Edinburgh Pentlands is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament

Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...

. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP)

Member of the Scottish Parliament

Member of the Scottish Parliament is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament.-Methods of Election:MSPs are elected in one of two ways:...

 by the plurality (first past the post) method of election. It is one of nine constituencies in the Lothians electoral region

Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions

Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions were first used in 1999, in the first general election of the Scottish Parliament , created by the Scotland Act 1998....

, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation

Proportional representation

Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...

 for the region as a whole.

Electoral region

See also Lothians Scottish Parliament region

The other eight constituencies of the Lothians region are Edinburgh Central

Edinburgh Central (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Edinburgh Central is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

, Edinburgh East and Musselburgh

Edinburgh East and Musselburgh (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Edinburgh East and Musselburgh is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

, Edinburgh North and Leith

Edinburgh North and Leith (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Edinburgh North and Leith is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

, Edinburgh South

Edinburgh South (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Edinburgh South was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

, Edinburgh West

Edinburgh West (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Edinburgh West is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

, Linlithgow

Linlithgow (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Linlithgow is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

, Livingston

Livingston (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Livingston was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election....

 and Midlothian

Midlothian (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Midlothian is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

.

The region covers the City of Edinburgh council area, the West Lothian council area

West Lothian

West Lothian is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland, and a Lieutenancy area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Falkirk, North Lanarkshire, the Scottish Borders and South Lanarkshire....

, part of the Midlothian council area

Midlothian

Midlothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy area. It borders the Scottish Borders, East Lothian and the City of Edinburgh council areas....

, and part of the East Lothian council area

East Lothian

East Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....

.

Constituency boundaries and council area

The Edinburgh Pentlands constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999

Scottish Parliament election, 1999

The Scottish Parliament election, 1999 was the first general election of the Scottish Parliament, with voting taking place on 6 May 1999 to elect 129 members...

, with the name and boundaries of an existing Westminster constituency

Edinburgh Pentlands (UK Parliament constituency)

Edinburgh Pentlands was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, first used in the general election of 1950, and abolished prior to the general election of 2005...

. In 2005

United Kingdom general election, 2005

The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....

, however, Scottish Westminster (House of Commons) constituencies were mostly replaced with new constituencies.

The Holyrood constituency covers a south-western portion of the City of Edinburgh council area. The rest of the city area is covered by five other constituencies, all also in the Lothians electoral region: Edinburgh West

Edinburgh West (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Edinburgh West is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

, Edinburgh Central

Edinburgh Central (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Edinburgh Central is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

, Edinburgh South

Edinburgh South (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Edinburgh South was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

, Edinburgh North and Leith

Edinburgh North and Leith (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Edinburgh North and Leith is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

, and Edinburgh East and Musselburgh

Edinburgh East and Musselburgh (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Edinburgh East and Musselburgh is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

.

Edinburgh Pentlands has boundaries with the Edinburgh West, Edinburgh Central, and Edinburgh South constituencies.

The Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency also covers the Musselburgh

Musselburgh

Musselburgh is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, six miles east of Edinburgh city centre.-History:...

 portion of the East Lothian council area. The rest of the East Lothian area is covered by the East Lothian

East Lothian (Scottish Parliament constituency)

East Lothian is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

 constituency, which is in the South of Scotland electoral region.

Wards

Edinburgh Pentlands included the wards of Balerno, Baberton, Colinton, Craiglockhart, Fairmilehead, Firrhill, Murrayburn, Parkhead and Sighthill, and part of the South Morningside ward, which is split with the South constituency. The wards were created in 1999, at the same time as the constituency, and were replaced for the new single transferable vote

Single transferable vote

The single transferable vote is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through preferential voting. Under STV, an elector's vote is initially allocated to his or her most preferred candidate, and then, after candidates have been either elected or eliminated, any surplus or...

 system introduced in 2007.

The new wards straddle the constituency boundaries and are called Pentland Hills, Colinton & Fairmilehead, Morningside & Meadows, Craiglockhart & Fountainbridge and Sighthill & Gorgie.

They all elect three councillors except Morningside & Meadows and Sighthill & Gorgie, which elect four.

The party breakdown is:

• Pentland Hills: 1 Con, 1 Lab, 1 SNP:
• Colinton and Fairmilehead: 2 Con, 1 Lab:
• Morningside and Meadows: 1 Con, 1 LD, 1 Green, 1 Lab:
• Craiglockhart and Fountainbridge: 1 Con, 1 LD, 1 Lab:
• Sighthill and Gorgie: 2 Lab, 1 SNP, 1 LD:

In total, there are 6 Labour, 5 Conservatives, 3 Liberal Democrats, 2 SNP and 1 Green.

Constituency profile

The constituency has an urban north and a suburban centre. The remaining area is rural, and runs into the Pentland Hills

Pentland Hills

The Pentland Hills are a range of hills to the south-west of Edinburgh, Scotland. The range is around 20 miles in length, and runs south west from Edinburgh towards Biggar and the upper Clydesdale.Some of the peaks include:* Scald Law...

 in the south. The constituency includes Balerno

Balerno

Balerno is a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland situated 12 kilometres south west of the city centre, next to Juniper Green and Currie. Administratively, Balerno falls within the jurisdiction of the City of Edinburgh Council.- History :...

, Colinton

Colinton

Colinton is a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland situated 6 kilometres south west of the city centre. It is bordered by Dreghorn to the south and Craiglockhart to the north-east. To the north-west it extends to Lanark Road and to the south-west to the City Bypass...

, Craiglockhart

Craiglockhart

Craiglockhart is a suburb in the south west of Edinburgh, Scotland, lying between Colinton to the south, Morningside to the east Merchiston to the north east and Kingsknowe to the west...

, Parkhead

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, Sighthill

Sighthill, Edinburgh

Sighthill is a suburb in the west of Edinburgh, Scotland.For nearly 50 years, the West Edinburgh skyline was dominated by 4 high rise residential tower blocks the first of which was demolished on 21st September 2008 with the other three blocks following the same fate just over 3 years later...

 and a southern area of Morningside

Morningside, Edinburgh

Morningside is a district in the south-west of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is south of the areas of Bruntsfield, Burghmuirhead ; south-west of Marchmont, and south-east of Merchiston...

.

Members of the Scottish Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1999 Scottish Parliament election, 1999 The Scottish Parliament election, 1999 was the first general election of the Scottish Parliament, with voting taking place on 6 May 1999 to elect 129 members...	Iain Gray Iain Gray Iain Gray is a Scottish politician and the Leader of Scottish Labour Party Opposition in the Scottish Parliament. Gray was elected as the Member of the Scottish Parliament for the East Lothian constituency in 2007 having previously represented Edinburgh Pentlands from 1999 to 2003.-Background and...	Labour Scottish Labour Party The Scottish Labour Party is the section of the British Labour Party which operates in Scotland....
	2003 Scottish Parliament election, 2003 The Scottish Parliament election, 2003, was the second general election of the Scottish Parliament. It was held on 1 May 2003 and it brought no change in terms of control of the Scottish Executive...	David McLetchie David McLetchie David McLetchie is a Scottish politician, currently a Scottish Conservative and Unionist Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Lothian electoral region...	Conservative
	2007 Scottish Parliament election, 2007 The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999...
	2011 Scottish Parliament election, 2011 The 2011 Scottish Parliament general election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.The election delivered the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, a remarkable feat as the mixed member proportional representation system is used to...	Gordon MacDonald Gordon MacDonald (Scottish politician) Gordon MacDonald is a Scottish politician, currently the Scottish National Party MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands.He was born in Glasgow and educated at Cumbernauld High School, the Central College of Commerce and the Glasgow College of Technology.MacDonald contested the seat of Edinburgh Pentlands in...	Scottish National Party Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....

2011 election reults

Liberal Democrats gained under 5% of the poll and thus lost their deposit

2007 election results

2003 election results

1999 election results

See also

• Politics of Edinburgh
  Politics of Edinburgh
  The politics of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, are evident in the deliberations and decisions of the council of Edinburgh, in elections to the council, the Scottish Parliament, the House of Commons and the European Parliament....