Regional elections were held in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

on Thursday 6 May 1982, as part of the wider 1982 United Kingdom local elections. Whilst the 1982 elections saw the Conservatives hold up relatively well in England, the Tories did comparatively poorly in Scotland, where their already disadvantageous position worsened. The Conservatives did particularly poorly in Strathclyde, where the Conservative group leader lost his seat. Despite this poor performance, the Conservatives were actually seen as doing somewhat well in the overall Scottish context; the Conservative vote had, prior to the election, been languishing around 18% in Scotland. This was somewhat credited to a modest "Falkland Effect;" a surge in Conservative support due to their handling of the ongoing

Falklands War The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...

.Towards a Four Party System: The Regional Elections of 1982, p.78-82
/ref> The SDP-Liberal Alliance managed to displace the SNP into fourth place, although this increase in support ultimately did not translate into major seat gains due to the

FPTP In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

nature of the ward electoral system. Also notable was the success of candidates in

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

supportive of Home Rule for the islands, who wished for something similar to that enjoyed by the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

. Whilst no candidates appeared on the ballot as members of the

Shetland Movement The Shetland Movement was a pressure group and political party created in 1978 to advocate for greater autonomy in Shetland. The group called for the creation of a Shetland Assembly or 'Althing' with limited legislative powers and control over di ...

, the Shetland Movement did publish a list of candidates supportive of Shetland Home Rule. Ultimately, of the 25 members of the

Shetland Islands Council The Shetland Islands Council ( sco, Shetland Islands Cooncil; gd, Comhairle Shealtainn) is the local authority for Shetland, Scotland. It was established by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and is the successor to the former Lerwick Tow ...

, 14 were supporters of the movement.

National results

, - !colspan=2, Parties !Votes !Votes % !Wards , - , , 572,776 , 37.6 , 186 , - , , 382,891 , 25.1 , 119 , - , , 276,824 , 18.1 , 25 , - , , 204,774 , 13.4 , 23 , - , , 5,537 , 0.4 , 1 , - , , , 1,228 , 0.1 , 0 , - , , 997 , 0.1 , 0 , - , , 402 , 0.03 , 0 , - , , , 264 , 0.2 , 0 , - , , 252 , 0.02 , 0 , - , , , 136 , 0.01 , 0 , - , , , 30 , 0.002 , 0 , - , , 77,626 , 5.1 , 87 , - !colspan=2, Total!! 1,446,111 !! 100.0 !! 441

Results by council area

References

Regional elections

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

Scottish regional elections {{Scotland-election-stub