  bruce thomas george (born 1 june 1942) is a british labour party politician, who served as the member of parliament (mp) for walsall south from february 1974 until april 2010. george was born in wales in 1942 and was educated at the mountain ash grammar school and the university of wales, swansea, where he was awarded a bachelor of arts degree in political theory and government. he finished his education at the university of warwick where he earned a master's degree in comparative politics. he was an assistant lecturer in social studies at the glamorgan polytechnic from 1964 to 1966. he lectured in politics at the manchester polytechnic from 1968 until he became a senior politics lecturer at the birmingham polytechnic in 1970. he left this post when he was elected to parliament in 1974. he was also a tutor with the open university from 1970 until 1973. george contested southport at the 1970 general election but was defeated by the sitting conservative mp, ian percival, coming third in the poll. he was elected to the house of commons for walsall south at the february 1974 general election when he defeated the conservative candidate by 1,580 votes. george served as a member of the house of commons defence select committee from 1979 until 2005, serving as chairman of the committee from 1997 to 2005. he became a member of the [[privy council of the un
1942_births Academics_of_Birmingham_City_University Academics_of_Manchester_Metropolitan_University Academics_of_the_Open_University Academics_of_the_University_of_Essex Academics_of_the_University_of_Glamorgan Alumni_of_Swansea_University Alumni_of_the_University_of_Warwick Labour_Party_(UK)_MPs Living_people Members_of_the_Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom_for_English_constituencies Members_of_the_Privy_Council_of_the_United_Kingdom UK_MPs_1974 UK_MPs_1974a79 UK_MPs_1979a83 UK_MPs_1983a87 UK_MPs_1987a92 UK_MPs_1992a97 UK_MPs_1997a2001 UK_MPs_2001a05 UK_MPs_2005a10