The pattern of boundary changes in 1983 and the effect of the 1984-5 miners strike - in which the Notts miners did not participate - on the 1987 general election form a well known pattern in Nottinghamshire electoral history. Unlike Nottingham East and South, Graham Allen in 1987 did manage to recapture the seat for Labour.
The seat covers the industrial north of the city and includes many large council estates. Unemployment is fairly high and a high proportion of homes are council owned.
The workforce in the constituency is mainly manual. Many constituents travel out of the seat to work in the nearby Boots, Raleigh and Imperial Tobacco (previously John Player) factories. Since the decline of the mining and textiles industries there are no major employers within the constituency, but there are plans for Imperial Tobacco to relocate into the area.