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Join (SQL)

A join clause in the Structured Query Language (SQL) combines columns from one or more tables into a new table. The operation corresponds to a join operation in relational algebra. Informally, a join stitches two tables and puts on the same row records with matching fields :,  ,  ,   and.

Example tables
To explain join types, the rest of this article uses the following tables:

is the primary key of the  table, whereas   is a foreign key.

Note that in, "Williams" has not yet been assigned to a department. Also, no employees have been assigned to the "Marketing" department.

These are the SQL statements to create the above tables:

Cross join
returns the Cartesian product of rows from tables in the join. In other words, it will produce rows which combine each row from the first table with each row from the second table.

Example of an explicit cross join:

Example of an implicit cross join: The cross join can be replaced with an inner join with an always-true condition:

does not itself apply any predicate to filter rows from the joined table. The results of a  can be filtered using a   clause, which may then produce the equivalent of an inner join.

In the SQL:2011 standard, cross joins are part of the optional F401, "Extended joined table", package.

Normal uses are for checking the server's performance.

Inner join
An inner join (or join) requires each row in the two joined tables to have matching column values, and is a commonly used join operation in applications but should not be assumed to be the best choice in all situations. Inner join creates a new result table by combining column values of two tables (A and B) based upon the join-predicate. The query compares each row of A with each row of B to find all pairs of rows that satisfy the join-predicate. When the join-predicate is satisfied by matching non-NULL values, column values for each matched pair of rows of A and B are combined into a result row.

The result of the join can be defined as the outcome of first taking the cartesian product (or cross join) of all rows in the tables (combining every row in table A with every row in table B) and then returning all rows that satisfy the join predicate. Actual SQL implementations normally use other approaches, such as hash joins or sort-merge joins, since computing the Cartesian product is slower and would often require a prohibitively large amount of memory to store.

SQL specifies two different syntactical ways to express joins: the "explicit join notation" and the "implicit join notation". The "implicit join notation" is no longer considered a best practice, although database systems still support it.

The "explicit join notation" uses the  keyword, optionally preceded by the   keyword, to specify the table to join, and the   keyword to specify the predicates for the join, as in the following example:

The "implicit join notation" simply lists the tables for joining, in the  clause of the   statement, using commas to separate them. Thus it specifies a cross join, and the  clause may apply additional filter-predicates (which function comparably to the join-predicates in the explicit notation).

The following example is equivalent to the previous one, but this time using implicit join notation:

The queries given in the examples above will join the Employee and department tables using the DepartmentID column of both tables. Where the DepartmentID of these tables match (i.e. the join-predicate is satisfied), the query will combine the LastName, DepartmentID and DepartmentName columns from the two tables into a result row. Where the DepartmentID does not match, no result row is generated.

Thus the result of the execution of the query above will be:

The employee "Williams" and the department "Marketing" do not appear in the query execution results. Neither of these has any matching rows in the other respective table: "Williams" has no associated department, and no employee has the department ID 35 ("Marketing"). Depending on the desired results, this behavior may be a subtle bug, which can be avoided by replacing the inner join with an outer join.

Inner join and NULL values
Programmers should take special care when joining tables on columns that can contain NULL values, since NULL will never match any other value (not even NULL itself), unless the join condition explicitly uses a combination predicate that first checks that the joins columns are  before applying the remaining predicate condition(s). The Inner Join can only be safely used in a database that enforces referential integrity or where the join columns are guaranteed not to be NULL. Many transaction processing relational databases rely on atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability (ACID) data update standards to ensure data integrity, making inner joins an appropriate choice. However, transaction databases usually also have desirable join columns that are allowed to be NULL. Many reporting relational database and data warehouses use high volume extract, transform, load (ETL) batch updates which make referential integrity difficult or impossible to enforce, resulting in potentially NULL join columns that an SQL query author cannot modify and which cause inner joins to omit data with no indication of an error. The choice to use an inner join depends on the database design and data characteristics. A left outer join can usually be substituted for an inner join when the join columns in one table may contain NULL values.

Any data column that may be NULL (empty) should never be used as a link in an inner join, unless the intended result is to eliminate the rows with the NULL value. If NULL join columns are to be deliberately removed from the result set, an inner join can be faster than an outer join because the table join and filtering is done in a single step. Conversely, an inner join can result in disastrously slow performance or even a server crash when used in a large volume query in combination with database functions in an SQL Where clause. A function in an SQL Where clause can result in the database ignoring relatively compact table indexes. The database may read and inner join the selected columns from both tables before reducing the number of rows using the filter that depends on a calculated value, resulting in a relatively enormous amount of inefficient processing.

When a result set is produced by joining several tables, including master tables used to look up full-text descriptions of numeric identifier codes (a Lookup table), a NULL value in any one of the foreign keys can result in the entire row being eliminated from the result set, with no indication of error. A complex SQL query that includes one or more inner joins and several outer joins has the same risk for NULL values in the inner join link columns.

A commitment to SQL code containing inner joins assumes NULL join columns will not be introduced by future changes, including vendor updates, design changes and bulk processing outside of the application's data validation rules such as data conversions, migrations, bulk imports and merges.

One can further classify inner joins as equi-joins, as natural joins, or as cross-joins.

Equi-join
An equi-join is a specific type of comparator-based join, that uses only equality comparisons in the join-predicate. Using other comparison operators (such as ) disqualifies a join as an equi-join. The query shown above has already provided an example of an equi-join:

We can write equi-join as below,

If columns in an equi-join have the same name, SQL-92 provides an optional shorthand notation for expressing equi-joins, by way of the  construct:

The  construct is more than mere syntactic sugar, however, since the result set differs from the result set of the version with the explicit predicate. Specifically, any columns mentioned in the  list will appear only once, with an unqualified name, rather than once for each table in the join. In the case above, there will be a single  column and no   or.

The  clause is not supported by MS SQL Server and Sybase.

Natural join
The natural join is a special case of equi-join. Natural join (⋈) is a binary operator that is written as (R ⋈ S) where R and S are relations. The result of the natural join is the set of all combinations of tuples in R and S that are equal on their common attribute names. For an example consider the tables Employee and Dept and their natural join:

This can also be used to define composition of relations. For example, the composition of Employee and Dept is their join as shown above, projected on all but the common attribute DeptName. In category theory, the join is precisely the fiber product.

The natural join is arguably one of the most important operators since it is the relational counterpart of logical AND. Note that if the same variable appears in each of two predicates that are connected by AND, then that variable stands for the same thing and both appearances must always be substituted by the same value. In particular, the natural join allows the combination of relations that are associated by a foreign key. For example, in the above example a foreign key probably holds from Employee.DeptName to Dept.DeptName and then the natural join of Employee and Dept combines all employees with their departments. This works because the foreign key holds between attributes with the same name. If this is not the case such as in the foreign key from Dept.manager to Employee.Name then these columns have to be renamed before the natural join is taken. Such a join is sometimes also referred to as an equi-join.

More formally the semantics of the natural join are defined as follows:

 * $$R \bowtie S = \left\{ t \cup s \mid t \in R \ \land \ s \in S \ \land \ \mathit{Fun}(t \cup s) \right\}$$,

where Fun is a predicate that is true for a relation r if and only if r is a function. It is usually required that R and S must have at least one common attribute, but if this constraint is omitted, and R and S have no common attributes, then the natural join becomes exactly the Cartesian product.

The natural join can be simulated with Codd's primitives as follows. Let c1, ..., cm be the attribute names common to R and S, r1, ..., rn be the attribute names unique to R and let s1, ..., sk be the attributes unique to S. Furthermore, assume that the attribute names x1, ..., xm are neither in R nor in S. In a first step the common attribute names in S can now be renamed:

 * $$T = \rho_{x_1/c_1,\ldots,x_m/c_m}(S) = \rho_{x_1/c_1}(\rho_{x_2/c_2}(\ldots\rho_{x_m/c_m}(S)\ldots))$$

Then we take the Cartesian product and select the tuples that are to be joined:

 * $$U = \pi_{r_1,\ldots,r_n,c_1,\ldots,c_m,s_1,\ldots,s_k}(P)$$

A natural join is a type of equi-join where the join predicate arises implicitly by comparing all columns in both tables that have the same column-names in the joined tables. The resulting joined table contains only one column for each pair of equally named columns. In the case that no columns with the same names are found, the result is a cross join.

Most experts agree that NATURAL JOINs are dangerous and therefore strongly discourage their use. The danger comes from inadvertently adding a new column, named the same as another column in the other table. An existing natural join might then "naturally" use the new column for comparisons, making comparisons/matches using different criteria (from different columns) than before. Thus an existing query could produce different results, even though the data in the tables have not been changed, but only augmented. The use of column names to automatically determine table links is not an option in large databases with hundreds or thousands of tables where it would place an unrealistic constraint on naming conventions. Real world databases are commonly designed with foreign key data that is not consistently populated (NULL values are allowed), due to business rules and context. It is common practice to modify column names of similar data in different tables and this lack of rigid consistency relegates natural joins to a theoretical concept for discussion.

The above sample query for inner joins can be expressed as a natural join in the following way:

As with the explicit  clause, only one DepartmentID column occurs in the joined table, with no qualifier:

PostgreSQL, MySQL and Oracle support natural joins; Microsoft T-SQL and IBM DB2 do not. The columns used in the join are implicit so the join code does not show which columns are expected, and a change in column names may change the results. In the SQL:2011 standard, natural joins are part of the optional F401, "Extended joined table", package.

In many database environments the column names are controlled by an outside vendor, not the query developer. A natural join assumes stability and consistency in column names which can change during vendor mandated version upgrades.

Outer join
The joined table retains each row—even if no other matching row exists. Outer joins subdivide further into left outer joins, right outer joins, and full outer joins, depending on which table's rows are retained: left, right, or both (in this case left and right refer to the two sides of the  keyword). Like inner joins, one can further sub-categorize all types of outer joins as equi-joins, natural joins,  (θ-join), etc.

No implicit join-notation for outer joins exists in standard SQL.

Left outer join
The result of a left outer join (or simply left join) for tables A and B always contains all rows of the "left" table (A), even if the join-condition does not find any matching row in the "right" table (B). This means that if the  clause matches 0 (zero) rows in B (for a given row in A), the join will still return a row in the result (for that row)—but with NULL in each column from B. A left outer join returns all the values from an inner join plus all values in the left table that do not match to the right table, including rows with NULL (empty) values in the link column.

For example, this allows us to find an employee's department, but still shows employees that have not been assigned to a department (contrary to the inner-join example above, where unassigned employees were excluded from the result).

Example of a left outer join (the   keyword is optional), with the additional result row (compared with the inner join) italicized:

Alternative syntaxes
Oracle supports the deprecated syntax: Sybase supports the syntax (Microsoft SQL Server deprecated this syntax since version 2000): IBM Informix supports the syntax:

Right outer join
A right outer join (or right join) closely resembles a left outer join, except with the treatment of the tables reversed. Every row from the "right" table (B) will appear in the joined table at least once. If no matching row from the "left" table (A) exists, NULL will appear in columns from A for those rows that have no match in B.

A right outer join returns all the values from the right table and matched values from the left table (NULL in the case of no matching join predicate). For example, this allows us to find each employee and his or her department, but still show departments that have no employees.

Below is an example of a right outer join (the   keyword is optional), with the additional result row italicized:

Right and left outer joins are functionally equivalent. Neither provides any functionality that the other does not, so right and left outer joins may replace each other as long as the table order is switched.

Full outer join
Conceptually, a full outer join combines the effect of applying both left and right outer joins. Where rows in the full outer joined tables do not match, the result set will have NULL values for every column of the table that lacks a matching row. For those rows that do match, a single row will be produced in the result set (containing columns populated from both tables).

For example, this allows us to see each employee who is in a department and each department that has an employee, but also see each employee who is not part of a department and each department which doesn't have an employee.

Example of a full outer join (the   keyword is optional):

Some database systems do not support the full outer join functionality directly, but they can emulate it through the use of an inner join and UNION ALL selects of the "single table rows" from left and right tables respectively. The same example can appear as follows:

Another approach could be UNION ALL of left outer join and right outer join MINUS inner join.

Self-join
A self-join is joining a table to itself.

Example
If there were two separate tables for employees and a query which requested employees in the first table having the same country as employees in the second table, a normal join operation could be used to find the answer table. However, all the employee information is contained within a single large table.

Consider a modified  table such as the following:

An example solution query could be as follows:

Which results in the following table being generated.

For this example:
 * and  are aliases for the first and second copies of the employee table.
 * The condition  excludes pairings between employees in different countries. The example question only wanted pairs of employees in the same country.
 * The condition  excludes pairings where the   of the first employee is greater than or equal to the   of the second employee. In other words, the effect of this condition is to exclude duplicate pairings and self-pairings. Without it, the following less useful table would be generated (the table below displays only the "Germany" portion of the result):

Only one of the two middle pairings is needed to satisfy the original question, and the topmost and bottommost are of no interest at all in this example.

Alternatives
The effect of an outer join can also be obtained using a UNION ALL between an INNER JOIN and a SELECT of the rows in the "main" table that do not fulfill the join condition. For example,

can also be written as

Implementation
Much work in database-systems has aimed at efficient implementation of joins, because relational systems commonly call for joins, yet face difficulties in optimising their efficient execution. The problem arises because inner joins operate both commutatively and associatively. In practice, this means that the user merely supplies the list of tables for joining and the join conditions to use, and the database system has the task of determining the most efficient way to perform the operation. The choices become more complex as the number of tables involved in a query increases, with each table having different characteristics in record count, average record length (considering NULL fields) and available indexes. Where Clause filters can also significantly impact query volume and cost.

A query optimizer determines how to execute a query containing joins. A query optimizer has two basic freedoms:

 * 1) Join order: Because it joins functions commutatively and associatively, the order in which the system joins tables does not change the final result set of the query. However, join-order could have an enormous impact on the cost of the join operation, so choosing the best join order becomes very important.
 * 2) Join method: Given two tables and a join condition, multiple algorithms can produce the result set of the join. Which algorithm runs most efficiently depends on the sizes of the input tables, the number of rows from each table that match the join condition, and the operations required by the rest of the query.

Many join-algorithms treat their inputs differently. One can refer to the inputs to a join as the "outer" and "inner" join operands, or "left" and "right", respectively. In the case of nested loops, for example, the database system will scan the entire inner relation for each row of the outer relation.

One can classify query-plans involving joins as follows:

 * left-deep : using a base table (rather than another join) as the inner operand of each join in the plan
 * right-deep : using a base table as the outer operand of each join in the plan
 * bushy : neither left-deep nor right-deep; both inputs to a join may themselves result from joins

These names derive from the appearance of the query plan if drawn as a tree, with the outer join relation on the left and the inner relation on the right (as convention dictates).

Join algorithms
Three fundamental algorithms for performing a binary join operation exist: nested loop join, sort-merge join and hash join. Worst-case optimal join algorithms are asymptotically faster than binary join algorithms for joins between more than two relations in the worst case.

Join indexes
Join indexes are database indexes that facilitate the processing of join queries in data warehouses: they are currently (2012) available in implementations by Oracle and Teradata.

In the Teradata implementation, specified columns, aggregate functions on columns, or components of date columns from one or more tables are specified using a syntax similar to the definition of a database view: up to 64 columns/column expressions can be specified in a single join index. Optionally, a column that defines the primary key of the composite data may also be specified: on parallel hardware, the column values are used to partition the index's contents across multiple disks. When the source tables are updated interactively by users, the contents of the join index are automatically updated. Any query whose WHERE clause specifies any combination of columns or column expressions that are an exact subset of those defined in a join index (a so-called "covering query") will cause the join index, rather than the original tables and their indexes, to be consulted during query execution.

The Oracle implementation limits itself to using bitmap indexes. A bitmap join index is used for low-cardinality columns (i.e., columns containing fewer than 300 distinct values, according to the Oracle documentation): it combines low-cardinality columns from multiple related tables. The example Oracle uses is that of an inventory system, where different suppliers provide different parts. The schema has three linked tables: two "master tables", Part and Supplier, and a "detail table", Inventory. The last is a many-to-many table linking Supplier to Part, and contains the most rows. Every part has a Part Type, and every supplier is based in the US, and has a State column. There are not more than 60 states+territories in the US, and not more than 300 Part Types. The bitmap join index is defined using a standard three-table join on the three tables above, and specifying the Part_Type and Supplier_State columns for the index. However, it is defined on the Inventory table, even though the columns Part_Type and Supplier_State are "borrowed" from Supplier and Part respectively.

As for Teradata, an Oracle bitmap join index is only utilized to answer a query when the query's WHERE clause specifies columns limited to those that are included in the join index.

Straight join
Some database systems allow the user to force the system to read the tables in a join in a particular order. This is used when the join optimizer chooses to read the tables in an inefficient order. For example, in MySQL the command  reads the tables in exactly the order listed in the query.

title: Join (SQL)


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David T. C. Davies

David Thomas Charles Davies (born 27 July 1970) is a British politician who was Secretary of State for Wales from 2022 to 2024. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Monmouth from 2005 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he chaired the Welsh Affairs Select Committee from 2010 to 2019. Davies also served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales from 2019 to 2022, and as Member of the Welsh Assembly (AM) for Monmouth from 1999 to 2007.

A vocal critic of the European Union, he supported Brexit in the 2016 membership referendum. Having previously questioned the scientific evidence for the role of human factors in global warming, Davies said in 2019 that he supported the UK government's intention to become carbon neutral by 2050 and that he fully accepted the link between carbon dioxide and climate change.

Background
Davies was born on 27 July 1970 in Newham, London, to Peter and Kathleen Davies (Elton). A great-grandfather was German and Jewish. He was educated at Clytha School and Bassaleg School in Newport, Wales. After leaving school in 1988 he worked for the British Steel Corporation and served with the Territorial Army. He worked for his family in their shipping company, Burrow Heath Ltd, before entering politics.

He married Aliz Harnisföger, who is Hungarian, in October 2003 in Monmouth, and they have three children. A keen sportsman, Davies has fought in several charity boxing matches as "The Tory Tornado" and is a former president of the Welsh Amateur Boxing Association.

Davies speaks Welsh, after learning the language as a beginner when he was elected to the National Assembly for Wales. He was awarded the accolade of Welsh Speaker of the Year and was the first AM to address the Welsh Language Society, Cymdeithas Yr Iaith Gymraeg, in Welsh.

Service as a Special Constable
Davies was sworn in as a Special Constable with the British Transport Police in March 2007. On his third patrol he searched a man 'acting suspiciously' and found a handgun. In August 2011, Davies wrote about his experiences on riot duty and lamented that police were ordered not to go out alone in uniform for safety reasons. Davies had to return from a short holiday for the recall of Parliament to discuss the riots across England and also served on patrols in London that week in his role as a special constable. He called for the police to be encouraged to take tougher action during the riots. He resigned in 2015, after serving nine years as a special constable, because of rules about police officers taking part in politics.

Pre-Assembly Career
He unsuccessfully contested the seat of Bridgend at the 1997 general election, finishing in second place 15,248 votes behind Win Griffiths.

Just Say No Campaign
As an opponent of the concept of a new Welsh assembly, Davies helped to set up the 'No' campaign in the devolution referendum, and being frequently quoted as a spokesperson or 'prominent member' for the campaign throughout the devolution campaign and referendum.

First Assembly
Davies gained a higher profile and decided to run as the Conservative candidate for Monmouth. At the inaugural 1999 Welsh Assembly Election he was elected to the National Assembly for Wales. He was the only Conservative member to win on a constituency ballot. He became the deputy leader of the Welsh Conservatives and Chief Whip under Rod Richards.

In August 1999, Rod Richards stood as leader of the Conservative Group in the Assembly down to contest charges of grievous bodily harm made against him. He insisted that this would be temporary, and that .Davies, as his deputy, would stand in until the matter was resolved. Davies stood in the role for a total of 5 days, between 5 August and 10 August, before the Assembly Conservative group elected to appoint Nick Bourne as the group's temporary leader, over Davies. Later that month, Bourne would reshuffle the Welsh Conservative's frontbench roles. Davies retained his role as Chief Whip in this reshuffle, as well as being handed the portfolio for Environment, Transport and Planning.

In 2000, Davies was investigated by the Independent Adviser on Standards of Conduct for misusing Assembly stationary to invite people to see a display he had put together in the Assembly to oppose to repeal of Section 28. The case was dismissed shortly after.

In November 2000, Davies' retained his responsibilities for Environment and Transport, but lost his responsibilities for local government and planning, with these going to colleague William Graham.

In August 2001, Davies made a statement clarifying that Edgar Griffin, father of British National Party founder Nick Griffin was no longer a member of the Conservative Party's welsh campaign team, which Davies had helped to recruit.

Davies supported Iain Duncan Smith in the 2001 Conservative Party leadership election.

In November 2001, Davies was reshuffled away from the role of Chief Whip for the Welsh Conservatives, instead being placed on the Welsh Assembly's economic development committee.

Davies was consistently critical of attempts to grant more powers to the Welsh Assembly, publishing a leaflet in 2002 which stated "Only one in four people voted for devolution in the referendum, so it would be grossly unfair to turn the Assembly into a Parliament by stealth. I believe no further powers should be given to the Welsh Assembly without a further referendum, and that referendum should also include a question, 'Should we get rid of the Assembly altogether'?" He did so after fellow Conservative AM David Melding asked First Minister Rhodri Morgan if he believed the assembly should be granted primary legislative powers.

Second Assembly
Davies was re-elected at the 2003 National Assembly election, and was again the only member of the Welsh Conservatives elected on a constituency ballot, and received the largest vote of any candidate in Wales. He was appointed as the Welsh Conservative Education spokesperson by Nicke Bourne shortly after. He was also handed the role as Conservative Equal Opportunities spokesperson, and placed on the Assembly's Equal Opportunities Committee.

Shortly after, Davies spotted attempted to hold a Wales-specific referendum on the EU Constitutional Treaty, using Section 36 of the Government of Wales Act 1998, which said "The Assembly may hold a poll in Wales or any part or parts of Wales for the purpose of ascertaining the views of those polled about whether or how any of the Assembly's functions should be exercised." First Minister Rhodri Morgan described the attempt as "[running] contrary to all British precedent" while Wales Secretary Peter Hain described it as "outrageous hypocrisy" - stating that Conservative governments had not held referendums on any European treaties.

In September 2003, it was announced that Davies had been selected to run as the Conservative candidate for Monmouth at the 2005 General Election. At the time he stated he had no intention to stand down as Assembly member for the constituency.

In February 2004, Davies described the Commission for Racial Equality as "one of the best recruiting sergeants the BNP could ever have" on television. He further described the CRE's as having "coined the phrase institutional racism" "because they could not actually pin down any particular examples of racist behaviour." He further described the commission itself as institutionally racist. The CRE's Wales Commissioner Cherry Short described Davies as '"living in cloud cuckoo land" if he believed their work assisted racists.

In April 2004, Davies was removed as Welsh Conservative Equal Opportunities Spokesperson, after he walked out of, and subsequently resigned from, the Assembly's Equal Opportunities Committee. He had reportedly asked a representative of Stonewall "I wonder why you feel a homosexual who is attacked has more rights in the eyes of the law than an elderly lady or an elderly man?", among other questions, after the charity had presented it's annual report to the committee. Stonewall representative Derek Walker responded by saying "We don't think any crime against an older person should be treated in a lesser way. Our survey shows it is a big issue in Wales and across the country. We have asked it to be prioritised in the same way racial crime is." Social Justice Minister Edwina Hart had described his remarks as "offensive", at which point Davies reportedly left, describing the committee as "a total waste of time" and said "I simply can't go on". He was replaced as Equal Opportunities Spokesperson by Mark Isherwood.

Election to the UK Parliament and Dual Mandate
He was elected at the 2005 general election as member of the House of Commons for Monmouth, the seat he held in the Welsh Assembly. He defeated the sitting Labour MP Huw Edwards by 4,527 votes, and remains the MP for the constituency. On 18 May 2005 he made his maiden speech giving a history of his constituency from Geoffrey of Monmouth onwards. After his election to the UK parliament, his role as Welsh Conservative Spokesperson on Education in the Assembly was re-assigned to William Graham. He had previously announced his intention to stand down as Assembly Member for Monmouth at the 2007 Welsh Assembly election. The Conservatives retained the Monmouth seat, at that election with Nick Ramsay being elected.

UK Parliamentary career
Once elected to Parliament he joined the Welsh Affairs Select Committee on his election. After the 2015 general election, he was returned unopposed the chairmanship of the committee.

In 2008, Davies criticised the National Black Police Association's race-based membership policy for not allowing white people interested in fighting racism to become full members and suggesting that they themselves could be guilty of racism.

In 2013 Davies voted against the Cameron–Clegg coalition government on the issue of British military intervention in the Syrian civil war.

During the trial of fellow Welsh MP Nigel Evans, Davies gave evidence of his character, stating that Evans liked a drink and became jovial when intoxicated, unlike some people who have a dark side. Evans was Davies' best man at his 2003 wedding. In May 2013, Davies said of Evans: "He's been a good friend of mine for a lot of years. I am stunned by these allegations and find them impossible to believe." Evans was acquitted of sexual assaults in April 2014.

In June 2015, Davies strongly criticised the planning and organisation of the first Velothon Wales event to be run in Wales which passed through his Monmouth constituency, arguing that business losses should be compensated for.

In July 2024, Davies contested the Monmouthshire constituency. He lost, with Labour's Catherine Fookes winning by 3,338 votes.

Expenses
In 2009 The Daily Telegraph reported that Davies had claimed £2,000 of taxpayers' money and paid it to his family's haulage firm. Davies defended his actions in an interview, denying any wrongdoing and explaining to BBC Wales that his family's firm had been paid to provide postage and produce publicity material at short notice for the annual Monmouth show, that they had not profited, and that he had subsequently used a specialist company in London for the production of such material where the costs were significantly higher.

In May of the same year, Davies became the first member of the Commons to voluntarily make his expense claims public. They were scrutinised by an independent panel which he had assembled and it emerged that Davies had claimed £475 for furniture for his London apartment, in addition to the monies paid to his family firm.

Welsh Affairs Committee
In June 2010 Davies was appointed Chairman of the Welsh Affairs Committee. He is a former member of the Home Affairs Select Committee and is an advocate of tough measures to deal with criminality. Davies is also Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary China Group and a member of the All-Party Parliamentary British-German Group. In January 2012, the Prime Minister David Cameron announced his appointment as a representative of the UK delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis
On 7 July 2022, following the resignation of Secretary of State for Wales Simon Hart, Davies confirmed that he "will not take the role".

Secretary of State for Wales
On 25 October 2022, upon Rishi Sunak's appointment as Prime Minister, Davies was appointed Secretary of State for Wales, succeeding Robert Buckland.

In April 2023 the Welsh Government wrote to Davies, asking for his consent for legal aid and £1,600 monthly payments to be given to some asylum seekers under their Basic Income pilot. Davies, describing the request as "highly irresponsible" and "indefensible", and arguing the move would "incentivise human traffickers", declined to approve it.

In late 2023, TATA Steel announced plans to close its operations in South Wales, which would have led to thousands of job losses and the end of primary steel making. The UK Government's Department for Business and Trade and the Wales Office were able to negotiate a £500 million support package to keep TATA Steel's operations open, but which would lead to the closure of two blast furnaces and the opening of an electric arc furnace. In an interview, Davies said without the government's offer TATA would have closed – but their operations have now been "saved".

In May 2024, Davies was accused by his counterpart - Jo Stevens - of breaking the ministerial code for filming a video in the Wales Office, where he said: "Do they [Welsh Labour] want to spend £120m on Welsh taxpayers' money on creating dozens of extra Senedd members in Cardiff Bay? Or would they prefer to spend that money on employing more nurses, doctors, dentists and teachers? I know which side I'm on." The Welsh government has defended the plans, saying they are needed to better scrutinise their work which has grown significantly since the National Assembly was established in 1999.

Brexit
Davies campaigned for Brexit. In May 2019, while attempting a television interview on College Green, Davies was confronted by a pro-Brexit activist, clearly unaware of his identity, who accused him of being a 'remoaner', a 'liar', a 'snowflake' and not a Brexiteer. Davies said that he had voted to leave in the referendum and had voted for Theresa May's failed Brexit withdrawal agreement. The two argued as Davies accused her of having "a big mouth and "access to a keyboard" and attempted to record the incident on the body camera that was strapped around his torso while she simultaneously filmed him.

In October 2019, commenting on his interventions following the Speaker's refusal to permit a debate on the Government's Brexit agreement, The Guardian's political sketchwriter John Crace described Davies as "one of the dimmest people in parliament – even the sheep in his Welsh constituency have a higher IQ".

In December 2020, when it was announced that the EU and UK had reached a post-Brexit free trade agreement, Davies said: "This is a historic day, because we have shown now we can get control over our laws, our borders, over our money, and at the same time get access to the single market."

Asylum
In May 2010, Davies was described by a rival Labour candidate, Hamish Sandison, as being on the "far right of the Conservative Party", which Davies described as an attempt to smear him as "some sort of Nazi" for raising concerns over immigration. A critic of the Coalition, Davies wrote a letter in 2012 to his constituents apologising for "incompetence at the highest levels of government" and accusing David Cameron of failing to listen to the concerns of backbenchers and the people who elected them. Earlier, in January of the same year, Davies referred to some communities as having imported "barbaric views on women". Commenting on a rape case, Davies said that upbringing could be a major factor although he saw it as "not an Islamic issue... let me be quite clear, and it's not a racial issue".

In May 2012, during a phone-in on the Jeremy Vine show on BBC Radio 2, Davies told a member of the public that she should join the BNP after she advocated the compulsory teaching of the Welsh language in schools. On his web page, he states his opinion 'that people who come to this country should learn English and be expected to work and to fit in with our rules, culture and traditions'.

Davies was criticised in 2015 for using the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack to promote the Conservative Party election pledge to abolish the Human Rights Act 1998. Davies said that "under current laws, including the Human Rights Act, anyone can come to the UK and make a claim for asylum", which was rebutted in The Guardian and in an article by Dr Mark Elliot at the University of Cambridge.

In response to the 2015 refugee crisis Davies said that most of the people attempting to enter the UK via Calais were not refugees fleeing war, but were economic migrants "mostly young men, mostly with mobile phones, chancing their luck". Davies attracted media attention in October 2016 with a tweet suggesting refugees to the UK should have dental checks to determine their age. His view was criticised by the British Dental Association which issued a statement describing the test as "inaccurate, inappropriate and unethical". The suggestion was also criticised by the British Association of Social Workers, and the test was also ruled out by the Home Office.

In October 2016, Davies said that a child migrant arriving in the UK from Calais had "lines around his eyes and looks older than I am." Davies appeared on ITV's Good Morning Britain on 19 October to defend dental checks, but became engaged in a heated exchange with Piers Morgan, who accused Davies of demonising refugee children, a charge which Davies denied. Later that year, Home Office figures revealed that more than two-thirds of refugees arriving in the UK who had their age assessed were over 18.

In August 2017, Davies criticised a senior Metropolitan Police officer for suggesting police should prioritise non-English speaking victims of crime amongst other vulnerable groups for personal visits from officers. Davies described the suggestion as "appalling and discriminatory". Davies suggested that the police could save money by not paying for interpreters for non-English speaking victims of crime. When criticised by Matt Lucas on Twitter, Davies responded by calling him a "leftie luvvie comedian" and a "moron", stating: "You happily 'blacked up' for a sketch, then accuse others of racism."

In April 2023 the Welsh Government wrote to Davies, asking for his consent for legal aid and £1,600 monthly payments to be given to some asylum seekers under their Basic Income pilot. Davies, describing the request as "highly irresponsible" and "indefensible", and arguing the move would "incentivise human traffickers", declined to approve it.

Travellers
In August 2023 Davies was reported to South Wales police during a consultation on potential traveller sites undertaken by Monmouthshire County Council. Davies suggested that the council's consultation was inadequate, and published and distributed a leaflet to constituents in Monmouthshire, which, among other questions, asked "would you like to see a Traveller site next to your house?" Davies denied that the leaflet was racist – and was supported by Oliver Dowden, the Deputy Prime Minister – but traveller groups suggested that it was a further example of "a 'history of hostility' towards Traveller communities" displayed by the Welsh Secretary over decades. South Wales police ultimately decided to take no further action. The Guardian later issued a correction, after wrongly attributing a disparaging comment on travellers made in 1999 to Davies.

Climate change
Davies called for a debate in Parliament on climate change in 2013 in which he questioned the scientific evidence for the role of human factors in global warming. Davies claimed that "in the 1970s, everyone was predicting a forthcoming ice age". A study of the peer-reviewed literature on climate change published between 1965 and 1979 found just seven articles suggesting that the world might be cooling, and 44 proposing that it was likely to get warmer. The "emphasis on greenhouse warming", it concludes, "dominated the scientific literature even then".

Davies also criticised the government's approach to pursuing low carbon energy saying, "an unholy coalition of environmentalists working with big businesses have persuaded various British ministers to phase out cheap electricity from coal and gas and replace it with non-CO2 generating alternatives such as wind, solar and nuclear."

During a political discussion on climate change in 2016, Davies argued that temperature increases could be explained by the use of different thermometers. He stated that the level of global temperature increase was "perfectly possible to explain away, because we are not comparing 'like with like'. We are using slightly different temperature gauges, the areas in which we are using them have moved, some of the areas that they are in have changed over the years, and they can be subject to something called the urban heat island effect or to other natural factors. So there has not really been an increase since 1998."

In 2019, Davies said that he fully accepted the link between carbon dioxide and climate change. He also said he supported the UK government's intention to become carbon neutral by 2050. In August 2019, Davies criticised the British band The 1975 for going on a world tour, accusing them of hypocrisy after producing a song about climate change.

Sex and gender
In 2000, Davies opposed the Blair governments' overturning of Section 28. In February Davies asked the Welsh Assembly Government's local government secretary if the Assembly had the power to alter the Blair government's bill to overturn the rule. In doing so he said "I must not be interpreted as homophobic, nor should my party. But I don't think schools should be encouraging homosexuality among people of 14 or 15 who are open to suggestions." Davies was told by the Assembly's local government secretary Peter Law that the bill was primary legislation, and that the assembly had no power to alter it. Shortly therafter, Davies set up a stall inside the Assembly building, presenting pre-Section 28 educational materials produced by local authorities discussing gay people in sex and relationships education. He was quoted in the South Wales Evening Post as describing the material as "obscene" and asking "what impact [the material] could have on young people?". He was investigated by the Independent Adviser on Standards of Conduct for misusing Assembly stationary to invite people to see this display, but the case was dismissed.

In 2012, Davies opposed his Government's plans to introduce same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom, describing them as "barking mad" due to the possibility that they may alienate the Conservative party's traditional supporters; expanding on these views in a television interview he also expressed the opinion that "most parents would prefer their children not to be gay". He also expressed concerns in relation to educating children about same sex relationships, stating in a 2012 radio interview; "I just worry if children are going to be taught that [heterosexuality] isn't necessarily the norm, and that you can carry on doing all sorts of other things, are we going to have a situation where the teacher’s saying, ‘Right, this is straight sex, this is gay sex, feel free to choose, it's perfectly normal to want to do both. And you know, why not try both out?’ I mean, are we going to have that?" Davies said he was not bigoted, offering the defence that he had once fought an amateur boxing match against the "Pink Pounder", an openly gay boxer.

Davies has criticised reform of the Gender Recognition Act, stating that it would have "a profound impact on the rights of others to maintain sex-based boundaries, protections and rights”. In 2019 he said that trans rights were "overriding those of women" and that trans activism is "barking mad". In January 2018, Davies tweeted, "Somebody possessing a penis and pair of testicles is definitely not a woman ... This should be a biological fact not a matter for political debate." In response he was accused of being a transphobe by the LGBT+ Conservatives group, who described his comment as "abhorrent and out of kilter" with the Conservative Party.

"Politicised" charities
Davies has been a critic of a number of national charities, such as Save the Children, the RSPCA and the NSPCC, which he regards as behaving in a politically motivated way, and was quoted in 2014 as saying that "this is part of a pattern of charities which focus more on lobbying the government on issues than on their causes."

Severn crossing
In August 2012, Davies said that he had been persuaded that continuing with a private operator was not in the interests of bridge users, and called on his own government to take state control of the two Severn crossings so motorists and businesses can have VAT-free tolls on a permanent basis. Davies said: "In normal circumstances I would be happy for a private company to run the bridges, but it's important to be pragmatic. It's clear that if the bridges are run by a state body, motorists and businesses would not have to pay VAT at 20% to drive across. The crossings are vital for the Welsh economy, and it's important to get them down as much as possible."

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: David T. C. Davies


text:
Little Miss Muffet

"Little Miss Muffet" is an English nursery rhyme of uncertain origin, first recorded in 1805. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20605. The rhyme has for over a century attracted discussion as to the proper meaning of the word tuffet.

Wording
The rhyme first appeared in print in Songs for the Nursery (1805), and there have been many variants since. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes gives the following:

Older versions sometimes use "of" rather than "her" in line 3, and refer to a "little spider" as in this example dating between 1837 and 1845:

There are several early-published versions with significant variations including "Little Mary Ester sat upon a tester" (1812) and "Little Miss Mopsey, Sat in the shopsey" (1842). Other collected variants have included "Little Miss Muffet, sat on a toffet" (1830s?) and "Little Miss Muffet, sat on a buffet" (1840s?). In a later United States example, "whey" was replaced with "pie".

Tuffet
Although the word tuffet is now sometimes used to mean a type of low seat, the word in the rhyme probably originally referred to a grassy hillock, small knoll or mound (a variant spelling of an obsolete and rare meaning of "tuft"). The Oxford English Dictionary calls the "hassock or footstool" meaning "doubtful", and "perhaps due to misunderstanding of the nursery rhyme". Many modern dictionaries including Collins, Merriam-Webster, Chambers 21st Century Dictionary and Oxford Dictionaries, however, now give both meanings.

Uncertain meaning
Since the rhyme provides little context, several writers have expressed confusion about its meaning. In 1902, Samuel M. Crothers remarked, "Perhaps some of you would like to know what a tuffet is. I have thought of that myself, and have taken the trouble to ask several learned persons. They assure me that the most complete and satisfactory definition is,—a tuffet is the kind of thing that Miss Muffet sat on."

As a grassy mound
According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word in the nursery rhyme may refer to "a grassy hillock, a small knoll or mound".

Earlier recorded examples of tuffet with the related meaning "tuft" (for example a cluster of short-stalked leaves or flowers growing from a common point) date back to 1553. The Merriam-Webster dictionary suggests that the word derives from the Anglo-French tuffete, from "tufe", meaning "tuft".

Many illustrators have shown Miss Muffet sitting on a mound or hillock, including John Everett Millais (1884) and Arthur Rackham (1913).

As a low seat
The Oxford English Dictionary gives a secondary definition "hassock or footstool", but calls this "doubtful". It lists an example from 1895 in which the meaning is "a three-legged stool" and another from 1904 with the meaning "footstool". Some sources, including Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) and Chambers 20th Century Dictionary (1983), failed to recognise this meaning at all, and listed only the grassy knoll definition. Nevertheless, there is a long tradition of illustrators showing some sort of low seat, including Kate Greenaway (1900) and Frederick Richardson (1915).

An 1888 variant of the rhyme has "she sat on a buffet" which the scholars Iona and Peter Opie point out certainly refers to a stool.

Origins
The origins of the rhyme are unclear. Although no record has been found before 1805, Iona and Peter Opie argue that it is likely to be considerably older given its similarity to other rhymes such as "Little Polly Flinders", "Little Poll Parrot", "Little Tommy Tacket", "Little General Monk" and "Little Jack Horner" (the last known to have been current at least as early as 1720). It is possible that all of these rhymes, and others, are parodies of whichever unknown rhyme came first.

It is sometimes claimed – without evidence – that the original Miss Muffet was Patience, daughter of Dr Thomas Muffet (d.1604), an English physician and entomologist, but the Opies are sceptical given the two-hundred year gap between his death and the rhyme's appearance. It has also been claimed to refer to Mary, Queen of Scots (1543–1587), frightened by the religious reformer John Knox (1510–1572).

Cultural depictions
Several novels and films, including the Alex Cross novel Along Came a Spider (1993) and its eponymous 2001 film adaptation, take their titles from the poem's crucial line.

title: Little Miss Muffet


text:
Australian Corps

The Australian Corps was a World War I army corps that contained all five Australian infantry divisions serving on the Western Front. It was the largest corps fielded by the British Empire in France. At its peak the Australian Corps numbered 109,881 men. By 1918 the headquarters consisted of more than 300 personnel of all ranks, including senior staff officers, as well as supporting personnel such as clerks, drivers and batmen. Formed on 1 November 1917, the corps replaced I Anzac Corps while II Anzac Corps, which contained the New Zealand Division, became the British XXII Corps on 31 December. While its structure varied, Australian Corps usually included 4–5 infantry divisions, corps artillery and heavy artillery, a corps flying squadron and captive balloon sections, anti-aircraft batteries, corps engineers, corps mounted troops (light horse and cyclists), ordnance workshops, medical and dental units, transport, salvage and an employment company.

History
Following the hard fighting of 1917, where the Australian divisions suffered heavily at Bullecourt, Messines and the Third Battle of Ypres, the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) was facing a manpower crisis. One plebiscite for conscription had already failed and another would be defeated on 1 December 1917. Voluntary recruitment was declining. Plans to form a 6th Australian Division were scrapped and the incomplete formation was disbanded. To make up the numbers, it was proposed to disband the Australian 4th Division, numerically the weakest, but this was strongly resisted by the members of the AIF.

General William Birdwood, commander of the AIF, suggested that in forming the Australian Corps, the weakest division could serve as a depot, providing reserves for the fighting divisions. Field Marshal Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, accepted this proposal. He had originally resisted combining the five Australian divisions into a single corps as he considered it too unwieldy. The Australian nature of the corps was enhanced by the attachment of No. 3 Squadron AFC plus Australian siege artillery batteries. It was also considered appropriate to appoint Australian officers to all senior command positions. However, Birdwood remained in command of the corps.

General Hubert Gough was dismissed from command of the British Fifth Army following its failure to withstand the German Spring Offensive of 1918. When Haig decided to reform the Fifth Army, he offered its command to Birdwood who accepted. This paved the way for an Australian to assume command of the corps, the highest field command held by an Australian in the war. The two candidates were Major General Cyril Brudenell White (Birdwood's chief-of-staff) and Major General John Monash (commander of the 3rd Division). Monash, who was senior, had experience commanding troops in battle and was favoured by Haig and Birdwood, got the post in May 1918 and was promoted to lieutenant general. The Australian Corps was used extensively throughout the Hundred Days Offensive during which it achieved great success.

The 4th Division saw little rest in its role as the "depot". In December 1917 it was moved into reserve near Péronne following the German counter-attack in the Battle of Cambrai. In January 1918, the division was returned to the front line south of Ypres as Haig acquiesced to French demands to take over more of the front. From this time until the Australians were withdrawn from fighting in early October, all divisions of the corps saw nearly continuous action. Rather than disbanding entire divisions, any consolidation of strength was made under the British system of reducing brigades from four battalions to three. During the Hundred Days campaign that ended the war, the Australian Corps, along with the Canadian Corps, were used repeatedly as spearheads for offensives. During the period August to October, 1918, General Monash reported that the Australian Corps had defeated some 39 German divisions, a full fifth of the entire German strength of 200 divisions on the Western Front.

Organisation
The Corps comprised

 * 1st Division
 * 2nd Division
 * 3rd Division
 * 4th Division
 * 5th Division
 * 6th Division (broken up for reinforcements)

title: Australian Corps


text:
Sarah Blanck

Sarah Blanck (born 18 January 1977 in Melbourne) is an Australian sailor.

In 2002, she won the Olympic class Europe World Championships.

Blanck won the ISAF Youth World Championship in 1995 and the Laser Radial Women's World Championships in 1997. A member of the Royal Brighton Yacht Club, she has represented Australia at both the 2004 and the 2008 Olympics, sailing the women's singlehanded dinghy, the Laser Radial. In both Games she finished fourth. She was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.

Blanck attended Luther College during her high school years.

title: Sarah Blanck


text:
Ger

Ger or GER may refer to:

Healthcare and science

 * Gastroesophageal reflux
 * Granular endoplasmic reticulum

Language and writing

 * Ger (rune), of the Anglo-Saxon futhark
 * German language
 * Gerund

People

 * Ger (Hasidic dynasty)
 * Ger toshav, the biblical term for a resident alien
 * Convert to Judaism

Given name or nickname

 * Ger Blok (1939–2016), Dutch football manager
 * Ger Brennan, Irish Gaelic footballer
 * Ger Canning (born 1951), Irish sports commentator
 * Ger Challa (born 1928), Dutch chemist
 * Ger Connolly (born 1937), Irish politician
 * Ger Cunningham (born 1961), Irish hurler
 * Ger Duany (born 1978), South Sudanese actor and model
 * Ger Egan (born 1990/1991), Westmeath Gaelic footballer
 * Ger van Elk (1941–2014), Dutch artist
 * Ger Feeney (c. 1954–2010), Irish Gaelic footballer
 * Ger Farragher (born 1983), Irish hurler
 * Ger Henderson (born 1954), Irish hurler
 * Ger Houlahan, Irish Gaelic footballer
 * Ger Lagendijk (1941–2010), Dutch footballer
 * Ger Loughnane (born 1953), Irish hurler
 * Ger Lynch (born 1958), Irish Gaelic footballer
 * Ger Manley (born 1968), Irish hurler
 * Ger Maycock (1970–2006), Irish artist
 * Ger McDonnell (1971–2008), Irish mountaineer
 * Ger O'Driscoll (disambiguation)
 * Ger Reddin (born 1988), Irish hurler
 * Ger Reidy (born 1986), Irish Gaelic footballer
 * Ger Robinson (born 1982), Irish association footballer
 * Ger Ryan, Irish actress
 * Ger Senden (born 1971), Dutch footballer
 * Ger Spillane (born 1981), Irish Gaelic footballer

Places

 * Ger, Girona, Catalonia, Spain
 * Ger, Hautes-Pyrénées, France
 * Ger, Manche, France
 * Ger, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France
 * Ger district, a type of residential district in Mongolia
 * Ger River, in Saint Lucia
 * Germany, IOC and UNDP codes
 * Góra Kalwaria, Mazovian Voivodship, Poland
 * Shiquanhe, Tibet, historically called Ger

Transportation

 * Gerrards Cross railway station, Buckinghamshire, National Rail station code GER
 * Great Eastern Railway, a British railway company
 * Rafael Cabrera Mustelier Airport, serving Nueva Gerona, Cuba, IATA code GER

Other uses

 * Ger (magazine), an online Mongolian magazine
 * Great Eastern Run, a running event in Peterborough, United Kingdom
 * Gross enrolment ratio
 * Migration Period spear
 * Yurt (Mongolian: гэр)

title: Ger


text:
CKEM-DT

CKEM-DT (channel 51) is a television station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, part of the Citytv network. It is owned and operated by Rogers Sports & Media alongside Omni Television station CJEO-DT (channel 56). The two stations share studios with Rogers's local radio stations on Gateway Boulevard in Edmonton; CKEM-DT's transmitter is located near Yellowhead Highway/Highway 16A. The station also operates a rebroadcast transmitter (CKEM-DT-1, channel 4) in Red Deer.

CKEM was built as part of A-Channel, the regional television service constructed by Craig Broadcast Systems in 1997. Broadcasting from studios downtown in the historic Hudson's Bay Building, it was the first new commercial TV station in Edmonton since 1974; its style of news and programming was young and aggressive. The station also broadcast Edmonton Oilers hockey for its first several years on air. Ratings settled into third place, above the CBC but behind the established stations in town, CFRN and CITV. However, the station lost ratings momentum following a five-month strike by unionized employees.

Craig, overextended by its launch of Toronto 1 in 2003, sold itself to CHUM Limited, then-owner of Citytv, in 2004. CHUM moved other media properties into the Hudson's Bay Building, including a new radio station and Access Media Group; in 2005, the A-Channel stations took on the Citytv brand. Due to poor ratings and as part of a wave of layoffs, CHUM reduced the size of its local operation in Edmonton in 2006, cancelling the station's evening newscast. CHUM sold most of its assets to Bell Globemedia that same year; as Bell owned the CTV Television Network, the Citytv stations were spun off to Rogers. The station continued producing a morning newscast under the Breakfast Television brand until 2015 and reinstated evening local news programs in 2017.

Construction and early years
With the licence awards approved, Craig began construction on the Edmonton station. In Edmonton, A-Channel set up in the heritage-listed Hudson's Bay building on Jasper Avenue, where it added large windows to its streetside studio; historic preservation conditions complicated work, with new tiles having to be ordered from Quebec. It obtained rights to midweek telecasts of Edmonton Oilers hockey, In the Edmonton market, Craig scored a coup by rights to midweek telecasts of Edmonton Oilers hockey, which had been held by CFRN.

Most of the on-air talent hired for A-Channel Edmonton came from outside the market, except for Bruce Buchanan, who handled Oilers play-by-play. Darren Dreger was the first sports anchor, coming to the station from Winnipeg; Janis Mackey was a substitute anchor for CTV News in Toronto.

A-Channel launched in Edmonton on channel 51, cable 7 on September 18, 1997—two days before CKAL-TV in Calgary. The new station was the first addition to Edmonton broadcast television since CITV in 1974. Both stations relied on prime-time movies, a formula Craig had used with some success at MTN in Manitoba. For local programming, the station featured a two-hour morning show, The Big Breakfast; 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts; and the local programs Live @ Five and Wired, among others.

A-Channel's debut was riddled with technical issues. Jennifer Lyall, the co-host for the local Wired entertainment magazine, quit after just one day on air after not being given time to rehearse. News footage showed on the wrong stories or froze, while sound failed to play out. At one news conference, a local politician saw an A-Channel cameraman enter the room and began mouthing his words without speaking. The Calgary station also faced similar issues when it started. Many of the issues came down to the tapeless playback and editing system used for segments: over five days, the Calgary control room was rewired to bypass it in favor of older, but more reliable, video tape equipment, which led to far fewer on-air errors.

In the spring 1998 ratings, A-Channel Edmonton surpassed the CBC in prime time, but its local programs—outside of hockey—attracted few viewers. BBM found that Live@Five, the station's 5:00 news program, had just 600 viewers. Over the next two years, the stations became more competitive with ratings rises for their local morning and evening programming.

Craig agreed in building A-Channel to provide some protection to rural broadcasters by delaying the launch of rebroadcasters for one year. This resulted in uproar from Oilers fans who lived outside of A-Channel's coverage area and were shut out of seeing hockey. In December 1998, A-Channel debuted on cable in Red Deer, with a rebroadcaster following the next year.

On June 17, 1999, CKEM assignment editor Garnet Lewis was opening a videotape believed to contain news footage. It was actually a letter bomb, which exploded and injured Lewis and reporter Stacey Brotzel. The newsroom was able to return for its regular edition of News@Night after viewers saw the Calgary editions of the early evening news programs as a substitute. A month later, police arrested 28-year-old Raymond Neal Best for sending letter bombs to A-Channel and the Calgary police chief, as well as a hoax bomb to the police chief of Edmonton. Best was convicted of sending the bombs and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

For the second year, Gene Principe joined Buchanan on the Oilers telecasts and became A-Channel's sports anchor. The Oilers departed A-Channel Edmonton after the 2000–2001 season and consolidated their television games with Sportsnet West, adding 20 games to the cable channel's existing 28-game inventory. The team was believed to see increased revenue opportunity with a regional telecast. Principe, who had doubled as the sports director for A-Channel while appearing on its Oilers telecasts, left the station altogether to become a host for the Sportsnet telecasts.

2003–2004 workers' strike
In July 2002, a majority of A-Channel Edmonton employees signed union cards and organized under the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), which represented employees at Edmonton's other TV stations. Contract negotiations were unsuccessful, with the parties at odds over wages and a promise to not move jobs from Edmonton to Calgary; for the start of the fall television season, on September 17, 2003, workers walked out and began a strike. A-Channel continued airing newscasts because 10 to 15 employees crossed the picket line. Picketers made it difficult for employees to get inside the studios and sometimes followed news crews, while the union mounted a pressure campaign to urge national advertisers to cease doing business with A-Channel. Union members rejected a contract offer in December 2003, though about a third of the members had returned to work.

The strike was disastrous for A-Channel's ratings in the Edmonton market. A-Channel News at Six lost more than 60 percent of its viewership and slipped into a tie with the CBC for last. At the same time, startup costs for Toronto 1, a new station which Craig had built in 2003, and a series of new digital specialty channels proved to be a drain on the company's finances. In late January, Craig Media put itself up for sale. Weeks later, on February 14, strikers overwhelmingly voted to accept a contract offer, recognizing that much work was needed to regain the viewership that A-Channel had lost during the strike.

Acquisition by CHUM
On April 12, 2004, CHUM Limited announced a deal to purchase Craig Media for $265 million. The move came more than a month after the CRTC denied CHUM's applications for new Calgary and Edmonton stations because the market did not have sufficient advertising revenue to support a new entrant. The sale was approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on November 19, 2004. CHUM had to sell off Toronto 1 because it already owned stations in Toronto (CITY) and nearby Barrie (CKVR); Toronto 1 was sold to Quebecor Media, owners of the media units TVA and Sun Media.

CHUM brought other media holdings into the Hudson's Bay Building on Jasper Avenue, which aside from A-Channel had few tenants. In February 2005, CHUM and Milestone Media launched a new Edmonton radio station, CHBN-FM "91.7 The Bounce", and built a streetside radio studio for it next to A-Channel's quarters. That same month, CHUM acquired all outstanding shares in Learning and Skills Television of Alberta (also known as Access Media Group), which operated Access, the provincial educational broadcaster. CHUM then moved Access Media Group's operations from an east Edmonton industrial park into the Hudson's Bay Building; traffic and master control were moved to Calgary and Toronto, resulting in 17 layoffs in Edmonton while creating four jobs in Calgary. The Calgary facility was already handling master control functions for A-Channel Edmonton.

Rebrand and news cuts
In addition to launching The Bounce and becoming the sole owner of Access Media Group in February 2005, CHUM announced that it would rebrand the three A-Channel stations—in Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg—as Citytv, aligning with the stations it already owned in Toronto and Vancouver. No other significant changes were made, since the A-Channel stations' on-air look had always been very similar to that of Citytv; they initially retained their local programs, relaunched under Citytv's Breakfast Television morning brand and CityNews news brand. CHUM hoped to lift the stations' ratings with the new moniker. The change took effect on August 2 of the same year, when the A-Channel name was transferred to CHUM's NewNet stations.

The rebrand failed to increase news ratings. The spring 2006 BBM survey showed that the 6 p.m. newscast on Citytv Edmonton had dipped from 11,000 viewers to 4,000. On June 13, 2006, CHUM announced that it would dramatically reduce its newsgathering operations in Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg, as well as in several other cities. It laid off 195 part- and full-time employees, including 47 in Edmonton. The evening newscasts were cancelled, while the noon newscast remained and Breakfast Television was expanded; news anchor Paul Mennier remained to host a new evening newsmagazine program. In a coincidental development, that same day, BCE Inc., the parent company of CTV, announced it would buy CHUM Limited.

Under Rogers ownership
On July 12, 2006, Bell Globemedia (later known as CTVglobemedia, and now Bell Media) announced plans to take over CHUM Limited. On June 8, 2007, the CRTC announced its approval of CTVglobemedia's purchase of CHUM Limited, but the commission added a condition that CTVglobemedia must sell off CHUM's Citytv stations to another buyer while allowing it to retain the A-Channel stations. The following Monday, Rogers Communications agreed to buy the five Citytv stations. The sale was approved by the CRTC on September 28, 2007. In 2008, Rogers launched Omni Edmonton, part of its Omni Television multicultural station group.

On January 19, 2010, CityNews at Noon, Your City, and CityNews International were cancelled as part of Citytv's corporate restructuring and concurrent layoffs. The CRTC approved the installation of digital transmission facilities for CKEM-TV on channel 17 that same year, ahead of the August 31, 2011, digital television switchover date. On May 7, 2015, Rogers announced that as part of further cuts, Breakfast Television would be cancelled on May 19, 2015. It was replaced by the spin-off Dinner Television, a two-hour newsmagazine and discussion program hosted by Jason Strudwick. The program did not feature original news reporting. An encore of the previous night's Dinner Television with on-screen news, weather, and traffic updates replaced Breakfast Television in its morning timeslot. That December, the Rogers television stations in Edmonton moved from downtown to the headquarters of Rogers's Edmonton radio stations on Gateway Boulevard. Where once CHUM had 220 employees in the Hudson's Bay Building, there were fewer than two dozen when the company moved out. Some of the space was absorbed by the University of Alberta, which had previously purchased the historic structure.

Dinner Television was cancelled on September 4, 2017, and replaced with the return of hour-long CityNews newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m. Similarly to the format of its sister station in Toronto, Citytv Edmonton's newscasts use an "anchorless" format where all stories are presented by videojournalists on the field, eschewing in-studio anchors.

Notable former on-air staff

 * Stephanie Beaumont – host of Wired, 2002–2003
 * Bill Welychka – host of Breakfast Television, 2005–2006

Rebroadcaster
CKEM-DT has one dependent rebroadcaster, in Red Deer. In 2020, the CRTC approved the conversion of CKEM-TV-1 in Red Deer from analogue to digital operation, switching from channel 4 to channel 15.

title: CKEM-DT


text:
Old Mother Hubbard

"Old Mother Hubbard" is an English-language nursery rhyme, first given an extended printing in 1805, although the exact origin of the rhyme is disputed. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19334. After a notable nursery success, it was eventually adapted to a large variety of practical and entertaining uses.

Words
The first published version of The Comic Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and her Dog is attributed to Sarah Catherine Martin (1768–1826) and associated with a cottage in Yealmpton, Devon, close by where she was staying at Kitley House. The book was "illustrated with fifteen elegant engravings on copper plate" and had a dedication to her host "J.B. Esq MP, at whose suggestion and at whose House these Notable Sketches were design’d", signed S. C. M. The poem begins Old Mother Hubbard Went to the Cupboard, To give the poor Dog a bone; When she came there, The Cupboard was bare, And so the poor Dog had none.

She went to the Baker’s To buy him some Bread; When she came back The Dog was dead!

She went to the Undertaker’s To buy him a coffin; When she came back The Dog was laughing.

This is followed by a series of quatrains in similar format relating to the pair’s further activities, the number of stanzas varying in later publications. However, there is evidence to suggest that only the continuation after the first three stanzas was the work of Miss Martin. A review of her work that appeared in The Guardian of Education praised "this little book, the poetry of which is of ancient date ... We can recollect, at this distance of time, that in our infant days the Story of this renowned woman, though full of inconsistencies we confess, afforded us much entertainment." Since the reviewer, Sarah Trimmer, was born in 1741, that would date back the rhyme's earlier version fifty years or more.

A musical variant of the introductory verses was set by Samuel Arnold in his Juvenile Amusements (1797), except that it is not the dog but "the poor Children" who are the object of Mother Hubbard's charity. Another song in Arnold's work was "There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe", which had been given two final lines:

Then out went th’ old woman to bespeak ’em a coffin, And when she came back, she found ’em all a-loffeing.

On the basis of the coffin/laughing rhymes (which could date from Shakespearean times), James Orchard Halliwell was led to believe that "the tale of "Old Mother Hubbard" is undoubtedly of some antiquity".

Another nonsense song with a similar template had been published two years before the appearance of Miss Martin’s Mother Hubbard variations. During the course of Old Dame Trot and her Wonderful Cat (1803), the Dame looks in the cupboard for fish but finds none, "for puss had been there before". Two more suggestive stanzas follow:

She went to the butcher’s To buy her some meat, When she came back She lay dead at her feet.

She went to the undertaker’s For a coffin and shroud, When she came back Puss sat up and mewed

Thereafter the cat continues to perform household chores and comic feats and the two exchange courtesies in the final stanza, much as do Mother Hubbard and her dog at the end of Miss Martin’s work. But while Mother Hubbard’s dog goes on to perform similar feats to Dame Trot’s cat, such as smoking, playing a musical instrument and riding another animal, he also shows his superior cleverness by sometimes anticipating what his mistress has brought on her return. He greets beer by sitting ready at table; he receives wine by exuberantly standing on his head; when linen comes, he is spinning; when stockings arrive, he is dressed already.

Editions
The book was immediately popular thanks to the astute marketing skills of the publisher, John Harris. To feed the enthusiasm he had created, Harris commissioned a separately published continuation from Martin in which the dog finds a bride, and early in the following year published "a sequel…written by another hand". Such was the popular reputation of the work at that time that the satirist Peter Pindar made it a target in one of his pieces in which "The Poet condemns the present general Taste and foretells the Return of the Ages of Barbarism":
 * In vain I preach, in vain in scorn I smile…
 * Where Rapture doats on Mother Hubbard’s Tales!

Over the years pirated editions, new versions and imitations appeared from other presses, catering to the continuing demand. The first American edition of 1807 was marketed under the new title of "A curious account of the comic adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and her dog". During the early years, the book illustrations had been based on those provided by the author, but the 1819 edition came with new designs ascribed to Allen Robert Branston and was further subtitled "In which is shewn the wonderful powers that good old lady possessed in the education of her favourite animal".

The designs in books published outside London were often more basic, such as those in the 1840 edition from Devonport, which was retitled The droll adventures of Mother Hubbard and her dog and came with a rhymed summary of the story on its back cover; or the 1840 Banbury edition, to which were added several more stanzas that brought their number up to twenty-three. About that year also there appeared New Adventures of Mother Hubbard, in which the pair proceed to additional and more up to date adventures, such as paying a visit to the zoo and journeying by train and balloon.

Another enrichment was brought to the rhyme when it began to appear as a moveable book, so that the child could animate the scenes pictured. Paper tabs toward the bottom of the illustration could be pulled back and forth so as to make Mother Hubbard's hands move, or her dog nod its head, bow, feed the cat and spin wool.

Educational
John Harris’ publications marked a shift from moralising works for children to catering for their imaginative entertainment, in which his Mother Hubbard series of books played a decisive part. Nevertheless, other publishers developed strategies whereby amusement and instruction might be combined. One American publisher included a complete set of serif type opposite the title page, featuring capitals, small letters, italics, ligatures and numbers, as an aid to further reading. An English printer served the same purpose by running capital and small letters and numerals along the top and bottom margins of his picture book. Later on, alphabet plates were introduced into the nursery with a scene from the rhyme to one side or at the centre (see opposite). Indeed, illustrations of Mother Hubbard and her dog were adapted to many other ends, from adorning money boxes so as to encourage thrift to a variation of the snap card game to develop memory.

Translations
From the 1830s there were a number of translations and adaptations of the rhyme in Europe. In France appeared Aventures plaisantes de Madame Gaudichon et de son chien (1832), imitées de l’anglais (imitated from the English), in which the dog had been given the name Zozo. In about 1830 there was a German translation, Komische Abentheuer der Frau Hubbard und ihrein Hunde (The comic adventures of Dame Hubbard and her dog), which adapted the Robert Branston illustrations and was published in Mainz. It was followed some years later by another German translation that also used the Branston illustrations, Geschichte der Madam Rips und ihres Hundes Bello (The tale of Madam Rep and her dog Woof).

Later came two Dutch translations: In the 1850s, Kluchtige tafereelen van Grootje Goedsloof met haar aardig hondje Blaf (Comical scenes of Granny Goodleaf with her pretty doggy Woof). In that, the Branston illustrations are provided with rhyming captions and the story is told in a more leisurely manner. It was followed in 1860 by Moeder Hubbard en haar hond. Though that keeps more or less to the original story-line, it too is at wordier length. The opening lines, which have no English counterpart, give a fair idea of its discursive style. Dame Hubbard had a hound, No fairer could be found, He sprang now here, now there, And, kiddies, ain’t this rare, Was cleverest to hand In all of doggie-land.

In 1976 there was a Chinese translation by H.Y. Xiao, which was accompanied by the detailed Walter Crane illustrations of 1873. Gabriella Rouf returned to Robert Branston's designs to accompany her more recent Italian translation Le divertenti avventure di Nonna Renza e il suo cane (2014). In this, Granny Rep (Nonna Renza) is named for the rep material once used to make what were known as Mother Hubbard dresses after the nursery rhyme that was their inspiration.

There have also been two Russian translations of the rhyme. Babushka Zabavushka i sobachka Bum (The Jolly Grandma and her Little Dog Boom, 1906), in the version by Raisa Kudasheva (1878-1964), contained the additional detail of the dog's taking a sled ride. But while it is the dog's ingenuity which has usually been emphasised, the Pudel of Samuil Marshak’s 1927 adaptation is almost purely mischievous. This in turn was adapted by Nina Shorina (born 1943) into her short animated film of 1985.

Pantomime
A comic sketch published in 1818 has a character expostulate: "Is it not ridiculous for us grown people to be going to see Mother Goose, Tom Thumb, Old Mother Hubbard, and suchlike infantile fooleries; or to misspend our time at pantomimes and at rope dancings?" What kind of show contained those characters is not explained. It was not until a decade later that there was mention of a Christmas pantomime, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, that was "founded on the familiar nursery-tale of Old Mother Hubbard and her dog". Thereafter, as many familiar characters as possible were packed into the same production, which was given a composite title. Mother Hubbard and Her Dog or Harlequin & Tales of the Nursery, by Thomas John Dibdin and Charles Farley, was put on in 1833 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. And for the 1861-2 season at Drury Lane there was Harlequin and the House that Jack Built or Old Mother Hubbard and her Wonderful Dog by E.L.Blanchard. In this the scene opened in Mother Hubbard's cottage, where she and her dog were joined by her former rivals, Dame Trot with her cat and Dame Wiggins of Lee.

The custom of cross referencing has persisted: as in David Wood’s 1975 script, where Mother Hubbard is reunited, as she was two centuries before, with the old woman who lived in a shoe. More recently still, Paul Reakes has provided a twist to the genre with his Old Mother Hubbard - A Wild West Pantomime Adventure (1993).

Comic parodies
In 1837, John Hannah, then an undergraduate at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, published a spoof textual criticism of "Old Mother Hubbord", supposedly written in A.D. 3211 by a New Zealand academic who tries to relate the poem to the nearly forgotten 19th-century civilisation which produced it. Another very popular parody was the sermon "illustrating the method upon which some parsons construct their discourses", with the rhyme's first stanza as text, that appeared anonymously in newspapers between the 1870s and 1880s. Beginning from Britain, the item spread under such titles as "A Model Sermon", "Modern Sermon" or "A sermon of the olden times", as far as the United States and New Zealand. In Britain it was incorporated into a chapter of the Earl of Desart's novel, Children of Nature (1878). In the United States it was provided with a refutation and appeared as a pamphlet under the title Who was Old Mother Hubbard? (1882/5).

Later parodies centred largely on the bareness of the cupboard in the first stanza. A postcard advertisement for Dr. Swett's Root Beer concludes that Mother Hubbard was unable to quench her thirst because “The kiddies had been there first”. Another postcard implied that it was the dog had been there before. In a newspaper cartoon of "Mother Hubbard up to date" from 1904, she phones the butcher to get the poor dog a bone. Two more sexually suggestive postcards from 1910 play with the concept of bareness. In one, Mother Hubbard has gone To get her poor daughter a gown, But the cupboard was bare So the damsel sat there With little else on but a frown. Alternatively she went "to get her poor daughter a dress", but "the cupboard was bare, and so was her daughter, I guess."

Parodies have continued into the musical sphere too. There was a comic quartet by the Australian clergyman Alfred Wheeler, first performed during the 1920s. This consisted of a reworking of the rhyme's opening stanza in which the principal effects are variations on "Bow-wow". It was shortly followed by Victor Hely-Hutchinson's "Old Mother Hubbard set in the manner of Handel" (1932), where the rhyme's opening stanza is treated in the style of an oratorio.

Political use
In the Elizabethan era there had been a much earlier Mother Hubberd's Tale by Edmund Spenser published in 1591, but that was quite different from the nursery rhyme, being a satirical beast fable concerning an ape and a fox. It was followed in 1604 by Thomas Middleton's Father Hubburd’s Tales, which contained the equally political fable of "The Nightingale and the Ant". It has also been claimed that Martin's rhyme was mistakenly thought by some to have a political meaning at first, although there is no reliable evidence that this was so. However, it was soon given various political contexts. In one parliamentary debate, George Canning compared the vitality of the British constitution, then declared to be under threat, to the swift revival of Mother Hubbard's dog when she bought him a coffin. And at a later date her bare cupboard was introduced into several political cartoons, generally dealing with financial deficits. These included items in the American publications The Wasp (1881), Judge (1897), and Spokesman Review, titled "Mother Hubbard up to date". There was also a British poster of 1905 titled "The Cupboard Still Bare".

title: Old Mother Hubbard


text:
Talk:David T. C. Davies

Which parliament?
um, in which parliament does Mr. Davies serve? Gentgeen 12:11, 19 May 2004 (UTC)

Both the Welsh Assembly and Westminster.

British or Welsh?
Why is David Davies referred to as a "Welsh Politician" but his fellow Conservative MP David Davis as a "British Politician". To be consistent, they should either both be referred to as British, or David Davis referred to as English. Ausseagull (talk) 07:44, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

C-SPAN got it wrong
Here's a interesting tidbit. During Charles Clarke's Commons speech about the 7 July 2005 London bombings, C-SPAN's titles identified David Davis (the Shadow Home Secretary) as David Davies, (the AM and MP for Monmouth). Take it as you will. - Hoshie.Crat 7 July 2005 12:05 (UTC)

Content from TheyWorkForYou.com
I've deleted the "voting record" section from this article as it was just content copied and pasted from the external website TheyWorkForYou.com. Content from this and other websites is useful and relevant to wikipedia articles, but copying and pasting isn't necessarily the best way to include it. The voting record section from TheyWorkForYou is subjective - it gives scores calculated using a method TheyWorkForYou have devised, based on issues that TheyWorkForYou has decided are important. Copying and pasting it here leaves out important qualifications and further information (such as links to the votes and speeches in question, and comparisons against other MPs). The "numerology" information from TheyWorkForYou is particularly meaningless without further information, and yet that was included here without further information. The other advantage to people looking up information on the website itself, rather than here, is that they can be sure it's up to date. Alboran (talk) 22:50, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

citation accuracy
The article claims the NBPA "mistakenly" invited him to speak. However, the linked BBC source says: ''Some officers at the conference had expected Mr Davies's namesake, the former shadow home secretary David Davis, to be speaking. But the NBPA spokesman said the Monmouth MP had been asked because of his role on the commons home affairs committee.'' This indicates that they did mean to invite him. Did the original author cite the wrong source or get the source wrong? 94.173.122.171 (talk) 00:52, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

"Barbaric views on women"?
To what does this refer? This should be clearer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.236.151.82 (talk) 18:50, 30 April 2011 (UTC) In addition, it seems strange to me why this is included in the same sentance as his sceptisicm to CACG. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.123.208.30 (talk) 22:05, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

Informative or ad Hominem Attack
This article does not read like an informative unbiased piece. It sounds more like a partisan attack add. Only listing his "wacko" statements does not give anyone a good overall view of his accomplishments or views. Most of this article is obviously intended only to make him look like an extreamist. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.123.208.30 (talk) 22:12, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

Month of birth
According to David Davies’ office (and confirmed by him), David was born 27 June 1970, not July. We’ve used this information on his profile on YourNextMP. I believe the 1998 BBC source is incorrect. I made this edit, but it was reverted. How can this be resolved? 87.113.222.18 (talk) 19:23, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

"Welsh politician"
I don't believe the current disambiguator is adequate. Is this David Davies really so much more prominent than all the other Welsh politicians listed at David Davies? If not, move him to e.g. David Davies (Monmouth MP), David T.C. Davies, David Davies (politician born 1970). jnestorius(talk) 17:16, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

Controversies section keeps being deleted
The controversies section keeps being deleted despite being well sourced. The sources are sufficient and no reason given for 'vandalism'. Davies has been accused elsewhere of manipulating his wikipedia page: http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2016/12/david-davies-wikipedia/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by RightSaidFred (talk • contribs) 23:25, 29 January 2017 (UTC)

 * I agree. The references seem ok but can probably be beefed up even more.  There are plenty of "positive" facts in the article, "Severn Bridge", etc., and yet the two editors who have made the deletes don't seem worried about them.  --Tibloc (talk) 23:33, 29 January 2017 (UTC)

More vandalism today from "13:10, 30 January 2017 213.205.198.45". The whole of the Controversies section was deleted with the reason, "(→Controversies: BLP violation using Twitter and blogs as reference sources)" In the case of the Twitter source, one of them was a primary source, i.e. from Davies' Twitter account, the other Twitter source was a tweet by a prominent British MP in reaction to Davies' original tweet. Other sources include Independent Television (ITV), The New Statesman, Christian Voice, (who actually appear to support Davies' views), Davies' own website, The Guardian, An article by a prominent professsor of law, a Huffington Post article, The Daily Telegraph and The Independent. The only sources which might give cause for concern are: www.totalpolitics.com and ukhumanrightsblog.com. These last two are perhaps not up to Wikipedia's standard.

How do I request dispute resolution on this please? --Tibloc (talk) 16:39, 30 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I would like to contact the editor who has made these deletions but there is only an ip address and no username. --Tibloc (talk) 16:23, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

 * The first step would be to not have such a section at all. We don't like Controversies sections, believing that the material - if well sourced per WP:BLPSOURCES etc - should be incorporated into the text of the article as a whole. Dedicated sections are undue weight. - Sitush (talk) 18:00, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

 * Thank you for your help. I've merged some of the previous text back into the "Political Views" section and I'm wondering whether for the sake of clarity and ease of reading whether the article would be better served by adding sub-sections to the "Political Views" section.  I removed the sub-section header for "Severn Bridges" for the time being as it was the only subsection and looked odd.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tibloc (talk • contribs) 21:49, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

"Political views" section
I would like to tidy up this section and consider that subsections might be the way to make this section much clearer and, also, much easier for other editors to make further contributions. Offers of help and advice welcome. --Tibloc (talk) 13:11, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

"Topcat"
On a number of occasions] Speaker Bercow referred to Davies as "Topcat"/"cat" Davies. Worthy of mention? Bogger (talk) 15:21, 2 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Errrmm... why is this article not David T. C. Davies? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 22:06, 3 July 2022 (UTC)

Asylum and 'Adult' Migrants
In 2022, the Refugee Council released a report suggesting that "94 per cent of the 233 migrant children aged under 18 that it supported last year [i.e. 2021] had been wrongly assessed as being adults and housed with older people." (source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/30/adult-migrants-referred-charity-nearly-turned-children/, archive https://archive.ph/TBlaQ), is anybody aware of figures of a similar nature for the years around which his comments were made (2016)? If so, I think that would be important context to the Home Office's figures. Cigarettes and corvids (talk) 22:33, 29 October 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:David T. C. Davies