Fife is Fife, as it has always been, and always will be. It’s a brave person who would mess with the overall boundaries of the Kingdom these days. The Wheatley Report which preceded the 1973 Act proposed splitting Fife between multiple regions, and the Government initially intended on doing so when it brought the Bill to Parliament. It was faced with such a massive barrage of criticism from the public and from MPs it eventually relented and gave Fife its own region. 

Not only do I not want to incur the wrath of Fifers, who have without a doubt the strongest regional identity anywhere in mainland Scotland, I do genuinely think it makes for a sensible region. That said, the present Fife Council is to urban Scotland what Highland Council is to rural – an absurdly, unjustifiably huge amalgamation of distinct areas that absolutely could and should have their own local municipalities as they would in any other European country, but which also nonetheless make for an obvious wider area to co-ordinate services across.

Although this is therefore a third outing for some kind of Fife-wide administration, after the old County and then the 1973 Act Region, it differs substantially from its predecessors. The old County contained a whopping 25 Burghs, most of them by now very small towns and villages, so that’s not something to emulate. The 1973 Region then went too far in the other direction, with a mere 3 Districts. In plumping for 9 districts, a slight reduction versus my 2020 iteration, I’m hoping I’ve hit the right sweet spot. Distinct Burgh councils for the big towns which should definitely have them, and wider but still compact municipalities for smaller urban areas plus the rural north east.

The fact that Fife is largely urbanised means that overall given recent trends the SNP would be the largest party, with Labour their primary challengers. This pattern would fall apart in the north east however, where it’s instead the Lib Dems not merely challenging but in fact dominating, with nearly two-thirds of their projected seats coming from those two municipalities. That also makes this the only primarily urban region (if we exclude Edinburgh as a unitary) where the Lib Dems place third, ahead of the Conservatives. Although Fife is one of the weaker regions for the Greens, they’ve still got enough presence to justify a seat in most municipalities. Where Fife really differs from every other region is a near total absence of Independents, with only two elected. This reflects the fact that the real Fife Council went Independent-free for the first time in 2017 and remained so in 2022.