Word: britain
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Jade Goody has lived her entire adult life in front of the camera. Star of the reality TV show Big Brother, Goody became a household name in Britain through her outlandish behavior on the show, once even sparking a diplomatic incident between India and the U.K. Recently, Goody’s life hit a more tragic note with her diagnosis of terminal cervical cancer. But, true to form, this aspect of her life too will be broadcast—a television series is being filmed to document her last days...
...award on his website. Why such fervor? Kennedy played a high profile role in Northern Ireland's peace process, working to articulate the cause of nationalists whilst also sometimes criticizing Republican extremism. That's a fine balance which does not satisfy the pro-Irish Union, anti-Ted faction in Britain. "The knighthood is a grotesque insult to the memory of British service men and women who died serving in Northern Ireland," says Blaney...
...announcement, Blaney is especially incensed by a remark the U.S. politician made back in 1971. In that year, Kennedy introduced a Senate resolution demanding the ouster of British military forces from Northern Ireland - or Ulster as the Irish called that part of the island. Said Kennedy: "Ulster is becoming Britain's Vietnam... The conscience of America cannot keep silent when men and women of Ireland are dying. Britain has lost...
Tebbit and Blaney's opprobrium appears to be shared by Britain's rightwing press. "Kennedy is one chum [of Brown's] who should not be honored," opined a Daily Telegraph headline. The historian Andrew Roberts penned an opinion piece in the Daily Mail entitled "The Obsceneity of Giving Ted Kennedy a Knighthood." But the Conservative party - now a touchier-feelier bunch under the leadership of David Cameron - is also divided on the issue. Simon Burns, a Tory MP, submitted the following "early day motion" to the House of Commons: "This House warmly welcomes the awarding of an honorary knighthood...
Early day motions rarely are submitted to debate, and in any case, Britain's monarch has already granted the award to Kennedy. The only remaining way to block the honorific, which Kennedy has accepted but not yet collected in the material form of a medal from the British ambassador to Washington, would be for Congress to intervene. Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution states that "no person holding any office of profit or trust... shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince...