Highland Council 2022

This is the big one – the biggest one. In a country that makes a mockery of the concept of local government, Highland council is a joke so bad it’s long since ceased to be funny. Famously huge, Highland covers what used to be the counties of Inverness, Nairn, Caithness, Sutherland, and Ross and Cromarty, along with small portions of historic Argyll and Moray. Under the 1973 Act, Highland was a region, under which there were districts for Caithness, Sutherland, Ross and Cromarty, Inverness, Skye and Lochalsh, Nairn, Lochaber, and Badenoch and Strathspey.

Come the 90’s, rather than turn those districts into unitary authorities or do some mild mergers, we just took the region made that a unitary. Nobody likes this anymore. Nobody. Combining a major and rapidly growing city in Inverness with a dizzying array of rural communities simply hasn’t worked. Even some MSPs, past and present, have begun to talk about the need to divide Highland back up.

Politically, the Highlands have often been diverse, with all of Labour, the Conservatives and Lib Dems holding Westminster seats here historically. By the late 20^th century, the Lib Dems were typically the lead party, though Labour had a brief spell in the Inverness-centred constituency in 1997 and 2005 before the Lib Dems reasserted themselves. The SNP have held the Scottish parliament equivalent since 1999, and all Highland constituencies since 2011. They similarly gained the Westminster seats in 2015, though the Lib Dems have held the northernmost since 2017.

At local level, Highand has long been the most Independent leaning of the big rural councils. They historically held clear majorities on the region and in all districts, with only Inverness ever having an Independent minority. That continued into the unitary era, with Independent majorities in all three FPTP elections. It was clear the Highlands weren’t entirely Independent-minded however, as the Lib Dems, Labour and SNP all had consistently solid groups through that time.