Glasgow Cathcart was a burgh constituency

Burgh constituency

A burgh constituency is a type of parliamentary constituency in Scotland. It is a constituency which is predominantly urban, and on this basis has been designated as a burgh constituency...

 represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

 from 1918

United Kingdom general election, 1918

The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...

 until 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....

, when it was replaced by the larger Glasgow South

Glasgow South (UK Parliament constituency)

Glasgow South is a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

 constituency.

It elected one Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) using the first-past-the-post

First-past-the-post

First-past-the-post voting refers to an election won by the candidate with the most votes. The winning potato candidate does not necessarily receive an absolute majority of all votes cast.-Overview:...

 voting system.

Boundaries

In 1918 the constituency consisted of "That portion of the city which is bounded by a line commencing at a point on the municipal boundary at the centre of Kilmarnock Road, thence northward along the centre line of Kilmarnock Road to the centre line of the River Cart

River Cart

The River Cart is a tributary of the River Clyde, Scotland, which it joins from the west roughly midway between the towns of Erskine and Renfrew....

, thence south-eastward and eastward along the centre line of the River Cart to the centre line of Langside Road at Millbrae Bridge, thence north-eastward along the centre line of Langside Road, Millbrae Road and Langside Road, to the centre line of the main avenue in the Queen's Park near Victoria Infirmary, thence northward along the centre line of the said main avenue to the centre line of Queen's Drive, thence northward along the centre line of Victoria Road to the centre line of the Glasgow and South Western Railway

Glasgow and South Western Railway

The Glasgow and South Western Railway , one of the pre-grouping railway companies, served a triangular area of south-west Scotland, between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle...

 about 46 yards north of the centre line of Butterbiggins Road, thence north-eastward along the centre line of the said Glasgow and South Western Railway to the centre line of the Caledonian Railway

Caledonian Railway

The Caledonian Railway was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century and it was absorbed almost a century later into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, in the 1923 railway grouping, by means of the Railways Act 1921...

 Main Line from Glasgow to Rutherglen, thence south-eastward along the centre line of the said Caledonian Railway to the municipal boundary, thence south-westward and westward along the municipal boundary to the point of commencement "

Following the Representation of the People Act 1948

Representation of the People Act 1948

The Representation of the People Act 1948 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered the law relating to parliamentary and local elections...

 the electoral wards used to form Cathcart were Langside, part of Govanhill and Cathcart itself. This changed from 1974 until 1983 to just Cathcart and part of Langside.

Until 1997 the City of Glasgow wards used to create the seat were numbers 36, 37, and 39, whilst until 2005 it was formed from wards 1-3, and 6-8.

History

For generations, Glasgow Cathcart was an extremely safe Conservative seat and for 56 years the constituency always voted for a Conservative. The area was the wealthiest part of the city and was mainly inhabited by 'well to do' business families and contained large detached houses. It was Glasgow's equivalent of Kensington and Chelsea in London. However, when Labour was elected to power in 1964 Glasgow had a lot of slum clearance and Cathcart had a lot of council housing built and areas which had previously been fields now housed the families from the old slums. These families naturally voted Labour and time and time again the Conservative majorities dwindled. In 1966, the Conservative majority fell to a record low of 1,200 votes.

In 1970, the Conservatives increased their majority to around 5,000 but at the next two general elections in 1974 it soon fell again. In 1979 when Margaret Thatcher took office and the national trend was a big Conservative swing, the Conservatives lost the seat to Labour. After redrawn boundaries were made in 1983 the seat was notionally Conservative but like 1979 the seat went against the national trend and the Labour MP increased his majority. From 1983 to 1997 the Conservatives lost more ground time after time except for a small improvement in 1992 (again this was against the national trend). In 1997, Labour won a landslide and the seat became ultra safe Labour.

Since then the Conservatives have fallen into third and fourth place. The seat still has more Conservative voters than any other Glasgow seat but only 5,000 at the last election when it was replaced by Glasgow South.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918 United Kingdom general election, 1918 The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...	John Pratt John Pratt (Liberal politician) Sir John William Pratt , was a Scottish Liberal politician.Pratt entered Parliament for Linlithgowshire in 1913 by-election, a seat he held until 1918, and then represented Glasgow Cathcart until 1922...	Coalition Liberal Liberal Party (UK) The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
	1922 United Kingdom general election, 1922 The United Kingdom general election of 1922 was held on 15 November 1922. It was the first election held after most of the Irish counties left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by Andrew Bonar Law's Conservatives, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by John...	John Primrose Hay John Primrose Hay Captain John Primrose Hay was Labour MP for Glasgow Cathcart.He was elected in 1922, but lost his seat in 1923.- External links:...	Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
	1923 United Kingdom general election, 1923 -Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...	Robert MacDonald Robert MacDonald (MP) Robert MacDonald was Unionist Party MP for Glasgow Cathcart from 1923 to 1929....	Unionist
	1929 United Kingdom general election, 1929 -Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...	Sir John Train John Train (politician) John Train was Unionist Party MP for Glasgow Cathcart.He was first elected in 1929, and held the seat until his death.- External links :...	Unionist
	1942 by-election	Francis Beattie Francis Beattie Francis Beattie was Unionist Party MP for Glasgow Cathcart . Beattie won it at a by-election in 1942, and was re-elected in 1945, but he was killed in a road accident later that year....	Unionist
	1946 by-election	John Henderson John Henderson (Scottish politician) Sir John Henderson DL JP was a Scottish Conservative party politician.The son of John Henderson and Ellen Shiels, Henderson was educated at the Martyrs' Public School, Glasgow....	Unionist
	1964 United Kingdom general election, 1964 The United Kingdom general election of 1964 was held on 15 October 1964, more than five years after the preceding election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party had retaken power...	Teddy Taylor Teddy Taylor Sir Edward MacMillan Taylor, usually known as Teddy Taylor , is a British Conservative Party politician who was a Member of Parliament from 1964 to 1979 for Glasgow Cathcart and from 1980 to 2005 for Rochford and Southend East.He was a leading member and sometime Vice-President of the Conservative...	Unionist
	1979 United Kingdom general election, 1979 The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...	John Maxton John Maxton, Baron Maxton John Alston Maxton, Baron Maxton is a Scottish Labour Party politician.From 1979 to 2001 he was a backbench Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons. He is a nephew of the former Independent Labour Party leader, James Maxton...	Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
	2001 United Kingdom general election, 2001 The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...	Tom Harris	Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1970s

Elections in the 1940s

Elections in the 1930s

Elections in the 1920s

Elections in the 1910s