A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilever can be formed as a beam , plate, truss , or slab .
112-714: The London Eye , or the Millennium Wheel , is a cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames in London. It is Europe's tallest cantilevered observation wheel, and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom with over three million visitors annually. It has been featured numerous times in popular culture. The structure is 135 metres (443 ft) tall and
224-420: A backbencher , Blair supported moving the party to the political centre of British politics . He was appointed to Neil Kinnock 's shadow cabinet in 1988 and was appointed shadow home secretary by John Smith in 1992. Following Smith's death in 1994, Blair won a leadership election to succeed him. As leader, Blair began a historic rebranding of the party, which became known as " New Labour ". Blair became
336-465: A structural load at its far, unsupported end, the cantilever carries the load to the support where it applies a shear stress and a bending moment . Cantilever construction allows overhanging structures without additional support. Cantilevers are widely found in construction, notably in cantilever bridges and balconies (see corbel ). In cantilever bridges, the cantilevers are usually built as pairs, with each cantilever used to support one end of
448-515: A "democratic socialist" himself in the same year. However, the move away from nationalisation in the old Clause IV made many on the left wing of the Labour Party feel that Labour was moving away from traditional socialist principles of nationalisation set out in 1918, and was seen by them as part of a shift of the party towards "New Labour". Blair inherited the Labour leadership at a time when
560-487: A Sierra Leone rebel group. Journalist Andrew Marr has argued that the success of ground attacks, real and threatened, over air strikes alone was influential on how Blair planned the Iraq War, and that the success of the first three wars Blair fought "played to his sense of himself as a moral war leader". When asked in 2010 if the success of Palliser may have "embolden[ed] British politicians" to think of military action as
672-500: A cantilever-winged sesquiplane built instead with wooden materials, the Fokker V.1 . In the cantilever wing, one or more strong beams, called spars , run along the span of the wing. The end fixed rigidly to the central fuselage is known as the root and the far end as the tip. In flight, the wings generate lift and the spars carry this load through to the fuselage. To resist horizontal shear stress from either drag or engine thrust,
784-459: A central section. The Forth Bridge in Scotland is an example of a cantilever truss bridge . A cantilever in a traditionally timber framed building is called a jetty or forebay . In the southern United States, a historic barn type is the cantilever barn of log construction . Temporary cantilevers are often used in construction. The partially constructed structure creates a cantilever, but
896-628: A dozen years after the Wright Brothers ' initial flights, Junkers endeavored to eliminate virtually all major external bracing members in order to decrease airframe drag in flight. The result of this endeavor was the Junkers J 1 pioneering all-metal monoplane of late 1915, designed from the start with all-metal cantilever wing panels. About a year after the initial success of the Junkers J 1, Reinhold Platz of Fokker also achieved success with
1008-630: A heart attack on 12 May 1994. Blair defeated John Prescott and Margaret Beckett in the subsequent leadership election and became Leader of the Opposition . As is customary for the holder of that office, Blair was appointed a Privy Counsellor . It has long been rumoured a deal was struck between Blair and Shadow Chancellor Gordon Brown at the former Granita restaurant in Islington , in which Blair promised to give Brown control of economic policy in return for Brown not standing against him in
1120-584: A leadership election in which Brown was the only candidate. At a special party conference in Manchester on 24 June 2007, Blair formally handed over the leadership of the Labour Party to Brown, who had been Chancellor of the Exchequer in Blair's three ministries. Blair tendered his resignation as prime minister on 27 June and Brown assumed office the same afternoon. Blair resigned from his Sedgefield seat in
1232-537: A lighting-up ceremony marked the start of a three-year deal between EDF Energy and Merlin Entertainments. Coca-Cola began to sponsor the London Eye from January 2015. On the day the sponsorship was announced the London Eye was lit in red. In February 2020, lastminute.com replaced Coca-Cola as the sponsor. Grammy Award-winning singer Meghan Trainor performed at the launch party on a boat overlooking
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#17327909792311344-475: A policy option, General Sir David Richards admitted there "might be something in that". From the start of the War on Terror in 2001, Blair strongly supported the foreign policy of George W. Bush , participating in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of Iraq . The invasion of Iraq was particularly controversial, as it attracted widespread public opposition and 139 of Blair's own MPs opposed it. As
1456-506: A profile within the party. Despite his defeat, William Russell, political correspondent for The Glasgow Herald , described Blair as "a very good candidate", while acknowledging that the result was "a disaster" for the Labour Party. In contrast to his later centrism , Blair made it clear in a letter he wrote to Labour leader Michael Foot in July 1982 (published in 2006) that he had "come to Socialism through Marxism" and considered himself on
1568-526: A result, he faced criticism over the policy itself and the circumstances of the decision. Alastair Campbell described Blair's statement that the intelligence on WMDs was "beyond doubt" as his "assessment of the assessment that was given to him." In 2009, Blair stated that he would have supported removing Saddam Hussein from power even in the face of proof that he had no such weapons. Playwright Harold Pinter and former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad accused Blair of war crimes. Testifying before
1680-409: A result, he faced criticism over the policy itself and the circumstances of the decision. The Iraq Inquiry report of 2016 gave a damning assessment of Blair's role in the Iraq War. As the casualties of the Iraq War mounted, Blair was accused of misleading Parliament, and his popularity dropped dramatically. Blair won a third term after Labour won a third election victory in 2005 , in part thanks to
1792-593: A second term after Labour won a second landslide victory in the 2001 general election . Three months into his second term , Blair's premiership was shaped by the 9/11 terrorist attacks , resulting in the start of the war on terror . Blair supported the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration by ensuring that the British Armed Forces participated in the War in Afghanistan to overthrow
1904-490: A single 30-minute session on Wednesdays. In addition to PMQs, Blair held monthly press conferences at which he fielded questions from journalists and, from 2002, broke precedent by agreeing to give evidence twice yearly before the most senior Commons select committee, the Liaison Committee . Blair was sometimes perceived as paying insufficient attention both to the views of his own Cabinet colleagues and to those of
2016-467: A source of optimism, as they indicated that the Conservatives were in decline. Virtually every opinion poll since late-1992 put Labour ahead of the Conservatives with enough support to form an overall majority. Blair became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 2 May 1997; aged 43, he was the youngest person to reach that office since Lord Liverpool became prime minister aged 42 in 1812. He
2128-406: A strong economy, with real incomes of British citizens growing 18% between 1997 and 2006. Britain saw rapid productivity growth and significant GDP growth, as well as falling poverty rates and inequality which, despite stubbornly failing to fall, stalled thanks to New Labour's economic policies (such as tax credits). Despite the financial bubble developing in the property markets, studies have credited
2240-437: A temporary attraction, with a five-year lease. In December 2001, operators submitted an application to Lambeth Council to give the London Eye permanent status, and the application was granted in July 2002. On 5 June 2008, it was announced that 30 million people had ridden the London Eye since it opened. The wheel's 32 sealed and air-conditioned ovoidal passenger capsules, designed and supplied by Poma , are attached to
2352-419: A theoretical capacity of 1,600 passengers per hour. It does not usually stop to take on passengers; the rotation rate is slow enough to allow passengers to walk on and off the moving capsules at ground level. It is stopped to allow disabled or elderly passengers time to embark and disembark safely. In 2009, the first stage of a £12.5 million capsule upgrade began. Each capsule was taken down and floated down
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#17327909792312464-503: A variation in this parameter indicates the concentration of the analyte . Recently, microcantilevers have been fabricated that are porous, allowing for a much larger surface area for analyte to bind to, increasing sensitivity by raising the ratio of the analyte mass to the device mass. Surface stress on microcantilever, due to receptor-target binding, which produces cantilever deflection can be analyzed using optical methods like laser interferometry. Zhao et al., also showed that by changing
2576-458: A wire-braced design. However, as the speed of the aircraft increases, the drag of the bracing increases sharply, while the wing structure must be strengthened, typically by increasing the strength of the spars and the thickness of the skinning. At speeds of around 200 miles per hour (320 km/h) the drag of the bracing becomes excessive and the wing strong enough to be made a cantilever without excess weight penalty. Increases in engine power through
2688-577: Is Waterloo , although Charing Cross , Embankment , and Westminster are also within easy walking distance. Connection with National Rail services is made at London Waterloo station and London Waterloo East station . London River Services operated by Thames Clippers and City Cruises stop at the London Eye Pier . For other quiescent (incomplete, delayed, stalled, cancelled, failed, or abandoned) proposals, see: Ferris wheel#Quiescent proposals Cantilevered When subjected to
2800-735: Is a small part of the Jubilee Gardens , which was given to the SBC for £1 when the Greater London Council was broken up. The South Bank Centre and the British Airways London Eye agreed on a 25-year lease on 8 February 2006 after a judicial review over the rent dispute. The lease agreement meant that the South Bank Centre, a publicly funded charity, would receive at least £500,000 a year from
2912-455: Is force and w {\displaystyle w} is the cantilever width. The spring constant is related to the cantilever resonance frequency ω 0 {\displaystyle \omega _{0}} by the usual harmonic oscillator formula ω 0 = k / m equivalent {\displaystyle \omega _{0}={\sqrt {k/m_{\text{equivalent}}}}} . A change in
3024-582: Is one of their chief advantages. Many box girder bridges are built segmentally , or in short pieces. This type of construction lends itself well to balanced cantilever construction where the bridge is built in both directions from a single support. These structures rely heavily on torque and rotational equilibrium for their stability. In an architectural application, Frank Lloyd Wright 's Fallingwater used cantilevers to project large balconies. The East Stand at Elland Road Stadium in Leeds was, when completed,
3136-401: Is the cantilever thickness. Very sensitive optical and capacitive methods have been developed to measure changes in the static deflection of cantilever beams used in dc-coupled sensors. The second is the formula relating the cantilever spring constant k {\displaystyle k} to the cantilever dimensions and material constants: where F {\displaystyle F}
3248-422: Is the immunosensor based on an antibody layer that interacts selectively with a particular immunogen and reports about its content in a specimen. In the static mode of operation, the sensor response is represented by the beam bending with respect to a reference microcantilever. Alternatively, microcantilever sensors can be operated in the dynamic mode. In this case, the beam vibrates at its resonance frequency and
3360-502: The 1983 general election was called. Blair's initial inquiries discovered that the left was trying to arrange the selection for Les Huckfield , sitting MP for Nuneaton, who was trying elsewhere; several sitting MPs displaced by boundary changes were also interested in it. When he discovered the Trimdon branch had not yet made a nomination, Blair visited them and won the support of the branch secretary John Burton , and with Burton's help
3472-947: The Good Friday Agreement (after 30 years of conflict) was widely recognised. Following the Omagh bombing on 15 August 1998, by members of the Real IRA opposed to the peace process, which killed 29 people and wounded hundreds, Blair visited the County Tyrone town and met with victims at Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast . In his first six years in office, Blair ordered British troops into combat five times, more than any other prime minister in British history. This included Iraq in both 1998 and 2003 , Kosovo (1999), Sierra Leone (2000) and Afghanistan (2001). The Kosovo War, which Blair had advocated on moral grounds,
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3584-606: The Home Office to deport illegal immigrants. Amid the Cash-for-Honours scandal , Blair was interviewed three times as prime minister, though only as a witness and not under caution . The Afghanistan and Iraq wars continued, and in 2006, Blair announced he would resign within a year. He resigned the party leadership on 24 June 2007 and as prime minister on 27 June, and was succeeded by Gordon Brown , his chancellor . After leaving office, Blair gave up his seat and
3696-489: The House of Commons on 6 July 1983, Blair stated, "I am a socialist not through reading a textbook that has caught my intellectual fancy, nor through unthinking tradition, but because I believe that, at its best, socialism corresponds most closely to an existence that is both rational and moral. It stands for cooperation, not confrontation; for fellowship, not fear. It stands for equality." Once elected, Blair's political ascent
3808-533: The Iraq Inquiry on 29 January 2010, Blair said Saddam Hussein was a "monster and I believe he threatened not just the region but the world." Blair said that British and American attitude towards Hussein had "changed dramatically" after the September 11 attacks . Blair denied that he would have supported the invasion of Iraq even if he had thought Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. He said he believed
3920-633: The Israel–Lebanon conflict . On 7 September 2006, Blair publicly stated he would step down as leader by the time of the Trades Union Congress conference held from 10 to 13 September 2007, despite promising to serve a full term during the previous general election campaign. On 10 May 2007, during a speech at the Trimdon Labour Club , Blair announced his intention to resign as both Labour leader and prime minister, triggering
4032-681: The Taliban , destroy al-Qaeda , and capture Osama bin Laden . Blair supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq and had the British Armed Forces participate in the Iraq War , on the inaccurate beliefs that Saddam Hussein 's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction and developed ties with al-Qaeda . The invasion of Iraq was particularly controversial, as it attracted widespread public opposition and 139 of Blair's own MPs opposed it. As
4144-701: The introduction of a minimum wage , tuition fees for higher education, constitutional reform such as devolution in Scotland and Wales , an extensive expansion of LGBT+ rights in the UK , and significant progress in the Northern Ireland peace process with the passing of the landmark Good Friday Agreement . On foreign policy, Blair oversaw British interventions in Kosovo in 1999 and Sierra Leone in 2000 , which were generally perceived to be successful. Blair won
4256-605: The youngest prime minister of the 20th century after his party won a landslide victory of 418 seats (the largest in its history) in the 1997 general election , bringing an end to 18 years in the opposition. It was the first victory for the Labour Party in nearly 23 years, the last one being in October 1974 . During his first term , Blair enacted constitutional reforms and significantly increased public spending on healthcare and education while also introducing controversial market-based reforms in these areas. In addition, Blair saw
4368-576: The 1983 general election endorsed left-wing policies that Labour advocated in the early 1980s. He called for Britain to leave the EEC as early as the 1970s, though he had told his selection conference that he personally favoured continuing membership and voted "Yes" in the 1975 referendum on the subject . He opposed the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) in 1986 but supported the ERM by 1989. He
4480-490: The 1997 election that New Labour would govern "from the radical centre", and according to one lifelong Labour Party member always described himself as a social democrat . In a 2007 opinion piece in The Guardian , left-wing commentator Neil Lawson described Blair as to the right of centre . A YouGov opinion poll in 2005 found that a small majority of British voters, including many New Labour supporters, placed Blair on
4592-517: The 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize , wrote of the London Eye in a book about the project: The Eye has done for London what the Eiffel Tower did for Paris, which is to give it a symbol and to let people climb above the city and look back down on it. Not just specialists or rich people, but everybody. That's the beauty of it: it is public and accessible, and it is in a great position at the heart of London. The nearest London Underground station
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4704-680: The EU. With specific regards to Blair's LGBTQ+ reforms, Blair introduced the Civil Partnership Act 2004 which granted civil partners rights and responsibilities similar to those in civil marriages, equalised the age of consent between straight and gay couples, ended the ban on gay people serving in the British military, introduced the Gender Recognition Act 2004 which allows those with gender dysphoria to legally change their gender, repealed Section 28 , gave gay couples
4816-453: The Eye is described by its operators as "the world's tallest cantilevered observation wheel". The Eye offered the highest public viewing point in London until it was superseded by the 245-metre-high (804 ft) observation deck on the 72nd floor of The Shard in early 2013. The London Eye adjoins the western end of Jubilee Gardens (previously the site of the former Dome of Discovery ), on
4928-543: The Garter by Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. At various points in his premiership, Blair was among both the most popular and most unpopular politicians in British history. As prime minister, he achieved the highest recorded approval ratings during his first few years in office but also one of the lowest ratings during and after the Iraq War. Blair is usually rated as above average in historical rankings and public opinion of British prime ministers. Anthony Charles Lynton Blair
5040-476: The House of Commons. His style was sometimes criticised as not that of a prime minister and head of government , which he was, but of a president and head of state, which he was not. Blair was accused of excessive reliance on spin . He was the first UK prime minister to have been formally questioned by police, though not under caution , while still in office. As the casualties of the Iraq War mounted, Blair
5152-517: The Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997 and held various shadow cabinet posts from 1987 to 1994. Blair was Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007, and was special envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East from 2007 to 2015. He is the second- longest-serving prime minister in post-war British history after Margaret Thatcher ,
5264-614: The London Eye. In March 2020, the wheel was illuminated blue every Thursday at 8pm in support of the National Health Service as part of the ‘ Clap for our Carers ’ campaign created during the COVID-19 pandemic . On 20 May 2005, there were reports of a leaked letter showing that the South Bank Centre (SBC)—owners of part of the land on which the struts of the Eye are located—had served a notice to quit on
5376-653: The NHS and other public services, increasing spending from 39.9% of GDP to 48.1% in 2010–11. They pledged in 2001 to bring NHS spending to the levels of other European countries, and doubled spending in real terms to over £100 billion in England alone. Non-European immigration rose significantly during the period from 1997, not least because of the government 's abolition of the primary purpose rule in June 1997. This change made it easier for UK residents to bring foreign spouses into
5488-609: The Rolling Stones . Leaving Fettes College at the age of 18, Blair next spent a gap year in London working as a rock music promoter. In 1972, at the age of 19, Blair matriculated at St John's College, Oxford , reading jurisprudence for three years. As a student, he played guitar and sang in a rock band called Ugly Rumours , and performed stand-up comedy . He was influenced by fellow student and Anglican priest Peter Thomson , who awakened his religious faith and left-wing politics. While at Oxford, Blair has stated that he
5600-626: The South Bank of the River Thames between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge beside County Hall , in the London Borough of Lambeth . The nearest tube station is Waterloo . The London Eye was designed by the husband-and-wife team of Julia Barfield and David Marks of Marks Barfield Architects . Mace was responsible for construction management, with Hollandia as the main steelwork contractor and Tilbury Douglas as
5712-519: The UK's strong economic performance, but with a substantially reduced majority, due to the UK's involvement in the Iraq War. During his third term , Blair pushed for more systemic public sector reform and brokered a settlement to restore powersharing to Northern Ireland. He had a surge in popularity at the time of terrorist bombings of London of July 2005, but by the Spring of 2006 faced significant difficulties, most notably with scandals over failures by
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#17327909792315824-407: The attachment protocol of the receptor on the microcantilever surface, the sensitivity can be further improved when the surface stress generated on the microcantilever is taken as the sensor signal. Tony Blair [REDACTED] Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of
5936-500: The attraction along with a demand for an increase in rent from £64,000 per year to £2.5 million, which the operators rejected as unaffordable. On 25 May 2005, London mayor Ken Livingstone vowed that the landmark would remain in London. He also pledged that if the dispute was not resolved he would use his powers to ask the London Development Agency to issue a compulsory purchase order . The land in question
6048-507: The attraction, the status of which is secured for the foreseeable future. Tussauds also announced the acquisition of the entire one-third interests of British Airways and Marks Barfield in the Eye as well as the outstanding debt to BA. These agreements gave Tussauds 100% ownership and resolved the debt from the Eye's construction loan from British Airways, which stood at more than £150 million by mid-2005 and had been charging an interest rate of 25% per annum. Sir Richard Rogers , winner of
6160-564: The beginning of 2008 the name British Airways was dropped from the logo. On 12 August 2009, the London Eye saw another rebrand, this time being called "The Merlin Entertainments London Eye". A refurbished ticket hall and 4D cinema experience were designed by architect Kay Elliott working with project designer Craig Sciba, and Simex-Iwerks as the 4D theatre hardware specialists. The film was written and directed by Julian Napier and produced by Phil Streather. In January 2011,
6272-395: The behavior of MEMS cantilevers. The first is Stoney's formula , which relates cantilever end deflection δ to applied stress σ: where ν {\displaystyle \nu } is Poisson's ratio , E {\displaystyle E} is Young's modulus , L {\displaystyle L} is the beam length and t {\displaystyle t}
6384-547: The breakaway SDP faction had merged with the Liberal Party ; the resulting Liberal Democrats seemed to pose a major threat to the Labour base. Blair, the leader of the modernising faction, had an entirely different vision, arguing that the long-term trends had to be reversed. The Labour Party was too locked into a base that was shrinking, since it was based on the working-class, on trade unions, and on residents of subsidised council housing. The rapidly growing middle-class
6496-518: The cantilever structure to release it, often with an anisotropic wet or dry etching technique. Without cantilever transducers, atomic force microscopy would not be possible. A large number of research groups are attempting to develop cantilever arrays as biosensors for medical diagnostic applications. MEMS cantilevers are also finding application as radio frequency filters and resonators . The MEMS cantilevers are commonly made as unimorphs or bimorphs . Two equations are key to understanding
6608-459: The civil contractor. Consulting engineers Tony Gee & Partners designed the foundation works while Beckett Rankine designed the marine works. Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners assisted The Tussauds Group in obtaining planning and listed building consent to alter the wall on the South Bank of the Thames. They also examined and reported on the implications of a Section 106 agreement attached to
6720-520: The completed structure does not act as a cantilever. This is very helpful when temporary supports, or falsework , cannot be used to support the structure while it is being built (e.g., over a busy roadway or river, or in a deep valley). Therefore, some truss arch bridges (see Navajo Bridge ) are built from each side as cantilevers until the spans reach each other and are then jacked apart to stress them in compression before finally joining. Nearly all cable-stayed bridges are built using cantilevers as this
6832-589: The country. The former government advisor Andrew Neather in the Evening Standard stated that the deliberate policy of ministers from late 2000 until early 2008 was to open up the UK to mass migration. Neather later stated that his words had been twisted, saying: "The main goal was to allow in more migrant workers at a point when – hard as it is to imagine now – the booming economy was running up against skills shortages.... Somehow this has become distorted by excitable Right-wing newspaper columnists into being
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#17327909792316944-475: The education and health sectors; introduced student tuition fees ; introduced a welfare to work scheme and sought to reduce certain categories of welfare payments. He did not reverse the privatisation of the railways enacted by his predecessor John Major and instead strengthened regulation (by creating the Office of Rail Regulation ) and limited fare rises to inflation +1%. Blair and Brown raised spending on
7056-592: The eight London Royal parks . Marks Barfield (the lead architects), The Tussauds Group, and British Airways were the original owners of the London Eye. Tussauds bought out British Airways' stake in 2005 and then Marks Barfield's stake in 2006 to become sole owner. In May 2007, the Blackstone Group purchased The Tussauds Group which was then the owner of the Eye; Tussauds was merged with Blackstone's Merlin Entertainments and disappeared as an entity. British Airways continued its brand association, but from
7168-558: The end of 1954, Blair's parents and their two sons moved from Paisley Terrace to Adelaide , South Australia . His father lectured in law at the University of Adelaide . In Australia, Blair's sister, Sarah, was born. The Blairs lived in the suburb of Dulwich close to the university. The family returned to the United Kingdom in mid-1958. They lived for a time with Hazel's mother and stepfather (William McClay) at their home in Stepps on
7280-498: The end of the 1990–92 recession . At the 1996 Labour Party conference, Blair stated that his three top priorities on coming to office were "education, education, and education". Aided by the unpopularity of John Major's Conservative government (itself deeply divided over the European Union ), Blair won a landslide victory for Labour at the 1997 general election , ending eighteen years of Conservative Party government, with
7392-566: The external circumference of the wheel and rotated by electric motors. The capsules are numbered from 1 to 33, excluding number 13 for superstitious reasons . Each of the 10-tonne (11-short-ton) capsules represents one of the London Boroughs , and holds up to 25 people, who are free to walk around inside the capsule, though seating is provided. The wheel rotates at 26 cm (10 in) per second (about 0.9 km/h or 0.6 mph) so that one revolution takes about 30 minutes, giving
7504-543: The fact that Labour was fighting a legal action against planned boundary changes, and had selected candidates on the basis of previous boundaries. When the legal challenge failed, the party had to rerun all selections on the new boundaries; most were based on existing seats, but unusually in County Durham a new Sedgefield constituency had been created out of Labour-voting areas which had no obvious predecessor seat. The selection for Sedgefield did not begin until after
7616-478: The family's grocery shop to Blair's mother, Hazel. Blair has an elder brother, William , and a younger sister, Sarah. Blair's first home was with his family at Paisley Terrace in the Willowbrae area of Edinburgh. During this period, his father worked as a junior tax inspector whilst studying for a law degree from the University of Edinburgh . Blair's first relocation was when he was nineteen months old. At
7728-867: The final stage of a long term shift of the Labour Party to the right. There is some evidence that Blair's long term dominance of the centre forced his Conservative opponents to shift a long distance to the left to challenge his hegemony there. Leading Conservatives of the post-New Labour era hold Blair in high regard: George Osborne describes him as "the master", Michael Gove thought he had an "entitlement to conservative respect" in February 2003, while David Cameron reportedly maintained Blair as an informal adviser. Former Conservative Party Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared Blair and New Labour to be her greatest achievement. Blair introduced significant constitutional reforms; promoted new rights for gay people; and signed treaties integrating Britain more closely with
7840-581: The force applied to a cantilever can shift the resonance frequency. The frequency shift can be measured with exquisite accuracy using heterodyne techniques and is the basis of ac-coupled cantilever sensors. The principal advantage of MEMS cantilevers is their cheapness and ease of fabrication in large arrays. The challenge for their practical application lies in the square and cubic dependences of cantilever performance specifications on dimensions. These superlinear dependences mean that cantilevers are quite sensitive to variation in process parameters, particularly
7952-499: The growth to investments in education and the maintenance of fiscal responsibility, rather than a financial sugar-high. During his time as prime minister, Blair kept direct taxes low, while raising indirect taxation; invested a significant amount in Human capital ; introduced a National Minimum Wage and some new employment rights (while keeping Margaret Thatcher 's trade union reforms). He introduced substantial market-based reforms in
8064-472: The heaviest Conservative defeat since 1906 . In 1996, the manifesto New Labour, New Life for Britain was published, which set out the party's new " Third Way " centrist approach to policy, and was presented as the brand of a newly reformed party that had altered Clause IV and endorsed market economics . In May 1995, Labour had achieved considerable success in the local and European elections and had won four by-elections. For Blair, these achievements were
8176-474: The invasion helped promote the rise of ISIS . The Chilcot Inquiry report of 2016 gave a damning assessment of Blair's role in the Iraq War, though the former prime minister again refused to apologise for his decision to back the US-led invasion. One of Blair's first acts as prime minister was to replace the then twice-weekly 15-minute sessions of Prime Minister's Questions held on Tuesdays and Thursdays with
8288-693: The largest cantilever stand in the world holding 17,000 spectators. The roof built over the stands at Old Trafford uses a cantilever so that no supports will block views of the field. The old (now demolished) Miami Stadium had a similar roof over the spectator area. The largest cantilevered roof in Europe is located at St James' Park in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne , the home stadium of Newcastle United F.C. Less obvious examples of cantilevers are free-standing (vertical) radio towers without guy-wires , and chimneys , which resist being blown over by
8400-485: The late 1920s and early 1930s raised speeds through this zone and by the late 1930s cantilever wings had almost wholly superseded braced ones. Other changes such as enclosed cockpits, retractable undercarriage, landing flaps and stressed-skin construction furthered the design revolution, with the pivotal moment widely acknowledged to be the MacRobertson England-Australia air race of 1934, which
8512-435: The leadership election. Whether this is true or not, the relationship between Blair and Brown was central to the fortunes of New Labour , and they mostly remained united in public, despite reported serious private rifts. During his speech at the 1994 Labour Party conference, Blair announced a forthcoming proposal to update the party's objects and objectives, which was widely interpreted to relate to replacing Clause IV of
8624-414: The left. Like Tony Benn , Blair believed that the "Labour right" was bankrupt, saying "[s]ocialism ultimately must appeal to the better minds of the people. You cannot do that if you are tainted overmuch with a pragmatic period in power." Yet, he saw the hard left as no better, saying: There is an arrogance and self-righteousness about many of the groups on the far left which is deeply unattractive to
8736-566: The longest-serving Labour politician to have held the office, and the first and only person to date to lead the party to three consecutive general election victories. Blair attended the independent school Fettes College , studied law at St John's College, Oxford , and qualified as a barrister. He became involved in the Labour Party and was elected to the House of Commons in 1983 for the Sedgefield constituency in County Durham . As
8848-465: The ordinary would-be member ... There's too much mixing only with people [with] whom they agree. With a general election due, Blair had not been selected as a candidate anywhere. He was invited to stand again in Beaconsfield, and was initially inclined to agree but was advised by his head of chambers Derry Irvine to find somewhere else which might be winnable. The situation was complicated by
8960-413: The original contract, and also prepared planning and listed building consent applications for the permanent retention of the attraction, which involved the co-ordination of an Environmental Statement and the production of a planning supporting statement detailing the reasons for its retention. The rim of the Eye is supported by tensioned steel cables and resembles a huge spoked bicycle wheel . The lighting
9072-553: The outskirts of north-east Glasgow. Blair's father accepted a job as a lecturer at Durham University , and moved the family to Durham when Blair was five. It was the beginning of a long association Blair was to have with Durham. Since childhood, Blair has been a fan of Newcastle United Football Club . With his parents basing their family in Durham, Blair attended the Chorister School from 1961 to 1966. Aged 13, he
9184-552: The party was ascendant over the Conservatives in the opinion polls, since the Conservative government's reputation in monetary policy declined as a result of the Black Wednesday economic disaster of September 1992. Blair's election as leader saw Labour support surge higher still in spite of the continuing economic recovery and fall in unemployment that the Conservative government (led by John Major ) had overseen since
9296-489: The party's constitution with a new statement of aims and values. This involved the deletion of the party's stated commitment to "the common ownership of the means of production and exchange", which was generally understood to mean wholesale nationalisation of major industries. At a special conference in April 1995, the clause was replaced by a statement that the party is " democratic socialist ", and Blair also claimed to be
9408-597: The party. He stood as a candidate for the Hackney council elections of 1982 in Queensbridge ward, a safe Labour area, but was not selected. In 1982, Blair was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the safe Conservative seat of Beaconsfield , where there was a forthcoming by-election. Although Blair lost the Beaconsfield by-election and Labour's share of the vote fell by ten percentage points, he acquired
9520-473: The right of the political spectrum. The Financial Times argued that Blair is not conservative but instead a populist . Critics and admirers tend to agree that Blair's electoral success was based on his ability to occupy the centre ground and appeal to voters across the political spectrum, to the extent that he has been fundamentally at odds with traditional Labour Party values. Some left-wing critics, such as Mike Marqusee in 2001, argued that Blair oversaw
9632-565: The right to adopt and enacted several anti-discrimination policies into law. In 2014 he was proclaimed a "gay icon" by the Gay Times . The New Labour government increased police powers by adding to the number of arrestable offences, compulsory DNA recording and the use of dispersal orders. Under Blair's government the amount of new legislation increased which attracted criticism. He also introduced tough anti-terrorism and identity card legislation . Blair has been credited with overseeing
9744-556: The river to Tilbury Docks in Essex. On 2 June 2013, a passenger capsule was named the Coronation Capsule to mark the 60th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II . In March 2020, the London Eye celebrated its 20th birthday by turning several of its pods into experiences themed around London. The experiences included a pub in a capsule, a west end theatre pod and a garden party with flower arrangements to represent
9856-447: The slogan " One member, one vote ", John Smith, with limited input from Blair, secured an end to the trade union block vote for Westminster candidate selection at the 1993 conference. But Blair and the modernisers wanted Smith to go further still, and called for radical adjustment of Party goals by repealing " Clause IV ", the historic commitment to nationalisation of industry. This would be achieved in 1995. John Smith died suddenly of
9968-608: The spindle and hub were cast in the Czech Republic, the capsules were made by Poma in France (and the glass for these came from Italy), and the electrical components from the UK. The London Eye was formally opened by the Prime Minister Tony Blair on 31 December 1999, but did not open to the paying public until 9 March 2000 because of a capsule clutch problem. The London Eye was originally intended as
10080-399: The thickness as this is generally difficult to accurately measure. However, it has been shown that microcantilever thicknesses can be precisely measured and that this variation can be quantified. Controlling residual stress can also be difficult. A chemical sensor can be obtained by coating a recognition receptor layer over the upper side of a microcantilever beam. A typical application
10192-610: The tide against the rebel forces; before deployment, the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone had been on the verge of collapse. Palliser had been intended as an evacuation mission but Brigadier David Richards was able to convince Blair to allow him to expand the role; at the time, Richards' action was not known and Blair was assumed to be behind it. Blair ordered Operation Barras , a highly successful SAS / Parachute Regiment strike to rescue hostages from
10304-694: The traditional form of accepting the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds , to which he was appointed by Brown in one of the latter's last acts as chancellor; the resulting by-election was won by Labour candidate Phil Wilson . Blair decided not to issue a list of Resignation Honours , making him the first prime minister of the modern era not to do so. In 2001, Blair said, "We are a left of centre party, pursuing economic prosperity and social justice as partners and not as opposites." Blair rarely applies such labels to himself; he promised before
10416-520: The wheel has a diameter of 120 metres (394 ft). When it opened to the public in 2000 it was the world's tallest Ferris wheel . Its height was surpassed by the 160 metres (525 ft) Star of Nanchang in 2006, the 165 metres (541 ft) Singapore Flyer in 2008, the 167 metres (548 ft) High Roller ( Las Vegas ) in 2014, and the 250 metres (820 ft) Ain Dubai in 2021. Supported by an A-frame on one side only, unlike these taller examples,
10528-424: The wind through cantilever action at their base. The cantilever is commonly used in the wings of fixed-wing aircraft . Early aircraft had light structures which were braced with wires and struts . However, these introduced aerodynamic drag which limited performance. While it is heavier, the cantilever avoids this issue and allows the plane to fly faster. Hugo Junkers pioneered the cantilever wing in 1915. Only
10640-453: The wing must also form a stiff cantilever in the horizontal plane. A single-spar design will usually be fitted with a second smaller drag-spar nearer the trailing edge , braced to the main spar via additional internal members or a stressed skin. The wing must also resist twisting forces, achieved by cross-bracing or otherwise stiffening the main structure. Cantilever wings require much stronger and heavier spars than would otherwise be needed in
10752-401: The world was safer as a result of the invasion. He said there was "no real difference between wanting regime change and wanting Iraq to disarm: regime change was US policy because Iraq was in breach of its UN obligations." In an October 2015 CNN interview with Fareed Zakaria , Blair apologised for his "mistakes" over the Iraq War and admitted there were "elements of truth" to the view that
10864-455: Was a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament , despite never strongly being in favour of unilateral nuclear disarmament . Blair was helped on the campaign trail by soap opera actress Pat Phoenix , his father-in-law's girlfriend. At the age of thirty, he was elected as MP for Sedgefield in 1983; despite the party's landslide defeat at the general election . In his maiden speech in
10976-455: Was accused of misleading Parliament, and his popularity dropped as a result, with Labour's overall majority at the 2005 election reduced from 167 to 66 seats. As a combined result of the Blair–Brown pact , the Iraq War and low approval ratings, pressure built up within the Labour Party for Blair to resign. Over the summer of 2006, many MPs criticised Blair for not calling for a ceasefire in
11088-655: Was aligned with the reforming tendencies in the party (headed by leader Neil Kinnock) and in 1988 was promoted to the shadow Trade and Industry team as spokesman on the City of London . In 1987, he stood for election to the Shadow Cabinet , receiving 71 votes. When Kinnock resigned after a fourth consecutive Conservative victory in the 1992 general election , Blair became shadow home secretary under John Smith . The old guard argued that trends showed they were regaining strength under Smith's strong leadership. Meanwhile,
11200-506: Was also the first prime minister born after the Second World War and the accession of Elizabeth II to the throne. With victories in 1997, 2001, and 2005, Blair was the Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister, and the first person (and the only one, to date) to lead the party to three consecutive general election victories. His contribution towards assisting the Northern Ireland peace process by helping to negotiate
11312-604: Was appointed special envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, a diplomatic post he held until 2015. He has been the executive chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change since 2016 and has made occasional political interventions, and has been a key influence on Keir Starmer . In 2009, Blair was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush . He was made a Knight Companion of
11424-751: Was born on 6 May 1953 at Queen Mary Maternity Home in Edinburgh , Scotland. He was the second son of Leo and Hazel ( née Corscadden ) Blair. Leo Blair was the illegitimate son of two entertainers and was adopted as a baby by the Glasgow shipyard worker James Blair and his wife, Mary. Hazel Corscadden was the daughter of George Corscadden, a butcher and Orangeman who moved to Glasgow in 1916. In 1923, he returned to (and later died in) Ballyshannon , County Donegal, in Ireland . In Ballyshannon, Corscadden's wife, Sarah Margaret (née Lipsett), gave birth above
11536-451: Was briefly a Trotskyist , after reading the first volume of Isaac Deutscher 's biography of Leon Trotsky , which was "like a light going on". He graduated from Oxford at the age of 22 in 1975 with a second-class Honours B.A. in jurisprudence. In 1975, while Blair was at Oxford, his mother Hazel died aged 52 of thyroid cancer , which greatly affected him. After Oxford, Blair served his barrister pupillage at Lincoln's Inn , where he
11648-575: Was called to the Bar. He met his future wife, Cherie Booth , at the chambers founded by Derry Irvine (who was to be Blair's first lord chancellor), 11 King's Bench Walk Chambers. Blair joined the Labour Party shortly after graduating from Oxford in 1975. In the early 1980s, he was involved in Labour politics in Hackney South and Shoreditch , where he aligned himself with the " soft left " of
11760-549: Was first raised at 2 degrees per hour until it reached 65 degrees, then left in that position for a week while engineers prepared for the second phase of the lift. The project was European with major components coming from six countries: the steel was supplied from the UK and fabricated in The Netherlands by the Dutch company Hollandia, the cables came from Italy, the bearings came from Germany (FAG/Schaeffler Group),
11872-434: Was initially a failure when it relied solely on air strikes; the threat of a ground offensive convinced Serbia's Slobodan Milošević to withdraw. Blair had been a major advocate for a ground offensive, which Bill Clinton was reluctant to do, and ordered that 50,000 soldiers – most of the available British Army – should be made ready for action. The following year, the limited Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone swiftly swung
11984-433: Was largely ignored, especially the more ambitious working-class families. They aspired to middle-class status but accepted the Conservative argument that Labour was holding ambitious people back with its levelling-down policies. They increasingly saw Labour in terms defined by the opposition, regarding higher taxes and higher interest rates. The steps towards what would become New Labour were procedural but essential. Calling on
12096-438: Was nominated by the branch. At the last minute, he was added to the shortlist and won the selection over Huckfield. It was the last candidate selection made by Labour before the election, and was made after the Labour Party had issued biographies of all its candidates ("Labour's Election Who's Who"). John Burton became Blair's election agent and one of his most trusted and longest-standing allies. Blair's election literature in
12208-693: Was rapid. Neil Kinnock appointed him in 1984 as assistant Treasury spokesman under Roy Hattersley who was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer . In May 1985, he appeared on the BBC's Question Time , arguing that the Conservative Government's Public Order White Paper was a threat to civil liberties. Blair demanded an inquiry into the Bank of England 's decision to rescue the collapsed Johnson Matthey bank in October 1985. By this time, Blair
12320-492: Was re-done with LED lighting from Color Kinetics in December 2006 to allow digital control of the lights as opposed to the manual replacement of gels over fluorescent tubes. The wheel was constructed in sections which were floated up the Thames on barges and assembled lying flat on piled platforms in the river. Once the wheel was complete it was lifted into an upright position by a strand jack system made by Enerpac . It
12432-511: Was sent to spend his school term-time boarding at Fettes College in Edinburgh from 1966 to 1971. According to Blair, he hated his time at Fettes. His teachers were unimpressed with him; his biographer, John Rentoul , reported that "[a]ll the teachers I spoke to when researching the book said he was a complete pain in the backside and they were very glad to see the back of him." Blair reportedly modelled himself on Mick Jagger , lead singer of
12544-677: Was won by a de Havilland DH.88 Comet . Currently, cantilever wings are almost universal with bracing only being used for some slower aircraft where a lighter weight is prioritized over speed, such as in the ultralight class. Cantilevered beams are the most ubiquitous structures in the field of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). An early example of a MEMS cantilever is the Resonistor, an electromechanical monolithic resonator. MEMS cantilevers are commonly fabricated from silicon (Si), silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ), or polymers . The fabrication process typically involves undercutting
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