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115-407: The term was popularised by journalists Bernard Levin and Auberon Waugh and later by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher . The term has been used to describe the policies of both federal and state governments. Canadian journalist and magazine publisher Tyler Brûlé argued that Australian cities were becoming over-sanitised and the country was on the verge of becoming the world's dumbest nation. This

230-446: A Wall Street trading floor, in which dozens of aides and managerial staff are seated together in a large chamber. The design is intended to promote accountability and accessibility. Bloomberg accepted a remuneration of $ 1 annually in lieu of the mayoral salary. As mayor, Bloomberg turned the city's $ 6 billion budget deficit into a $ 3 billion surplus, largely by raising property taxes. Bloomberg increased city funding for

345-443: A book, Conducted Tour (1982) on the same subject. By the time it was published he and Stassinopoulos were no longer together. At the age of 30, she remained deeply in love with him but longed to have children; Levin never wanted to marry or be a father. She concluded that she must break away, and moved to New York in 1980. In later years, Liz Anderson (Elisabeth Anderson) was Bernard Levin's partner. Like Arianna Stassinopoulos, she

460-597: A brief stint as a full-time philanthropist, he re-assumed the position of CEO at Bloomberg L.P. by the end of 2014. In November 2019, four months before Super Tuesday, Bloomberg officially launched his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in the 2020 election . He ended his campaign in March 2020, after having won only 61 delegates. Bloomberg self-funded $ 935 million for his candidacy, which set

575-485: A complex world. It is my profound and unwavering contempt for the Conservative Party". Levin never published an autobiography , but his book Enthusiasms , published in 1983, consists of chapters on his principal pleasures: books, pictures, cities, walking, Shakespeare, music, food and drink, and spiritual mystery. The book is dedicated "To Arianna, with much more than enthusiasm" – they remained loving friends for

690-413: A desk in the anteroom to the editor's office, a location that kept him closely in touch with the daily affairs of the paper. It also gave him ready access to the editor, William Rees Mogg , with whom he developed a good friendship. Levin's brief was to write two columns a week (later three) on any subject that he wished. His range was prodigious; he published nine volumes of his selected journalism of which

805-756: A feeling echoed by others. Bloomberg opposed the confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States . Bloomberg is a staunch supporter of abortion rights and did not believe that Roberts was committed to maintaining Roe v. Wade . In addition to Republican support, Bloomberg obtained the endorsements of several prominent Democrats: former Democratic mayor Ed Koch ; former Democratic governor Hugh Carey ; former Democratic City Council Speaker Peter Vallone , and his son, Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. ; former Democratic Congressman Floyd Flake (who had previously endorsed Bloomberg in 2001), and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz . On October 2, 2008, Bloomberg announced he would seek to extend

920-536: A former Democratic congressman , to become the Republican nominee. After a runoff , the Democratic nomination went to New York City Public Advocate Mark Green . Bloomberg received Giuliani's endorsement to succeed him in the 2001 election. He also had a huge campaign spending advantage. Although New York City's campaign finance law restricts the total amount of contributions that a candidate can accept, Bloomberg chose not to use public funds and therefore his campaign

1035-556: A gain of $ 4.5 billion over the previous year, the world's biggest increase in wealth from 2008 to 2009. Bloomberg moved from 142nd to 17th in the Forbes list of the world's billionaires in only two years. In the 2019 Forbes list of the world's billionaires, he was the ninth-richest person ; his net worth was estimated at $ 55.5 billion. Currently, Bloomberg's net worth is estimated at $ 106 billion, ranking him 12th on Forbes' list of billionaires. Bloomberg assumed office as

1150-445: A job on the weekly periodical Truth . The paper had recently been taken over by the liberal publisher Ronald Staples who together with his new editor Vincent Evans was determined to cleanse it of its previous right-wing racist reputation. Levin's noticeably Jewish surname, together with such skills as he had acquired in shorthand and typing, gained him immediate acceptance. He was offered the post of "general editorial dogsbody, which

1265-450: A newspaper – 1,667 words. He was proud of this, and affected to be outraged when "some bugger in India wrote a sentence very considerably longer". He maintained that he could construct impromptu a sentence of up to 40 subordinate clauses "and many a native of these islands, speaking English as to the manner born, has followed me trustingly into the labyrinth only to perish miserably trying to find

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1380-512: A panellist on a musical quiz, Face the Music , and finally in three series of travel programmes in the 1980s. He began to write books in the 1970s, publishing 17 between 1970 and 1998. From the early 1990s, Levin developed Alzheimer's disease , which eventually forced him to give up his regular column in 1997, and to stop writing altogether not long afterwards. Levin was born on 19 August 1928 in London,

1495-575: A post as a junior member of the editorial staff of a weekly periodical, Truth , in 1953. Levin reviewed television for the Manchester Guardian and wrote a weekly political column in The Spectator noted for its irreverence and influence on modern parliamentary sketches . During the 1960s he wrote five columns a week for the Daily Mail on any subject that he chose. After a disagreement with

1610-575: A record for the most money ever spent on a presidential primary campaign. His campaign blanketed the country with campaign advertisements on broadcast and cable television, the Internet, and radio, as well as direct mail . Bloomberg also spent heavily on campaign operations that grew to 200 field offices and more than 2,400 paid campaign staffers. His support in nationwide opinion polls never exceeded 15 percent but stagnated or dropped before Super Tuesday , while former vice president Joe Biden had become

1725-539: A rezoning of large areas of the city, which facilitated massive and widespread new commercial and residential construction after the September 11 attacks . Bloomberg is considered to have had far-reaching influence on the politics , business sector , and culture of New York City during his three terms as mayor. He has also faced significant criticism for the city's stop and frisk program, support for which he reversed with an apology before his 2020 presidential run. After

1840-457: A scholarship to the independent school Christ's Hospital in the countryside near Horsham , West Sussex . His housemaster was D. S. ("Boom") Macnutt , the school's head of Classics . Macnutt was a strict, even bullying, teacher, and was feared rather than loved by his pupils, but Levin learned Classics well, and acquired a lifelong fondness for placing Latin tags and quotations in his writing. He battled on many fronts at Christ's Hospital: he

1955-462: A secret meeting of more than 20 senior judges to see whether Levin could be prosecuted for criminal libel; there was no prosecution, and his accusations about Goddard's vindictiveness, deceit and bias have relatively recently been claimed to have been justified. In 1959, Gilmour, while remaining as proprietor, stepped down as editor and was succeeded by his deputy, Brian Inglis ; Levin took over from Inglis as assistant editor. Later in that year, after

2070-530: A sixfold increase in documented stops. The policy was challenged in U.S. Federal Court , which ruled that the city's implementation of the policy violated citizens' rights under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution and encouraged racial profiling. Bloomberg's administration appealed the ruling; however, his successor, Mayor Bill de Blasio, dropped the appeal and allowed the ruling to take effect. After

2185-473: A sketch entitled "Bernard Levin and Jonathan Miller Talk Bollocks". By now, Levin's political views were moving to the right, and he was no longer writing so much against the grain of his newspaper. He had come to admire Margaret Thatcher , though not the rest of her party: "But there is one, and only one, political position that, through all the years and all my changing views and feelings, has never altered, never come into question, never seemed too simple for

2300-544: A speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in which he called Hillary Clinton "the right choice". Bloomberg warned of the dangers a Donald Trump presidency would pose. He said Trump "wants you to believe that we can solve our biggest problems by deporting Mexicans and shutting out Muslims. He wants you to believe that erecting trade barriers will bring back good jobs. He's wrong on both counts." Bloomberg also said Trump's economic plans "would make it harder for small businesses to compete" and would "erode our influence in

2415-568: A survey of more than 1,000 people and found that most favoured policies that combatted behaviour such as eating a poor diet and public smoking – this was reported by the BBC as the public favouring a nanny state. The British Labour Party politician Margaret Hodge has defended policies she acknowledged had been labelled as "nanny state", saying at a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research on November 26, 2004, that "some may call it

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2530-507: A sword-swallowing unicyclist, and a bag lady in Central Park ). He wrote books based on each of the three series, published in 1985, 1987 and 1989 respectively. Levin began to have difficulty with his balance as early as 1988, although Alzheimer's disease was not diagnosed until the early 1990s. From September 1995, his Times column appeared once weekly instead of twice, and in January 1997

2645-524: A theatre. 'I was watching a farce, from the front row of the stalls, with a glass of champagne in my hand.' Levin made no pretence of even-handedness. There were politicians he liked and politicians he did not like. For those in the latter category, "Taper's lacerations wounded". He invented unflattering nicknames; he wrote later, "I did not (though I wish I had) think of calling Sir Hartley Shawcross Sir Shortly Floorcross, but I did call Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller Sir Reginald Bullying-Manner". When

2760-412: A violin and paid for lessons, convinced that he was "destined to be the next Kreisler or Heifetz ". Levin persevered ineptly for two and a half years and then gave up with relief. The experience put him off music for some time, and it was only later that it became one of his passions, a frequent topic in his writing. Levin was a bright child and, encouraged by his mother, he worked hard enough to win

2875-559: A week. On returning to the paper in October 1982, he began his column with the words, "And another thing". This mirrored his opening gambit when publication of The Times resumed in 1979 after a printers' strike lasting nearly a year: his first column then had begun with the word "Moreover". By the 1980s, Levin was sufficiently well known to be the subject of satire himself. The satirical ITV show Spitting Image caricatured him in high-flown discussion with another well-known intellectual in

2990-438: Is a financial information, software and media firm that is known for its Bloomberg Terminal . Bloomberg spent the next twenty years as its chairman and CEO. As of April 2024, Forbes ranked him as the thirteenth-richest person in the world , with an estimated net worth of US$ 106.2 billion. Bloomberg, who has signed The Giving Pledge , has given away $ 17.4 billion to philanthropic causes in his lifetime. Bloomberg

3105-518: Is an American businessman and politician. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P. , and was its CEO from 1981 to 2001 and again from 2014 to 2023. He served as the mayor of New York City for three terms from 2002 to 2013 and was a candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president of the United States . In 2024, Bloomberg received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden . He has served as chair of

3220-423: Is right. Never mind what the people think. In 1980, Lord Balfour of Inchrye strongly opposed the introduction of seatbelt legislation , saying it was "yet another state narrowing of individual freedom and individual responsibility". He worried that future intrusions of the "nanny state" would include restrictions on cigarettes, alcohol, and mandatory life jackets. In 2004, King's Fund , a think tank , conducted

3335-502: The Straits Times in 1987, Lee said: I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn’t be here today. And I say without the slightest remorse, that we wouldn’t be here, we would not have made economic progress, if we had not intervened on very personal matters–who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit, or what language you use. We decide what

3450-676: The Defense Innovation Board , an independent advisory board that provides recommendations on artificial intelligence , software, data and digital modernization to the United States Department of Defense , since June 2022. Bloomberg grew up in Medford, Massachusetts , and graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School . He began his career at the securities brokerage firm Salomon Brothers before forming his own company in 1981. That company, Bloomberg L.P. ,

3565-672: The Iraq War . Bloomberg was re-elected mayor in November 2005 by a margin of 20 percent, the widest margin ever for a Republican mayor of New York City. He spent almost $ 78 million on his campaign, exceeding the record of $ 74 million he spent on the previous election. In late 2004 or early 2005, Bloomberg gave the Independence Party of New York $ 250,000 to fund a phone bank seeking to recruit volunteers for his re-election campaign. Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer won

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3680-516: The September 11 attacks , with assistance from the Central Intelligence Agency, Bloomberg's administration oversaw a controversial program that surveilled Muslim communities on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, and language. The program was discontinued in 2014. In a January 2014 Quinnipiac poll, 64 percent of voters called Bloomberg's 12 years as mayor "mainly a success". In 2001, New York's Republican mayor Rudy Giuliani ,

3795-565: The University of Cambridge , but, as his obituarist in The Times wrote, he "was not considered Oxbridge material". He was accepted by the London School of Economics (LSE), where he studied from 1948 to 1952. His talents were recognised and encouraged by LSE tutors including Karl Popper and Harold Laski ; Levin's deep affection for both did not prevent his perfecting a comic impersonation of

3910-608: The city's term limits law and run for a third mayoral term in 2009. Bloomberg said, "Handling this financial crisis while strengthening essential services ... is a challenge I want to take on," Bloomberg said at a news conference. "So should the City Council vote to amend term limits, I plan to ask New Yorkers to look at my record of independent leadership and then decide if I have earned another term." Ronald Lauder , who campaigned for New York City's term limits in 1993 and spent over 4 million dollars of his own money to limit

4025-458: The general election victory of another of his bêtes noires , Harold Macmillan , Levin gave up the Taper column, professing himself to be in despair. Concurrently with his work at The Spectator , Levin was the drama critic of The Daily Express from 1959, offending many in theatrical circles by his outspoken verdicts. He modelled his reviewing style on that of Bernard Shaw 's musical reviews of

4140-460: The 108th mayor of New York City on January 1, 2002. He won re-election in 2005 and again in 2009. As mayor, he initially struggled with approval ratings as low as 24 percent; however, he subsequently developed and maintained high approval ratings. Bloomberg joined Rudy Giuliani , John Lindsay , and Fiorello La Guardia as re-elected Republican mayors in the mostly Democratic city. Bloomberg stated that he wanted public education reform to be

4255-906: The Democratic Party to "nominate a Democrat who will be in the strongest position to defeat Donald Trump ." However, due to his dissatisfaction with the Democratic field, Bloomberg reconsidered. He officially launched his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination on November 24, 2019. Bloomberg self-funded his campaign from his personal fortune and did not accept campaign contributions. Bloomberg's campaign suffered from his lackluster performance in two televised debates. When Bloomberg participated in his first presidential debate, Elizabeth Warren challenged him to release women from non-disclosure agreements relating to their allegations of sexual harassment at Bloomberg L.P. Two days later, Bloomberg announced that there were three women who had made complaints concerning him, and added that he would release any of

4370-432: The Democratic and Republican primaries, respectively. Quinn came in third in the Democratic primary and Lhota won the Republican primary. Bloomberg criticized Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio 's campaign methods, which he initially called "racist"; Bloomberg later downplayed and partially retracted those remarks. On January 1, 2014, de Blasio became New York City's new mayor, succeeding Bloomberg. Bloomberg

4485-643: The Democratic nomination to oppose Bloomberg in the general election. Thomas Ognibene sought to run against Bloomberg in the Republican Party's primary election. The Bloomberg campaign successfully challenged the signatures Ognibene submitted to the Board of Elections to prevent Ognibene from appearing on ballots for the Republican primary. Instead, Ognibene ran on only the Conservative Party ticket. Ognibene accused Bloomberg of betraying Republican Party ideals,

4600-883: The End of the Rhine in 1987, following the Rhine from its two sources, the Hinterrhein and the Vorderrhein , in Switzerland, to its estuary at Rotterdam , 1,233 km (766 mi) to the north. In between he joined the Swiss citizen army on manoeuvres, visited Liechtenstein bankers, zig-zagged the Swiss–German border at Lake Constance , attended the Schubertiade at Hohenems and the opera at Bregenz , took

4715-523: The Independence Party on October 30 and November 2, 2009. The Independence Party then paid $ 750,000 of that money to Republican Party political operative John Haggerty Jr. This prompted an investigation beginning in February 2010 by the office of New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. into possible improprieties. The Independence Party later questioned how Haggerty spent the money, which

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4830-581: The Market Master terminal, was released to market in December 1982. In 1986, IMS renamed itself Bloomberg L.P. Over the years, ancillary products including Bloomberg News , Bloomberg Radio , Bloomberg Message, and Bloomberg Tradebook were launched. Bloomberg, L.P. had revenues of approximately $ 10 billion in 2018. As of 2019, the company has more than 325,000 terminal subscribers worldwide and employs 20,000 people in dozens of locations. The culture of

4945-464: The Music along with a new panellist, Arianna Stassinopoulos (later known as Arianna Huffington). He was 42; she was 21. A relationship developed, of which she wrote after his death: "He wasn't just the big love of my life, he was a mentor as a writer and a role model as a thinker". Although Levin had rejected Judaism when a youth, he quested after spirituality. Such religious sympathies as he had, he said, were "with quietist faiths, like Buddhism, on

5060-649: The NYC Young Men's Initiative, a $ 127 million initiative to support programs and policies designed to address disparities between young Black and Latino men and their peers, and personally donated $ 30 million to the project. In 2010, Bloomberg supported the then-controversial Islamic complex near Ground Zero . Under the Bloomberg Administration, the New York City Police Department greatly expanded its stop and frisk program, with

5175-614: The Sixties , summed up its subject. In 22 self-contained chapters, Levin considered various aspects of British life during the decade. Among his topics were prominent people including Harold Macmillan and Harold Wilson – dubbed the Walrus and the Carpenter by Levin – and institutions such as the monarchy, the churches and the British Empire in its last days. Among the individual events examined in

5290-490: The bill into law on November 3. Bloomberg's bid for a third term generated some controversy. Civil libertarians such as former New York Civil Liberties Union Director Norman Siegel and New York Civil Rights Coalition Executive Director Michael Meyers joined with local politicians to protest the process as undermining the democratic process. Bloomberg's opponent was Democratic and Working Families Party nominee Bill Thompson , who had been New York City Comptroller for

5405-438: The book were the 1968 student riots and the prosecution for obscenity of the publishers of Lady Chatterley's Lover . Levin's interest in indexes developed from his work on The Pendulum Years . He compiled his own index for the book, "and swore a mighty oath, when I had finished the task, that I would rather die, and in a particularly unpleasant manner, than do it again". He contrived to include in his index an obscene joke at

5520-471: The candidates to succeed him. On his radio show, he stated, "I don't want to do anything that complicates it for the next mayor. And that's one of the reasons I've decided I'm just not going to make an endorsement in the race." He added, "I want to make sure that person is ready to succeed, to take what we've done and build on that." Bloomberg praised The New York Times for its endorsement of Christine Quinn and Joe Lhota as their favorite candidates in

5635-582: The company in the 1980s and 1990s has been compared to a fraternity, with employees bragging in the company's office about their sexual exploits. The company was sued four times by female employees for sexual harassment , including one incident in which a victim claimed to have been raped. To celebrate Bloomberg's 48th birthday, colleagues published a pamphlet entitled Portable Bloomberg: The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg . Among various sayings that were attributed to him, several have subsequently been criticized as sexist or misogynistic. When he left

5750-659: The conservative Times , "I wrote more comfortably against the grain of the paper I worked for rather than with it". His obituarist in The Times added that the decision may also have been swayed by the better remuneration offered by the paper. Among the perquisites of the Times appointment were a company car and a large and splendid office at the paper's building in Printing House Square , London. Levin accepted neither; he could not drive and he hated to be isolated. He commandeered

5865-505: The consolations of Christ's Hospital was its thriving musical life. At concerts by the school orchestra (whose members included Levin's contemporary, Colin Davis ), Levin listened seriously to music for the first time. The food at the school was no such consolation; according to Levin it was so appalling that there must be something better to be found, and from his late teens he sought out the best restaurants he could afford. Levin hoped to go to

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5980-538: The editor, Peter Stothard , concluded, despite a great admiration for Levin, that the weekly column should cease. Levin retired, though he continued to write for the paper occasionally over the next year. On 7 August 2004, he died in Westminster , London, aged 75. He is buried in Brompton Cemetery , London. A memorial service was held at the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields at which Sir David Frost delivering

6095-596: The end of 2014, succeeding Doctoroff, who had led the company since February 2008. Bloomberg resigned as CEO of Bloomberg L.P. to run for president in 2019. In January 2024, John P. Angelos reached a $ 1.725 billion deal to sell the Baltimore Orioles to a group led by David Rubenstein . The group included Bloomberg, former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke , Cal Ripken , New York investment manager Michael Arougheti and NBA legend Grant Hill . In March 2009, Forbes reported Bloomberg's wealth at $ 16 billion,

6210-478: The eulogy described Levin as "a faithful crusader for tolerance and against injustice who had declared, 'The pen is mightier than the sword – and much easier to write with'". Levin was appointed CBE for services to journalism in 1990. The Society of Indexers has instituted an award in Levin's name; it is given to "a journalist and author whose writings show untiring and eloquent support for indexers and indexing". He

6325-724: The expense of the hapless prosecutor in the Chatterley trial, but found the difficulty of indexing so great that he became a champion of the Society of Indexers . He wrote several articles on the subject, and when reviewing books made a point of praising good indexes and condemning bad ones. In June 1970, during the general election campaign , Levin fell out with the proprietors of The Daily Mail , Lord Rothermere and his son Vere Harmsworth . Levin's contract guaranteed him absolute freedom to write whatever he chose, but Harmsworth, an unswerving Conservative , attempted to censor Levin's support for

6440-703: The extent the regimes can manage it — think." Xi Jinping, as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of the People's Republic of China, the board wrote, is "pushing the nanny state into people’s personal lives" with regulations on online gaming among the country's teenagers, as well as other matters. "Not many [parents]," the board argued, "want to cede parenting decisions to an authoritarian party-state." Bernard Levin Henry Bernard Levin CBE (19 August 1928 – 7 August 2004)

6555-559: The firm. Using the money he received from Phibro, Bloomberg—having designed in-house computerized financial systems for Salomon—set up a data services company named Innovative Market Systems (IMS) based on his belief that Wall Street would pay a premium for high-quality business information, delivered instantaneously on computer terminals in a variety of usable formats. The company sold customized computer terminals that delivered real-time market data, financial calculations and other analytics to Wall Street firms. The terminal, first called

6670-607: The first, Taking Sides , covered subjects as diverse as the death watch beetle , Field Marshal Montgomery , Wagner , homophobia , censorship, Eldridge Cleaver , arachnophobia , theatrical nudity, and the North Thames Gas Board . Within weeks of joining The Times Levin provoked a lawsuit and a strident controversy. The first was in March 1971, in an article titled "Profit and dishonour in Fleet Street", accusing Rothermere of underhand conduct and personal avarice during

6785-522: The fraternity Phi Kappa Psi . While there, he constructed the blue jay costume for the university's mascot . He graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering . In 1966, he graduated from Harvard Business School with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. Bloomberg is a member of Kappa Beta Phi and Tau Beta Pi . He wrote an autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg , with help from Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler . In 1966, Bloomberg

6900-515: The influence of Shakespeare on everyday discourse. It begins: If you cannot understand my argument, and declare 'It's Greek to me', you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare". In 1971, Levin appeared in an edition of Face

7015-473: The last five of them also wrote five columns a week on any subject of his choice. Although by the early 1960s, Levin was becoming a well-known name, his was not yet a well-known face. Meeting him in London the publisher Rupert Hart-Davis did not immediately recognise him: "He looks about sixteen, and at first I thought he was someone's little boy brought along to see the fun – very Jewish, with wavy fairish hair, very intelligent and agreeable to talk to". Levin

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7130-463: The late 19th century. He gave a fellow-critic an edition of Shaw's collected criticism, writing inside the cover, "'In the hope that when you come across the phrases I have already stolen you will keep quiet about it". Gilmour discouraged any hopes Levin might have had of succeeding Inglis as editor and in 1962, Levin left both The Spectator and The Daily Express , becoming drama critic of The Daily Mail . He remained there for eight years, and for

7245-482: The latter was elevated to the peerage as Lord Dilhorne, Levin renamed him Lord Stillborn. Taper was not Levin's only work for The Spectator . He wrote on a wide range of subjects, from a campaign for the release of three Arabs imprisoned by the British authorities, to supporting publication of the banned novel Lady Chatterley's Lover , and denunciation of the retired Lord Chief Justice , Lord Goddard . The last led to

7360-506: The latter. Levin became a skilled debater; he wrote for the student newspaper The Beaver , on a range of subjects, not least opera, which became one of his lifelong passions. Having graduated from the LSE in 1952, Levin worked briefly as a tour guide, and then joined the BBC 's North American Service. His job was to read all the newspapers and weekly magazines, selecting articles that might be useful for broadcasting. In 1953, Levin applied for

7475-422: The legacy of his first term and addressing poverty to be the legacy of his second. Bloomberg chose to apply a statistical, metrics-based management approach to city government, and granted departmental commissioners' broad autonomy in their decision-making. Breaking with 190 years of tradition, he implemented what New York Times political reporter Adam Nagourney called a "bullpen" open office plan, similar to

7590-401: The legislative tendencies of liberal political ideology such as in the banishment of smoking in public places or the enactment of mandatory bicycle helmet laws. In 2012, a proposal by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to restrict the sale of soft drinks in venues, restaurants, and sidewalk carts to 16 ounces led to derision of the mayor as "Nanny Bloomberg." David Harsanyi has used

7705-555: The maximum years a mayor could serve to eight years, sided with Bloomberg and agreed to stay out of future legality issues. In exchange, he was promised a seat on an influential city board by Bloomberg. Some people and organizations objected and NYPIRG filed a complaint with the City Conflict of Interest Board. On October 23, 2008, the city council voted 29–22 in favor of extending the term limit to three consecutive four-year terms. After two days of public hearings, Bloomberg signed

7820-730: The merger of The Daily Mail and The Daily Sketch . The libel action brought by Rothermere was settled out of court, at substantial cost to the proprietor of The Times , Lord Thomson . Two months later, controversy followed Levin's renewed condemnation of Lord Goddard immediately after the latter's death in May 1971. The legal profession closed ranks and defended Goddard's reputation against Levin's attacks. Among those denouncing Levin were Lords Denning , Devlin , Hodson , Parker , Shawcross and Stow Hill . After Levin's death The Times published an article opining that information made public since 1971 "strongly supported" his criticisms of Goddard. At

7935-468: The modern parliamentary sketch": Until then sketch writers were basically on the side of the MPs. Their job was to convey to voters the majesty of our legislators' oratory, to remind us of the surpassing importance of their deliberations. A predecessor of mine published his collected works as The Glory of Parliament. Levin had truck with none of that nonsense. As he said later, he treated the old place as if it were

8050-450: The nanny state but I call it a force for good". The "Soft Drinks Industry Levy", the UK's sugary drink tax proposed in 2016 and effective from 2018, was described by Member of Parliament Will Quince as "patronizing, regressive and the nanny state at its worst". By the 2000s, the term entered use in the United States by some political commentators. The term was used in an at-large sense against

8165-569: The network's first hundred days he attributed its viewing figures to the "number of people who are sufficiently stupid to derive pleasure from such programmes". In 1956, Levin found himself in irreconcilable disagreement with Truth's support of the Anglo-French military action in the Suez Crisis . The proprietor and editor of the long-established weekly The Spectator , Ian Gilmour , invited Levin to join his staff. Levin left Truth and became

8280-720: The new development of affordable housing through a plan that created and preserved an estimated 160,000 affordable homes in the city. In 2003, he implemented a successful smoking ban in all indoor workplaces, including bars and restaurants, and many other cities and states followed suit. On December 5, 2006, New York City became the first city in the United States to ban trans-fat from all restaurants. This went into effect in July 2008 and has since been adopted in many other cities and countries. Bloomberg created bicycle lanes , required chain restaurants to post calorie counts , and pedestrianized much of Times Square . In 2011, Bloomberg launched

8395-542: The one hand and South Africa on the other. These decrees constitute a pair of campaign medals that I wear with considerable pleasure and I have a profound suspicion of those who rebuke me for partisanship while wearing only one". He wrote regularly about the arts. Music was a recurrent theme; he was notorious for his addiction to Wagner, and other favourite composers included Schubert and Mozart . He wrote about performers he admired, including Otto Klemperer , Alfred Brendel , and Kiri Te Kanawa . He turned less regularly to

8510-497: The one hand, and with a straightforward message of salvation, like Christianity, on the other". With the help of Stassinopoulos he continued to search after spiritual truth. She later wrote, "He tried therapy, he tried Insight, a self-awareness seminar that I had helped to bring to London, he tried a stint in an ashram in India. Lesser souls would have avoided the ridicule that was heaped on him for his spiritual 'search' by simply keeping it to himself. But he didn't, because anything he

8625-468: The opening programmes a kindly review, but by the fourth day of commercial television he was beginning to baulk: "There has been nothing to get our teeth into apart from three different brands of cake-mix and a patent doughnut". Thereafter, he did not spare the network: "cliché succeeded to cliché"; "a mentally defective aborigine who was deaf in both ears would have little difficulty in leaving Double Your Money £32 richer than when he entered"; and after

8740-406: The other major party, Labour . Levin resigned, and immediately received offers from The Guardian and The Times to join them as a columnist. He found both tempting, and at one point "even had a wild notion of suggesting that I should write for both simultaneously". In the end, he chose The Times , giving as his reason that though the liberal Guardian was more in line with his own politics than

8855-467: The passionate belief in the freedom of the individual that lasted his whole life. In return, as he grew older, he used to read to them. Bernard could not read Hebrew , but he could get by in Yiddish ". Rose Levin was a capable cook, and, though the household was not well off, Levin was well fed and acquired an interest in food that in adult life became one of the regular themes of his journalism. The cuisine

8970-508: The past eight years and before that, president of the New York City Board of Education . Bloomberg defeated Thompson by a vote of 51 percent to 46 percent. Bloomberg spent $ 109.2 million on his 2009 campaign, outspending Thompson by a margin of more than 11 to one. After the release of Independence Party campaign filings in January 2010, it was reported that Bloomberg had made two $ 600,000 contributions from his personal account to

9085-451: The political correspondent of The Spectator . He declared that he was no expert in politics, but Gilmour advised him, "review it as you would review television". Levin wrote his column under the pseudonym "Taper", from the name of a corrupt political insider in Disraeli 's 1844 novel Coningsby . He followed Gilmour's advice, becoming, as The Guardian 's Simon Hoggart said, "the father of

9200-438: The position of CEO to pursue a political career as the mayor of New York City, Bloomberg was replaced by Lex Fenwick and later by Daniel L. Doctoroff , after his initial service as deputy mayor under Bloomberg. After completing his final term as the mayor of New York City, Bloomberg spent his first eight months out of office as a full-time philanthropist. In fall 2014, he announced that he would return to Bloomberg L.P. as CEO at

9315-582: The presumed route taken by Hannibal when he invaded Italy in 218 BC. The programme followed Levin's 320-mile journey from Aigues-Mortes to the crossing into Italy in the Queyras valley in the French Alps. He remained true to his declared intention of eschewing all forms of vehicular transport, and walked all the way, with the exception of his crossing the Rhone , rowing himself in a small boat. He followed this with To

9430-461: The proprietor of the paper over attempted censorship of his column in 1970, Levin moved to The Times where, with one break of just over a year in 1981–82, he remained as resident columnist until his retirement, covering a wide range of topics, both serious and comic. Levin became a broadcaster, first on the weekly satirical television show That Was the Week That Was in the early 1960s, then as

9545-466: The record for the most expensive U.S. presidential primary campaign. Bloomberg was born on February 14, 1942, at St. Elizabeth's Hospital , in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston , to William Henry Bloomberg (1906–1963), a bookkeeper for a dairy company, and Charlotte (née Rubens) Bloomberg (1909–2011). His father never earned more than $ 6,000 a year. William Henry Bloomberg died suddenly when his son

9660-517: The rest of his life. It contains a sentence that far outdoes his earlier 1,667 word effort in The Times , starting on page 212 and ending four pages later; it lists the restaurants most esteemed by Levin in Europe, Asia and America. It also briefly mentions Levin's battle against depression, akin to bipolar disorder . In the 1980s, Levin made three television series for Channel 4 . The first, Hannibal's Footsteps , screened in 1985, showed Levin walking

9775-595: The scriptures to himself silently and struggled through a little English; my grandmother, who could read no language at all, lit a candle on the appropriate days, as did my mother, though for her it was not really a religious sign. My uncles were quite secular ... and had hardly anything to do with the religion of their father and grandfathers". In The Guardian after Levin's death, Quentin Crewe wrote, "His illiterate grandparents' stories about life in Russia must have instilled in him

9890-421: The second child and only son of Philip Levin, a tailor of Jewish Bessarabian descent, and his wife, Rose, née Racklin. Philip Levin abandoned the family when Levin was a child, and the two children were brought up with the help of their maternal grandparents, who had emigrated from Lithuania at the turn of the 20th century. Levin wrote of his childhood, "My home was not a religious one; my grandfather read

10005-465: The short term rental site, Airbnb , prompted criticism by the company, which described the move as "nanny-state". The city state of Singapore has a reputation as a nanny state, owing to the considerable number of government regulations and restrictions on its citizens' lives. Former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew , the architect of the modern Singapore, observed: "If Singapore is a nanny state, then I am proud to have fostered one". In an interview in

10120-748: The social media age of 13 to 16. The term was used by the New Zealand National Party to describe the policies of their political opponents, the Fifth Labour Government , who were in power from 1999 until 2008. In turn, the child policies of the National Party's Paula Bennett were later given the 'nanny state' label by a Māori Community Law Service manager in 2012. In 2017, the Queenstown-Lakes District Council 's proposed restrictions on residents renting their rooms on

10235-558: The term to describe food labeling regulations , the legal drinking age , and socially conservative government policies. Conversely, Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research think tank used the term in 2006 to describe conservative policies that protect the income of the rich. In September 2021, the Washington Post editorial board decried "dictatorships" that "impose decisions about what people can see, hear and — to

10350-417: The three if they request him to do so. Warren continued her attack in the second debate the next week. Others criticized Bloomberg for his wealth and campaign spending, as well as his former affiliation with the Republican Party. As a late entrant to the race, Bloomberg skipped the first four state primaries and caucuses. He spent $ 676 million of his personal fortune on the primary campaign, breaking

10465-525: The time, the lawyers took revenge on Levin by ensuring that his candidacy for membership of the Garrick , a London club much favoured by lawyers and journalists, was blackballed . At The Daily Mail , Levin had generally been restricted to 600 words for his articles. At The Times he had more licence to spread himself. He appeared in The Guinness Book of Records for the longest sentence ever to appear in

10580-414: The visual arts, but when he did his views were clear-cut and trenchantly expressed. He wrote of a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition in 1984, "Never, in all my life, not even at the exclusively Millais exhibition in 1967, have I seen so much sickening rubbish in one place at one time". His knowledge and love of literature were reflected in many of his writings; among his best-known pieces is a long paragraph about

10695-545: The waters at Baden-Baden , visited the manufacturers of eau de Cologne , and paid tribute to Erasmus at Basel . The last of the three series was in 1989, A Walk up Fifth Avenue in New York , from Washington Square to the Harlem River . In this series he encountered extremes of wealth and poverty, and met a wide variety of people, some famous (such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Donald Trump ) and some not (including

10810-474: The way out". Sometimes Levin wrote about frivolous, even farcical matters, such as a series of mock-indignant articles about the sex-lives of mosquitoes. At other times he wrote about matters of grave moral importance, unfailingly denouncing authoritarian regimes whether of the left or the right. He observed, "I am barred by the governments concerned from entering the Soviet Union and the lands of her empire on

10925-528: The world". Trump responded to the speech by condemning Bloomberg in a series of tweets. In June 2018, Bloomberg pledged $ 80 million to support Democratic congressional candidates in the 2018 election , with the goal of flipping control of the Republican-controlled House to Democrats. In a statement, Bloomberg said that Republican House leadership were "absolutely feckless" and had failed to govern responsibly. Bloomberg advisor Howard Wolfson

11040-689: Was exactly what I had been looking for". After a year, Evans left and was succeeded by his deputy, George Scott; Levin was promoted in Scott's place. He wrote for the paper under a variety of pseudonyms, including "A. E. Cherryman". While still at Truth , Levin was invited to write a column in The Manchester Guardian about ITV , Britain's first commercial television channel, launched in 1955. Mooney describes his television reviews as "notably punchy" and The Times commented, "Levin took out his shotgun and let loose with both barrels". Levin gave

11155-639: Was a Jew at a Church of England establishment; he was from a poor family (although Christ's Hospital is a charity school); he was slight of stature; he was utterly indifferent to sport; he adopted a Marxist stance, hanging the Red Flag from a school window to celebrate the Labour victory in 1945. In the local streets, the school's conspicuous uniform, including a blue coat, knee breeches and yellow socks, attracted unwanted attention. Levin's biographer Bel Mooney writes of this period, "Jeers put iron in his soul". Among

11270-451: Was also Levin's junior by more than 20 years. In 1981 Levin took a sabbatical from The Times after Rupert Murdoch bought the paper and Harold Evans succeeded Rees-Mogg as editor. Evans and Levin were friends, but Levin had publicly stated his preference that Charles Douglas-Home should be appointed. Within a year Evans and Murdoch fell out and Evans left in 1982; Douglas-Home became editor, and coaxed Levin back, to write two columns

11385-407: Was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by The Times as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship to the independent school Christ's Hospital and went on to the London School of Economics , graduating in 1952. After a short spell in a lowly job at the BBC selecting press cuttings for use in programmes, he secured

11500-632: Was blamed on the removal of personal responsibility and the increase in the number and scope of health and safety laws. Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm also used the term when launching an Australian Senate enquiry into laws and regulations that restrict personal choice "for the individual's own good". The term has also been used to criticise mandatory bicycle helmet laws, gun control laws, prohibitions on alcohol in public places, plain packaging for cigarettes and pub/club lockout laws. It has also been used in Anthony Albanese's proposal to raise

11615-628: Was born in New York to Lithuanian Jewish parents. The family lived in Allston until Bloomberg was two years old, followed by Brookline, Massachusetts , for two years, finally settling in the Boston suburb of Medford, Massachusetts , where he lived until after he graduated from college. Bloomberg became an Eagle Scout when he was twelve years old. He graduated from Medford High School in 1960. He went on to attend Johns Hopkins University , where he joined

11730-508: Was chosen to lead the effort, which was to target mainly suburban districts. By early October, Bloomberg had committed more than $ 100 million to returning the House and Senate to Democratic power, fueling speculation about a presidential run in 2020 . On October 10, 2018, Bloomberg announced that he had returned to the Democratic party. On March 5, 2019, Bloomberg had announced that he would not run for president in 2020. Instead, he encouraged

11845-468: Was elected the 108th mayor of New York City in 2001 . He held office for three consecutive terms, winning re-election in 2005 and 2009 . Pursuing socially liberal and fiscally moderate policies , Bloomberg developed a technocratic managerial style . As the mayor of New York, Bloomberg established public charter schools , rebuilt urban infrastructure, and supported gun control , public health initiatives, and environmental protections . He also led

11960-458: Was frequently mentioned as a possible centrist candidate for the presidential elections in 2008 and 2012 , as well as for governor of New York in 2010 or vice-president in 2008. He eventually declined to seek all of these offices. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in November 2012, Bloomberg penned an op-ed officially endorsing Barack Obama for president, citing Obama's policies on climate change. On January 23, 2016, it

12075-437: Was hired for a job earning $ 9,000 per year at Salomon Brothers , a large Wall Street investment bank . Salomon Brothers later promoted him to the equities desk. Bloomberg became a general partner at Salomon Brothers in 1972; he headed equity trading and, later, systems development . Phibro Corporation bought Salomon Brothers in 1981, and the new management fired Bloomberg, paying him $ 10 million for his equity in

12190-664: Was in college. The Bloomberg Center at the Harvard Business School was named in William Henry's honor. Bloomberg's family is Jewish , and he is a member of the Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan. Bloomberg's paternal grandfather, Rabbi Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, was a Polish Jew . Bloomberg's maternal grandfather, Max Rubens, was a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant from present-day Belarus , and his maternal grandmother

12305-521: Was ineligible for re-election due to the city's limit of two consecutive terms. Bloomberg, who had been a lifelong member of the Democratic Party , decided to run for mayor on the Republican ticket. Voting in the primary began on the morning of September 11, 2001. The primary was postponed later that day, due to the September 11 attacks . In the rescheduled primary, Bloomberg defeated Herman Badillo ,

12420-443: Was invited to appear regularly on BBC television's new weekly late-night satirical revue, That Was the Week That Was , where he delivered monologues to camera about his pet hates and conducted interviews, appearing as "a tiny figure taking on assorted noisy giants in debate". The programme, which had a short but much-discussed run, was transmitted live; this added to its edginess and impact, but also made it prone to disruption. Levin

12535-522: Was not subject to these restrictions. He spent $ 73 million of his own money on his campaign, outspending Green by a ratio of five to one. In the wake of the September 11 attacks, Bloomberg's administration made a successful bid to host the 2004 Republican National Convention . The convention drew thousands of protesters , among them New Yorkers against George W. Bush and the Bush administration's pursuit of

12650-600: Was president of the English Association , 1984–85, and vice-president 1985–88. He was an honorary fellow of the LSE from 1977, and a member of the Order of Polonia Restituta , conferred by the Polish government-in-exile in 1976. In its obituary tribute to him, The Times described Levin as "the most famous journalist of his day". Michael Bloomberg [REDACTED] Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942)

12765-546: Was reported that Bloomberg was again considering a presidential run, as an independent candidate in the 2016 election , if Bernie Sanders got the Democratic party nomination. This was the first time he had officially confirmed he was considering a run. Bloomberg supporters believed that Bloomberg could run as a centrist and capture many voters who were dissatisfied with the likely Democratic and Republican nominees. However, on March 7, Bloomberg announced he would not be running for president. In July 2016, Bloomberg delivered

12880-552: Was to go to poll-watchers. Former New York State Senator Martin Connor contended that because the Bloomberg donations were made to an Independence Party housekeeping account rather than to an account meant for current campaigns, this was a violation of campaign finance laws. Haggerty also spent money from a separate $ 200,000 donation from Bloomberg on office space. On September 13, 2013, Bloomberg announced that he would not endorse any of

12995-553: Was touched by he had to write about". In 1980 he wrote extensive accounts in his column about his visit to the Indian commune of the meditation teacher Osho . Levin was commissioned by the BBC to visit musical festivals around the world, broadcasting a series of talks about them. Together with Stassinopoulos, he visited festivals in Britain, Ireland, continental Europe and Australia. He later wrote

13110-417: Was traditional Jewish, with fried fish as one cornerstone of the repertoire, and chicken as another – boiled, roast, or in soup with lokshen (noodles), kreplach or kneidlach . As an adult Levin retained his love of Jewish cookery along with his passion for French haute cuisine . The Levin household was not especially musical, though it had a piano which Judith was taught to play; Rose Levin bought her son

13225-582: Was twice assaulted on air, once by the husband of an actress whose show Levin had reviewed severely, and once by a woman astrologer who squirted him with water. In 1966, BBC television screened a new musical quiz, Face the Music presented by Joseph Cooper . It ran intermittently until 1984. Levin was a frequent panel member along with, among others, Robin Ray , Joyce Grenfell , David Attenborough and Richard Baker . Levin published his first book in 1970. Called The Pendulum Years , its subtitle, Britain and

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