Proposed constituency boundary changes

[BrandNewGuy]

Looks like the Boundary Commission want to put East Dulwich into a new "Dulwich and Sydenham" parliamentary constituency:

https://www.bcereviews.org.uk

[JohnL]

They were supposed to keep traditionally grouped constituents together - I don't think they've really bothered to do that and have just followed the number rules and will let community links fall out in the consultation.

Vauxhaul seems to be with Camberwell which has had a long affiliation with Peckham.

I don't think this will be final.

[BrandNewGuy]

Yes, the approximate equalising of populations between all consituencies (barring IOW and Anglesey) has taken precedence. Which is an improvement, but only in the context of our absurd FPTP system in which it will still can be the case that it takes the DUP 29,200 votes per seat in the Commons; the SNP 27,900 votes per seat in the Commons; and the Green Party 524,000 votes per seat in the Commons.

[Penguin68]

They were supposed to keep traditionally grouped constituents together - I don't think they've really bothered to do that and have just followed the number rules and will let community links fall out in the consultation.

The starting point has to be to aim for constituencies of broadly equal size (I think 60k electorate), the last time this was done there followed long discussions and submissions to amend the proposals to put together areas with some commonalty - which was done to many people's satisfaction. No reason why this second stage should again happen.

The test of whether it's working will be not to see strange constituency boundaries. It was actions in the US to cobble together boundaries to favour one party which ended up with a constituency that looked roughly like a salamander - hence (because of the name of the erring politician who engineered this) the term 'gerrymandering' to describe this process.

[heartblock]

Aaaah well that won?t go well for Labour....

[BrandNewGuy]

... or for parties that do well outside England. For years, English consituencies have been (on average) larger in terms of population than those elsewhere. This was deliberate in order to ensure at least some significant representation for Scotland, Wales and NI in parliament. But it really only just highlights the absurdities of FPTP.

[JohnL]

BrandNewGuy Wrote:

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> ... or for parties that do well outside England.

> For years, English consituencies have been (on

> average) larger in terms of population than those

> elsewhere. This was deliberate in order to ensure

> at least some significant representation for

> Scotland, Wales and NI in parliament. But it

> really only just highlights the absurdities of

> FPTP.

During Covid we seem to have evolved a council of ministers (of England Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland) as well as Parliament - not sure that will last but being Welsh I like to see the Welsh First Minister around and about :)

[DuncanW]

heartblock Wrote:

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> Aaaah well that won?t go well for Labour....

Apart from elections generally not going that well for them recently, how comes??

[Bic Basher]

If anything, the new Dulwich and Sydenham seat will continue to be a safe Labour seat. Question is will we continue to have Helen Hayes or Ellie Reeves as our local represenative?