History
Sir Edward Heath, prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974, held this seat and its predecessors from 1950, and announced his retirement at the end of the 1997-2001 parliament; at the age of 85 he was by now the nation's oldest member of parliament.
His successor was Derek Conway, elected as a Conservative Party candidate. However on 29 January 2008 the Conservative Party withdrew the whip from Derek Conway following alleged misuse of funds, and he became an Independent MP. He retired in 2010, and was succeeded by the Conservative James Brokenshire, who had transferred to this seat when his former seat of Hornchurch was abolished in boundary changes.
Read more about this topic: Old Bexley And Sidcup (UK Parliament Constituency)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)
“the future is simply nothing at all. Nothing has happened to the present by becoming past except that fresh slices of existence have been added to the total history of the world. The past is thus as real as the present.”
—Charlie Dunbar Broad (1887–1971)
“If you look at the 150 years of modern China’s history since the Opium Wars, then you can’t avoid the conclusion that the last 15 years are the best 15 years in China’s modern history.”
—J. Stapleton Roy (b. 1935)