The politics of Scotland () operate within the constitution of the United Kingdom, of which Scotland is a country. Scotland is a democracy, being represented in both the Scottish Parliament and the Parliament of the United Kingdom since the Scotland Act 1998. Most executive power is exercised by the Scottish Government, led by the First Minister of Scotland, the head of government in a multi-party system. The judiciary of Scotland, dealing with Scots law, is independent of the legislature and the Scottish Government. Scots law is primarily determined by the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government shares some executive powers with the Government of the United Kingdom's Scotland Office, a British government department led by the Secretary of State for Scotland.

The Kingdom of Scotland entered a fiscal and political union with the Kingdom of England with the Acts of Union 1707, by which the Parliament of Scotland was abolished along with its English counterpart to form the Parliament of Great Britain, and from that time Scotland has been represented by members of the House of Commons in the Palace of Westminster. The Scottish Parliament was established in 1999, as a result of the Scotland Act 1998 and the preceding 1997 Scottish devolution referendum, held under the Referendums (Scotland and Wales) Act 1997.

The issues of Scottish nationalism and Scottish independence are prominent political issues in the early 21st century. When the Scottish National Party formed a majority government after the 2011 Scottish Parliament election and passed the Scottish Independence Referendum Act 2013, the British parliament concluded the Edinburgh Agreement with the Scottish Government, enabling the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. The referendum was held on 18 September 2014, with 55.3% voting to stay in the United Kingdom and 44.7% voting for independence.

History

Until 1832, Scottish politics remained very much in the control of landowners in the country, and of small cliques of merchants in the burghs. Agitation against this position through the Friends of the People Society in the 1790s met with Lord Braxfield's explicit repression on behalf of the landed interests. The Scottish Reform Act 1832 rearranged the constituencies and increased the electorate from under 5,000 to 65,000. The Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1868 extended the electorate to 232,000 but with "residential qualifications peculiar to Scotland". However, by 1885 around 50% of the male population had the vote, the secret ballot had become established, and the modern political era had started.

From 1885 to 1918 the Liberal Party almost totally dominated Scottish politics. Only in the general election of 1931 and the general election of 1955 did the Unionist Party, together with their National Liberal and Conservative Party (UK) allies, win a majority of votes.

After the coupon election of 1918, 1922 saw the emergence of the Labour Party as a major force, and replacing the Liberals as one of the two dominant parties. Red Clydeside elected a number of Labour MPs. A Communist was elected for Motherwell in 1924, but in essence the 1920s saw a 3-way fight between Labour, the Liberals and the Unionists. The National Party of Scotland contested their first seat in 1929. It merged with the centre-right Scottish Party in 1934 to form the Scottish National Party, but the SNP remained a peripheral force until the watershed Hamilton by-election of 1967.

The Communists won West Fife in 1935 and again in 1945 (Willie Gallacher) and several Glasgow Labour MPs joined the Independent Labour Party in the 1930s, often defeating the official Labour candidates by wide margins.

The National Government won the vast majority of Scottish seats in 1931 and 1935. The Liberal Party, banished to the Highlands and Islands, no longer functioned as a significant force in central Scotland.

In 1945, the SNP saw its first MP (Robert McIntyre) elected at the Motherwell by-election, but had little success during the following decade. The ILP members rejoined the Labour Party, and Scotland now had in effect a two-party system.

 1950: The Liberals won two seats – Jo Grimond winning Orkney and Shetland. The Liberals continue to hold Orkney and Shetland to the present day.
 1951: Labour and the Unionists won 35 seats each, the Liberals losing one seat.
 1955: The Unionists won a majority of both seats and votes. The SNP came second in Perth and Kinross.
 1959: In contrast to England, Scotland swung to Labour, which scored four gains at the expense of the Unionists. This marked the start of a trend which in less than 40 years saw the Unionists' Scottish representation at Westminster reduced to zero. This was the last occasion when the Unionists won in Scotland: their merger with the Conservative Party of England and Wales in 1965, to become the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party began a long, steady decline in their support.
 1964: There was a substantial swing to Labour, giving them 44 of Scotland's 71 seats. The Liberals won four seats, all in the Highlands. This marked the start of 51 years of political domination of Scottish seats in the UK Parliament by Labour.
 1965: David Steel won the Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles by-election for the Liberals.
 1966: Labour gained 2 more seats and the Liberals made a net gain of 1. The SNP garnered over 100,000 votes and finished second in 3 constituencies.
 1967: The SNP did well in the Glasgow Pollok by-election. Nonetheless, the Conservative and Unionist candidate won. However, in the subsequent Hamilton by-election Winnie Ewing won a decisive victory.
 1970: The SNP performed poorly in local elections and in the Ayrshire South by-election. The general election saw a small swing to the Conservatives & Unionists, but Labour won a majority of seats in Scotland. The SNP made little progress in central Scotland, but took votes from the Liberals in the Highlands and in north east Scotland, and won the Western Isles.
 1971–73: The SNP did well in by-elections, Margo MacDonald winning Glasgow Govan.
 1974: In the two general elections of 1974 (in February and October) the SNP won 7 and then 11 seats, their share of the vote rising from 11% in 1970 to 22% and then 30%. With the Labour Party winning the October 1974 election by a narrow margin of 3 seats, the SNP appeared in a strong position.
 1974–79: Devolution dominated this period: the Labour government attempted to steer through devolution legislation, based on the recommendations of the Kilbrandon Commission, against strong opposition, not least from its own backbenchers. Finally a referendum, whilst producing a small majority in favour of an elected Scottish Assembly, failed to achieve a turnout of 40% of the total electorate, a condition set in the legislation. At the 1979 general election, the SNP fared poorly, falling to 17% of the vote and 2 seats. Labour did well in Scotland, but in the United Kingdom as a whole Margaret Thatcher led the Conservatives to a decisive victory, where Labour would spend the next 18 years in opposition.
 1979–83: The SNP suffered severe splits as the result of the drop in support in 1979. Labour also was riven by internal strife as the Social Democratic Party split away. Despite this, the 1983 general election still saw Labour remain the majority party in Scotland, with a smaller swing to the Conservatives than in England. The SNP's vote declined further, to 12%, although they won two seats.
 1987: The Labour Party did well in the 1987 general election, mainly at the expense of the Conservatives & Unionists, who were reduced to their smallest number of Scottish seats since before World War I. The SNP made a small but significant advance.
 1988: Jim Sillars wins the Glasgow Govan by-election for the SNP from Labour with 48.8% of the vote and a 3,554 lead over Labour.
 1991: Nicol Stephen of the Liberal Democrats wins the 1991 Kincardine and Deeside by-election from the Conservatives, with 49.0% of the vote and a 7,824 lead over the Conservatives.
 1992: This election proved a disappointment for Labour and the SNP in Scotland. The SNP went from 14% to 21% of the vote but won only 3 seats. The Conservative and Unionist vote did not collapse, as had been widely predicted, leading to claims that their resolutely anti-devolution stance had paid dividends.
 1995: Roseanna Cunningham wins the 1995 Perth and Kinross by-election for the SNP from the Conservatives with 40.4% of the vote and a 7,311 vote lead over Labour.
 1997: In common with England, there was a Labour landslide in Scotland. The SNP doubled their number of MPs to 6, but the Conservatives & Unionists failed to win a single seat. Unlike 1979, Scottish voters delivered a decisive "Yes" vote in the referendum on establishing a Scottish Parliament.

 1999: The Scottish Parliament was established. Labour take 56 seats, SNP 35, Conservative 18, Liberal Democrats 17, and Greens and Socialists one each. A coalition of Labour and Liberal Democrats led by Donald Dewar of Scottish Labour, took power.
 2000: In October, Dewar died of a heart attack in office and was succeeded by Henry McLeish as Scottish First Minister.
 2001: In November, McLeish stands down as First Minister following the Officegate financial scandal, and is succeeded by Jack McConnell.
 2003: In the Scottish Parliament election, Labour take 50 seats, SNP 27, Conservative 18, Liberal Democrats 17, Greens 7, Socialists 6, Independents 3 and one from the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party. The Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition was maintained.
 2006: Willie Rennie wins the 2006 Dunfermline and West Fife by-election for the Liberal Democrats from Labour with 35.8% of the vote and an 1,800 vote lead over Labour.
 2007: The SNP became Scotland's largest party in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election and formed a minority government. Alex Salmond succeeds Jack McConnell as First Minister. The SNP had 47 seats, Labour 46, Conservatives 17, Liberal Democrats 16, Greens 2 and Socialists, independents and other parties lost all their seats.
 2008: John Mason wins the Glasgow East by-election for the SNP from Labour with 43.1% of the vote and a 365-vote lead over Labour.
 2009: Willie Bain wins the Glasgow North East by-election for Labour from the Speaker with 59.4% of the vote and an 8,111 lead over the SNP.
 2010: 2010 United Kingdom general election: Labour won 41 out of 59 Scottish seats and received over 1 million votes across Scotland, despite losing 91 seats across the UK as a whole.

 2011: In the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, the SNP become the first party to win an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament. The SNP won 69 seats, with 65 needed for a majority. Labour got 37, Conservatives 15, Liberal Democrats 5 and Greens 2. The Scottish leaders of Labour, the Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats all resigned over the results.

 2014: An independence referendum is held on whether Scotland should secede from the UK and become an independent country. Scotland votes to remain a part of the UK 55.3% to 44.7%. Alex Salmond resigns as First Minister, and is succeeded by Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
 2015: At the general election, the SNP won 56 out of 59 Scottish seats, winning nearly exactly 50% of the popular vote. Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats won just a single seat each.
 2016: In May's 2016 Scottish Parliament election, the SNP lost their majority but remained the largest party and formed a minority government. The SNP got 63 seats, Conservatives 31, Labour 24, Greens 6 and Liberal Democrats 5. This was the first time Labour had finished third at any Scottish election since the 1918 general election.
 2016: The UK votes to leave the European Union 51.9% to 48.1%, however 62% of Scottish voters backed remaining in the European Union.
 2017: At the snap UK general election on 8 June, the SNP won 35 out of the 59 Scottish seats, the Conservatives won 13, Labour won 7 and the Liberal Democrats won 4 seats. This too was the first general election in 99 years where Labour finished in third place.
 2019: At the 2019 UK general election, the SNP won 48 out of the 59 Scottish seats, the Conservatives won 6, the Liberal Democrats won 4 and Labour won a single seat. This was the worst result for Scottish Labour since the December 1910 general election, with Labour finishing in fourth place.
 2021: At the 2021 Scottish Parliament election the SNP won 64 seats, Conservatives 31, Labour 22, Greens 8 (a week later lowered to 7 due to Alison Johnstone becoming Holyrood's Presiding Officer, which requires one to give up their party affiliation), and the Liberal Democrats 4. The SNP signs a co-operation agreement with the Greens and the Liberal Democrat Leader Willie Rennie resigns.
 2023: Michael Shanks wins the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election for Labour from the SNP with 58.6% of the vote and an 9,446 lead over the SNP.

The Crown

Scotland is governed under the framework of a constitutional monarchy. The head of state in Scotland is the British monarch, currently King Charles III (since 2022). Until the early 17th century, Scotland and England were entirely separate kingdoms ruled by different royal families. However, on the death of Elizabeth I of England in 1603, the then-King of Scotland James VI became James I of England, in what is known as the Union of the Crowns. However, the two monarchies remained legally separate, albeit held by the same individual.

Scotland is no longer a kingdom in its own right. Under the Union with England Act 1707, the Kingdoms of Scotland and England have been united into "One Kingdom" (Great Britain, later the United Kingdom). A unification of Scotland and England had been debated since the Union of the Crowns, however was initially met with little enthusiasm by the administrations of both countries.

Legislature

There are two bodies with the power to legislate for Scotland: the UK Parliament and the Scottish Parliament. Until 1999, the UK Parliament was the source of all legislation across the whole of the UK. Since then, devolution has meant that Scotland, as well as Wales and Northern Ireland, have had independent legislatures which pass laws on devolved responsibilities. The Scottish Parliament has had the power to pass primary legislation since 1999, and passed 282 Acts between then and the end of 2018. The Scottish Parliament can legislate on anything that is not reserved to the UK Parliament. The UK Parliament retains the ability to legislate on any matter for any part of the UK, including in Scotland, however since 1999 the UK Parliament has followed a convention (the Sewel convention) that means it will not normally legislate on devolved matters with the Scottish Parliament's consent.

Opposition parties include the Scottish Conservatives (centre-right, conservative), Scottish Labour (centre-left, social democratic), the Scottish Liberal Democrats (centrist, social liberal), and the Scottish Greens (centre-left to left-wing, green). The Scottish Socialist Party (left-wing, democratic socialist) won a seat in the first Scottish Parliament election in 1999 and increased their number of seats to 6 in the 2003 Scottish Parliament election, but then lost their seats in the 2007 election and haven't regained representation in the Scottish Parliament since. Elections were normally held once every four years from the inception of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 to 2016 (the election scheduled for 2015 was delayed for one year to 2016 after agreement by all of the main political parties). A Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 25 February 2016 and received Royal Assent on 30 March 2016 increasing the term of the Parliament to five years. 73 Members are elected to represent constituencies, and the remaining 56 elected via a system of proportional representation. At Westminster, Scotland is represented by 44 MPs from the Scottish National Party, six from the Conservative Party, two from the Labour Party and four from the Liberal Democrats elected in the 2019 United Kingdom general election; as well as two MPs who were elected for SNP but have since defected to the Alba Party, and a further independent. The Secretary of State for Scotland—currently Alister Jack MP, a Scottish Conservative—is usually a member of the House of Commons representing a constituency in Scotland.

Devolution
Devolution in the UK refers the process by which powers to legislate and govern are transferred from the UK Parliament in Westminster to a range of sub-UK level bodies, such as metro areas and the Home Nations. Since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, all matters have been devolved to that body by default, except those matters explicitly reserved to Westminster, and Westminster does not by convention legislate on non-reserved matters, except by consent.

In Scotland, matters devolved to the Scottish Parliament exclusively include justice and law, police and prisons, local government, health, education, housing and student support, social welfare, food safety and standards, planning policy, economic development, agriculture, culture and sport. A number of other matters are shared such as transport, public pension and taxation. The Scottish Government receives a funding allocation from the UK Government, calculated under the Barnett Formula, but it does also have its own tax resources.

The programmes of legislation enacted by the Scottish Parliament have seen the divergence in the provision of public services compared to the rest of the United Kingdom. While the costs of a university education, and care services for the elderly are free at point of use in Scotland, fees are paid in the rest of the UK. Scotland was the first country in the UK to ban smoking in public places, with the ban effective from 26 March 2006. Also, on 19 October 2017, the Scottish government announced that smacking children as punishment was to be banned in Scotland, the first nation of the UK to do so.

In a further divergence from the rest of the United Kingdom from 1 January 2021 all Scottish legislation will be legally required to keep in regulatory alignment in devolved competences with future European Union law following the end of the Brexit transition period which ended on 31 December 2020 after the Scottish Parliament passed the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2020 despite the United Kingdom no longer being an EU member state.

Future constitutional status

A large debate in modern Scottish politics is over the constitutional status of Scotland.

One common proposal is for the independence of Scotland from the UK; this would mean Scotland would become a sovereign state. There was an independence referendum in 2014 in which Scottish residents voted to remain within the United Kingdom, however this debate has been reignited due to the Brexit process, with the Scottish Government calling for a second independence referendum. This position is supported by the SNP and Scottish Greens, among other groupings. Independence advocates propose that independence would resolve a democratic deficit for Scottish voters and allow Scotland to rejoin the EU. Opponents argue that Scotland would be worse off economically after independence.

Other proposals include more devolution for Scotland, supported by the SNP in lieu of full independence. Under the pressure of growing support for Scottish independence, a policy of devolution had been advocated by all three GB-wide parties to some degree during their history (although Labour and the Conservatives have also at times opposed it). This question dominated the Scottish political scene in the latter half of the twentieth century with Labour leader John Smith describing the revival of a Scottish parliament as the "settled will of the Scottish people".

Scottish Government

Executive power in Scotland is exercised by the Sovereign, split between the Scottish Government and the Government of the United Kingdom.

The reigning monarch formally appoints the First Minister of Scotland according to a nomination by the Scottish Parliament. The First Minister leads the Scottish Government and appoints members to and heads the Scottish cabinet, which consists of Cabinet Secretaries, Junior Ministers, and Law Officers. The Scottish Government governs through Scottish statutory instruments, a type of subordinate legislation, and is responsible for the Directorates of the Scottish Government, the executive agencies of the Scottish Government, and the other public bodies of the Scottish Government. The directorates include the Scottish Exchequer, the Economy Directorates, the Health and Social Care Directorates, and the Education, Communities and Justice Directorates. Elected in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, the centre-left pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) is the party which forms the devolved government; it currently holds a plurality of seats in the parliament (61 out of 129). The first minister is conventionally the leader of the political party with the most support in the Scottish Parliament, currently Humza Yousaf who was appointed in March 2023. Nicola Sturgeon is the previous first minister, who led the government since November 2014. Before Sturgeon, Alex Salmond led the SNP to an overall majority victory in the May 2011 general election, which was then lost in 2016 and now forms a minority government. The inaugural First Minister was Donald Dewar, the leader of Scottish Labour at the time, who was Secretary of State for Scotland at its time of establishment.

Statutory instruments made by the UK Government – within which the Secretary of State for Scotland is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom – may also apply to the whole of Great Britain. The Secretary of State for Scotland is appointed by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. This Secretary of State, who prior to devolution headed the system of government in Scotland, sits in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and is responsible for the limited number of powers the office retains since devolution, as well as relations with other Whitehall Ministers who have power over reserved matters.

First Ministers

 Donald Dewar (17 May 1999 – 11 October 2000)
 Henry McLeish (27 October 2000 – 8 November 2001)
 Jim Wallace (Acting) (8 November 2001 – 27 November 2001)
 Jack McConnell (27 November 2001 – 16 May 2007)
 Alex Salmond (17 May 2007 – 18 November 2014)
 Nicola Sturgeon (20 November 2014 – 28 March 2023)
 Humza Yousaf (29 March 2023 – present)

Deputy First Ministers

 Jim Wallace (19 May 1999 – 23 June 2005)
 Nicol Stephen (27 June 2005 – 17 May 2007)
 Nicola Sturgeon (17 May 2007 – 19 November 2014)
 John Swinney (21 November 2014 – 28 March 2023)
 Shona Robison (29 March 2023 – present)

Scottish Government International Offices

Scotland has a network of eight international offices across the world, these are located in:

 Beijing (Scottish Government Beijing Office) (British Embassy)
 Berlin (Scottish Government Berlin Office)
 Brussels (Scotland House Brussels)
 Copenhagen (Scottish Government Copenhagen Office)
 Dublin (Scottish Government Dublin Office) (British Embassy)
 London (Scotland House London)
 Ottawa (Scottish Government Ottawa Office) (British High Commission)
 Paris (Scottish Government Office) (British Embassy)
 Washington DC (Scottish Government Washington DC Office) (British Embassy)

Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliament is the national, unicameral legislature of Scotland. The election of a Labour government in the 1997 United Kingdom general election was followed by the Referendums (Scotland and Wales) Act 1997, which legislated for the 1997 Scottish devolution referendum, a referendum on establishing a devolved Scottish Parliament. 74.3% of voters agreed with the establishment of the Parliament and 63.5% agreed it should have tax-varying powers, which meant that it could adjust income taxes by up to 3%. The Parliament was then established by the Scotland Act 1998.

The Scottish Parliament sits in the Scottish Parliament Building at Holyrood in Edinburgh, giving it the informal name "Holyrood". In the Scottish Parliament, the inhabitants of Scotland are represented by 129 members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs), who are elected by the additional member system, a form of proportional representation, by the Scottish Parliament constituencies and electoral regions. Thus the Parliament is unlike the UK Parliament, which is elected solely by the first past the post method. Of the 129 MSPs, 73 are elected to represent first past the post constituencies, whilst the remaining 56 are elected by the additional member system from eight regional lists. In the present parliament, elected in the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections, all MSPs are members of a political party and no independents.

It enacts primary legislation through Acts of the Scottish Parliament, but cannot legislate on reserved matters, as set out by the Scotland Act 1998 and amended by the Scotland Act 2012 and the Scotland Act 2016; these include defence, international relations, fiscal and economic policy, drugs law and broadcasting. Anything not mentioned as a specific reserved matter is automatically devolved to Scotland, including health, education, local government, Scots law and all other issues. This is one of the key differences between the successful Scotland Act 1998 and the failed Scotland Act 1978.

Presiding officers
 David Steel (12 May 1999 – 7 May 2003)
 George Reid (7 May 2003 – 14 May 2007)
 Alex Fergusson (14 May 2007 – 11 May 2011)
 Tricia Marwick (11 May 2011 – 12 May 2016)
 Ken Macintosh (12 May 2016 – 13 May 2021)
 Alison Johnstone (13 May 2021 – present)

Scots Law and Judiciary

The Courts of Scotland administer justice in Scots law, the legal system in Scotland. The Lord Advocate is the chief legal officer of the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for both civil and criminal matters for which Scottish Parliament has devolved responsibilities. The Lord Advocate is the chief public prosecutor for Scotland and all prosecutions on indictment are conducted by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, nominally in the Lord Advocate's name. The Lord Advocate's deputy, the Solicitor General for Scotland, advises the Scottish Government on legal matters. The Advocate General for Scotland advises the British Government, and leads the Office of the Advocate General for Scotland, a British government department. The High Court of Justiciary is the superior criminal court of Scotland. The Court of Session is the highest civil court and is both a court of first instance and a court of appeal. For judicial purposes, Scotland has been divided into six sheriffdoms with sheriff courts since the reform of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. Appeals from the Court of Session are made to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, which is also the final authority for constitutional affairs.

Scotland in the United Kingdom

Scotland is a country of the United Kingdom. Scottish reserved affairs (powers not controlled by the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government) are managed by the Secretary of State for Scotland, a role which aims to "[promote] the best interests of Scotland within a stronger United Kingdom" and represent Scottish interests within the UK government. However, the Secretary of State is normally appointed by the UK Government and is from the government parties, not necessarily from the major party in Scotland. The current Secretary of State for Scotland is Alister Jack. The Scotland Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for reserved Scottish affairs. The Scotland Office, created in 1999, liaises with other Whitehall departments about devolution matters. Before devolution and the Scotland Office, much of the role of the devolved Scottish Government was undertaken by the Scottish Office, the previous British ministerial department led by Scottish Secretary.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Scotland is represented by 59 MPs in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom elected from territory-based Scottish constituencies, out of a total of 650 MPs in the House of Commons. Various members of the House of Lords represent Scottish political parties.

The co-existence of devolution for Scotland and its continued representation in the UK Parliament, which retains full powers over matters relating to England, raised a debate known as the West Lothian question. This questions whether Scottish (and other devolved nation) representatives should continue to have a vote on affairs that do not relate directly to Scotland. This issue was exemplified in the raise in tuition fees in England in 2004. If non-English MPs, who were mostly government MPs, had not been able to vote, then the tuition fee rise would not have been able to occur, due to a rebellion on the government benches. Since 2016, this has led to the creation of the English votes for English laws process, in which Scottish MPs are not included in parts of the lawmaking process for laws that do not apply in Scotland.

Scottish representation in the Commons

For UK general elections, Scotland is divided into 59 constituencies of broadly equal population by the Scottish Boundary Commission. Each constituency elects a single Member of Parliament (MP), who represents the constituency in the House of Commons alongside representatives from the other countries of the UK. There are 650 MPs in total. The leader of the party or coalition that makes a majority or plurality in the Commons is typically invited by the reigning monarch to become the Prime Minister and to form a government.

Since 1945, Scottish seats have altered the final result of a general election four times. Without Scottish seats: in 1964, the Conservatives would have been the largest party rather than Labour; in February 1974, the Conservatives would have been the largest party but without a majority rather than Labour; in October 1974, Labour would no longer have won its majority and in 2010, the Conservatives would have won an outright majority and would not have needed to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

Until the 2005 general election, Scotland elected 72 MPs from 72 single-member constituencies to serve in the House of Commons. As this over-represented Scotland in comparison to the other parts of the UK, Clause 81 of the Scotland Act 1998 equalised the English and Scottish electoral quota. As a result, the Boundary Commission for Scotland's recommendations were adopted, reducing Scottish representation in the House of Commons to 59 MPs with effect from the 2005 general election. The necessary amendment to the Scotland Act 1998, was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom as the Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004.

As of the 2021, the current representation of Scottish seats in the Commons, according to party allegiance, is:

 Scottish National Party: 45
 Scottish Conservatives: 6
 Scottish Liberal Democrats: 4
 Alba Party: 2
 Scottish Labour: 1
 Independent: 1

Scottish Lords
In 2015, twelve of the 92 hereditary peers with seats in the House of Lords to which they are elected (from among themselves) under the House of Lords Act 1999 were registered as living in Scotland, as were 49 life peers appointed under the Life Peerages Act 1958, including five former Lords Advocate. James Thorne Erskine, 14th Earl of Mar and 16th Earl of Kellie, retired in 2017 having lost his seat as a hereditary peer in 1999 but regained it in 2000 as a life peer; Charles Lyell, 3rd Baron Lyell (former Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland) died the same year. One of the former Lords Advocate, Kenneth Cameron, Baron Cameron of Lochbroom, retired from the Lords in 2016, while another, Donald Mackay, Baron Mackay of Drumadoon died in 2018. Besides these 61 peers listed in 2015 are hereditary members of the Lords living outwith Scotland, but who have titles in the Peerage of Scotland, such as Margaret of Mar, 31st Countess of Mar, or Scottish titles in the peerages of Great Britain or of the United Kingdom. Apart from these, there are also Scottish life peers with titles associated with places outside Scotland, such as Michelle Mone, Baroness Mone of Mayfair.

Political appointees include:

 Keith Stewart, Baron Stewart of Dirleton (Advocate General for Scotland)
 Jack McConnell, Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale (former first minister)
 Nicol Stephen, Baron Stephen (former deputy first minister)
 Jim Wallace, Baron Wallace of Tankerness (former deputy first minister, and Advocate General for Scotland)
 Alistair Darling, Baron Darling of Roulanish (former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Scotland)
 John Reid, Baron Reid of Cardowan (former Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Scotland)
 Michael Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean (chair of the Economic Affairs Committee, former Secretary of State for Scotland)
 Helen Liddell, Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke (former Secretary of State for Scotland)
 Andrew Dunlop, Baron Dunlop (former Under-Secretary of State for Scotland)

 Lynda Clark, Baroness Clark of Calton (former Advocate General for Scotland and member of the House of Commons)
 Neil Davidson, Baron Davidson of Glen Clova (former Advocate General for Scotland)
 Keith Stewart, Baron Stewart of Dirleton (former Advocate General for Scotland)
 Menzies Campbell, Baron Campbell of Pittenweem (former leader of the Liberal Democrats)
 Malcolm Bruce, Baron Bruce of Bennachie (former leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats)
 Annabel Goldie, Baroness Goldie (former leader of the Scottish Conservatives)
 Ian Duncan, Baron Duncan of Springbank (former member of the European Parliament for the constituency of Scotland)
 Nosheena Mobarik, Baroness Mobarik (former member of the European Parliament for the constituency of Scotland)
 Murray Elder, Baron Elder (former General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party)

Former Lords Advocate include:

 James Mackay, Baron Mackay of Clashfern (former Lord Advocate and Lord Chancellor)
 Colin Boyd, Baron Boyd of Duncansby (former Lord Advocate; currently disqualified)

Scottish hereditary peers include:

 Thomas Galbraith, 2nd Baron Strathclyde (former Leader of the House of Lords)
 Charles Hay, 16th Earl of Kinnoull (chair of the European Union Committee)
 Alexander Scrymgeour, 12th Earl of Dundee (former member of the House of Commons and former lord-in-waiting)
 James Lindesay-Bethune, 16th Earl of Lindsay (former Under-Secretary of State for Scotland)
 James Graham, 8th Duke of Montrose (former shadow minister for the Scotland Office)
 Patrick Boyle, 10th Earl of Glasgow
 John Sinclair, 3rd Viscount Thurso
 Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

Between the Acts of Union 1707 and the Peerage Act 1963, peers with titles in the Peerage of Scotland were entitled to elect sixteen representative peers to the House of Lords. Between the 1963 Act and the House of Lords Act 1999 the entire hereditary Peerage of Scotland was entitled to sit in the House of Lords, alongside those with titles in the peerages of England, of Ireland, of Great Britain, and of the UK.

Local government

For the purposes of local government in Scotland, the country has been divided into 32 council areas since the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. Since the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which also abolished the shires of Scotland, the country has been subdivided into community councils. Though retained for statistical purposes, the civil parishes in Scotland were abolished for administrative purposes in the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929.

Local government in Scotland is organised into 32 unitary authorities. Each local authority is governed by a council consisting of elected councillors, who are elected every five years by registered voters in each of the council areas.

Scottish councils co-operate through, and are represented collectively by, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).

There are currently 1,227 councillors in total, each paid a part-time salary for the undertaking of their duties. Each authority elects a Convener or Provost to chair meetings of the authority's council and act as a figurehead for the area. The four main cities of Scotland, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee have a Lord Provost who is also, ex officio, Lord Lieutenant for that city.

There are in total 32 councils, the largest being the Glasgow City Council with more than 600,000 inhabitants, the smallest, Orkney Islands Council, with fewer than 20,000 people. See Subdivisions of Scotland for a list of the council areas.

The most recent local elections in Scotland were held in 2017 and the next local elections are scheduled for 2022.

Community councils

Community councils represent the interests of local people. Local authorities have a statutory duty to consult community councils on planning, development and other issues directly affecting that local community. However, the community council has no direct say in the delivery of services. In many areas they do not function at all, but some work very effectively at improving their local area.

Political parties

Scottish National Party (SNP): The current party forming the Scottish Government is the Scottish National Party (SNP), which won 64 of 129 seats available in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election and 44.2% of the vote, one more seat than in 2016. The SNP was formed in 1934 with the aim of achieving Scottish independence. They are broadly centre-left and are in the European social-democratic mould. They are the largest party in the Scottish Parliament and have formed the Scottish Government since the 2007 Scottish Parliament election.

Conservative and Unionist Party: The Unionist Party was the only party ever to have achieved an outright majority of Scottish votes at any general election, in 1955 (they only won a majority if the votes if their National Liberal and Conservative Party (UK) allies are included). This had also occurred previously in the 1931 Election. The Unionist Party was allied with the UK Conservative Party until 1965, when the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party was formed. The Conservatives then entered a long-term decline in Scotland, culminating in their failure to win any Scottish seats in the 1997 UK election. At the four subsequent UK elections (2001, 2005, 2010 and 2015) the Conservatives won only one Scottish seat. The party enjoyed a revival of fortunes in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, winning 31 seats and finishing in second place. In the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections, they got 22.8% of the vote, winning 31 seats again. The Conservatives are a centre-right party.

Labour Party: In the course of the twentieth century, Scottish Labour rose to prominence as Scotland's main political force. The party was established to represent the interests of workers and trade unionists. From 1999 to 2007, they operated as the senior partners in a coalition Scottish Executive. They lost power in 2007 when the SNP won a plurality of seats and entered a period of dramatic decline, losing all but one of their seats in the 2015 UK election and falling to third place in the 2016 Scottish election. The 2017 UK election produced a mixed result for the party as it gained six seat and increased its vote by 2.8% but the party came in third behind the SNP and Scottish Conservatives. In the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections, they got 19.8% of the vote, winning 22 seats.

Liberal Democrats: The Scottish Liberal Democrats were the junior partners in the 1999 to 2007 coalition Scottish Executive. The party has lost much of its electoral presence in Scotland since the UK Liberal Democrats entered into a coalition government with the UK Conservative Party in 2010. In the 2015 UK election they were reduced from 12 seats to one seat, and since the 2016 Scottish Parliament election they have had the fifth highest number of MSPs (five), unchanged on 2011.In the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections, they got 6% of the vote, winning 4 seats.

Scottish Green Party: The Scottish Greens have won regional additional member seats in every Scottish Parliament election, as a result of the proportional representation electoral system. They won one MSP in 1999, increased their total to seven at the 2003 election but saw this drop back to two at the 2007 election. They retained two seats at the 2011 election, then increased this total to six in the 2016 election. In the 2021 Scottish Parliament election they increased their representation by two seats to a total of eight members of the Scottish Parliament, however this was lowered to 7 a week later after Alison Johnson became Holyrood's Presiding Officer, a neutral role meaning she had to give up her position as a Green MSP). The Greens support Scottish independence and Scottish republicanism.

See also

 Elections in Scotland
 Electoral systems in Scotland
 Politics of Aberdeen
 Politics of Dundee
 Politics of Edinburgh
 Politics of Glasgow
 Politics of the Highland council area
 Royal Commission on the Constitution (United Kingdom)
 Scottish media
 Scottish national identity

Notes

References

External links

Constitution of the United Kingdom

Politics of Scotland


Adolf Glassbrenner (27 March 1810, in Berlin25 September 1876) was a German humorist and satirist, considered part of the Young Germany Movement.

Glassbrenner was born in Berlin. After working for a short time in a merchant's office, he turned to journalism, and in 1831 edited Beriner Don Quixote, a periodical which was suppressed in 1833 owing to its revolutionary tendencies. He next, under the pseudonym Adolf Brennglas, published a series of pictures of Berlin life, under the titles Berlin wie es ist und trinkt (thirty parts, with illustrations, 1833–1849), and Buntes Berlin (fourteen parts, with illustrations, Berlin, 1837–1858), and thus became the founder of a popular satirical literature associated with modern Berlin. In 1840 he married the actress Adele Peroni (1813–1895), and removed in the following year to Neustrelitz, where his wife had obtained an engagement at the Grand Ducal theatre. In 1848 Glassbrenner entered the political arena and became the leader of the democratic party in Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Expelled from that country in 1850, he settled in Hamburg, where he remained until 1858; and then he became editor of the Montagszeitung Berlin, where he died in 1876. His grave is preserved in the Protestant Friedhof III der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde (Cemetery No. III of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church and New Church) in Berlin-Kreuzberg, south of Hallesches Tor.

Among Glassbrenner's other humorous and satirical writings may be mentioned:
 Leben und Treiben der feinen Welt (1834)
 Bilder und Träume aus Wien (2 vols., 1836)
 Gedichte (1851, 5th ed. 1870)
 Neuer Reineke Fuchs (1846, 4th ed. 1870)
 Die verkehrte Welt (1857, 6th ed. 1873)
 Kaspar der Mensch (1850)
 Berliner Volksleben (3 vols., illustrated; Leipzig, 1847–1851)
 Lachende Kinder (14th ed., 1884)
 Sprechende Tiere (20th ed., Hamburg, 1899).

References

External links

1810 births
1876 deaths
German humorists
Writers from Berlin
German male poets
German-language poets
19th-century German poets
19th-century German male writers

Adolf Glassbrenner


The autobiography of Manuel Belgrano (full name in Spanish: "Autobiografía del General Don Juan Manuel Belgrano, que comprende desde sus primeros años (1770) hasta la Revolución del 25 de mayo") was written in 1814. It is part of his Memories and it was first published by Bartolomé Mitre in 1877 as part of the book Historia de Belgrano y de la Independencia Argentina. The second part of the Memories deals with the Paraguay campaign and the third and last with the Battle of Tucumán, being included at the Memorias Póstumas of José María Paz in 1855.

In this writing Belgrano described the frustration he experienced because of the constant resistance from the Spanish monarchy to the liberal changes he promoted from the Commerce Consulate of Buenos Aires. He also regretted the attitude of most merchants, which he considered were more interested in getting high profits than in the prosperity of the land. However, Belgrano did not support independentism by then, and during the British invasions he supported the Spanish monarchy. His perspective changed with the invasion of Spain by France during the Peninsular War, and Belgrano deemed such opportunity as a divine intervention. From that point on, all his actions, from the support to Carlotism to the defense of Santiago de Liniers, were motivated by the prosperity and independence of the local population.

References

Bibliography

1814 non-fiction books
1877 non-fiction books
Manuel Belgrano
Belgrano, Manuel
Books published posthumously

Autobiography of Manuel Belgrano


The Harmer E. Davis Transportation Library —also known as the Institute of Transportation Studies Library (ITSL), the Berkeley Transportation Library, or simply as the Transportation Library— is a transportation library at the University of California, Berkeley, devoted to transportation studies.

Facilities
The library is located on the fourth floor of McLaughlin Hall, the original UC Berkeley Engineering Building, where it serves the faculty, students, researchers and staff of the multi-campus Institute of Transportation Studies. The library has been in its present location since 1964.  In earlier years the library and the Institute of Transportation Studies were situated at the UC Berkeley Field Station in Richmond, about 8 miles north of Berkeley. In the Berkeley campus ITSL is an "Affiliated Library" one of several subject-specialist libraries that operate independently of the UC-Berkeley Main Library system.

The library has three full-time professional staff, four library assistants and five temporary student employees.  At present the professional staff includes the Library Director/Reference Librarian, an Electronic Resources Librarian for Contract Services, and a Technical Services and Outreach Librarian.  Other permanent staff include a Library Operations Manager, Circulation Manager, Interlibrary Loans Manager, and Serials Manager.

The library's website provides information on its location, staff, variations in opening hours, and latest news.  The site underwent a major redesign in 2006, transforming the home page into a gateway to online sources of transportation information, featuring links to federal agency sites and to approximately 114 online journals of interest to transportation researchers. There are also links to the Institute of Transportation Studies' four branches for information on their research, and faculty, staff and students. The library also has an official blog.

The library collection, begun by librarian Bev Hickok in 1948, covers all aspects of civil transportation, containing over 183,000 monographs (books, technical reports, conferences, etc.); 4,800 serials of which over 2,200 are current titles; 150,000 microfiche (primarily federally sponsored technical reports received from the National Technical Information Service); and several hundred CD-ROMs, videos and DVDs. As a U.S. federal and State of California depository the library receives material from the federal transportation agencies. It holds copies of nearly all federally sponsored reports on transportation published since 1974.  Items are also regularly received from State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and academic transportation research institutes across the USA.  Much foreign material also comes in, primarily from Canada (including French language publications from Quebec), Australia, and several western European countries (mainly the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland). The collections are particularly strong in urban transportation; highway and traffic engineering; aviation (airports, airlines, aeronautics in general); rail transportation; intelligent transportation systems.

It was officially renamed in 1998 in honor of the Institute of Transportation Studies' founder, Harmer E. Davis, who died that year.

Services
The library primarily serves the faculty, students, researchers and staff of the Institute of Transportation Studies in UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, and UCLA.  Service is also available to the UC Berkeley community, non-UC corporate bodies, and the general public.  The library sets out a candy dish for visitors.

The library serves as a center for meetings and social gatherings. It is the venue for the Institute's weekly social gathering of students and faculty each Friday afternoon during semester, and the monthly Traffic Safety Center seminar series. Recent meetings in ITSL included the Women In Transportation's annual Fall seminar; an Institute of Transportation Engineers presentation to Institute students; a lunch-meeting between ITS faculty and Association of America Railroads personnel; and a reception for a delegation from the US DOT's Research and Special Programs Administration.

Special efforts are made to maintain awareness of library services to the three non-Berkeley branches of the Institute.  The Outreach Librarian visits the Davis, Irvine, and Los Angeles campuses at least once each year, taking part in orientation sessions for new students and attending the annual ITS students' conference as a speaker.  Students and faculty at these campuses are encouraged to regard the Library as their own and they are supplied directly with free loans or photocopies from its collections.  The Outreach Librarian is also available to open the Library at weekends for visitors from the other ITS branches, though this offer has been availed of only a few times (after all the Bay Area has plenty other attractions.)  All services to non-Berkeley ITS members are supplied free.

The library also provides a very efficient and busy interlibrary loan service. An average of 150 items (monographs, audiovisuals and photocopies) are supplied each month.  Free service is provided to transportation research bodies in the state of California.

The library is a major source of cataloging for publications in transportation research. In addition to creating bibliographic records for monographs we produce a large number of analytics (journal and magazine articles, individual conference papers for which we have provided full cataloging). Analytics have been created for about 103,000 articles and papers. Cataloging has been done online since 1979 and the library's cataloging staff are among the most prolific contributors of transportation cataloging to the OCLC WorldCat database.  Average production per month is 600 records for monographs and 450 records for analytics. The catalog records appear in the University of California's Melvyl online catalog, OCLC's WorldCat database, and the TRIS database. Regarding TRIS, the Library is a contributor of bibliographic records to the Transportation Research Board's TLIB project.  Since 1985 bibliographic records for journal articles, and until very recently monographs, were sent free of charge to TLIB for inclusion in TRIS.

Special projects
PATH Database (1987-2005) The Library developed the PATH database, the world's largest online database on intelligent transportation systems. Launched in 1987 and funded by the California PATH Program, it contained over 28,000 fully abstracted records and grew by the addition of between 250 and 300 records per month. PATH Database was available free on the Web before funding was terminated in 2005. Though PATH is no more, its contents survive as part of TRIS (Transportation Research Information Services, a transportation database maintained by the Transportation Research Board in Washington, D.C.)
California Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) As part of its LTAP commitment, the Library provides specialized reference service and circulates materials free of charge to California and other transportation agencies at the local level.  Many items available for distribution are also referenced in a Resources Guide maintained by project staff.  Additionally, Library professional staff write bibliographies which appear in Tech Transfer.
Caltrans/TRIS (C/TRIS) abstracting project. This LTAP project provides specialized cataloging and abstracting for research reports sponsored by California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).  Records generated are submitted directly to the Transportation Research Board for inclusion in its national TRIS Database.  This ensures that Caltrans research reports are listed in TRIS database in a timely manner.
B/TRIS indexing project. The Library's B/TRIS project, undertaken in cooperation with the Transportation Research Board (TRB), began operation in February 2001. In accordance with our agreement, Library staff index and abstract periodical articles from specific journal titles for direct input into TRB's TRIS Database. Five Library and ITS Berkeley staff are currently working on this project under the supervision of Seyem Petrites.
Calendar projects. With its neighbor library the Water Resources Collections and Archives ITSL has for several years been jointly producing calendars with water and transportation themes featuring historic photographs of the Bay Area. The calendars are used to market and promote ITSL services, with copies distributed gratis to University of California engineering faculty and local, state and national transportation administrators and researchers. The calendars are also available for purchase as part of the Library's ongoing fundraising efforts. The 2006 calendar departs from the usual themes of bridges and ferries. Titled "Futuristics", it features vintage illustrations of innovative transportation ideas from bygone decades.
Transportation Futuristics exhibit. The illustrations for the latest ITSL/WRCA calendar are drawn from an exhibit featuring weird and wonderful transportation ideas from the past. The exhibit was assembled from items in the Transportation Library's collections.

References

External links
ITSL official website
The official ITSL blog
Interactive map of UC Berkeley campus

University and college academic libraries in the United States
University of California, Berkeley buildings
Transportation in California
Libraries in Alameda County, California
Library buildings completed in 1964

Transportation Library, UC Berkeley


The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR), also known as the Piccadilly tube, was a railway company established in 1902 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London, England. The GNP&BR was formed through a merger of two older companies, the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway (B&PCR) and the Great Northern and Strand Railway (GN&SR). It also incorporated part of a tube route planned by a third company, the District Railway (DR). The combined company was a subsidiary of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL).

The B&PCR and the GN&SR were established in 1896 and 1898 respectively, but construction of both railways was delayed while funding was sought. In 1902 the UERL, which already controlled the DR, took control of both companies and quickly raised the funds, mainly from foreign investors. A number of different routes were planned, but most were rejected by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

When it opened in 1906, the GNP&BR's line served 22 stations and ran for  between its western terminus at Hammersmith and its northern terminus at Finsbury Park. A short  branch connected Holborn to the Strand. Most of the route was in a pair of tunnels, with  at the western end constructed above ground. Within the first year of opening it became apparent to the management and investors that the estimated passenger numbers for the GNP&BR and the other UERL lines were over-optimistic. Despite improved integration and cooperation with the other tube railways, the GNP&BR struggled financially.  In 1933 it and the rest of the UERL were taken into public ownership. Today, the GNP&BR's tunnels and stations form the core central section of the London Underground's Piccadilly line.

Establishment

Origins

Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway, 1896

In November 1896 notice was published that a private bill was to be presented to Parliament for the construction of the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway (B&PCR). The line was planned to run entirely underground between Air Street near Piccadilly Circus and the south end of Exhibition Road, South Kensington. The route was to run beneath Piccadilly, Knightsbridge, Brompton Road and Thurloe Place, with intermediate stations at Dover Street, Down Street, Hyde Park Corner, Knightsbridge and Brompton Road. A short branch to the east of the South Kensington terminus was planned to a depot south of Brompton Road at the end of Yeoman Row. Electricity to operate the trains was to be provided from a generating station to be built about a mile south of the South Kensington terminus on the north bank of the River Thames at Lots Road, West Brompton. Following parliamentary approval, the bill received royal assent as the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway Act 1897 (60 & 61 Vict. c. cxcii) on 6 August 1897.

District Railway deep-level tube, 1896

Also announced in November 1896 was a bill to be presented by the District Railway (DR) for a tube railway to be constructed beneath its existing sub-surface line between Gloucester Road and Mansion House stations. The DR operated a steam railway, running in cut and cover tunnels, and planned to ease congestion along its heavily used route by constructing an express line with just a single intermediate station at Charing Cross (now Embankment). The express line was to surface west of Gloucester Road and connect to the DR's existing line at Earl's Court. Since, like the B&PCR, the DR's deep tube line would be operated with electric trains, the DR planned to build a generating station adjacent to its Walham Green station (now Fulham Broadway). The bill received assent on 6 August 1897 as the Metropolitan District Railway Act 1897 (60 & 61 Vict. c. ccxlvii).

Great Northern and Strand Railway, 1898

In November 1898 the Great Northern and Strand Railway (GN&SR) was announced as a tube railway, to run from Wood Green to Stanhope Street, north of the Strand. The GN&SR was backed by the Great Northern Railway (GNR), the main line railway operating from King's Cross station.  The GNR saw the new company as a means of relieving congestion on its route. The GN&SR was to run beneath the GNR's main line from Wood Green station (now Alexandra Palace) to Finsbury Park station. It was then planned to run south-west through Holloway to King's Cross, and then south to Bloomsbury and Holborn. Intermediate stations were planned at the GNR's Hornsey, Harringay and Finsbury Park stations, and at Holloway, York Road, King's Cross, Russell Square and Holborn. A power station was planned next to the GNR's tracks at Gillespie Road. When the London County Council planned the construction of Kingsway and Aldwych, Stanhope Street was scheduled for demolition so the southern terminus was relocated to the junction of the two new roads. The bill was enacted on 1 August 1899 as the Great Northern and Strand Railway Act 1899 (62 & 63 Vict. c. cciii).

Search for finance, 1896–1903
Although the three companies had permission to construct their railways, they still had to raise the capital for the construction works in a competitive market.

By 1899, there were five other tube railway companies with permission to construct railways that were raising funds – the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR), the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR), the Great Northern and City Railway (GN&CR), the Central London Railway (CLR) and the City and Brixton Railway.  The already operating City & South London Railway (C&SLR) was also looking for money for extensions to its existing route and numerous others proposed, but unapproved underground railway companies were also seeking investors.

Foreign investors came to the rescue of the DR, B&PCR and GN&SR: American financier Charles Yerkes, who had been lucratively involved in the development of Chicago's tramway system in the 1880s and 1890s, saw the opportunity to make similar investments in London. In March 1901 he and his backers purchased a majority of the shares of the DR and, in September 1901, took over the B&PCR and the GN&SR. With the companies under his control, Yerkes established the UERL to raise funds to build the tube railways and to electrify the DR. The UERL was capitalised at £5 million with the majority of shares sold to overseas investors. Further share issues followed, which raised a total of £18 million by 1903 (equivalent to approximately £ today) for use across all of the UERL's projects.

Planning the route, 1898–1905

B&PCR bill, 1899

During the progress of their 1896 bills through parliament, the DR and the B&PCR established a relationship through a successful joint campaign of opposition to a competing proposal from the City & West End Railway. This was for a tube railway running from Hammersmith to Cannon Street, which would have duplicated parts of the DR's and the B&PCR's approved routes. In late 1898, this common interest led  to the purchase of the B&PCR by the DR. In November 1898 a bill for the B&PCR was announced, which sought permission for short extensions at each end of its route: at its eastern end, from Piccadilly Circus to Cranbourn Street and, at the western end, connections between the B&PCR's tunnels and those of the DR's deep tube line. Parliament rejected the eastern extension, but permitted the connection between the two lines and approved a capital injection from the DR into the B&PCR. The bill received royal assent on 9 August 1899 as the Brompton & Piccadilly Circus Railway (Extensions) Act 1899 (62 & 63 Vict. c. cclxii).

DR and B&PCR bills, 1900

In November 1899, the DR published a notice of a bill for the 1900 parliamentary session. The company was still unable to proceed with the construction of its proposed deep line, and the new bill included provisions for extensions of time for this line and for those of the B&PCR. The bill included construction and operation of the power station at the Lots Road site previously chosen by the B&PCR. The B&PCR also published notice for a bill requesting an extension of time, but this was later withdrawn and the extension request in the DR bill was used. The time extensions were granted in the Metropolitan District Railway Act 1900 (63 & 64 Vict. c. cclxxiii), which received assent on 6 August 1900.

B&PCR bill, 1901

In November 1900, the B&PCR published a notice of a bill for the 1901 session, in which it sought permission for two extensions. The first, eastward, took a more northerly route than the rejected 1899 extension to Cranbourn Street: it was to run via Shaftesbury Avenue, Hart Street (now Bloomsbury Way), Bloomsbury Square, Theobalds Road and Rosebery Avenue, to Angel, Islington where it terminated under Islington High Street. Where the line crossed other tube routes, stations were planned: at Cambridge Circus to interchange with the planned CCE&HR, and at Museum Street near to the CLR's recently opened British Museum station. The second extension took the line south-west from South Kensington, via Fulham Road, to connect to the DR's line south of Walham Green station (now Fulham Broadway). The bill also included provisions for the  B&PCR to take over responsibility for construction of the section of the DR's deep-level line from South Kensington to Earl's Court, and for a further extension of time.

The opening  of the CLR on 30 July 1900 had stimulated interest in underground railways, and the B&PCR's bill was submitted to Parliament at the same time as a large number of other bills for tube lines in the capital. To review these bills, Parliament established a joint committee under Lord Windsor. Only the part of B&PCR's first extension as far as Museum Street was considered by the committee. The section to The Angel was held back, pending the findings of a separate committee which was investigating problems of vibration experienced on the CLR. The extension to Fulham was not discussed. By the time the committee had produced its report, the parliamentary session was almost over so the promoters of the bills were asked to resubmit them for the following 1902 session.

B&PCR, GN&SR and DR bills, 1902

In November 1901, the B&PCR published details of its bill for the 1902 session. The extension to The Angel was dropped, and a different route eastwards from Piccadilly Circus was planned. Once again this ran to Cranbourn Street, but it continued under Long Acre and Great Queen Street to meet and connect to the GN&SR's tunnels at Little Queen Street (now the northern part of Kingsway) just south of the GN&SR's planned Holborn station. The B&PCR planned stations at Wardour Street, Cranbourn Street and Covent Garden.

At Wardour Street station a branch was to leave the main route and head south-east, to connect to the DR's deep-level line east of its station at Charing Cross. Wardour Street station was planned to have platforms on both branches. The south-west extension to Walham Green was retained with minor alterations. The new route was to branch from the original route east of Brompton Road station, which was to have platforms on both routes. Stations were planned along Fulham Road at its junctions with College Street (now Elystan Street), Neville Street, Drayton Gardens, Redcliffe Gardens, Stamford Bridge and Maxwell Road. The route would interchange with the DR at Walham Green before coming to the surface and running parallel with the DR as far as Parsons Green, beyond which the line was to connect to the DR. The requests for an extension of time and for the powers to build the DR deep-level line from South Kensington to Earl's Court were re-presented. As the B&PCR and the GN&SR were now in common ownership, the bill also sought powers to enable the companies to merge and for the B&PCR to change its name.

At the same time, the GN&SR published details of its bill for the 1902 session. The GN&SR sought powers for a short extension of about  from its southern terminus, to Temple station on the DR's existing sub-surface line where an interchange was planned. The GN&SR also sought permission to abandon the section of its route north of Finsbury Park, and to transfer its powers and obligations to the B&PCR as part of the merger. The DR also announced a bill for 1902 which included provisions to transfer responsibility for part or all of its deep-level line to the B&PCR.

The B&PCR bill was again examined by a joint committee under Lord Windsor. The GN&SR bill was examined by a separate committee under Lord Ribblesdale. The B&PCR's eastward extension to Holborn to connect to the GN&SR was permitted, but the extension to Parsons Green was rejected following objections from hospitals in the Fulham Road, which were concerned that vibrations from trains might affect their patients. The B&PCR link from Piccadilly Circus to Charing Cross was rejected on the grounds that it involved sharp turns and steep gradients to avoid public buildings in the area. The merger with the GN&SR and name change were permitted. The GN&SR's extension to Temple was rejected following objections from the Duke of Norfolk who owned the land under which it would have run. The abandonment of the route north of Finsbury Park was permitted.

The bills received royal assent as the Great Northern and Strand Railway Act 1902 and the Metropolitan District Railway Act 1902 on 8 August 1902, and as the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway Act 1902 on 18 November 1902.

GNP&BR and DR bills, 1903

In November 1902, the newly merged company announced two bills for the 1903 parliamentary session under the GNP&BR name. The first bill requested minor powers which included the purchase of additional land for stations, and sought minor amendments to previous Acts.

The second bill sought permission for extensions east and west from the approved route. The eastern extension was to diverge from the main route immediately west of Piccadilly Circus station, which was to be expanded to have east and westbound platforms on both lines. The extension was then to pass under Leicester Square to a station at Charing Cross. Continuing eastwards under Strand, the tunnels were to cross under the branch from Holborn, with an interchange at Strand station. The line was then to continue under Fleet Street to Ludgate Circus, where a station was to be constructed to interchange with the London, Chatham and Dover Railway's Ludgate Hill station (since demolished). It would then proceed south under New Bridge Street, and east under Queen Victoria Street, to connect to the DR's proposed deep-level line west of Mansion House station. The western extension was to diverge from the approved route at Albert Gate, east of Knightsbridge station. This station was to have additional platforms on the new branch line which would head west under Knightsbridge, Kensington Road and Kensington High Street, with stations at the Royal Albert Hall, the DR's High Street Kensington station and Addison Road. The tunnels were then to follow Hammersmith Road to the DR's Hammersmith station. There they would turn north under Hammersmith Grove and east under Goldhawk Road, to terminate on the south side of Shepherd's Bush Green near to the CLR's Shepherd's Bush terminus.

The DR also publicised two further bills for the 1903 session. The first included provisions to formalise the agreement for the GNP&BR to build the section of the deep-level line between South Kensington and West Kensington, including the deep-level platforms at Earl's Court. The second bill sought permission to extend the deep-level line from its eastern end at Mansion House by following beneath the existing sub-surface tracks to Whitechapel, where the line would connect to the existing sub-surface lines to Mile End.

Neither extension bill was debated. In February 1903, Parliament had established the Royal Commission on London Traffic to assess the manner in which transport in London should be developed. While the Commission deliberated, any review of bills for new lines and extensions was postponed. Both bills were later withdrawn by their promoters. The powers bills were approved as the Metropolitan District Railway Act 1903 on 21 July 1903 and the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (Various Powers) Act 1903 on 11 August 1903.

GNP&BR bills, 1905

The royal commission investigations continued from 1903 to early 1905, concluding with the issue of a report in June 1905. No bills were submitted for the 1904 parliamentary session, but in November 1904 the GNP&BR announced two bills for the 1905 session.

The first dealt with the Strand branch: it confirmed the layout of the junction between the branch and the main route at Holborn, and sought powers to extend the branch south under the River Thames to the London and South Western Railway's (L&SWR's) terminus at Waterloo station. The extension included moving Strand station to the corner of Surrey Street, and constructing a single tunnel from there to the BS&WR's Waterloo station which would be provided with additional lifts to serve the GNP&BR's platforms. The branch was to be operated as a shuttle with trains passing at Strand station. The junction layout and short extension to re-site Strand station were permitted, but not the extension to Waterloo. The bill received royal assent on 4 August 1905 as the Great Northern Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (Various Powers) Act 1905.

The second bill again proposed extensions to the east and west, modifying the 1903 plans. In the east, the route was the same as the previous proposal as far as Ludgate Circus.  Then, instead of heading south under New Bridge Street and east into Queen Victoria Street to connect to the DR deep level route, the 1905 proposal followed under Carter Lane and Cannon Street to a station at the junction of Queen Street and Watling Street, a short distance north-east of the DR's Mansion House station. The route then followed Queen Victoria Street to Lombard Street where an interchange was to be provided with the C&SLR and the CLR at Bank station. The route continued under Cornhill and Leadenhall Street to end at Aldgate High Street, adjacent to the DR's Aldgate station.

To the west, the 1903 proposed extension from Knightsbridge to Hammersmith via Kensington High Street remained, but it was to  continue beyond Hammersmith under King Street,  the final station being at the junction of King Street, Goldhawk Road and Chiswick High Road. The tunnels were to continue beyond the final station for a further  under Chiswick High Road, to end at the junction with Homefield Road. The loop north from Hammersmith to Shepherd's Bush was dropped; instead a more direct route to Shepherd's Bush was proposed as a branch from the Hammersmith extension at Addison Road. It was to run under Holland Road to Shepherd's Bush Green, with a station being constructed opposite the CLR station there. It would then continue west under Uxbridge Road to Acton Vale, where a depot was to be built on the surface between Agnes Road and Davis Road. To cover the cost of the proposed extensions, powers to raise further capital of £4.2 million were sought. The review of the bill in Parliament was delayed as the Royal Commission was still sitting during the first half of 1905; the bill was withdrawn by the GNP&BR in July 1905, as insufficient time then remained for completion the parliamentary process before the end of the session.

Construction, 1902–1906

With the funds available from the UERL, construction began in July 1902 at Knightsbridge, before the formal approval of the merger of the B&PCR and GN&SR. Messrs Walker, Price & Reeves was the main contractor appointed for the line's construction, with the exception of Messrs Walter Scott & Middleton in charge of the portal at Barons Court. Work proceeded quickly, enabling the UERL to record in its annual report in October 1904 that 80 per cent of the tunnels had been completed and that track laying was about to begin. Stations were provided with surface buildings designed by architect Leslie Green in the UERL house-style. This consisted of two-storey steel-framed buildings faced with dark oxblood red glazed terracotta blocks, with wide semi-circular windows on the upper floor. Except for Finsbury Park, where the platforms were close enough to the surface to be accessed by stairs, and Gillespie Road where a long ramp was used, each of the stations with platforms in tube tunnels was provided with between two and four lifts and an emergency spiral staircase in a separate shaft.

The existing DR section between West Kensington and Hammersmith was widened in 1905 to accommodate the new tracks for the GNP&BR. Works on the main route were largely complete by the Autumn of 1906, and after a period of test running the railway was ready to open in December 1906. As a result of the electrification and resignalling of the DR's surface and sub-surface tracks in 1905, the capacity of the existing route was sufficiently increased that the construction of deep-level tunnels east of South Kensington was unnecessary, and the powers were allowed to lapse.

Opening

The official opening of the GNP&BR by David Lloyd George, President of the Board of Trade, took place on 15 December 1906. Progress on the Strand branch was delayed, and it opened in November 1907. From its opening, the GNP&BR was generally known by the abbreviated names Piccadilly Tube or Piccadilly Railway, and the names appeared on the station buildings and on contemporary maps of the tube lines.

The railway had stations at:

Finsbury Park
Gillespie Road (now Arsenal)
Holloway Road
Caledonian Road
York Road (closed 17 September 1932)
King's Cross (now King's Cross St Pancras)
Russell Square
Holborn
Strand (later Aldwych, opened 30 November 1907, closed 30 September 1994)
Covent Garden (opened 11 April 1907)
Leicester Square
Piccadilly Circus
Dover Street (now Green Park)
Down Street (opened 15 March 1907, closed 25 May 1932)
Hyde Park Corner
Knightsbridge
Brompton Road (closed 29 July 1934)
South Kensington (opened 8 January 1907)
Gloucester Road
Earl's Court
Barons Court
Hammersmith

The service was provided by a fleet of carriages manufactured for the UERL in France and Hungary. These carriages were built to the same design used for the BS&WR and the CCE&HR, and operated as electric multiple unit trains without the need for separate locomotives. Passengers boarded and left the trains through folding lattice gates at each end of cars; these gates were operated by Gate-men who rode on an outside platform and announced station names as trains arrived. The design became known on the Underground as the 1906 stock or Gate stock. Trains for the line were stabled at the Lillie Bridge Depot in West Kensington.

Co-operation and consolidation, 1906–1913
Despite the UERL's success in financing and constructing the railway in only seven years, its opening did not bring the financial success that had been expected. In the Piccadilly Tube's first twelve months of operation it carried 26 million passengers, less than half of the 60 million that had been predicted during the planning of the line. The UERL's pre-opening predictions of passenger numbers for its other new lines proved to be similarly over-optimistic, as did the projected figures for the newly electrified DR – in each case, numbers achieved only around fifty per cent of their targets.

The lower than expected passenger numbers were partly due to competition between the tube and sub-surface railway companies, but the introduction of electric trams and motor buses, replacing slower, horse-drawn road transport, took a large number of passengers away from the trains. The problem was not limited to the UERL; all of London's seven tube lines and the sub-surface DR and Metropolitan Railway were affected to some degree. The reduced revenues generated from the lower passenger numbers made it difficult for the UERL and the other railways to pay back the capital borrowed, or to pay dividends to shareholders.

From 1907, in an effort to improve their finances, the UERL, the C&SLR, the CLR and the GN&CR began to introduce fare agreements. From 1908, they began to present themselves through common branding as the Underground. The W&CR was the only tube railway that did not participate in the arrangement as it was owned by the mainline L&SWR.

The UERL's three tube railway companies were still legally separate entities, with their own management, shareholder and dividend structures. There was duplicated administration between the three companies and, to streamline the management and reduce expenditure, the UERL announced a bill in November 1909 that would merge the Piccadilly, the Hampstead and the Bakerloo Tubes into a single entity, the London Electric Railway (LER), although the lines retained their own individual branding. The bill received royal assent on 26 July 1910 as the London Electric Railway Amalgamation Act 1910 (10 Edw. 7. & 1 Geo. 5. c. xxxii). This took effect on 1 July that year.

In October 1911, the Piccadilly tube platforms at Earl's Court station became the first on the Underground network to be served by escalators when a link between the District and Piccadilly platforms was created.

In November 1912, a bill was publicised under the LER name that included a plan to extend the Piccadilly tube tracks westwards from Hammersmith to connect to the L&SWR's Richmond branch tracks. The District line already ran trains over this route, and the Piccadilly tube service would provide additional connections. The bill received assent as the London Electric Railway Act 1913 on 15 August 1913. The advent of World War I prevented work on the extension starting. Post-war, a shortage of funds and other priorities meant that the extension was postponed until the early 1930s.

Move to public ownership, 1923–1933
Despite improvements made to other parts of the network, the Underground railways continued to struggle financially. The UERL's ownership of the highly profitable London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) since 1912 had enabled the UERL group, through the pooling of revenues, to use profits from the bus company to subsidise the less profitable railways. However, competition from numerous small bus companies during the early 1920s eroded the profitability of the LGOC and had a negative impact on the profitability of the whole UERL group.

In an effort to protect the UERL group's income, its chairman Lord Ashfield lobbied the government for regulation of transport services in the London area. Starting in 1923, a series of legislative initiatives were made in this direction, with Ashfield and Labour London County Councillor (later MP and Minister of Transport) Herbert Morrison, at the forefront of debates as to the level of regulation and public control under which transport services should be brought. Ashfield aimed for regulation that would give the UERL group protection from competition and allow it to take substantive control of the LCC's tram system; Morrison preferred full public ownership. After seven years of false starts, a bill was announced at the end of 1930 for the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB), a public corporation that would take control of the UERL, the Metropolitan Railway and all bus and tram operators within an area designated as the London Passenger Transport Area. The Board was a compromise – public ownership but not full nationalisation – and came into existence on 1 July 1933. On this date, the LER and the other Underground companies were liquidated.

Legacy

The original GNP&BR route was extended at both ends in the early 1930s. In the north, a new route was constructed to Wood Green, Southgate and Cockfosters. In the west, the extension from Hammersmith approved in 1913 was finally carried out. The extension paralleled the District line's route to Acton and Hounslow, and took over the District line's route to Uxbridge. In 1977, the Hounslow branch was extended to Heathrow Airport. The Strand branch was closed in 1994. Today, the GNP&BR's tunnels form the core of the Piccadilly line's  route.

York Road, Down Street and Brompton Road stations were closed in the early 1930s due to low usage, but in the lead-up to World War II the underground passageways at Down Street and Brompton Road were considered useful as protected deep shelters for critical government and military operations. Down Street was fitted out for use by the Railway Executive Committee and the War Cabinet. Brompton Road was used as a control centre for anti-aircraft operations, and after the war was used by the Territorial Army. Between September 1940 and July 1946, the Strand branch was temporarily closed, its tunnels used to store exhibits from the British Museum as well as serving as an air-raid shelter.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

Predecessor companies of the London Underground
Railway companies disestablished in 1933
Railway companies established in 1902
Railway lines opened in 1906
Transport in the London Borough of Camden
Transport in the City of London
Transport in the London Borough of Hackney
Transport in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
Transport in the London Borough of Haringey
Transport in the London Borough of Hounslow
Transport in the London Borough of Islington
Transport in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Transport in the City of Westminster
Underground Electric Railways Company of London
1902 establishments in England


Monocle Radio (originally launched as Monocle 24) is a mainly speech-based internet radio station, broadcasting from Monocle's headquarters at Midori House in London, England. On weekdays, the station produces three hours of live, current affairs-based programmes. It also broadcasts weekly shows on business; culture; design; food and hospitality; print media and urbanism. Music fills the rest of the schedule, hosted by Monocle staff. Monocle 24 was launched in October 2011 and broadcasts in English, primarily from London, but with an international focus. It is a brand extension of Monocle, a magazine founded in 2007 by Canadian journalist and entrepreneur Tyler Brûlé. Around 80% of listening is via download, 20% via live streaming.   In 2016, the station reported a weekly listenership of about 1 million.

The Monocle Weekly
Monocle 24 itself grew out of The Monocle Weekly, a podcast which first appeared on 28 December 2008. Originally hosted by editor Andrew Tuck and culture editor Robert Bound, it covers topics such as politics, business and culture and features interviews with big names across several disciplines, and eventually hit download figures as high as 250,000 per month.  The Monocle Weekly is now a one-hour weekend show on the station and is still available as a podcast.

Station history
Monocle 24 launched on 17 October 2011 with four live shows on weekdays: The Globalist, The Briefing, Midori House and The Monocle Daily, as well as several extra shows over the weekend. Surrounding those shows were music hours known as The Continental Shift and The Atlantic Shift, as well as hour-long themed shows Culture with Robert Bound, Section D, The Entrepreneurs, The Urbanist and The Menu. The station was branded by bespoke music idents, including a number featuring the voice of pop star Kylie Minogue and the Quiet Nights Orchestra. The running time of The Briefing, Midori House, Culture, Section D, The Entrepreneurs, The Urbanist and The Menu was cut from 50 to 30 minutes starting on 2 March 2015. At the same time, new programmes, such as The Big Interview (weekly) and Monocle Arts Review (weekdays, 15 minutes long) were added to the schedule. Top-of-the-hour newscasts were also removed from the schedule.

The station is influenced by the BBC World Service. Tyler Brûlé said "From the point of view its ambitions for global reach and coverage of world affairs, Monocle 24 will probably resemble and sound like many commonwealth public service broadcasters, including BBC World Service, as well as shades of Australia's ABC and Canada's CBC. We are hoping to create a station which follows the tradition of the great Commonwealth broadcasters. It's no surprise that we have drawn a lot of great people from the BBC World Service."

Changes to the schedule since its launch have included the introduction in August 2012 of The Stack, a 25-minute-long show on magazines and print media hosted by Tyler Brûlé on Saturday mornings. For around the first 18 months of the show's existence, it was 50 minutes long.  In January 2014, the running time was cut to 25 minutes. In April 2013, The Globalist was split into The Globalist and The Globalist Asia, with the latter focusing more on listeners in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The Globalist Asia was last broadcast on 27 December 2013.

Saturday and Sunday feature the Weekend Edition, a mix of news, interviews, music and highlights.

Portions of Monocle 24 programmes were previously broadcast on ABC Radio National in Australia.  Other Monocle 24 output is also broadcast by CBC Radio One in Canada as part of CBC Radio Overnight.

Monocle 24 also broadcasts from political, business and cultural events.

The station is live 24 hours a day at monocle.com/radio and also sees 2.5 million downloads per month of its programmes through its website and iTunes.

Past programmes and content
From 17 October 2011 to 2 March 2015, the station broadcast its own newscasts at the top of the hour between 6am and 11pm London time. Tomasz Schafernaker provided recorded weather forecasts for the station, but they were quickly dropped. Aperitivo (16 Sept 2013 - 15 November 2013) was a short-lived news-based talk programme, trailed as a "relaxed blend of conversation and analysis." The Globalist, a show on international news and political issues, was originally two hours long. It was later split in two, the second hour becoming The Globalist Asia, but the show was later cancelled. The Review was a weekend show which featured stories about books, movies and theatre.

From launch to 2 March 2015, the station broadcast ABC Radio news bulletins between midnight and 5am London time.

Presenters
Some of the most frequently heard voices on Monocle 24 are those of magazine staff, such as Tyler Brûlé, Andrew Tuck, Robert Bound, Steve Bloomfield and Sophie Grove. However there are also regular radio staff, such as News Editor Tom Edwards, and producers Markus Hippi and Phil Han, whose voices can be heard across many shows. Freelance staff often appear on the station, such as Georgina Godwin, Nancy Durham, Emma Nelson, Dominic Reynolds, Andrew Mueller, Clemency Burton-Hill, Tadhg Enright, Poppy Trowbridge and Ted Kravitz.  Jonathan Wheatley and Gwenan Edwards were among the station's newsreaders.

There are also regular contributions from Monocle staff and guests at the organisation's bureaux in New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Zürich and Toronto.

References

External links

News and talk radio stations in the United Kingdom
Radio stations in London
Internet radio stations in the United Kingdom

Monocle Radio


Minton is a hamlet in Shropshire, England.

It is located in the parish of Church Stretton,  southwest of the market town of Church Stretton. A historic settlement, it is situated on a foothill of the Long Mynd at around  above sea level. As of 2010, there are around 12 dwellings in the hamlet.

Three lanes lead out from the hamlet: one to the A49 road, one mile southeast at Marshbrook; another lane leads to the hamlet of Hamperley, which is also in Church Stretton parish; and Little Stretton is one mile to the northeast.

History and features
The place name is from Welsh mynydd meaning 'hill' and Old English tun meaning 'settlement', 'town'. The hamlet has largely retained its Anglo-Saxon layout, with a patchwork of plots and haphazard narrow lanes. There are remains of a motte, which dates from either Anglo-Saxon or Norman times. It was a township and Royal manor, held by King Edward prior to the Norman conquest. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

Today the hamlet consists of farms and cottages and is agricultural in character. It is designated a conservation area and there are 5 Listed buildings in the hamlet – Long Mynd House, Ivanhoe, Manor Farmhouse, Well Cottage, and Minton House.

There is an outdoors activity centre located on the lane between Minton and Hamperley, the Longmynd Adventure Camp, with overnight accommodation and camping ground.

Minton Hill and Batch
Minton Hill is to the northwest of the hamlet and rises to 453m. A bridleway leads up to its summit (and continues beyond onto the Long Mynd) from the hamlet of Minton. Another walking route up to the Long Mynd is via the Minton Batch, where a bridleway leads up from the lane to Hamperley.

Famous residents
The Oscar-nominated actor, Pete Postlethwaite, lived at Yew Tree Cottage in Minton for many years before moving to the village of More near Bishop's Castle. "I do love Shropshire," he was quoted as saying. "Whenever I get home, my shoulders drop by two inches. The only reason I've been able to do the things I've done is because I have my family and Shropshire to come home to. They've made everything else possible."

The Minton surname
The Shropshire surname of Minton originates from the name of the hamlet although resources seem to disagree as to its earliest occurrence. Some point to Jordan de Minton, who was mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Northumberland in 1169. However, the Rev R W Eyton in his book, 'The Antiquities of Shropshire' identifies Walter de Miniton (later Walter de Muneton) as the first tenant of Minton or Muneton as the site was then known. Subsequent Mintons of note include Thomas Minton (English potter), John Minton (British artist), Yvonne Minton (Australian opera singer), Mary Minton (novelist) and Sherman Minton (US Democratic senator).

Popular culture
Film:
The titular character of the movie, 'Big Stan' starring Rob Schneider was named Stan Minton. The characters of Conrad and Wilma Minton (played by Lew Ayres and Herta Ware) also appeared in the episode, 'Old Flames' in 1980s crime drama, 'Cagney and Lacey'.

Literature:
A series of children's books called, 'Minton Goes...' has been written by Anna Fienberg and Kim Gamble. A character called Sophia Minton also appeared in Agatha Christie's book, 'N or M?'.

The fictional airfield of RAF Minton featured in 'The Shepherd' by Frederick Forsyth while the village of Little Minton was invented by Enid Blyton for her book, 'The Mystery of the Secret Room'. The fictional town of Minton, New England also provided the setting for the 1860 novel, 'The Ebony Idol' by G M Flanders.

See also
Listed buildings in Church Stretton

References

Church Stretton
Villages in Shropshire

Minton, Shropshire


Greg Harrison (born May 4, 1969, in Michigan) is an American film director and editor.

He graduated from Michigan State University where he got his early film experience with MSU Telecasters.

He has directed films such as Groove (2000) and November (2004), both of which were produced by Danielle Renfrew.

References

External links

1969 births
Living people
Michigan State University alumni

Greg Harrison