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All 1,223 seats to 32 Scottish councils | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 39.6% (13.2%)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Colours denote the party with largest share of first preference votes by ward |
The 2012 Scottish local elections were held on 3 May 2012 in all 32 local authorities. The Scottish National Party (SNP) overtook Labour to win the highest share of the vote, and retained and strengthened its position as the party with most councillors. Labour also made gains, while the Liberal Democrats experienced meltdown, losing over half their seats and falling behind the Conservatives. For the first time since the introduction of the Single Transferable Vote system, the SNP won majority control of 2 councils, from no overall control. Labour also won majority control of 2 councils from no overall control, while retaining majority control over 2 councils.
Independent councillors retained majority control over the 3 island councils. The 23 other councils remained under no overall control.
YouTube Encyclopedic
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Why the UK Election Results are the Worst in History.
Transcription
Hello Internet The UK had an election we need to talk about because after the debates finished, the people voted and the ballots tallied the results were this: But parliament ended up looking like this: Which isn't, exactly, representative. And by not exactly, I mean at all. Red earned 30% of the vote and 36% of the seats, which is sort of close, but the rest is madness: Orange earned 8% of the vote but got one eighth of that while Yellow's 5% just about doubled, and purple earned 13% and got squat. Meanwhile blue's 37% of the people booted to 51% of the seats in parliament. The blue boost is even bigger when you consider that 51% of the seats gives basically 100% the control. How'd this happen? In the UK -- national elections aren't really national, they're a bunch of local elections. The UK is divided into constituencies, each of which elects one member of parliament (M.P.) to represent them. This local / national divide is where the trouble begins. Imagine a parliament with just three constituencies, and it's easy to see how it wouldn't always align with citizens. Some people think this sort of result is fine -- “it's all *about* winning local elections,” they’ll say. “Each M.P. represents their constituency.” And while the imbalance in this example is dumb, but it's the same problem in the real election and this same argument is given, but there are two more problems with it in reality land. 1) Few citizens have any idea who their MP is, they just know what party they voted for -- what party they want to represent their views on the national level. And pretending like it's a local election is a bit disingenuous. -- in practice it's an election for now the nation will run -- not really for who is going to represent a tiny part of it. and even if it were 2) The individual constituencies are worse at representing their citizens than parliament. Indulge this spreadsheet-loving nerd for a moment, will you? The difference between what a party earned at the polls and what they got in parliament is the amount of misrepresentation error. If we calculate all the errors for all the parties and add them up we can say the Parliament as a whole has 47% percentage points of misrepresentation error. That sounds bad looks like a utopian rainbow of diversity compared to any local election because the local elections have *one* winner. Out of the 650 constituencies 647 have a higher representation error than parliament. These are the only three that don't and they're really unusual for having so many of a single kind of voter in one place. Most places look the The Wrekin which is dead in the middle a mere one-hundred and one points off. Note that the winning candidate didn't reach a majority here. Which means more than half of constituencies elected their MP with a minority of voters. The worst is Belfast South at the bottom of the list. Hilariously unrepresentative. Less than a quarter of the voters get to speak for the entire place in parliament. This is the the lowest percentage an M.P. has ever been elected by. So when people argue that the UK election is a bunch of local elections 1) people don't act like it, and 2) It's even more of an argument that the elections are broken because they're worse on this level. These local elections are unrepresentative because of the terrible 'First Past the Post' voting system -- which I have complained mightily about and won't repeat everything here -- go watch the video -- but TL;DR it only 'works' when citizens are limited to two choices. Voting for any party except the biggest makes it more likely the biggest will win by a minority -- which is exactly what happened. That citizens keep voting for smaller parties despite knowing the result is against their strategic interests demonstrates the citizenry wants diverse representation -- but that successes is the very thing that's made this the most unrepresentative parliament in the history of the UK. People happy with the results argue the system is working fine -- of course they do. Their team won. Government isn't a sport where a singular 'winner' must be determined. It's a system to make rules that everyone follows and so, we need a system where everyone can agree the process is fair even if the results don't go in their favor. If you support a system that disenfranchises people you don't like and turbo-franchises people you do -- then it doesn't look like you sport representative democracy, it looks like you support a kind of dictatorship light. Where a small group of people (including you) makes the rules for everyone. But as it is now, on election day the more people express what they want the worse the system looks which makes them disengaged at best or angry at worst and GEE I CAN'T IMAGINE WHY. This is fixable, there are many, many better ways the UK could vote -- here are two that even keep local representatives. And fixing voting really matters, because this is a kind of government illegitimacy score -- and it's been going up and may continue to do so unless this fundamentally broken voting system is changed.
Background
The election was due to be held on 5 May 2011, but Scottish Ministers heeded the advice of the Gould Report and split the Holyrood and local elections - in order to avoid a repeat of the 2007 fiasco. These local elections were the second since the Single Transferable Vote (STV) was first introduced for the 2007 local government elections. This election was the first since the SNP won a majority in the Scottish Parliament. They were also the first local elections in Scotland since 1995 not to take place at the same time as a Scottish parliamentary election.
New eCounting system
In October 2010 a new company - Logica was awarded the contract for the vote counting system for the 2012 council elections, and since January 2011 testing has been under way to sort out many issues. On the 5 August 2011, A Dummy election was set up in Perth to test out new "eCounting" system, as part of robust test, in which 160,000 ballot papers run through the machine. This forms third stage of rigorous testing of the system in partition of these elections.[2]
Party performance
Both the SNP and Labour performed well, increasing both share of the vote and their numbers of councillors. The SNP gained control of two councils from No Overall Control: Angus and Dundee. Labour gained majority control over two councils, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire, also from No Overall Control, and held on to their overall majority in both Glasgow and North Lanarkshire councils. The Conservatives lost significant ground, but did gain a seat in Argyll & Bute and managed to come third.
The Liberal Democrats continued to experience a political meltdown following on from the previous year's Scottish elections, losing 57% of their councillors. In the Edinburgh ward of Pentland Hills, Mike 'Professor Pongoo' Ferrigan, who dressed as a penguin to council meetings, received 444 first-preference votes, 74 more than the Liberal Democrat candidate, Stuart Bridges, and 122 more than the Green Party candidate.[3] In Edinburgh, where the Liberal Democrats had previously been in a ruling coalition with the SNP, they lost 13 of their 16 seats. In the Fife Council ward of Buckhaven, Methil and Wemyss Villages, the party's candidate, Lois Lothian, received just 21 votes.
The Greens boosted their councillor numbers from 8 to 14, including doubling their representation in Edinburgh (where they topped the poll in two wards for the first time) and electing councillors for the first time to Stirling, Midlothian and Aberdeenshire local authorities (note: Cllr Martin Ford, re-elected in 2012 as a Green, won in 2007 as a Liberal Democrat).
The Scottish Socialist Party held its sole seat, that of Jim Bollan in West Dunbartonshire. Meanwhile, the UK Independence Party lost its sole councillor in Scotland on Fife Council. Independent councillors retained majority control over the three island councils (Na h-Eileanan Siar, Orkney and Shetland).
Aftermath
Talks took place to decide who would control of the 23 remaining councils [4] This resulted in Labour taking control of Fife, East and West Lothian, Inverclyde and South Lanarkshire and forming a grand coalition with the SNP in the City of Edinburgh and an anti-Conservative alliance in East Renfrewshire.
The SNP took control of Clackmannanshire, North Ayrshire and Perth and Kinross and became the largest party in controlling coalitions in Argyll and Bute, Highland, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and East Ayrshire. They also joined the Scottish Conservatives in a coalition arrangement in Dumfries and Galloway.
Results
Results to follow:
Party | First-preference votes | Seats won | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
# | % | Swing (pp) | # | Net Gain | % | ||
SNP | 503,233 | 32.33 | +4.48 | 425 | +62 | 34.75 | |
Labour | 488,703 | 31.39 | +3.26 | 394 | +46 | 32.22 | |
Conservative | 206,599 | 13.27 | −2.35 | 115 | −28 | 9.40 | |
Independents | 183,329 | 11.78 | +1.27 | 196 | +12 | 16.03 | |
Liberal Democrats | 103,087 | 6.62 | −6.05 | 71 | −95 | 5.81 | |
Green | 36,000 | 2.31 | +0.11 | 14 | +6 | 1.14 | |
UKIP | 4,289 | 0.28 | +0.22 | 0 | ±0 | 0.00 | |
Scottish Socialist | 4,183 | 0.27 | −0.61 | 1 | ±0 | 0.08 | |
Borders Party | 3,755 | 0.24 | +0.12 | 2 | ±0 | 0.16 | |
Action to Save St John's Hospital | 3,474 | 0.22 | +0.03 | 0 | −3 | 0.00 | |
East Dunbartonshire Independent Alliance | 2,973 | 0.19 | −0.09 | 2 | ±0 | 0.16 | |
Glasgow First | 2,547 | 0.16 | +0.16 | 1 | +1 | 0.08 | |
TUSC | 2,485 | 0.16 | +0.16 | 0 | ±0 | 0.00 | |
Christian Party | 2,344 | 0.15 | +0.12 | 0 | ±0 | 0.00 | |
All Scotland Pensioners Party | 2,328 | 0.15 | +0.08 | 0 | ±0 | 0.00 | |
Cumbernauld Independent Alliance | 1,894 | 0.12 | +0.02 | 1 | ±0 | 0.08 | |
Unionist | 864 | 0.06 | −0.09 | 0 | ±0 | 0.00 | |
Perth Independent Candidates | 805 | 0.05 | +0.05 | 1 | +1 | 0.08 | |
Solidarity | 787 | 0.05 | −0.81 | 0 | −1 | 0.00 | |
Socialist Labour Party | 714 | 0.05 | +0.03 | 0 | ±0 | 0.00 | |
East Kilbride Alliance | 681 | 0.04 | −0.03 | 0 | ±0 | 0.00 | |
Liberal | 595 | 0.04 | −0.02 | 0 | ±0 | 0.00 | |
National Front | 369 | 0.02 | +0.02 | 0 | ±0 | 0.00 | |
Pirate Party | 292 | 0.02 | +0.02 | 0 | ±0 | 0.00 | |
Christian Peoples Alliance | 209 | 0.01 | +0.01 | 0 | ±0 | 0.00 | |
Communist Party of Britain | 94 | <0.01 | +0.01 | 0 | ±0 | 0.00 | |
Britannica | 73 | <0.01 | 0 | ±0 | 0.00 | ||
Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 67 | <0.01 | 0 | ±0 | 0.00 | ||
Total | 1,556,773 | 100.00 | ±0.00 | 1,223 | +1 | 100.00 |
Note: The net gain/loss and percentage change in number of votes relates to the result of the previous Scottish local elections on 3 May 2007. This differs from the table in the reference above [6] which shows gain/loss relative to seats held at dissolution of Scotland's councils.
Analysis
Party | Total elected | Elected on 1st prefs | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | % | % (2007) | |||
Conservative | 115 | 46 | 40.0 | 40.6 | |
Labour | 394 | 199 | 50.5 | 37.4 | |
Liberal Democrats | 71 | 20 | 28.2 | 21.7 | |
SNP | 425 | 185 | 43.5 | 56.5 | |
Scottish Green | 14 | 1 | 7.1 | – | |
Independent | 200 | 79 | 39.5 | 31.6 | |
Other | 4 | 2 | 50.0 | 14.3 | |
Totals | 1,223 | 532 | 43.5 | 39.7 |
Transferred from | % non-transferable | % transferred to | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Con | Lab | LD | SNP | Ind/Other | |||
Conservative | 33.6 | – | 8.0 | 32.4 | 8.3 | 17.6 | |
Labour | 47.8 | 5.8 | – | 13.2 | 16.5 | 16.7 | |
Liberal Democrats | 23.1 | 21.8 | 20.4 | – | 15.5 | 19.3 | |
SNP | 44.2 | 6.0 | 18.1 | 14.1 | – | 17.8 | |
Scottish Green | 20.4 | 5.1 | 19.2 | 19.9 | 18.3 | 17.0 |
Councils
Council | 2007 Result: Largest party (Parties in control) | Control before election (Change in control since May 2007, if different) |
2012 Result: Largest party (Parties in control) | Details | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aberdeen City | Liberal Democrats (LD + SNP) | NOC (SNP + LD) | Labour (Lab + Con + Ind) | Details | ||
Aberdeenshire | Liberal Democrats (LD + Con) | SNP (Con + LD + Ind) | Details | |||
Angus | SNP (Ind + Con + LD + Lab) | SNP | Details | |||
Argyll and Bute | Independent (Ind + SNP) | NOC (Independent minority) | Independent (Ind + SNP) | Details | ||
Clackmannanshire | Labour (Lab minority) | NOC (SNP minority) | SNP (SNP minority) | Details | ||
Dumfries and Galloway | Conservative (LD + SNP) | Labour (Lab minority) | Details | |||
Dundee City | SNP (Lab + LD) | NOC (SNP minority) | SNP | Details | ||
East Ayrshire | SNP (SNP minority) | (SNP + Con) | SNP (SNP + Con) | Details | ||
East Dunbartonshire | SNP (Lab + Con) | Labour (Lab + LD + Con) | Details | |||
East Lothian | Labour (SNP + LD) | Labour (Lab + Con) | Details | |||
East Renfrewshire | Conservative (Lab + Con + Ind + LD) | NOC (Lab + SNP + Ind + LD) | Labour (Lab + SNP + Ind) | Details | ||
City of Edinburgh | Liberal Democrats (LD + SNP) | Labour (Lab + SNP) | Details | |||
Falkirk | Labour (Lab + Ind + Con) | Labour (Lab + Con + Ind) | Details | |||
Fife | Labour (LD + SNP) | Labour (Lab minority) | Details | |||
Glasgow City | Labour | NOC (Lab minority) | Labour | Details | ||
Highland | Independent (Ind + SNP)} | NOC (Ind + LD + Lab) | Independent (SNP + LD + Lab) | Details | ||
Inverclyde | Labour (Lab minority) | Labour (Lab minority) | Details | |||
Midlothian | Labour (Lab minority) | Labour | Labour (SNP + Green + Ind) | Details | ||
Moray | Independent (Ind + Con) | SNP (Ind + Con) | Details | |||
Na h-Eileanan Siar | Independent | Independent | Details | |||
North Ayrshire | Labour (Lab minority) | SNP (SNP minority) | Details | |||
North Lanarkshire | Labour | Labour | Labour | Details | ||
Orkney | Independent | Independent | Details | |||
Perth and Kinross | SNP (SNP + LD) | SNP (SNP minority) | Details | |||
Renfrewshire | Labour (SNP + LD) | Labour | Details | |||
Scottish Borders | Conservative (Con + LD + Ind) | Conservative (SNP + Ind + LD) | Details | |||
Shetland | Independent | Independent | Details | |||
South Ayrshire | Conservative (Con + Lab + Ind) | Conservative (Con + Lab + Ind) | Details | |||
South Lanarkshire | Labour (Lab + LD + Con) | Labour (Lab minority) | Details | |||
Stirling | Labour (Lab minority) | NOC (SNP minority) | SNP (Lab + Con) | Details | ||
West Dunbartonshire | Labour (SNP + Ind) | Labour | Details | |||
West Lothian | Labour (SNP + Ind) | Labour (Lab minority) | Details |
Name of party shows the largest group within each council. However, the party names in brackets identify members of a coalition leading the council. In some cases, the largest party is shown, but is not in charge of the council.
Further reading
- Curtice, John (2012). "2012 Scottish Local Government Elections" (PDF). Electoral Reform Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 September 2015.
Complete results and vote data files for all wards in Scotland, with figures illustrating the count process, are available at Scottish Council election May 2012
Notes
- ^ the first terminal transfer of a major party candidate in a ward, where all of the other parties still had a candidate in the count
References
- ^ Liddell, Greig; Burnside, Ross; Campbell, Allan; McGrath, Francesca; McIver, Iain (8 June 2012). "SPICe Briefing: Local government elections 2012" (PDF). SPICe. p. 11.
- ^ "'Dummy election' for electronic vote counting machine". BBC News. 5 August 2011.
- ^ Morse, Felicity (4 May 2012). "Candidate Dressed as a Penguin Beats Lib Dems". The Huffington Post.
- ^ "Scottish council election: Council control talks get under way". BBC News. 5 May 2012.
- ^ "Scottish Elections :: Local Elections 2012 - election results".
- ^ "Vote 2012 - Scottish Council Results". BBC News. 21 May 2012.
- ^ Curtice 2012, p. 22.
- ^ Curtice 2012, pp. 15–16.
Preceded by 2007 Scottish local elections |
Scottish local elections | Succeeded by 2017 Scottish local elections |