Jon Bright (London, OK): This interesting chart from the ERS is worth drawing attention to (click on the image to be redirected to the full chart, in pdf form). It shows a few statistics on women in politics, the most telling being the constituencies in blue are ones that have never been represented by a female MP - as well as how little progress there was towards this before 1997. The graph especially proves for me that unless Cameron adopts a serious positive discrimination policy - like all women shortlists - this map is unlikely to change colour significantly at the next election.
Ray Bell (not verified) said:
Sat, 2008-02-09 22:31One query about this chart... what about the various constituencies BEFORE they were redrawn? Some of the blue areas may not have been represented by women, with the current boundaries, but parts or the whole may have been represented by them in some previous incarnation.
(One more point. It doesn't factor in the regional lists in Scotland or Wales.)