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Michael Gove

Michael Andrew Gove (born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British retired politician who served in various cabinet positions under David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. Apart from periods as a backbencher from July 2016 to June 2017 and July to October 2022, he served continuously in the cabinet from 2010 to 2024. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Surrey Heath from 2005 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, Gove twice ran to become Leader of the Conservative Party, in 2016 and 2019, finishing in third place on both occasions.

Born in Aberdeen, Gove was in care until being adopted aged four months old, after which he was raised in the Kittybrewster area of the city. He attended the independent Robert Gordon's College and studied English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. He then began a career as a journalist at The Press and Journal before having a long tenure as a leader writer at The Times. Elected for Surrey Heath at the 2005 general election, he was appointed Secretary of State for Education in the Cameron–Clegg coalition. He terminated the previous Labour government's Building Schools for the Future programme, reformed A-Level and GCSE qualifications in favour of final examinations, and responded to the Trojan Horse scandal. Four teachers unions passed motions of no confidence in his policies at their 2013 conferences. In the 2014 cabinet reshuffle, he was moved to the post of Government Chief Whip. Following the 2015 general election and the formation of the majority Cameron government, Gove was promoted to Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor. As the co-convenor of Vote Leave, Gove was seen, along with fellow Conservative MP Boris Johnson, as one of the most prominent figures of the 2016 referendum on EU membership. He was campaign manager for Johnson in the 2016 Conservative Party leadership election but withdrew his support on the morning Johnson was due to declare and announced his own candidacy, finishing behind Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom.

Upon the appointment of May as prime minister, Gove was dismissed from the cabinet but joined the second May government as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs following the 2017 general election. In his second leadership bid, in 2019, Gove finished behind Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt. Following Johnson's victory, Gove was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with responsibility for no-deal Brexit preparations. He took on the additional role of Minister for the Cabinet Office in the 2020 cabinet reshuffle and was responsible for coordinating the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. After the 2021 cabinet reshuffle, he served as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations until telling Johnson to resign during the July 2022 government crisis and being dismissed by Johnson. Under Rishi Sunak, he was reinstated to his previous roles of Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations. He stood down as an MP at the 2024 United Kingdom general election.

Early life and education (1967–1988)
Gove was born Graeme Andrew Logan on 26 August 1967. His biological mother, whom he originally understood to have been an unmarried Edinburgh student, was in fact a 23-year-old cookery demonstrator. Gove regarded Edinburgh as his birthplace until it was revealed in a biography in 2019 that he was born in a maternity hospital in Fonthill Road, Aberdeen. Logan was put into care soon after he was born.

At the age of four months he was adopted by a couple in Aberdeen, Ernest and Christine Gove, by whom he was brought up. After he joined the Gove family, Logan's name was changed to Michael Andrew Gove. His adoptive father, Ernest, ran a fish processing business and his adoptive mother, Christine, was a lab assistant at the University of Aberdeen, later working at the Aberdeen School for the Deaf.

Gove, his parents, and his adoptive sister Angela Christine lived in a small property in the Kittybrewster area of Aberdeen, before relocating to Rosehill Drive. He was educated at two state schools (Sunnybank Primary School and Kittybrewster Primary School), and later, on the recommendation of his primary school teacher, he sat and passed the entrance exam for the independent Robert Gordon's College. In October 2012, he wrote an apology letter to his former French teacher for misbehaving in class.

Gove joined the Labour Party in 1983 and campaigned on behalf of the party for the 1983 general election. Outside of school, he spent time as a Sunday school teacher at Causewayend Church. As he entered sixth year he had to apply for a scholarship as his family fell on difficult economic circumstances. He passed the scholarship exam and served as a school prefect in his final two years.

From 1985 to 1988 he studied English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, during which time he joined the Conservative Party. He became a member of the Oxford University Conservative Association and was secretary of Aberdeen South Young Conservatives. He helped write speeches for Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet ministers, including Peter Lilley and Michael Howard. During his first year, he met future Prime Minister Boris Johnson and ran his campaign to be President of the Oxford Union. In an interview with Andrew Gimson, Gove remarked that at Oxford, Johnson was "quite the most brilliant extempore speaker of his generation". Gove was elected as Oxford Union President a year after Johnson. He graduated with an upper second class bachelor's degree.

Journalism (1988–2005)
After university, when applying for a job at the Conservative Research Department, Gove was told he was "insufficiently political" and "insufficiently Conservative", so he turned to journalism. He first found employment on the Peterborough column of The Daily Telegraph, after passing an interview with Max Hastings. Struggling to maintain his career in London, he moved back to Aberdeen and became a trainee reporter at The Press and Journal, where he spent several months on strike in the 1989–1990 dispute over union recognition and representation. From 1990 to 1991, he worked as a reporter for Scottish Television, with a brief interlude at Grampian Television in Aberdeen.

After moving to national television in 1991, Gove worked for the BBC's On the Record, and the Channel 4 current affairs programme A Stab in the Dark, alongside David Baddiel and Tracey MacLeod. In 1994 he began working for the BBC's Today programme. In 1995 he was identified by The Guardian as part of a group of "a new breed of 21st-century Tories". He broke the news of the 1995 Conservative Party leadership election thanks to his connections with the upper echelons of the party. Gove was a member of the winning team in Grampian Television's quiz show Top Club, and played the school chaplain in the 1994 family comedy A Feast at Midnight.

In January 1996 he joined The Times as a leader writer and assumed posts as its comment editor, news editor, assistant editor and Saturday editor. He also wrote a weekly column on politics and current affairs for the paper from 1999 until 2005 and contributed to The Times Literary Supplement, Prospect magazine and The Spectator. He was on good terms with the owner of the paper, Rupert Murdoch, whom Gove described in evidence before the Leveson Inquiry as "one of the most impressive and significant figures of the last 50 years". He wrote a sympathetic biography of Michael Portillo, Michael Portillo: The Future of the Right, and a highly critical study of the Northern Ireland peace process, The Price of Peace, where he compared the Good Friday Agreement to appeasement of the Nazis in the 1930s. During his period at The Times he also broadcast regularly, on programmes including Any Questions?, The Week in Westminster, The Book Quiz, Moral Maze and Newsnight Review (all on the BBC).

Gove co-founded Policy Exchange, a conservative think tank launched in 2002, and chaired it for three years. He was commissioned to write a biography of Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, in 2004.

Early parliamentary career (2005–2010)
Gove won the Conservative candidacy for Surrey Heath on 5 July 2004, after the sitting MP Nick Hawkins was deselected by the local Conservative association. He then arranged to leave the staff of The Times, but was retained on a contract to write a weekly column for the newspaper and other such pieces as might be commissioned ad hoc. He entered the House of Commons after being elected in the 2005 general election, winning by 10,845 votes and a 22.7% majority. After being selected as an MP he stood down from Moral Maze but continued to appear on Newsnight Review. He was commissioned to write a book on terrorism in 2005, Celsius 7/7, which was published in 2006.

In 2005 he was appointed Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning. During his time as an MP, as well as his column for The Times he also wrote columns for Building magazine and the newspaper Scotland on Sunday. He made his maiden speech on 7 June 2005, focusing on national security. Gove was seen as part of an influential set of Conservatives referred to as the Notting Hill Set, which included Conservative leader David Cameron, future Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, Ed Vaizey, Nick Boles and Rachel Whetstone.

Over a five-month period between December 2005 and April 2006, Gove claimed more than £7,000 on a house bought with his wife Sarah Vine, in 2002. Around a third of the money was spent at OKA, an upmarket interior design company established by Annabel Astor, David Cameron's mother-in-law. Shortly afterwards he reportedly 'flipped' his designated second home, a property for which he claimed around £13,000 to cover stamp duty. Gove also claimed for a cot mattress, despite children's items being banned under updated Commons rules. Gove said he would repay the claim for the cot mattress, but maintained that his other claims were "below the acceptable threshold costs for furniture" and that moving house was necessary "to effectively discharge my parliamentary duties". While he was moving between homes, on one occasion he stayed at the Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot, Surrey, following a constituency engagement, charging the taxpayer more than £500 per night's stay.

Gove won the "Rising Star Award" at the February 2006 Channel 4 political awards. On 2 July 2007, he was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (a newly created department set up by Gordon Brown), shadowing Ed Balls. In the role he advocated the introduction of a Swedish-style education voucher system, whereby parents would choose where their child would be educated, with the state paying what they would have cost in a state school. He also advocated Swedish-style free schools, to be managed by parents and funded by the state, with the possibility that such schools would be allowed to be run on a for-profit model. Gove was involved in founding the right-leaning magazine Standpoint, to which he has occasionally contributed. He contracted H1N1 swine flu during the 2009 influenza pandemic. In January 2010, he gave up his column for The Times, in keeping with a policy governing Shadow Cabinet activity laid down by David Cameron at that time. Prior to the 2010 general election, most of his questions in Commons debates concerned children, schools and families, education, local government, Council Tax, foreign affairs and the environment. At the 2010 general election, Gove was re-elected, winning an increased majority of 17,289 and with an increased vote share of 57.6%.

Education secretary (2010–2014)
With the formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government following the hung parliament after the 2010 general election, Gove became Secretary of State for Education. His first moves included reorganising his department, announcing plans to allow schools rated as Outstanding by Ofsted to become academies, and cutting the previous government's school-building programme. He apologised, however, when the list of terminated school-building projects he had released was found to be inaccurate; the list was reannounced several times before it was finally accurately published.

In July 2010, Gove said that Labour had failed in their attempt to break the link between social class and school achievement despite spending billions of pounds: quoting research, he indicated that by the age of six years, children of low ability from affluent homes were still out-performing brighter children from poorer backgrounds. At a House of Commons Education Select Committee he said that this separation of achievement grew larger throughout pupils' school careers, stating, "In effect, rich thick kids do better than poor clever children when they arrive at school [and] the situation as they go through gets worse".

Gove's second home was not in his constituency, but in Elstead, in the South West Surrey constituency. Gove sold the house and began to commute to his constituency.

During the 2010 Conservative Party Conference, Gove announced that the primary and secondary-school national curricula for England would be restructured, and that study of authors such as Byron, Keats, Jane Austen, Dickens and Thomas Hardy would be reinstated in English lessons as part of a plan to improve children's grasp of English literature and language. Academies were not required to follow the national curriculum, and so weren't affected by the reforms. Children who failed to write coherently and grammatically, or who were weak in spelling, were penalised in the new examinations. Standards in mathematics and science were also strengthened. Gove won the "Minister of the Year" award at the 2011 Spectator awards,

In March 2011, Gove was criticised for not understanding the importance of school architecture and accused of having misrepresented the cost. In February 2011, he had told Parliament that one individual had made £1,000,000 in one year when the true figure was £700,000 for five advisers at different times over a four-year period.

During the Cameron–Clegg ministry, Gove was the subject of repeated criticism for alleged attempts to avoid the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. The criticism surrounded Gove's use of various private email accounts to send emails that allegedly related to his departmental responsibilities. The allegations suggested that Gove and his advisers believed they could avoid their correspondence being subject to freedom of information requests, as they believed that their private email accounts were not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. In September 2011, the Financial Times reported that Gove had used an undisclosed private email account – called "Mrs Blurt" – to discuss government business with advisers. In March 2012 the Information Commissioner ruled that because emails the Financial Times had requested contained public information they could be the subject of a freedom of information request and ordered the information requested by the paper to be disclosed. It was also alleged by the Financial Times that Gove and his advisors had destroyed email correspondence in order to avoid freedom of information requests. The allegation was denied by Gove's department, which stated that deleting email was simply part of good computer housekeeping.

In June 2012, Michael Portillo backed Gove to be a serious contender in a future race for the Conservative Party leadership, though Gove had said in an interview a few months before that "I'm constitutionally incapable of it. There's a special extra quality you need that is indefinable, and I know I don't have it. There's an equanimity, an impermeability and a courage that you need. There are some things in life you know it's better not to try."

Gove was criticised by teachers unions for his attempts to overhaul English education. At the Association of Teachers and Lecturers Annual Conference in March 2013 a motion of no-confidence in Gove was passed. The next month the National Union of Teachers passed a vote of no confidence in Gove at their annual conference and called for his resignation. The National Association of Head Teachers and NASUWT also passed motions of no confidence at their conferences that year.

Chief whip (2014–2015)
On 15 July 2014, Gove's four-year stint in charge of the Department for Education came to an end when he was dismissed as Secretary of State for Education and replaced by former Treasury Minister Nicky Morgan in a wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle. Gove was moved to the post of Government chief whip, which was portrayed as a demotion by his detractors; Prime Minister Cameron denied this was the case. Gove told BBC News that he had mixed emotions about starting the new role, saying it was a privilege to become Chief Whip but that leaving the Department for Education was "a wrench".

The position came with a £30,000 pay cut, and a specific media role saw Gove on television and radio "more than a traditional Chief Whip would be". He missed his first House of Commons vote in the new role, as explained by Shadow Commons Leader Angela Eagle; "Gove not only lost his first vote but managed to get stuck in the toilet in the wrong lobby". Gove remained in the post of chief whip until May 2015, when the role was taken over by Mark Harper.

Justice secretary (2015–2016)
At the 2015 general election, Gove was again re-elected, increasing his majority to 24,804 and increasing his vote share to 59.9%. Following the election, Cameron promoted Gove as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor in his newly formed cabinet. He was praised in December 2015 for scrapping the courts fee introduced by his predecessor, Chris Grayling. The fee had been heavily criticised for, among other things, causing innocent people to plead guilty out of financial concerns. Gove removed the 12-book limit on prison books introduced by Grayling, arguing that books increased literacy and numeracy, skills needed for making prisoners a "potential asset to society". The move, effective from September 2015, was welcomed by Frances Cook of the Howard League for Penal Reform. Gove was also praised for his prominent role in scrapping a British bid for a Saudi prison contract.

Within three months of his taking office, the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) voted to stop taking new work in protest at Gove's insistence that they work for lower fees. The CBA subsequently praised his "courage" in reversing the proposed cuts. On 14 July 2016 Gove was removed from the position of justice secretary by the new prime minister, Theresa May.

EU referendum (2016)
Gove was a prominent figure in the campaign for Britain to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum and described his decision to take that side as "the most difficult decision of my political life". He and his family spent Christmas with the Camerons at Chequers where, according to Craig Oliver, Cameron was under the impression that Gove would support remaining in the EU. Despite this, Gove decided to support the Leave campaign. At the beginning of March 2016, he was appointed co-convenor of Vote Leave, with Labour MP Gisela Stuart, and given responsibility for chairing the campaign committee.

He argued Britain would be "freer, fairer and better off" for leaving, and that "[t]he day after we vote to leave, we hold all the cards and we can choose the path we want." When in an interview it was claimed that there was no expert opinion to support this, Gove remarked that "the people of this country have had enough of experts from organisations with acronyms saying they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong." However, interviewer Faisal Islam interrupted Gove after the word "experts", causing some sources to report that he had made a general statement that "the people... have had enough of experts". In 2021, Louise Richardson, the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, said she was "embarrassed" that Gove was an alumnus, on account of these comments.

In his memoir For the Record, Cameron described Gove during this period as "mendacious", adding: "One quality shone through, disloyalty. Disloyalty to me and, later, disloyalty to Boris [Johnson]".

Leadership election (2016)
After Cameron announced his intention to resign as Prime Minister, Gove was not a candidate, having said in the past that he had no interest in becoming Prime Minister. Instead, he was seen as a strong, highly influential supporter of Johnson for that role. In a move that surprised most political analysts, Gove withdrew his support for Johnson on 30 June 2016, hours before the deadline, without any previous notice to Johnson and announced his own candidacy in the leadership election. Subsequently, Johnson declined to run.

The Telegraph wrote in an opinion piece that Gove's actions in undermining Johnson's leadership aspirations constituted "the most spectacular political assassination in a generation" while The Guardian] labelled it as a "Machiavellian move".

Gove said: "I wanted to help build a team behind Boris Johnson so that a politician who argued for leaving the European Union could lead us to a better future. But I have come, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead. I have, therefore, decided to put my name forward for the leadership. I want there to be an open and positive debate about the path the country will now take. Whatever the verdict of that debate I will respect it. In the next few days I will lay out my plan for the United Kingdom which I hope can provide unity and change."

By 5 July 2016, Gove was in third place in the leadership election, behind May and Andrea Leadsom; the latter had gained an endorsement from Johnson. Some political analysts predicted that Gove might quit the race if he was unable to beat Leadsom in the first round of voting. Later that day, it was announced that May had won the first round of voting, with support from 165 MPs, while Andrea Leadsom received 66 votes and Gove trailed with 48. Gove was eliminated in the second ballot after receiving 46 votes, compared to 199 for May and 84 for Leadsom. He subsequently told the media that he was "naturally disappointed" and described his two opponents as "formidable politicians", welcoming the fact that the next Prime Minister would be female. He also encouraged a "civilised, inclusive, positive and optimistic debate".

Backbencher (2016–2017)
On 14 July 2016, Gove was dismissed by the prime minister, Theresa May. According to Jon Craig of Sky News, Gove was told to "go and learn about loyalty on the backbenches" in a two-minute meeting with May.

In the aftermath of the EU referendum, Gove was accused by Nick Clegg of being the source of a claim by The Sun that Queen Elizabeth II made comments supportive of Brexit in a private lunch at Windsor Castle. Clegg told a BBC documentary that Gove "obviously communicated it – well, I know he did". The Sun said it had "multiple sources" and was confident its report was true.

In October 2016, Gove was elected to the Exiting the European Union Select Committee. That month, he was re-hired by The Times as a weekly columnist and book reviewer. As well as attending meetings of the newspaper's politics team, Gove was dispatched to the United States to report on campaign rallies in the upcoming presidential election.

In December 2016, Gove defended a Vote Leave claim that an additional £350 million a week could be spent on the NHS when Britain left the EU. Gove said the figure was robust and it was up to the Government to decide how to spend it.

In his capacity as a writer for The Times, Gove gave the first British post-election interview to Donald Trump in January 2017, along with Kai Diekmann from Bild, making him the second British politician to meet Trump as President-elect of the United States after Nigel Farage. Despite preferring Hillary Clinton to Trump as President of the United States, Gove's interview and consequent defence of it was seen as praising the President-elect unduly.

Environment secretary (2017–2019)
At the snap 2017 general election, Gove was again re-elected, increasing his majority to 24,943 and increasing his vote share to 64.2%. Following the election, Gove was promoted to Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs by May during a reshuffle. Gove said he "was quite surprised" to be asked to join the cabinet after May dismissed him in 2016 after she became Prime Minister.

Following his appointment, Gove announced that a microbead ban would be put into place by the end of 2017. However, the ban arrived in early 2018. It meant that manufacturers could no longer produce the tiny beads used in cosmetics and care products. Another ban came in June 2018 which stopped shops from selling products that contained the beads. The reasoning behind the ban was to stop the beads harming marine life.

In July 2017, Gove announced that a fuel combustion vehicle ban will be put into place due to air pollution. He said that the ban would take effect by 2040 and end the sales of new fuel combustion cars, trucks, vans, and buses that have petrol and diesel engines in the UK. The ban does not include plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Gove introduced a ban on bee-harming pesticides like neonicotinoids. He was praised by Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven for his strong stance on issues like bee-harming pesticides, single-use plastic and the future of the internal combustion engine", adding "Gove has defied many people's expectations on the environment".

In October 2017, Gove issued an apology for a joke which compared tough interviews on the Today programme to a sexual encounter with Harvey Weinstein. He was criticised by political opponents who felt allegations of sexual abuse were not a suitable subject for jokes.

Other policies Gove had announced by December 2017 were that CCTV would be used in all slaughterhouses and beavers would be reintroduced into the UK.

Gove faced criticism over the appointment of Ben Goldsmith to the role of non-executive director at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as Goldsmith had previously donated cash to Gove's Surrey Heath constituency. Concerns were also raised about the selection process for the job, which was overseen by Sir Ian Cheshire, the chairman of Goldsmith's investment firm, Menhaden Capital Management.

An important aspect of Gove's tenure was the introduction of laws concerning animal welfare. Maximum sentences for the crime of animal cruelty increased, as did protection for animals used by Government services, such as police dogs and horses. One of the "toughest worldwide bans" on ivory trade was also introduced in 2018.

May offered Gove the post of secretary of state for exiting the European Union after Dominic Raab's resignation over the Brexit withdrawal agreement in November 2018. Gove rejected the offer after May told him that there was "no chance" of trying to renegotiate the agreement.

Gove was portrayed by actor Oliver Maltman in the 2019 HBO and Channel 4 drama Brexit: The Uncivil War. In January 2019, May survived a vote of no confidence in her government, after a "barnstorming" speech from Gove directed towards the Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn. The speech, which gained significant media attention, attacked Corbyn for his foreign policy record, with Tom Rogan of the Washington Examiner describing it as "A tour de force. It was angry but not fanatical, passionate but not somber, and intellectual but simply put".

In March 2019, Gove argued that "we didn't vote to leave without a deal. That wasn't the message of the campaign I helped lead. During that campaign, we said we should do a deal with the EU and be part of the network of free trade deals that covers all Europe, from Iceland to Turkey".

In April 2019, after having a meeting with Extinction Rebellion, Gove said he agreed with the activists that there needed to be a deeper level of public understanding over climate change, but he declined to declare a climate emergency in the United Kingdom. Despite Gove's position, Parliament passed a motion to declare a climate emergency.

In May 2019, Gove introduced the Wild Animals in Circuses Bill, which banned the use of wild animals in travelling circuses in England.

Leadership election (2019)
On 26 May 2019, Gove announced he would stand for the Conservative leadership following May's resignation, entering the contest. He promised to remove the charge for UK citizenship applications from EU nationals if elected, and to replace VAT with a "simpler sales tax". He also planned to scrap the High Speed 2 rail project and increase school funding by £1 billion.

By 5 June 2019, Johnson became the clear frontrunner with the bookmakers, with Gove second favourite, followed closely by Jeremy Hunt. In June, reports emerged that Gove had taken cocaine as a journalist in his twenties. Gove stated that he regretted having done so, and regarded it as having been a mistake. In an article for The Times in December 1999, Gove had argued against the legalisation of drugs and criticised members of the middle classes for their hypocrisy in doing so. This was a key component of his bid to be leader. In reaction, Craig Oliver said it would have a negative impact on his run whereas fellow candidate for leadership Dominic Raab said he "admires [Gove's] honesty".

Gove progressed following the first ballot, having received 37 votes. He received 41 votes in the second ballot, and by the third ballot had 51 MPs backing him. The fourth ballot saw him gain 61 votes, moving him into second position. In the last ballot, he had 75 votes and was voted out – losing by only two to Hunt, the eventual runner-up.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (2019–2021)
Upon the election of Johnson as prime minister, Gove was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, legally representing the Crown as Duke of Lancaster. His non-portfolio role included responsibility for no-deal Brexit preparations, overseeing constitutional affairs, maintaining the integrity of the Union and having oversight over all Cabinet Office policy. Gove was excluded from a place on the National Security Council committee as Johnson pursued a slimming down of Cabinet operations. He became a central figure in the conduction of Operation Yellowhammer, the civil servant contingency planning for the possibility of a no-deal Brexit.

Writing in The Sunday Times on 28 July 2019, Gove said that a no-deal Brexit was "a very real prospect" and one that the Government was "working on the assumption of". He said in August that it was "wrong and sad" that the EU was "refusing to negotiate" over a new withdrawal agreement. That month, an official Cabinet Yellowhammer document leaked, predicting that a no-deal Brexit would lead to food, medicine and petrol shortages. Gove said the leaked dossier outlined a "worst-case scenario". Interviewed in September 2019, Gove declined to say whether the Government would abide by legislation designed to stop a no-deal Brexit.

In 2019, LBC's Iain Dale placed Gove third in a list of that year's "Top 100 Most Influential Conservatives". During the 2019 Speaker of the House of Commons election, Gove nominated Labour MP Chris Bryant to replace John Bercow. Gove helped to prepare Johnson for the 2019 general election debates by playing the role of the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. He offered to stand in for Johnson during a Channel 4 debate on environmental issues but the editor of Channel 4 News said the debate was only open to party leaders. At the 2019 general election, Gove was again re-elected, seeing his majority cut to 18,349 and with a decreased vote share of 58.6%.

Gove won the "Minister to watch" award at the January 2020 Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards. On 13 February 2020, he took on additional responsibilities as Minister for the Cabinet Office, succeeding Oliver Dowden, who had been appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in Johnson's first large reshuffle of his government.

During the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Gove generated confusion after saying on ITV's Good Morning Britain that children with separated parents were not allowed to move between their parents' homes. He later apologised and clarified that what he had said was not the case. When Johnson was self-isolating after having been tested positive for COVID-19, Gove stood in for Johnson briefly from 27 March 2020 at the daily briefings of the pandemic, until Gove self-isolated himself after a family member developed COVID-19 symptoms.

In May 2020, Gove was criticised after his wife Sarah Vine shared a bookcase picture "as a very special treat for my trolls" which featured a book by the Holocaust denier David Irving, and a copy of The Bell Curve, which controversially claims that intelligence is highly heritable and that median IQ varies among races. Another book in the photograph was The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray, which, according to The Guardian, cites Enoch Powell and argues for protecting white Christian Europe from "outsiders".

After Johnson said that the UK had ended trade talks with the EU in October 2020, Gove said that the door was "still ajar" if the EU made changes over issues including fishing access and that "We hope the EU will change their position and we are certainly not saying if they do change their position we can't talk to them".

Gove was part of a committee of Cabinet ministers, comprising Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock, that made decisions on the COVID-19 pandemic. He was chair of the COVID-19 operations subcommittee. In a COBR meeting he chaired on 24 November 2020, he agreed, with the leaders of the UK's devolved governments, to a set of rules governing social mixing for the whole of the country over the Christmas period. It allowed for up to three households to form a "bubble" from 23 to 27 December, but was cancelled for London and South East England, while being limited to a single day for the rest of England, after the discovery of a mutant COVID-19 strain.

Under the terms of England's all-tier COVID-19 restrictions in December 2020, pubs were only legally allowed to serve alcoholic beverages with a substantial meal. Gove initially said that this did not include Scotch eggs, which he defined as a "starter" on multiple occasions (although he said it "would count as a substantial meal if there were table service"); however, he later backtracked and said: "I do recognise that it is a substantial meal."

Gove was co-chair of the EU–UK Partnership Council with European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič. On 8 December 2020, after 10 months of talks with Šefčovič, he helped reach an agreement that included post-Brexit arrangements for the Irish border. As a consequence the Government decided to abandon parts of the Internal Market Bill that could have seen the UK break international law. David Frost succeeded Gove as the UK chair of the Partnership Council on 1 March 2021.

In the 2020 revival of Spitting Image, Gove's puppet was given "beady eyes, large ears and bulging cheeks" and was voiced by Lewis MacLeod. In May 2021, Gove attended the 2021 Champions League Final in Porto with his son, supporting Chelsea; following his visit he was alerted by the NHS Test and Trace system of his potential exposure to the disease, and that he would need to self-isolate. Rather than isolating for the normal ten-day period, Gove was able to take part in a pilot scheme designed to investigate the efficacy of testing, which required him to self-isolate for only one day and undergo testing every day for a week.

In a case brought to the High Court of Justice by the Good Law Project in June 2021, Gove was found to have acted unlawfully when the Government awarded a COVID-19 contract without a tender to a polling company owned by long-term associates of his and Dominic Cummings, then Johnson's chief adviser.

In July 2021, Gove worked part-time in Glasgow as part of the Government strategy to strengthen the Union. That month, a joint statement on behalf of Gove and Vine said that they had agreed to separate and were in the process of finalising their divorce. The next month, Gove was filmed dancing "merrily" at Bohemia nightclub in Aberdeen. He had allegedly tried to avoid a £5 entrance fee by stating he was the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Friends of Gove denied he had attempted to avoid paying. In January 2022, a divorce was granted on the grounds of Gove's unreasonable behaviour.

Levelling up secretary (2021–2022)
In a cabinet reshuffle on 15 September 2021, Gove was appointed Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. He was given responsibilities for the Government's levelling up agenda, the Union and elections, the last two of which he retained from his previous post. Within days his department was renamed the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and his title changed to Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. He was given the additional title of Minister for Intergovernmental Relations.

In October 2021, while walking on Horseferry Road in Westminster, Gove was accosted by COVID-19 anti-lockdown protesters. As the protesters attempted to surround him, he was protected by police officers and escorted to a nearby building.

In December 2021, Gove was part of a trio of Cabinet ministers that self-isolated after meeting Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who was later diagnosed with COVID-19.

Gove launched a white paper on levelling up on 2 February 2022. The paper included plans to increase public investment across the UK and expand devolution in England. It was reported that parts of it had been copied from Wikipedia.

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Gove announced his intention to draft plans to allow Ukrainian refugees to be housed in Russian oligarchs' homes in the UK. He later announced the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which would arrange for British households to take in Ukrainian refugees. Gove attended the 2022 Bilderberg meeting in Washington, D.C.

The Telegraph journalist Matthew Lynn attacked Gove's record in government, describing him as the "driving force behind a whole series of terrible policy mistakes". In particular, Lynn identified Gove's resistance to new skyscrapers in London, his changes to the rules concerning the rental sector to make it harder for landlords to evict tenants, and his opposition to a fracking trial as damaging the economic growth prospects for the UK.

On 6 July 2022, Gove was dismissed by Johnson for alleged disloyalty, after visiting Downing Street to tell him to resign, during the July 2022 Government crisis. A Downing Street source described him as a "snake" following the sacking.

Backbencher (2022)
Gove declined to run in the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election. He endorsed Kemi Badenoch's leadership bid and, after her defeat, announced his support for Rishi Sunak.

Following the election of Liz Truss, Gove variously backed and criticised the prime minister on Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng's controversial reforms to taxation. According to the political editor of The Sun newspaper, Harry Cole, Truss offered Gove the posts of British Ambassador to Israel and British Ambassador to China.

Gove declined to run in the October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election. He endorsed Sunak's leadership bid.

Levelling up secretary (2022–2024)
On 25 October 2022, following the accession of Rishi Sunak to the prime ministership, Gove was reinstated to his previous roles of Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations. Gove had previously said that he did not expect to serve in government again.

According to The Times, in the February 2023 cabinet reshuffle, Sunak wanted Gove to become Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, but Gove asked to stay at the levelling up department.

In February 2023, following the death of Awaab Ishak, a two-year old child living in a mould-hit flat, the Government announced that it would implement "Awaab's Law", requiring social housing providers to remedy reported damp and mould within certain time limits. Gove made the announcement as he met with Awaab's family in Rochdale.

In 2023 the New Statesman named Gove as the sixth-most-powerful right-wing figure in the UK, describing him as a "great survivor" and retaining extensive influence over the potential future leaders of the Conservative Party, even as he "hints" at quasi-retirement.

In March 2024, he chaired the inaugural East–West Council in London.

On 24 May 2024, Michael Gove announced that he would not be standing for re-election at the 2024 general election.

Political positions
Gove is generally considered as combining socially liberal views—for example, on gay marriage—with a harder Eurosceptic and neoconservative position on foreign affairs. He has expressed his view that the state should generally not interfere in domestic affairs and claims to have campaigned for economic freedom in certain matters. Gove has argued that "the only sustainable ethical foundation for society is a belief in the innate worth and dignity of every individual."

Giving evidence before the Leveson Inquiry in May 2012, Gove said he was "unashamedly on the side of those who say that we should think very carefully before legislation and regulation because the cry 'something must be done' often leads to people doing something which isn't always wise."

During the 2008 Conservative Party Conference, Gove argued that Edmund Burke was the greatest conservative ever. When asked about those who believe "Marx was right all along", he responded that they were guilty of ignoring the systematic abuses and poverty of centrally planned economies, and criticised the historian Eric Hobsbawm, saying that "only when Hobsbawm weeps hot tears for a life spent serving an ideology of wickedness will he ever be worth listening to."

In remarks prepared for the 2020 Ditchley Lecture, Gove portrayed what he saw as the malaise of modern society as leading to populism, because the non-intellectual classes "chose to opt for polarised identity politics rather than stay with broad-based national political movements" instead of choosing to follow the politics of diversity, inclusion and identity politics they were force-fed by the elites. He praised Franklin D. Roosevelt as a model for his renewal of capitalism and he imagined the construction of inclusive societies with the deconstruction of Whitehall. Gove stressed "basic writing, meeting chairing and time management skills" for all policy civil servants. He ended with a paean to his purpose in public service: "to tackle inequality".

Capital punishment
In 1997, Gove wrote of capital punishment, which was abolished in the UK in 1965, arguing in The Times that, "Were I ever alone in the dock I would not want to be arraigned before our flawed tribunals, knowing my freedom could be forfeited as a result of political pressures. I would prefer a fair trial, under the shadow of the noose." The Independent reported in 2015 that Gove had not appeared to repeat his backing for the death penalty since he made the remarks in the late 1990s.

Foreign policy
The Financial Times describes Gove as having "strong neoconservative convictions".

In 2003, he stated that he did not believe the United States' "current position in the world [was] analogous to that of an Imperial power, as we have come to understand imperial powers".

William Dalrymple, reviewing Gove's book Celsius 7/7 on the roots of Islamic terrorism in The Times, dismissed Gove's knowledge of the Middle East as being derivative and based on the views of Bernard Lewis.

Iraq
In February 2003, Gove expressed admiration for Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair because of the way he was handling the crisis in Iraq: "As a right-wing polemicist, all I can say looking at Mr Blair now is, what's not to like?" Blair, he thought, was "behaving like a true Thatcherite". In December 2008, Gove wrote that declarations of either victory or defeat in Iraq in 2003 were premature, and that the "liberation" of Iraq was a foreign policy success.

"The liberation of Iraq has actually been that rarest of things—a proper British foreign policy success. Next year, while the world goes into recession, Iraq is likely to enjoy 10% GDP growth. Alone in the Arab Middle East, it is now a fully functioning democracy with a free press, properly contested elections and an independent judiciary... Sunni and Shia contend for power in parliament, not in street battles. The ingenuity, idealism and intelligence of the Iraqi people can now find an outlet in a free society rather than being deployed, as they were for decades, simply to ensure survival in a fascist republic that stank of fear."

Tariq Ali once recalled how, at the time of the Iraq War, he "debat[ed] the ghastly Gove on television [... and found him] worse than most Bush apologists in the United States."

Intervention in Syria
Gove had to be calmed by parliamentary colleagues in August 2013 after shouting, "A disgrace, you're a disgrace!" at various Conservative and Liberal Democrat rebels who contributed to defeating the coalition government's motion to attack Syria in retaliation for the 2013 Ghouta attacks. He later stated he was reacting to the manner in which Labour MPs celebrated the outcome of the vote.

Saudi Arabian prisons
In 2015, Gove cancelled a £5.9 million contract to provide services for prisons in Saudi Arabia, according to The Guardian, because it was thought "the British government should not be assisting a regime that uses beheadings, stoning, crucifixions and lashings as forms of punishment." Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond accused Gove of being naive.

Health
Gove is one of several Conservative MPs who co-authored Direct Democracy: An Agenda for a New Model Party (2005). The book says the NHS "fails to meet public expectations" and calls for it to be dismantled and replaced with personal health accounts. Gove fractured his foot in July 2015. His wife Sarah Vine inaccurately complained in her Daily Mail column that he could not have his foot X-rayed by the NHS because the minor injuries unit the couple visited did not provide the facility at weekends.

Scottish independence
Gove believes that Scotland should remain part of the United Kingdom, arguing that Scotland's strengths complement those of other parts of the UK. He has expressed interest in the idea of letting Scottish people living in the other countries of the UK vote in a second Scottish independence referendum.

Israel and Jewish people
Gove has described himself as "a proud Zionist", and supports the United Jewish Israel Appeal's fundraising activities. In 2019, he reiterated "One thing I have always been since I was a boy is a Zionist" and spoke of his desire to "celebrate everything that Israel and the Jewish people have brought to the life of this world and hold it dear to our hearts" and that "For as long as I have breath in my body and a platform on which to argue I shall be on your side, by your side and delighted and honoured to argue, powerfully I hope, on behalf of people who have contributed so powerfully to the life of this nation".

Gove is, like the great majority of UK Conservative Party MPs, a member of Conservative Friends of Israel. He has said that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel is antisemitic. Gove said that jihadist terrorists "hate Israel, and they wish to wipe out the Jewish people's home, not because of what Israel does but because of what Israel is – free, democratic, liberal and western."

First World War
In an article about the First World War centenary in January 2014, Gove criticised academic and television interpretations of World War I as "left-wing versions of the past designed to belittle Britain and its leaders."

Some of Gove's key points were rebuffed by the academics that Gove had used to support his thesis. Gove had criticised Cambridge professor Sir Richard Evans saying his views were more like that of an undergraduate cynic in a Footlights review. Instead he urged people to listen to Margaret MacMillan of Oxford University. MacMillan responded, saying: "I agree with some of what Mr Gove says, but he is mistaking myths for rival interpretations of history. I did not say, as Mr Gove suggests, that British soldiers in the First World War were consciously fighting for a western liberal order. They were just defending their homeland and fighting what they saw as German militarism." Evans said Gove's attack was "ignorant" and asked how anyone could possibly say Britons were fighting for freedom given their country's main ally was Tsarist Russia. Jeremy Paxman said Gove had "wilfully misquoted" Evans on the subject of the First World War.

Religion
In 2008, Gove credited Cardinal Keith O'Brien with using his intellect to protect the vulnerable in Scotland whilst regretting the absence of a similar figure in the Kirk.

In 2012, Gove was behind plans to provide schools throughout England and Wales with a copy of the King James Bible (inscribed "presented by the Secretary of State for Education") to celebrate the 400th anniversary of its translation into English, though he said he backed the scheme because of the historical and cultural significance of that translation rather than on purely religious grounds.

In April 2015, he described his faith in an article for The Spectator. In widely reported remarks, he complained that "to call yourself a Christian in contemporary Britain is to invite pity, condescension or cool dismissal."

In 2016, he credited his Christian faith for his focus as Justice Secretary on redemption and rehabilitation.

Other views
Gove's proposal for a new Royal Yacht costing £60 million was made public in January 2012. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg criticised the idea, calling it "a case of the haves and the have yachts".

In March 2014, he described the concentration of Old Etonians at the top of the Conservative coalition as "ridiculous. I don't know where you can find a similar situation in any other developed economy."

Personal life
Gove met Sarah Vine in 1998, when he was comment editor and she was arts editor at The Times. They married in October 2001 and have two children: Beatrice (born 2003) and William (born 2004). Gove has lived in Earl's Court, Notting Hill, North Kensington, Mayfair and St James's.

Following his appointment as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss let Gove move in to her grace and favour flat at 1, Carlton Gardens while she lived elsewhere, despite him being a lower ranked minister. Following his appointment as Foreign Secretary, David Cameron allowed Gove to remain at the property.

Notes and references
Notes

References

News

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title: Michael Gove


text:
Pontic Olbia

Pontic Olbia (Ὀλβία Ποντική; Ольвія) or simply Olbia is an archaeological site of an ancient Greek city on the shore of the Southern Bug estuary (Hypanis or Ὕπανις,) in Ukraine, near the village of Parutyne. The archaeological site is protected as the National Historic and Archaeological Preserve. The preserve is a research and science institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. In 1938–1993 it was part of the NASU Institute of Archaeology as a department.

The Hellenic city was founded in the 7th century BC by colonists from Miletus. Its harbour was one of the main emporia on the Black Sea for the export of cereals, fish, and slaves to Greece, and for the import of Attic goods to Scythia.

Layout
The site of the Greek colony covers the area of fifty hectares and its fortifications form an isosceles triangle about a mile long and half a mile wide. The region was also the site of several villages (modern Victorovka and Dneprovskoe) which may have been settled by Greeks.

As for the town itself, the lower town (now largely submerged by the Bug river) was occupied chiefly by the dockyards and the houses of artisans. The upper town was a main residential quarter, composed of square blocks and centered on the agora. The town was ringed by a defensive stone wall with towers. The upper town was also the site of the first settlement on the site in the archaic period. There is evidence that the town itself was laid out over a grid plan from the 6th century – one of the first after the town of Smyrna.

By the later period of settlement, the city also included an acropolis and, from the 6th century BCE, a religious sanctuary. In the early 5th century, a temple to Apollo Delphinios was also built on the site.

Archaic and Classical periods
The Greek colony was highly important commercially and endured for a millennium. The first evidence of Greek settlement at the site comes from Berezan Island where pottery has been found dating from the late 7th century. The name in Greek means "happy" or "rich". It is possible that it had been the site of an earlier native settlement and may even have been a peninsula rather than an island in antiquity. It is now thought that the town of Berezan survived until the 5th century BCE when it was possibly absorbed into the growing Olbian settlement on the mainland.

During the 5th century BCE, the colony was visited by Herodotus, who provides our best description of the city and its inhabitants from antiquity.

It produced distinctive cast bronze money during the 5th century BCE in both the form of circular tokens with Gorgon heads and unique coins in the shape of leaping dolphins. These are unusual considering the struck, round coins common in the Greek world. This form of money is said to have originated from sacrificial tokens used in the Temple of Apollo Delphinios.

M. L. West speculated that early Greek religion, especially the Orphic Mysteries, was heavily influenced by Central Asian shamanistic practices. A significant amount of Orphic graffiti unearthed in Olbia seems to testify that the colony was one major point of contact.

Hellenistic and Roman periods
After the town adopted a democratic constitution in the 4th century BCE, its relations with Miletus were regulated by a treaty, which allowed both states to coordinate their operations against Alexander the Great's general Zopyrion in the 4th century BCE. By the end of the 3rd century, the town declined economically and accepted the overlordship of King Skilurus of Scythia. It flourished under Mithridates Eupator but was sacked by the Getae under Burebista, a catastrophe which brought Olbia's economic prominence to an abrupt end.

Having lost two-thirds of its settled area, Olbia was restored by the Romans, albeit on a small scale and probably with a largely barbarian population. Dio of Prusa visited the town and described it in his Borysthenic Discourse (the town was often called Borysthenes, after the river).

The settlement, incorporated into the Roman province of Lower Moesia, was eventually abandoned in the 4th century CE, when it was burnt at least twice in the course of the Gothic Wars.

Excavation
The site of Olbia, designated an archaeological reservation, is situated near the village of Parutino in the district of Ochakiv. Before 1902, the site was owned by the Counts Musin-Pushkins, who did not allow any excavations on their estate. Professional excavations were conducted under Boris Farmakovsky from 1901 to 1915 and from 1924 to 1926. As the site was never reoccupied, archaeological finds (particularly inscriptions and sculpture) proved rich. Today archaeologists are under pressure to explore the site, which is being eroded by the Black Sea. At 2016 started in Olbia excavations of the Polish Archaeological Mission "Olbia" of the National Museum in Warsaw headed by Alfred Twardecki. Many of the more notable finds from the period are visible in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Notable finds from the town include an archaic Greek house in a good state of preservation from the area of the later acropolis and a private letter (written on a lead tablet) dating to around 500 BCE, complaining about an attempt to claim a slave.

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

title: Pontic Olbia


text: User talk:82.119.113.202

title: User talk:82.119.113.202


text:
Kosovar

Kosovars are citizens of Kosovo. Kosovar or Kosovan may also refer to:

 * Something of, from, or related to Kosovo
 * A Kosovo Albanian, ethnic Albanian from Kosovo
 * Kosovan people, or of Kosovan descent
 * Kosovar Chess Championship, founded in 1990
 * Kosovar culture, culture of Kosovo
 * Kosovar cuisine, cuisine of Kosovo

title: Kosovar


text:
Brother Industries

Brother Industries, Ltd. (stylized in lowercase) (ブラザー工業株式会社) is a Japanese multinational electronics and electrical equipment company headquartered in Nagoya, Japan. Its products include printers, multifunction printers, desktop computers, consumer and industrial sewing machines, large machine tools, label printers, typewriters, fax machines, and other computer-related electronics. Brother distributes its products both under its own name and under OEM agreements with other companies.

History
Brother's history began in 1908 when it was originally called Yasui Sewing Machine Co in Nagoya, Japan. The company name derives from an early sewing machine model, the Brother, which itself was named for the Yasui brothers, Masayoshi and Jitsuichi. In 1955, Brother International Corporation (US) was established as their first overseas sales affiliate. In 1958 a European regional sales company was established in Dublin. The corporate name was changed to Brother Industries, Ltd. in 1962. Brother entered the printer market during its long association with Centronics.

In 1968, the company moved its UK headquarters to Audenshaw, Manchester, after acquiring the Jones Sewing Machine Company, a long-established British sewing machine maker.

In March 2005, "Brother Communication Space" (now the Brother Museum), a corporate museum that also serves as a public relations facility, opened in Nagoya.

In December 2011, Brother diversified its offerings by acquiring Nefsis, an innovator in web-based remote collaboration and conferencing software.

Brother competed heavily in the worldwide typewriter market, initially with its personal manual typewriters from its Nagoya factory and later with its own factories abroad (e.g., UK, USA), competing with brands that had dominated the international typewriter market—including with Japan's Silver Seiko Ltd. and others. In the 1960s and 1970s, Brother, along with Japanese companies Silver Seiko and Nakajima, were frequent targets of antidumping campaigns in the United States and Europe—for their low-priced manual typewriters. In November 2012, Brother announced that it had built the last UK-made typewriter at its north Wales factory. It had made 5.9 million typewriters in its Wrexham factory since it opened in 1985. Brother donated the last machine to London's Science Museum.

In September 2022, Brother celebrated a production milestone of 70 million home sewing machines made since mass production started in 1932.

Sewing and embroidery machines
In 2010, the sewing divisions of Brother Industries around Europe were consolidated into one larger company called "Brother Sewing Machines Europe GmbH". With a turnover in excess of €80 million, it is the fourth-largest company under the Brother Industries Ltd umbrella of organisations.

Brother Industries manufactures mechanical sewing machines in Zhuhai, China and computerised sewing and embroidery machines in Taiwan. A new sewing machine factory was opened in 2012 in Đồng Nai province, Vietnam, which is the largest single-brand sewing machine factory in the world.

In September 2012, Brother Industries manufactured their 50 millionth home sewing machine.

In May 2017, Brother Industries manufactured their 60 millionth home sewing machine.

As for industrial sewing machines, Brother introduced S-7300A "NEXIO" is the world's first lockstitch sewing machine which adopts the Electronic Feed. NEXIO are world's first IoT applicable industrial sewing machines. The visualisation by connecting sewing machine and computer technology enables the customer to analyze, manage processes and speed up productivity improvement and maintenance work.

History
In 1908, Kanekichi Yasui established Yasui Sewing and Co. that provided repair services and parts for sewing machines. Meanwhile, Masayoshi Yasui inherited his company and renamed it to Yasui Brothers' Sewing Machine Co.

In 1928, the company's first product was a chain stitch sewing machine capable of producing straw hats. The machine was popular for its durability compared to German machines at the time.

They introduced and began mass production of home sewing machines in 1932, when Jitsuichi Yasui, Masayoshi's younger brother and co-founder of their company, succeeded in developing shuttle hooks.

In 1934, they were renamed Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing Co. which they subsequently manufacture industrial sewing machines in 1936.

Their 200 HA-1 domestic straight stitching sewing machines were exported to Shanghai, being requested by the Japanese government.

In 1979, they introduced and manufactured their first computerised sewing machine called ZZ3-B820 "Opus 8".

They started making commercial/multi needle sewing machines in 2003 with the introduction of the PR-600. 2010 marked their introduction of a PC design and editing software on their sewing/embroidery machines (Innov-is I) called PE-Design.

In 2013, they introduce a home cutting machine named the CM550DX.

For the Japanese market, Brother introduced a sewing and embroidery combination machine called Parie in 2017.

On 7 August 2018, Brother officially revealed their new 2019 sewing machine product lineup at their Back To Business Dealer Conference held annually in Orlando, Florida to commemorate Brother's 100th anniversary since its inception in 1908. The newest top-of-the-line Brother sewing/embroidery/quilting machine is the Luminaire Innov-ìs XP-1. It features StitchVision technology, which uses light projections to virtually preview a stitch accurately and precisely, as well as a 10.6" by 16" maximum embroidery area.

Other products
Brother diversified into manufacturing printers, label printers, MFCs, garment printers, music sequencers, manufacturing/machine tools, and Joysound karaokes in the 1960s.

Brother Industries, for an unknown period of time, produced many different word processor machines, but there is hardly any information backed up online regarding these products.

Advertising and sponsorship
Brother sponsored Manchester City Football Club from 1987 until 1999, which is one of the longest unbroken sponsorship deals of any English football club.

Brother launched their first integrated, pan-European advertising campaign in Autumn 2010 for their A3 printer range. Titled '141%', referring to the ratio between paper sizes A3 and A4.

In 2019 Brother's UK subsidiary became co-sponsor of the, with the team's name officially becoming "Vitus Pro Cycling Team, Powered By Brother UK".

In 2019, Brother announced their co-sponsorship of the Japan Pavilion at the Expo 2020 in UAE.

Research and manufacturing locations

 * Mizuho Factory (Mizuho Ward, Nagoya)
 * Hoshizaki Factory (Minami Ward, Nagoya)
 * Minato Factory (Minato Ward, Nagoya)
 * Taoyuan Factory (Mizuho Ward, Nagoya)
 * Kariya Factory (Kariya City, Aichi Prefecture)
 * Technology Development Center (Mizuho Ward, Nagoya)
 * Logistics center (Minami Ward, Nagoya)

Overseas headquarters are located in the following countries.

 * Taiwan (1 location)
 * Malaysia (1 location)
 * China (6 locations)
 * Vietnam (1 location)
 * United Kingdom (2 locations)
 * Slovakia (1 location)
 * United States (1 location)

Philanthropy
In 2017, Brother donated US$50,000 to the American Red Cross in response to damage caused by Hurricane Harvey.

In 2018, Brother donated ¥100 million towards relief efforts following the 2018 Indonesia earthquake.

In 2021, Brother Industries donated €110,000 to the German Red Cross and other organisations in response to damage caused by the 2021 European floods, while Brother International (Belgium) donated €10,000 to the Belgian Red Cross.

In 2022, Brother donated €500,000 to UNHCR to support its humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine and neighboring countries. Later that year, Brother donated ¥2,000,000 to the non-profit organisation Japan Platform in response to the 2022 Pakistan Floods.

In 2023, Brother donated ¥2 million to the non-profit corporation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to support people affected by the 2023 Afghanistan earthquake.

title: Brother Industries


text: User talk:151.188.16.16

title: User talk:151.188.16.16


text:
Friedrich Harms

Friedrich Harms (1819 – 1880) was a German realist philosopher, much influenced by Fichte.

Harms was born on 24 October 1819 in Kiel, Duchy of Holstein. He studied philosophy at the University of Kiel as a pupil of Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus. In 1842 he obtained his habilitation for philosophy at Kiel, where he later became an associate professor (1848; a full professor in 1858). In 1867 he relocated to the University of Berlin as a professor of philosophy.

He died on 5 April 1880, in Berlin.

Works

 * Prolegomena zur Philosophie (1852) – Prolegomena to philosophy.
 * Abhandlungen zur systematischen Philosophie (1868) – Essays on systematic philosophy.
 * Die Philosophie seit Kant (1876) – Philosophy since Immanuel Kant.
 * Ueber die Lehre von Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1876) – On the teachings of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi.
 * Geschichte der Logik (1881) – History of logic.
 * Logik (1886) edited by Heinrich Wiese.
 * Begriff, Formen und Grundlegung der Rechtsphilosophie (1889) edited by Heinrich Wiese.
 * Naturphilosophie (1895) edited by Heinrich Wiese.
 * Psychologie (1897) edited by Heinrich Wiese.

title: Friedrich Harms


text: User talk:65.96.108.241

title: User talk:65.96.108.241


text:
John Dunn

John, Jack, Johnny, Jon, or Jonathan Dunn may refer to:

Entertainment

 * John Dunn (pipemaker) (c. 1764–1820), inventor of keyed Northumbrian smallpipes
 * John Dunn (actor) born O'Donoghue (1813–1875), Australian comic actor
 * John Millard Dunn (1865–1936), organist and choirmaster
 * John Dunn (violinist) (1866–1940), English violinist
 * Johnny Dunn (1897–1937), American jazz trumpeter
 * Jon Dunn (musician), American musician
 * John Dunn (software developer) (born 1943), American musician and art software developer
 * John Dunn (animator) (1919–1983), cartoon writer for DePatie-Freleng and Looney Tunes
 * John W. Dunn (painter) (1891–1975), American painter
 * John Dunn (radio presenter) (1934–2004), BBC Radio 2 DJ

Politics

 * John Henry Dunn (1792–1854), businessman and political figure in Canada West
 * John Dunn Jr. (assemblyman) (1827–1909), Wisconsin politician
 * John T. Dunn (1838–1907), U.S. Representative from New Jersey
 * John Dunn Jr. (1830–1892), South Australia politician
 * John Freeman Dunn (1874–1954), English banker and stockbroker, barrister and Liberal Party politician
 * John Dunn (1820–1860), British Conservative politician

Religion

 * John Woodham Dunn (1812–1883), Anglican vicar of Warkworth, Northumberland
 * John Joseph Dunn (1870–1933), American prelate of the Catholic Church

Sports

 * Jack Dunn (baseball) (1872–1928), minor league baseball owner and manager
 * John Dunn (cricketer) (1862–1892), English cricketer
 * John Dunn (footballer, born 1888) (1888–1968), English football inside right
 * John Dunn (footballer, born 1944), English footballer for Aston Villa and Charlton Athletic
 * Jack Dunn (footballer, born 1994), English football player
 * Johnny Dunn (footballer) (1881–1947), Australian rules footballer for Collingwood
 * Jon Dunn (born 1981), American football player
 * Jack Dunn (soccer), American soccer player
 * Jack Dunn (figure skater) (1917–1938), British figure skater
 * John Dunn (Australian rules footballer)
 * John Dunn (American football), American football coach and former player
 * John Dunn (American football, born 1888), American football player and team owner
 * Jack Dunn (rugby union) (1918–2003), New Zealand rugby union player

Other

 * John Dunn (miller) (1802–1894), flour miller, parliamentarian, and philanthropist in South Australia
 * John Ainsworth Dunn (1831–1915), furniture manufacturer in Massachusetts
 * John Robert Dunn (1833–1895), Scottish settler in South Africa
 * John Dunn (bushranger) (1846–1866), Australian bush ranger
 * John Dunn (explorer) (born 1954), explorer of the Canadian Arctic
 * John "Pudgy" Dunn (1896–1937), St. Louis gangster
 * John M. Dunn (1910–1949), American mobster, executed in 1949
 * John Dunn (political theorist) (born 1940), professor of political theory at the University of Cambridge
 * John Dunn (university president) (born 1945), president of Western Michigan University
 * John Asher Dunn, American linguist
 * John W. Dunn (architect), American architect
 * Jon Michael Dunn (1941–2021), American educator
 * John Thomas Dunn (chemist) (1858–1939), English chemist

title: John Dunn


text: Talk:U1 University

title: Talk:U1 University


text:
Talk:Small Gods

Untitled
I love that book. It is so funny and so true about religion and fanatism.

Inaccurate quote
The line 'Vorbis could humble himself in a way that made the posturing of power-mad emperors look subservient' does not indicate his humility, it indicates that he is never truly humble ie compared to him complete egomaniacs look humble.

Trivia Section
I have removed the Trivia section from the article, since the list of names seems to have lost its meaning and is in fact false - I've just thought of at least two more characters mentioned elsewhere in the series (Lu-Tze and the Abbot). Perhaps some mention of the way the book is disjointed from the rest of the series could be made, but the current section was just plain wrong. QmunkE 10:24, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Just looked at the article again, already a discussion about the timeline issues (rubs eyes sleepily...)QmunkE 10:25, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

The timeline thing
It is worth noting, however, that in Carpe Jugulum, a discussion between Omnian priest Mightily Oats and the witch Granny Weatherwax suggests that the events took place several generations ago.

Does it? It read to me as suggesting the exact opposite. Granny compares how she'd react if she'd seen Om to how current Omnians are behaving, suggesting that the current generation is the one who saw Him.

But in any case, Thief makes it clear that there isn't an answer, or possibly that the answer is "both".Daibhid C 00:33, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Small Gods itself has a line that goes "It could drag Omnia kicking and screaming into the Century of the Fruitbat!" (referring to the "practical philosophy" practiced by Urn). The phrase turns up again and again in other Discworld books, when it comes to claiming that something needs to modernize and get with the current times (being said century). That seems to place it with the rest of the books, at least it did before we get into the mucky details of the time shatter. I don't think he was changing the joke around there, at least.

Also, all that is irrelevant. Both Small Gods and Reaper Man mention the current year as the Year of the Notional Serpent.

"A sort of codicil or addendum to the life of Windle Poons - born in the year of the Significant Triangle in the Century of the Three Lice ... and died in the year of the Notional Serpent in the Century of the Fruitbat, more or less." - Reaper Man

"It was the Year of the Notional Serpent, or two hundred years after the Declaration of the Prophet Abbys. Which meant that the time of the 8th Prophet was imminent." - Small Gods

The "kicking and screaming into the Century of the Fruitbat" bit turns up in Reaper Man as well. --Nerrin 02:09, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

The bit about same notions as in Pyramids doesn't exactly invalidate the Small Gods being in the past, though. The notions and beliefs had been going on for millenia in that area by the time of the events in Pyramids. Any time of which the Omnians could sneer at Pyramids and their animal-headed gods.TLein 12:54, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Making Terry Pratchett a Featured Article
This is a call to arms to make the Terry Pratchett article a Featured Article. It will greatly help the cause if all the side articles that link from it are of a reasonable standard. Terry Pratchett has around 40 side articles (ie the ones relating to his work) - I don't think they are all expected to be GA (Good Article) standard for TP to become featured, but certain basic elements will be looked at for sure.

A full list of the sub articles is here on the TP talk page: I'm posting this comment on the talk pages of each article on the list. Editors reading may also like to help with the TP article too?

The main issue, especially with smaller articles, is often a finding reasonable amount of citations, and prose can sometimes be a little POV too. Coverage of the topic is probably less important, but of course it needs to be reasonably good. --Matt Lewis (talk) 15:19, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Deus ex aquila
"Deus ex aquila". Cute joke, but does this belong in an encyclopedia? 63.107.91.99 (talk) 14:14, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I Give Up
Well I give up. After having my edits reverted twice, when I altered a couple of sentences to correct plot mistakes, and added another couple to add a little more to the plot, I can't be bothered anymore. Friends have already told me it wasn't worth making a wikipedia account as new people almost always have their edits reverted, mainly because of the "holier than thou" attitude of most of the longer standing members.

Admittedly my punctuation needed a little rework, that was something I had just logged on to do, only to find it reverted again. I had a look around the wiki guidelines and came across []

I had thought a small article like this, would be a good place to learn the wikipedia ropes, as it's not a contentious article or anything. I noticed a couple of small plot inaccuracies and thought I could add more to the article, but instead of maybe a message on my talk page saying what needed to be improved, I have my edit reverted twice - the second time to a version without the info I added, and even stating that it concerned "original research", (when all I did was add a couple of lines to flesh out the plot description) but that same editor corrected grammar on the earlier version - so why not just correct the grammar/punctuation of the info I added if you are going to correct grammar anyways?

No wonder new people give up so easily. I have been around wikipedia for quite a while. While I was unregistered, I would occasionally make small changes e.g. spelling errors, to find them reverted with an hour. I can only assume that was a result of certain editors who revert non-registered users edits without even to bother reading them.

Impablomations (talk) 11:43, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
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reception vs. criticism
i firmly belive that almost any article's most relevant (that is: infomative on its topic) section is criticism. for articles on works of literature this is even more so. this article has a section named reception but it seems no more encyclopedical than what you find on the back cover: it is unvariably praising and only good for selling the book. what is needed instead is a comprehensive criticism of the work, including genre, quality categorization (like where it lies between pulp and high literature - even if that cant be black and white), and how well it performs in its own nieche. the way it is now in the article is double sinful - omitting relevant information about the literary meritfulness of the work AND replacing it with irrelevant noise.

besides Small Gods is OK on overall reading quality, has next to nothing to do with Ankh-Morpork (aka discworld) though written with the same lingo, has one really cheesy story element (the dice throwing fantasy roleplaying game club of gods as a story device) and is more philosophical (some thoughts on ethics/morality well introduced) than funny, though there is once in a while the occasional pun you expect from Pratchett. 89.134.199.32 (talk) 20:48, 17 June 2018 (UTC).

title: Talk:Small Gods


text:
Jelgava

Jelgava is a state city in central Latvia about 41 km southwest of Riga. It is the largest town in the region of Zemgale (Semigalia). Jelgava was the capital of the united Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1578–1795) and was the administrative center of the Courland Governorate (1795–1918).

Jelgava is situated on a fertile plain rising only 3.5 m above mean sea level on the right bank of the river Lielupe. At high water, the plain and sometimes the town as well can be flooded. It is a railway center, and is also a host to the Jelgava Air Base. Its importance as a railway centre can be seen by the fact that it lies at the junction of over 6 railway lines connecting Riga to Lithuania, eastern and western Latvia, and Lithuania to the Baltic Sea.

Name
Until 1917, the city was officially referred to as Mitau. The name of Jelgava is believed to be derived from the Livonian word jālgab, meaning "town on the river." The origin of the German name Mitau is unclear, although it is suggested that it came from the Latvian words mīt or mainīt, meaning "to exchange" or "to trade," thus making it "trading-place." An alternate explanation is that Mitau came from Mitte in der Aue, which is German for "the middle of the Aa", referring to the Lielupe River, formerly known as the Courland Aa (Kurländische Aa in German).

In Yiddish, the city was known as מיטאַווע (Mitave) or מיטאַו (Mitar).

In publications dating from the Soviet period, the city name was occasionally spelled in English as "Yelgava", a back-transliteration from Russian Елгава.

History
Settlement began developing in the Mitau locality between the rivers Lielupe and Driksa during the 10th century. Led by the Grand Master Konrāds fon Manderns, the crusading Livonian Order constructed the castle in Mitau on a natural island fortification (Pilssala) in 1265–1266. Using Mitau as a southern fortress, the German knights subdued the surrounding Livonians and Semigallians by 1290. The town rose in importance as a defensive fixture against the Lithuanians to the south, who succeeded in plundering Mitau in 1345.

As a result of the fall of the Livonian Order in the Livonian War of 1558-1583, Mitau became a town of the Duchy of Courland in 1561. Mitau received city rights in 1573, and became the capital of the united duchies of Courland and Semigallia in 1578. When the Duchy of Courland split in 1596, Mitau became the residence of Duke Friedrich Kettler of Semigallia. The city again became the capital of the united duchies in 1617. Because the duchy became a vassal of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1561, Mitau was also referred to by the Polish name Mitawa. The Commonwealth's repeated wars with Sweden subjected Mitau to several sieges. Despite the wars, the city grew as a center for trade and industry. As Courland's neighbors increased in strength, however, the duchy - and Mitau - began to fall under Russia's sphere of influence.

The Tsar of Russia, Peter the Great, received a promise from duke Friedrich Wilhelm that he would marry one of the daughters of the tsar's late half-brother. In 1710, Friedrich Wilhelm married Anna Ioannovna (daughter of Tsar Ivan V ((r. 1682 – 1696)), and herself later Empress of Russia), but on his way back from St Petersburg, he took ill and died (1711). Anna ruled as the duchess of Courland from 1711 to 1730.

The penultimate duke of Courland, Ernst Johann von Biron ((r. 1737 – 1740) and 1763–1769), expanded the cultural aspects of Mitau. He constructed the ducal palace and opened the first public library in the city. In 1775 the last Duke of Courland, Peter von Biron ((r. 1769 – 1795)), founded the Academia Petrina, which became a cultural center for the country. The duke also encouraged theatrical performances at his court.

With the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, the citizens of Mitau clamored for more rights. Later, Imperial Russia annexed the city as part of Courland in 1795 during the Third Partition of Poland. The Count of Provence lived at the palace of Mitau (1798–1801 and 1804–1807) before he became the French king Louis XVIII in 1814. Although the city was occupied by Prussian troops during the Napoleonic Wars, it was largely spared destruction.

Mitau further expanded after the construction of its railway in 1868. The development of its infrastructure encouraged rural Latvians to migrate to the city, as merchants, craftsmen, teachers, and officials. By 1914 Mitau had over 45,000 inhabitants. However, Mitau suffered considerably after the outbreak of World War I in 1914. The spirited defence of Mitau by two battalions of the Latvian Home Guard in 1915 helped inspire the formation of the Latvian Rifles. German troops occupied the city during the war, and British prisoners of war, sent there as forced labour, suffered atrocious conditions and treatment. After the war, in 1919, Mitau became a battleground between Bolshevik Red Guards, German paramilitaries, and Latvian freedom-fighters. After the victory of the latter group in November 1919, Mitau, renamed to Jelgava, became an important city in independent Latvia. In 1925 a sugar factory was built in Jelgava, the first such factory in Latvia. In 1939 Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies opened in the Jelgava Palace.

As a result of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, Jelgava was occupied and annexed with the rest of Latvia by the Soviet Union in 1940. Many of the city's remaining German population were resettled into the territory of German-occupied Poland during the Nazi–Soviet population transfers. German forces from Army Group North occupied Jelgava from 1941 to 1944 until the re-capture of the city by the Red Army. During World War II, German police along with Latvian auxiliary police murdered the Jewish inhabitants of the city during a series of mass shootings (see Jelgava massacres). The main synagogue was burned to the ground.

In late July 1944, the Soviet Red army launched an attack from the south in the direction of Jelgava and Tukums to encircle the German Army Group North. Jelgava was declared a fortress (Festung) however, there were only a few scattered German and Latvian units in the city. From 30 July until 7 August, after heavy street fighting and several air raids, the Red Army managed to occupy the left bank of the Lielupe river. In late August, the German army launched a counterattack on Jelgava from the north but it failed to drive back the Soviets. Jelgava remained on the frontline until 10 October when the German army retreated to Courland. The city's historic centre, industry, rail network, and public buildings were heavily damaged by the fighting, with almost 90% of the city destroyed. Among lost buildings was famous Kurland Provincial Museum and Athenaeum.

Jelgava was rebuilt in typical Soviet style after World War II as part of the Latvian SSR. Jelgava became home to several big factories. Among them were the sugar factory, which was heavily expanded from 1975 assembly line, and administration buildings for the Riga Autobus Factory (RAF). Following Latvian independence, Jelgava has slowly regained its original Germanic heritage and is now a popular tourist site. Owing to Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, many of Jelgava's inhabitants are students or people connected with education. For this reason Jelgava is sometimes called the Student capital of Latvia.

Climate
Jelgava has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb).

Demographics
As of 1 January 2022, the city had a population of 54,694.

Sights
Jelgava before the Second World War had regular, broad streets lined with the mansions of the Baltic German nobility who resided at the former capital of Courland. The old castle (1266) of the dukes of Courland, situated on an island in the river, was destroyed by Duke Biren, who had a spacious palace erected (1738–1772) by Bartolomeo Rastrelli at the bridge across the Lielupe. The palace contains the sarcophagi of almost all of the Curonian dukes, except the last one. The future Louis XVIII sojourned in the palace between 1798 and 1800. It now functions as Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies. Other landmarks include the Baroque church of St. Anne's Church, Jelgava (Liela Street 22a), the tower of the destroyed Jelgava Holy Trinity Church, Jelgava (Akadēmijas Street 1), and two handsome structures: the Villa Medem and the Academia Petrina.

In addition the following cultural and historical objects can be seen: Jelgava Palace (Lielā Street 2), Jelgava Old Town, Cathedral of the Immaculate Virgin Mary (Katoļu Street 11), St Simeon and St Anne's Cathedral (Raina Street 5), St. John's Church, Jelgava (Jāņa Street 1), Jelgava Baptist Church (Matera Street 54), Love Alley (Dobele highway), Valdeka Castle (Rīgas Street 22), Jelgava Station (Stacijas Street 1).

Culture
Jelgava regularly hosts an international Ice Sculpture festival, Student Folk Festival, Easter Walk, Latvian Plant Days, Business Days, Jelgava City Festival, Summer solstice in Jelgava, medicine market, International Cat Show "Jelgava Cat", Sports Day, International Sand Sculpture Festival, Latvian Milk, Bread and Honey Festival and Milk Packet Boat Regatta, Beginning of the School Year, Metal Festival, Azemitologa Festival, Autumn fair " Miķeļdienas waiting", Latvian Amateur Theater Festival "Jokes come from the actor", Student Days, Proclamation Day of the Republic of Latvia s celebrations, New Year's Eve.

The following museums operate in the city: Ģederts Eliass Jelgava History and Art Museum, Adolf Alunan Memorial Museum, historical expositions Holy Trinity Church, Jelgava tower, Latvia University of Agriculture Museum, Rundāle Castle museum exposition in Jelgava Castle "Tombs of the Dukes of Kurzeme and Zemgale", Latvian Railway Museum Jelgava exposition, psychiatric hospitals "Ģintermuiža" museum, Ugunsdzēsējs exposition.

Libraries: Jelgava City Library (Akadēmijas Street 26), Pārlielupe Library (Loka highway 17), Miezīte Library (Dobele highway 100), children's library "Zinītis" (Lielā Street 15).

Parks
Green territories and parks: Jelgava Castle Park, Station Park, Rainis Park, Duke Jacob's Square, Square in Mātera Street, Alunāns Park, Svētbirze, Ozolpils Park, Valdeka Park, Ozolskers, Victory Park, Jelgava Psychoneurological Hospital Park, Lielupe floodplain meadows, Grēbner Park, forest near RAF residential area, forest near Jelgava bypass.

Sports
The city's main football team, FK Jelgava, plays in the Latvian Higher League and has won the Latvian Football Cup four times.

Notable people

 * Johann Heinrich Baumann (1753-1832) - painter
 * August Johann Gottfried Bielenstein (1826-1907) – linguist, folklorist, ethnographer
 * Peter von Biron (1724-1800), Duke of Courland
 * Vilnis Edvīns Bresis (1938-2017), politician
 * Jan Krzysztof Damel (1780-1840), painter
 * Karl Eichwald (1795-1876), geologist, paleontologist and physician.
 * Johannes Engelmann (1832-1912), jurist
 * Kaspars Gerhards (born 1969), politician
 * Johannes von Guenther (1886-1973), writer
 * Joseph Hirshhorn (1899-1981), entrepreneur, financier and art collector
 * Elise von Jung-Stilling (1829-1904), painter
 * Edijs Jurēvics (born 1989), rocksinger and guitarist
 * Renārs Kaupers (born 1974), Latvian singer
 * Friedrich Kettler (1569-1642), Duke of Courland
 * Frederick Casimir Kettler (1650-1698), Duke of Courland
 * Ferdinand Kettler (1655-1737), Duke of Courland
 * Frederick William, Duke of Courland (1692-1711), Duke of Courland
 * Maria Amalia of Courland (1653-1711), Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel
 * Wilhelm Kettler (1574-1640), Duke of Courland
 * Adolph Theodor Kupffer (1799-1865), chemist, and physicist
 * Max Lazerson (1887-1951), politician
 * Friedrich Ludwig Lindner (1772-1845), German writer, journalist and physician
 * Paul von Medem (1800-1854), diplomat
 * Friedrich von der Pahlen (1780-1863), diplomat and administrator.
 * Elza Radziņa (1917-2005), Latvian actress
 * Johann Friedrich von Recke (1764-1846), senior public official in the Baltic Germans Duchy of Courland.
 * Einars Repše (born 1961), Latvian politician
 * Friedrich von Rüdiger (1783-1856), Baltic German military officer in service of the Russian Empire and a general of the Imperial Russian Army.
 * Princess Pauline, Duchess of Sagan (1782-1845), Duchess of Sagan
 * Princess Wilhelmine, Duchess of Sagan (1781-1839), Duchess of Sagan
 * Carl Christian Joseph of Saxony, Duke of Courland and Semigallia (1759-1763)
 * Paul Schiemann (1876-1944), journalist, editor and politician
 * Carl Schmidt (1822-1894), chemist
 * Artūrs Skrastiņš (born 1974), stage and film actor
 * Mamert Stankiewicz (1889-1939), the captain of the Polish merchant marine
 * Feodor Stepanovich Rojankovsky (1891-1970), illustrator
 * Eduard Totleben (1818–1884), Russian military engineer
 * Ernst Rudolf von Trautvetter (1809-1889), botanist
 * Gunars Upatnieks (born 1983), musician
 * Inese Vaidere (born 1952), politician
 * Johann Walter-Kurau (1869-1932), painter
 * Kaspars Znotiņš (born 1975), stage and film actor

Sport

 * Aleksejs Auziņš (1910-1997) – footballer, coach, ice hockey player
 * Andrejs Dūda (born 1981), swimmer
 * Ieva Gaile (born 1997), figure skater
 * Kristīne Gaile (born 1997), figure skater
 * Olga Jakušina (born 1997), ice dancer
 * Dzintars Lācis (1940-1992), cyclist
 * Natalia Laschenova (born 1973) Olympic team gold medalist (gymnastics)
 * Jānis Lūsis (1939-2020), Latvian (and Soviet) athlete — javelin thrower
 * Vitālijs Samoļins (born 1990), chess player
 * Igors Šaplavskis (born 1968), boxer
 * Gatis Sprukts (born 1996), ice hockey player

Twin towns – sister cities
Jelgava is twinned with:

 * 🇪🇪 Pärnu, Estonia (1957)
 * 🇱🇹 Šiauliai, Lithuania (1960)
 * Vejle, Denmark (1992)
 * 🇵🇱 Białystok, Poland (1994)
 * Xinying (Tainan), Taiwan (2000)
 * 🇮🇹 Alcamo, Italy (2002)
 * 🇸🇪 Hällefors, Sweden (2004)
 * 🇸🇪 Nacka, Sweden (2004)
 * 🇫🇷 Rueil-Malmaison, France (2006)
 * 🇺🇦 Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine (2007)
 * 🇧🇷 Nova Odessa, Brazil (2007)
 * 🇮🇹 Como, Italy (2016)
 * 🇺🇸 Carmel, United States (2022)

In 2022, Jelgava suspended the cooperation agreements with Magadan and Baranavichy due to Russian invasion of Ukraine.

title: Jelgava