Nadine Dorries: I'm A Thorn In Cameron's Side

Galloway Heads Reality Politicians

Updated: 5:32pm UK, Tuesday 06 November 2012

Here are some political figures who have appeared on reality shows:

:: George Galloway

The Respect MP for Bradford West appeared on Big Brother in 2006 where he famously pretended to be a cat. As part of a task, he imitated a cat purring and pretended to lap milk from actress Rula Lenska's hands.

He was in the Big Brother House for three weeks until he was evicted from the Channel 4 show.

Mr Galloway appeared on the programme while serving as MP for Bethnal Green and Bow. He also dressed up in a leotard and acted the role of "lab assistant" while Ms Lenska "read the mind" of a goldfish called Barry.

:: Lembit Opik

The Liberal Democrat went on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in 2010. He lasted 14 days in the Australian jungle and was bitten by a snake in his first week.

The former MP was bitten on his finger by the snake as he put his hand into "hell holes" also filled with rats.

He has also appeared on Celebrity The Apprentice, Ant And Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Celebrity Come Dine With Me and Celebrity Juice.

:: Ann Widdecombe

Former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe was on Strictly Come Dancing for nine weeks, even though judge Bruno Tonioli said she was one of the worst contestants he had ever seen.

Miss Widdecombe, 63, was told by the judges she looked like a "Dalek in drag" and her performances were "like haemorrhoids - they keep coming back more painful than ever".

In 2002, she also appeared on Celebrity Fit Club where she shed 36lb.

:: Edwina Currie

The former Conservative MP has appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, where she lasted only a week, Hell's Kitchen and Wife Swap.

On the ITV cooking show in 2004, Gordon Ramsay repeatedly swore at her and said: "Edwina's like your old granny who just won't die."

During her time on Wife Swap, she lived with John McCririck, who questioned her about her affair with John Major.

:: Sally Bercow

The wife of Commons Speaker John Bercow controversially went on Celebrity Big Brother in 2011. Mrs Bercow said: "I want to stick two fingers up to the Establishment who think it's the kind of thing I shouldn't do."

The mother-of-three was the first contestant to be evicted from the Big Brother House after spending days dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard Of Oz.

She also posed nude in a bedsheet, recreating a previous photoshoot she did for London's Evening Standard newspaper.

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Trump In Twitter Tirade After Obama Victory

Donald Trump has vented his frustration at President Barack Obama's election victory, calling it a "travesty" and a "disgusting injustice" in a Twitter tirade.

The American real estate mogul grew increasingly disgruntled as it became apparent that Mr Obama had defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney, at one point saying: "We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided."

Mr Trump, whose taste for showmanship has earned him a TV reality show, has long attacked Mr Obama, and had endorsed Mr Romney in the presidential race.

"Well, back to the drawing board," he said during election night.

Another tweet read: "Let's fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us."

However, a tweet saying that Mr Obama had lost the popular vote and calling for a "revolution" was later taken down. Mr Obama was ahead in the popular vote.

Mr Trump endorsed Mitt Romney in the race

During the campaign, Mr Trump had challenged Mr Obama to release his college and passport records in return for a $5m donation to charity.

He has called Mr Obama "the least transparent president in the history of this country".

"This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy," Mr Trump tweeted.

Mr Trump was one of the leading exponents of the so-called "birther conspiracy", which held that Mr Obama, like his father, had been born in Kenya, making him ineligible to hold the US presidency.

The theory was eventually laid to rest in 2011 after the White House released the long form of the president's birth certificate, showing his birthplace as Hawaii.

Mr Obama joked during the campaign that Mr Trump's animosity had started when they were growing up together in Kenya.

Mr Trump called on Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, to "stay strong and never give up", saying it was up to them to "hold our country together for four more years".

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Hitler's House: Russian Aims To Destroy Birthplace

A Russian MP wants to buy the house where Adolf Hitler was born - so he can knock it down.

Frantz Klintsevich, an MP from the ruling United Russia party, is aiming to collect £1.8m from supporters to buy the house in the Austrian town of Braunau-am-Inn, according to a report in the Russian newspaper, Izvestia.

"I would buy this property in the blink of an eye if I had that kind of money myself, but I do not. If I were to receive financial help, I would buy the house and destroy it demonstratively," he told the paper.

Austria's interior ministry has rented the house since 1972 from the owner - a woman in her 60s who refuses to be identified publicly - and has been careful to sublet only to tenants with no history of admiring Hitler.

The 500-year-old building, which has thick walls, a huge arched doorway and deep-set windows, was most recently used as a workshop for people with learning difficulties, before that tenant moved out for more modern quarters.

In September, the mayor of Braunau-am-Inn suggested that the building should be turned into apartments.

Mr Klintsevich has not had any response from the hugely rich oligarchs that the country has produced over the past two decades, but he says some members of the Communist Party have been positive about the appeal.

"Everything that is connected to fascism should be wiped off the face of the earth. No one should even know that place ever existed," Vadim Solovyov, a member of the Communist Party's State Duma fraction, told the newspaper.

Mr Klintsevich does have his detractors, however.

One, Yevgeny Proshechkin, head of the Moscow Anti-Fascism Centre, said the MP should first discover whether or not the Austrians were prepared to sell the house to foreigners and, if so, would they allow it to be knocked down.

If not, what would be the upkeep be, Mr Proshechkin asked.

Braunau's town council only withdrew honorary citizenship from Hitler last year, 78 years after he was given the accolade.

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April Jones: Man Sentenced For Facebook Posts

An 18-year-old man has been given a six-week suspended sentence for making offensive comments on Facebook about missing girl April Jones.

Sam Busby, a sales adviser from Worcester, was arrested by police after posting grossly offensive sexual remarks on the social networking site.

The teenager pleaded guilty to sending an indecent and offensive message brought under the 2003 Communications Act.

"He told the police that he was an immature teenager and it was an attempt to get some attention," prosecutor Kerry Lovegrove told magistrates in Worcester.

Solicitor Belinda Arris, defending, said Busby felt extremely sorry and ashamed, and was now likely to lose his job.

"He's so, so sorry, he has closed down his Facebook account and no longer engages in any social networking," she said.

Murder suspect Mark Bridger

Magistrates said they had taken into account Busby's early guilty plea and remorse, as they handed him six-week jail term suspended for 18 months.

In a separate case, another Facebook user was recently given a 12-week jail term for a similar offence where comments were made about the five-year-old.

Police are continuing their search for April more than a month after she disappeared in the Welsh town of Machynlleth. She was last seen on October 1.

Mark Bridger, 46, has been charged with abduction and murder.

Ms Lovegrove told the court that Busby's initial post on Facebook was a "joke" about April obtained from another website.

Although other Facebook users urged Busby to stop, he went on to write more offensive comments, prompting a woman to contact police.

After his arrest, Busby said he had been responsible for the comments, and told officers he thought they could only be seen by his friends on Facebook.

Magistrates also ordered Busby to pay an £80 victim surcharge and keep to a 7pm to 7am curfew for eight weeks.

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Ghana: 'Dozens' Trapped After Mall Collapse

A shopping centre has collapsed in Ghana, leaving at least one person dead and dozens of victims feared trapped in the rubble.

It is thought the top three floors of the five-storey building housing the Melcom mall in Accra came down.

One employee at the scene who declined to be named told AFP around 40 workers were in the building when it collapsed, though he was not sure about the number of customers.

Family members could be seen at the site attempting to call relatives who may be trapped by mobile phone, while scores of rescue workers sought to clear debris and get oxygen masks to victims.

"My son, my son, my son! My son is going to die! Get him for me! He is my only son!" one woman screamed.

Witnesses saw at least six people being brought out of the rubble alive. The cause of the collapse of the Melcom shopping centre was not immediately clear.

Emergency officials at the scene said the collapse was most likely caused by structural failure. There was no evidence of an explosion.

"We are doing our best to get to those trapped. We hear there are about three dozen," Kwame Avevoi, a police officer co-ordinating the rescue, said.

Excavators attempted to lift the building's broken beams and concrete blocks.

Witness Ama Okyere: "I was very close to the mall because I was going to buy something only for me to see the building coming down.

"I had to run for my life. I was so terrified. I believe there are lots of people trapped under this because this is a heavily patronised shopping mall in the area."

Another witness, John Owusu said: "I was on my way to school and all of a sudden heard a big bang and people shouting, only for me to see that the shopping mall has collapsed."

Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama suspended his electoral campaign for next month's poll and arranged to visit the scene of the disaster.

Soon after the building collapsed, he tweeted: "My prayers are with the workers, shoppers and others who are trapped in the rubble of the Achimota Melcom building."

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Missing Lewis Eddleston: Body Found In Yorkshire

Police investigating the disappearance of a 13-year-old boy in Doncaster have discovered a body in a ditch.

South Yorkshire Police have said it is too early to identify the body, but confirmed they are linking it to the disappearance of the missing teenager, named locally as Lewis Eddleston.

Police and family liaison officers were at his family home on Wednesday.

A police spokesman said: "Formal identification procedures will take place but officers investigating are linking this to the 13-year-old boy recently reported missing in Doncaster.

"An investigation has commenced into the circumstances surrounding this tragic event. At this stage it is too early to determine the cause of death or confirm the identity of the male."

Officers have been searching for Lewis, from Doncaster, since he went missing on Sunday.

The Hungerhill School pupil was last seen leaving a group of friends on playing fields in Edenthorpe at around 4pm.

Appealing for information after his disappearance, Lewis' family told a local newspaper they feared he had been abducted.

Forensic officers and police are searching the ditch and surrounding field, which is behind Lewis' school.

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Savile's Nephew Says Body Should Be Exhumed

A nephew of Jimmy Savile has told Sky News that he supports calls to have his uncle's body exhumed.

Guy Marsden, son of Savile's sister Marjorie, said he believes other members of the family would agree that he should be moved from Scarborough's Woodlands Cemetery and cremated to spare the anguish of other families.

Several families of people buried in the council-owned cemetery say they don't want his body to remain in its prime position above all the other graves at the top of the hill.

Retired nurse June Thornton told Sky that she wants the former television star to be dug up and dumped at sea. Her parents are buried in the cemetery.

Ms Thornton says she witnessed Savile abusing a young female patient at Leeds General Infirmary in the 1970s.

Scarborough Borough councillor Colin Haddington said he hopes the body will be moved and had been asked to take action by the family of a baby buried near Savile.

The disgraced star's ornate triple headstone in was knocked down and sent to landfill last month at the request of his family.

He is now believed to have been one of the UK's most prolific sexual abusers, with about 300 possible victims.

Detectives are following 400 lines of inquiry as part of the investigation, while the BBC has launched an inquiry into the culture and practices at the corporation in the era of Savile's alleged sexual abuse.

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Ash Dieback Threat May Be Worse Than Feared

A deadly fungal disease that threatens to devastate the UK's native ash trees has been discovered in six new counties.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the chalara fraxinea fungus, which causes leaf loss and crown dieback and can lead to tree death, has now been found in 115 sites.

New cases of ash dieback have been confirmed in Sussex, Berkshire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Bedfordshire and Northumberland - in addition to Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent and Essex where it had already been identified in the countryside.

These include 61 cases in the wider countryside, 39 planting areas and 15 tree nurseries.

Officials asserted the fresh discoveries did not mean the disease was spreading rapidly, but that it was likely to have been present in these areas for a number of years, originally caused by spores blown in from mainland Europe.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson

The results of the urgent survey of 1,000 sites by the Forestry Commission over the weekend come as tree experts prepare to sit down to discuss the problem with government and industry officials at a summit hosted by Environment Secretary Owen Paterson.

A huge public response to mobile phone app AshTag, which has been collating pictures of possible sightings of the tree disease, could push the number of confirmed cases even higher.

AshTag has told Sky News that around 400 images have been posted on the app so far, but the number is "increasing all of the time".

Photographs have been submitted from across the UK, and its experts have identified "likely areas" - sightings which appear to show symptoms indicative of the disease - in Shropshire, Leicestershire, East Sussex, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire and Surrey.

Some 27 images have been referred to the Forestry Commission for further investigation to verify whether they are confirmed cases of ash dieback or not.

The Chalara fraxinea fungus has already wiped out 90% of ash trees in Denmark in seven years and is becoming widespread throughout central Europe.

The Government has been accused of dragging its feet over the issue after the alarm was first raised back in March, and the first confirmed British cases of ash dieback last month in East Anglia.

There are growing concerns the problem may be worse than previously thought and that the country's ash trees are facing a similar fate to its elms, which were destroyed by Dutch elm disease in the 1970s.

Ministers insist they are taking the problem seriously and have brought in a ban on imports of ash trees and set up a task force to tackle the issue.

Mr Paterson, who convened a Cobra crisis committee last Friday to examine the latest developments and co-ordinate action, has also been holding meetings twice daily to discuss the problem with experts.

He told Sky News: "I really want to get the very best ideas to decide how we do handle this disease because the ash tree is a key part of our rural environment."

Ash trees make up around 30% of the UK's wooded landscape.

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Dad's Army Star Clive Dunn Dies Aged 92

Dad's Army star Clive Dunn OBE, who played much-loved L/Corporal Jones, has died at age 92, his agent says.

The actor died in Portugal on Tuesday after a short illness.

His agent, Peter Charlesworth, said the star would be "sorely missed".

He added: "He will be a real loss to the acting profession."

Dunn was born into a showbusiness family in London on January 9, 1920.

He started his acting career in the 1930s, but when World War Two broke out, he served in Greece before captured.

He spent four years as a prisoner of war.

Dunn lived in Portugal

After the conflict, he resumed his career and in 1968 he landed his trademark role of Jones in Dad's Army, a much-loved sitcom about life on the home front.

The character, a World War One veteran-turned butcher, was notorious for his often rambling recollections of his time in the army and his much-used catchphrase "Don't panic".

Dunn is survived by his wife and two daughters.

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Obama 'Wants To Work With Defeated Rival'

Re-elected US President Barack Obama has tried to unify the country by reaching out to his defeated Republican rival about moving the country forward.

Following a bitter and costly election campaign, the president easily overcame challenger Mitt Romney - taking seven of the nine key battleground states.

Mr Romney won in North Carolina but Democrat Mr Obama swept to victory in Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Wisconsin, Virginia and Colorado.

With Florida still the last swing state left to call, he has 303 electoral college votes to Mr Romney's 206 and is well over the crucial threshold of 270.

Obama confirmed his win on Twitter - it's now the most-retweeted tweet ever

The president was also ahead in the national popular vote, with the country-wide exit poll putting him on 50% - two points ahead of his Republican challenger.

This is despite his popularity plunging since he was swept into the White House on a wave of hope in 2008 and unemployment currently standing at 7.9%.

:: READ MORE - Live Election Updates

Later, Mr Obama will fly from Chicago back to the White House in Washington.

Jubilation spread through the night in Chicago as it became clear Mr Obama was going to be re-elected. Once Mr Romney had conceded by phone, the president appeared on stage to rapturous cheers as Stevie Wonder's hit Signed, Sealed, Delivered played.

Mr Obama tried to unify the nation, saying: "In the weeks ahead I look forward to sitting down with governor Romney to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward."

President Obama walks on stage with his family before his Chicago speech

He also said: "Despite all the hardship we've been through, despite all the frustrations of Washington, I've never been more hopeful about our future. I have never been more hopeful about America.

"I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggest. We're not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of individual ambitions."

He added: "We know in our hearts that, for the United States of America, the best is yet to come."

The first US black president declared that he was returning to the White House "more determined and more inspired than ever ... about the future."

The Obamas and Bidens after their victory was called

Before appearing in person, the Democrat had told his supporters via Twitter: "This happened because of you. Thank you," and: "We're all in this together. That's how we campaigned and that's who we are. Thank you".

In a third post, he said simply: "Four more years," and posted a picture of himself hugging his wife Michelle. This was retweeted more than half a million times - a Twitter record.

In Washington, thousands of well-wishers danced and waved flags outside the White House after the result became clear - chanting "four more years" and "USA, USA".

Crowds whooped and cried out "Obama, Obama" and gave high-fives to strangers as election fever swept across the city.

The contest had been billed as one of the tightest races for the White House in decades but ultimately, Mr Obama won comfortably.

His victory appeared to be a vindication for a campaign team that had predicted a close but winnable election - despite the pain of the deepest economic crisis since the 1930s Great Depression.

Romney campaign staff in Boston were shocked as Democrat victories piled up and Republican supporters looked increasingly devastated as they realised their dream was over.

Romney supporters absorbing the result

The candidate, who was watching the result in the city, rang Mr Obama to concede once he lost Ohio and then briefly addressed the crowds.

"This is a time of great challenges for America and I pray that the president is successful in guiding our nation," he said.

The Republican thanked his running mate Paul Ryan and his family, calling wife Ann "the love of my life" and saying "she would have been a wonderful first lady".

He added: "Paul and I have left everything on the field. We have given everything to this campaign. I so wish that I had been able to fulfil your hopes to lead the country in a different direction, but the nation chose another leader."

Mr Romney had earlier revealed he had written a 1,118-word victory speech and claimed he had not prepared anything in case he lost.

Mitt Romney spoke to supporters after conceding defeat

Until last month, the Republican was considered to have little chance of ousting Mr Obama after his campaign was damaged by a string of gaffes.

However, a lacklustre performance by the president in the first television debate turned the race on its head and Mr Romney surged back in the polls.

The incumbent was much stronger in the second and third debates, but it was not enough to derail the Romney campaign.

Better than expected employment figures last week helped bolster the Democrat and then fate also played a hand when Hurricane Sandy roared in.

The superstorm forced Mr Romney into the shade as campaigning was suspended and Mr Obama returned to presidential duties, but the pair was still neck-and-neck going into the final day.

The Empire State Building turns blue after Barack Obama's victory

Once the euphoria of another victory fades, the president will face a tough task enacting his second-term agenda, after Republicans - who thwarted him repeatedly in his first term - retained control of the House of Representatives.

Democrats kept the Senate but fell short of the 60-vote super majority needed to pass major legislation over Republican blocking tactics.

Two Republican Senate candidates, Richard Mourdock in Indiana and Todd Akin in Missouri, both lost their seats after making controversial remarks about rape during the campaign.

The Dow fell 2% - or 260 points - following news of Mr Obama's re-election.

Read live updates from Sky's Ian Woods, Amanda Walker and Andrew Wilson in the US.

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