History
The Wyre Forest constituency was first fought under its present name in the 1983 general election, having succeeded the old Kidderminster seat, and was won for the Conservatives by Esmond Bulmer. Wyre Forest was held with relative ease by the Conservatives' Anthony Coombs in the 1987 and 1992 general elections; however the 1997 Labour landslide saw that party gain the seat with David Lock securing a majority of almost 7,000. Anger over the downgrading of Kidderminster Hospital reflected on Lock at the 2001 election, and Health Concern's Richard Taylor stormed to a decisive victory, then held the seat with a considerably reduced majority in 2005. Taylor lost to the Conservatives in the 2010 general election.
Turnout in the Wyre Forest at general elections has generally been around 2-3% above the national average, but in 2001 the constituency recorded a 68.0% turnout as against 59.4% nationally; this spike (not repeated in 2005) is widely attributed to the intense local feelings on the hospital issue.
Read more about this topic: Wyre Forest (UK Parliament Constituency)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The basic idea which runs right through modern history and modern liberalism is that the public has got to be marginalized. The general public are viewed as no more than ignorant and meddlesome outsiders, a bewildered herd.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“It is my conviction that women are the natural orators of the race.”
—Eliza Archard Connor, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 9, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)