Adopt a Constituency

[Emsworth]

Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale (quite a mouthful, but not as bad as some others)

Candidates:
*Sean Marshall (Lab)
*David Mundell (Con)
*Patsy Kenton (Lib Dem)
*Andrew Wood (SNP)
*Antony Lee (UKIP)
*Sarah McTavish (SSP)

This is constituency is a newly created one, and did not exist in 2001. However, according to the BBC website, the wards which now comprise the constituency split with approximately 37% for Labour, 25% for the Conservatives, and 22% for the Lib Dems. This should be an interesting three-way race again.

I would have voted for Mundell, the Conservative.

[Emsworth]

I wish Dunwich was still a constituency.  :-)

Isn't Dunwich the rotten borough that continued to send two MPs to Parliament even after most of the village had been lost to sea erosion?

[Emsworth]

I wish Dunwich was still a constituency.  :-)

Isn't Dunwich the rotten borough that continued to send two MPs to Parliament even after most of the village had been lost to sea erosion?

I never tire of Dunwich references.

It might have been the scource name for Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror," as well.

I actually had hear of the borough prior to hearing of Lovecraft.  (Ah, my misspent youth.)

When speaking of rotten boroughs, however, I think that the usual reference is to Old Sarum.

[Emsworth]

I wish Dunwich was still a constituency.  :-)

Isn't Dunwich the rotten borough that continued to send two MPs to Parliament even after most of the village had been lost to sea erosion?

I never tire of Dunwich references.
It might have been the scource name for Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror," as well.
I actually had hear of the borough prior to hearing of Lovecraft.  (Ah, my misspent youth.)

When speaking of rotten boroughs, however, I think that the usual reference is to Old Sarum.

Gatten

Having just read up on rotten boroughs, it seems that Gatten had just two voters. Rather surprisingly, however, Gatten was not the worst of the constituencies in Britain: that distinction would seem to go to the Scottish county of Bute, which in one year saw only a single voter vote - for himself.

[Emsworth]

Well this really due to turnout, as Bute had 21 voters at the time (okay 20 of them didn't live there).  I think it was 1831.

The quotation from Erskine May's Constitutional History is:

"A case of inconceivable grotesqueness was related by the Lord Advocate, in 1831. The county of Bute, with a population of fourteen thousand, had twenty-one electors, of whom one only resided in the county. 'At an election at Bute, not beyond the memory of man, only one person attended the meeting, except the sheriff and the returning officer. He, of course, took the chair, constituted the meeting, called over the roll of freeholders, answered to his own name, took the vote as to the Preses, and elected himself. He then moved and seconded his own nomination, put the question as to the vote, and was unanimously returned.' "

[Emsworth]

Well this really due to turnout, as Bute had 21 voters at the time (okay 20 of them didn't live there).  I think it was 1831.

The quotation from Erskine May's Constitutional History is:

"A case of inconceivable grotesqueness was related by the Lord Advocate, in 1831. The county of Bute, with a population of fourteen thousand, had twenty-one electors, of whom one only resided in the county. 'At an election at Bute, not beyond the memory of man, only one person attended the meeting, except the sheriff and the returning officer. He, of course, took the chair, constituted the meeting, called over the roll of freeholders, answered to his own name, took the vote as to the Preses, and elected himself. He then moved and seconded his own nomination, put the question as to the vote, and was unanimously returned.' "

Why were the people of Bute not allowed to vote? I mean, like, all 14 thousand of them?

Probably because of the pre-Reform Act property qualifications. Such qualifications were in effect not only in Bute, but in the rest of the country as well.

[Emsworth]

Yes...but striking the entire population off the voting lists due to property requirements sounds...extreme.
Probably an effect of extreme poverty (think Highland clearances) in combination with local rules on land tenure being somewhat at odds with the Acts describing who can vote (whatever that was called, pre-1832).

Also, qualifications varied throughout England. There were open boroughs (in which any male adult present at the time of the election could vote), freeman boroughs (in which all freemen could vote), Scot and Lot boroughs (in which only ratepayers could vote), burgage boroughs (in which property qualifications existed), and corporation boroughs (in which the city corporation/ council chose the MP).

Disenfranchisement of residents was not unique to Bute. For example, in 1824, Edinburgh had over 100,000 residents, but only 33 were qualified to vote. In 1780, about 6,000 voters returned a majority of the members of Parliament.

[Emsworth]

We're talking about a county seat though, not a borough seat.

Quite so. I think, however, that just about all Scottish constituencies, both county and borough, were in the pockets of patrons.