Mark Fisher
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 9 June 1983 |
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| Preceded by | Robert Cant |
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| Majority | 9,774 (35.0%) |
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| In office 1997 – 1998 |
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| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Virginia Bottomley Secretary of State for National Heritage |
| Succeeded by | Alan Howarth |
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| Born | 29 October 1944 Woking, Surrey, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse | Ingrid Geach Hunt (1975-1999) |
| Relations | Sir Nigel Fisher (father) |
| Children | 4 inc. Crispin Hunt, India Fisher, Francesca Hunt. |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Author, film producer, politician, school principal & screenwriter |
Mark Fisher (born 29 October 1944) is a British politician. He has served as the Labour Member of parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central for the last 25 years and has also spent a short time as Minister for the Arts.
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[edit] Early life
Since the retirement of Tam Dalyell in 2005, Fisher remains the only Labour MP to have been educated at Eton College. He continued his education with a master's degree from Trinity College, Cambridge. On completing his education in 1966 he became a film producer and screenwriter, until 1975 when he became the principal of the Tattenhall Centre of Education in Cheshire, where he remained until his election to Westminster.
[edit] Family
Mark Fisher is the son of Sir Nigel Fisher, the former Conservative MP for Surbiton and Lady Gloria Vaughan, daughter of the 7th Earl of Lisburne.
[edit] Political career
Fisher unsuccessfully contested Leek at the 1979 general election but was defeated by David Knox by 10,571 votes. He was elected as a councillor to the Staffordshire County Council in 1981 and remained a councillor until he stood down in 1985.
He was elected as an MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central at the 1983 general election following the retirement of the sitting Labour MP Robert Cant. Fisher held the seat with a majority of 8,250 and has remained the MP for the centre of Stoke-on-Trent since.
In parliament Fisher served on the Treasury Select Committee for three years from 1983. In 1985 he was appointed as an Opposition Whip by Neil Kinnock for a year in 1985. Following the 1987 General Election he became the opposition spokesman on arts and media and following the 1992 general election he became the spokesman on the Citizen's Charter, a year later in 1993, however, he was back as a spokesman at the newly named Department for National Heritage.
After the Labour victory at the 1997 general Election he was appointed as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as the Arts Minister by new prime minister Tony Blair. He rebelled against the government by voting against the party whip on the Competition Act 1998, later he was sacked by Blair in his first reshuffle in 1998, and Fisher has remained on the backbenches since.
He has served as the Patron for the National Benevolent Fund for the Aged since 1986, and was a member of the BBC General Advisory Council for ten years from 1987. He also served as a council member of the Institute for Policy Studies 1985-1995, and was the deputy Pro Chancellor of Keele University from 1989 until his entry to government in 1997. In 2000 he was a visiting fellow at St. Antony's College, Oxford.
In June 2009 he called on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to resign.[1]
[edit] Political views
On 31 October 2006, Fisher was one of 12 Labour MPs to back Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party's call for an inquiry into the Iraq War.[2]
He also opposes foundation hospitals and the Trident system, voting against these issues in the House of Commons.
[edit] Personal life
Fisher married Ingrid Geech Hunt in 1971 and fathered two children, Rhydian Fisher, and the actress India Fisher, as well as taking over the upbringing of Hunt's two children by her previous marriage, the musician Crispin Hunt and the actress Francesca Hunt. The couple divorced in 1999. He is self-effacing and has compared himself to looking like Humpty Dumpty.
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"Tony Blair manages to give the impression that he doesn't like trade unions, local authorities or the Labour party - people have sensed this and they don't like it"
—Fisher after the 2005 election[3]
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[edit] Bibliography
- (1974) Brave New Town
- (1988) City Centres, City Cultures
- (1990) The Cutting Room
- (1991) Whose Cities? by Mark Fisher and Ursula Owen, (Penguin Books Ltd)
- (1992) A New London by Richard Rogers and Mark Fisher, (Penguin Books Ltd) (ISBN 0-14-015794-8)
- (2004) Britain's Best Museums and Galleries (Allen Lane) (ISBN 0-7139-9575-0)
[edit] References
- ^ "Mark Fisher calls on Gordon Brown to stand down". The Sentinel. June 05, 2009. http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Breaking-News-Mark-Fisher-calls-Gordon-Brown-stand/article-1055558-detail/article.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-05.
- ^ "Labour MPs who rebelled on Iraq". BBC News. 31 October, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6104310.stm. Retrieved on 2006-10-31.
- ^ "People > MPs > Labour > Mark Fisher". The Guardian. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,,-1728,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-05.
[edit] External links
- [1] personal site
- Voting Record publicwhip.org.uk
- Profile at theyworkforyou.com
- Profile at BBC.co.uk
- Contact Details guardian.co.uk
