Summary
Why and how are constituency boundaries drawn, and why do they change? Join Phil Sim for a deep dive into the review of Westminster and Holyrood boundaries with Professor Ailsa Henderson, Chair of Boundaries Scotland, and Allan Faulds of Ballot Box Scotland. They discuss the detail and feedback that goes into making decisions, the misconceptions around boundary changes, how the changes work, and how some rules can cause quirky border oddities and long constituency names. Phil and Allan also discuss the political impact of the changes, and how it may affect the next election.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds |
| 0:02.0 | You're listening to BBC Scotland |
| 0:09.6 | Hi, you're listening to Podlitical, BBC Scotland's podcast that brings you an inside look at the big stories coming out of Hollywood and Westminster. |
| 0:20.5 | It is |
| 0:21.0 | Half Fast 12 on Thursday the 17th of August. |
| 0:24.9 | I'm Phil Sim, a journalist based at the Scottish Parliament. |
| 0:27.7 | And today I am very excited to be joined by |
| 0:30.0 | Alan Folls. I run Ballot Box Scotland, |
| 0:32.5 | a website about polling in elections in Scotland. |
| 0:34.9 | And I'm Eilsa Henderson. I'm Chair of Boundaries Scotland |
| 0:38.1 | and my day job is as a professor of political science |
| 0:41.6 | at the University of Edinburgh. |
| 0:43.5 | I am really excited about today's podlitical |
| 0:45.6 | because I think this may be the nerdiest episode |
| 0:48.3 | we could ever do potentially |
| 0:49.9 | because today we are going to talk about boundary changes. |
| 0:54.0 | You may have guessed |
| 0:54.7 | Ramales's job title there because we have the final set of proposals for new Westminster |
| 0:59.9 | boundaries and helpfully an election on the horizon. Also, you've been on the pod various times |
| 1:05.4 | with your political analysis hat on, but today you're here as a boundary commissioner. |
| 1:11.2 | Firstly, how do you even get a job like that? |
| 1:14.1 | Is there like some sort of cartographic tournament you have to win in order to be in charge |
... |
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