This article concerns the history of British nationality law.

Early English and British nationality law

British nationality law has its origins in medieval England. There has always been a distinction in English law between the subjects of the monarch and aliens: the monarch's subjects owed him allegiance, and included those born in his dominions (natural-born subjects) and those who later gave him their allegiance (naturalised subjects or denizens).

A summary of early English common law is provided by Sir William Blackstone, who wrote about the law in 1765–69. Natural-born subjects were originally those born within the dominion of the crown (jus soli). Blackstone describes how various statutes extended the rights of the children of subjects born abroad, until "all children, born out of the king's ligeance, whose fathers were natural-born subjects, are now natural-born subjects themselves, to all intents and purposes, without any exception; unless their said fathers were attainted, or banished beyond sea, for high treason; or were then in the service of a prince at enmity with Great Britain."

In 1603 the crowns of England and Scotland were united in the individual of James VI and I, in what is known as the Union of the Crowns. In 1701, following some disagreement about the rules of succession to the crown, the English parliament passed the Alien Act 1705, providing that Scottish nationals would have alien status in the realm of England. However, this was superseded by the Act of Union 1707, which united the realms of England and Scotland.

When the British Empire came into existence, the dominion of the crown expanded. British subjects included not only persons within the United Kingdom but also those throughout the British Empire (the British Dominion). This included both the more dependent Colonies such as Jamaica, Hong Kong and Fiji, as well as the self-governing Dominions, including the Australian colonies, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and Newfoundland.

Individuals born in the dominion were citizens regardless of the status of their parents: children born to visitors or foreigners acquired citizenship (see Jus soli). This reflects the rationale of natural-born citizenship: that citizenship was acquired because British-born subjects would have a 'natural allegiance' to the Crown as a 'debt of gratitude' to the Crown for protecting them through infancy.  Therefore, citizenship by birth was perpetual and could not be, at common law, removed or revoked regardless of residency.

By the same reasoning, an 'alien', or foreign born resident, was seen as unable to revoke their relationship with their place of birth.  Therefore, at English common law foreign-born individuals could not become citizens through any procedure or ceremony.  Some exceptions to this general principle existed in the common law, to recognise the situation of children born on foreign soil to English (or British after the Act of Union 1707) subjects. The earliest exception was the children of the King's ambassadors, who acquired English citizenship even if not born in England. A later, broader, exception was enacted by the Status of Children Born Abroad Act 1350 (25 Edw. 3. Stat. 1) to allow children born abroad to two English parents to be English. Later, the British Nationality Act 1772 (13 Geo. 3. c. 21), made general provision allowing natural-born allegiance (citizenship) to be assumed if the father alone were British.

Generally then, there was no process by which a 'foreigner' not of British parents could become a British citizen. However, two procedures existed by which the individual could become a British subject with some of the rights of citizenship. Firstly, 'naturalisation' granted all the legal rights of citizenship except political rights (e.g. holding office). Naturalisation required an act of parliament be passed. Alternatively, denization allowed a person to gain the rights of citizenship other than political rights. Denization was granted by letters patent, and was granted by the monarch as an exercise of royal prerogative.

Denization was therefore an exercise of executive power, whereas naturalisation was an exercise of legislative power. An example of the latter is the granting of English nationality to the Electress Sophia of Hanover, the heir to the throne under the Act of Settlement 1701.  Naturalisation occurred by the passing, in 1705, of the Sophia Naturalization Act. This act granted English nationality to the Electress and to the Protestant "issue of her body", allowing all her future descendants a claim to English nationality. In 1957 Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover successfully claimed citizenship of the UK & Colonies under this Act. Although the Act was repealed from 1 January 1949 by the British Nationality Act 1948, some descendants can still claim citizenship based on their parent's rights under the law as it existed prior to 1949. However, the Home Office believes that the Act does not generally give claimants a right of abode in the United Kingdom.  Successful claims will normally be granted to only British Overseas Citizen status unless entitled to a right of abode in the UK under the Immigration Act 1971 as in force prior to 1983.

Denization remained the usual form by which foreign-born subjects swore allegiance to the crown until general naturalisation acts were passed. Naturalisation Acts were passed in 1844, 1847 and 1870. The 1870 act preserved the process of denization. However, by introducing administrative procedures for naturalising non-British subjects naturalisation became the preferred process.

The 1870 legislation also introduced the concept of renunciation of British nationality, and provided for the first time that British women who married foreign men should lose their British nationality. This was a radical break from the common law doctrine that citizenship could not be removed, renounced, or revoked.

The loss of nationality at marriage was changed with the adoption of the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914. This codified for the first time the law relating to British nationality. However, it did not mark a major change in the substantive content of the law. This was to wait until 1948.

British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914

This legislation came into force on 1 January 1915 as 4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. 17. British subject status was acquired as follows:

 birth within His Majesty's dominions
 naturalisation in the United Kingdom or a part of His Majesty's dominions which had adopted Imperial naturalisation criteria
 descent through the legitimate male line (child born outside His Majesty's dominions to a British subject father).  This was limited to one generation although further legislation in 1922 allowed subsequent generations born overseas to be registered as British subjects within one year of birth.
 foreign women who married British subject men
 former British subjects who had lost British subject status on marriage or through a parent's loss of status could resume it in specific circumstances (e.g. if a woman became widowed, or children immediately upon turning 21).

British subject status was normally lost by:
 naturalisation in a foreign state
 in the case of a woman, upon marriage to a foreign man. Prior to 1933, British subject status was lost even if the woman did not acquire her husband's nationality.
 a child of a father who lost British subject status, provided the child also had the father's new nationality.
 renunciation.

British Nationality Act 1948

The Commonwealth Heads of Government decided in 1948 to embark on a major change in the law of nationality throughout the Commonwealth, following Canada's decision to enact its own citizenship law in 1946. Until then all Commonwealth countries, with the exception of the Irish Free State (see Irish nationality law), had a single nationality status: British subject status. It was decided at that conference that the United Kingdom and the self-governing dominions would each adopt separate national citizenships, but retain the common status of British subject.

The British Nationality Act 1948 marked the first time that married British women gained independent nationality, regardless of the citizenship of their spouses. It provided for a new status of Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKC), consisting of all those British subjects who had a close relationship (either through birth or descent) with the United Kingdom and its remaining colonies. Each other Commonwealth country did likewise, and also established its own citizenship (with the exception of Newfoundland which became part of Canada on 1 April 1949, Newfoundlanders hence becoming Canadian citizens).

The Act also provided that British subjects could be known by the alternative title Commonwealth citizen.

It was originally envisaged that all British subjects would get one (or more) of the national citizenships being drawn up under the Act, and that the remainder would be absorbed as CUKCs by the British Government. Until they acquired one or other of the national citizenships, these people continued to be British subjects without citizenship. However, some British subjects never became citizens of any Commonwealth country.

Because the nationality laws of India and Pakistan did not provide for citizenship for everyone who was born in their countries , the British Government refused to "declare" their nationality laws for the purposes of the Act, and therefore those British subjects from these countries who did not become Indian or Pakistani citizens were never absorbed as CUKCs by the British Government. They remained British subjects without citizenship.

Due to the imminent withdrawal of the Republic of Ireland from the Commonwealth (which took effect 18 April 1949), special arrangements were made in s.2 of the Act to allow British subjects from Ireland to apply to continue to hold British subject status independently of the citizenship of any Commonwealth country.

Until 1983 the status of British subjects without citizenship was not affected by the acquisition of the citizenship of a non-Commonwealth country.

Acquisition of Citizenship of the UK and Colonies

Under the 1948 Act, CUKC status was acquired by:

 birth in the UK or a colony (which does not include birth in the Dominions or children of 'enemy aliens' and diplomats).  The immigration status of the parents was irrelevant.
 naturalisation or registration in the UK or a colony or protectorate
 legitimate descent from a CUKC father for children born elsewhere.  Only the first generation acquired British nationality automatically.  Second and subsequent generations could do so only if born outside the Commonwealth (or Ireland) and registered within 12 months of birth or if the father was in Crown Service.
 incorporation of territory (no persons ever acquired CUKC this way from 1949)
 declaration
 marriage

Provisions for acquisition of CUKC by adoption were not included in the 1948 Act itself but were added soon after.

Requirements for Naturalisation or Registration

Citizens of Commonwealth countries, British subjects and Irish citizens were entitled to register as citizens of the UK and Colonies after one year's residence in the UK & Colonies.  This period was increased to five years in 1973.

Other persons were required to apply for naturalisation after five years residence.

Citizenship by Descent

Prior to 1983, as a general rule, British nationality could be transmitted from only the father, and parents were required to be married.

Children born in Commonwealth countries or the Republic of Ireland could not normally access British nationality if the father was British by descent.

Those born in non-Commonwealth countries of second and subsequent generations born overseas could be registered as British within 12 months of birth.  However, many such children did not acquire a Right of Abode in the UK before 1983 and hence became British Overseas citizens in 1983 rather than British citizens.

In the face of various concerns over gender equality, human rights, and treaty obligations, Parliament moved to act on these situations.

On 8 February 1979 the Home Office announced that overseas-born children of British mothers would generally be eligible for registration as UK citizens provided application was made before the child reached age 18.  Many eligible children were not registered before their 18th birthday due to the fact this policy concession was poorly publicised.  Hence it was effectively reintroduced by the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 for those aged under 18 on the date of the original announcement, with the law adding a new section 4C to the British Nationality Act 1981.

The Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 then expanded the earliest date of birth covered from 1961 to 1 January 1949, and elaborated in "a dense and at times impenetrable piece of drafting" on the section's approach, while also covering numerous additional and less common situations, and adding a good character requirement.

Registration through this method is performed with Form UKM. After approval, the registrant must attend a citizenship ceremony. Since 2010, there is no longer an application fee (of £540). Applicants do however still have to pay £80 for the citizenship ceremony.

From 6 April 2015, a child born out of wedlock before 1 July 2006 to a British father is entitled to register as a British citizen by descent under the Immigration Act 2014 using form UKF. Such child must also meet character requirements, pay relevant processing fees and attend a citizenship ceremony. However, if the applicant has a claim to register as a British citizen under other clauses of the British Nationality Act 1981, or has already acquired British citizenship after being legitimised, the application will be refused.

Those with permanent resident status in the UK, or entitled to Right of Abode, may instead prefer to seek naturalisation as a British citizen which gives transmissible British citizenship otherwise than by descent.

Citizenship by Declaration

A person who was a British Subject on 31 December 1948, of United Kingdom & Colonies descent in the male line, and was resident in the UK & Colonies (or intending to be so resident) was entitled to acquire CUKC by declaration under s12(6) of the Act.  The deadline for this was originally 31 December 1949, but was extended to 31 December 1962 by the British Nationality Act 1958.

Citizenship by Marriage

Women married to CUKCs had the right to register as CUKCs under section 6(2) of the 1948 Act.

Citizenship by Adoption

Before 1950 there was generally no provision to acquire British citizenship by adoption:

 between 1 January 1950 and 31 December 1982, a person adopted in the UK by a citizen of the UK & Colonies (CUKC) acquired CUKC automatically if the adopter, or in the case of a joint adoption, the male adopter, was a CUKC.
 children adopted in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man on or after 1 April 1959 acquired CUKC on the same basis as adoptees in the UK on 16 July 1964, or the date of the adoption order, if later.

In general a person acquiring CUKC by virtue of adoption in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man, became a British citizen on 1 January 1983.

Ireland Act 1949

The Ireland Act 1949 clarified the citizenship status of the British subjects and citizens and former subjects on the Republic of Ireland, and the application of the British Nationality Act 1948 to people born there.

In addition, under section 5 of the act, a person who was born in the territory of the future Republic of Ireland as a British subject, but who did not receive Irish citizenship under the Ireland Act's interpretation of either the 1922 Irish constitution or the 1935 Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act (because he or she was no longer domiciled in the Republic on the day the constitution came into force and was not permanently resident there on the day of the 1935 law's enactment and was not otherwise registered as an Irish citizen) was deemed to be a Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies.

As such, the act has important implications for many of those emigrants who left Ireland before 1922 and some of their descendants in the Irish diaspora, some of whom may both be registrable for Irish citizenship and have a claim to British citizenship, through either automatic citizenship or citizenship by registration. In some cases, their descendants may have a claim to British citizenship when the right to Irish citizenship has been lost because of the failure of previous generations to register births at the local Irish consulate.

Independence Acts

Many colonies became independent between 1949 and 1983.  Under the independence legislation passed in the United Kingdom, a person connected with a particular colony generally lost CUKC on a specified date (which was normally that particular colony's date of attaining independence) if:

 they had acquired, or would acquire, citizenship of that country upon or after independence; and
 they did not have specified bloodline connections to the UK itself or a place which remained a colony (e.g., having a parent or a grandparent born in the UK or a place that remained a colony)

Therefore, it was possible for CUKCs to lose the status even if they had migrated to the UK and acquired the right of abode.  Only through naturalisation or registration could they regain CUKC (and the right of abode in some cases).

Specific exceptions to the loss of CUKC on independence included:

 persons from the Malayan states of Penang and Malacca who, because of the wording of Federation of Malaya Independence Act 1957, did not lose CUKC at independence on 31 August 1957, as the law only provided for "the Malay States" for nationality purposes, whereas Penang and Malacca, at the time, were parts of the Straits Settlement. These persons, together with those born between 31 August 1957 and 31 December 1982 with a CUKC father, form the largest group of British Overseas citizens today.  Most also hold Malaysian citizenship.
 CUKCs connected with South Yemen normally lost their CUKC status on 14 August 1968. However, those ordinarily residing in the UK, a colony or another protectorate on or before that date were exempted from the loss.
 CUKCs from Cyprus retained CUKC if habitually resident elsewhere in the Commonwealth (except Cyprus) immediately before 16 August 1960. These people would become British Overseas Citizens after 1983 if they did not acquire the right of abode.
 In 1981 the Independence Acts dealing with Belize and Antigua/Barbuda exempted persons who had acquired a Right of abode in the UK from loss of CUKC.  Such persons would have become British citizens in 1983 due to their Right of abode status.

The only British dependent territory that gained independence after 1982 is Saint Kitts and Nevis, which became an independent Commonwealth country on 19 September 1983. British Dependent Territories citizenship was withdrawn unless there was a connection with a remaining dependent territory. Those that had acquired British citizenship before independence and became also Saint Kitts and Nevis citizens upon independence, however, would no longer lose their British citizenship.

In some cases (Singapore and the Federation of Malaya), citizenship statuses were created before independence was achieved.  This resulted in unusual endorsements like "British subject: citizen of the State of Singapore" in British passports.  Indeed, treaties signed by the United Kingdom around this time reveal the existence of at least the following citizenship statuses:
 British Subject
 British Subject, Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies
 British Subject, Citizen of the United Kingdom, Islands and Colonies
 British Subject, Citizen of the United Kingdom, Associated States and Colonies
 British Subject, Citizen of the State of Singapore
 British Subject, Citizen of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland

British Nationality Acts of 1958, 1964 and 1965

British Nationality Acts were passed in 1958, 1964 (twice) and 1965:

 The British Nationality Act 1958 legislation dealt with Rhodesia, Ghana independence and reinstating temporarily some lapsed transitional registration entitlements
 The British Nationality Act 1964 provided for resumption of CUKC where it was renounced to obtain another Commonwealth citizenship.  It was no longer possible for a renunciation of CUKC to take effect if the person did not have another nationality.
 The British Nationality (No 2) Act 1964 provided for British mothers to transmit CUKC status in cases of statelessness of an overseas born child.  It also repealed section 20(4) of the 1948 legislation which allowed naturalised CUKCs resident for more than seven years outside the UK & Colonies to be deprived of CUKC in certain circumstances.
 The British Nationality Act 1965 made provision for women married to British subjects without citizenship to acquire British subject status by registration

Commonwealth Immigrants Acts

Until the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, all Commonwealth citizens could enter and stay in the United Kingdom without any restriction. The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 made Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKCs) whose passports were not directly issued by the United Kingdom Government (i.e. passports issued by the Governor of a colony or by the Commander of a British protectorate) subject to immigration control. Those with passports issued at a British High Commission in an independent Commonwealth country or British Consulate remained free from immigration control.

The 1962 Act also increased the residence period for Commonwealth citizens (plus British subjects and Irish citizens) applying for registration as Citizens of the UK and Colonies from one year to five years.

The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 sharpened the distinction between citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKCs) who had close ties with the United Kingdom and were free to enter, and those citizens who had no such ties and were therefore subject to immigration control. Particularly in the newly independent Commonwealth countries of East Africa, the result was that there were now citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies who had no right of residence anywhere.

Immigration Act 1971

The Immigration Act 1971 developed this distinction by creating the concept of patriality or right of abode. CUKCs and other Commonwealth citizens had the right of abode in the UK only if they, their husband (if female), their parents, or their grandparents were connected to the United Kingdom and Islands (the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man). This placed the UK in the rare position of denying some of its nationals entry into their country of nationality. (One consequence of this has been the inability of the United Kingdom to ratify the Fourth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right of abode for nationals, a right which is widely recognised in international law.)

Prior to 1983. the following people had the right of abode under the Act:

 A citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies who was born, adopted, naturalised or registered in the United Kingdom.
 A citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies who was born to, or legally adopted by, a parent who, at the time of the birth or adoption, was a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies born, adopted, naturalised or registered in the United Kingdom.
 A citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies who was born to, or legally adopted by, a parent who, at the time of the birth, was a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies. That parent must have a parent who was a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by birth, adoption, naturalisation or registration in the United Kingdom.
 A citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies who by 1 January 1983 had been ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom for five years or more (all conditions of stay must have been removed prior to the end of the 5-year period).
 A Commonwealth citizen who was born to, or legally adopted by, a parent who, at the time of the birth or adoption, was a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by birth in the United Kingdom.
 A female Commonwealth citizen or citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies who was, or had been, the wife of a man with the right of abode.
 A citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies who was registered in an independent Commonwealth country by the British High Commissioner.

The Act did not specifically mention the status of former CUKCs who were holding right of abode in the UK and who lost their CUKC status solely because their own country's independence, although it was implied that if the person had no claim to right of abode as a Commonwealth citizen, then these persons would no longer have right of abode unless they have reacquired their CUKC status.

The following people did not have the right of abode simply by virtue of registration as a CUKC (but could hold it through United Kingdom descent or residence, or if a woman, marriage to a man with Right of Abode):
 A woman who was registered under section 6(2) of the British Nationality Act 1948 on or after 28 October 1971, unless she got married before that date and her husband has the right of abode.
 A minor child who was registered under section 7 of the British Nationality Act 1948 in an independent Commonwealth country by the British High Commissioner on or after 28 October 1971.

The reason for these limitations is that under the 1948 Act, High Commissioners in independent Commonwealth nations had the right to register persons as CUKC.  This was treated for the purpose of the 1971 Act as "registration in the United Kingdom" and hence without the special limitations on Right of Abode, that status would have been held by some CUKCs with no other qualifying ties to the United Kingdom.

The most notable group over whom control was sought were the Ugandan Indians who were expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin in 1972. As CUKCs who had passports issued by a British High Commissioner they were arriving in the United Kingdom in large numbers. A number of 'resettlement' options were looked at, including settling Indians on a suitable island in the dependent territories such as the Falkland Islands or Solomon Islands. Lord Lester of Herne Hill, QC, has written a detailed paper, "East African Asians versus The United Kingdom: The Inside Story", setting out the difficulties faced by the group.

However, the concept of patriality was recognised as only a temporary solution, so the British government embarked on a major reform of the law, resulting in the British Nationality Act 1981.

British Nationality Act 1981

The British Nationality Act 1981 abolished the status of CUKC, and replaced it with three new categories of citizenship on 1 January 1983:
British citizenship,
British Dependent Territories citizenship (BDTC), which was renamed British Overseas Territories citizenship (BOTC) by the British Overseas Territories Act 2002 (see below) and
British Overseas citizenship (BOC).

British Citizens are those former CUKCs who had a close relation with the United Kingdom and Islands (i.e. those who possessed right of abode under the Immigration Act 1971); BOTCs are those former CUKCs with a close relationship with one of the remaining colonies, renamed Overseas Territories; while BOCs are those former CUKCs who did not qualify for either British citizenship or British Dependent Territories citizenship.

The law distinguishes between British citizen or British Overseas Territories citizen by descent and those who hold those statuses otherwise than by descent. Citizens by descent cannot automatically pass on British nationality to a child born outside the United Kingdom or its Overseas Territories (though in some situations the child can be registered as a citizen).

British Overseas citizens cannot generally pass on British Overseas citizenship, except in limited cases to avoid statelessness or other hardship.

It is possible to hold more than one of these citizenships simultaneously.  In fact, since the British Overseas Territories Act 2002 granted British citizenship to all the Overseas Territories (except the Cyprus Sovereign Base Areas), most British overseas territories citizens also hold British citizenship.  Additionally, a British Overseas citizen who acquires British citizenship will not lose British Overseas citizenship, although there is generally no added benefit from retaining this status.

Those Commonwealth citizens and British subject already entitled to Right of Abode under the Immigration Act 1971 retained this status provided they did not cease to be Commonwealth citizens or British subjects after 1983. However, countries that joined the Commonwealth after 1 January 1983 are exempt from this scheme. These are South Africa, Pakistan, Namibia, Cameroon and Mozambique. Those who come to the UK under this scheme may claim state benefits if they can show that they intend to make the UK their permanent home.
Commonwealth citizens who have the right of abode need to apply for a certificate of entitlement if they want to enter the UK. The certificate is a sticker which is placed inside a non-British passport. After five years living in the UK, a person who has moved to the UK under the Right of Abode can apply to naturalise as British citizen and obtain a British passport.

British Subject and British Protected Person

The 1981 Act retained the category of British subject without citizenship as British subject. British subjects are mainly people from the Indian sub-continent and Ireland. It ended the use of the term for those British subjects who had one of the various national citizenships, though the term Commonwealth citizen continues to be used in that regard.

Persons who held British subject status based on connections with what is now the Republic of Ireland before 1949 remain entitled to resume that status if they wish.

The status of British subject under the 1981 Act cannot be transmitted to children, although the Home Secretary has discretion to register a child as a British subject. This discretion is very rarely exercised.

British subject status can be renounced, but cannot be resumed for any reason. British subjects (except those connected with Ireland) lose their British subject status automatically if they acquire any other nationality.

For further information on the present use of the term "British subject", see British subject.

The 1981 Act also retained another category, that of British protected person (BPP), which is not a form of nationality as such (BPPs were never British subjects), but a status conferred on citizens of states under British protection. It has been argued that since BPPs are not considered stateless, they must hold some form of nationality, and that nationality must be a form of British nationality.

British Protected Persons are those who had a connection with a former British Protectorate, Protected State, League of Nations mandate or United Nations trust territory. These were mainly in Asia and Africa. British Overseas Citizens, by contrast, are those who have such a relationship with former British colonies. (Protectorates, Protected States, Mandates and Trust Territories were never, legally speaking, British colonies.) A British Protected Person will lose that status upon acquiring any other nationality or citizenship.

British National (Overseas)

The Hong Kong handover resulted in yet another nationality: British National (Overseas) or BN(O). There were some 3.5 million residents of Hong Kong who held British Dependent Territories citizen (BDTC) status by virtue of their connection with Hong Kong. Another 2 million other Hong Kong residents are believed to have been eligible to apply to become BDTCs. Upon handover, they would lose this status and became solely Chinese nationals. Uncertainty about the future of Hong Kong under Chinese rule led to the United Kingdom creating a new category of nationality for which Hong Kong BDTCs could apply. Any Hong Kong BDTC who wished to do so was able to acquire the (non-transmissible) status of British National (Overseas).

British Citizenship Legislation for Hong Kong

The handover of Hong Kong also resulted in:

 the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1990 and the associated British Nationality Selection Scheme; and
 the Hong Kong (War Wives and Widows) Act 1996 which gave certain women in Hong Kong the right to register as British citizens based on their husband's or former husband's war service in defence of Hong Kong during the Second World War; and
 the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1997 which gave non-Chinese ethnic minorities in Hong Kong access to British citizenship

In February 2006, British authorities announced that 600 British citizenship applications of ethnic minority children of Indian descent from Hong Kong were wrongly refused. The applications dated from the period July 1997 onwards. Where the applicant in such cases confirms that he or she still wishes to receive British citizenship the decision will be reconsidered on request. No additional fee will be payable by the applicant in such cases.

Recent changes to India's Citizenship Act 1955 provide that Indian citizenship by descent can no longer be acquired automatically at the time of birth. This amendment will also allow some children of Indian origin born in Hong Kong after 3 December 2004 who have a British National (Overseas) or British Overseas citizen parent to automatically acquire British Overseas citizenship at birth under the provisions for reducing statelessness in article 6(2) or 6(3) of the Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order 1986. If they have acquired no other nationality after birth, they will be entitled to register for full British citizenship with right of abode in the UK.

British Overseas Territories Act 2002

The British Overseas Territories Act 2002 changes the British Dependent Territories to British Overseas Territories, and British Dependent Territories Citizenship to British Overseas Territories Citizenship. This change is supposed to reflect the no longer "dependent" status of these territories, but may create confusion due to the close similarity between the terms "British Overseas Citizen" and "British Overseas Territories Citizen".

The Act also extends British citizenship to all British Overseas Territories Citizens the right to register as British Citizens, and thus acquire the right of abode, except those whose connection is solely with the military outposts known as the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus.

A distinction of terminology is made between British Overseas Territories Citizens born before 1 January 1983, introduction of British Dependent Territories, Citizenship, who would previously have been Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies, and those born after, and therefore who had not ever held right to freely enter and remain in the UK before 2002 (unless they also separately qualified as British Citizens or had "right to remain" stamped into their passports, to which they were entitled after five years legal residence in the UK).

 Those persons who held British Overseas Territories citizenship (BOTC) on 21 May 2002 (except those solely connected with the Sovereign Base Areas) automatically acquired British citizenship on that date if they did not already possess it.  Most people from Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands already held full British citizenship under earlier legislation, or had the right to register as British.
 Persons who acquire BOTC after 21 May 2002 and do not already have British citizenship (mainly those naturalised as BOTCs after that date) may register as British citizens if they wish under s4A of the 1981 Act.

Until their successful claim against the British Government in the High Court over their eviction from their Territory, those connected to the British Indian Ocean Territory which houses the United States military base of Diego Garcia were to be excluded as well, but are now included. The accession of the whole island of Cyprus to the European Union would possibly have made the sole exclusion of the Sovereign Base Areas untenable, as they would become the only Cypriots (as well as the only British Overseas Territories citizens) not to have the right to live and work in the United Kingdom. However, in 2004, only the Greek part of the island was admitted, and the issue has not surfaced.

Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002

This Act created a number of changes to the law including:

British Nationals with no other citizenship

The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 has also granted British Overseas Citizens, British Subjects and British Protected Persons the right to register as British citizens if they have no other citizenship or nationality and have not after 4 July 2002 renounced, voluntarily relinquished or lost through action or inaction any citizenship or nationality. Previously such persons would have not had the right of abode in any country, and would have thus been de facto stateless. Despite strong resistance from Senior Officials at the Home Office, the then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, said on 3 July 2002 that this would "right a historic wrong" which had left stateless tens of thousands of Asian people who had worked closely with British colonial administrations. The Government of India has also issued clarifications in respect of people with these citizenships to assist with consideration of applications under the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002.

Sanjay Shah, a British Overseas citizen passport holder, spent 13 months living in the duty-free section of Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, petitioning for full British citizenship. This was granted on the grounds that he had already given up his former Kenyan citizenship.

Overseas born children of British mothers

The Act has also conferred a right to registration as a British citizen on persons born between 8 February 1961 and 31 December 1982 who, but for the inability (at that time) of women to pass on their citizenship, would have acquired British citizenship automatically when the British Nationality Act 1981 came into force.

In adding a section 4C to the British Nationality Act 1981, a person is entitled to registration if:

the person was born after 7 February 1961 but before 1 January 1983;
the person was born to a mother who was a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies at the time and the person would have been a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by descent if it had been possible for women to pass on citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies to their children in the same way as men could; and
had the person been a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies, they would have had the right of abode in the United Kingdom under the Immigration Act 1971 and would have become a British citizen on 1 January 1983.

Registration under both these categories confers British citizenship by descent and hence those with permanent residence in the United Kingdom, or those with the right to take up permanent residence in the United Kingdom, may prefer to apply for naturalisation or section 4 registration instead.  Both of these registration categories give British citizenship otherwise than by descent.

(This right to registration under this measure was later amended by the  Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009, which moved the earliest date of birth covered from 1961 to 1 January 1949, and elaborated in "a dense and at times impenetrable piece of drafting" on the section 4C approach, while also covering numerous additional and less common situations, and adding a good character requirement. In 2018, the Supreme Court of the UK held that section 4C should be interpreted broadly.)

Deprivation of British nationality

Under amendments made by the Act, British nationals can be deprived of their citizenship if the Secretary of State is satisfied they are responsible for acts seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the United Kingdom or an Overseas Territory. This provision applied to only dual nationals-—it is not applicable if deprivation would result in a person's statelessness.

Prior to this law, British nationals who acquired that status by birth or descent (as opposed to registration or naturalisation) could not be deprived of British nationality.

Citizenship ceremonies

All new applicants for British citizenship from 1 January 2004 who are aged 18 or over must attend a citizenship ceremony and take an Oath of Allegiance and a Pledge to the United Kingdom before their grant of British citizenship can take effect

 the requirement for a citizenship ceremony applies to applicants for registration as well as naturalisation
 prior to 1 January 2004, British overseas territories citizens, British Overseas citizens, British subjects and British Nationals (Overseas), as well of citizens of countries sharing the Queen as Head of State (such as Australia and Canada) were exempt from taking the oath of allegiance.  This exemption was abolished.

Similar requirements are imposed on applicants for British overseas territories citizenship, with the exception that the Pledge is based on the relevant territory rather than the United Kingdom.

It is unusual for adults to acquire British Overseas citizenship or British subject status (application must be made before age 18 and is very rarely granted); however, in such a case only an Oath of Allegiance would be required.

English language requirements

From 28 July 2004, English (or Welsh or Scottish Gaelic) language requirements for naturalisation applicants were increased:

 the language competency requirement was extended to those applying for naturalisation as the spouse of a British citizen
 evidentiary requirements were increased.

Life in the United Kingdom test

From 1 November 2005, all new applicants for naturalisation as a British citizen must (unless exempted) prove they have passed the Life in the United Kingdom test.

 The test must be passed before application is made to the Home Office
 Those who pass the test do not need to provide separate evidence of language competency
 Those aged 65 or over may be able to claim exemption
 Those who attend combined citizenship and English (or Welsh) classes may be exempted from the test

Neither the language nor Life in the UK test requirements apply to those seeking registration (as opposed to naturalisation) as a British citizen.

Note that passing the test is also required for anyone wishing to remain indefinitely in the UK, whether or not they apply for citizenship. E.g., a husband or wife of a British citizen will be deported if they do not pass the test in time.

Children of unmarried British fathers
With effect from 1 July 2006, children may acquire British citizenship automatically from an unmarried British father (or a British permanent resident if the child is born in the United Kingdom).   Proof of paternity must be shown.

Children born to unmarried British fathers before 1 July 2006 are not included in this provision.  However they can be registered as British citizens upon application to the Home Office (if not British some other way), provided the child is aged under 18 and would have been British had the father been married to the mother. However, the agreement of the mother is needed. If the mother refuses then policy is for the home office to enquire of her reasons for refusal. If her reasons are deemed unreasonable registration may still be granted. Also, the minor can apply in his own right on reaching the age of 17.

(As of 6 April 2015, a person over 18 years of age who was born out of wedlock before 1 July 2006 to a British father is entitled to register as a British citizen by descent under the Immigration Act 2014 using form UKF. Such child must also meet character requirements, pay relevant processing fees and attend a citizenship ceremony. However, if the applicant has a claim to register as a British citizen under other clauses of the British Nationality Act 1981, or has already acquired British citizenship after being legitimised, the application will be refused.)

Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006

The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 made a number of changes to the law including:

 allowing the Secretary of State to deprive a British national of his or her nationality on the basis of it being "conducive to the public good".   This is a less stringent test than the requirement of the 2002 Act and came into force on 16 June 2006.
 allowing Right of Abode to be revoked on the same basis
 introducing a good character requirements for all acquisitions of British citizenship, with the exception of section 4B registration, registration on the grounds of statelessness and cases where the applicant is under 10 years old.   This came into force on 4 December 2006.

Laws concerning immigration and naturalisation

 Status of Children Born Abroad Act 1350
 Sophia Naturalization Act 1705
 Jewish Naturalization Act 1753
 British Nationality Act 1772
 Aliens Act 1905
 Aliens Restriction Act 1914
 Aliens Act 1919
 Polish Resettlement Act 1947
 British Nationality Act 1948
 Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962
 Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968
 Immigration Act 1971
 British Nationality Act 1981
 Carriers' Liability Act 1987
 Dublin Convention 1990
 Immigration and Asylum Appeals Act 1993
 Asylum and Immigration Act 1996
 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
 British Overseas Territories Act 2002
 Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002
 Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004
 Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006
 UK Borders Act 2007
 Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009
Immigration Act 2014
Immigration Act 2016

See also
Citizen Information Project
British nationality law and the Republic of Ireland
British subject
British nationality law
Immigration to the United Kingdom
Life in the United Kingdom test
Multiple citizenship

References

External links
Emily Lau's letter to former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook (1999), in which she urged the UK to include Hong Kong in its offer to extend British citizenship to colonial citizens
Home Office Nationality Instructions (British nationality policy and background notes)
British Nationality Acts: 1981, 1965, 1964, 1958, 1948, 1772, 1730
 report with an appendix summarizing the history of British nationality law
Statistics on persons granted British citizenship since 1984 are available on the Home Office website (in pdf format): e.g. 1984

British nationality law
Nationality law
British
Legal history of the United Kingdom

History of British nationality law


Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958) is an American billionaire businessman, film producer, investor, and television personality. He is best known as the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, co-owner of 2929 Entertainment, and one of the main "sharks" on the ABC reality television series Shark Tank.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cuban's entrepreneurial actions manifested early with ventures ranging from selling garbage bags to running newspapers during a strike. He graduated from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and embarked on a diverse business career that included founding MicroSolutions and Broadcast.com, both of which he sold at substantial profits. Cuban's investments span various industries, from technology and media to sports and entertainment. He has been a prominent figure in the NBA, known for his active involvement with the Mavericks and frequent disputes with the league's management. Outside of business, Cuban has gathered notability for his philanthropy, political commentary, and involvement in reality television.

Early life and education
Cuban was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father, Norton Cuban, was an automobile upholsterer. Cuban described his mother, Shirley (née Feldman), as someone with "a different job or different career goal every other week."

Cuban is Jewish, and grew up in Mount Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh, in a Jewish working-class family. His paternal grandfather changed the surname from "Chabenisky" to "Cuban" after his family emigrated from Russia through Ellis Island. His maternal grandparents were Romanian Jewish immigrants, according to Mark's brother Brian, though Mark has claimed their maternal grandmother was from Lithuania.

Cuban first ventured into business at age 12. He sold garbage bags to pay for a pair of expensive sneakers. A few years later, he earned money by selling stamps and coins. At age 16, Cuban took advantage of a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette strike by running newspapers from Cleveland to Pittsburgh.

Instead of attending high school for his senior year, he enrolled as a full-time student at the University of Pittsburgh, where he joined the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. After one year at the University of Pittsburgh, Cuban transferred to Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where he graduated from the Kelley School of Business in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science degree in management. He chose Indiana's Kelley School of Business without even visiting the campus because it "had the least expensive tuition of all the business schools on the top 10 list". He had various business ventures during college, including a bar, disco lessons, and a chain letter.

After graduating, Cuban returned to Pittsburgh and took a job with Mellon Bank, where he immersed himself in the study of machines and networking.

Business career
On July 7, 1982, Cuban moved to Dallas, Texas, where he first found a job as a bartender for a Greenville Avenue bar called Elan and then as a salesperson for Your Business Software, one of the earliest PC software retailers in Dallas. He was fired less than a year later after meeting with a client to procure new business instead of opening the store.

Cuban co-founded MicroSolutions with help from his previous customers from Your Business Software. MicroSolutions was initially a system integrator and software reseller. The company was an early proponent of technologies such as Carbon Copy, Lotus Notes, and CompuServe. One of the company's largest clients was Perot Systems.

The company grew to more than $30 million in revenue, and in 1990, Cuban sold MicroSolutions to CompuServe—then a subsidiary of H&R Block—for $6 million. He made approximately $2 million after taxes on the deal.

Audionet and Broadcast.com
In 1995, Cuban and fellow Indiana University alumnus Todd Wagner joined Audionet (founded in 1989 by Chris Jaeb, who retained 10% of the company), combining their mutual interest in Indiana Hoosier college basketball and webcasting. With a single server and an ISDN line, Audionet became Broadcast.com in 1998. By 1999, Broadcast.com had grown to 330 employees and $13.5 million in revenue for the second quarter. In 1999, Broadcast.com helped launch the first live-streamed Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. That year, during the dot com boom, Broadcast.com was acquired by Yahoo! for $5.7 billion in Yahoo! stock.

After the sale of Broadcast.com, Cuban hedged against the risk of a decline in the value of the Yahoo! shares he received in the deal. The Guinness Book of Records credits Cuban with the "largest single e-commerce transaction" after purchasing a Gulfstream V jet for $40 million over the internet in October 1999.

Yahoo!'s costly purchase of Broadcast.com is now regarded as one of the worst internet acquisitions of all time. Broadcast.com and Yahoo!'s other broadcasting services were discontinued within a few years after the acquisition. Cuban has repeatedly described himself as very lucky to have sold the company before the dot-com bubble burst. However, he also emphasized that he hedged against the Yahoo! shares he received from the sale and would have lost most of his fortune if he had not done so.

Cuban continues to work with Wagner in another venture, 2929 Entertainment, which provides vertically integrated production and distribution of films and video.

On September 24, 2003, the firm purchased Landmark Theatres, a chain of 58 arthouse movie theaters. The company is also responsible for the updated version of the TV show Star Search, which was broadcast on CBS. 2929 Entertainment released Bubble, a movie directed by Steven Soderbergh, in 2006.

Cuban was featured on the cover of Best magazine's November 2003 premiere issue, announcing the arrival of high-definition television. Cuban also was co-founder (with Philip Garvin) of AXS TV (formerly HDNet), the first high-definition satellite television network.

In February 2004, Cuban announced that he would be working with ABC television to produce a reality television series, The Benefactor. The premise of the six-episode series involved 16 contestants trying to win $1 million by participating in various contests, with their performances being judged by Cuban. It premiered on September 13, 2004, but the series was canceled before the full season aired due to poor ratings.

In 2018, Cuban was no. 190 on Forbes list of "World's Richest People", with a net worth of $3.9 billion.

Cuban financially supported Grokster in the Supreme Court case MGM v. Grokster. He is also a partner in Synergy Sports Technology, a web-based basketball scouting and video delivery tool used by many NBA teams.

Investments in startups
Cuban has also assisted ventures in the social software and distributed networking industries. He was an owner of IceRocket, a search engine that scours the blogosphere for content. Cuban was a partner in RedSwoosh—a company that uses peer-to-peer technology to deliver rich media, including video and software, to a user's PC—later acquired by Akamai. He was also an investor in Weblogs, Inc., which was acquired by AOL.

In 2005, Cuban invested in Brondell Inc., a San Francisco startup making a high-tech toilet seat called a Swash that works like a bidet but mounts on a standard toilet. "People tend to approach technology the same way, whether it's in front of them, or behind them", Cuban joked. He also invested in Goowy Media Inc., a San Diego Internet software startup. In April 2006, Sirius Satellite Radio announced that Cuban would host his own weekly radio talk show, Mark Cuban's Radio Maverick. However, the show has not materialized.

In July 2006, Cuban financed Sharesleuth.com, a website created by former St. Louis Post-Dispatch investigative reporter Christopher Carey to uncover fraud and misinformation in publicly traded companies. Experimenting with a new business model for making online journalism financially viable, Cuban disclosed that he would take positions in the shares of companies mentioned in Sharesleuth.com in advance of publication. Business and legal analysts questioned the appropriateness of shorting a stock before making public pronouncements which are likely to result in losses in that stock's value. Cuban insisted that the practice is legal in view of full disclosure.

In April 2007, Cuban partnered with Mascot Books to publish his first children's book, Let's Go, Mavs!. In November 2011, he wrote a 30,000-word e-book, How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It, which he described as "a way to get motivated".

In October 2008, Cuban started Bailoutsleuth.com as a grassroots, online portal for oversight over the U.S. government's $700 billion "bailout" of financial institutions.

In September 2010, Cuban provided an undisclosed amount of venture capital to store-front analytics company Motionloft. According to the company's CEO Jon Mills, he cold-emailed Cuban on a whim with the business proposition and claimed Cuban quickly responded that he would like to hear more. Mills credited that sentence for launching the company. In November 2013, several investors questioned Cuban about Mills' representation of a pending acquisition of Motionloft. Cuban denied an acquisition was in place. Mills was terminated as CEO of Motionloft by stockholders on December 1, 2013, and in February 2014 was arrested by the FBI and charged with wire fraud; it was alleged that Mills misrepresented to investors that Motionloft was going to be acquired by Cisco. Cuban has gone on record to state that the technology, which at least in part is meant to serve the commercial real estate industry, is "game changing" for tenants.

In 2019, Cuban, Ashton Kutcher, Steve Watts and Watts' wife Angela, acquired a 50% stake in Veldskoen Shoes  USA business. In 2021, Cuban, Pantera Capital, BlockTower, Hashed, Cadenza Ventures (backed by 100x Group), CMS and QCP Capital backed a layer-2 decentralized exchange protocol, Injective Protocol and their CEO Eric Chen. Also in late 2021, Cuban purchased the entire town of Mustang, Texas, a 77-acre town in Navarro County. He told the Dallas Morning News that a buddy needed to sell it and, "I don't know what if anything I will do with it."

Shark Tank
Cuban has been a "shark" investor on the ABC reality program Shark Tank since season two in 2011.

As of May 2015, he has invested in 85 deals across 111 Shark Tank episodes, for a total of $19.9 million invested. The actual numbers vary because the investment happens after the handshake deal on live television, after the due diligence is performed to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in the pitch room. For instance, Hy-Conn, a manufacturer of fire hose adapters, after agreeing to a deal of $1.25 million for 100% of the company with Cuban, did not go through with the deal.

Cuban's top three deals, all with at least $1 million invested, are Ten Thirty One Productions, Rugged Maniac Obstacle Race, and BeatBox Beverages.

Since Cuban joined the show in 2011, the ratings for Shark Tank have increased, and also during his tenure, the show has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Structured Reality Program (from 2014 to 2017). Before the category came into existence it won the award for outstanding reality program for two years in a row (2012 to 2013), all of these awards came after he joined. As of 2023, Cuban is the richest of all Sharks to appear on the show.

Magnolia Pictures

Cuban owns film distributor Magnolia Pictures. Through Magnolia, he financed Redacted, a fictional dramatization based on the 2006 Mahmudiyah killings, written and directed by Brian De Palma. In September 2007, Cuban, in his capacity as owner of Magnolia Pictures, removed disturbing photographs from the concluding moments of the Redacted, citing copyrights/permissions issues.

In April 2011, Cuban put Magnolia Pictures and Landmark Theatres up for sale, but said, "If we don't get the price and premium we want, we are happy to continue to make money from the properties."

Cryptocurrency

Cuban has invested in the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, as well as accepting the particular cryptocurrency as a method of payment for Dallas Mavericks merchandise and tickets since at least early 2021. After being asked by CNBC for his thoughts on the payment method, Cuban responded, "It's a medium that can be used for the acquisition of goods and services. The community for doge is the strongest when it comes to using it as a medium of exchange."

After Voyager Digital, a cryptocurrency lender, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022, Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks were named in a class-action lawsuit that alleged that Voyager Digital was a Ponzi scheme the following month due to Cuban's promotion of Voyager and Voyager's sponsorship with the team. In February 2022, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a lawsuit against Bitconnect that the Securities Act of 1933 extends to targeted solicitation using social media.

In September 2023, Cuban's MetaMask cryptocurrency wallet was drained by scammers. As a result he had lost about $870,000 worth of tokens.

Cost Plus Drug Company
In January 2022, Mark Cuban launched the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, with the aim of lowering generic drug prices for end consumers in the US.

Sports businesses

Dallas Mavericks

On January 4, 2000, Cuban purchased a majority stake in the NBA's Dallas Mavericks for $285 million from H. Ross Perot Jr.

In the 20 years before Cuban bought the team, the Mavericks won only 40% of their games and had a playoff record of 21–32. In the 10 years following, the team won 69 percent of their regular season games and reached the playoffs in each of those seasons except for one. The Mavericks' playoff record with Cuban is 49–57, including their first trip to the NBA Finals in 2006, where they lost to the Miami Heat.

Historically, NBA team owners publicly play more passive roles and watch basketball games from skyboxes; Cuban sits alongside fans while donning team jerseys. Cuban travels in his private airplane—a Gulfstream V—to attend road games.

In May 2010, H. Ross Perot Jr., who retained 5% ownership, filed a lawsuit against Cuban, alleging the franchise was insolvent or in imminent danger of insolvency. In June 2010, Cuban responded in a court filing maintaining Perot is wrongly seeking money to offset some $100 million in losses on the Victory Park real estate development. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2011, due in part to Cuban asserting proper management of the team due to its recent victory in the 2011 NBA Finals. In 2014, the 5th Circuit Court affirmed that decision on appeal. Following his initial defeat, Perot attempted to shut out Mavericks fans from use of the parking lots he controlled near the American Airlines Center.

In January 2018, Cuban announced the Mavericks would be accepting Bitcoin as payment for tickets in the following season. On March 4, 2021, Cuban announced the Mavericks would begin accepting Dogecoin as payment for both merchandise as well as tickets to games.

In early 2021, he decided to stop playing the National Anthem at Dallas Mavericks games in order to "respect those whose believed the anthem did not represent them." He also supported the movement as far back as late 2020. The NBA responded by requiring every team to play it, citing it as their "long-standing policy". Cuban did not complain, and ended up playing the anthem.

Major League Baseball
Cuban has repeatedly expressed interest in owning a Major League Baseball franchise and has unsuccessfully attempted to purchase at least three franchises. In 2008, he submitted an initial bid of $1.3 billion to buy the Chicago Cubs and was invited to participate in a second round of bidding along with several other potential ownership groups. Cuban was not selected to participate in the final bidding process in January 2009. In August 2010, Cuban actively bid to buy the Texas Rangers with Jeffrey L. Beck. Cuban stopped bids after 1 a.m., having placed bids totaling almost $600 million. He had outbid a competing ownership group led by ex-pitcher and Rangers executive Nolan Ryan, but lost the deal before the Rangers played the San Francisco Giants in the 2010 World Series.

In January 2012, Cuban placed an initial bid for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but was eliminated before the second round of bidding. Cuban felt that the value of the Dodgers' TV rights deal drove the price of the franchise too high. He had previously said that he would not be interested in buying the franchise at $1 billion, telling the Los Angeles Times in November 2011 "I don't think the Dodgers franchise is worth twice what the Rangers are worth." However, as the bidding process drew near many speculated that the sale would surpass $1.5 billion, with Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reporting on Twitter that at least one bid in the $1–1.5 billion range was placed in the initial round of the bidding process. Ultimately, the Dodgers sold for $2.15 billion to Guggenheim Baseball Management.

Cuban also previously expressed interest in becoming a minority owner of the New York Mets after owner Fred Wilpon announced in 2011 that he was planning to sell up to a 25% stake in the team.

Cuban has wanted to purchase his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates, but was rebuffed by then owner Kevin McClatchy in 2005.

Other sports businesses
In 2005, Cuban expressed interest in buying the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins. In 2006, Cuban joined an investment group along with Dan Marino, Kevin Millevoi, Andy Murstein, and Walnut Capital principals Gregg Perelman and Todd Reidbord to attempt to acquire the Penguins. The franchise ultimately rejected the group's bid when team owners Mario Lemieux and Ronald Burkle took the team off the market.

At WWE's Survivor Series in 2003, Cuban was involved in a staged altercation with Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff and Raw wrestler Randy Orton. On December 7, 2009, Cuban acted as the guest host of Raw, getting revenge on Orton when he was the guest referee in Orton's match against Kofi Kingston, giving Kingston a fast count victory. He then announced that Orton would face Kingston at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs. At the end of the show, Cuban was slammed through a table by the number one contender for the WWE Championship, Sheamus.

On September 12, 2007, Cuban said that he was in talks with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon to create a mixed martial arts company that would compete with UFC. He is now a bondholder of Zuffa, which was formerly UFC's parent company.

Cuban followed up his intentions by organizing "HDNet Fights", a mixed martial arts promotion which airs exclusively on HDNet and premiered on October 13, 2007, with a card headlined by a fight between Erik Paulson and Jeff Ford as well as fights featuring veterans Drew Fickett and Justin Eilers.

Since 2009, Cuban has been a panelist at the annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

In April 2010, Cuban loaned the newly formed United Football League (UFL) $5 million. He did not own a franchise, and he was not involved in day-to-day operations of the league nor of any of its teams. In January 2011, he filed a federal lawsuit against the UFL for their failure to repay the loan by the October 6, 2010 deadline.

In June 2015, Cuban invested in the esports betting platform Unikrn.

In February 2016, Cuban purchased a principal ownership stake in the Professional Futsal League.

Political activity

Cuban is an admirer of author and philosopher Ayn Rand. About Rand's novel The Fountainhead, he said, that it "was incredibly motivating to me. It encouraged me to think as an individual, take risks to reach my goals, and responsibility for my successes and failures. I loved it." His political views have leaned toward libertarianism. He held a position on the centrist Unity08 political organization's advisory council. Despite leaning towards libertarianism, Cuban posted an entry on his blog claiming paying more taxes to be the most patriotic thing someone can do.

In 2012, Cuban donated $7,000 to political campaigns, with $6,000 going to Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah and $1,000 to Democratic California Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.

On February 8, 2008, Cuban voiced his support for the draft Bloomberg movement attempting to convince New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run in the U.S. presidential election of 2008 on his blog. Cuban concluded a post lamenting the current state of U.S. politics: "Are you listening, Mayor Bloomberg? For less than the cost of opening a tent pole movie, you can change the status quo." He eventually voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 election.

In November 2012, in response to Donald Trump offering President Obama $5 million to a charity of President Obama's choosing if he released passport applications and college transcripts to the public, Cuban offered Trump $1 million to a charity of Trump's choosing if Trump shaved his head.

On December 19, 2012, Cuban donated $250,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation to support its work on patent reform. Part of his donation funded a new title for EFF's staff attorney Julie Samuels: The Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents.

At the Code/Media conference in February 2015, Cuban said of net neutrality that "having [the FCC] overseeing the Internet scares the shit out of me".

Cuban formally endorsed Hillary Clinton for president at a July 30, 2016 rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During that campaign stop, Cuban said of Republican nominee Donald Trump, "You know what we call a person like that in Pittsburgh? A jagoff ... Is there any bigger jagoff in the world than Donald Trump?"

On November 22, 2016, Cuban met with the then President-elect Trump's key advisor Steve Bannon, according to reports.

During an appearance on an episode of Hannity in May 2020, Cuban voiced his support for former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

On February 2, 2021, Cuban joined Reddit's WallStreetBets "Ask Me Anything" forum with millions of community members and fielded user questions related to the widely publicized battle between retail traders and Wall Street short sellers over GameStop shares. In the previous days, GameStop shares experienced a meteoric rise to as much as $489 on January 28, 2021, up from $17.15 on January 4, 2021. The growth was mainly brought on by an organized group of Reddit users named "WallStreetBets" that noticed GameStop stock was heavily shorted by Wall Street hedge firms and launched an ensuing campaign to buy enough shares to raise share value and produce a GameStop short squeeze. In the aftermath, the stock became heavily volatile as hedge firms repositioned themselves in the market. Firms like Melvin Capital required bailouts exceeding $2B and retail traders experienced excessive but temporary gains, whereas GameStop share value dropped to below $100 within a few days of closing at over $300. The consistent decline into February raised a lot of questions about next steps for retail traders and prompted Cuban to step in and provide advice to the Reddit community. Amid the volatility, Cuban had been an outspoken supporter of the WallStreetBets community alongside other wealthy financial figureheads like Chamath Palihapitiya, Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss. In the AMA session, Cuban publicly called the trust of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission into question as well as the capabilities of zero commission brokerage firms, like Robinhood, that restricted retail traders from purchasing GameStop shares and other shorted stocks which he said crippled demand. Cuban's advice to Reddit users was to hold GameStop shares if they could afford it in anticipation of additional short sales by Wall Street firms, but ultimately acknowledged that the odds were stacked against them and to use it as a learning experience. He offered insight into his trading technique suggesting that traders know why they are buying something and to "HODL"(hold on for dear life) until they learn that something has changed. Cuban noted a need for policy change to better support retail traders, credited the WallStreetBets community for leading the charge, and expressed optimism about blockchain trading as a more efficient, transparent and trustworthy form of trading for retail traders in the future.

In October 2021, Cuban said that he supports making the minimum wage a living wage.

Fallen Patriot Fund
Cuban started the Fallen Patriot Fund to help families of U.S. military personnel killed or injured during the Iraq War, personally matching the first $1 million in contributions with funds from the Mark Cuban Foundation, which is run by his brother Brian Cuban.

Speculation of a presidential run
In September 2015, Cuban stated in an interview that running for president was "a fun idea to toss around", and that, if he was running in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, he "could beat both Trump and Clinton". This was interpreted by many media outlets as indication that Cuban was considering running, but he clarified soon afterward that he had no intention to do so.

In October 2015, Cuban posted on Twitter, "Maybe I'll run for Speaker of the House." At the time, there was no clear front-runner to replace the outgoing John Boehner (the Speaker of the House does not have to be a member of Congress).

Cuban told Meet the Press in May 2016 that he would be open to being Clinton's running mate in the election, though he would seek to alter some of her positions in order to do so. In the same interview, the self-described "fiercely independent" Cuban also said that he would consider running as Republican nominee Trump's running mate after having a meeting with Trump about Trump's positions on the issues and suggesting solutions. Cuban also described Trump as "that friend that you just shake your head at. He's that guy who'd get drunk and fall over all the time, or just says dumb shit all the time, but he's your friend." On July 21, 2016, Cuban appeared on a live segment on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert entitled "Gloves Off: Mark Cuban Edition" in which he mocked Trump, including referencing the Trump companies' multiple bankruptcies, the failed Trump University program, and questioning the size of Trump's actual net worth.

In a September 2016 interview with NPR's Scott Simon, Cuban effectively positioned himself to support Clinton. He posited that the best strategy to beat Trump was to attack his insecurities, especially that of his intellect. He also added that Trump is the least qualified to be president and is not informed about policies.

Later in September 2016, during a post-presidential debate interview, Cuban criticized Trump's characterization that paying the minimum required taxes 'is smart' and criticized Trump for not paying back into the system that allowed him to amass such wealth.

In October 2017, Cuban said that he would "definitely" run for president if he was single. Later that month, Cuban claimed that if he ran for president in 2020, it would be as a Republican, and described himself as "socially a centrist ... but very fiscally conservative". It had also been speculated that he could have challenged president Donald Trump in 2020 as a Democrat. However, in a March 2019 interview with the New York Daily News, Cuban stated that he was "strongly considering running" for president as an independent candidate. In May 2019, Cuban said: "It would take the perfect storm for me to do it. There's some things that could open the door, but I'm not projecting or predicting it right now."

In a June 2020 interview with CNN and former Obama advisor David Axelrod, Cuban revealed that he had seriously considered running for president that year as an independent candidate. He went so far as to commission a national poll, which, according to Cuban, showed he would only receive 25 percent of the vote in a hypothetical matchup with President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. Cuban also said that the poll showed his candidacy would have pulled votes from both Trump and Biden.

Legal issues

NBA fines
Cuban's ownership has been the source of extensive media attention and controversy involving league policies.
Cuban has been fined by the NBA, mostly for critical statements about the league and referees, at least $1.665 million for 13 incidents. In a June 30, 2006 interview, Mavericks player Dirk Nowitzki said about Cuban:

In an interview with the Associated Press, Cuban said that he matches NBA fines with charitable donations of equal amounts. In a nationally publicized incident in 2002, he criticized the league's manager of officials, Ed T. Rush, saying that he "wouldn't be able to manage a Dairy Queen." Dairy Queen management took offense to Cuban's comments and invited him to manage a Dairy Queen restaurant for a day. Cuban accepted the company's invitation and worked for a day at a Dairy Queen in Coppell, Texas, where fans lined up in the street to get a Blizzard from the owner of the Mavericks.

During the 2005–06 NBA season, Cuban started a booing campaign when former Mavericks player Michael Finley returned to play against the Mavericks as a member of the San Antonio Spurs. In a playoff series between the Mavericks and Spurs, Cuban cursed Spurs forward Bruce Bowen and was fined $25,000 by the NBA for rushing onto the court and criticizing NBA officials. After the 2006 NBA Finals, Cuban was fined $250,000 by the NBA for repeated misconduct following the Mavericks' loss to the Miami Heat in Game Five of the 2006 NBA Finals.

In February 2007, Cuban publicly criticized NBA Finals MVP Dwyane Wade and declared that he would get fined if he made any comments about what he thought really happened in the 2006 NBA Finals.

On January 16, 2009, the league fined Cuban $25,000 for yelling at Denver Nuggets player J. R. Smith at the end of the first half on a Mavericks-at-Nuggets game played on January 13. Cuban was apparently incensed that Smith had thrown an elbow that barely missed Mavericks forward Antoine Wright. Cuban offered to match the fine with a donation to a charity of Smith's choosing. Cuban stated that if he doesn't hear from Smith, then he will donate the money to the NHL Players' Association Goals and Dreams Fund in the names of Todd Bertuzzi and Steve Moore. In May 2009, Cuban made a reference to the Denver Nuggets being "thugs" after a loss to the Nuggets in game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals. The statement was geared towards the Nuggets and their fans. As he passed Kenyon Martin's mother, who was seated near Cuban as he left the arena, he pointed at her and said, "that includes your son." This controversial comment revisited media attention on Cuban yet again. Cuban issued an apology the next day referencing the poor treatment of away fans in arenas around the league. The league issued a statement stating that they would not fine him.

On May 22, 2010, Cuban was fined $100,000 for comments he made during a television interview about trying to sign LeBron James.

Despite his history, he was notably silent during the Mavericks' 2011 championship playoff run.

Despite Cuban's history with David Stern, he believed the NBA Commissioner would leave a lasting legacy "of a focus on growth and recognizing that the NBA is in the entertainment business and that it's a global product, not just a local product. Whatever platforms that took us to, he was ready to go. He wasn't protective at all. He was wide open. I think that was great."

On January 18, 2014, Cuban was once again fined $100,000 for confronting referees and using inappropriate language toward them. As with previous fines, Cuban confirmed that he would match the fine with a donation to charity, however, with the condition that he reaches two million followers on his Twitter account. Cuban also jokingly commented that he could not let Stern leave without a proper farewell.

On February 21, 2018, Cuban was fined $600,000 by the NBA for stating that the Dallas Mavericks should "tank for the rest of the season." Commissioner Adam Silver stated that the fine was "for public statements detrimental to the NBA."

On March 6, 2020, Cuban was fined $500,000 by the NBA for "public criticism and detrimental conduct regarding NBA officiating", according to the league.

SEC insider trading allegation
On November 17, 2008, it was reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil suit against Cuban relating to alleged insider trading in the shares of Mamma.com, now known as Copernic. A stock dilution occurred shortly after a trade in June 2004, giving hints of inside knowledge at the time of the trade, and Cuban allegedly was saved from a loss of $750,000. The SEC claimed that Cuban ordered the sale of his holdings in Mamma.com after he had been confidentially approached by the company to participate in a transaction likely to dilute shares of current shareholders. Cuban disputed the charges, saying he had not agreed to keep the information secret. On his blog, Cuban contended the allegations were false and that the investigation was "a product of gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion". DealBook, a section of The New York Times, reported through an anonymous source that Cuban believed the investigation was motivated by an SEC employee having taken offense to his interest in possibly distributing the film Loose Change.

In July 2009, the U.S. District Court dismissed the charges against Cuban, and the SEC appealed. In September 2010, an appeals court said that the district court had erred and that further proceedings would be necessary to address the merits of the suit.

A federal jury in Texas found in favor of Cuban on October 16, 2013. The nine-member jury issued the verdict after deliberating 3 hours and 35 minutes.

In March 2014, Cuban was on air at CNBC criticizing high-frequency trading (HFT). Those against HFT, such as Cuban, believe the technology is equivalent to automated insider trading.

Sexual harrasment allegation
In a March 6, 2018 article, Willamette Week reported on an alleged April 2011 incident between Cuban and a female patron of a Portland, Oregon bar called the Barrel Room. The woman told Portland police that Cuban sexually groped her while she posed for pictures with him. She submitted seven photographs, two of which Portland Police Detective Brendan McGuire referred to as "significant".  Cuban denied the allegations, and his attorney provided the results of a polygraph test taken by Cuban and written statements from two medical doctors stating that the actions described were anatomically improbable.  The Portland District Attorney's office declined to prosecute, citing a lack of concrete evidence to support the claim and the woman's preference not to proceed with charges, and concluding that "no crime can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt". The NBA announced on March 8, 2018, that it was reviewing the matter.

Personal life
Cuban has two brothers, Brian and Jeff.

In September 2002, Cuban married Tiffany Stewart in a private ceremony in Barbados. They have two daughters, born in 2003 and 2006, and a son born in 2009. They live in a  mansion in the Preston Hollow area of Dallas, Texas.

Cuban is a vegetarian. He is a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League.

Philanthropy
In 2003, Cuban founded the Fallen Patriot Fund to help families of U.S. military personnel killed or injured during the Iraq War.

In June 2015, Cuban made a $5 million donation to Indiana University Bloomington for the "Mark Cuban Center for Sports Media and Technology", which was built inside Assembly Hall, the school's basketball arena.

In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuban posted an offer on LinkedIn to small business owners who had questions about what to do in order to survive the economic downturn being caused by the pandemic. He said people could ask him anything, but that his preference was "going to be helping small biz trying to avoid layoffs and hourly reductions." There were more than 10,000 comments in response to his offer.

In 2020, Cuban picked up homeless former NBA player Delonte West from a gas station in Dallas. He paid for a hotel room for West along with his treatment at a drug rehabilitation center.

In 2022, the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company was set up with a goal to dramatically reduce the cost of prescription drugs in the US and to introduce transparency to the pricing of drugs.

Awards and honors
NBA
 2011 NBA Champion (as owner of the Dallas Mavericks)

Business
 1998 Kelley School of Business Alumni Award – Distinguished Entrepreneur: 1998
 2011 D Magazine CEO of the Year

Media
 2011 Outstanding Team ESPY Award (as owner of the Dallas Mavericks)

Filmography

Film

Television

Bibliography
 How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It. Diversion Publishing. 2011.
 Let's Go, Mavs!. Mascot Books. 2007.

References

External links

 Blog

 Mark Cuban collected news and commentary at The Guardian

1958 births
Living people
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
2929 Entertainment holdings
American bartenders
American billionaires
American bloggers
American book publishers (people)
American business writers
American chairpersons of corporations
American children's writers
American computer businesspeople
American financiers
American film producers
American investors
American libertarians
American male bloggers
American male non-fiction writers
American male television actors
American mass media owners
American people of Lithuanian descent
American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American philanthropists
American political fundraisers
American reality television producers
American retail chief executives
American salespeople
American technology chief executives
American technology company founders
American technology writers
American television company founders
American television executives
American venture capitalists
Businesspeople from Indiana
Businesspeople from Pittsburgh
Businesspeople from Texas
Businesspeople in information technology
Businesspeople in software
Centrism in the United States
Copyright activists
Dallas Mavericks owners
Esports businesspeople
Film producers from Indiana
Film producers from Pennsylvania
Film producers from Texas
Jewish American activists
Jewish American writers
Kelley School of Business alumni
Male actors from Pittsburgh
Participants in American reality television series
People associated with cryptocurrency
People from Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania
People from Navarro County, Texas
Television personalities from Pittsburgh
Television producers from Indiana
Television producers from Pennsylvania
Television producers from Texas
Texas Independents
University of Pittsburgh alumni
Writers from Dallas
Writers from Indiana
Writers from Pittsburgh

Mark Cuban


Herbert Nachbar (12 February 1930 in Greifswald – 25 May 1980 in East Berlin) was a German writer resident in the German Democratic Republic.

Life
Herbert Nachbar was the son of a fisherman in Greifswald, Province of Pomerania.  From 1936 to 1940, he attended the Volksschule in Wolgast subsequently the Lehrerbildungsanstalt in Pasewalk.  After a short time as an electrician, he went to school as the Oberschule in Rostock where he took his Abitur.  Nachbar began a study of Medicine at the Humboldt University of Berlin which he broke off after two semesters.  He worked as a local reporter and contributing editor to different East Berlin newspapers until 1953 after which as a literary editor for the Aufbau-Verlag.  From 1957 he was a freelance writer.  Nachbar lived in several towns: until 1959 on the island of Ummanz from the 1960 to 1963 in East Berlin, from 1963 to 1969 in Graal-Müritz as well as again in East Berlin after 1969.  From 1968, he was head dramaturg at the Volkstheater in Rostock and later at the East German Television in Berlin.  His death in East Berlin was the result of a difficult disease which had forced him to become a wheelchair user since 1978.

Herbert Nachbar was a member of the Deutscher Schriftstellerverband and the P.E.N.-Zentrals of East Germany.

Artistic creations
Herbert Nachbar was the writer of novels, narratives and television screenplays.  In his novels, he depicts the life of a fishing village on the Baltic Sea coast.  Later he expanded his themes and assimilated his own experiences in his books.  Some of his later works had been shaped by sagas of the Baltic area and Scandinavia and bear fantasy and romance features.

Awards and honors
 1957 Heinrich Mann Prize
 1961 Literature Prize of the Free German Trade Union Federation
 1966 Johannes R. Becher Medal, in Silver
 1976 National Prize of East Germany, 2nd Class
 1980 Vaterländischer Verdienstorden, in Bronze

Works
 Der Mond hat einen Hof (The Moon had a Yard), Berlin 1956
 Die gestohlene Insel (The Stolen Island), Berlin 1958
 Die Hochzeit von Länneken (The Marriage of Länneken), Berlin 1960
 Der Tod des Admirals (The Death of the Admiral), Berlin 1960
 Brasilienfahrt (Brasil Trip), Rostock 1961 (together with Gerhard Vetter)
 Oben fährt der Große Wagen (The Great Wagon drives above), Rostock 1963
 Ein Feldherr sucht seine Mutter (A Commander searches for his Mother), Rostock 1965
 Haus unterm Regen (House under the Rain), Berlin et al. 1965
 Meister Zillmann (Master Zillmann), Rostock 1965
 Die Millionen des Knut Brümmer (The Millions of the Knut Brümmer), Rostock 1970
 Ein dunkler Stern (A Dark Star), Berlin et al. 1973
 Pumpendings seltsame Reise (Pumpending's Strange Journey), Berlin et al. 1975
 Der Weg nach Samoa (The Way to Samoa), Berlin et al. 1976
 Das fliegende Paddelboot (The Flying Paddle Boat), Berlin 1979
 Keller der alten Schmiede (Cellar of the Old Forge), Berlin et al. 1979
 Helena und die Heimsuchung (Helena and the Afflicted), Berlin 1981
 Die große Fahrt (The Great Trip), Berlin et al. 1982
 Der Junge mit den knielangen Hosen (The Boy with the knee-length Pants), Berlin et al. 1984

Editorial work
Die Meisterjungfer (The Master Maid), Rostock 1970

Literature
 Zu Nachbar. Ein Almanach (About Nachbar. An Almanac), Edited by Günter Caspar and Sigrid Töpelmann. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin et al. 1982.
 Werner Fritzsche: Darstellung und Gestaltung des Verhältnisses von Individuum und Gesellschaft in der DDR-Literatur, untersucht am literarischen Werk Herbert Nachbars (Werner Fritzsche: Portrayal and Figure of Individual and Society in East Germany, examined Works of Herbert Nachbar), Diss. A, Erfurt-Mühlhausen, Pädag. Hochsch., 1983.

External links
 Literature by and on Herbert Nachbar in the catalog of the German National Library

1930 births
1980 deaths
People from Greifswald
Writers from the Province of Pomerania
East German writers
Writers from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
20th-century German novelists
German male novelists
20th-century German male writers
Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany
Heinrich Mann Prize winners
Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze

Herbert Nachbar


Turntables of the Night is a short story by Terry Pratchett.

It was written in 1989, and first published in Hidden Turnings, an anthology of short stories edited by Diana Wynne Jones. It was later republished as part of The Flying Sorcerers, an anthology of humorous short stories edited by Peter Haining.

The story is narrated by a man who is the friend of an avid record collector named Wayne. Wayne and the narrator begin an unsuccessful business as disc jockeys. Later, the narrator describes the night that Wayne was taken by Death.

External links

Full text of Turntables of the night

Fantasy short stories
1989 short stories

Turntables of the Night


Waris () is a Pakistani television drama serial created by PTV, written by Amjad Islam Amjad, directed by Ghazanfer Ali and Nusrat Thakur.

The first episode was aired from PTV-Lahore on Saturday 29 December 1979 and the last on 22 March 1980 and was an acclaimed mega hit. The show had 21 episodes, each almost one-hour long.

Plot

A Pakistani feudal lord (zamindar), Chaudhry Hashmat rules his fiefdom, Sikandarpur with an iron grip. Along with his son Chaudhry Yaqub and two grandsons Chaudhry Anwar Ali and Chaudhry Niaz Ali (sons of his deceased son, Chaudhry Ghulam Ali), he struggles to hold on to his land, (Sikanderpur) which is the proposed site for a dam.

The two grandsons are constantly at loggerheads. The younger one, Chaudhry Anwar Ali is a prodigal scion of a feudal family. He is also ruthless, like his grandfather, Chaudhry Hashmat. The older one, Chaudhry Niaz Ali wishes to escape to the big city, Lahore, but is trapped in the feudal web.

There is vicious intra-family feudal politics at play. Chaudhry Yaqub is eyeing the entire estate of his father Chaudhry Hashmat by attempting to pit Chaudhry Anwar against his older brother Chaudhry Niaz. His machinations are carried out by Mauladad, who is an employee of Chaudhry Anwar. Mauladad is a tough, wily guy employed by Chaudhry Anwar to carry out hit-jobs, abductions, etc.

Fateh Sher is an unknown guy, his true identity is revealed as the drama reaches its climax. Fateh Sher fled to Sikandarpur with his wife Zohra. Zohra was originally engaged to the older nephew of the Chaudhry of Ahmadpur, Hayat Muhammad. Another lead character, Dilawar is the younger nephew of Hayat Muhammad. Zohra's marriage with Fateh Sher causes strife in the village and they had to run for their lives. After moving to Sikandarpur, they start a new life and Fateh Sher assumes a new identity.

Meanwhile, a blood feud ensues between the families of Hayat Muhammad and Fateh Sher. In rural Punjabi culture, it is a huge insult for a man, if his fiancé marries someone else. To avenge this grave insult, Dilawar's older brother launches a failed attack on Fetah Sher's village, where police were lying in wait in anticipation of an attack. To save his older brother, Dilawar gives a false statement to the police saying he launched the attack and not his brother. For this (false) acknowledgement, Dilawar is sentenced to ten years in prison. While Dilawar is serving his term, his older brother goes out to seek and kill Fateh Sher. But before he can get to Fateh Sher, Fateh Sher kills him. These events catalyze a deep rage and hatred in Dilawar against Fateh Sher. Upon his release from prison, he only has one purpose in life - to seek out and kill Fateh Sher.

Fateh Sher was last spotted in Sikandarpur, the fiefdom of Chaudhry Hashmat. It is very difficult for any outsider to come to Sikandarpur without attracting the scrutiny of Chaudhry Hashmat and his servants. To get to Sikandarpur, Dilawar starts working as a servant for Chaudhry Yaqub in Lahore. When Chaudhry Hashmat visits his son Chaudhry Yaqub in Lahore to purchase a high-pedigree dog (Crystal) from Saulat Mirza, the latter turns down all offers, infuriating Chaudhry Hashmat who is not used to taking no for an answer. Seizing the opportunity to earn Chaudhry Hashmat's favor, Dilawar steals the prized dog, Crystal, from Saulat Mirza and brings it to Chaudhry Hashmat. This act endears Dilawar to Chaudhry Hashmat and lets Dilawar into Chaudhry Hashmat's inner circle of confidants and servants. Chaudhry Hashmat takes Dilawar with him to Sikandarpur.

Ironically, the first and only true friend Dilawar makes in Sikandarpur is Mauladad, who in reality is his nemesis Fateh Sher - the person Dilawar is seeking to find and kill.

Cast
 Abid Ali as Dilawar
 Mehboob Alam as Chaudhry Hashmat Khan
 Uzma Gillani as Zakiya Ghulam Ali
 Samina Ahmad as Sughra
 Firdous Jamal as Chaudhry Anwar Ali
 Ghayyur Akhtar as Chaudhry Hayat Muhammad
 Nighat Butt as Zubaida (Wife of Chaudhry Yaqub)
 Tahira Naqvi as Seemi
 Talat Siddiqui as Dilawar's mother
 Reena as Zuhran (Mauladad's wife)
 Munawar Saeed as Chaudhry Yaqub
 Shujaat Hashmi as Mauladad / Fateh Sher
 Aurangzeb Leghari as Chaudhry Niaz Ali
 Agha Sikandar as Farrukh
 Sajjad Kishwar as Sher Muhammad
 Muhammad Ayub as Master Ji
 Amanullah as Cheema Maachi

Notes

References

External links

1970s Pakistani television series
Pakistani drama television series
Pakistan Television Corporation original programming
Urdu-language television shows

Waris (serial)


A Question of Attribution is a 1988 one-act stage play, written by Alan Bennett. It focuses on the British art expert and former Soviet agent, Sir Anthony Blunt. It was premiered at the National Theatre, London, on 1 December 1988, directed by Simon Callow. The stage version of An Englishman Abroad, about Blunt's fellow agent Guy Burgess, was also performed on the same bill. The two plays are collectively called Single Spies.

The play was adapted as a 1991 television film of the same name broadcast as part of the BBC's Screen One series. The film was produced by Innes Lloyd, a long-time collaborator of the author in his television work, and is dedicated to his memory. The New York Times called the film a "razor-sharp psychological melodrama" and it won the 1992 BAFTA TV award for Best Single Drama.

Plot
The play and subsequent film are based on Blunt's role in the Cambridge Spy Ring and, as Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, personal art adviser to Queen Elizabeth II. It portrays his interrogation by an MI5 officer, his work researching and conserving art works, his role as Director of the Courtauld Institute, and his acquaintance with the Queen. Bennett described the piece as an "inquiry in which the circumstances are imaginary but the pictures are real.

While supervising the restoration of a dual portrait in which only partial attribution to Titian is thought credible, Blunt discovers a third figure that had been painted over by an unknown artist, and concludes by comparison with a better known triple portrait in London's National Gallery (Allegory of Prudence) that the newly revealed third figure was Titian's son. As Blunt's public exposure as a spy in 1979 draws near, the play suggests that he has been made a scapegoat to protect others in the security service. At the end of the film, the time of Blunt's exposure, Blunt tells Chubb that X-rays had revealed the presence of a fourth and fifth man.

One of the sub-texts in the scene with the Queen is whether or not Her Majesty knew that Blunt was a former Soviet spy. They briefly discuss the Dutch Vermeer forger Han van Meegeren, and how his paintings now look like fakes, but were accepted as genuine in the (early) 1940s, and touch on the  nature of fakes and secrets. After she has left and an assistant asks what they were talking about, Blunt replies "I was talking about art. I'm not sure that she was."

Casts

Source: Playscript and BBC.

Radio
The play was adapted for radio in 2006, with Edward Petherbridge as Blunt and Prunella Scales as the Queen in the second.

See also
 Cambridge Spies, a 2003 BBC TV series about the Cambridge Ring, and how Blunt came to be a Soviet agent.

References and sources

References

Sources

External links

BBC profile of John Schlesinger, retrieved 17 January 2006

BBC television dramas
Cold War spy films
Films directed by John Schlesinger
Plays by Alan Bennett
Plays set in the United Kingdom
Plays set in the 1960s
British plays adapted into films
Cultural depictions of Elizabeth II
Cultural depictions of the Cambridge Five
Biographical plays about British royalty

A Question of Attribution