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The Right Honourable Michael Howard (born July 7, 1941) is the current Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. He became leader of the Conservative Party on November 6 2003, having been the only candidate for the job after Iain Duncan Smith lost a vote of confidence on October 29 of that year.
1 Early life
Howard was born in Llanelli, Wales, where his Romanian Jewish shopkeeper father Bernard had moved in order to escape the Nazi persecution. When he was six, the family name of Hecht was anglicised to become Howard [1]. He attended Peterhouse, Cambridge and was President of the Cambridge Union SocietyThe Cambridge Union Society commonly referred to simply as the Cambridge Union is the largest student society at the University of Cambridge. It was founded on February 13th, 1815 as a union of three debating societies and quickly rose to prominence in Un in 1962. Howard was one of a cluster of bright Conservative students at CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is the second-oldest academic institution in the English-speaking world (after Oxford). According to legend, the University was founded in 1209 by scholars escaping Oxford after a fight with locals. Cambridge and the University around this time, many of whom went on to hold high government office under Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS (born October 13, 1925) is a British politician and the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a position she held from 1979 to 1990. She is a member of the Conservative Party and still and John MajorThe Right Honourable John Major CH is a British politician and was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1997, attaining that office when he succeeded Margaret Thatcher as Conservative Party leader. Early life Major was born March 29, 1943, th.
He was called to the Bar ( Inner TempleThe Inner Temple is one of the four Inns of Court around the Royal Courts of Justice in London, England, to which barristers belong and where they are called to the bar. The others are Middle Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn. Since the 14th century, t) in 1964Events January January 1 Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. January 3 Senator Barry Goldwater announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for President. January 5 In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Ort and specialised in employment law and planning issues. In the 1966 electionThe UK general election in 1966 was called by Harold Wilson because his government, elected in the 1964 election, had an unworkably small majority. Wilson's hope, that he would be returned to office with an increased majority, was excited by the governmen he fought the safe Labour seat of LiverpoolFor alternate uses of "Liverpool" see Liverpool (disambiguation Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside in north west England, on the north side of the Mersey estuary. Liverpool is governed by Liverpool City Council, one of five council Edge Hill, which led to his support for Liverpool F.C.. The late 1960s saw his promotion within the Bow Group where he became Chairman in 1970 shortly after the general election in which he was again defeated at Edge Hill. At the Conservative Party conference of 1970, he made a speech commending the government for curbing trade union power.
Howard was named as co-respondent in the high profile divorce case of former 1960s model Sandra Paul. She and Howard subsequently married in 1975 (her fourth marriage); their son Nicholas was born in 1976 and daughter Larissa in 1977. Unlike his Cambridge contemporaries, Howard found difficulty being selected for a winnable seat and so continued his career at the Bar where he became a Queen's Counsel in 1982. In one case he appeared against a younger barrister, Tony Blair, who was also taking up employment law. In June 1982, Howard was finally selected for Folkestone and Hythe in succession to Sir Albert Costain, who was retiring. He won his seat in the general election of 1983 without difficulty.
