40-732: Monmouth Boroughs (also known as the Monmouth District of Boroughs ) was a parliamentary constituency consisting of several towns in Monmouthshire . It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliaments of England , Great Britain , and finally the United Kingdom ; until 1832 the constituency was known simply as Monmouth , though it included other "contributory boroughs". The area
80-539: A parliamentary borough ; Monmouth and Usk, mainstays of " Monmouth " county constituency . Redefined limits of the three contributory boroughs were set in 1832 and 1885. Blewitt resigned by accepting the office of Steward of the Manor of Hempholme , causing a by-election. General Election 1914–15 : Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914,
120-420: A few cases one). From 1535 each Welsh county and borough was represented, by one knight or burgess. The franchise was restricted differently in different types of constituency; in county constituencies forty shilling freeholders (i.e. landowners) could vote, while in boroughs the franchise varied from potwallopers , giving many residents votes, to rotten boroughs with hardly any voters. A county borough
160-697: A form or degree of mixed-member proportional representation . The existing constituencies were created, effectively, for the first general election of the Scottish Parliament, in 1999. When created, all but two had the names and boundaries of Westminster constituencies. The two exceptions were the Orkney Holyrood constituency , covering the Orkney Islands council area , and the Shetland Holyrood constituency , covering
200-545: A formal acknowledgement of the separate character of Wales, setting a precedent for future legislation and decisions. It was repealed in 1911. The legislation was introduced by the Liberal Government elected in 1880 under Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone . It was the first Act since the annexation of Wales which specifically applied only to Wales. A similar Bill which would have applied in England
240-466: A large number of private social clubs which were excluded from it, and the legislation seems to have had little effect on drunkenness. According to Davies, "above all, [the legislation] connected Welshness with negativity", and it became increasingly unpopular through the 20th century. The Sunday Closing (Wales) Act 1881 was repealed and consolidated into the Licensing (Consolidation) Act 1910, which
280-448: A more suitable label cannot be found. Where used, "The compass point reference used will generally form a prefix in cases where the rest of the constituency name refers to the county area or a local council, but a suffix where the rest of the name refers to a population centre." This is the reason for the difference in naming between, for example, North Shropshire (a county constituency ) and Reading West (a borough constituency ). In
320-608: A number of single-member first-past-the Post constituencies, matching the way Westminster MPs are elected. Following the decision that all MEPs should be elected by some form of proportional representation , the Labour government passed the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 , creating eleven constituencies on Great Britain, which were first used in 1999 . The South West England constituency
360-751: Is in the Holyrood area of Edinburgh , while the main meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Palace of Westminster , in the City of Westminster . There are 73 Holyrood constituencies covering Scotland , and each elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first-past-the-post system . Also, the constituencies are grouped into eight electoral regions, and each of these regions elects seven additional members , to produce
400-526: The 2005 United Kingdom general election , the House of Commons had 646 constituencies covering the whole of the United Kingdom. This rose to 650 in the 2010 election following the Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies . Each constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the " first-past-the-post " system of election. The House of Commons is one of the two chambers of
440-679: The Acts of Union 1707 , Scottish burghs were grouped into districts of burghs in the Parliament of Great Britain , except that Edinburgh was a constituency in its own right . After the Acts of Union 1800 , smaller Irish boroughs were disenfranchised, while most others returned only one MP to the United Kingdom Parliament. The Reform Act 1832 reduced the number of parliamentary boroughs in England and Wales by eliminating
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#1732787771124480-700: The Duke 's candidate had won the election of 1715 decisively, this patronage was so clear contests ceased until 1820 – their candidates (many of them members of the family) were returned unopposed. At the time of the Great Reform Act (or First Reform Act), 1832, Monmouth and Newport each had around 5,000 residents and Usk just over 1,000. This was great for most seats of its type – even dual-member boroughs were mostly kept if they had or could be simply drawn to exceed 4,000 residents. Nevertheless, all three parts of this seat were expanding by taking into
520-735: The Great Reform Act in 1832 qualified voters numbered: 123 in Newport, 83 in Monmouth and 74 in Usk. In Tudor times the seat was under the influence of the Duchy of Lancaster and around the start of the 18th century it was a pocket borough of the Morgan family of Tredegar , who were influential in the Newport area; but soon afterwards the Dukes of Beaufort (a Scudamore family branch) gained control. After
560-531: The Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004 , which enabled the creation of a new set of Westminster constituencies without change to Holyrood constituencies. The new Westminster boundaries became effective for the 2005 United Kingdom general election . There are 40 Senedd constituencies covering Wales , and each elects one Member of the Senedd (MS) by the first-past-the-post system . Also,
600-580: The Shetland Islands council area . For Westminster elections, these council areas were covered (and still are covered) by the Orkney and Shetland Westminster constituency . In 1999, under the Scotland Act 1998 , the expectation was that there would be a permanent link between the boundaries of Holyrood constituencies and those of Westminster constituencies. This link was broken, however, by
640-546: The bicameral Parliament of the United Kingdom , the other being the House of Lords . There are fourteen London Assembly constituencies covering the Greater London area, and each constituency elects one member of the assembly by the first-past-the-post system . Eleven additional members are elected from Greater London as a whole to produce a form or degree of mixed-member proportional representation . Constituency names and boundaries remain now as they were for
680-498: The first general election of the assembly, in 2000. The assembly is part of the Greater London Authority and general elections of the assembly are held at the same time as election of the mayor of London . There are 18 Northern Ireland Assembly Constituencies : four borough (for Belfast ) and 14 county constituencies elsewhere (see below). Each elects five MLAs to the 90 member NI Assembly by means of
720-519: The nonconformist chapels . According to historian John Davies , the public houses in Wales had become "recruiting centres for the Conservative Party " following earlier Liberal legislation to restrict the licensed trade, and there was considerable backing among Welsh working class men to restrict their opening. However, one of the effects of the legislation was to encourage the opening of
760-424: The single transferable vote system. Assembly Constituency boundaries are identical to their House of Commons equivalents. The constituencies below are not used for the election of members to the 11 district councils . Scottish Parliament constituencies are sometimes called Holyrood constituencies, to distinguish them from Westminster (House of Commons) constituencies. The Scottish Parliament Building
800-559: The Boundary Commissions for England , Wales , Scotland and Northern Ireland the power to create names for constituencies, and does not provide a set of statutory guidelines for the Commissions to follow in doing so. Constituency names are geographic, and "should normally reflect the main population centre(s) contained in the constituency". Compass points are used to distinguish constituencies from each other when
840-475: The United Kingdom elected its Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) through twelve multimember European Parliament constituencies . One, Northern Ireland , used single transferable vote , while the eleven covering Great Britain used the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation . For its first European Parliamentary elections in 1979 Great Britain was divided into
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#1732787771124880-672: The by-election when that election was voided for various irregularities, but were probably helped by the association of the Liberal candidate with the campaign to extend the Welsh Sunday Closing Act to Monmouthshire. After, it was identifiably " safely " Liberal, and at the time of the 1911 census had a population of 77,902. The seat was abolished by the Representation of the People Act 1918 : Newport became
920-557: The constituencies are grouped into five electoral regions, and each of these regions elects four additional members , to produce a form or degree of mixed-member proportional representation . The current set of Senedd constituencies is the second to be created. The first was created for the first general election of the National Assembly for Wales, in 1999. Before its withdrawal from the European Union in 2020,
960-456: The council. The spending limits for election campaigns are different in the two, the reasoning being that candidates in county constituencies tend to need to travel farther. For by-elections to any of these bodies, the limit in all constituencies is £100,000. In the House of Commons of England , each English county elected two " knights of the shire " while each enfranchised borough elected "burgesses" (usually two, sometimes four, and in
1000-567: The distinction; the Boundary Commission for England has stated that, "as a general principle, where constituencies contain more than a small rural element they should normally be designated as county constituencies. Otherwise they should be designated as borough constituencies." In Scotland, all House of Commons constituencies are county constituencies except those in the cities of Glasgow , Edinburgh , Aberdeen , Dundee and three urban areas of Lanarkshire . In England and Wales,
1040-777: The following body also included members elected by constituencies: Electoral areas called constituencies were previously used in elections to the European Parliament , prior to the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union (see European Parliament constituency ). In local government elections (other than for the London Assembly) electoral areas are called wards or electoral divisions . House of Commons, Scottish Parliament, Senedd and Northern Ireland Assembly constituencies are designated as either county or borough constituencies, except that in Scotland
1080-420: The following candidates had been selected; Notes References United Kingdom constituencies In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons . Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called " constituencies " as opposed to " wards ": Between 1921 and 1973
1120-471: The new high-rent-paying and/or landed outlook (franchise) a broad view of each town; such area took in 13,101 people and its electorate (under the "reformed" franchise) was 899. Henceforth it was generally referred to as the Monmouth Boroughs . From 1832 until 1906 results tended on 'marginal' rather than 'safe', alternating between Conservatives and Whigs / Liberals . Crawshay Bailey (Con.)
1160-465: The position of returning officer in borough constituencies is held ex officio by the mayor or chairman of the borough or district council, and the high sheriff of the county in county constituencies. The administration of elections is carried out by the acting returning officer, who will typically be a local council's chief executive or Head of Legal Services. The role, however, is separate from these posts, and can be held by any person appointed by
1200-413: The previous common electoral quota for the whole United Kingdom and replaced it with four separate national minimal seat quotas for the respective Boundaries commissions to work to, as a result the separate national electoral quotas came into effect: England 69,534; Northern Ireland 67,145, Wales 58,383 and in Scotland only 54,741 electors. The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 gives
1240-800: The rotten boroughs. It also divided larger counties into two two-seat divisions , the boundaries of which were defined in the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 , and gave seven counties a third member. Similar reforms were also made for Scotland and for Ireland . The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 ( 48 & 49 Vict. c. 23) equalised the population of constituencies; it split larger boroughs into multiple single-member constituencies, reduced smaller boroughs from two seats each to one, split each two-seat county and division into two single-member constituencies, and each three-seat county into single-member constituencies. The House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1958 , eliminated
Monmouth Boroughs (UK Parliament constituency) - Misplaced Pages Continue
1280-418: The same county, which were required to contribute to the members' expenses and which had the right to send voters to take part in the election at the county town. These were initially six or perhaps seven in number: Caerleon , Newport , Trellech , Usk , Chepstow , Abergavenny and possibly Grosmont ; but by the late 17th century all of the electors were freemen of Monmouth, Usk and Newport. The franchise
1320-430: The term burgh is used instead of borough . Since the advent of universal suffrage , the differences between county and borough constituencies are slight. Formerly (see below ) the franchise differed, and there were also county borough and university constituencies. Borough constituencies are predominantly urban while county constituencies are predominantly rural . There is no definitive statutory criterion for
1360-655: Was expanded from the 2004 elections onward to include Gibraltar , the only British overseas territory that was part of the European Union , following a court case. Sunday Closing (Wales) Act 1881 The Sunday Closing (Wales) Act 1881 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . It was one of the Licensing Acts 1828 to 1886 . It required the closure of all public houses in Wales on Sundays. The Act had considerable political importance as
1400-464: Was first enfranchised as the single-member borough of Monmouth or Monmouth Town in the reign of Henry VIII , at the same time as the counties and boroughs of Wales. On official, national-level paper cast as being in England its electoral arrangements from the outset resembled those of the Welsh boroughs rather than those in the rest of England - its single member and its other "contributory boroughs" in
1440-614: Was itself later replaced by the Licensing Act 1953. Sunday closing, however, was retained. The Licensing Act 1961 enabled local authorities in Wales to hold polls if their electorate wished to retain, remove or readopt Sunday closing. Shortly after the Act's enactment, there was a nationwide referendum in 1961. This first referendum oversaw the removal of Sunday closing in Monmouthshire , Newport , Cardiff , Glamorgan , Swansea , Merthyr Tydfil and Flintshire . Another referendum
1480-489: Was rejected by Parliament. The 1881 Act did not apply to Monmouthshire , but was extended over that county in 1915 under wartime legislation which was reaffirmed in 1921. However, later Acts which were specific to Wales, including the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889 , were also applied to Monmouthshire. The legislation followed pressure by the temperance movement and, in particular,
1520-465: Was returned unopposed four times after he was first elected. The seat moved steadily towards the Liberals, however, as the franchise became more inclusive and Newport grew in size; by the turn of the century 90% of the electorate was there, and it was a mass-labour working class and mainly industrial town unlike Monmouth and Usk. The Conservatives won in their landslide year of 1900 and held the seat in
1560-458: Was settled by a judgment in a disputed election in 1680, when Monmouth attempted to return a member to parliament without the involvement of the other boroughs, and the Court declared the right to vote to rest in the resident freemen of Monmouth, Newport and Usk. The number of electors fell away sharply during the 18th century - from 2,000 in 1715 to about 800 in the 1754-1790 period; by the time of
1600-465: Was the constituency of a county corporate , combining the franchises of both county and borough. Until 1950 there were also university constituencies , which gave graduates an additional representation. Similar distinctions applied in the Irish House of Commons , while the non-university elected members of the Parliament of Scotland were called Shire Commissioners and Burgh Commissioners. After
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