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:
“There is nothing truer than myth: history, in its attempt to “realize” myth, distorts it, stops halfway; when history claims to have “succeeded” this is nothing but humbug and mystification. Everything we dream is “realizable.” Reality does not have to be: it is simply what it is.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)