British General Election constituency maps 1955-2001 (New)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Ages and ages ago I made a thread (which is linked to on the Special Threads thread) that showed the results of British General Elections from 1955 onwards at constituency level using the Boothroyd maps. I decided a while back (after noting that said maps were actually quite good; I'll make a few changes to the 1955-1974 one, but other than that...) that it might be an idea to occasionally do a few again, with my new standard key and some fairly detailed notes. This does not replace (not at all) any other projects I might be occasionally working on, obviously. The idea is to introduce, more or less.

So the way is this will work is that I will post a map. Underneath there will be some information relating to the election and to the context in which the election was fought. That kind of thing.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I thought I'd get the worst one out of the way first:



Conservatives 397 seats, Labour 209 seats, Alliance 23 seats, SNP 2 seats, Plaid 2 seats, Northern Ireland 17 seats.

Popular vote for Great Britain: Conservatives 43.5%, Labour 28.3%, Alliance 26.0%, Others 2.2%

The Alliance was an electoral coalition of the Liberal Party (17 seats) and the SDP (6 seats). The SDP was a new party, formed in 1981 from members of the Manifesto Group of right-wing Labour MPs and was perhaps a tad top heavy.

The Tories were led by Margaret Thatcher (Finchley) and Labour by Michael Foot (Blaenau Gwent). The Liberals were led by David Steel (Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale) and the SDP by former Labour cabinet minister and former EEC President Roy Jenkins (Glasgow Hillhead).

As for context, there was rather a lot so this is only a very brief (and rather biased) summary. The Conservative government elected in 1979 had embarked on a radical plan aimed at curbing inflation and ending the Post War social democratic settlement. One notable consequence of this was the rapid destruction of large parts of Britain's industrial base and subsequent mass unemployment. Ordinarily this would have meant certain defeat, but things did not work out that way. The Labour Party entered the most brutal civil war in its history (which is saying something) almost as soon as it lost office in 1979. Bit by bit this internal conflict damaged its credibility with both swing voters and its base. The departure of the bulk of the Manifesto Group in 1981 did not end the civil war, but actually increased its intensity. The SDP-Liberal Alliance briefly seemed poised to capitalise, but it stood for very little other than what it was not and its support was incredibly soft. The second factor, of course, was the Falklands. The result was a Tory landslide, but a very strange one; if you look closely, you'll note that some majorities in strongholds were surprising low as a result of Alliance strength. Labour generally did terribly, but there were swings in its favour in some areas of especially high unemployment.

The next map will be of 1955.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Loads and loads of oddities of course. Tories sweep Nottingham while Labour hold Crewe & Nantwich.

Stranger than that; Labour gained Crewe & Nantwich, which was notionally Tory in 1979 (and not by about three votes). Dunwoody was quite the candidate. Labour did terribly in Notts in 1983 and 1987; look at Mansfield as well (and that was with a longserving right-wing MP).

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That's right, yeah. Back then it was just the city proper, as you can see.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Much as in 2010 it's questionable how 'real' the Alliance's surge in the polls during the campaign actually was. There was a similar surge in 1987, though earlier in the campaign.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

interesting that you can see a diagonal line from baisingstoke to crewe where the tory vote drops to the east of it, that'll be a stron SDP/Liberal showing I take it

That's right, yeah. Also note that the Tory majorities in the Home Counties are not quite as huge as you'd expect for a landslide.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I've no objection to those links being posted whatsoever.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What's with the boundaries of Norwich South, snaking off to the east along what I assume is the river?

For some reason a large stretch of the river is technically in Norwich.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The general patterns are very familiar. The details seem strangely distant, but only just out of reach, or perhaps as seen through mist. 1955:



Conservatives 345 seats, Labour 277 seats, Liberals 6 seats, Sinn Fein 2 seats.

The Conservative total includes the Ulster Unionists (not seen on this map) and 45 candidates who ran as National Liberal & Conservative.

Popular vote for the UK (I don't have the GB figures to hand and can't be bothered to look them up) - Conservatives 49.7%, Labour 46.4%, Liberal 2.7%

The Liberals ran just 110 candidates, meaning that most constituencies were two party Labour/Tory affairs, meaning that the meaning of the popular vote figure is quite different from that of an election after 1974.

The Tories were led by Anthony Eden (Warwick & Leamington) and Labour, somewhat surreally, by Clement Attlee (Walthamstow West). Attlee had led Labour for two decades and remained in post mostly to prevent Herbert Morrison from taking over. The Liberals were no longer an organised party in 1955 and were less than irrelevant (being utterly dependent on the Tories not opposing their few remaining MPs), but were technically led by Clement Davies (Montgomery).

As for context, this was still an election fought in a country still recovering from the War, but one lacking a genuine Post War feel. It is perhaps best seen as being the first election during the 'Golden Age of Capitalism', and in that respect it was an important one because it meant that the Tories would be the party to reap the full electoral benefits of the longest and deepest of economic booms. This was in large part due to Labour spending the bulk of the 1951-1955 parliament engaged in (yeah, familiar theme is familiar) a nasty civil war, as the Cold War froze sharp (and often strange) internal divisions in place. It was also because the Tories made the pragmatic decision that it was safer to accept the bulk of the Attlee government's work, and established a political settlement (never a consensus) in which they cast themselves as moderate and pragmatic. They also benefited from having the wildly popular Anthony Eden as their leader. Insert a fairly predictable remark about Suez and amphetamines about here.

To return to the opening comment about the oddly distant (but perhaps only just out of reach) details of the map, the great wave of post-war suburbanisation had only just begun. Middle class urban lifestyles had yet to penetrate most English agricultural districts, and many of said agricultural districts still had a very large rural proletariat. Most of the people who would bring their middle class lifestyles to rural England were still living in historically middle class districts of nearby cities. Sectarianism was still a factor in Glasgow and Liverpool, while the newly formed National Union of Mineworkers was one of the largest unions in the country. Ancient traditions of Working Class Toryism were still just about viable in and around Manchester, while the docks remained a major part of the economy and political geography of London. In most of Wales the Labour Party had a mass appeal that stretched well beyond normal class boundaries in part because the Attlee Government's policies had revived the near-dead Welsh economy (something that legitimised socialism to some most unlikely communities), while in Scotland the Unionists (as the Tories were then known there) reaped the rewards that came from their position as the Scottish patriotic party of record.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

but never got further than a base county outline for England and Wales.

I'm just ever so slightly curious. Do you still have it?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Is that a hint?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

At some point I will be doing more Inter War stuff. Have half a West Riding outline done.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

but never got further than a base county outline for England and Wales.

I'm just ever so slightly curious. Do you still have it?

I think so actually; i'll need to dig it out.

I was thinking, maybe, of trying to put something together for 1918-1945.