Oophorectomy is the surgical removal of the ovaries of a female animal. In the case of non-human animals, this is also called spaying. It is a form of sterilization.
The removal of the ovaries together with the Fallopian tubes is called salpingo-oophorectomy. Oophorectomy and salpingo-oophorectomy are not common forms of birth control in humans; more usual is tubal ligation, in which the Fallopian tubes are blocked but the ovaries remain intact.
In humans, oophorectomy is most usually performed together with a hysterectomy - the removal of the uterus. Its use in a hysterectomy when there are no other health problems is somewhat controversial.
In animals, spaying involves an invasive removal of the ovaries, but rarely has major complications; the superstition that it causes weight gain is not based on fact. Spaying is especially important for certain animals that require the ovum to be released at a certain interval (called estrus or "heat"), such as cats and dogs. If the cell is not released during these animal's heat, it can cause severe medical problems that can be averted by spaying or partnering the animal with a male.
Oophorectomy is sometimes referred to as castration, but that term is most often used to mean the removal of a male animal's testicles.
The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a political party of the 1930s in the United Kingdom. The party was formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley and was a union comprised of several small, extreme nationalist parties.
Mosley modelled himself on another fascist leader, Benito Mussolini. He also modeled his party along the lines of fascist movements in other countries, primarily Italy.
He instituted a black uniform, gaining the party the nickname blackshirts. The BUF was anti-communist and protectionist. It supported the replacement of parliamentary democracy with a system of elected executives with jurisdiction over their own industries - something similar to the corporatism of the Italian fascists. The BUF claimed a membership as high as 50,000 at one point, and the Daily Mail was an early supporter, famously running the headline "Hurrah for the Blackshirts!".
However, the BUF's parades of uniformed followers in black shirts won the party widespread derision from many quarters.
Despite considerable resistance - sometimes violent - from Jewish people, the Labour Party, assorted democrats and the Communist Party of Great Britain, they still found a following in the East End of London, where in the LLC elections of 1937 they obtained good results in their strongholds of Bethnal Green, Shoreditch and Limehouse. However the BUF never faced a General Election - feeling unready in 1935, they urged voters to abstain, offering the promise of "Fascism Next Time".
Towards the middle of the 1930s, the BUF's increasingly thuggish and anti-semitic image isolated middle-class supporters who deserted the party in droves. At a rally in London, in 1934, BUF stewards became involved in a violent confrontation with communist hecklers, and this bad publicity caused the Daily Mail to withdraw its support from the party. Many of the party members were drawn from aristocratic and military families and included celebrated military man J.F.C. Fuller.
With its lack of electoral success, the party became more violent and strongly anti-Semitic in 1934-35, evolving into what some people have likened to little more than a bunch of thugs.
Their main activitiy was holding marches and protests that were generally perceived to be on racial themes in London (such as the famous Battle of Cable Street in October 1936). Membership was below 8,000 by the end of 1935. However, the government was sufficiently concerned to pass the Public Order Act of 1936, which banned the wearing of political uniforms during marches, required police consent for political marches to go ahead, and effectively destroyed the movement. The BUF was completely banned in May 1940, and Mosley and 740 other senior fascists were interned for much of World War II.
Mosley made several unsuccessful attempts at a political comeback after the war, most notably in the Union Movement.
See also: Fascism