Gosport has been politically schizophrenic: an historically safe parliamentary seat for the Conservatives but with local authority control swinging between the Lib Dems and Labour. However, in the 2000 council elections the Conservatives managed a three-seat gain - not enough to give them overall control, but sufficient to run the council.
The history of the seat is closely tied to the sea, and in particular to the Portsmouth naval base. For hundreds of years its inhabitants have been employed there, and the proportion remains high, even after the cutbacks of recent years.
The string of forts which was built around the south of the constituency to protect the harbour still exists today, while major Navy closures have given the opportunity for a major redevelopment of the harbour.
Nevertheless, this is not an impoverished part of the world, as the peninsula sits between the harbour and the Solent and the wealthy sailing communities of both. Perhaps the biggest issue locally is the MoDís proposed closure of Haslar, the military hospital which nevertheless treats 96,000 civilian cases annually.