North Tayside (Scottish Parliament constituency)

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**North Tayside**
Scottish Parliament county constituency

North Tayside sown within the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region
Created:	1999
MSP:	John Swinney
Party:	Scottish National Party
Council areas:	Angus (part) Perth and Kinross (part)

North Tayside 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 areas
3 Characteristics 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, Kirkcaldy, Ochil, Perth and Stirling.

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 areas

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 generally replaced with new larger constituencies^[1]. For representation at Westminster, the area of the Holyrood constituency is now divided between the Perth and North Perthshire Westminster constituency and the Angus Westminster constituency.

The Holyrood constituency of North Tayside covers a northern portion of the Perth and Kinross council area and a northern portion of the Angus council area.

The rest of the Perth and Kinross council area is covered by the Mid Scotland and Fife constituencies of Perth and Ochil and the North East Scotland constituency of Angus.

The rest of the Angus council area is covered by the Angus constituency.

The Perth constituency is entirely within the Perth and Kinross council area, south of the Tayside North constituency.

The Ochil constituency covers a south-eastern portion of the Perth and Kinross council area, the Clackmannanshire council area, and a south-eastern portion of the Stirling council area.

The Angus constituency covers a small eastern portion of the Perth and Kinross council, a southern portion of the Angus council area, and north-western and north-eastern portions of the City of Dundee council area.

[edit] Characteristics of the constituency

The constituency is a relatively prosperous, largely rural, Lowland seat, on the fringe of the Highlands, with successful livestock farming, fruit-growing and tourism interests, a combination of small towns and rich agricultural land, with relatively low unemployment. It includes the towns of Pitlochry, Forfar and Blairgowrie. The south-western area, near the town of Perth, is the most populous.

In Westminster elections the area is traditionally Conservative, and Conservatives have held seats representing the area during most of the period since World War II. The Scottish National Party (SNP) tradition is also strong, however, as in the neighbouring Perth area. In the 1997 United Kingdom general election the SNP's John Swinney won the Tayside North Westminster seat from the Conservatives. He then went on to be elected to Holyrood in the 1999 Scottish Parliament election and to be re-elected in the 2003 Scottish Parliament election.

[edit] Election results

Scottish parliamentary election, 1999: North Tayside
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Scottish National Party	John Swinney	16,786	44.11	N/A
	Conservative	Murdo Fraser	12,594	33.09	N/A
	Labour	Marion Dingwall	5,727	15.05	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Peter Regent	2,948	7.75	N/A
Majority			4,192	11.02	N/A
Turnout			38,055
	Scottish National Party hold		Swing	N/A

Scottish parliamentary election, 2003: North Tayside
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Scottish National Party	John Swinney	14,969	44.9	+0.8
	Conservative	Murdo Fraser	10,466	31.4	-1.7
	Labour	Gordon MacRae	3,527	10.6	-4.5
	Liberal Democrats	Bob Forrest	3,206	9.6	+1.9
	Scottish Socialist	Rosie Adams	941	2.8	+2.8
	Scottish People's Alliance	George Ashe	234	0.7	+0.7
Majority			4,503	13.5	+0.8
Turnout			33,343	53.2
	Scottish National Party hold		Swing	+0.8