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This article examines the oral and physical disruption of 'public' meetings in England in the spring of 1886, when such activity formed part of broader contests over the legitimacy of extra‐parliamentary responses to the Liberal government's Irish Home Rule Bill. Disruption is an important example of the diverse ways in which home rule energised politics outside Westminster and of the heatedness of grassroots responses to it. For those who engaged in it, disruption offered forms of political interaction and participation that, additionally, made claims to representation and opinion. However, disruption was a practice of contestation that was itself the subject of contention and it was decried as transgressing the bounds of appropriate political conduct. Disruption could be seen, in both intent and effect, as a permissive or subversive, inclusive or exclusionary, behaviour. It could therefore legitimise or undermine claims that popular feeling was on the side of or opposed to the policy. The 'politics of disruption' both reflected and generated intense debate about the state of politics in an age of 'mass democracy' – of which home rule was the first major crisis – and about the sanctity of political rights and liberties. This article argues that our understanding of political disruption is enhanced by examining its practice and reception at historical moments, outside the episodic election cycle, when contemporaries believed that it was critically important that 'public opinion' on a political issue be ascertained and voiced, and when the validity of such opinion was disputed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: This article aims to provide psychiatrists with an overview of early release of serving prisoners and parole, using the example of the Parole Board for England and Wales. The centrality of risk assessment and management and its clinical implications for release are reviewed. Offenders who come before a parole board and require a psychiatrist to be a member of the panel and who need evidence from psychiatrists on their disorder are often characterised by the complexity of their mental disorder. Offenders with complex mental disorder have difficulty assessing effective treatment and aftercare pathways, which can result in not being released. Offenders remitted back to prison following hospital transfer for treatment experience particular problems in being released. Three roles for psychiatrists in parole hearings are identified and guidance for effective participation in hearings is discussed. Commissioning implications of the difficulty assessing the need for community aftercare are noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author examines how the 19th-century street sellers of London, England, undermined British capitalism and the bourgeoisie. Broadly, the author is concerned with the generation of urban class conflict in 19th-century Great Britain. More specifically, the author examines street sellers' engagement in such subversive working-class activities as participation in public meetings, involvement in the Chartist reform movement, work with radical organizations, and the selling of inexpensive goods to the poor, and the ways in which they promoted working class solidarity and socialization. Also examined are street vendors' efforts to appropriate public space.

Information about the topics discussed at the 80th public meeting of the Computer Conservation Society on December 8, 2005 at London Science Museum in England is presented. The meeting focused on the history of French computing devices. It tackled calculating machines and punched cards like Pascal, the Arithmometer of Thomas de Colmar and tables of logarithms of de Prony's. It gave insights on the story of the French software industry which developed various mathematical tools. It also honored the Association for an Academy of Data Processing and Telematics for being responsible in preserving the computing heritage in France. The meeting featured the members of the Computer Conservation Society, Philippe Denoyelle and Hans Paufal, as speakers.

This article describes rhetorical and sequential resources used by audiences as they participate in political discourse. The data are recordings of Area Assemblies held in North London between 2001 and 2003. The research contributes to studies of political discourse, by describing the fine interactional organization of the seemingly `unruly' scenes that arise when councillors and officers confront large numbers of angry residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines approaches to public consultation with women in Leicester, Sheffield and Birmingham in England and their involvement in the planning process. Role of consultation with women; Leicester's corporate commitment to equal opportunities; Sheffield's policy agenda; Work of grass-roots community-based organization in Birmingham.