UK - Alternate Coloring

[DistingFlyer]

Here's a little experiment: UK maps from 1955 to 1997 with a new shading system. For each election - using Sibboleth's outlines, I hasten to add - I've made one map indicating the percentage majority and one indicating the percentage of the total vote.

The color key is the same for both categories of map.

1955




1959




1964




1966




1970




1974 (Feb)




1974 (Oct)




1979




1983




1987




1992




1997

[DistingFlyer]

Here are maps for 2001.

I've also got data for 1950 & 1951 - does anyone have an editable Boothroyd map for those boundaries? It would be nice to put up those years too.

[DistingFlyer]

Now, to bring things up to date, here are maps for 2005 & 2010:

2005




2010

[DistingFlyer]

I've done outline maps that sort of correct Boothroyd's 'circus mirror' distortion if they are of any help.

That sounds good - which redistributions do you have?

[DistingFlyer]

And 1974 at last.

Lovely!

Have started filling in these outlines with the new color scheme - what did the original Milton Keynes SE border look like in 1992? Pretty much the same as '97 (the northern border, anyway)?

Also, am I blind or is Lewisham West missing from the 1983 map?

[DistingFlyer]

Here's 1983, using afleitch's new map - more to come:

[DistingFlyer]

And here's 1974, take two:

[DistingFlyer]

And 1979:

[DistingFlyer]

Here's 1987:

[DistingFlyer]

And 1992:

(As a side note, I've also made a slight change to the Buckingham-Milton Keynes border for 1983 & 1987, which you can now see in the maps for those years)

[DistingFlyer]

1997:

[DistingFlyer]

And here's February 1974:

[DistingFlyer]

Plus the swings of 1979:

[DistingFlyer]

2001:

[DistingFlyer]

Now, to cap things off, 2005 & 2010:

[DistingFlyer]

1992 swings:

[DistingFlyer]

Here are the constituency swings for 1987:

[DistingFlyer]

And for 1997:

[DistingFlyer]

Wow, it's impressive to see LibDem gains overshadowed Labour ones in such a sizable share of the country.

I assume this partly reflects the usual UK approach to calculating swing, which is to calculate it between the top two parties in any constituency, so that seats where the Tories and Lib Dems are the top two will be either yellow or blue even if there was a big increase in the Labour vote.

So what do you do when the top two parties change between two elections? For example, a seat which LibDems won both times, but with a Torie candidate coming second a 1992 but being supplanted by the Labour guy in 1997.

You use the top two at the election at which you're talking about the swing in.  In your example, it would be the swing between Lib Dem and Labour.

(This is why Sheffield Heeley, for example, looks so pale on the map.  The Labour vote went up by 5%, and the Tory vote down by over 10%.  But the Lib Dem vote went up too, by 2.9%, and they overtook the Tories for second place.  So the swing reported is just over 1% Lib Dem to Labour, although it's clear that isn't a very good description of what really happened.)

The only exception to this would be a seat like Oldham East & Saddleworth (or Stevenage in 1983) where the incumbent party drops to third place - in those cases, I'd use Labour-Tory swing even though the Liberals rose to second in both seats. I would not calculate the swing the way they did it in the BBC link provided by only back for the worldcup.

[DistingFlyer]

More swings:

2001


2005


2010

[DistingFlyer]

And here are the swings for 1983:

[DistingFlyer]

Here's October 1974:

[DistingFlyer]

Sorry for not adding anything new in a while but I've been at sea for some time - here are maps for the 1974 & 1979 elections, showing the Labour & Tory vote in each constituency (whether they won the seats or not):

Feb 1974


Oct 1974


May 1979

[DistingFlyer]

And here are similar maps for the next three Tory victories:

Jun 1983


Jun 1987


Apr 1992

[DistingFlyer]

And the big smash of 1997: