Tagged with boundary review

Will Brexit kill the Boundary Review?

I’m breaking that rule, again. You know, the one forbidding ventures into the realm of political predictions. Perhaps the recent foray into long range forecasting has empowered me to speak about matters in the nearer term. So here it is: the redrawing of constituency boundaries isn’t going to happen. Okay, let me rephrase that, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that the government are going to follow through. Bold claim, but what’s the basis for it?

Look at the chaos embroiling Theresa May’s government. Brexit was and is a tricky proposition, and by stupidly aiming for the worst kind on offer her government is unnecessarily multiplying problems for itself. Determined to be the super-toughest on immigration, May is determined that there is no way UKIP can outflank them on the right ever again. Yes – and just when you thought Tory leaders had stopped tilting to this dysfunctional bunch of has-beens, May carries on the tradition established by her predecessor. Continue reading →

Theresa May and the Boundary Review

5733835918_0276881b3c_qAnd just like that my constituency disappears. Wrapping like a skeewiff cummerbund around the svelte middle of the Potteries, Stoke-on-Trent Central stretches from a hint of countryside up Stockton Brook way, and snugly grips Baddeley Green, Abbey Hulton, and Bentilee. It takes in Hanley which, confusingly for outsiders, is Stoke’s city centre (not Stoke town itself), and scoops downwards to embrace Eaton Park, Etruria, Shelton, before bending towards Newcastle-under-Lyme and making room for Hartshill, Penkhull, Boothen, Oakhill, and Trent Vale. These suburbs, estates, districts aren’t going anywhere, but in a Boundary Commission land grab the North will advance South and the South will advance North with a new border settled more or less outside my front door. Stoke-on-Trent Central is set to become a memory that, from 2018, will be recalled only by election geeks and Wikipedia. Life is set to continue, but the Potteries are losing an MP. It won’t be pretty either. Making three into two means at least one loses out, and who is that going to be? It might be all of the incumbents – others could be waiting in the wings for a chance to acquire a seat for themselves. With high stakes such as these, Labour Party politics for the next couple of years threatens to be interesting, and that’s without factoring in Jeremy Corbyn, the hundreds of new local members, and the ongoing battle for the party’s soul. Continue reading →

So long Louise…

I have long been intrigued by the strange creation that is Louise Mensch – part simpering sex kitten, part strict dominatrix and endless cheerleader for the most unpleasant aspects of the current regime.

I described her in a previous article as “the F*** Me Feminist”. Louise fascinates me because I met her a few times as a student, when (politics aside) I thought she seemed quite fun. Sort of bouncy and blonde – like someone out of a Jilly Cooper novel (I rather like Jilly Cooper).

Continue reading →