What's in a Name? The Length of Westminster Constituency Titles, 1950–2024

In: The political quarterly, Volume 92, Issue 4, p. 727-731

Abstract

AbstractParliamentary constituencies in the UK are named after the areas they cover. Over the last seventy years, the titles given to these constituencies have been getting longer and more cumbersome. They are now less likely to consist of single words and are more likely to be compounds of multiple places. The article demonstrates these changes, including the differences across the constituent nations of the UK, and discusses the possible reasons for the changes. The boundary changes proposed for the next election would result in the longest and most cumbersome constituency names since Britain first began with single‐member, one person, one vote constituencies in 1950.