Politics
There are two British Parliamentary constituencies in the Borders. Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk covers most of the region and is represented by Liberal Democrat Michael Moore. The western Tweeddale area is included in the Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale constituency and is represented by Conservative David Mundell.
At Scottish Parliament level, there are also two seats. The eastern constituency is Roxburgh & Berwickshire, which is currently represented by Conservative John Lamont. The western constituency is Tweeddale, Ettrick & Lauderdale and is represented by SNP Christine Grahame.
Following the 2012 local elections, the council administration is now a coalition of Independents, Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats. Prior to the election a coalition of Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Independents ruled. The Conservatives are the biggest party on the council with 10 seats, the Liberal Democrats have six. The SNP have nine seats and the Independents have seven. Two councillors form the Borders Party.
| Political Party | Seats | |
|---|---|---|
| Scottish Conservative Party | 10 | |
| • | Scottish National Party | 9 |
| • | Independent | 7 |
| • | Scottish Liberal Democrats | 6 |
| Borders Party | 2 | |
Read more about this topic: Scottish Borders
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“Political organizations have slowly substituted themselves for the Churches as the places for believing practices.... Politics has once again become religious.”
—Michel de Certeau (1925–1986)
“They who have been bred in the school of politics fail now and always to face the facts. Their measures are half measures and makeshifts merely. They put off the day of settlement, and meanwhile the debt accumulates.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There is a place where we are always alone with our own mortality, where we must simply have something greater than ourselves to hold onto—God or history or politics or literature or a belief in the healing power of love, or even righteous anger.... A reason to believe, a way to take the world by the throat and insist that there is more to this life than we have ever imagined.”
—Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)