Wednesday 14 September 2011

Boundary Commission report brings out the geeks

Liberal Democrats, and Liberals before them, have notoriously included more than the usual number of electoral anoraks in their ranks. It is therefore predictable that, after the implications for sitting Liberal Democrats had been analysed, the fine print of the Boundary Commission review for England would be scrutinised. Mark Pack, the party's Uebergeek, posted on Liberal Democrat Voice that

This is, colleagues in Scotland in particular note, an England only policy announcement:

We consider that the use of commas in existing constituency names is currently inconsistent and sometimes does not aid clarity. We have therefore taken a policy decision that commas will no longer be included in the names of constituencies.

to which Maria responded:
So, let me get this straight: the Scots can still have constituencies with commas while the English can’t? I see a new debate coming on, a debate to make the West Lothian Question pale into insignificance by comparison.

and Peter Black flew the flag for Wales:
 Of course it does not apply to Wales either and we have additional vowels and consonants in our alphabet 

Well, the Welsh alphabet includes ff, ll, ch and th, but it has no need of k, q, x or z. This caused me to wonder whether there is any existing Westminster constituency with q in its name. (I did wonder about z, with the departure of "Zetland", but of course there is "Devizes".)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was hoping for a bit more information on what constituencies there are left in Wales, and which ones have gone!

Frank Little said...

We'll have to wait a bit longer for the separate review by the Boundary Commission for Wales.