Oliver Popplewell vice-chairman of the Parole Board, and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. In 1975 he defended his godson Stephen Fry, who was 18 at the time, at his trial for credit card fraud. Popplewell and his wife had long been friends of Fry's parents. Stephen Fry writes about the event in his autobiography "Moab Is My Washpot". Following the fire at Valley Parade, the Bradford City stadium, on 11 May 1985, Popplewell was chosen to chair an inquiry held under the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975. Following this inquiry, he was chosen to chair a Committee of
Can't Is Not an Option story of the daughter of two Sikh immigrants from the Punjab "inspiring," quoting Haley's account of her parents leaving behind “a culture and a political system that judges people by the family or the caste or religion they come from” to come to America and “stand before the law and before government as individuals, not as members of a group … They might succeed and they might fail. But they wouldn’t have the game rigged against them because of who they were.” Can't Is Not an Option "Can't Is Not an Option: My American Story" is an autobiography by former