There is no actual town called Eastwood, the seat instead being composed of a number of middle-class commuter towns in the far south of the Glasgow conurbation, with the addition of industrial Barrhead. A vast majority of housing is owner-occupied, with plenty more land still available for further private developments.
In the south of the seat the only main centre of population is Eaglesham, the first conservation village in Scotland and the site of Rudolph Hess's landing on his "peace" mission to Britain in 1941. Farming is common in this part of the seat, whilst light and service industries form the basis of the economy in the more populated areas in the north. Most of the workforce is in non-manual jobs, however, and good ones at that.
This had been safest Conservative seat in Scotland until the 1997 general election. The sitting Conservative MP Allan Stewart had to resign his candidature for the 1997 election due to allegations about his private life. The following undignified selection battle probably lost the Tories more votes but it was the strength of the Labour landslide across the country that delivered this seat to Jim Murphy.