Post by john07 on Feb 19, 2021 0:04:44 GMT
Edinburgh West stretches from the edge of the City Centre through to South Queensferry. The latter was once part of West Lothian but was incorporated into the City of Edinburgh along with rural areas to the south including Ratho, Kirkliston, and Newbridge Industrial Estate, presumably to bring Edinburgh’s municipal airport within the City boundaries.
The Constituency includes the leafy suburbs of Cramond and Barnton in the north. It has the very rural Kirkliston and Dalmeny areas to the west along with the rapidly expanding former ferry terminus and historic village of South Queensferry. The core of the Constituency is probably Corstorphine, which most outsiders struggle to pronounce let alone spell! Much of this is fairly new is slightly downmarket speculative housing. To the east, is the prosperous Murrayfield, the home of Scottish Rugby. There are few areas of obvious Labour strength in the Constituency apart from Stenhouse and Muirhouse.
The, recently opened, Edinburgh tramline links much of the Constituency. It runs from the City Centre to Haymarket and on to Murrayfield and through to Edinburgh Park, which is a developing industrial and commercial area. It goes on to the Gyle shopping centre and then to Edinburgh Airport, with a stop near to the Royal Bank of Scotland complex at Gogarburn. It links two new main line railway stations: Edinburgh Park on the line to Glasgow and Edinburgh Gateway on the line to Fife, Dundee and Aberdeen.
It is the only Parliamentary seat in Edinburgh that has never been held by Labour. A former Edinburgh West Constituency did elect a Labour MP in 1929 but the boundaries were very different with the then Constituency based on the Gorgie, Dalry, Haymarket and St Bernard’s Wards from 1918. The seat was strongly Conservative from 1950 until the Liberals/Alliance took second place in 1983. The seat was taken by the Liberal Democrats in 1997 and have held it ever since apart from 2015-17 when the SNP took the seat with Michelle Thomson. That did not end well! An, ultimately dropped, police investigation caused her to lose the SNP whip and she was replaced as candidate for the 2017 election after sitting as an Independent. The Lib Dems regained the seat and held in again in 2019 partially by squeezing the Labour and Conservative votes.
There are some similarities with Edinburgh South in that both Constituencies have experienced anti-SNP alliances with tactical voting to keep the Lib Dems in Edinburgh West (and the Scottish Parliament seat Edinburgh Western) in much the same way as Labour has held Edinburgh South (and won Edinburgh Southern). The margins remain quite tight for the Lib Dems in Edinburgh West.
A large proportion of the potential for new employment in Edinburgh is likely to be in Edinburgh West including further developments in Edinburgh Park and also areas adjacent to the Airport and the Edinburgh Gateway station.
The Constituency includes the leafy suburbs of Cramond and Barnton in the north. It has the very rural Kirkliston and Dalmeny areas to the west along with the rapidly expanding former ferry terminus and historic village of South Queensferry. The core of the Constituency is probably Corstorphine, which most outsiders struggle to pronounce let alone spell! Much of this is fairly new is slightly downmarket speculative housing. To the east, is the prosperous Murrayfield, the home of Scottish Rugby. There are few areas of obvious Labour strength in the Constituency apart from Stenhouse and Muirhouse.
The, recently opened, Edinburgh tramline links much of the Constituency. It runs from the City Centre to Haymarket and on to Murrayfield and through to Edinburgh Park, which is a developing industrial and commercial area. It goes on to the Gyle shopping centre and then to Edinburgh Airport, with a stop near to the Royal Bank of Scotland complex at Gogarburn. It links two new main line railway stations: Edinburgh Park on the line to Glasgow and Edinburgh Gateway on the line to Fife, Dundee and Aberdeen.
It is the only Parliamentary seat in Edinburgh that has never been held by Labour. A former Edinburgh West Constituency did elect a Labour MP in 1929 but the boundaries were very different with the then Constituency based on the Gorgie, Dalry, Haymarket and St Bernard’s Wards from 1918. The seat was strongly Conservative from 1950 until the Liberals/Alliance took second place in 1983. The seat was taken by the Liberal Democrats in 1997 and have held it ever since apart from 2015-17 when the SNP took the seat with Michelle Thomson. That did not end well! An, ultimately dropped, police investigation caused her to lose the SNP whip and she was replaced as candidate for the 2017 election after sitting as an Independent. The Lib Dems regained the seat and held in again in 2019 partially by squeezing the Labour and Conservative votes.
There are some similarities with Edinburgh South in that both Constituencies have experienced anti-SNP alliances with tactical voting to keep the Lib Dems in Edinburgh West (and the Scottish Parliament seat Edinburgh Western) in much the same way as Labour has held Edinburgh South (and won Edinburgh Southern). The margins remain quite tight for the Lib Dems in Edinburgh West.
A large proportion of the potential for new employment in Edinburgh is likely to be in Edinburgh West including further developments in Edinburgh Park and also areas adjacent to the Airport and the Edinburgh Gateway station.
