–1981)

News International (subsidiary of News Corporation), run by Rupert Murdoch (1981– )

Editorship

!Editor's name	!Years
	1785–1803
	1803–1812
John Stoddart	1812–1816
	1817–1841
John Delane	1841–1877
Thomas Chenery	1877–1884
George Earle Buckle	1884–1912
George Geoffrey Dawson	1912–1919
	1919–1922
George Geoffrey Dawson	1923–1941
Robert McGowan Barrington-Ward	1941–1948
William Francis Casey	1948–1952
William Haley	1952–1966
William Rees-Mogg	1967–1981
Harold Evans	1981–1982
	1982–1985
	1985–1990
Simon Jenkins	1990–1992
Peter Stothard	1992–2002
	2002–2007
	2007–

Columnists and journalists

Murad Ahmed

Michael Atherton

Guillem Balague

Simon Barnes

Alice Bowe

Peter Brookes, leader-page cartoonist

David Brown

Kaya Burgess

Rachel Campbell-Johnston

Sam Coates

Giles Coren

Robert Crampton

Ginny Dougary

Stephen Farrell

Daniel Finkelstein

Richard Ford

Adam Fresco

Joanna Geary

Frances Gibb

Brian Glanville

Ruth Gledhill

Michael Gove

Nico Hines

Anthony Howard

Philip Howard

Ben Hoyle

Mick Hume

Anatole Kaletsky

Patrick Kidd

Magnus Linklater

Richard Lloyd Parry

Anthony Loyd, war correspondent on retainer

Ben Macintyre

Sam Marlowe, theatre reviewer

Stefanie Marsh

Hugh McIlvanney

Alice Miles

Caitlin Moran

Michael Moran

Morten Morland, political cartoonist

Richard Morrison

Kate Muir

Matthew Parris

Grayson Perry

Catherine Philp

Libby Purves

Lord Rees-Mogg

Peter Riddell

Hugo Rifkind

Aki Riihilahti

Nick Robinson

Alyson Rudd

Dan Sabbagh

Sathnam Sanghera

Marcus du Sautoy

David Sinclair

Graham Stewart

Andrew Sullivan

Richard Susskind

Ann Treneman

Janice Turner

Philip Webster

Tom Whipple

Tom Whitwell

Tony Halpin

Alexander Williams, cartoonist

Jeremy Clarkson

Other publications

(Times Books Group Ltd)

The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, 2007 ISBN 978-0-00-780150-3

Biography

Harold Evans, ''Good Times, Bad Times''. Includes sections of black-and-white photographic plates, plus a few charts and diagrams in text pages.

In fiction

In the dystopian future world of George Orwell's ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', ''The Times'' has been transformed into the organ of the totalitarian ruling party, its editorials—of which several are quoted in the book—reflecting Big Brother's pronouncements.

Rex Stout's fictional detective Nero Wolfe is described as fond of solving the London ''Times'' crossword puzzle at his New York home, in preference to those of American papers.

In the James Bond series, written by Ian Fleming, the title character, James Bond, reads ''The Times''. As described by Fleming in ''From Russia, with Love'': "The Times was the only paper that Bond ever read."

See also

List of newspapers by date

References

External links

The Sunday Times site

Times World Atlases official website including a History and Heritage section detailing landmark Times atlases

Archive from 1785 to 1985 – full text and original layout, searchable (not free of charge, registration required)

The Times editor Robert Thomson lecture online: From the editorial desk of ''The Times'', RMIT School of Applied Communication Public Lecture series

Anthony Trollope's satire on the mid-nineteenth century Times

Journalism Now: The Times Winchester University Journalism History project on the Times in the nineteenth century

Category:Newspapers published in the United Kingdom Category:News Corporation subsidiaries * Category:Publications established in 1785 Category:1785 establishments in Great Britain

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Coordinates	56°09′″N40°25′″N
Honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
Name	Vince Cable
Honorific-suffix	MP
Office	Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
Primeminister	David Cameron
Term start	12 May 2010
Predecessor	Lord Mandelson
Office2	Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats
Leader2	Menzies CampbellNick Clegg
Term start2	2 March 2006
Term end2	26 May 2010
Predecessor2	Menzies Campbell
Successor2	Simon Hughes
Office3	Liberal Democrats Treasury Spokesman
Leader3	Charles KennedyMenzies CampbellNick Clegg
Term start3	12 June 2003
Term end3	11 May 2010
Predecessor3	Matthew Taylor
Office4	Member of Parliament for Twickenham
Term start4	1 May 1997
Predecessor4	Toby Jessel
Majority4	12,140 (20.3%)
Birth date	May 09, 1943
Birth place	York, Yorkshire, England
Party	Liberal Party (1963–65)Labour (1966–82)SDP (1982–88)Liberal Democrats (1988–)
Spouse	Olympia Rebelo (m. 1968-2001, her death)Rachel Smith (m. 2004–present)
Children	3
Alma mater	Fitzwilliam College, CambridgeUniversity of Glasgow
Profession	Economist }}

John Vincent "Vince" Cable (born 9 May 1943) is a British Liberal Democrat politician and economist who is currently the Business Secretary in the coalition cabinet of David Cameron. He has been Member of Parliament for Twickenham since 1997.

Cable studied economics at university and became an economic advisor to the Kenyan government in 1966. He was an advisor to the British government and to the Commonwealth Secretary-General in the 1970s and 1980s. Later, he served as Chief Economist for the oil company Shell from 1995 to 1997. In 1970s, Cable was active in the Labour Party and became a Glasgow councillor. However in 1982, he joined the Social Democratic Party which would go on to form the Liberal Democrats, and he unsuccessfully contested seats in the elections of 1983, 1987 and 1992 until being elected as the MP for the London constituency of Twickenham in the 1997 general election.

Cable was the Liberal Democrats' main economic spokesperson from 2003 to May 2010. He was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons in March 2006, and following Sir Menzies Campbell's resignation, he was acting leader for two months—from October 2007 until the election of Nick Clegg. He resigned from his position as Deputy Leader in May 2010.

Cable has had a high profile since the financial crisis of 2007–2010 and has written several books on economics and trade.

Early life and education

Cable was born in York and attended Nunthorpe Grammar School. He went on to study Natural Sciences and Economics at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and was President of the Cambridge Union in 1965. He was also a committee member of, and later president-elect of, the Cambridge University Liberal Club, but resigned from the Liberals before taking up the office of president.

He later received a PhD in Economics from the University of Glasgow. After Cambridge, he was an Overseas Development Institute Fellow (ODI Nuffield Fellow) and worked in Kenya where he met his first wife.

Economics career

Cable lectured for a time at the University of Glasgow and the London School of Economics. From 1966 to 1968, he was a Treasury Finance Officer to the Kenyan Government.

In the 1970s, he was special advisor to John Smith when the latter was Industry Secretary. He was an advisor to the British government and then to the Commonwealth Secretary-General in the 1970s and 1980s.

Later, he served as Chief Economist for the oil company Royal Dutch Shell from 1995 to 1997. Questions have been asked in a left-leaning magazine about his role at Shell during a period when the company came under fierce criticism for its claimed role in a turbulent era of Nigerian politics.

Political career

Early years

At university, Cable was a member of the Liberal Party but joined the Labour Party after graduation. In 1970, he unsuccessfully fought Glasgow Hillhead for Labour, and later became a Glasgow councillor. In 1979, he sought the Labour nomination for Hampstead, losing to Ken Livingstone, who was unsuccessful in taking the seat.

In February 1982, he joined the recently created Social Democratic Party (SDP). He was the SDP-Liberal Alliance parliamentary candidate for his home city of York in both the 1983 and 1987 general elections. Following the 1988 merger of the alliance, he lost his 1992 general election bid as a Liberal Democrat to unseat Conservative MP Toby Jessel in the Twickenham constituency, but successfully defeated Jessel at the 1997 general election.

Member of Parliament (1997 - present)

Cable entered the House of Commons after unseating Conservative MP Toby Jessel in the Twickenham constituency at the second attempt, in the 1997 general election. He subsequently increased his majority in the elections of 2001, 2005 and increased still further in 2010.

In 2004, Cable contributed to the ''Orange Book'' and is identified with the economic liberal wing of the party. He believes that the Liberal Democrats should stand for "fairer taxes, not higher taxes". However, Cable describes himself as being a social democrat.

Prior to the 2005 Liberal Democrat party conference, Cable did not rule out the possibility that the Lib Dems might form a coalition government with the Conservative Party in the event of a hung parliament at the next general election. Then party leader Charles Kennedy said that the party would remain an "independent political force".

In late 2005 or early 2006, Cable presented Charles Kennedy a letter signed by eleven out of the twenty-three frontbenchers, including himself, expressing a lack of confidence in Kennedy's leadership of the Liberal Democrats. On 5 January 2006, because of pressure from his frontbench team and an ITN News report documenting his alcoholism, Charles Kennedy announced a leadership election in which he pledged to stand for re-election. However, he resigned on 7 January. Cable passed on the opportunity to run for the party leadership himself, instead supporting Sir Menzies Campbell's bid.

Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats (2006 - 2010)

Since being elected deputy leader in March 2006, Cable continued to rise in status within the party until doubts were first raised about his judgement after his idea for a much mocked "mansion tax" when he appeared unable to understand the likely practical difficulties with such a tax. The idea was quickly buried following the 2010 election.

He won plaudits for his repeated warnings and campaigns on the high level of personal debt in Britain. His was a significant voice of criticism during the Northern Rock crisis, calling for the nationalisation of the bank, capitalising on the claimed indecisiveness of both the Labour government and Conservative opposition on the issue.

In May 2010, Cable declared his resignation as deputy leader to dedicate more time to his Cabinet role as Business Secretary. His responsibilities and authority were somewhat reduced when it was revealed in December 2010 that he had boasted to Daily Telegraph reporters posing as constituents of his "nuclear option" to bring the government down by his resignation. Still worse he claimed to the reporters that he had "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation despite having the responsibility to impartially arbitrate on the News Corporation bid to acquire the remaining 60.9% of BSkyB it did not already own. Amid cries for his resignation or sacking, all his responsibilities concerning the bid were removed. Cable did not resign. Some have pointed to how important he must be to the coalition to have not been sacked over the issue, bearing in mind that Murdoch and News Corp are powerful allies of the Conservative Party.

Following the earlier example of Ann Widdecombe, Cable was then a contestant in the BBC's Christmas 2010 "Strictly Come Dancing" contest but failed to win. The Guardian ran the headline:"From Saint Vince to Mr Bean"

Acting leader of the Liberal Democrats (2007)

With the resignation of Menzies Campbell as party leader on 15 October 2007, Vincent Cable as Deputy Leader automatically succeeded him as party leader pending a leadership election. Asked on ''Channel 4 News'' that day by Jon Snow whether he would be a candidate for the leadership, he refused to rule himself in or out at such an early stage, but a few days later did rule himself out. Cable received significant acclaim during his tenure as acting party leader, with particular praise for his strong performances at Prime Minister's Questions. He was popular in the party and media for his attacks on the government's record over Northern Rock, HMRC's loss of 25 million individuals' child benefit data and the party funding scandal surrounding David Abrahams' secret donations to the Labour Party. The latter attracted for Cable positive media attention for a joke at PMQs describing Gordon Brown's "remarkable transformation in the last few weeks from Stalin to Mr Bean, creating chaos out of order rather than order out of chaos", called by ''The Economist'', "the single best line of Gordon Brown's premiership".

Global financial crisis

Cable is credited by some with prescience of the global financial crisis of 2007–2010. In November 2003, Cable asked Gordon Brown, then Chancellor, "Is not the brutal truth that ... the growth of the British economy is sustained by consumer spending pinned against record levels of personal debt, which is secured, if at all, against house prices that the Bank of England describes as well above equilibrium level?" Brown replied, "As the Bank of England said yesterday, consumer spending is returning to trend. The Governor said, 'there is no indication that the scale of debt problems have ... risen markedly in the last five years.' He also said that the fraction of household income used up in debt service is lower than it was then."

In his book ''The Storm'', Cable writes, "The trigger for the current global financial crisis was the US mortgage market and, indeed, the scale of improvident and unscrupulous lending on that side of the Atlantic dwarfs into insignificance the escapades of our own banks." In an interview about the book, Cable was asked whether he had warned about this. Cable replied, "No, I didn’t. That’s quite true." He continued, "But you’re quite right, and one of the problems of being a British MP is that you do tend to get rather parochial and I haven’t been to the States for years and years, so I wouldn’t claim to have any feel for what’s been going on there."

Cable has also been vocal over the bonus culture in the banking system. He has called for bonuses to all bank employees to be frozen.

However, Cable has been criticised by some, Conservatives particularly, for 'flip-flopping' on issues in connection with the crisis. For example, he is accused of criticising the Government's policy of 'quantitative easing', when in January 2009 he used the phrase "the Robert Mugabe school of economics", while in March 2009 he said, "directly increasing the amount of money flowing into the economy is now the only clear option". He has responded to deny this claim, saying that he had been warning of the dangers if QE was not managed properly, and the Liberal Democrats also have responded that he was making the point that QE "needed to be managed with a great deal of care".

On the issue of fiscal stimulus, Cable told the BBC in October 2008, "it is entirely wrong for the government to assume the economy should be stimulated by yet more public spending rather than tax cuts". In February 2009, however, he said, "we believe — and the Government say that they believe — in the need for a fiscal stimulus. Despite the severe financial constraints on the public sector, we believe that such a stimulus is right and necessary".

On the principle of the independence of the Bank of England, Cable said at the 2008 Liberal Democrat party conference, "The Government must not compromise the independence of the Bank of England by telling it to slash interest rates." The following month, though, he called on the Chancellor to urge the Governor of the Bank to make "a large cut in interest rates". The Liberal Democrats have responded that this in no way changes their policy on Bank of England independence.

Expenses

A Twickenham resident, Vince Cable commutes by train into central London daily and so claims the 'London Supplement' instead of the Additional Costs Allowance. However, the ''Daily Telegraph'' reported in May 2009 that he had been unaware that he was entitled to the London Supplement and so in 2004 wrote to the Fees Office to ask if he could receive retrospective payments for 2002–03 and 2003–04. The Fees Office refused the request, informing Cable that these accounts were already closed.

When overall MP allowances are ranked, Cable came in 568th for 2007–08 (out of 645 MPs). The ''Daily Telegraph'' also noted that he did not take a recent 2.33% salary rise.

Coalition government minister (2010 - present)

At the 2010 General Election Cable was again returned as MP for Twickenham. With the election resulting in a hung parliament, Cable was a key figure in coalition talks, particularly the unsuccessful negotiations with the Labour Party. The Liberal Democrats entered a coalition agreement with the Conservative Party on 11 May 2010, and Cable was appointed Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on 12 May. The Queen approved his appointment as a Privy Counsellor, and he formally joined the Council on 13 May.

In May 2010, Cable insisted the coalition government was not split over planned increases to non-business capital gains tax, which some thought would raise taxes on sales of second homes by 40% or 50%. Senior Tory MPs attacked the rise as a tax on the middle classes and a betrayal of Conservative values. Cable told BBC News it was a "key" part of the coalition deal and there was no disagreement over it between the coalition partners. Cable said the changes to capital gains tax would help to fulfil the Lib Dem aim of bringing more "fairness" to the tax system: "It's very important that we have wealth taxed in the same way as income." He continued,

He insisted there was no real disagreement at the top of government over the changes: "It's not actually an argument between the coalition partners, as I understand it, It's an argument between a few Conservative backbenchers and others."

In July 2010, Cable dismissed claims that there "isn't a problem" with credit lines. He demanded that banks curb bonus payments and use the cash to boost lending instead. A green paper on bank lending that Cable launched on 26 July 2010 specifically urged banks to limit bonus and dividend payments to "pre-crisis and 2009 levels respectively". The green paper states that the move would enable banks to retain £10bn of additional capital in 2010 could in turn sustain £50bn of new lending. Cable's demands came as the Forum of Private Business said that small firms were finding it harder to secure loans. The trade body said its latest Economy Watch survey found that there was a "significant demand" not being met by banks with conditions worsening in recent weeks. The FPB said that 1pc of respondents said access to finance has improved, compared to 3pc in May, and 15pc said it has worsened. In addition, 67pc said they had seen no changes in their ability to secure loans.

The British left wing press was often critical of his role in the coalition, from ''The Guardian'' to the low-circulation communist daily ''The Morning Star'' describing him as "the man who started off a Lib Dem and now looks more convincingly Tory than most of the Tory frontbench" for his role in supporting public spending cuts.

In September 2010, during a speech to the Lib Dem conference, Cable said that bankers present more of a threat to Britain than trade unions. Cable said that "The Government's agenda is not one of laissez-faire. Markets are often irrational or rigged. So I am shining a harsh light into the murky world of corporate behaviour. Why should good companies be destroyed by short-term investors looking for a speculative killing, while their accomplices in the City make fat fees? Why do directors forget their duties when a fat cheque is waved before them? Capitalism takes no prisoners and kills competition where it can."

After the interim report on banking by Sir John Vickers was published in April 2011, Cable said: "I read it over the weekend and I was very impressed with the quality of the analysis. "It does address head on the issue of banks that are too big to fail, the dependency on the government guarantee. It makes the case for separation," he added.

In June 2011 Cable said "rewards for failure" were unforgivable at a time when real wages were being squeezed across the country. Speaking yesterday at the Association of British Insurer's biennial conference, the Liberal Democrat cabinet minister warned he planned to bring "excessive and unjustified" pay under control by launching a fresh consultation into the subject next month. "Britain does have some world-class executives and one of the real privileges of my job is dealing with them," he said. "But let's not forget that, using the FTSE 100 as a benchmark, investors have barely seen a return since the turn of the century. For most of that time, they would have been better off investing in government bonds. "And yet, in 2010, average total pay for FTSE 100 chief executives was 120 times that of the average UK employee. Back in 1998, the multiple was 45."

Tuition fees

During the autumn of 2010 Cable hit the headlines over his indecisive stance on university tuition fees. Before the 2010 general election he and other Liberal Democrat MPs signed a pledge to oppose any rise in tuition fees. However, as government Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, he is now responsible for the British government's proposed policy to raise tuition fees to between £6,000 and £9,000. Cable stated he might abstain from the vote but subsequently voted for the policy.

December 2010 undercover sting comments

In late December 2010, undercover reporters from ''The Daily Telegraph'', posing as constituents, set up a meeting with Cable, who expressed frustration with being in the coalition and compared it to "fighting a war"; he stated he had "a nuclear option... if they push me too far then I can walk out and bring the government down and they know that", and had to "pick" his fights carefully. He also claimed the Liberal Democrats had pressed for a "very tough approach" to the UK's banks, which had been opposed by the Conservatives. He described the coalition's attempt at fast, widespread reforms (including the health service and local governments) as being a "kind of Maoist revolution", and thought "we [the government] are trying to do too many things... a lot of it is Tory inspired. The problem is not that they are Tory inspired, but that they haven’t thought them through. We should be putting a brake on them." When his comments appeared in the press, Cable stated, "Naturally I am embarrassed by these comments and I regret them", before reaffirming his commitment to the coalition government, stating that "I am proud of what it is achieving".

In an undisclosed part of the ''Telegraph'' transcript given to the BBC's Robert Peston by a whistleblower unhappy that the ''Telegraph'' had not published Cable's comments in full, Cable stated in reference to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB, "I have declared war on Mr Murdoch and I think we are going to win." Following this revelation Cable had his responsibility for media affairs – including ruling on Murdoch's takeover plans – withdrawn from his role as business secretary. In May 2011 the Press Complaints Commission upheld a complaint regarding the ''Telegraph'''s use of subterfuge: "On this occasion, the commission was not convinced that the public interest was such as to justify proportionately this level of subterfuge." After the News of the World phone hacking scandal caused the News Corp. bid for BSkyB to collapse, Cable claimed that his views about Murdoch had been vindicated.

Personal life

Cable's first wife was Olympia Rebelo, a Goan Roman Catholic whom he met "in the unromantic setting of a York mental hospital where we happened to be working as nurses during a summer vacation." He courted her while working in Kenya as a treasury finance officer and despite the concerns of both their fathers, they married in Nairobi's Catholic Cathedral in 1968. They had three children together and she completed her PhD at Glasgow University in 1976. Olympia Cable was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after the 1987 general election. After apparently successful treatment the disease returned in the mid 1990s and by the 1997 election Cable was juggling his senior post at Shell with being his wife's carer. Olympia Cable died shortly after the 2001 election.

In 2004, he married Rachel Wenban Smith. When appearing on BBC Radio 4's ''Desert Island Discs'' programme in January 2009, Cable revealed that he wears the wedding rings from both of his marriages.

A keen ballroom dancer, Cable long expressed his desire to appear on the BBC's hit TV show ''Strictly Come Dancing''; he appeared on the Christmas 2010 edition of the show, partnered by Erin Boag and dancing the Foxtrot. Cable was the second politician to appear on the show, after Ann Widdecombe.

Cable is also a patron of the Polycystic Kidney Disease Charity (PKD).

Styles

Mr John Vincent Cable (9 May 1943-1973)

Dr John Vincent Cable (1973-1 May 1997)

Dr John Vincent Cable MP (1 May 1997-13 May 2010)

The Right Honourable Dr John Vincent Cable MP (13 May 2010—)

See also

Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team

Bibliography

''The Storm: The World Economic Crisis and What it Means'' Vincent Cable (Atlantic Books, 2009) ISBN 1-84887-057-4

''The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism'' edited by David Laws and Paul Marshall; contributions by Vincent Cable and others (Profile Books, 2004) ISBN 1-86197-797-2

''Regulating Modern Capitalism (Centre for Reform Papers)'' Vincent Cable (Centre for Reform, 2002) ISBN 1-902622-36-7

''Commerce (Liberal Democrat Consultation Papers)'' Vincent Cable (Liberal Democrat Publications, 2002) ISBN 1-85187-688-X

''Globalization: Rules and Standards for the World Economy (Chatham House Papers)'' Vincent Cable, Albert Bressand (Thomson Learning, 2000) ISBN 1-85567-350-9

''Globalisation & Global Governance'' Vincent Cable (Thomson Learning, 1999) ISBN 0-8264-6169-7

''Preparing for EMU: A Liberal Democrat Response (Centre for Reform Papers)'' Vincent Cable (Centre for Reform, 1999) ISBN 1-902622-06-5

''China and India: Economic Reform and Global Integration'' Vincent Cable (Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995) ISBN 1-899658-00-9

''Global Superhighways: The Future of International Telecommunications Policy (International Economics Programme Special Paper)'' Vincent Cable, Catherine Distler (Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995) ISBN 0-905031-97-0

''The World's New Fissures'' Vincent Cable (Demos, 1995) ISBN 1-898309-35-3

''Trade Blocs: The Future of Regional Integration'' edited by Vincent Cable and David Henderson (The Brookings Institution, 1994) ISBN 0-905031-81-4

''Commerce of Culture: Experience of Indian Handicrafts'', Vincent Cable (Lancer International, 1990) ISBN 81-7062-004-X

''Developing with Foreign Investment'' edited by Vincent Cable and Bishnodat Persaud (Routledge, 1987) ISBN 0-7099-4825-5

''Economics and the Politics of Protection: Some Case Studies of Industries (World Bank Staff Working Papers Number 569)'' Vincent Cable (World Bank, 1984) ISBN 0-8213-0199-3

''Education and Social Action Programming for Cable: Conference Report'' edited by Vincent Thompson (Council for Educ. Technology, 1984) ISBN 0-86184-131-X

''World Textile Trade and Production Trends'' Vincent Cable, Betsy Baker (Economist Intelligence Unit, 1983) ISBN 0-86218-084-8

''Case Studies in Development Economics'' Vincent Cable (Heinemann Educ., 1982) ISBN 0-435-33937-0

''The Role of Handicrafts Exports: Problems and Prospects Based on Indian Experience (ODI Working Paper)'' Vincent Cable (Overseas Development Institute, 1982) ISBN 0-85003-086-2

''British Electronics and Competition with Newly Industrialising Countries'' Vincent Cable, Jeremy Clarke (Overseas Development Institute, 1981) ISBN 0-85003-076-5

''Evaluation of the Multifibre Arrangement and Negotiating Options'' Vincent Cable (Commonwealth Secretariat, 1981) ISBN 0-85092-204-6

''British Interests and Third World Development'' Vincent Cable (Overseas Development Institute, 1980) ISBN 0-85003-070-6

''Britain's Pattern of Specialization in Manufactured Goods With Developing Countries and Trade Protection (World Bank Staff Working Paper No 425/8 Oct)'' Vincent Cable, Ivonia Rebelo (World Bank, 1980) ISBN 0-686-36204-7

''World Textile Trade and Production'' Vincent Cable (Economist Intelligence Unit, 1979) ISBN 0-900351-85-3

''South Asia's Exports to the EEC: Obstacles and Opportunities'' Vincent Cable, Ann Weston (Overseas Development Institute, 1979) ISBN 0-85003-068-4

''World Textile Trade and Production'' Vincent Cable (Economist Intelligence Unit, 1979) ISBN B0000EGG8M

''Import Controls: The Case Against'' Vincent Cable (Fabian Society, 1977) ISBN 0-7163-1335-9

''Glasgow: Area of Need'' Vincent Cable. Essay in 'The Red Paper on Scotland' ed. Gordon Brown. Edinburgh 1975. ISBN 0-9501890 73

''Glasgow's Motorways: a Technocratic Blight'' (New Society, 2 September. 1974)

''Whither Kenyan Emigrants?'' Vincent Cable (Fabian Society, 1969) ISBN 0-7163-2018-5

References

External links

Dr Vincent Cable MP official site

Vincent Cable MP official Liberal Democrats profile

Twickenham Liberal Democrats

Tracking Vince Cable (universities & research only) at Research Fortnight

;News articles

''Gold standard?''. ''Third Way Magazine'', 11 May 2009

Vince Cable: Beneath the halo ''The New Statesman'', September 2009

profile of Cable (2009) by Fran Monks; How to Make a Difference

|- |- |- |- |- |- ! colspan="3" style="background:#cfc;" | Order of precedence in Northern Ireland

Category:1943 births Category:Alumni of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow Category:Councillors in Scotland Category:Liberal Democrat (UK) MPs Category:Living people Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies Category:People from York Category:Presidents of the Cambridge Union Society Category:UK MPs 1997–2001 Category:UK MPs 2001–2005 Category:UK MPs 2005–2010 Category:UK MPs 2010–

da:Vincent Cable de:Vince Cable fr:Vince Cable la:Vincentius Cable pl:Vince Cable ru:Кейбл, Винс sco:Vincent Cable simple:Vince Cable fi:Vince Cable sv:Vince Cable

Coordinates	56°09′″N40°25′″N
Name	Peter Molyneux
Birth name	Peter Douglas Molyneux
Birth date	May 05, 1959
Birth place	Guildford, Surrey, UK
Death date
Resting place coordinates
Nationality	British
Occupation	Video game designer
Children	Lucas Molyineux
Awards	Order of the British EmpireChevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Footnotes	}}

Peter Douglas Molyneux OBE (born 5 May 1959) is an English computer game designer and game programmer. He created the God games ''Dungeon Keeper'', ''Populous'', and ''Black & White'', among others, as well as business simulation games such as ''Theme Park'' and more recently, the RPG series ''Fable''.

Despite the success of his games, both critical and financial, Molyneux has acquired a reputation for issuing over-enthusiastic descriptions of games under development, which are found to be somewhat less ambitious when released. The most well-known case of this was with ''Fable'', released in 2004 without many of the features talked about by Molyneux in press interviews during development. After the release, Molyneux publicly apologized for overhyping the game.

Awards

Molyneux was inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame in 2004 and was honoured with an OBE in the New Year's Honours list announced on 31 December 2004. He was awarded the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in March 2007. In July 2007, he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Southampton. In March 2011, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Game Developers Choice Awards and has received a BAFTA Fellowship at the 2011 British Academy Video Games Awards.

Early career

Peter Molyneux began his career in 1982 by distributing and selling floppy discs which contained video games for Atari and the Commodore 64. He believed that including games on the discs would improve sales, and later decided that the games were the main selling point.

He created ''The Entrepreneur'', a text-based business simulation game about running a fledgling company. "In those days you could literally call a game 'Space Blob Attacks Mars' and sell about 50 million copies. So what did I do? I did a business simulation", Molyneux later said. Molyneux published the game himself in 1984 by duplicating hundreds of tapes on two Tandy Corporation recorders. After taking an advertising space in a game magazine, he prepared for the game's success; he later stated in an interview, "I was utterly convinced that this game would sell tons. I thought, 'You know, this letter box is just not big enough. It's just not going to fit all the envelopes.' So I cut – and this is no joke – I cut a bigger letter box". However, the game received only two orders, one of which Molyneux speculated was from his mother. (The effort may not have been totally wasted; in 2007, a GameSpy reviewer commented that the economic gameplay mechanics in Molyneux's ''Fable II'' may have been a descendant of ''The Entrepreneur'', stating, "I'm a little concerned that it's Molyneux sneaking in a remix of his first game, ''Entrepreneur''".)

Due to the game's failure, Molyneux retreated from game design, and started Taurus Impex Limited—a company that exported baked beans to the Middle East —with his business partner Les Edgar. Commodore International mistook it for TORUS, a more established company that produced networking software, and offered to provide Molyneux with ten free Amiga systems to help in porting "his" networking software. "... it suddenly dawned on me that this guy didn't know who we were", Molyneux later said. "I suddenly had this crisis of conscience. I thought, 'If this guy finds out, there go my free computers down the drain.' So I just shook his hand and ran out of that office". Taurus designed a database system for the Amiga, called Acquisition - The Ultimate Database for The Amiga and after clearing up the misunderstanding with Commodore, the program was released and became a moderate success.

Bullfrog Productions

Using money earned from the database program, Molyneux and Les Edgar founded Bullfrog Productions in 1987. Molyneux provided the original concept for ''Populous'', the first god game for the personal computer. Released in 1989, ''Populous'' was a major success for Bullfrog and went on to sell over 4 million copies.

Electronic Arts, Bullfrog's publisher, acquired the studio in January 1995. Molyneux had become an Electronic Arts vice-president and consultant in 1994, after EA purchased a significant share of Bullfrog. Molyneux's last project at Bullfrog was ''Dungeon Keeper'', which was released in July 1997 to high critical praise. Molyneux left Bullfrog in August 1997 to found Lionhead Studios. The last title released with the Bullfrog logo was published in 2001 and in 2004, Electronic Arts would merge Bullfrog Productions into EA UK.

Lionhead Studios and Microsoft

Molyneux came up with the concept for Lionhead's first game, ''Black & White'', and convinced his small staff to take on the task in late 1997. He paid the $6 million in development costs himself. After three years, in 2001, the game was finally released.

In April 2006, Lionhead Studios was acquired by Microsoft Game Studios. At E3 2006, Peter Molyneux gave several interviews in the press, in one of which he stated that "I think you're going to see a lot more fantastic games from Lionhead because of that relationship [with Microsoft]." On 4 June 2009, he was promoted to Creative Director of Microsoft Game Studios, Europe, although he will still continue to produce video games with Lionhead Studios.

Media fame

As one of the industry's leading and best-known figures, Molyneux has appeared on many television shows and video gaming news discussion or documentaries. He has been repeatedly interviewed for shows that include: GamesMaster, Game Over, Games Wars, Gamezville, Bad Influence!, Gamepad, CHEATS, Gamer.tv, Rapture, Games World, Blue Chip, LanJam, Ultimate Gamer, and GameStars. These however are just the UK productions, and there are a huge host of international broadcast media outlets that have also interviewed him since ''Populous'' first debuted. In the Scottish web series Consolevania, he is often portrayed as a dull, uninteresting character.

An entire episode of G4's games retrospective series ''Icons'' was devoted to him, during its third season. More recently, a comprehensive two part interview was filmed of him during the 2006 Brighton Games Developer Conference by leading UK website Eurogamer. He was also featured in the fourth episode of the Discovery Channel mini-series ''Rise of the Video Game'' alongside Will Wright and Sid Meier, fellow developers of simulation titles.

He gives keynote addresses and speaks extensively at worldwide conferences, including Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, Games Convention Asia in Singapore, Develop in Brighton, England, and the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California.

Molyneux was given the tenth position in "Top Ten Game Creators" Countdown by GameTrailers website.

Molyneux has gained a great deal of infamy in regards to his over-hyping of games he has worked on, dating back to Black & White. He has a habit of making too many promises about features and content in his games that end up either not being included or not actually as good as he made it seem. In spite of this, these games are successful both financially and critically.

Games

Pre-Bullfrog

''The Entrepreneur'' (1984) (designer/programmer)

''Druid 2''

Bullfrog Productions

''Fusion'' (1987) (designer/programmer)

''Populous'' (1989) (designer/programmer)

''Powermonger'' (1990) (designer/programmer)

''Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods'' (1991) (designer/programmer)

''Syndicate'' (1993) (producer)

''Theme Park'' (1994) (project leader/lead programmer)

''Magic Carpet'' (1994) (executive producer)

''Hi-Octane'' (1995) (executive producer)

''Genewars'' (1996)

''Dungeon Keeper'' (1997) (project leader/designer)

Lionhead Studios

''Black & White'' (2001) (concept/lead designer/programmer)

''Fable'' (2004) (designer)

''Fable: The Lost Chapters'' (2005) (designer)

''The Movies'' (2005) (executive designer)

''Black & White 2'' (2005) (lead designer)

''The Movies: Stunts & Effects'' (2006) (executive designer)

''Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods'' (2006) (lead designer)

''Fable II'' (2008) (lead designer)

''Fable III'' (2010) (lead designer)

''Milo and Kate'' (formerly known as ''The Dmitri Project'') (cancelled) (lead designer)

''Fable: The Journey'' (TBA)

References

External links

''The Worlds of Peter Molyneux'' from Wired.com

Keeper Klan's article about Peter Molyneux

Populous - Classic Game Postmortem (much autobiographical information)

Category:British video game designers Category:English computer programmers Category:Video game programmers Category:People from Guildford Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:1959 births Category:Living people Category:Lionhead Studios

ca:Peter Molyneux cs:Peter Molyneux de:Peter Molyneux es:Peter Molyneux fr:Peter Molyneux gl:Peter Molyneux it:Peter Molyneux hu:Peter Molyneux ja:ピーター・モリニュー pl:Peter Molyneux ru:Молиньё, Питер fi:Peter Molyneux sv:Peter Molyneux

William James "Bill" Kraus (June 26, 1947 - January 25, 1986) was an American gay rights and AIDS activist and congressional aide who served as a liaison between the San Francisco gay community and Congress in the 1980s.

He attended Dartmouth for a semester and then Ohio State, where he received both his undergraduate and master's degree in history. He attended Ohio State University in 1968 and went on to become an aide to US Representatives Phillip and Sala Burton.

Upon arriving in Castro Street in San Francisco, he learned the meticulous nature of politics through Harvey Milk, who was the first elected homosexual city supervisor. Bill Kraus would be the president of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club. After Milk's assassination, Kraus would aide Harry Britt to be elected as Milk's successor to city supervisor.

He garnered a job as gay liaison to Congressman Phillip Burton. Together, they worked on legislation and funding to fight "gay cancer", later to be named AIDS. Through the Harvey Milk Democratic Club, Kraus conducted a "safe-sex" campaign, endlessly trying to bring awareness to the gay community of the dangers of unsafe sexual intercourse. Part of their campaign was demanding the closing of San Francisco's gay bathhouses. Kraus was hit back with criticism from the gay community, being called a "sexual Nazi".

After a bitter fight for gay rights, Bill Kraus was diagnosed with AIDS on October 1, 1984. He traveled to Paris to be treated with a drug that at the moment was believed to help AIDS patients boost their immune system called HPA-23, but it proved useless. He was there when actor Rock Hudson also traveled to Paris for the same reason. Kraus died from AIDS on January 25, 1986.

He also appeared in the documentary film ''The Times of Harvey Milk''. He was also a central person in Randy Shilts' book ''And the Band Played On''. In 1993, the book was adapted as an HBO movie, with Sir Ian McKellen playing Kraus.

References

Category:LGBT rights activists from the United States Category:1947 births Category:1986 deaths Category:AIDS-related deaths in California Category:United States congressional aides

es:Bill Kraus