Scotland has 59 out of the total 650 consituencies that make up the United Kingdom Parliament at Westminster, to which a single member (‘MP’) is elected every 5 years or so (very roughly speaking). Obviously this is a political process with an unpredictable outcome, but this map is about visually connecting the general, geographic & electoral knowledge resources about the consituency that remain valid no matter who is currently elected.
There are 1,227 Local Councillors elected to 354 multi (3 or 4)-member Electoral Wards in Scotland’s 32 Local Councils every 5 years. Though these politicians fundamentally affect our lives on a day-to-day basis through enacting their own party’s local policies, and their oversight of bodies delivering essential services at the local level, it’s difficult to get the big picture AND the detail, AND how both have changed over time, in the one source. This first ever political knowledge map of Scottish Local Government helps solve that problem.