Let the great boundary rejig commence

[doktorb]

Revised Scottish boundaries released (for all that it matters)

http://www.bcomm-scotland.independent.gov.uk/6th_westminster/revised_proposals/constituency_maps/index.asp

[doktorb]

Papers 2012/15 and related appendices will help with Dundee and Angus - http://www.bcomm-scotland.independent.gov.uk/publications/meeting_papers/2012/04_11_jun_2012/04_11_jun_2012_index.asp#2012_15

 

[doktorb]

Fresh outrages planned for 16th October!

I can't wait

Honestly, I can't. Given the shambles the BCE came up with thinking on their own terms, the mess they're going to create after handling peoples' suggestions and QC's musings is going to be immense. I'm considering organising a party for the day with a lavish opening ceremony and that sort of thing.

If they keep "Mersey Banks" I may die laughing. What a way to go. "Cause of death?" "He laughed so hard at the concept of a cross-Mersey constituency with no bridge that his heart gave way."

[doktorb]

I'd be more than happy to front the new Northern England Boundary Commission if you want to take Midlands and Southern England?

[doktorb]

Fresh outrages planned for 16th October!

Wales on the 24th.

*rubs hands with glee*

If the BCW haven't adopted my alternative name for North Wales Coast I'm going to....write a blog or something. [shakes fist really hard]

[doktorb]

The Boundary Commission of Northern Ireland will release its revised recommendations on the 16th October, the same day as their English colleagues.

[doktorb]

Nadine Dorries has broken the embargo by tweeting:

"MidBeds has now become MidBeds and Harpenden, taking in W'hampstead , Church End and Caddington"

[doktorb]

Mersey Banks is dead! Long live Mersey Banks!

[doktorb]

"Leeds Metropolitan and Ossett" is a masterstroke of a name. Bring back the University seats!!!

Oh, an as for animals, can I present the Lancashire Rabbit?

[doktorb]

Revised Welsh proposals announced

The Official names are predominately English with some Welsh:

Aberavon and Ogmore
Alyn and Deeside
Blaenau Gwent
Brecon, Radnor and Montgomery
Bridgend
Caerfyrddin
Caerphilly
Cardiff Central
Cardiff North and South West Gwent
Cardiff South and Penarth
Cardiff West
Ceredigion and North Pembrokeshire
Conwy and Colwyn
Denbigh and North Montgomeryshire
Flint and North Denbighshire
Gower and Swansea West
Gwynedd
Llanelli
Merthyr Tydfil, Rhymney and Lower Cynon
Monmouthshire
Neath and the Swansea Valley
Newport
Pontypridd
Rhondda and Aberdare
South Pembrokeshire
Swansea East
The Vale of Glamorgan
Torfaen
Wrexham Maelor
Ynys Môn a Bangor


There is also an explicit mention of alternative names, predominately Welsh with some English

Aberafan ac Ogwr
Aberhonddu, Maesyfed a Threfaldwyn
Alun a Glannau Dyfrdwy
Blaenau Gwent
Bro Morgannwg
Caerffili
Canol Caerdydd
Carmarthen
Casnewydd
Castell‐nedd a Chwm Tawe
Ceredigion a Gogledd Sir Benfro
Conwy a Cholwyn
De Caerdydd a Phenarth
De Sir Benfro
Dinbych a Gogledd Sir Drefaldwyn
Dwyrain Abertawe
Fflint a Gogledd Sir Ddinbych
Gogledd Caerdydd a De Orllewin Gwent
Gorllewin Caerdydd
Gwynedd
Gŵyr a Gorllewin Abertawe
Isle of Anglesey and Bangor
Llanelli
Merthyr Tudful, Rhymni a Chynon
Isaf
Pen‐y‐Bont
Pontypridd
Rhondda ac Aberdâr
Sir Fynwy
Tor‐faen
Wrecsam Maelor

[doktorb]

Yeah I score 'wins'  in the names of South Pembrokeshire, and Conwy and Colwyn. Minor kudos with Powys, as I recommended the seats should have Montgomery(shire) in there somewhere

Not so good with "Dee Estuary", which I thought should be "Flint and West Flintshire"

[doktorb]

"From Preston to Fylde: Ingol

From Lancaster to Preston: Greyfriars

From Lancaster to Fylde: Preston Rural North, Preston Rural East

From Blackpool North to Lancaster: Carleton

From Fylde to Lancaster: Tithebarn, High Cross, Breck, Hardhorn, Singleton, Elswick"


Oh, Dadge!  What have you done to my beautiful west Lancashire

Ingol is very much part of Preston, more so than it is "Fylde", and compounding the problem is the decision to stretch Fylde up and over the city in a way I think reflects how the seat looked in the 80s and 90s. A lot has changed since, and faced with the need to keep communities together despite the larger electoral quota, I'd rather see the rural bits of Preston attached to Lancaster and bits inbetween, than St Annes and bits inbetween. It's "farms verses beaches", I suppose, and Goosnargh, Grimsargh, Woodplumpton - these are farmlands, not beaches.

(However, if your alternative was put forward, I'd suggest a new name, as "Fylde" really is only regarded as that which stops just after Kirkham. "Fylde and Preston North" or "Fylde and Rural Preston" would be fine)

"From Blackpool North to Lancaster: Carleton

From Fylde to Lancaster: Tithebarn, High Cross, Breck, Hardhorn, Singleton, Elswick"

This is a bit better. I like trying to keep Wyre together, as it is somewhat fractured. It does make for a very big seat though and there is still a scrappy boundary around the Wyre estuary or whatever you want to call "The Fleetwood bit".

[doktorb]

Proposed constituency names which have never been used

(with the caveat that I'm using the great god Wikipedia)

Northern Ireland
*Belfast South East
*Belfast South West
*Coleraine and North Antrim
*Glenshane

Scotland
*Airdrie and Coatbridge South
*Angus East and Kincardine
*Angus West and East Perthshire
*Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber
*Ayr North, Troon and Cumnock
*Ayrshire Central and Arran
*Caithness, Sutherland, Ross and Cromarty
*Clackmannanshire and Dunfermline West
*Clydesdale and Larkhall
*Cumbernauld and Coatbridge North
*Deeside and Gordon
*East Dunbartonshire and Kilsyth
*East Kilbride and Rutherglen
*East Renfrewshire and Hairmyres
*Edinburgh Central and Leith
*Edinburgh South East
*Galloway, Ayr South and Carrick
*Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West
*Inverness and Skye
*Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes
*Midlothian and Tweeddale
*Motherwell, Wishaw and Bellshill
*Paisley and Renfrew
*Perth and Kintoss-shire
*Renfrewshire South and Ayrshire North
*Stirling and Crieff
*West Dunbartonshire and Bearsden North

England (excluding London)
*Aldridge, Brownhills and Bloxwich
*Ashton-under-Lyne and Denton
*Barnsley North and Hemsworth
*Barnsley South
*Basildon and Thurrock East
*Berwick, Alnwick and Morpeth
*Bideford, Bude and Launceston
*Billericay and Great Dunmow
*Birmingham Erdington and Castle Bromwich
*Birmingham Harborne
*Blyth and Ashington
*Bodmin and St Austell
*Bolton North and Darwen
*Bootle and North Liverpool
*Bournemouth West and Bourne Valley
*Bradford East and Horsforth
*Braintree and Witham
*Bridgnorth, Wellington and The Wrekin
*Brighton East and Seahaven
*Bromsgrove and Droitwich
*Burnham and Glastonbury
*Burnley and Accrington East
*Canterbury and Faversham
*Chatham and Malling
*Coalville and Keyworth
*Colne Valley and Denby Dale
*Crosby and Maghull
*Daventry and Lutterworth
*Derby East
*Derby West
*Didcot and Wantage
*Dudley East and Oldbury
*Gateshead East and Jarrow
*Goole and Howden
*Grimsby North and Barton
*Grimsby South and Cleethorpes
*Harwich and Clacton
*Hazel Grove and Poynton
*Henley and Thame
*Herne Bay
*Isle of Wight East
*Isle of Wight West
*Kenilworth and Dorridge
*Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice
*Kingswood and Keynsham
*Leeds Metropolitan and Ossett
*Leeds South East and Castleford
*Leeds West, Pudsey and Tong
*Lewes and Uckfield
*Liverpool Riverside and Walton
*Ludlow and Leominster
*Luton North and Dunstable
*Malvern and Ledbury
*Manchester Gorton and Reddish North
*Mersey Banks and Weaver
*Mid Bedfordshire and Harpenden
*Mid Dorset
*Newcastle upon Tyne North and Cramlington
*Norfolk Coastal
*North East Essex
*Nottingham North and Hucknall
*Nottingham South and West Bridgford
*Penrith and Solway
*Rossendale and Oswaldtwistle
*Rotherham and Sheffield East
*Rotherham North
*Sheffield Hallam and Penistone
*Sheffield North and Dodworth
*South East Hertfordshire
*South Gloucestershire East
*South Gloucestershire West
*Southend East and Rochford
*St Neots and Huntingdon
*Stockton North and Aycliffe
*Stourbridge and Dudley
*Tavistock and Plympton
*The Cities of London and Westminster
*The Weald
*Truro and Newquay
*Walsall West
*Warminster and Shaftesbury
*Washington
*Wells and North East Somerset
*West Cumbria
*West Wiltshire
*Wirral Deeside
*Wisbech and Downham Market


London
*Bexleyheath and Erith
*Sidcup and Welling
*Thamesmead and Plumstead
*Wembley
*Greenford and Northolt
*Willesden
*Islington South and Holborn
*Camden Town and Regent's Park
*Carshalton and Coulsdon
*Ealing Central
*Hammersmith and Acton
*Southall and Heston
*Edmonton and Tottenham Hale
*Eltham and Charlton
*Greenwich and Lewisham Central
*Stamford Hill and South Tottenham
*Bethnal Green and Shoreditch
*Hayes and Feltham
*Brentworth and Isleworth
*Hampton
*Wimbledon and Coombe
*Clapham and Streatham
*Battersea and Vauxhall
*Bermondsey and South Bank
*Deptford and Rotherhithe
*East Ham and Loxford
*Bow and Stratford
*Richmond and Twickenham
*Dulwich and Peckham
*Poplar and Stepney

Wales
*Conwy and Colwyn
*Denbigh and North Montgomeryshire
*Brecon, Radnor and Montgomery
*Flint and North Denbighshire
*Gwynedd
*Wrexham Maelor
*Ynys Môn a Bangor
*Caerfyrddin
*Ceredigion and North Pembrokeshire
*South Pembrokeshire
*Cardiff North and South West Gwent
*The Vale of Glamorgan
*Aberavon and Ogmore
*Merthyr Tydfil, Rhymney and Lower Cynon
*Rhondda and Aberdare
*Gower and Swansea West
*Neath and the Swansea Valley

[doktorb]

And may all the Labour supporters who've allowed this disgrace to happen rot, for all I care.

I'm bewildered - not even angry anymore - that the party of the working man and Chartists have supported this amendment, a constitutional disgrace beyond all measure.

Labour now support, without justification at all, unequal constituencies, meaning the vote of "One Nation Britain" is unequal. Laughable, spiteful, bitter, shallow, backwards looking idiocy of the lowest order.

[doktorb]

Not at all.

They kicked voting reform out of the way for a generation out of spite, despite being a party formed on the basis of fair representation, and now they're the backbone against a manifesto commitment.

I can't put into many more words the utter contempt with which I hold that duplicitous shower of anti-democratic charlatans. The Labour Party stands for unaccountable establishment and each and every one of their parliamentary members can go to merry Hell for all I care.

Seething? You bet I am. 

[doktorb]

Specific constituencies has nothing to do with it. At all. Blame the formation of the island thousands of years ago for the shape of the Wirral peninsula.

Labour MPs were set upon the House of Lords Bill, to ensure that the Lords remains unelected and unaccountable. Labour MPs were set upon the AV referendum to ensure that the Commons is unrepresentative. And now Labour Lords have ensured that a vote in the middle of Glasgow is a different value to a vote in the middle of Manchester.

I've been wary of Labour supporters and their elected (by and large appointed) MPs. This Parliament has been a showcase of shame from the so-called 'party of the people'

[doktorb]

Forward 12 - as you well know, our piecemeal, unfit for purposed, cobbled together, out-dated mockery of a constitution is only "updated" by tiny steps. AV would have been one of those tiny steps. You're either claiming that our constitution is updated in great sweeps of revolutionary reform, or that there is no requirement to reform anything at all. AV would have been a stepping stone. I said at the time of the referendum, in which I voted yes, that my preferred choice was STV. It still is. But you don't get what you wish in the UK, you get what you can squeeze out by compromise.

As for the constituencies proposed - as I said, individual constituencies are of no consequence in this debate.

I thank Stepney for this response.

[doktorb]

Well, not both of them

[doktorb]

I do.

I saw Ed on the Andrew Marr show. He's very good with theory. He's awful at leading a political party. He's the Westminster version of any one of us at this forum - an obsessed politico very good at plucking out facts and figures (at one point he referenced the 1992 election as easily as Stepney might reference an 1885 map), but very uneasy with specifics.

The man is utterly unsuited to his position and would be an absolute, unmitigated joke as Prime Minister.

Cameron or Miliband? You might as well offer "Tea or cat wee"

And with the intervention of our friendly neighbourhood dictator, I take the point in the manner in which it is intended, and will step back from the keyboard for the rest of the evening.

[doktorb]

I've had time to calm down.

I think all which could be said has been by others, from both sides, so maybe now this thread can become a repository for "zombie maps" and other academic exercises

[doktorb]

Joy be praised, I'm setting up a USElection style forum for people to discuss the 'zombie review' constituencies, much in the same way that Vote2012 or UKPolling works.

There'll also be a general and international forum.

I won't spam links here, obvz, but will let you know when it's done so you can all hop over there to have a peruse.

I've got 600 threads to start, though, so it will take time!

[doktorb]

[says Nowt]