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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Breach of Promise Labour in Power 1964-70 by Clive Ponting Breach of Promise: Labour in Power, 1964-70. This account of one of the most crucial governments in Britain's post-war history is based on inside accounts and previously secret American documents including correspondence between President Johnson and Harold Wilson. It throws new light on the policy of the government and reveals the dependence of Labour's economic and defence policy on the US together with the deals struck with the Americans that were kept secret, even from the cabinet. Read More. This account of one of the most crucial governments in Britain's post-war history is based on inside accounts and previously secret American documents including correspondence between President Johnson and Harold Wilson. It throws new light on the policy of the government and reveals the dependence of Labour's economic and defence policy on the US together with the deals struck with the Americans that were kept secret, even from the cabinet. Read Less. Clive Ponting. Clive Ponting (born 1947) is a British writer, former academic and former senior civil servant. He is the author of a number of revisionist books on British and world history. However, he is perhaps best known for leaking documents about the Belgrano affair of the Falklands War. Contents. General Belgrano. While a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence (MoD), Clive Ponting sent two documents to Labour MP Tam Dalyell in July 1984 concerning the sinking of an Argentine navy warship General Belgrano , a key incident in the Falklands War of 1982. The documents revealed that the General Belgrano had been sighted a day earlier than officially reported, and was steaming away from the Royal Navy taskforce, and was outside the exclusion zone, when the cruiser was attacked and sunk. Official Secrets Act. Ponting admitted revealing the information and was charged with a criminal offence under Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act of 1911. His defence was that the matter was in the public interest and its disclosure to a Member of Parliament was protected by Parliamentary Privilege. Although Ponting fully expected to be imprisoned – and had brought his toothbrush and shaving kit along to the court on 11 February 1985 – he was acquitted by the jury. The acquittal came despite the judge's direction to the jury that "the public interest is what the government of the day says it is". He resigned from the civil service on 16 February 1985. Right to know. The Ponting case was seen as a landmark in British legal history, raising serious questions about the validity of the 1911 Official Secrets Act and the public's "right to know". Shortly after his resignation on 16 February 1985, The Observer began to serialize Ponting's book The Right to Know: the inside story of the Belgrano affair . The Conservative government reacted by tightening up UK secrets legislation, introducing the Official Secrets Act 1989. Before the trial, a jury could take the view that if an action could be seen to be in the public interest, that might justify the right of the individual to take that action. As a result of the 1989 modification, that defence was removed. After this enactment, it was taken that '"public interest" is what the government of the day says it is.' One further fact which influenced Mr Ponting's unexpected acquittal was that he submitted the documents to an MP, who was, in effect, upholding the right of Parliament not to be lied to by the government of the day. Academic. Following his resignation from the Civil Service, Ponting served as a Reader in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Wales, Swansea, until his retirement in 2004. Breach of Promise: Labour in Power 1964-70 by Clive Ponting. Current slide of - Best Selling in Study Guides & Test Prep. Comprehensive Review for The NCLEX-RN Examination (Saunders , 2019, Paperback, 8th Edition) Trending Price. $52.00 New $46.87 Used. National Electrical Code Handbook by National Fire Protection Association (2019, Hardcover, 1st Edition) Trending Price. $90.98 New $75.00 Used. NFPA 70 National Electrical Code Spiral with Color Coded EZ Tabs and Formula Guide (2020 Editions) Trending Price. $47.56 New ---- Used. Tuning Fork - Steel - 440hz - Eisco Labs. Trending Price. $5.99 New ---- Used. NFPA 70: National Electrical Code (NEC) 2014 Edition. Trending Price. $78.98 New $62.75 Used. Tafseer As-sadi 10 Volumes by IIPH. Trending Price. $229.00 New ---- Used. Big Ideas Math Geometry a Common Core Curriculum Student Edition 978164208761. Save on Study Guides & Test Prep. Trending price is based on prices over last 90 days. Current slide of - Save on Study Guides & Test Prep. PONTING, Clive 1947(?)- PERSONAL: Born c. 1947. Education: O.B.E., B.A. ADDRESSES: Home— Wales. Offıce— University of Wales, Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, Wales; fax: 440 1792 295157. E- mail— [email protected] swansea.ac.uk. CAREER: University of Wales, Swansea, reader in politics. Worked as assistant secretary at British Ministry of Defense. WRITINGS: The Right to Know: The Inside Story of the Belgrano Affair, Sphere (London, England), 1985. Whitehall: Tragedy and Farce, H. Hamilton (London, England), 1986. Breach of Promise: Labour in Power, 1964-1970, H. Hamilton (London, England), 1989. 1940: Myth and Reality, H. Hamilton (London, England), 1990. Decision Making in the Gulf: Lessons to Be Learned, Oxford Research Group (Oxford, England), 1991. A Green History of the World, Sinclair-Stevenson (London, England), 1991, published as A Green History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1992. Churchill, Sinclair-Stevenson (London, England), 1994. Armageddon: The Reality behind the Distortions, Myths, Lies, and Illusions of World War II, Random House (New York, NY), 1995. Progress and Barbarism: The World in the Twentieth Century, Chatto & Windus (London, England), 1998, published as The Pimlico History of the Twentieth Century, Pimlico (London, England), 1999, published as The Twentieth Century: A World History, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1999. World History: A New Perspective, Chatto & Windus (London, England), 2000. Thirteen Days: The Road to the First World War, Chatto & Windus (London, England), 2002. The Crimean War, Chatto & Windus (London, England), 2004. SIDELIGHTS: Author and historian Clive Ponting is a professor of history at the University of Wales, Swansea. His books focus in large part on prominent figures and events of major wars, including World War I and II and the Crimean War, but also include works on environmental history, British government, and general world history. During his tenure as a civil servant for the British government, Ponting became the linchpin in a battle against one of Britain's most controversial laws. He details his struggles against an archaic British legal system in The Right to Know: The Inside Story of the Belgrano Affair. While working as assistant secretary at the British Ministry of Defense in Margaret Thatcher's government, Ponting discovered documents that contradicted the official government version of the sinking of the Argentinean warship General Belgrano during the 1982 Falklands war. "Because he believed that the Government was positively and deliberately misleading the Commons, a select committee, and the public, and thought this was unethical, he acted out of professional conscience in sending two documents to Tam Dalyell," a member of the British parliament, noted a writer on the Freedom to Care Web site. Ponting was charged under the Official Secrets Act, which makes it a crime for any officer of the Queen or government to give official information to anyone other than the person for whom the information was intended. The government vigorously prosecuted Ponting, and he faced "a jury that had been virtually instructed by the trial judge to deliver a guilty verdict," commented Hunter R. Clark in Time. In a pivotal—and shocking—verdict, the jury acquitted Ponting of any wrongdoing "because of what they thought was a bad law," noted Steven Erlanger in Boston Globe and because they "refused to be browbeaten," the Freedom to Care Web site writer noted. The verdict raised serious questions about the enforceability of the Official Secrets Act and led to a number of reforms in the public disclosure of government information. Ponting resigned from civil service to pursue teaching and writing. Several of Ponting's books focus on World War II and the events leading up to it. In 1940: Myth and Reality, he explores the historical events, political leadership, governmental policies, economic and social factors, and key personalities of "Britain's last year as a truly independent Great Power," commented G. C. Peden in English Historical Review. "Ponting attempts to break new ground in his book and expose the long-held myths of that fateful year," noted Martin F. Seedorf in Historian, particularly those entrenched in the legend of Winston Churchill. He covers events and issues such as the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, Britain's increasing reliance on assistance from the United States, fleeting notions of peace with Germany in the middle of the year, and the tenuous state of British military and economic power. "Britain's most important achievement that year was simply to survive, thereby preserving a base from which the Allies could later attack and defeat Germany," Seedorf observed. Seedorf called the book "a clear and interesting account of this crucial year in British history." Armageddon: The Reality behind the Distortions, Myths, Lies, and Illusions of World War II is a "factually fluent overview of the cause and course of the war," commented Gilbert Taylor in Booklist. Emerging as "A challenger to commonly held views," Taylor wrote, Ponting bluntly addresses topics such as the extremely high numbers of civilian deaths; the barbarism of the war on the Eastern front; the American economic boom fueled by the war effort; and the lack of complete closure in the pursuit and prosecution of war criminals.

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