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UK Parliament - Edinburgh South West

RACE DETAILS

Parents

> United Kingdom > Scotland > Scotland > Edinburgh South West

Office

Parliament

Type

General Election

Filing Deadline

00, 0000 - 06:00pm

Polls Open

May 06, 2010 - 01:00am

Polls Close

May 06, 2010 - 04:00pm

Term Start

May 17, 2010 - 12:00pm

Term End

May 17, 2015 - 12:00pm

Contributor

Ralphie

Last Modified

RBH May 07, 2010 09:46pm

Data Sources

[Link]

Description

BBC Profile:
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Conservative foreign secretary from 1995 to 1997, lost his 23-year tenure of Edinburgh Pentlands in 1997, when Dr Lynda Clark took it for Labour. In 2001 Sir Malcolm cut Dr Clark's majority in half.

The Westminster seat was enlarged and renamed Edinburgh South West in 2005. The seat retained the boundaries of Edinburgh Pentlands, except in the northeast, where it gained the city wards Fountainbridge and Gorgie but lost Fairmilehead, South Morningside, North Morningside/Grange and Merchiston to Edinburgh South. It also gained Dalry from the old Edinburgh Central seat. At the general election Lynda Clark stepped aside for Alistair Darling, whose Edinburgh Central seat was abolished. Mr Darling held the seat on a slightly reduced majority of 16.5%.

There are no boundary changes affecting this seat.

Set against the backdrop of the Pentland hills, this constituency contains a mixture of city, suburban and rural areas.

There are middle-class residential areas such as Colinton and Balerno, as well as the affluent new housing developments along the A70 road south to Lanark which are home to new professional and managerial types.

The seat contains Edinburgh Napier University including the building of Craiglockhart Hydropathic which was used as a hospital during WWI, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon were both patients there.

Heart of Midlothian Football Club is based at Tynecastle Stadium in Gorgie.

Edinburgh's new tram system, which aims to be operational by 2012, will go through the constituency.

Rallings & Thrasher Notional:
No Boundary Changes