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Reading West (UK Parliament Constituency)
Reading West was a List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat was abolished. Its area was transferred to the new constituencies of Earley and Woodley (UK Parliament constituency), Earley and Woodley (Whitley ward), Reading Central (UK Parliament constituency), Reading Central (Battle, Minster and Southcote wards), and Reading West and Mid Berkshire (UK Parliament constituency), Reading West and Mid Berkshire (all other wards). These constituencies were first contested at the 2024 United Kingdom general election, 2024 general election. Constituency profile Since its 1983 creation the constituency was a bellwether paradigm example of a marginal seat. Boundary changes for the 2010 election took in areas of population expansion to the east ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Boundary Commission For England
In the United Kingdom, the boundary commissions are non-departmental public bodies responsible for determining the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies for elections to the House of Commons. There are four boundary commissions: one each for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Each commission comprises four members, three of whom take part in meetings. The speaker of the House of Commons chairs each of the boundary commissions ''ex officio'' but does not play any part in the review, and a High Court judge is appointed to each boundary commission as deputy chair. Considerations and process The boundary commissions, which are required to report every eight years, must apply a set series of rules when devising constituencies. These rules are set out in the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986, as amended by the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 and subsequently by the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020. Firstly, each proposed const ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cabinet Of The United Kingdom
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the senior decision-making body of the Government of the United Kingdom. A committee of the Privy Council (United Kingdom), Privy Council, it is chaired by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister and its members include Secretary of State (United Kingdom), Secretaries of State and senior Minister of State (United Kingdom), Ministers of State. Members of the Cabinet are appointed by the Prime Minister and are by convention chosen from members of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Ministerial Code says that the business of the Cabinet (and United Kingdom cabinet committee, cabinet committees) is mainly questions of major issues of policy, questions of critical importance to the public and questions on which there is an unresolved argument between departments. The work of the Cabinet is scrutinised by the Official Opp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alok Sharma
Alok Kumar Sharma, Baron Sharma, (born 7 September 1967), is a British Conservative Party politician. He served as President for COP26 from 2021 to 2022, having previously served as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 2020 to 2021 and Secretary of State for International Development from 2019 to 2020. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Reading West from 2010 to 2024 and has been a member of the House of Lords since 2024. Sharma served in Theresa May's government as Minister of State for Housing from 2017 to 2018 and as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment from 2018 to 2019. Sharma was the president for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) and negotiated the Glasgow Climate Pact. Early life and career Sharma was born in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India, and moved to Reading with his parents when he was five years old. He is a Hindu. His father, Prem, was involved in Conservative politics in Reading, and b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2010 United Kingdom General Election
The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, to elect 650 Members of Parliament (or MPs) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. The first to be held after the minimum age for candidates was reduced from Electoral Administration Act 2006, 21 to 18, it resulted in the Brown ministry, Labour government losing its 2005 United Kingdom general election, 66-seat majority to the Shadow Cabinet of David Cameron, Conservative opposition; however, with the Conservative Party (UK), Conservatives only having 306 elected MPs, this election resulted in the first hung parliament since February 1974 United Kingdom general election, February 1974. This election marked the start of a Conservative government that would last for 14 years until its ousting in 2024 United Kingdom general election, 2024. For the leaders of all three major political parties, this was their first general election contest as party leader, something that had last been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997 and held various shadow cabinet posts from 1987 to 1994. Blair was Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield (UK Parliament constituency), Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007, and was special envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East from 2007 to 2015. He is the second-List of prime ministers of the United Kingdom by length of tenure, longest-serving prime minister in post-war British history after Margaret Thatcher, the longest-serving Labour Party (UK), Labour politician to have held the office, and the first and only person to date to lead the party to three consecutive general election victories. Blair attended the independent s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party, often referred to as Labour, is a List of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom that sits on the Centre-left politics, centre-left of the political spectrum. The party has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. It is one of the Two-party system, two dominant political parties in the United Kingdom; the other being the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party. Labour has been led by Keir Starmer since 2020 Labour Party leadership election (UK), 2020, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the 2024 United Kingdom general election, 2024 general election. To date, there have been 12 Labour governments and seven different Labour Prime Ministers – Ramsay MacDonald, MacDonald, Clement Attlee, Attlee, Harold Wilson, Wilson, James Callaghan, Callaghan, Tony Blair, Blair, Gordon Brown, Brown and Starmer. The Labour Party was founded in 1900, having e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Salter
Martin John Salter (born 19 April 1954) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Reading West (UK Parliament constituency), Reading West from 1997 United Kingdom general election, 1997 to 2010 United Kingdom general election, 2010. Early life and career Born to Ray and Naomi Salter in Hampton, Middlesex, he received a grammar school education before attending the University of Sussex, though he left before gaining a degree, saying 'academic life was not for him – "I wanted to do politics, not study it"'. Both his parents were active trade unionists, and grandfather George Baker was sent to Wormwood Scrubs (HM Prison), Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1917 as a First World War conscientious objector. He cites his politics teacher from the age of 14 for developing his political interest, when he took him to the Politics Society in Kingston to hear Tony Benn speak, saying that his teacher 'spotted something in me, a real interest'. Starting in 1975, S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Robert Anthony Bevis Durant
Sir Robert Anthony Bevis Durant (9 January 1928 – 18 February 2016), also known as Tony Durant, was a British Conservative Party politician. Political career Durant stood unsuccessfully for Rother Valley in the 1970 general election; the seat was retained by Labour's Peter Hardy. In 1971 Durant supported Margaret Thatcher's decision to end free school milk on the grounds that many children did not like it. He was the Member of Parliament for Reading North from 1974 to 1983. After Reading's constituencies underwent boundary changes, he was the Member of Parliament for Reading West from 1983 to 1997. During his time in the Commons, he acted as a Whip. Announced in the 1991 New Year Honours, he was knighted on 14 February 1991. In 1994, he successfully campaigned for the lowering of the homosexual age of consent. He retired from politics at the 1997 UK general election. Durant served as president of the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust and the River Thames Society, chairma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Reading Railway Station
Reading railway station is a major transport hub in the town of Reading, Berkshire, Reading in Berkshire, England, it is west of . It is sited on the northern edge of the town centre, near to the main retail and commercial areas and the River Thames. It is the busiest station in Berkshire, and the third busiest in South East England. Reading is the ninth busiest railway station in the UK outside London and the second busiest interchange station outside London. The station is managed by Network Rail and is served by four train operating company, train operating companies: Great Western Railway (train operating company), Great Western Railway, CrossCountry, South Western Railway (train operating company), South Western Railway and the Elizabeth line. History Original station The first Reading station was opened on 30 March 1840 as the temporary western terminus of the original line of the Great Western Railway (GWR). The time taken to travel from London to Reading was reduced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
