18 years ago today..

…MP Glenda Jackson first entered Parliament, beginning life Hampstead and Highgate. That’s not a bad innings is it? And don’t be so convinced it’s going to come crashing to an end, Bowled Fordham, Caught Philp, just yet. It’ll be tight.

On April 9, 1992, she beat Oliver Letwin, ending the Conservative rule in the constituency. She collected 19,193 votes to Letwin’s 17,753.

To think in those 18 years, babies have grown into kids, done their exams, left school, had babies of their own, seen Arsenal win the league five times. All that history: Diana dies, the Twin Towers, Blair, Iraq (twice). The passing of so much time has made Glenda feel like an immovable fixture, as if people in NW3 once accepted the basic facts of life living there as the sky is blue, the Heath is lovely and Glenda Jackson is the MP. There are, after all, people who voted for the first time 18 years ago today who have never known any different.

That mood has clearly changed, she is still not out but the slip fielders seem to be encroaching  in greater numbers. You feel that once you’ve done 18 years, there must be a determination to pass the 20 year milestone as well. She won during Labour’s good times. If she wins in the party’s bad times as well and is still an MP on her 74th birthday (three days after this year’s election, May 9) she’ll still be right on track to mark that achievement.