Remember remember the 6th of September
and not just because it marks the end of the school holidays.
6th September is in my diary because that's the day Parliament is due to give a second reading to the Parliamentary Voting and Constituencies Bill - which could spell either the end of Cornwall's exclusive ownership over its own constituencies, or the end of the coalition government.
This is Nick Clegg's "big reform" Bill, aimed at paving the way for a referendum on scrapping the first-past-the-post voting system in favour of the Alternative Vote system. The Bill is also intended to re-draw the boundaries of Parliamentary constituencies to make sure they all contain the same number of voters.
And that's the problem. Because the Bill aims at radical reform in both areas, Labour has spotted the chance to whip its MPs into voting against - even though Labour's election manifesto promised a referendum on AV. And because around 50 Conservative MPs are known to be unhappy about AV in principle, there is a chance the government might be defeated. And if the government cannot deliver on voting reform, why would the Liberal Democrats continue to keep it in power?
But the main reason I'm fascinated by the Bill's second reading is that we will have the chance to see how Cornwall's six coalition MPs vote, given that support for the government would almost certainly mean the end of Cornwall and the introduction of at least one "Devonwall" constituency.
Conservative Sheryll Murrary (South East Cornwall) and Liberal Democrat Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall) have pledged to fight against a Devonwall constituency, as has Cornwall Council. Yet the vote of every coalition MP might now be vital if Nick Clegg's Bill is to survive. Putting it bluntly, will they vote for Cornwall or vote to stay in power? I'm sure this is a tricky issue for some Devon MPs as well.
6th September is also the deadline for anyone wanting to bid to become a Local Enterprise Partnership.
I'm ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Devon’s Graham Smith, blogging on news, views and some fresh insights into West Country life, particularly the way government works locally and nationally.
Comment number 1.
At 1st Aug 2010, freethinkerUK wrote:This is indeed fascinating and in my opinion will hopefully help to bring about an early end to this damaging coalition.
What amazes me though is that the Liberal Democrats couldn't see it coming. Admittedly I couldn't foresee the particular device that the Torys would use to give the Lib/Dems the chance to put AV to a referendum but I could certainly foresee that they would have some trickery up their sleeve, that being part of the nature of the Tory Party. Putting Boundary changes alongside the AV proposal in the same bill was bound to incite massive opposition and possible if not probable defeat.
The Lib/Dems sold their soul in the hope of electoral reform and with it or without it I suspect they will slip back into obscurity which is a pity as there were some very good MPs among them including my last one, Colin Breed, now sadly retired.
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