UK Parliament Scottish Constituencies – General, Geographic & Electoral Knowledge Atlas (16 Dec 2019)
- December 16, 2019
NEW FOR THIS EDITION – Updated with links to knowledge resources about the results for the 2019 General Election that took place on Thursday December 12th. As in the first edition of this map, some resources are specific to the particular election rather than the constituency, so links to them have had to be added separately (whilst the ‘official’ UK Parliament results resources are yet to be updated).
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 (the most recent UK General Election on the 12th June 2019 was the 3rd in 4 years!). Obviously this is a political process with an unpredictable outcome, but this map is about visually connecting the general, geographic & electoral knowledge resources about ALL of the constituencies that remain valid no matter who is currently elected, all together in a single, information rich, intuitive to navigate, easy to share, digital document.
There is a knowledge seed branch for every constituency in Scotland, arranged alphabetically in 7 columns of approximately equal sizes to form a rich visually structured framework. Embedded within each is a contextual thumbnail location map and basic ‘facts & figures’ – some publicly available (after a bit of a hunt), and others we have derived ourselves. Seeing the ‘Area’, ‘Population’ and ‘Population Density’ figures for all constituencies side by side makes for interesting comparison.
Collections of sub-branches of links to general, geographic & electoral knowledge resources about each constituency – with multiple selected links also attached to the seed branches – complete this updated first ever national local knowledge map of all Scotland’s UK Parliament constituencies. It also provides a comprehensive & robust visual knowledge framework upon which to build other maps based on these geographies in the future (assuming there isn’t another General Election anytime soon!).
NEW FOR THIS EDITION – Updated with links to knowledge resources about the results for the 2019 General Election that took place on Thursday December 12th. As in the first edition of this map, some resources are specific to the particular election rather than the constituency, so links to them have had to be added separately (whilst the ‘official’ UK Parliament results resources are yet to be updated).
Our UK Parliament Scottish Constituencies – General, Geographic & Electoral Knowledge Atlas is the ideal starting point for ‘thumb & brain friendly’ desktop (or even ‘in the field’) research for anyone with an interest in any, or all, of Scotland’s 59 UK Parliamentary (‘Westminster’) Constituencies. It is made up of a visual framework of…
59 Scottish UK Parliamentary Constituencies general knowledge seed branches – with unique identifying codes, embedded thumbnail location map image and contextual general ‘facts & figures’ such as geographic area and population as single data fields, as well as attached multiple hyperlinks to core general, geographic & electoral knowledge resources, and index markers that also tag them with some of the contextual knowledge.
Each of these individual constituency seed branches also has collections of sub-branches, each with a single hyperlink to official / definitive / plain old useful General, Geographic or Electoral knowledge resources about it found in the public domian.
General Knowledge Resource Link Collection – This includes the Constituency Representation page on the UK Parliament website, data dashboard profiles from the House of Commons Library and the the Scottish Government Statistics Portal, and the Wikipedia article on the UK Parliament constituency.
Geographic Knowledge Resource Link Collection – This includes the official Boundary Commission for Scotland – Fifth Review Constituency Map [PDF & online viewer] and location map on the UK Parliament Constituency page.
Electoral Knowledge Resource Link Collection – This includes election results (for the most recent elections) pages on BBC News, the UK Parliament and the Wikipedia main article on the Parliament constituency, as well as crowd sourced details on the candidates standing in the constituency at each UK PGeneral Election since 2010 on the Who Can I Vote For? by Democracy Club website.
Together these elements establish a comprehensive & robust visual knowledge framework upon which we can build many other maps about the ‘national local’ building blocks of Scotland based on UK Parliamentary Constituencies in the future.
MindManager Users – As with all our maps, the MindManager (.mmap) version of this map is also both a base map to add your own content to, or a source of content that can be added to your own existing maps.
Explore the other tabs for comprehensive descriptions of the knowledge seed branches and knowledge link collections that make up this knowledge atlas map….
- 59 UK Parliamentary Constituencies in Scotland Knowledge Seed Branchess
- 1.940 Total hyperlinks to public domain knowledge resources
- 1,491 Total map branches
Part of the 'Governance & Politics' Category
Anybody can view the html version of this map as a standalone, full-screen webpage in a new browser tab, using the ‘View HTML map full screen’ button below. However to download the HTML5 file – for viewing on-, or off-, line in any modern browser, on any device, without additional plugins – you will need to register for basic membership (it’s free 🙂 To download the original map in MindManager (.mmap) format – for amending, adapting & repurposing in MindManager software – you will need PRO membership, available for a modest annual, or one off lifetime, fee. Already joined? Login here.
Download MindManager (.mmap) Map [11.9 MB]
Knowledge seed branches provide a ‘base level’ of contextual knowledge about the subject embedded within, or attached to, them in the form of…
Image [Embedded] – Such as thumbnail location maps, flags, icons, people profile pictures etc., which provide a unique visual element that users can instantly latch on to as they navigate their way through the map.
Text [Embedded] – Rich (ie. variably formatted) branch text – such as names & unique identifying codes (taken from official sources) – is a unique MindManager feature.
Note [Attached] – Contains supplementary information with all the elements of a word processed page – variably formatted (‘rich’) text, tables and images.
Spreadsheet Table / Chart [Embedded] – Containing contextual facts & figures, which can be toggled between table and chart view as appropriate (once again unique to MindManager).
Multiple Single Data Fields [Embedded] – Another way of adding contextual facts & figures to the map (once again unique to MindManager), these are like single cells in a spreadsheet and the values can be used to format the topic.
Index Marker Tags [Attached] – Arranged in groups and added to individual branches as appropriate, tags add contextual knowledge, enable map filtering and navigation.
Multiple Hyperlinks [Attached] – Another unique feature, multiple links to a range of official definitive / plain old useful knowledge resources about the subject of the seed branch – usually selected from the full range of general & geographic knowledge resource collections – help turn the map into a knowledge portal without adding to the visual clutter.
All the seed branches and their associated embedded / attached contextual knowledge elements used in this map are described in detail below…
UK Parliamentary Scottish Constituency Knowledge Seed Branch
UK Parliament Scottish Constituency Knowledge Seed Branch
MindManager provides an unparalleled range of ‘information cartography’ functionality that enables contextual knowledge to be embedded and attached to map branches in multiple ways…
Branch Outline Shape
For geographic area seed branches the outline shape indicates the nature of it’s borders with it’s equivelant neighbours…
CIRCLE = all coastal borders (ie. ‘island(s)’)
HEXAGON = all land borders (ie. ‘land-locked’)
ROUNDED RECTANGLE = mixed coastal & Land borders
Note(s)
i) Assignment of shapes to geographic area seed branches is controlled by MindManager’s unique Smart Rule feature using the ‘SLC – Borders Types’ tag (eqivelant to thematic mapping in GIS).
Image: Thumbnail Location Map
MindManager allows a single image to be embedded within a branch, which may be sufficient for the requirments. However with a bit of forethought (and some software ‘jigery pokery’ 🙂 we can also create one that incorporates more than one visual element so that, like the ‘rich’ branch text, more core knowledge can be ‘packed in’ to a single branch without visually overwhelming the user.
‘Thumbnail’ Consituency Location Map – The thumbnail map (which has been created by us) shows the constituency area within Scotland.
Note(s)
i) All images are optimised to reduce the file size.
ii) Due to the disparate nature of the size of the geographic areas of UK Parliamentary Constituencies, locations are not always immediately obvious for the smallest ones. If you zoom in on-screen, all will become clear though!
Text: Official Name & Unique Identifying Codes
Thanks to MindManager’s unique ability to handle ‘rich’ text – the ability to variably format individual chatracters within a single text ‘string’ – we can pack several different pieces of ‘core knowledge’ into the text of a single branch without it visually overwhelming the user.
Note(s)
i) All names and codes are meticulously sourced from official sources to ensure unambiguous identification of the council body and easy cross-referencing with other data sources, especially GIS databases (though it’s still not without it’s contradictions – see below!).
Costituency Name – We have taken the names of the Constituency from the parliament website.
ONS Code – The UK Government Office for National Statistics and in partnership with the devolved governments maintain a series of codes to uniquely represent a wide range of geographical areas of the UK (such as Council Areas and Electoral wards), for use in tabulating census and other statistical data, known as ‘ONS codes‘ or ‘GSS (Government Statistical Service) codes’.
Although the codes are not formally hierarchical like the previous system it replaced, ONS codes for the same type of geographic area start with the same 3 characters…
- S12 = Unitary Authority
- S13 = Ward or Electoral Division
- S14 = Westminster Parliamentary Constituency
- S15 = European Electoral Region
- S16 = Scottish Parliament Constituency
- S17 = Scottish Parliament Electoral Region
- S21 = National Park
- S22 = Travel to Work Area
- S23 = Police Force Area
- S34 = Workplace Zone
- S92 = Country
Note: By-Election Log
Additional knowledge can be attached to the branch in the form of a note. This is basically as rich an environment as a word processor page, so ‘rich’ text, tables and images.
By election log – The incidence of by-elections in constituenciess will be logged here. Not the results though, or the ‘shananigans’ of individual MP’s, which will recorded in the ‘Political Knowledge Atlas’.
Note(s)
i) By-elections in the Scottish Constituencies of the UK Parliament are infrequent, with the last one taking place in Inverclyde on 30 June 2011. That may be ‘only’ 8 years ago, but 3 (probably soon to be 4) parlaiments ago!
ii) As with mapping Local Councillors, it has proved impossible to find ‘official’ sources of information about changes to the political circumstances in Constituencies and / or MPs in the institution’s (ie. the UK Parliament’s) ‘official’ website, especially the ‘old’ version.
iii) As is so often the case in our knowledge mapping work, the only place where such information is gathered in the one, easily accessible place and freely accessible in the public domain, is Wikipedia. However…
- how quickly after the event the information appears on is another matter…
- … if at all (and we have no way of knowing it’s missing).
Embedded Data Fields: Constiutuency Area ‘Facts & Figures’
Single data fields embedded in the seed branch are another unique MindManager feature. They provide quick reference of ‘core’ geodemographic data that provides context and enables meaningful comparison between similar areas, saving the user the time and effort of looking them up in the linked knowledge resources. These are taken from official data stats & profiles like the Scottish Government Statistics Portal, or derived from the OS BoundaryLine dataset by us using GIS software if not (thus making it more readily available in the public domain).
Note(s)
i) The Data Fields can be hidden / shown by clicking the green toggle arrow just above the top right corner.
ii) Data Fields are like single cells in spreadsheets..
- The data can be numeric or text.
- The values in cells can be calculated from other cells either in the same branch or in other branches. Formulas that define the values are built using MindManager’s ‘Autocalc’ feature (again unique).
- The values in data fields may be used to control aspects of the visual formatting (eg. colour or shape) of the seed branch using Mindmanager’s ‘Smart Rules’ feature (again unique).
iii) Fields marked with an *asterisk above (in bold with the gear icon in the embedded fields in the branch in the map) are calculated from the values of data fields in sub-branches using MindManager’s unique ‘auto-calculation’ feature.
The data fields embeded in this seed topic are…
CONSTITUENCY AREA MEASUREMENTS
It is surprisingly difficult to find easily accessible data on the area measurements for Scottish administrative units in the public domain. The Scottish Government Statistics website does have a single area measurement for all the geographic units it reports data on, but this is an ‘aggregated data zones best-fit’ figure (see below for further discussion about why we haven’t used it). There is also the issue that for coastal administrative units the legal boundary maybe extends offshore so a ‘total area measurement’ is strictly accurate but unsuitable as a factor for calculating councillor or population as a whole area density.
Thus we have used the OS BoundaryLine area measurements for all administraive units in this map (see below for further disccusion), but there is a debate to be had around the derivation, publication and use of ‘standard’ geodemographic data such as geographic area by the Scottish public sector.
Area Measurements In The Ordnance Survey BoundaryLine Dataset
The Ordnance Survey’s BoundaryLine dataset is the official source of digital geographic boundaries for all administrative areas in Great Britain for use in Geographic Information System (GIS) software. It is now part of OS’s Open Data, and so is free to download.
As can be seen in the screenshot example below of the Aberdeen City Local Council area, amongst the attibute data attached to each administrative area polygon includes a total area value in hectares (‘Hectares’ field).
However as also can be seen from the screenshot, the legal boundaries of coastal administrative units extends offshore. This seaward limit of the administrative units is known as the ‘Extent Of Realm’ (EOR). In BoundaryLine the alignment of the ‘EOR’ boundary is digitised to the Mean Low Water (springs) (MLWS).
Thus the total area value in the ‘Hectares’ field includes the area of water between the Mean High Water (the usual extend of the ‘land’) and the ‘Extent of Realm’. Fortunately BoundaryLine includes another area value, that for the area of the unit that extends beyond the land – the ‘Non_Inland_Area’ field. This is useful in 2 ways:-
- if the value is ‘0’ (zero), it indicates that the unit has no coastal border i.e. it is ‘land-locked’.
- by subtracting it from the total area value in the ‘Hectares’ field, we can derive a ‘total land area value’. This is not strictly accurate as the ‘land’ will still include bodies of water like lochs, however at least the calculation of the figure will be the same for all the units.
There is further information available from the OS BoundaryLine product support page.
Scottish Government Statistics Data Zones
Surprisingly there is only one official source of an area size of Scottish Council Area we could find in the public domain, which is the ‘Geography’ dataset of the Scottish Government Statistics website entry for the Council Area (also compiled as a ‘data cube spreadsheet’ table for all geographic areas).
The area figures are derived by aggregating land area values based on 2011 Data Zones on a ‘best fit’ basis i.e. they are aggregated in such a way that best approximates the shape of the boundary of the higher geography. This means that…
- results for higher geographies such as Council Areas are always only estimates.
- as the boundaries of Data Zones change over time, the size and shape of the ‘best fit’ will also change, thereby leading to different area figure for the higher geography even though its’ boundary hasn’t changed. For example the area figures for the 2001 Data Zones is different to the 2011 Data Zones for some Council Areas.
- other geodemographic data derived using areas, such as population density, will be affected.
For further information on best-fit for geographies, see National Records of Scotland Geography Policy on Best-fit and Exact-fit.
Constituency Area Total (sq km) – The area value in the OS BoundaryLine ‘Hectares’ field expressed in square kilomtres.
Constituency Area Non-Inland (sq km) – The area value in the OS BoundaryLine ‘Non_Inland_Area’ field expressed in square kilomtres. This is the size of the area between the high and low watermarks.
Constituency Area Inland (sq km)* – The area value left by subtracting the OS BoundaryLine ‘Non_Inland_Area’ field from the ‘Hectares’ field expressed in square kilomtres.
This has been taken by us as a proxy for the total land area of the administrative unit, however in reality it will still include the area of any freshwater bodies like lochs, which can be quite large in some parts of Scotland.
CONSTITUENCY POPULATION FIGURES
Population data for administrative units in Scotland are available from the following sources…
- The official census count, carried out every 10 years by the Scottish Government (the last one was in 2011). All the census data can be found on the Scotland’s Census website).
- Ongoing official mid-year estimates for most units are published every year on the the statistics.gov.scot website (for convenience all are collected together in a ‘Data cube’).
- Other ‘Special Area’ Population Estimates are published in the Population section of the National Records of Scotland website as a downloadable spreadsheet.
Constituency Population (latest est) – This figure is taken from the ‘Population Key Facts’ section of the Scottish Government Statistics website entry for the Council Area, and is the most up to date ‘official estimate’ of population (also compiled as a ‘data cube spreadsheet’ table for all geographic areas).
From the explanatory notes on the Scottish Government Statistics website…
“Annual publication of mid-year population estimates by age and sex as at 30 June every year, where population for higher geographies is aggregated from the population estimates for 2011 Data Zones.”
Constituency Pop Density (latest est) (per sp km)* – This has been calculated manually by us by dividing the ‘Council Population (latest est)’ by the ‘Council Area Land (sq km)’ figure we have calculated from BoundarlyLine…
- Obviously the fact that ‘land area’ still includes freshwater bodies like lochs has implications when it comes to calculating population density.
- Whatever the shortcomings in calculating the absolute value, of as much importance is the change in that value over time (as long as the way of calculating it remains the same).
Index Marker Tags & Goups: Various
A variety of Index Markers arranged into groups are used throughout the map to tag branches as appropriate and enable map filtering and quick navigation. Marker groups can be copied and used to do the same in any other maps.
Note(s)
i) Within MindManager tags…
- provide a useful means of internal navigation between map topics (clicking on the branch that is shown as being tagged with that marker in the ‘Index Task Pane’ will immediately focus the map on that banch).
- can be generated automatically from branches (the title of the parent branch is the group name and those of all the immediate sub-branches become the individual tags within the group) .
- can be copied and pasted in their groups from one map to another.
NAVIGATION (‘NAV’) MARKERS
‘Navigation’ index markers tag the topics that they are named after. They provide another way of navigating the map – clicking on the tag in the index pane takes the user straight to the tagged topic.
NAV – UK Parliament Constituency – Each UK Parliament Scottish Constituency seed branch is tagged with it’s own index marker (it’s name), created from the branch text itself. Thus there are 2 ‘parts’ to the marker tag – Scottish Local Council Name (Council Type and identifying Codes) eg. East Renfrewshire.
POLITICAL MARKERS
Although this map is not of ‘political’ knowledge resources, as it’s about electoral areas a little bit of politics is unavoidable…
UK PARL CONS – Type – Historically there were several diferent types of UK Paliamentary Constituency, with significant differences between the way each worked. However since the advent of universal suffrage, the differences between county and borough constituencies are slight.
From Wikipedia:-
“Borough constituencies are predominantly urban while county constituencies are predominantly rural. There is no definitive statutory criterion for the distinction; the Boundary Commission for England has stated that, “as a general principle, where constituencies contain more than a small rural element they should normally be designated as county constituencies. Otherwise they should be designated as borough constituencies.”[1] In Scotland, all House of Commons constituencies are county constituencies except those in the cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and three urban areas of Lanarkshire”.
UK PARL CONS – Current Political Party – Designation of sitting MP’s current party affiliation (tag is coloured as per the usual UK political party colours).
Note(s)
i) The inclusion of the political party of the constitiuency’s current MP is to help with the desktop research function of this map. Much more information is available in our UK Parliament Scottish Constituencies & Members – Political Knowledge Atlas.
GEOGRAPHIC (‘GEO’) MARKERS
‘Geomarker’ index markers provide ‘spatial intelligence’ in a map by tagging topics as being part of a specific geographic area of various ‘types’ – administrative, electoral, statistical, topographic etc. The areas do not need to be topics in the map for them to be a ‘Geomarker’. They are the equivalent of ‘Lookup Tables’ in ‘GIS’.
GEO Borders
The nature of the area’s borders with it’s equivelant neighbours…
UK PARL CONS – Borders Types – This Marker Group indicates the status of the constituency’s borders with all of it’s equivalent neighbours, in respect to the ocean (as per the topic shape). Thus these tags will enable the filtering of a map to show / hide those areas that do / do not have a coastline.
Possible tags…
- All Coastline (Island)
- Mixed
- No Coastline (Land-locked)
UK PARL CONS – Shared Land Borders – This Marker Group indicates which other UK Parliamentary Scottish Constituency(s) that the selected constituency shares a mutual border with, as shown on the Ordnance Survey Election Map online viewer.
On mainland Scotland UK Parliament constituency borders are contiguous i.e. there are no ‘gaps’ between them, so they have a complex interplay with shoreline, freshwater lochs, rivers, estuaries (firths), sea lochs and the ‘extent of the realm’ (the national boundary offshore). Thus in some cases constituencies share a mutual border on a water feature rather than land.
The ‘islands’ – Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles – are far enough away from the mainland that they do not share a mutual boundary with any others.
GEO Unique Identifying Codes
Within the branch text we incorporate unique identifiers codes for geographic areas for easy cross-reference with other data sources, especially GIS databases.
We also add some of the truly unique codes as ‘geo’ index marker tags to the topic. Only one topic in the map will have that ‘geo tag’. This offers interesting possibilities for adding further content at a later date.
UK PARL CONS – UK EU-NUTS2 Region – The European Union Statistics Agency (Eurostat) maintains a list of ‘Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS)‘ codes for it’s constituent member states (including Scotland as part of the United Kingdom) for statistical reporting & comparison purposes. Each member state has a parent NUTS code, and then there are 3 levels of ‘NUTS code’ for the statistical reporting areas, which in Scotland equate to…
- NUTS for member state = United Kingdom = UK
- NUTS 1 = Scotland = UKM
- NUTS 2 = Regional groupings of Scottish Council Areas…
- NUTS 3 = A ‘rag-tag’ mixture with codes covering sub-groupings of neighbouring council areas within the NUTS 2 region, single council areas for ‘large’ councils, and in the case of the ‘super large’ Highland Council area, internal geographic subdivisions along ‘historic county’ lines.
This means…
- NUTS 2 ‘regions’ don’t correspond exactly to any other way of subdividing Scotland regionally e.g. Scottish Parliament Electoral Regions (even though the nomenclature may by similar).
- NUTS 3 codes are not always unique to individual councils i.e. they cannot be used as unique identifiers.
- NUTS 3 codes don’t always follow Local Council Area boundaries e.g. the Island of Arran is part of North Ayrshire Council Area (NUTS 3 = UKM33), but is included in the ‘Highlands and Islands’ (NUTS 3 = UKM63) area for EU statistical reporting purposes.
There are 2 ‘parts’ to the marker – NUTS 2 area name (NUTS 2 Code) eg. South Western Scotland Region (UKM3).
UK PARL CONS – ONS Code – The Council’s official identifying code given by the UK Government Office for National Statistic (ONS) in partnership with the Scottish Government, as per the Branch Text above.
GEO ‘Look-Up Geographies
In the world of Geographic Information (GI) a ‘look up’ defines the link between one geographic feature and another. Most commonly this is between geographic areas of different ‘types’. For example a Local Council Electoral Ward will also coincide with ‘higher’ electoral geographies of Scottish Parliament Constituencies & Regions, and United Kingdom Parliament Constituencies. Of course the boundaries of the different geographies do not necessarily coincide or ‘nest’ exactly (though they might have done at one time). Thus relationships are often ‘one to many’, or even ‘many to many’, which is ‘database speak’ for ‘it’s complicated’.
Relationships are usually derived using computerised spatial analysis, with the results stored in ‘look-up tables‘ in databases or spreadsheets. ‘Geo’-tagging map branches that represent geographic areas is our hopefully useful alternative.
You can get more of an idea of the complexities of UK Geographihies from the handy UK Office of National Statistics Beginners Guide To UK Geography.
UK PARL CONS – UK Home Nation – As it sounds. The presence of this tag has been inherited from prior Knowledge Mappers’ maps of all the constituencies in the UK Parliament in the one map. The tag consists of just the name ‘Scotland’.
UK PARL CONS – Scottish LCs – All the Scottish local council areas that overlap with the UK Parliament Constuencies. There are usually at least 2.
There are 2 ‘parts’ to this marker – Council Name (ISO3166-2 Code – ONS Code) eg. East Renfrewshire Council (GB-ERW – S12000011).
UK PARL CONS – Scottish Electoral Wards – All the Scottish Local Council Electoral Ward areas that overlap with the UK Parliament Constituencies. There are 2 ‘parts’ to this marker – Electoral Ward Name (LGBCS Ward Number – ISO3166-2 Code – ONS Code) eg. Barrhead, Liboside and Uplawmoor (Ward 1 – GB-ERW – S13002914).
UK PARL CONS – Scot Parl Region – Scottish Parliamentary Consituencies are divided into regions, which also have elected members. The marker is just the Scottish Parliamentary Constituency Region Name eg. West Scotland.
UK PARL CONS – Scot Parl Cons – All the Scottish Parliament Constuencies that overlap with the UK Parliamentary constituency. There are 2 ‘parts’ to this marker – Scottish Parliamentary Constituency Name (ONS Code) eg. Eastwood (S16000103).
Attached Hyperlinks: Multiple
See next section for full details.
UK Parliament Scottish Constituency Knowledge Seed Branch
One of our philosophies at KnowledgeMappers is not to reinvent the wheel whenever possible. Thus we include hyperlinks to original official / definitive / plain old useful knowledge sources whenever possible, as well as links to Wikipedia pages for additional, “bigger picture” context (often not obvious, or even absent from, the original source). By doing this…
- original sources get used more often, by more people.
- errors get spotted quicker, thereby improving the information quality for everybody.
- updates get promulgated sooner to end users.
- rather than us having to interpret original sources to create further information resources around “big picture” context for a subject we are not experts in, users of our map can “get it straight from the horses mouth” as it were, so everybody benefits.
Note(s)
i) MindManager has the unique ability to have multiple hyperlinks attached to a single map branch, and to edit the default title text of the link to make it more meaningful to the user. This…
- greatly reduces the visual clutter of the map.
- means a full basket of links to official / definitive / useful knowledge resources about the subject can stay with the seed branch if it is re-used in other maps.
The chain icon at the end of a branch (rather than the favicon (icon) served by the linked-to website) indicates where a branch has more than one hyperlink.
ii) In the circular knowledge economy way of Wikipedia if there is knowledge that you could add to an existing page that is linked to, or even starting a page that doesn’t yet exist, then go for it! That’s what it’s all about!
iii) Not all of the resources below will exist for all constituencies.
The following knowledge resource links are attached to this seed branch (arranged in alphabetical order within the groupings)…
General Knowledge Resource Links
UK Parliament – Constituency Representation – The UK Parliament is gradually rolling out a new website with improved information about MPs and consituencies. This constituency page is a recent addition to the site. It shows…
- ‘Representation’ tab – Shows the recent history of ‘representation’ for the constituency back to 2005, cross-referencing to the individual MP’s page, even for previous members.
- ‘Location’ tab – Shows a ‘rough’ boundary of the constituency in an embedded Google Map. Viewers are directed to the Ordnance Survey election maps map viewer website for a more detailed boundary map.
Note(s)
i) The Wikipedia consituency article shows the full history of elections and elected members for the constituency. This is especially useful flagging up material changes to consituency boundaries over the years.
House of Commons Library – Constituency Local Data Dashboard – The House of Commons Library is a research and information service based in UK Parliament. Their interactive Local Data dashboard brings together some of the key statistics for parliamentary constituencies. Select the constituency you are interested in and the dashboard will update. To find out which constituency you live in, type your postcode into Parliament’s find your MP service.
Use the links under each heading to explore the data in more detail, or browse all the detailed dashboards and briefings.
Sources are provided below the dashboard.
Note(s)
i) Due to the architecture of the site, it is not possible to link to individual constituency data profiles. Users must manually select the contituency they ant from the drop down list.
Scottish Government Statistics Portal – Westminster Parliamentary Constituency – This is the link to the constituency’s data profile page in the ‘Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies’ section on the geostatistical atlas section of the statistics.gov.scot website. As well as key facts, the data about the Constituency is grouped as…
- Social Environment
- Crime and Justice
- Economic Activity, Benefits and Tax Credits
- Economy
- Education, Skills and Training
- Environment
- Geography
- Health and Social Care
- Housing
- Labour Force
- Population
- Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
- Transport
Wikipedia – Article on the UK Parliament constituency – As well as the full history of elections and elected members for the constituency, the Wikipedia consituency article includes the general history. This is especially useful flagging up material changes to consituency boundaries over the years.
Geographic Knowledge Resource Links
Boundary Commission for Scotland – Fifth Review Constituency Map [PDF & online viewer] – The Boundary Commission for Scotland helpfully publish GIS produced, constituency boundary maps in PDF (i.e. static) format as part of their periodic review process. The maps show the boundaries against an Ordnance Survey basemap, and can be easily printed if required.
The last review of UK parliementary boundaries was the 5th Review in 2005. A single report covering the review considerations and recommendations for all Scottish consituencies can be downloaded from the review page (multiple links), as well as an overview map of all consituencies in Scotland.
UK Parliament – Constituency Location Map – As noted in the General Links section above, the UK Parliament is gradually rolling out a new website with improved information about MPs and consituencies. On the ‘new improved’ constituency page there is an embedded map showing the ‘rough’ boundary of the constituency over a minimal Google Map in the ‘Location’ tab.
Note(s)
i) Viewers are directed to the Ordnance Survey election maps map viewer website for a more detailed boundary map. Unfortunately it is not possible to link to individual map views, so users will have to manually ‘switch on’ the ‘Westminster Constituencies’ layer from the selection panel on the left side of the window.
Electoral Knowledge Resource Links
BBC News Election Results – Constituency – The BBC News website has the ‘last couple’ of General Election results at individual constituency level (though there’s not any additional consistuency profile information). There are separate ‘sub-sites’ for each General Election at national level (2017 and 2015).
UK Parliament Elections Online 2017 – United Kingdom Parliamentary Constituency – The UK Parliament website is gradually rolling out a new website with improved information about MPs and consituencies. The new Elections Online section has overall & individual constituency results for UK General Elections since 2010 as tables, maps and charts.
National and regional seat summaries for the selected constituency are shown in the table below the pie chart, click/tap the buttons to move between country, region and county.
**TO BE COMPLETED**
Who Can I Vote For? by Democracy Club – Constituency Elections – Crowd-sourced details of all the candidates for all elections to the constituency since 2016 (as well as the 2015 & 2010 general elections) – Blah
Wikipedia – Election results subsection of UK Parliament constituency Article – As noted in the General Links section above, the Wikipedia article on the constituency has the history of elections and elected members for the constituency.
Note(s)
i) As a crowd-sourced resource the quality, breadth and depth of the content of Wikipedia articles is entirely reliant on volunteers, who are able to source (and link to) reliable information found elsewhere in the public domain. In our experience it may be the case that…
- not all election results may be reported for every constituency.
- even if there is a long history of results, there may actually have been intervening boundary changes so the constituency is not exactly the same over time, even though it’s called the same name. These are not always picked up by Wikipedia contributors.
Hyperlinks to official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ knowledge resources found in the public domain is one of the main focus of our knowledge maps. Links are added to our maps in 2 ways…
Multiple Hyperlinks Attached To Seed Branches – MindManager has the unique ability to attach multiple hyperlinks to a single map branch. This means that…
- maps need fewer branches so are less visually cluttered.
- a single branch can become a mini knowledge portal in it’s own right (one of the reasons why we call them ‘knowledge seed branches’).
- links to core knowledge resources (usually the most important links taken from the Link Collections) can remain with the branch when it’s re-used in other maps, whether or not it’s the kep focus of that map.
The multiple hyperlinks attached to the different types of knowledge seed branches in this map are already detailed in the ‘Seed Branches’ tab.
Knowledge Link Sub-Branch Collections – Sub-branches – each with a single attached hyperlink to an external knowledge resource – are grouped into related collections, such as ‘General Knowledge Resources’ or ‘Geographic Knowledge Resources’. This makes for easier, more ‘thumb friendly’ browsing & discovery of knowledge resources, which helps in more intensive activities like prolonged desktop research.
The knowledge link sub-branch collections in this map are detailed below…
General Knowledge Resource Links Collection
UK Parliament Scottish Constituencies
This collection contains links to official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ general knolwedge resources about the Scottish Local Council. It is an ideal starting point for those who want to find out more about about it, be it for casual browsing or more focused desktop research for a specific purpose…
UK Parliament – Constituency Representation – The UK Parliament is gradually rolling out a new website with improved information about MPs and consituencies. This constituency page is a recent addition to the site. It shows…
- ‘Representation’ tab – Shows the recent history of ‘representation’ for the constituency back to 2005, cross-referencing to the individual MP’s page, even for previous members.
- ‘Location’ tab – Shows a ‘rough’ boundary of the constituency in an embedded Google Map. Viewers are directed to the Ordnance Survey election maps map viewer website for a more detailed boundary map.
Note(s)
i) The Wikipedia consituency article shows the full history of elections and elected members for the constituency. This is especially useful flagging up material changes to consituency boundaries over the years.
House of Commons Library – Constituency Local Data Dashboard – The House of Commons Library is a research and information service based in UK Parliament. Their interactive Local Data dashboard brings together some of the key statistics for parliamentary constituencies. Select the constituency you are interested in and the dashboard will update. To find out which constituency you live in, type your postcode into Parliament’s find your MP service.
Use the links under each heading to explore the data in more detail, or browse all the detailed dashboards and briefings.
Sources are provided below the dashboard.
Note(s)
i) Due to the architecture of the site, it is not possible to link to individual constituency data profiles. Users must manually select the contituency they ant from the drop down list.
Scottish Government Statistics Portal – Westminster Parliamentary Constituency – This is the link to the constituency’s data profile page in the ‘Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies’ section on the geostatistical atlas section of the statistics.gov.scot website. As well as key facts, the data about the Constituency is grouped as…
- Social Environment
- Crime and Justice
- Economic Activity, Benefits and Tax Credits
- Economy
- Education, Skills and Training
- Environment
- Geography
- Health and Social Care
- Housing
- Labour Force
- Population
- Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
- Transport
Wikipedia – Article on the UK Parliament constituency – As well as the full history of elections and elected members for the constituency, the Wikipedia consituency article includes the general history. This is especially useful flagging up material changes to consituency boundaries over the years.
Geographic Knowledge Resource Links Collection
UK Parliament Scottish Constituencies
This collection contains links to official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ geographic knolwedge resources about the the Scottish Local Council. It is a mixture of…
- Static Map Libraries – Collections of human created cartographic image files that can be downloaded and viewed offline.
- Online Mapping Services – Automatically generate maps, often with different ‘layers’ of related geographic features that can be turned on or off and additional useful geographic tools (eg. route finder). These can usually only be accessed via a live internet connection.
- Spatial Data Repositiories – Containing data files of computer-readable geographic information for use by anybody with the right specialised (‘GIS’) software. As well as being downloadable files, they may also be available as a feature service that is streamed directly to your application using an API.
Boundary Commission for Scotland – Fifth Review Constituency Map [PDF & online viewer] – The Boundary Commission for Scotland helpfully publish GIS produced, constituency boundary maps in PDF (i.e. static) format as part of their periodic review process. The maps show the boundaries against an Ordnance Survey basemap, and can be easily printed if required.
The last review of UK parliementary boundaries was the 5th Review in 2005. A single report covering the review considerations and recommendations for all Scottish consituencies can be downloaded from the review page (multiple links), as well as an overview map of all consituencies in Scotland.
UK Parliament – Constituency Location Map – As noted in the General Links section above, the UK Parliament is gradually rolling out a new website with improved information about MPs and consituencies. On the ‘new improved’ constituency page there is an embedded map showing the ‘rough’ boundary of the constituency over a minimal Google Map in the ‘Location’ tab.
Note(s)
i) Viewers are directed to the Ordnance Survey election maps map viewer website for a more detailed boundary map. Unfortunately it is not possible to link to individual map views, so users will have to manually ‘switch on’ the ‘Westminster Constituencies’ layer from the selection panel on the left side of the window.
Electoral Knowledge Resource Links Collection
UK Parliament Scottish Constituencies
This collection contains links to official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ knolwedge resources about elections to the United Kingdom Parliament at Westminster in the constituency.
Note(s)
i) A single member (‘MP’) is elected to the constituency at a UK General Election, every 5 years or so, very roughly speaking. For example the last UK General Election was 8th June 2017, but ‘word on the street’ is that another one is just around the corner! at time of writing.
ii) The resignation or death of a sitting MP will inititiate a by-election, however within Scotland this is a very rare event politically speaking (the last UK by-election in Scotland was in the Inverclyde constituency on 30th June 2011).
iii) The UK Parliament is gradually rolling out a new website with improved information about MPs, consituencies and elections, In the ‘old website’ however, there were no election results at all,apart from maybe a ‘paper’ by the House of Commons Library some months after the actual event. MP pages contained just the name of the MP, party, consitiuency and a picture, no listing even of their electoral majority let alone full results for all candidates!
iv) Fortunately there are enough ‘political anoraks’ out there that Wikipedia has all the knowledge you could need about the most recent, and all previous, elections to the UK Paliament. There is also plenty of additional contextual knolwedge.
BBC News Election Results – Constituency – The BBC News website has the ‘last couple’ of General Election results at individual constituency level (though there’s not any additional consistuency profile information). There are separate ‘sub-sites’ for each General Election at national level (2017 and 2015).
UK Parliament Elections Online 2017 – United Kingdom Parliamentary Constituency – The UK Parliament website is gradually rolling out a new website with improved information about MPs and consituencies. The new Elections Online section has overall & individual constituency results for UK General Elections since 2010 as tables, maps and charts.
National and regional seat summaries for the selected constituency are shown in the table below the pie chart, click/tap the buttons to move between country, region and county.
**TO BE COMPLETED**
Who Can I Vote For? by Democracy Club – Constituency Elections – Crowd-sourced details of all the candidates for all elections to the constituency since 2016 (as well as the 2015 & 2010 general elections) – Blah
Wikipedia – Election results subsection of UK Parliament constituency Article – As noted in the General Links section above, the Wikipedia article on the constituency has the history of elections and elected members for the constituency.
Note(s)
i) As a crowd-sourced resource the quality, breadth and depth of the content of Wikipedia articles is entirely reliant on volunteers, who are able to source (and link to) reliable information found elsewhere in the public domain. In our experience it may be the case that…
- not all election results may be reported for every constituency.
- even if there is a long history of results, there may actually have been intervening boundary changes so the constituency is not exactly the same over time, even though it’s called the same name. These are not always picked up by Wikipedia contributors.
We are continually striving to find further, freely accessible in the public domain definitive / official / plain old useful 🙂 knowledge resources to link to in our maps, as well as keeping the existing links up to date. The changelogs below summarise the actions undertaken to initially create – and subsequently update – this knowledge map.
UK Parliament Scottish Contituencies General, Geographic & Electoral Knowledge Atlas (16 Dec 2019)
Version – 1.1
Links to knowledge resources – 1,940
Map Branches – 1,491
File Sizes – HTML5 – 17.4 MB; MindManager (.mmap) – 11.9 MB
Framework Basemap(s) – UK Parliament Scottish Contituencies General, Geographic & Electoral Knowledge Atlas (14 Oct 2019); UK Parliament Scottish Constituencies 2019 General Election Knowledge Atlas RESULTS (13 Dec 2019)
Actions – The main work done in making this version of the map was…
- Addition to the v1.0 basemap of links to resources about the results for the 2019 General Election that took place on December 12th, to both the Electoral Sub-Branch collections and attached to the seed branches.
Note(s)
i) Even 3 days after the election results were declared, many of the constituency pages on Wikipedia have not been updated. Likewise the UK Parliament’s Election Results Online site is still stuck on 2017.
ii) The BBC News election site results were updated within minutes of being declared for each constituency (we were watching live through the wee small hours!)
UK Parliament Scottish Contituencies General, Geographic & Electoral Knowledge Atlas (14 Oct 2019)
Version – 1.0
Links to knowledge resources – 1,820
Map Branches – 1,432
File Sizes – HTML5 – 17.4 MB; MindManager (.mmap) – 11.6 MB
Basemap(s) – This is the basemap!
Actions – The main work done in making this version of the map was…
- Initial creation of main branch framework of local councils contained in the Scottish Government’s Standard Geographic Codes Register – Scotland (Excel spreadsheet) from the Small Area Statistics Reference Documents.
- Addition of subranch collections of links to general and geographic knowledge resources about them.
Map Facts
Here are some of the ‘fun facts’ 😉 about Scotland’s 59 (out of a total of 650) United Kindom Parliament Constituencies that we have discovered (and embedded!) during the process of creating this map…
Geographic Area
Smallest & Largest
Glasgow North Consituency
Ross, Skye and Lochaber Constituency
Population (2018 Est)
Smallest & Largest
Na h-Eileanan an Iar Constituency
Linlithgow and East Falkirk Constituency
Population Density
Smallest & Largest
Na h-Eileanan an Iar Constituency
Edinburgh North and Leith Constituency
Borders With Neighbouring UK Parliamentary Constituencies
With respect to land & sea
All Coastal Borders
(ie. 'Islands')
Land & Coastal Borders
(ie. 'Mixed')
All Land Borders
(ie. 'Land-Locked')
Map Features
We take full advantage of MindManager’s many unique ‘information cartography’ features when creating our unique maps so we can pack in 1000’s of ‘bits’ of knowledge into a single, visually structured, intuitive to navigate document that can be easily shared. Here are the main features of this United Kingdom Parliament Scottish Contituencies General & Geographic Knowledge Atlas (14 Oct 2019) …
Big Map With 100's Of Branches & Links And Capacity For Plenty More
With 2,004 knowledge resource links over 1,509 branches, this map is a useful, contextual knowledge resource in it’s own right, as well as being a visually structured index of the best definitive / official / plain old useful knowledge resources available in the public domain about the subject. Thanks to MindManager’s unique capabilities it has plenty of spare capacity for further content to be added in the future.
Main Branches Create Robust Visual Framework For 'Seed Branches'
The 1st level branches form the main (‘org-tree’) visual framework within which the map content of interest sits. It is a simple ‘A – Z’ layout, with the 32 Scottish Local Councils arranged alphabetically in 5 columns of approximately equal sizes to pack as much in to a ‘single screen view’ as possible.
Visually Rich 'General Knowledge Seed' Branch For Each Of Scotland's 59 UK Parliment Constituencies
The 2nd level branches are ‘knowledge seed points’ for each Scottish United Kingdom Parliament Constituencies, to which links to public domain knowledge resources about them are attached. Visually rich & information dense, they contain the name & official area identifier codes in variably formatted (‘rich’) text – a unique MindManager featue. Visually the thumbnail location map image aids user navigation and provides spatial context, whilst the variation in topic shape indicates the status of the borders with neighbouring constituencies – all coastlal (ie. island), mixed or all land (ie. landlocked). The full list of visual knowledge embedded within this seed topic is given in the map summary above.
Embedded Data Elements Provide Additional Contextual Knowledge
Data features embedded within seed branches – like spreadsheets, charts & data fields (another unique MindManager feature) – provide another ‘channel’ of knowlegde that adds context to the more detailed knowledge contained in the public domain resources linked to in the map. Just like in a normal spreadsheet, some of the data field values may be ‘auto-calculated’ from the others using formulae, creating data not found elsewhere in the public domain. They can also be used to ‘conditionally format’ the map eg. colouring the branches based on a particular data value (the equivelant of ‘thematic mapping’ in GIS). The full list of data embedded within this seed topic is given in the map summary above.
Attached Multiple Hyperlinks To Public Domain Knowledge Resources
Seed Branches have multiple hyperlinks attached to them (yet another unique feature of MindManager maps), which link to the best definitive / official / plain old useful knowledge resources available in the public domain about the subject. The ‘definable link text’ gives clarty as to the resource being linked to (which can be very variable if left to the default). As well as increasing the amount of knowledge that can be ‘squeezed’ into a map without increasing the ‘visual clutter’ of additional branches, it means these links can be retained if the seed branches are used in other maps, or this map is re-purposed. The full list of multiple knowledge resource hyperlinks attached to this seed topic is given in the map summary above.
Index Marker Tag Groups Enable 'Geo Intelligent' & Other Map Filtering
Branches in the map may be tagged with one or more ‘index markers’ from one or more ‘marker groups’. These enable intelligent map filtering and quick navigation. Many of the tags are ‘geographic’ in nature such that branches are tagged with ‘where’ they are – eg. administrative or electoral areas. This gives the map in-built ‘spatial intelligence’ and the ability to be ‘geo-filtered’. (MindManager software users can copy and paste any of the marker groups in any other maps). The full list of index marker tags attached to this seed topic is given in the map summary above.
Sub-Branch Collections Of Single Links To Public Domain Knowledge Resources
The Scottish United Kingdom Parliament Constituencies sub-branch collections – each with a single hyperlink to official / definitive / at least practical & useful online knowledge resources – are grouped into related collections for ‘general’, ‘geographic’ and ‘electoral’ knowledge resources. These are starting points for knowledge discovery and subsequent more detailed (‘desktop’) research. (MindManager software users have the advantage of being able to add to these branches as they go). The full list of links in the sub-branch collections attached to this seed branch is given in the map summary above.
Map Legend Branch Describes Each Topic 'Type' With Links To Further Information
Every map needs to have a legend that explains the cartographic structure, colours and symbology used. The ‘Map Legend’ branch describes the sub-components of each ‘type’ of map branch, with links to further knowledge resources where necessary.
'Contributing Online Knowledge-bases Branch' With Links To Further Information
We hunt down and assess many official / definitive / at least practical & useful online knowledge resources in the process of creating our maps. The ‘Contributing Online Knowledge-bases’ branch has links to all the ones that are actually linked to in the main map content, as well as some others that are a good source of general knowledge about the subject. It is a frustrating fact of life that some resources are organised better than others, and not all are ‘linkable to’ at the individual ‘building block’ level and so can’t be included in seed branches.
Built-in Topic Styles Enable Quick Visual Reformatting
The visual formatting of all the map elements is controlled via our structured system of topic styles, which makes for easier alteration ‘on the hoof’ and therefore quicker map building. (MindManager software users can change the appearance of the whole map with just a few clicks eg. to match their own ‘in-house’ style & branding.)






