Boundary plans need close look

There’s a lot to be absorbed in the review of Parliamentary constituency boundaries announced this week. As with most changes, there will be some “winners” and some “losers”.

From Maidstone’s point of view, most people will feel it sensible that the bulk of the town’s voters will now be voting for the same MP. It was a bit of nonsense before when half the town’s population elected an MP for Faversham and Mid Kent.

On the other hand, the boundary commissions’s quest to even out the number of voters in each constituency has still resulted in some odd bedfellows.

East Farleigh, Coxheath and Loose voters for example, who surely look to Maidstone as their centre, will find themselves in a new Mid Kent and Ticehurst grouping with Tenterden in the borough of Ashford and Ticehurst in East Sussex. It’s difficult to see their connection.

And pity the election canvasser that has to leaflet that huge area.

Similarly, there are big changes for Tunbridge Wells – which will see the majority of the constituency move west into East Sussex.

Of course, these are only proposals and still a long way from adoption.

The main thrust is to reduce the overall number of MPs from 650 to 600, so that will be a bit like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas.

On top of that, all kinds of political calculations will come into play. Some analysts say had the last election been carried out under the proposed new boundaries, Theresa May would have won an overall majority.

That just goes to show that these proposals are far more than just a little paper-shuffling by the bureaucrats, but could have a significant effect on all our political futures. For that alone they deserve close scrutiny.