Clive Ponting is a British writer and academic.

Formerly a civil servant, Clive Ponting achieved notoriety in 1984, when he admitted having leaked information to Labour MP, Tam Dalyell, about the sinking of the General Belgrano, a key incident in the Falklands War of 1982. He was charged under Section Two of the 1911 Official Secrets Act, and was confidently expected to go to prison. His defence rested on two issues: that the matter was in the public interest, and that disclosure to a Member of Parliament was privileged. On February 11, 1985, he was acquitted by a jury, despite the judge's direction that "the public interest is what the government of the day says it is". The case was a milestone in British legal history and led to the removal of the public interest defence from the 1989 Official Secrets Act. 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sir Thomas Dalyell of the Binns, 11th Baronet (born August 9, 1932), more commonly known as Tam Dalyell (pronounced ), is a British politician and was a Labour member of the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005. ... The Belgrano as she was in 1941 as the USS Phoenix passing Battleship row at Pearl Harbor The ARA General Belgrano was an Armada República Argentina cruiser sunk, with significant loss of life, in a controversial incident during the Falklands War. ... The Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas), was a war between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands (also known in Spanish as the Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, occurring between April and June of 1982. ... The Official Secrets Act is any of several Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament for the protection of official information, mainly related to national security. ... February 11 is the 42nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... This article is about the year. ...

Ponting served as a Reader in the Department of politics and International Relations at the University of Wales, Swansea until his retirement in 2004. He has written numerous books on political history, including A Green History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations, a biography of Winston Churchill Armageddon: The Second World War, The Pimlico History of the Twentieth Century, and an account of the Crimean War. Politics, sometimes defined as the art and science of government. ... The University of Wales, Swansea was founded in 1920 as University College, Swansea, the fourth college of the University of Wales, following the report of the Haldane Commission into University Education in Wales. ... The Rt Hon. ... Combatants United Kingdom, France, Ottoman Empire, Sardinia Imperial Russia Strength 250,000 British 400,000 French 10,000 Sardinian 1,200,000 Russian Casualties 17,500 British 30,000 French 2,050 Sardinian killed and wounded 256,000 killed and wounded The Crimean War lasted from 28 March 1854 until...

See also

• Sarah Tisdall
• Patrick Haseldine
• Tam Dalyell

Sarah Tisdall was the Foreign and Commonwealth Office clerical officer who in 1983 gave the Guardian documents detailing when American cruise missile nuclear weapons would be arriving in the United Kingdom. ... Patrick Haseldine at N°10 Downing Street in July 1994 Patrick Haseldine (born July 11, 1942 in Leytonstone) attended St Ignatius College (1953–58), a grammar school in north London. ... Sir Thomas Dalyell of the Binns, 11th Baronet (born August 9, 1932), more commonly known as Tam Dalyell (pronounced ), is a British politician and was a Labour member of the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005. ...

External links

• A Green History of the World