Politics
Bartley Green has been part of the Edgbaston Constituency of Birmingham since 1997, having previously been in the neighbouring Birmingham Northfield Constituency. Since its inclusion, the Labour Party have finished first in every General Election, even defying the national trend in 2010, when the party clung on with a majority of 1,274. It is represented by Labour MP Gisela Stuart, who has held the seat since 1997, replacing Conservative Dame Jill Knight in the year of Tony Blair's landslide victory. Unlike any other UK constituency, Edgbaston has had a female Member of Parliament since 1953.
In the 2005 General Election, Gisela held her seat with a decreased majority of 2,349: a -5.3% swing, winning ahead of the Conservative candidate Deirdre Alden, Mike Dixon of the Liberal Democrats, Peter Green of the Green Party and Stephen White of United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).
Like other wards within the Edgbaston constituency such as Harborne and the Edgbaston ward itself, Bartley Green is a safe Conservative ward at Birmingham City Council level, with all three serving councillors - John Lines, Vivienne Barton and Bruce Lines (son of John) - representing the party.
The ward has adopted a Ward Support Officer, with the current holder of the status being Tina Willetts.
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Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“All politics takes place on a slippery slope. The most important four words in politics are “up to a point.””
—George F. Will (b. 1941)
“We are naïve and moralistic women. We are human beings. Who find politics a blight upon the human condition. And do not know how one copes with it except through politics.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)
“I have come to the conclusion that the closer people are to what may be called the front lines of government ... the easier it is to see the immediate underbrush, the individual tree trunks of the moment, and to forget the nobility the usefulness and the wide extent of the forest itself.... They forget that politics after all is only an instrument through which to achieve Government.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)