Mark Fisher

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Mark Fisher (born October 29, 1944) is a British politician. He is the Labour Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central

Mark Fisher is the son of the former Conservative MP for Surbiton Sir Nigel Fisher. Since the retirement of Tam Dalyell in 2005, he 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 scriptwriter, until 1975 when he became the principal of the Tattenhall Centre of Education in Cheshire, where he remained until his election to Westminster.

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 a 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 successful 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. However, 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 the Keele University from 1989 until his entry to government in 1997. In 2000 he was a visiting fellow at the St. Anthony's College, Oxford.

He married Ingrid Geach Hunt in 1971 and their four children include musician Crispin Hunt and actresses India Fisher and Francesca Hunt. The couple divorced in 1999. He is self-effacing and has compared himself to looking like Humpty Dumpty.

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Publications

Brave New Town by Mark Fisher, 1974
City Centres, City Cultures by Mark Fisher, 1988
The Cutting Room by Mark Fisher, 1990
Whose Cities? by Mark Fisher and Ursula Owen, 1991, Penguin Books Ltd
A New London by Richard Rogers and Mark Fisher, 1992, Penguin Books Ltd ISBN 0140157948
Britain's Best Museums and Galleries by Mark Fisher, 2004, Allen Lane ISBN 0713995750

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