Ridiculous plans to fall flat on their face

I am going to make one prediction for 2018: the ridiculous plans by the Boundary Commission for England will fall flat on their face.
The whole thing really does look like something dreamt up at an office Christmas partyThe whole thing really does look like something dreamt up at an office Christmas party
The whole thing really does look like something dreamt up at an office Christmas party

To recap, the Boundary Commission currently recommends that parts of Pendle join in with Burnley and parts with Clitheroe.

At the same time parts of Burnley will join in with Accrington.

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MPs would, therefore, represent disparate communities with nothing much tying them together rather than pretty much representing boroughs as they do now.

The whole thing is nonsense. I have said so from the start.

Nobody really seems to understand the logic; nobody understands the new boundaries and nobody can really understand any of the thinking behind any of it ... apart from a perceived need to reduce the number of MPS in the region by seven or so.

The whole thing really does look like something dreamt up at an office Christmas party, but with no General Election expected before 2022 there is plenty of time to get it right ... if it needs doing at all.

While I’m at it, I will make another prediction for 2018: before the end of the year there will be a call for more MPs, not a reduction in the current number.

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Why? The voters who could be bothered to vote in June 2016, voted in favour of leaving the EU.

That means we, as a country, will soon have to take control of the entire legislative process in a little more than 14 months.

That in turn will mean that more and more stuff will have to shuffle its way through committee stages, bounce back and forth to the House of Lords and then be passed into law.

People will need to be found to sit on these myriad committees, but will there be enough to go around as every single piece of legislation gets the “fine tooth comb” treatment?

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It already seems likely that the bureaucratic masses will make their way back from Brussels to Whitehall.

And I wouldn’t doubt for a moment that the 73 current MEPs from this country will be hoping for a similar slice of the action while they’re at it.