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Scottish Independence Referendum Data Map

61 points by wf 12y ago

tptacek 12y ago
Interesting. Why is the Highland council area so red?
- chippy 12y ago
  low Scottish National Party voters
- GraemeL 12y ago
  Seems to be that the border colours represent previous SNP vote share and the middles will represent referendum declarations as they are announced. The numbers are projected declaration times.
- arethuza 12y ago
  Probably based on the level of SNP support in either the local council, Scottish or UK parliament elections - traditionally the Liberal Democrats were strong in the Highlands. Not sure picking SNP support in an area is a great basis for predicting tonight's results though - a lot of people who would never vote SNP seem to be supporting the "Yes" campaign. I plan on fast-forwarding through the next few hours with some help from our local water of life. Edit: This might be a good source for where those number come from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/vote2012/council/S12000017.stm http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/vote2012/council/S12000017... As it was a council election there appear to have been a lot of independents - so the proportion of seats won by the SNP looks relatively small even though they were the largest political party. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Council_election,_2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Council_election,_2012
  - tptacek 12y ago
    So yeah, that's what I thought, but are there reasons why the Highlands don't affiliate directly with the SNP that are orthogonal to their likely vote?
JimA 12y ago
Anyone able to explain how to read this?
chippy 12y ago
The numbers in the circles at 21:00 BST time show the likely time when the results will be announced.
chippy 12y ago
Background blog post: http://oobrien.com/2014/09/scottish-independence-referendum-data-map/ http://oobrien.com/2014/09/scottish-independence-referendum-...
Gormo 12y ago
Why are the circles colored to indicate voting results if none of the results have been announced yet?
- arethuza 12y ago
  It's SNP voting levels from 2012 elections - not a particularly appropriate measure in my opinion! Edit: The reason why I don't think it's appropriate is that it is a simple "Yes" or "No" and a lot of people who may have traditionally voted Labour or Lib Dem might be voting "Yes" even though the national UK parties have all been pushing the "No" side of the campaign.
  - Malarkey73 12y ago
    Agreed. That's way off base. SNP voters won't make up half of the YES vote. Its unpredictable as it's all down to how the Labour and previous non-voters fall.
eric_bullington 12y ago
Interesting map, but if the person who created it happens by, you should consider setting constraints[1] on your zoom, so that your subject remains in view. It's very easy to zoom out to continental zoom level, which doesn't show any useful information in this context. 1. http://openlayers.org/en/v3.0.0/examples/zoom-constrained.html http://openlayers.org/en/v3.0.0/examples/zoom-constrained.ht...
- arethuza 12y ago
  For the more sparsely populated areas (e.g. Highlands, Moray, Aberdeenshire, Perth & Kinross) placing the marker in the "geographical" center rather than on the main town looks a bit odd to me - especially as the Moray marker seems to be located on top of the Macallan distillery rather than at Elgin.....
- kingnight 12y ago
  I'd also add to turn off mouse scroll zoom completely.
baxter001 12y ago
Just got back in from my visit to the polling station at a local scout hut a few minutes ago, with the largest population centres of Glasgow and Edinburgh declaring so late into the morning I'm not sure what large benefit is to be gained from live tracking.
mark_l_watson 12y ago
I was talking about Scottish Independence today while hiking with two friends. Both of them thought that independence was a bad idea, but could not provide much reason for this. Maybe a slant in USA news media, with a pro-England slant? I bet England does make them pay short term if there is a YES vote, but if being a small and independent country saves them money on military spending then long term it might make sense, in addition to national pride. Way off topic, sorry, but: it is really interesting to think about the USA someday balkanizing. After the dollar is no longer the reserve currency, and when we can't afford our gigantic military expenses anymore, it might make sense to have smaller regional countries, with EU style trade and mobility agreements. Small seems more efficient.
- untog 12y ago
  One reason against voting yes is quite simple: having no idea what will happen. There are definitely economic uncertainties with independence, and I think it's a valid viewpoint to be concerned about them. There's no guarantee that change will be a good thing, and the actual benefit to independence is pretty intangible - it is primarily emotional rather than calculated (Scotland already have a parliament, that will be given more powers even if the vote results in a "no")
  - arethuza 12y ago
    "There's no guarantee that change will be a good thing" It's worth noting that there is likely to be a lot of change in the UK/rUK political landscape over the next few years regardless of the result tonight (e.g. leaving the EU). A lot of people are voting "Yes" because they are worried about the direction of change in the UK.
    - robin_reala 12y ago
      Luckily it looks like they’re going to stay part of the UK: the rest of us need that balancing action to get some sanity into the upcoming European referendum.
  - collyw 12y ago
llamataboot 12y ago
Pretty nifty map of #indyref tweets over the past 7 days http://trendsmap.com/v2/Lf62/w http://trendsmap.com/v2/Lf62/w
skeletonjelly 12y ago
Another version: http://www.abc.net.au/news/scottish-referendum/results/ http://www.abc.net.au/news/scottish-referendum/results/
lazylizard 12y ago
i'd have thought running a government is a massive hassle..if they could have the english do it for them for free, why would they want to do it themselves?

61 points by wf 12y ago

tptacek 12y ago

Interesting. Why is the Highland council area so red?

chippy 12y ago
low Scottish National Party voters
GraemeL 12y ago
Seems to be that the border colours represent previous SNP vote share and the middles will represent referendum declarations as they are announced. The numbers are projected declaration times.
arethuza 12y ago
Probably based on the level of SNP support in either the local council, Scottish or UK parliament elections - traditionally the Liberal Democrats were strong in the Highlands. Not sure picking SNP support in an area is a great basis for predicting tonight's results though - a lot of people who would never vote SNP seem to be supporting the "Yes" campaign. I plan on fast-forwarding through the next few hours with some help from our local water of life. Edit: This might be a good source for where those number come from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/vote2012/council/S12000017.stm http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/vote2012/council/S12000017... As it was a council election there appear to have been a lot of independents - so the proportion of seats won by the SNP looks relatively small even though they were the largest political party. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Council_election,_2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Council_election,_2012
- tptacek 12y ago
  So yeah, that's what I thought, but are there reasons why the Highlands don't affiliate directly with the SNP that are orthogonal to their likely vote?

JimA 12y ago

Anyone able to explain how to read this?

chippy 12y ago

The numbers in the circles at 21:00 BST time show the likely time when the results will be announced.

chippy 12y ago

Background blog post: http://oobrien.com/2014/09/scottish-independence-referendum-data-map/ http://oobrien.com/2014/09/scottish-independence-referendum-...

Gormo 12y ago

Why are the circles colored to indicate voting results if none of the results have been announced yet?

arethuza 12y ago
It's SNP voting levels from 2012 elections - not a particularly appropriate measure in my opinion! Edit: The reason why I don't think it's appropriate is that it is a simple "Yes" or "No" and a lot of people who may have traditionally voted Labour or Lib Dem might be voting "Yes" even though the national UK parties have all been pushing the "No" side of the campaign.
- Malarkey73 12y ago
  Agreed. That's way off base. SNP voters won't make up half of the YES vote. Its unpredictable as it's all down to how the Labour and previous non-voters fall.

eric_bullington 12y ago

Interesting map, but if the person who created it happens by, you should consider setting constraints[1] on your zoom, so that your subject remains in view. It's very easy to zoom out to continental zoom level, which doesn't show any useful information in this context. 1. http://openlayers.org/en/v3.0.0/examples/zoom-constrained.html http://openlayers.org/en/v3.0.0/examples/zoom-constrained.ht...

arethuza 12y ago
For the more sparsely populated areas (e.g. Highlands, Moray, Aberdeenshire, Perth & Kinross) placing the marker in the "geographical" center rather than on the main town looks a bit odd to me - especially as the Moray marker seems to be located on top of the Macallan distillery rather than at Elgin.....
kingnight 12y ago
I'd also add to turn off mouse scroll zoom completely.

baxter001 12y ago

Just got back in from my visit to the polling station at a local scout hut a few minutes ago, with the largest population centres of Glasgow and Edinburgh declaring so late into the morning I'm not sure what large benefit is to be gained from live tracking.

mark_l_watson 12y ago

I was talking about Scottish Independence today while hiking with two friends. Both of them thought that independence was a bad idea, but could not provide much reason for this. Maybe a slant in USA news media, with a pro-England slant? I bet England does make them pay short term if there is a YES vote, but if being a small and independent country saves them money on military spending then long term it might make sense, in addition to national pride. Way off topic, sorry, but: it is really interesting to think about the USA someday balkanizing. After the dollar is no longer the reserve currency, and when we can't afford our gigantic military expenses anymore, it might make sense to have smaller regional countries, with EU style trade and mobility agreements. Small seems more efficient.

untog 12y ago
One reason against voting yes is quite simple: having no idea what will happen. There are definitely economic uncertainties with independence, and I think it's a valid viewpoint to be concerned about them. There's no guarantee that change will be a good thing, and the actual benefit to independence is pretty intangible - it is primarily emotional rather than calculated (Scotland already have a parliament, that will be given more powers even if the vote results in a "no")
- arethuza 12y ago
  "There's no guarantee that change will be a good thing" It's worth noting that there is likely to be a lot of change in the UK/rUK political landscape over the next few years regardless of the result tonight (e.g. leaving the EU). A lot of people are voting "Yes" because they are worried about the direction of change in the UK.
  - robin_reala 12y ago
    Luckily it looks like they’re going to stay part of the UK: the rest of us need that balancing action to get some sanity into the upcoming European referendum.
- collyw 12y ago

llamataboot 12y ago

Pretty nifty map of #indyref tweets over the past 7 days http://trendsmap.com/v2/Lf62/w http://trendsmap.com/v2/Lf62/w

skeletonjelly 12y ago

Another version: http://www.abc.net.au/news/scottish-referendum/results/ http://www.abc.net.au/news/scottish-referendum/results/

lazylizard 12y ago

i'd have thought running a government is a massive hassle..if they could have the english do it for them for free, why would they want to do it themselves?