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AbstractParliamentary constituencies in the UK are named after the areas they cover. Over the last seventy years, the titles given to these constituencies have been getting longer and more cumbersome. They are now less likely to consist of single words and are more likely to be compounds of multiple places. The article demonstrates these changes, including the differences across the constituent nations of the UK, and discusses the possible reasons for the changes. The boundary changes proposed for the next election would result in the longest and most cumbersome constituency names since Britain first began with single‐member, one person, one vote constituencies in 1950.

AbstractThis article reports black and Asian descriptive representation in London's elected local government. In both absolute and relative terms, the levels of descriptive representation are higher than previously, and London's Asian population is now represented proportionately, although black Londoners remain under‐represented. Such aggregate levels of representation, however, mask considerable disparities between the two groups in many instances. The same is true of gender representation, with overall figures hiding the fact that Asian men are over‐represented (and white women broadly proportionately represented) while black men are the least represented category analysed.

In increasingly personalised electoral contests, voters use evaluations of candidates' personal characteristics in their vote decisions, and candidates deploy personal information about themselves which they believe convey a positive message in their communications with voters. We expand the study of candidate characteristics to include parental status, examining the public's view of politicians with and without children and the behaviour of politicians in their communications with voters. Men and women are equally likely to refer to their children regardless of party. We find a preference for candidates who are parents and no punishment effect for women politicians with children. Our findings, from a British study, contradict some of the research from the United States which finds that voters' reactions to candidates' parental status vary depending on candidate gender; as such, our results suggest that political and cultural context are important factors determining the role gender plays in political behaviour.

AbstractAnthony King's 1976 article 'Modes of executive–legislative relations: Great Britain, France and West Germany' is a classic in legislative studies. It argued that it is simplistic to analyse relations between 'the executive' and 'the legislature' in parliamentary systems, because parliaments are complex organisations comprised of competing actors. Instead, we must consider the various 'modes' through which these actors can interact to challenge the executive. As King pointed out, the classic view of the British Parliament was of a dominant 'opposition mode' and yet, in fact, the most important relationship was the 'intraparty mode': between the government and its own backbenchers. Other options, such as the 'non‐party mode' or 'cross‐party mode' were considered weak in Britain. This article revisits King's modes in the light of changes at Westminster during the intervening forty years. Developments such as the establishment of the select committee system and a more confident and party‐balanced House of Lords require significant changes to his conclusions. But his central insights, encouraging readers to focus on the multiple relationships inside legislatures, including those within political parties, remain fundamentally important.

Philip Cowley and Rosie Campbell examine the public's view of British politicians with and without children, as well as the behaviour of MPs in their communications with voters. They find a preference for candidates who are parents and no punishment effect for women politicians with children.