Just as important for the Tories is to head off any reform that could make the Lords more powerful

On the question of the proposed boundary changes, I'd recommend a level-headed article by Robert Worcester et al on pages 32-3 of the June edition of Total Politics. (Unfortunately, it's not online.)

Some quotes:

"If the Tories believe that they can correct the bias of the system against them simply by equalising constituency sizes they are, from their standpoint, sadly mistaken."

...

"Depending on the precise method of calculation, estimates of the contribution of electorate size to the total Conservative-Labour bias differ very slightly, but our own calculations, and all those we have seen from academic teams, agree that the number of seats involved is in single figures."

Ther is a world out side london. Not everybody is going to vote Tory next time. We remember in the north las time

Hugo Daddy, your irony is far too subtle for this lot. They think what you say about a Tory Hegemony is TRUE. Can you imagine it? They've never heard of Gladstone, or think he was the inventor of a bag.

Never is a long time in politics.

We should have been devious and crafty when we were in power. We should have reformed party political donations, even if the other parties objected to it. And, after 2005, we should have pressed ahead with real electoral reform. Labour was too nice and too fair to it's opposition, when in government. We believe in democracy. It is clear that this ConDem coalition does not! We should have kicked them when we had a chance.

It is true what they say, no good deed goes unpunished.

It serves Labour right. Tories said devolution would be a stepping stone to Scottish independence; Labour said 'oh no'! They were wrong and the Tories were right. It just so happens that it suits to Tories to lose those Scottish Labour seats, but what a price! A great shame, and an immense act of political vandalism by Labour. They will, sadly, pay for this.

Labour's funding needed to change in the nineties and Blair did his best but the Brownite faction of the Labour party didn't want it; instead they always saw Labour as an exclusive party of and for the trades unions. They ran a 'closed shop' in their best traditions; the fact is that most normal people are turned off by unions and ideological politics so don't want to join - or fund - Labour. If the Tories end up changing the funding arrangements, then again it serves Labour right; they should have reached out to normal people and not been exclusively the political wing of the unions.

@ Hugo Daddy

It is the assumption that we all know what Victorian means: hypocritical, preachy, introverted, un-enlightened sexual repression; everything negative. But in reality the world in which we live is still fundamentally the world which the Victorians and Edwardians reformed from the horrors of the 18th century; and into which the forces of delusion are trying, with great success to drag us back. The myth of alleged Victorian prudery is no better described than in the story of the piano legs draped to prevent the male of the species going mad from sexual lust. The legs of the furniture at the time were gussied up for good practical reasons. They had no refrigerators, so they had a lot of larders, so they had a mouse problem, so they kept cats. It was to stop the cats from sharpening their claws on the legs. Secondly, they had large families because they did not abort their children; it was to stop damage to the legs of the furniture by all those wheeled wooden toys. The myth actually arose from Captain Frederick Marryat's 1839 book, Diary in America, as a satirical comment on prissiness. Nobody took this seriously at the time so they must be laughing their heads off at us. Most of our views of the Victorians are now obtained from contemporary text; what they really thought was never committed to paper, although some idea may be got from Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, Morrison's A Child of the Jago and The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith.

Do you actuall believe that the North of England would just stand by and allow the south to dictate forever.Many of our armed forces are from families that live in the North it would,nt be the first time in
history that we come down and take what we want thats after starving you of food,water and engineering skills that keeps your infrastructur going.Also we may utilise a few of your weekend away places too.Be carefull what you wish for !!!!!!

Apropos of Scotland subsidizing Blighty, you may also care to take a dekko at the Scottish Office report that was officially suppressed for 30 years because it showed that, according to its author, Professor Gavin McCrone, Scotland needed the UK like a hole in the head: "What is quite clear is that the balance of payments gain from North Sea oil would easily swamp the existing deficit whatever its size and transform Scotland into a country with a substantial and chronic surplus (...) Thus for the first time since the Act of Union was passed, it can now be credibly argued that Scotland's economic advantage lies in its repeal." (http://www.oilofscotland.org/mccronereport.pdf)

Osborne is a failed strategist. He failed in gaining the Tories a majority in 2010 despite all the good wind blowing in their favour. He is also failing miserably in his next important strategy - to wake up the economy. So discard Osborne as a complete failure and you are on good proven ground. He has now buried himself out of sight so that at least the unpopularity of the government would not have a face to point an accusing finger at. We all know that the Scots (nor the Welsh) will ever consider breaking up from the Union. They are too clever to ever think that kind of thing. Let the Tories continue to dream of their permanent hegemony in the country. It will never happen. Nor will Labour be deprived of the Scotish vote. When it comes to national elections, the Scots will view the matter differently and we know where their heart beats. The least problematic is the funding cap. This might actually be beneficial to Labour. Be assured that the 50,000 figure will affect the Tories and the Liberals more since everyone is convinced that they receive much more in excess of that figure. There are plenty of alternatives as to how to retain the present level of funding for the Labour Party from the Unions and other donors(and, indeed,increase them) and staying within the limits of the law. One need not be an Einstein to come with such alternatives. One last thing, the Liberal vote will almost vanish by next elections. The last local elections have shown the direction where these votes will go. Most of them to the Left. The Tories have already reached the pinnacle of that source and can't obtain more in relative terms, whilst their penetration into Labour vote will be negligible. No, it's not hopeless for Labour. Indeed, as I see it, it is more hopeless for the Tories (and disastrous for the Lib-Dems). The Tories have, above all, a failed strategist at the helm who has proved more than once that he lives in a world of his own - in a rarified environment of privilege and make-believe completely out of touch with what is happening on the ground.

no one should vote, the whole system is corrupt.

Might as well post a bit of vallies Tom, getting into US republican ladies knickers, as he does,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UxU8s7Au0A

Ok Stuart Eels, so I beg to differ. You have your views, I have mine. And to me, your views are hitler-like fascist, zieg heil to you mate. Up your backside.

More on the effect of the proposed boundary changes in today's Guardian.

"... the Tories would lose 16 seats – 5.2% of their total; Labour would lose 17 – 6.6%; and the Liberal Democrats a crippling 14 – 24.6%."

Tory plans to redraw electoral map could hit Lib Dem seats hardest: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jun/05/boundary-review-liberal-d...

Boundary changes: how could they affect the UK? http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/datablog/2011/jun/06/boundary-change-...

Labour have got their just desserts. The Labour vote in Scotland used to be weighed not counted so they thought let's have devolution so we can run things in Scotland even more and let the West Lothian question go hang. In their arrogance they never imagined they'd have a challenger. With Scottish MSPs, Welsh Assembly Members and MEPs we simply don't need so many MPs at Westminster anymore so their numbers should be cut to reflect the new reality.

You are such a cock aren't you David Price, you are big cheesy bellend...

…and Lou your bang on mate...

as for rolfthegranger 'The article is a mishmash of muddled thinking with doubtful propositions? perhaps to stimulate discussion? Though I doubt it?' Yeaaahhhh boooooooiii, and yours isn't? Is yours used to stimulate discussion? Is it?

'So the whole argument that it is all a Tory plot, is hot air' Yeah mate you should know you seem to be full of it too.

I was going to say tl;dr, but I thought I might as well read it as it took so long for you to bloody write it I might as well give you the common courtesy of reading it.

Anyway cheers for the good luck, thanks for that, and I am so glad you mean it. xXxOoOxXx

Tom
29 May 2011 at 18:27
Good, fantastic news, in fact. After Labours shambolic immigration policy of importing millions of immigrants, at the expensive of the entire country, in return for their future votes, they deserve to be out of power forever.

Tom's makes a good point. Looks like Labour in England could be howling in the political wilderness for ever more. Here's a thought, maybe we could all move to Scotland and take our immigrant vote with us, after all
the Scots do have wide open spaces, and with the Scottish nationalists not being a racist party, well!! 'maybe a little anti-English' Maybe then we could start to build the new Jerusalem in Scotland's green and soaking land.

Mike Thomas wrote, "Labour opened that Pandora's Box in Scotland and rigged the electoral system in their favour."

How exactly did they do that? For example, under the multi-member system (MMS) that Labour and others devised, the Conservatives recently won 15 seats.

In the 2010 General Election under FPTP, the Conservatives won just 1 seat.

If Labour had wanted to rig the system they would have implemented FPTP at Holyrood.

"It is the assumption that we all know what Victorian means"

terence patrick hewett. Your message was very interesting, but perhaps the problem is that there was no such thing as "a Victorian". Victoria was queen for 64 years, and although the pace of change was slower than it is today, Britain in 1840 bore little resemblance to Britain in 1895.

http://cuttingedgeuk.proboards.com/index.cgi

ha, ha, ha.

So Labour failed to introduce proportional represntation when it had the chance, failed to reform party funding when they were virtually selling peerages to big donors, campaigned against AV to punish Clegg, lol, as if it was his fault that Labour had messed up the economy and so much else and now as they sow, so shall they reap.
Oh and who says independence would remove 41 Labour seats in scotland, with the momentum the SNP has, it could be removing say 10 Labour seats and 50 SNP.

Frankly

Thank you for your references, I stand corrected you Scots are Gods and we simple English are so stupid.

Tell you what I am so astounded that I will willing come up to Scotland and give you all the help that I can on your Independence Campaign.

I do however find it strange that a present Scottish Office Report is not accepted by a previous Scottish posters and yet you are quoting one thirty years old.

Please do something soon. Another period of socialist government will put us all in the gutter.

The way it is going, Scotland's hand is going to be forced towards independence, perhaps eventually total. And down the line, what with planned reductions of Westminster MP's in Wales, as with Scotland in the recent GE, same could very well happen there, especially if discontent with Westminster rises.

The Queen, it has been reported, is seriously concerned about all this - I don't think she wants to be known in history as the last monarch of the UK. And having to hand over the keys of Balmoral too, one supposes.

Labour's already damned for it's divisive politics, and let's be brutally honest, there's no greater cheerleader for Scottish independence then the English. Labour in England are in serious danger of ending up the party of the immigrant and the mouthpiece of Islamic-fascism.