History
Eastleigh was a fairly safe seat for the Conservatives for nearly forty years until the death of its then MP, former journalist Stephen Milligan, in 1994. At the subsequent by-election, the Liberal Democrats gained the seat on a very large swing, and have since held Eastleigh in the four following General Elections, though with somewhat narrow majorities.
The current MP, Chris Huhne, has gained national attention first as environment spokesman, then as Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, having previously stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for party leader in 2006 against Sir Menzies Campbell and again in 2007 against Nick Clegg. Following the 2010 general election, Huhne joined the coalition government's cabinet as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, but resigned in February 2012 after being charged with perverting the course of justice over a speeding case.
Read more about this topic: Eastleigh (UK Parliament Constituency)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Every member of the family of the future will be a producer of some kind and in some degree. The only one who will have the right of exemption will be the mother ...”
—Ruth C. D. Havens, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)