Regional elections were held in Scotland 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 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. Whilst no candidates appeared on the ballot as members of the Shetland Movement, the Shetland Movement did publish a list of candidates supportive of Shetland Home Rule. Ultimately, of the 25 members of the Shetland Islands Council, 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