And goodbye from them

Changing face of the House

By BBC News Online political correspondent Nick Assinder

New Labour's historic landslide election victory in 1997 transformed the demography of the House of Commons.

Old stagers, mostly Conservatives of course, disappeared. And suddenly the green government benches were packed with eager, gleaming new faces.

The year 2001 is likely to see an even more momentous change.

Heath: 50 years of service

Assuming, as just about everybody does, that the election is held this spring, a host of familiar figures who have announced their retirement will leave the Commons.

They include two former Tory prime ministers, one ex-Liberal Democrat and one ex-SDP leader, a former head of the SNP, and Labour's most respected left-winger.

The big names

More than 60 MPs have already announced they will stand down at the next election. At the last count there were 22 Tories, 30 Labour, seven Liberal Democrats and about the same number of "others".

Among the Tories is onetime prime minister Sir Edward Heath. After more than 50 years as an MP, the "Father of the House" has called time.

Sir Edward will be remembered as the prime minister who took Britain into Europe - and who never forgave Margaret Thatcher.

Also going is his fellow former prime minister John Major.

Most believe history will treat Mr Major far better than his contemporaries did.

Tony Benn: The veteran parliamentarian is respected across the House

He pulled off a shock election victory for the Tories in 1992 but never managed to heal the rifts over Europe which split his party all the way to the 1997 poll - and beyond.

Farewell too to former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine, the man who never made the top job.

After plotting his political rise on the back of an envelope while at university, he came close in 1990 to seizing the Tory leadership only to be beaten by John Major.

Many Conservatives will never forgive the "blonde bombshell" for his political assassination of Margaret Thatcher.

Labour MPs quitting include Tony Benn, the man who so nearly became the party's deputy leader and who for a generation was the rallying point for the left.

He is held in immense respect even by his opponents and is one of the last great Commons performers. He has declared that he is stepping down as an MP to concentrate on politics.

Mo Mowlam, too, is taking her leave. "Saint" Mo is universally loved amongst ordinary Labour voters but ill-health and a bit of back-biting in New Labour's inner circles has tainted her career.

Her spell as Northern Ireland secretary was turbulent and she is still threatening to tell all about the spin doctors who she accuses of having tried to undermine her.

Ron Davies is also departing Westminster. The fatally flawed former Welsh Labour leader fell spectacularly from grace after his "moment of madness" on Clapham Common.

He refused to explain himself properly and never recovered. He has made clear he sees his political future firmly in Wales, where he is a member of the devolved assembly there.

Ashdown was clsoe to power

Whether that future will be much of one, however, remains doubtful.

The rest

From the other parties, former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown is the most prominent figure to be saying goodbye to the life of an MP.

He was arguably the most successful of his party's leaders in recent times and brought it close to government through the loose alliance with Labour.

He wanted, and had dangled before him, seats for his party at the cabinet table but Tony Blair changed his mind after his 1997 landslide.

His fellow Lib Dem Robert Maclennan was, briefly, leader of the SDP. Its aim was to break the mould of British politics but the party ended up breaking itself.

He successfully, if tearfully, handled the negotiations which led to the party's eventual merger with the Liberals.

Former SNP leader Alex Salmond will be remembered as the man who steered the party through devolution and put his troops on standby for power.

He boosted the nationalists standing in Scotland but, with the breakthrough still only on the distant horizon, stood down.

From no party, though originally elected as a Labour MP, Betty Boothroyd has already left, swiftly taking up a peerage on her retirement this year as Commons speaker.

Tragic departures

Finally, however, there were those departures this year resulting from tragedy: the deaths of Audrey Wise, Bernie Grant and Donald Dewar were great losses to the Labour Party and to politics, as was Michael Colvin's to the Tories.