By: Bertie Fox

Bertie Fox — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 12:09:37 +0000

Why is there such a deafening silence about the way in which the Tory plans to change the number of constituencies is being quietly ushered through Parliament.
Far more controversial, important, and significant than the minor change that AV might have brought, nobody seems to question why the British public has been denied a referendum on THIS particular issue. The idea that every constituency will be ‘equal in size’ and therefore equal in fairness for the voters is transparently false. The only way you would get fair representation from an equality of votes would be in a system of full proportional representation. Instead, the ‘equal constituency’ within the aberrations of ‘first past the post’ gerrymanders a huge advantage to the large parties, Tories in particular, while discriminating against smaller political groupings. It will create impossible constituencies, particularly in places like the north of Scotland, with massive areas that no one person can reasonably be expected to adequately represent. In the west country, it will mean seats crossing county boundaries which are the historic limits to established communities. In the cities, many Labour seats will disappear, with urban and rural areas pushed together into an unnatural mix.
Yet the tabloid press which led its bitter and vitriolic campaign against AV is silent on all of this, the most profound change in our ability to elect MPs which we want since the advent of votes for women.

Comments on: Making votes count

By: Bertie Fox