UK-Elect Quick Summary of May 1997 General Election (Coloured by "Top 3 Party Colours Mixed"):

Party Seats Vote % Labour 418 43.19 Conservative 165 30.69 Liberal Democrat 46 16.76 Ulster Unionist 10 0.82 Scottish National Party 6 1.97 SDLP 3 0.61 Plaid Cymru 4 0.51 Sinn Fein 2 0.40 DUP 2 0.34 UKU 1 0.04 Independent 1 0.1 Speaker 1 0.07

Notes: Election was held on May 1st 1997. All percentages are expressed as a proportion of the overall UK total. "Top 3 Party Colours Mixed" involves mixing the party colours for the top 3 parties in proportion to their percentage shares of the vote. An area which was very strongly Labour would be red, one which was very strongly Conservative would be blue, one which was evenly split between the two (with no significant third party presence) would be purple. By contrast a constituency that was split between the Liberal Democrats and Labour would be orange (yellow being used for the Liberal Democrats and red for Labour), and one split between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives would be brown (a mix of yellow and blue). Green is used for the SNP and for Plaid Cymru, resulting in some very dark purple shades in areas where the Conservatives are also strong, and dark brown shades in areas where Labour is also strong.

These "mixed colour" maps are a good overall representation of the UK political scene, although they do require a little practise before they can be interpreted at a glance.