In the Scottish Parliamentary elections, voters in Edinburgh will be able to cast their vote for who they want to represent them in the six constituency areas: Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh Eastern, Edinburgh Northern and Leith, Edinburgh Pentlands, Edinburgh Southern and Edinburgh Western.
Open image in new window Fig. 2 SVI for elders across constituency areas of Hong Kong, 2011.
The basic geographic unit of the study was set at the District Council Constituency Areas (CAs) level to ensure homogeneity of the unit sample.
Given the geographical distribution of population in Scotland, this results in constituencies of a smaller area in the Central Lowlands, where the bulk of Scotland's population live, and much larger constituency areas in the north and west of the country, which have a low population density.
Just after the taoiseach's remarks, it emerged that even in his own Mayo constituency – an area of western Ireland normally regarded as conservative and religiously devout – early indications were for a 55% vote in favour of reform.
This summer, a minor tabloid scandal broke after Stewart was quoted in a paper saying, of his constituency, "Some areas around here are pretty primitive, people holding up their trousers with bits of twine and that sort of thing".
ARPA-E lacks the natural political constituency that areas like high-energy physics or the national labs have, so maintaining the funding could be hard as the winds shift on Capitol Hill.
In reality, the effect on MPs' seats is more complex to measure as voters are not spread evenly across constituencies: some areas within may heavily favour one party, others its main rival.
And Brown simply lacks the raw political skills effectively to sway enough voters, especially in key marginal constituencies in areas like London and the southeast, to turn things around.
