PR1Berske
Alligator in chains by the park gates.
The 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies is set to start this Spring in time for the next general election, which should be in 2024. (Note that the government has tabled the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (Repeal) Bill which would undo the Coalition's Fixed-Term parliament system and re-introduce the status quo ante of the Prime Minister calling an election at a time of their choosing.)
Unlike plans created by the Coalition, which would have reduced the size of the House of Commons to 600 from 650, this year's review will work on a statutory number of 650 constituencies, all of which (with a handful of exceptions) have to be within 5% either side of an electoral quota of 73,393.
The decision to stick with 650 - not one seat more, not one seat less - nonetheless suggests significant changes across the UK. In Wales, there will be 32 seats, down from 40. This is likely to hit the seats of the South Wales valleys.
By contrast, South East England is likely to have 6 extra seats created, from 83 to 89.
There is, inevitably, a Wikipedia article to guide through the numbers and processes.
Re-districting, as it's known in the US, is broadly partisan. The reality is not as bad in the UK, not least because the process in Britain is far less emotionally charged and far more "dry" than the American equivalent. I've been to the public meetings each Boundary Commission has to host during the review process and broadly speaking the people involved are political wonks, non-league football volunteers with a taste for clipboards, neighbourhood watch addicts, and other local worthies. There are moments of necessary and required passion and attention during these sorts of processes, and sometimes the "dryness" can be used as a mask to hide significant changes behind the scenes, as it were. I am told from a source on a politics forum that members of the English Boundary Commission don't really like the job and aren't as involved as amateur psephologists are.
If you want to try your hand at being a Boundary Commission, the Plan Builder website is programmed to do their job - Plan Builder 2020
I've contributed to both the aborted boundary proposals which happened under the Coalition, and the two previous, and hope that I can contribute and comment to all 4 Commissions and this thread/forum.
(I've not been logged into this Forum since December 2019 so thought I'd swing by with something characteristically administrative and niche
)
Unlike plans created by the Coalition, which would have reduced the size of the House of Commons to 600 from 650, this year's review will work on a statutory number of 650 constituencies, all of which (with a handful of exceptions) have to be within 5% either side of an electoral quota of 73,393.
The decision to stick with 650 - not one seat more, not one seat less - nonetheless suggests significant changes across the UK. In Wales, there will be 32 seats, down from 40. This is likely to hit the seats of the South Wales valleys.
By contrast, South East England is likely to have 6 extra seats created, from 83 to 89.
There is, inevitably, a Wikipedia article to guide through the numbers and processes.
Re-districting, as it's known in the US, is broadly partisan. The reality is not as bad in the UK, not least because the process in Britain is far less emotionally charged and far more "dry" than the American equivalent. I've been to the public meetings each Boundary Commission has to host during the review process and broadly speaking the people involved are political wonks, non-league football volunteers with a taste for clipboards, neighbourhood watch addicts, and other local worthies. There are moments of necessary and required passion and attention during these sorts of processes, and sometimes the "dryness" can be used as a mask to hide significant changes behind the scenes, as it were. I am told from a source on a politics forum that members of the English Boundary Commission don't really like the job and aren't as involved as amateur psephologists are.
If you want to try your hand at being a Boundary Commission, the Plan Builder website is programmed to do their job - Plan Builder 2020
I've contributed to both the aborted boundary proposals which happened under the Coalition, and the two previous, and hope that I can contribute and comment to all 4 Commissions and this thread/forum.
(I've not been logged into this Forum since December 2019 so thought I'd swing by with something characteristically administrative and niche
)
