Kirkcaldy (Scottish Parliament constituency)

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**Kirkcaldy**
Scottish Parliament county constituency

Kirkcaldy shown within the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region
Created:	1999
MSP:	Marilyn Livingstone
Party:	Labour
Council area:	Fife (part)

Kirkcaldy is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality (first past the post) method of election. Also, however, it is one of nine constituencies in the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

1 Electoral region
2 Constituency boundaries and council area
3 Description of the constituency
4 Election results
5 Footnotes

[edit] Electoral region

The other eight constituencies of the South of Scotland region are Dunfermline East, Dunfermline West, Fife Central, Fife North East, Ochil, Perth, Stirling and Tayside North.

The region covers all of the Clackmannanshire council area, all of the Fife council area, all of the Perth and Kinross council area, all of the Stirling council area and parts of the Angus council area.

[edit] Constituency boundaries and council area

The constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of a pre-existing Westminster (House of Commons) constituency. In 2005, however, Scottish Westminster constituencies were mostly replaced with new constituencies^[1]. The Kirkcaldy Westminster constituency was divided between Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

The Holyrood constituency of Kirkcaldy is one of five Mid Scotland and Fife constituencies covering the Fife council area, the others being Dunfermline East, Dunfermline West, Fife Central and Fife North East. All are entirely within the council area.

Kirkcaldy covers a southern portion of the council area, south of Fife Central and east of Dunfermline East.

[edit] Description of the constituency

The constituency includes the town of Kirkcaldy and some popular seaside resorts, such as Burntisland and Kinghorn. Though coastal, it is dependent upon both light and heavy industry, their decline leading to above-average unemployment. In Westminster elections the area has been safely held by Labour since 1945.

[edit] Election results

Scottish parliamentary election, 1999: Kirkcaldy
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Marilyn Livingstone	13,645	48.14	N/A
	Scottish National Party	Stewart Hosie	9,170	32.35	N/A
	Conservative	Mike Scott-Hayward	2,907	10.26	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	John Mainland	2,620	9.24	N/A
Majority			4,475	15.79	N/A
Turnout			28,342
	Labour hold		Swing	N/A

Scottish parliamentary election, 2003: Kirkcaldy
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Marilyn Livingstone	10,235	46.7	-1.5
	Scottish National Party	Colin Welsh	5,411	24.7	-7.7
	Liberal Democrats	Alex Cole-Hamilton	2,417	11.0	+1.8
	Conservative	Mike Scott-Hayward	2,332	10.6	+0.4
	Scottish Socialist	Rudi Vogels	1,544	7.0	+7.0
Majority			4,824	22.0	N/A
Turnout			21,939	44.2
	Labour hold		Swing	-1.5%