Education
He was educated at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford (DipEcon).
politician Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom
He was educated at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford (DipEcon).
He was MP for Hayes and Harlington from 1983 to his retirement in 1997, having unsuccessfully contested the seat of Bristol South in 1979, when he was defeated by Labour's Michael Cocks. Dicks's opposition to state funding for the arts inspired Labour MP Tony Banks to claim that Dicks' presence in the House of Commons was "living proof that a pig's bladder on a stick can get elected to Parliament". On Derrick Gregory, a mentally subnormal man who had been sentenced to death in Malaysia for drug smuggling, Dicks said he would be writing to the Malaysian government congratulating it on its approach.
On Farzad Bazoft, an Observer journalist hanged by Saddam Hussein in 1990, Dicks said he "deserved to be hanged" on the eve of his execution. "In 1990, when Mr Mandela declined to meet Mrs Thatcher on a trip to London, Conservative MP Terry Dicks asked: "How much longer will the Prime Minister allow herself to be kicked in the face by this black terrorist?""
As an MP, Dicks left a legacy as a critic of high-profile HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns at the time of the emergence of the disease in the 1980s. Frequent controversial jokes furthering these opinions made him an easy target for Labour jibes when he retired in 1997.
His Labour successor, John McDonnell described him as a 'stain', a 'malignant creature', and an espouser of racism, in his maiden speech. Dicks was born with cerebral palsy and referred to himself in the House of Commons as a "spastic". Since 2011, he has been a Runnymede District Councillor for Chertsey South and Row Town.
[49th United Kingdom Parliament. 50th United Kingdom Parliament. 51st United Kingdom Parliament] From 1999 until he retired in June 2009 Dicks was a member of Surrey County Council representing the town of Addlestone.