The Membership of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1920-1945

The opening of archives in recent years makes it possible to reassess the membership of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) before 1945. The revised aggregate figures, while not startling, suggest that revisions to established views of the effects of the General Strike, the shift to the ‘new line’ and the popular front, are in order. The party's membership was very predominantly male, tended to be young, often included a high proportion of unemployed people, and was heavily working class, with miners especially significant. Geographically, its membership was dominated for most of the period by London, Scotland, Lancashire, and South Wales. There was also a very high turnover of membership for much of the period. The reasons for this turnover, and explanations for the circumstances in which the party was best able to recruit, are discussed. Over time the party's membership did become less unrepresentative of Britain as a whole, enabling it to become an organic, if minor, part of British political life. CPGB membership patterns have similarities with those of other Western Communist parties and its predecessor organizations in Britain, showing how the CPGB reflected features of both international Communism and the British left.British Academy; University of Exete

Sharing teachers\u27 stories of sport education : a summary of findings from the 1994 national SEPEP trials

Sport Education is an innovative curriculum model, increasingly used as a component of upper primary and secondary school physical education programs and exhibiting many parallels with community junior sport. Within normally scheduled physical education lessons, mixed ability teams are formed at the start of a 20 session (approximately) competitive season . In addition to the aim of helping students learn to become good players, Sport Education encourages students to fulfil other roles such as umpiring, acting as a team coach, manager or captain, serving on a sports management board or duty team and working as a publicity officer/journalist. As students assume greater responsibility for learn1hg, teachers relinquish traditional up-front direct teaching roles, often moving off-centre stage to facilitate social, knowledge and skill learning through a range of student-centred learning strategies. The Sport Education model is a process with a potential for educating children into good sporting behaviour and embodies a number of characteristics..

'In a rather emotional state?' The Labour party and British intervention in Greece, 1944-5

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in The English Historical Review following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version (Vol.121 (493), Sept. 2006 pp. 1075-1105) is available online at: http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/CXXI/493/1075 . 24 month embargo by the publisher. Article will be released September 2008.In December 1944 events in Greece intruded briefly but violently onto the Labour party's political agenda. When police shot Communist-sympathising civilians in British-occupied Athens, and the Coalition government under Churchill appeared to support the act, constituency Labour parties and trade unions all over Britain passed angry resolutions of condemnation. The impact of the crisis was all the greater because the delayed annual conference of the Labour party was about to convene. The crisis was, in the event, soon overcome by adroit party management, a softening of Churchill's own position, the conclusion of a ceasefire in Greece, and the difficulty of sustaining grassroots anger over a complex and unfamiliar issue, while clear indications that Greece was not, for the time being, a Soviet priority inhibited British Communists from agitating more strongly on the issue. But the crisis did briefly threaten the carefully-crafted unity that had enabled Labour to profit from the circumstances of the war and which was to stand it in good stead at the July 1945 general election. It is also argued, however, that the extent and depth of Labour anger cannot be understood without a wider appreciation of Labour's rather febrile mood in the final winter of the war, in which events in Greece could be seen as yet another manifestation of an increasingly anti-Labour line being taken by the Coalition. The extent of Labour's crisis over Greece in that last wartime winter was at least as much about the future of Labour as it was about the present and future of Greece.British Academy, Arts and Humanities Research Counci

Reasons for "progressive" disunity: Labour and Liberal politics in Britain, 1918-45

Arts and Humanities Research Board; British Academ

Communist MP: Willie Gallacher and British communism

Details of the definitive version are available at: http://www.peterlang.co

Mapping and quantifying methane emissions from local sources using airborne imaging spectrometers

Most of the existing techniques for detecting, quantifying, and attributing point source emissions of methane (CH4) have relied on ground-based measurements. These methods are limited either by their spatial resolution or temporal coverage, which makes identifying the location of individual sources challenging. By combining large image footprints and fine spatial resolution, airborne imaging spectrometers offer the potential to permit direct attribution of emissions to individual point sources.This dissertation explores the potential of using imaging spectrometers like the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and the next generation sensor (AVIRIS-NG) for high resolution mapping of emissions and quantification of methane concentrations present within scenes. To do so, non-quantitative filtering methods and quantitative methane retrievals were adapted for use with AVIRIS and AVIRIS-NG scenes over both marine and terrestrial environments. These techniques were applied to scenes acquired at natural marine methane seeps (Coal Oil Point, COP) and for natural and anthropogenic sources in the Los Angeles Basin. At these locations, distinct plumes consistent with local wind direction were observed. As part of this study, I developed methods of reducing noise and false positives in results.As part of a controlled release experiment, AVIRIS-NG was flown at multiple flight altitudes and methane flux rates to determine its sensitivity for methane detection. From these results, detection rates were calculated for multiple flux rates and indicate a detection threshold around 3.4 cubic meters per hour (0.02 kt/year). Given this threshold, AVIRIS-NG has the potential to detect a number of fugitive methane source categories for natural gas fields. Ongoing analysis of AVIRIS-NG scenes over oil and gas fields indicates multiple methane plumes, further emphasizing the utility of imaging spectrometers for direct attribution of methane emissions