Catholic Church in Scotland the eastern suburbs of Glasgow, especially around Coatbridge, populated mostly by the descendants of Irish immigrants. According to the 2011 census, Catholics comprise 16% of the overall population, making it the second largest church after the Church of Scotland (32%). In recent years the Catholic Church in Scotland has suffered from poor publicity connected to attacks made against secular and liberal values by senior clergy. Joseph Devine, Bishop of Motherwell, came under fire after describing the "gay lobby" as "the opposition" who were responsible for mounting "a giant conspiracy" to shape public policy. Criticism has also been levelled at perceived
2005 United Kingdom general election in Scotland found in the rest of the UK, so that they had similar electorates. Several years after the Scottish Parliament had been established by the Scotland Act 1998, the target electorate (population) size of Westminster Parliamentary seats in Scotland was adjusted to bring it in line with England's constituencies. Before this reform, Scotland had a smaller target electoral size per constituency resulting in more seats per head of population, which had been intended to compensate Scotland for its status as a nation, its lower population density (which causes larger constituencies geographically), its distance from the Parliament in Westminster and finally, because