Welsh Dragon Rises At Election
By Premasagar. 6th May, 2005Categories: Mapping, Politics
The Election is over.
When I looked at the new UK political map at the BBC, I couldn’t help noticing something…
Is it just me, or is there a Dragon in Wales - bowing its head and unfurling its wings? Take another look…
Wales doesn’t usually enter my mind. What could it mean?
The Welsh political map
Looking at the map of Wales itself, it seems that the 4 parties cover roughly the same area of land as each other. The way the parties are symmetrically clustered is interesting:
Both the Liberal Democrats (yellow) and the Conservatives (blue) seem to have 3-fold symmetry around the centrepoint of Wales, while Plaid Cymru (green) and Labour (red) have 2-fold symmetry above and below that centrepoint.
Blaenau Gwent (Labour’s bloody nose) is the small grey-green spot to the south-east. And is that Newtown at the centrepoint?
So what’s new on the horizon for Wales? Is the Welsh Dragon rising?
[Original images created by the BBC, and borrowed with respect.]
7th May, 2005
That’s marvelous =)
7th May, 2005
That’s pretty cool, looks like the dragon is getting ready to blow away England. :) Thanks for the link.
7th May, 2005
[...] & Stupid, Wales — Lynne @ 5:27 pm Dragon rising in Wales, and from the look of things it’s about to blow away England [...]
7th May, 2005
Looks like a seahorse to me.
8th May, 2005
Indeed. And they said as much here!
Still, I thought that the headline “Welsh Seahorse Rises At Election” wouldn’t have quite the same impact…
8th May, 2005
@ciranjiva
Oh come now, everyone knows a seahorse has a really long snout - don’t they?
8th May, 2005
image source
9th May, 2005
Cool post.
Looks like Birmingham is in the dragon’s mouth and manchester right in the middle of it’s throat!
Is it me or is there more blue on that map than any other colour?
Sure, it could be a seahorse but it could also be a dragon bowing :) for me that’s a more interesting conversation …
9th May, 2005
There is indeed more land on the map that is blue than any other colour. It is an odd electoral system we have, this First Past The Post.
If you look at the percentage of votes that each party received, it goes something like this (can’t find exact figures for the moment):
* Labour 36%
* Conservatives 32%
* Liberal Democrats 26%
This is the lowest majority that any ruling party has ever had. And yet, in terms of the number of seats in Parliament that the ruling party has, it is seriously skewed in their favour:
* Labour 356
* Conservatives 197
* Liberal Democrats 62
So, the Lib Dems, who got around a quarter of the population’s vote get only 10% of the seats in Parliament.
I wonder when we are going to get Proportional Representation. Then the views of the public would be reflected in the elected government of the day.
Then people may be more inclined to vote for who they actually want to represent them, rather than who is the least worst choice that might prevent some other, even worse, opponent from getting into power.
More links:
* Here is a chart of how the electorate voted by age, sex, and social class.
* An anecdote from Dorset West where, at the vote counting centre, the shelf holding all the Labour votes collapsed and crashed onto the floor.