History
Since its creation in 1955 the seat has switched hands three times between Labour and the Conservatives. The seat has progressively swung towards Labour from being a safe Conservative seat, this was due to housing redevelopments that took place in the sixties and seventies. More recently it has acquired a reputation for electing outspoken MPs, first with the victory of Conservative Anthony Beaumont-Dark in 1979 and then with his defeat by Labour's Lynne Jones in 1992.
Read more about this topic: Birmingham Selly Oak (UK Parliament Constituency)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!
There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“It’s not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)