The new Devonwall (Bude and Bideford) constituency

The Boundary Commission intial proposals for new constituencies has been leaked by Tory blogger supremo Guido Fawkes, they of course will reignite the debate about the new Devonwall constituency proposed by the Conservative/ Liberal Democrat government. The axe will fall in the north, crossing Cornwall's millennia plus old frontier over the small land crossing. The new constituency will be called Bideford and Bude and incorporate everywhere from Tintagel and Camelford east and north incorporating Bude and Launceston and up across out of Cornwall to include Bideford. By the numbers the new seat will include 35,272 Cornish voters and 39,413 Devonian, again the balance is against the Cornish truly DEVONwall.

The total number of registered voters in Cornwall and Scilly (not including of course those not on the electoral register and those that shouldn't be i.e. second home owners) is 458,278. By the Coalition's "mathematics only" considerations the desired number of electors in each constituency must be between  72,810 and 80,473, so even if Cornwall had 5 MPs representing 80,743 we would have 16,500 voters left over. To have 5 Cornish only MPs would require seats of 83,733. But no we couldn't have Cornish constituencies with an extra 3,300 voters, quite why who knows? All attempts to gain special consideration for our ancient Celtic nation and it's border were flatly refused by the government and at no point did Clegg or Cameron seem to take the issue seriously.

Realistically the Boundary Commission want constructive criticisms during their consultations, they want alternatives but within the constraints of Devonwall. The Cornish border has been voted into oblivion and only the Coalition government can stop that now by voting against the government when the bill returns to parliament. If you are interested in going to the consultation in Truro (frustratingly the only Cornish venue) it's on the 10th and 11th of November at the Alverton Manor Hotel on Tregolls Road link.

I don't have a lot more to say on the subject more than I have done already:
Undemocratic, disengaging, insulting, stupid, and unsympathetic..
also see Dick Cole's blog on the subject:
Bad news coalition plans for Devonwall