UK General Discussion: Rishecession

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The real answer at this point seems to be reducing Powys to one seat entirely within Powys with bits on the edges carved out to other areas. That would be unpopular for obvious reasons, however.

I can guarantee you that what they've done is not popular either. Two observations I would make: the first is that the numbers work for 'Montgomery & Radnor' if you wish to go down that route, and that if you want to try something else, the concept of Mid Wales is as real as that as that of North Wales and South Wales (and is much more real than 'West Wales' which isn't really a thing) and has nothing to do with language.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The Welsh constituencies are positive proof of the need to Bring Back the Welsh Sunday, even if only for people serving on boundary commissions.

They should be forced to live in Llangollen with no access to the outside world for a year.

Portmeirion.

Perhaps the boundaries would be better if they'd had better information. Information! INFORMATION!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Incidentally, I really do recommend a visit to Portmeirion if any of you get the chance. It's a strange, wonderful little place, and I don't think that just because of happy childhood memories, even if they help .

[EastAnglianLefty]

The Welsh constituencies are positive proof of the need to Bring Back the Welsh Sunday, even if only for people serving on boundary commissions.

The weird 'muh quota' compromise, given the failure of two abandoned reviews, had a net effect of thankfully, reducing cross county seats but still needlessly required it. When you could just change the national quota to reduce seats and allow for variation within 'counties' or groupings as per and have more frequent reviews. Or even part reviews (which hasn't happened since the Milton Keynes split)

Scotland's 2005 seats were visually jarring after decades of 71/72 but quite logical. Wales' reduction (which was overdue) would have been similar under older rules. You could have kept the preserved counties with only a minor Powys 'jump'.

---

FWIW, the current boundaries have served four elections (five in Scotland). More than any other since the First Review (five).

Scotland's seats are currently based on enumeration data from June 2001, making them 22 years 'old'. And they still have time to run before abolition.

The First Review had a March 1954 enumeration date, making them just shy of 20 years old before abolition.

So they are post war record breakers.

The rules would work quite well if you used the national quota to assign seats to counties or county-equivalents, then generated county quotas from that and required all seats to be within a given % of it. You'd still get some ugly seats, but far fewer.

The actual reason for cross-county seats is David Cameron getting annoyed that Oxfordshire just missed out on an extra seat at the Fifth Review, and getting especially annoyed because the seat was kept by West Yorkshire (and hence kept Ed Balls in parliament for a further election.)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

David Cameron's infinite capacity for extreme pettiness is at the root of a surprising number of things Wrong with the country by this point.

[CumbrianLefty]

Though a lot of the time* that was augmented by his "evil twin" Osborne.

(*on this occasion it may be down to just him tho)

[Zinneke]

https://twitter.com/WritesBright/status/1685056403575050240

[CumbrianLefty]

The Welsh constituencies are positive proof of the need to Bring Back the Welsh Sunday, even if only for people serving on boundary commissions.

They should be forced to live in Llangollen with no access to the outside world for a year.

Portmeirion.

Perhaps the boundaries would be better if they'd had better information. Information! INFORMATION!

Ngl, disappointed this hasn't had a few more recommends

[Torrain]

https://twitter.com/GdnPolitics/status/1685700797227814917

I’m less active at the minute online for work-related reasons, but had to drop by when I saw this. Feels like a real clanger of a policy, that’ll let the opposition front bench, Guardian, Mirror, etc blame the Tories whenever a child is injured (or worse) by a car in a 30 mph zone, and start a bunch of localist campaigns.

Think I can hear “think of the children” style leaflets being printed in a Lib Dem warehouse somewhere as I type.

[Хahar 🤔]

Is 30 the standard speed limit in residential areas? That surprises me a little; in this country it's 25.

[Joseph Cao]

Updated for the new boundaries. If there are any errors you can see, let me know

Old parliamentary county, preserved county (Wales) and defunct region (Scotland) boundaries, where a seat crosses them are shown in '......'

I did this for as a good visual tool to familiarise yourself with geography in an otherwise cluttered map.

Opening the image in a new tab should give you a 'Paint' editable image.

EDIT: Amended.

Out of interest was this labeled with names? The image in the post isn't loading for me but the version in your gallery doesn't have labels.

[CumbrianLefty]

No, there aren't names on it I think. Still very useful.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Thoughts on Vernon Bogdanor? I've been watching to his lectures recently on Youtube and have found them rather interesting.

[Cassius]

Thoughts on Vernon Bogdanor? I've been watching to his lectures recently on Youtube and have found them rather interesting.

About a decade ago he did a series of six lectures on some key postwar politicians (Aneurin Bevan, Iain Macleod, Roy Jenkins, Enoch Powell, Tony Benn and Keith Joseph) which is worth checking out if you haven’t done so already.

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/making-weather-six-politicians-who-shaped-our-age

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Thoughts on Vernon Bogdanor? I've been watching to his lectures recently on Youtube and have found them rather interesting.

I love his lectures. I watch everything I can find of him on YouTube.

[CumbrianLefty]

I’m less active at the minute online for work-related reasons, but had to drop by when I saw this. Feels like a real clanger of a policy, that’ll let the opposition front bench, Guardian, Mirror, etc blame the Tories whenever a child is injured (or worse) by a car in a 30 mph zone, and start a bunch of localist campaigns.

Think I can hear “think of the children” style leaflets being printed in a Lib Dem warehouse somewhere as I type.

"Yes the Tories were totally electorally destroyed at the 2024 GE, never to return - but for one glorious moment, we COMPLETELY OWNED THE LIBS!!"

[YL]

The real answer at this point seems to be reducing Powys to one seat entirely within Powys with bits on the edges carved out to other areas. That would be unpopular for obvious reasons, however.

I can guarantee you that what they've done is not popular either. Two observations I would make: the first is that the numbers work for 'Montgomery & Radnor' if you wish to go down that route, and that if you want to try something else, the concept of Mid Wales is as real as that as that of North Wales and South Wales (and is much more real than 'West Wales' which isn't really a thing) and has nothing to do with language.

The problem with Montgomery & Radnor is that the rest of mainland Wales north of the Dyfi is too big for six seats and not big enough for seven, so it would have forced a Ceredigion-Meirionnydd link crossing the Dyfi estuary.  Otherwise I think it would have happened, as it's surely a superior option for Montgomeryshire than either what the BCW did or any of the alternatives I saw.

I guess you'd argue that crossing the Dyfi estuary is less bad than crossing the Berwyns, but I'm not surprised they didn't consider it.

[Torrain]

"Yes the Tories were totally electorally destroyed at the 2024 GE, never to return - but for one glorious moment, we COMPLETELY OWNED THE LIBS!!"

90% sure David Frost will end up writing a Telegraph column with that particular vibe by the end of next year.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The only issue would be that if you wanted to cross the river, then you'd probably want to add Machynlleth as well.

[Silent Hunter]

Is 30 the standard speed limit in residential areas? That surprises me a little; in this country it's 25.

Yes; general rule is "streetlights = 30".

[CumbrianLefty]

"Yes the Tories were totally electorally destroyed at the 2024 GE, never to return - but for one glorious moment, we COMPLETELY OWNED THE LIBS!!"

90% sure David Frost will end up writing a Telegraph column with that particular vibe by the end of next year.

What are the odds on Allister Heath having emigrated by then?

[Torrain]

What are the odds on Allister Heath having emigrated by then?

I mean, surely there’s a fair chance he does what Douglas Carswell did, and abandon Brexit Britain entirely to run a Reaganite think-tank in the Deep South. If he does, i do hope he keeps posting with the confidence he achieved last year though. He was really on a role during the month of Truss.

For uninitiated posters (check the dates):


And the crowning glory:


Almost impressed that he’s somehow still writing predictions with a straight face.

[JimJamUK]

Was the Telegraph always like this? It’s generally seen as one of the more ‘quality’ papers but for the time I’ve been politically aware it’s just seemed completely demented, to the point I’d probably trust the Express more to give me accurate and balanced news.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Who is a better (bad but entertaining) journalist? John Rentoul or Allistair Heath?

[CumbrianLefty]

Was the Telegraph always like this? It’s generally seen as one of the more ‘quality’ papers but for the time I’ve been politically aware it’s just seemed completely demented, to the point I’d probably trust the Express more to give me accurate and balanced news.

It started to become a hard right publication in the 1990s under Charles Moore, but its hurtling into outright insanity only really gathered pace after the Barclays bought it in 2004.