Reading East (UK Parliament Constituency)
Reading East was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. In the 2019–2024 Parliament, it was one of two Labour seats from a total of eight seats in Berkshire. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat was abolished. The area was transferred to the new constituencies of Earley and Woodley (Bulmershe and Whitegates, Church, Loddon and South Lake wards) and Reading Central (all other wards). These constituencies were first contested at the 2024 general election. Constituency profile The seat contained the University of Reading and most of its students. The Thames Valley Business Park is in another part of the seat, hosting multinational and cutting-edge technology companies in the software and advanced computer science areas. Adjoining the redeveloped heart of town are a handful mid-rise blocks of ex-council flats and serried ranks of former relatively philanthropic biscuit, brick and seed ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London to the east, Surrey to the south-east, Hampshire to the south, and Wiltshire to the west. Reading, Berkshire, Reading is the largest settlement and the county town. The county has an area of and a population of 911,403. The population is concentrated in the east, the area closest to Greater London, which includes the county's largest towns: Reading (174,224), Slough (164,793), Bracknell (113,205), and Maidenhead (70,374). The west is rural, and its largest town is Newbury, Berkshire, Newbury (33,841). For local government purposes Berkshire comprises six Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas: Bracknell Forest, Borough of Reading, Reading, Borough of Slough, Slough, West Berkshire, Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Thames Valley Business Park
Thames Valley Park (also known as TVP) is a high-tech business park adjacent to the River Thames on the eastern outskirts of Earley, Berkshire, Earley in Berkshire, England. Companies based at the park include BBC Radio Berkshire, Steria, Silicon Graphics, SGI, Regus, Websense, Oracle Corporation, Oracle, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, OpenText, ING Direct, Huawei and Vistra (services company), Vistra. There is also a day-care nursery and a David Lloyd club on-site. The business park also features a nature reserve with several lakes which provide access to the nearby Thames Path. The site had formerly been Earley Power Station, which had been operational from the early 1940s until the early 1970s. Transport links Thames Valley Park is at the northern terminus of the A3290 (formerly part of the A329(M) motorway, A329(M)), which connects to the M4 motorway, M4 and the A4 road (Great Britain), A4. A Zero-fare public transport, free bus service links TVP to Reading railway station, w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2001 United Kingdom General Election
The 2001 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 7 June 2001, four years after the previous election on 1 May 1997, to elect 659 members to the House of Commons. The governing Labour Party led by Prime Minister Tony Blair was re-elected to serve a second term in government with another landslide victory with a 166-seat majority, returning 412 members of Parliament versus 418 from the previous election, a net loss of six seats, although with a significantly lower turnout than before—59.4%, compared to 71.6% at the previous election. The number of votes Labour received fell by nearly three million. Blair went on to become the only Labour prime minister to serve two consecutive full terms in office. As Labour retained almost all of their seats won in the 1997 landslide victory, the media dubbed the 2001 election "the quiet landslide". There was little change outside Northern Ireland, with 620 out of the 641 seats in Great Britain electing candidates from the sam ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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First Blair Ministry
The first Blair ministry lasted from May 1997 to June 2001. Following eighteen years in opposition, Labour Party (UK), Labour ousted the Conservative Party (UK), Conservatives at the 1997 United Kingdom general election, May 1997 election with a 179-seat majority. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who turned 44 years old days after leading Labour to victory, was the youngest prime minister of the twentieth century. Cabinet Changes *July 1998 – 1999 British cabinet reshuffle * October 1998 – Alun Michael becomes Welsh Secretary. Ron Davies (Welsh politician), Ron Davies leaves the Cabinet. *December 1998 – Peter Mandelson is dismissed from the cabinet over a secret home loan he received from Geoffrey Robinson (politician), Geoffrey Robinson. Stephen Byers becomes Trade & Industry Secretary. Alan Milburn becomes Chief Secretary to the Treasury. * May 1999 – John Reid, Baron Reid of Cardowan, John Reid becomes Scottish Secretary. D ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Backbencher
In Westminster system, Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no Minister (government), governmental office and is not a Frontbencher, frontbench spokesperson in the Parliamentary opposition, Opposition, being instead simply a member of the "wikt:rank and file, rank and file". The term dates from 1855. The term derives from the fact that they sit physically behind the frontbench in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. A backbencher may be a new parliamentary member yet to receive a high office, a senior figure dropped from government, someone who for whatever reason is not chosen to sit in the government or an opposition spokesperson (such as a shadow cabinet if one exists), or someone who prefers to be a background influence, not in the spotlight. In most parliamentary systems, individual backbenchers have little power to affect government policy. However, they play a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jane Griffiths (politician)
Jane Patricia Griffiths (born 17 April 1954) is a British linguist and politician. She was elected as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for the Reading East parliamentary constituency at the 1997 general election. In 2004, Griffiths was deselected as the Labour candidate for Reading East by her local party. Consequently, she did not stand for re-election. Early life Attending Cedars Grammar School in Leighton Buzzard, Griffiths later studied at the University of Durham, gaining a degree in Russian. From 1977 to 1985, she was a linguist at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and from 1984 to 1997 the Asia editor for BBC Monitoring. At one stage, she was also an English teacher. Politics Griffiths' political career began in 1989 when she was elected to Reading Borough Council. She sat on the council, as a Labour member, until 1999. Prior to the 1997 general election, Griffiths was selected as the Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for the Read ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1997 United Kingdom General Election
The 1997 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 1 May 1997. The governing Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party led by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister John Major was defeated in a Landslide victory, landslide by the opposition Labour Party (UK), Labour Party led by Tony Blair, achieving a 179-seat majority and a total of 418 seats. This was the first victory for the Labour party in a general election in nearly 23 years, its previous one registering a majority of 3 seats in October 1974 United Kingdom general election, October 1974 under the leadership of Harold Wilson. It was also Labour's first comprehensive victory over the Conservatives since the 1966 United Kingdom general election, 1966 election, which had produced a 100-seat majority. This election also marked Labour's highest vote share since the 1970 United Kingdom general election, 1970 election and its second highest total number of votes in history (the largest being the 1951 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gerard Vaughan (British Politician)
Sir Gerard Folliott Vaughan (11 June 1923 – 29 July 2003) was a British psychiatrist and politician, who reached ministerial rank during the Thatcher administration. Vaughan's political career ended after a battle with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's Joan Ruddock over the government's grant to the Citizens Advice Bureau. He lost his government post and was no longer active in politics from that point on. Early life Gerard Folliott Vaughan was the son of a sugar planter, born and educated in what is now Mozambique. During the Second World War, his father joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot, and was killed. Medical career Vaughan studied medicine in London, attending the University of London, Guy's Hospital, and the Maudsley Hospital. He eventually became the consultant in charge of the Bloomfield Clinic at Guy's Hospital, serving in that role from 1958 to 1979. Politics Vaughan became involved in Conservative Party politics in the mid-1950s, serving as an alderma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Liberal Democrats (UK)
The Liberal Democrats, colloquially known as the Lib Dems, are a Liberalism, liberal political party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1988. They are based at Liberal Democrat Headquarters (UK), Liberal Democrat Headquarters, in Westminster, and the leader is Ed Davey. They are the third-largest political party in the United Kingdom, party in the United Kingdom, with 72 Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. They have members of the House of Lords, 5 in the Scottish Parliament, 1 in the Welsh Senedd, and more than 3,000 local council seats. The party holds a twice yearly Liberal Democrat Conference, at which policy is formulated. In contrast to its main opponents, the Lib Dems Liberal Democrat Conference#All-member Conference voting system, grant all members attending Conference the right to vote on policy, under a one member, one vote#United Kingdom, one member, one vote system. The p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Green Party Of England And Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW; ), often known simply as the Green Party or the Greens, is a Green politics, green, Left-wing politics, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Since October 2021, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay have served as the party's co-leaders. The party currently has four representatives in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and two in the House of Lords, in addition to more than 800 councillors at the Local government in the United Kingdom, local government level and three members of the London Assembly. The party's ideology combines environmentalism with left-wing economic policies, including well-funded and locally controlled public services. It advocates a steady-state economy with the Economic interventionism, regulation of capitalism, and supports proportional representation. It takes a Progressivism#Contemporary mainstream political conception, progressive approach to social policies such as civil libert ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative and Unionist Party, commonly the Conservative Party and colloquially known as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party. The party sits on the Centre-right politics, centre-right to Right-wing politics, right-wing of the Left–right political spectrum, left-right political spectrum. Following its defeat by Labour at the 2024 United Kingdom general election, 2024 general election it is currently the second-largest party by the number of votes cast and number of seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons; as such it has the formal parliamentary role of His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition. It encompasses various ideological factions including One-nation conservatism, one-nation conservatives, Thatcherism, Thatcherites and Traditionalist conservatism, traditionalist conservatives. There have been 20 Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minis ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Woodley, Berkshire
Woodley is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Wokingham, in Berkshire, England. Woodley is east of Reading and adjoined to Earley which is to the west of the town and Woodley is from Wokingham. Nearby are the villages of Sonning, Twyford, Winnersh, Hurst and Charvil. Woodley is the largest town in Berkshire without a railway station. Toponymy The name Woodley is derived from Old English words meaning "a clearing in the wood". History Woodley was historically part of the ancient parish of Sonning. Woodley was not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The first written record of the name was in the Register of Saint Osmund, who was Bishop of Salisbury between 1078 and 1099. The document states that St Osmund visited Sonning and says: "Osbertus de Woodleghe holds a dwelling house and yard and is able to pasture his pigs on the Lord of the Manor's woods". The 1550 Survey of Sonning includes the first modern spelling of the name Woodley. In the west of Woodley, Ol ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |