Eastbourne is, like nearby Brighton, an eighteenth-century beach resort. It prides itself on its "quiet charm and elegance". As such, it attracts a significant number of retirees: nearly a third of the population is of pensionable age, ranking the constituency 6th in England and Wales. This serene social fabric covers a rather more turbulent recent political history.
A 72-year Conservative lease on the constituency was lost in 1990, when the sitting MP, Ian Gow, was killed outside his constituency home by an IRA car bomb. The Lib Dems won an improbable by-election victory, with a 20% swing putting David Bellotti in the House of Commons. But, as the two other Lib Dem by-election victories were erased at the subsequent General Election, so was Eastbourne. Tory Nigel Waterson was elected in 1992 with a respectable 5,000 vote majority.
There are some small to medium-sized firms based here but although the main industry, tourism, has been in decline over the last twenty years, Eastbourne has benefited from growth in the economy. Unemployment is below the national average - higher than the surrounding rural areas but below the levels in Brighton and Hastings.
HOMEPAGE | NEWS | WORLD SERVICE | SPORT | MY BBC
