A REDRAFTING of Scotland's electoral map to take account of a population shift from cities to commuter belts has been unveiled.
The Boundaries Commission Scotland has redrawn Holyrood constituencies to make them more even and produce a more democratic picture.
Its conclusions will go out for public consultation and a final map should be drawn up in 2010, in time for the 20
11 elections.
Under the proposals, the total number of constituencies across Scotland would remain at 73, but Glasgow would lose one of its nine seats. The city's historic constituency names, such as Glasgow Cathcart and Glasgow Govan, would also be lost, to be replaced with the more prosaic East, North Central, North, South Central, South, South East, South West and West Glasgow.
The names throughout the country have been chosen in an attempt to differentiate them from Westminster constituencies, which cover similar areas but have different boundaries.
Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University said the shift was unlikely to cause any major upsets in the political make-up of the Scottish Parliament. "What the proposals do is take a seat away from Glasgow, which was inevitable, and probably increase in the north-east of Scotland," he said.
"Given that the Labour Party is clearly over-represented in Glasgow, and the SNP is in the North-east, it would probably mean an extra seat for the SNP.
"What we have to bear in mind is the proposals are only for the constituencies. They will do the regions once they have been agreed, so we have only one half of the story and working out the list side of the reorganisation isn't straightforward."
Hugh Buchanan, the commission's secretary, said: "Since the current constituencies were drawn in the early to mid-90s, the electorate in Glasgow has decreased. There's not a simple explanation of where that seat has gone. The seats follow the electorate.
"When we look at where seats have increased, it's in the commuter towns like South Lanarkshire, but it is impossible to look at any one local authority and say they have an extra seat."
Mr Buchanan said the lines had been drawn to take account of council areas. In Edinburgh there are currently six seats, one of which stretches into Musselburgh, East Lothian. Under the new scheme, all six constituencies would be pulled within the city boundaries, effectively increasing the number of seats.
The proposals are based on the calculation that each seat should have a theoretical total of 54,728 electors – the "electoral quota". None falls outwith a 5 per cent variation either way, with the exception of the Western Isles, which has only 22,000 voters; the commission says it should remain a constituency.
Orkney and Shetland were excluded from the review.
The SNP said it was "disappointed" at many of the new constituency names and would be making representations.
"However, it is ridiculous that these boundaries are being decided in Westminster," said an SNP spokeswoman. "The Scottish Parliament should decide the constituency boundaries for Holyrood elections."
A spokesman for Labour said: "There will be a full internal party consultation on these proposals once everyone has had the chance to consider them."
The full article contains 535 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
