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Starchild
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a raving alcoholic drama queen with a penchant for the biosciences
Jan 1970
time: 00:18
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We do, every so often. We just get an independent commission to do it instead of having the parties fight over the issue like in the US:
United Kingdom
Boundary Commissions: The United Kingdom uses four independent non-partisan Boundary Commissions, one each for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The commissions are composed of four members, most of whom serve by virtue of their positions in the bureaucracy. For example, in England and Wales the registrar-general and the director general of the Ordnance Survey serve on the commissions.
Established criteria: The commissions draw up provisional maps based on criteria established in electoral law: population equality (although no tolerance limits are set), compactness, natural and administrative boundaries, community of interest and "special geographic considerations" such as size, shape and accessibility of a constituency. The importance is indicated by their hierarchical listing in the electoral law.
Public inquiry process: Once a provisional map is completed, it is published and a one-month comment period follows. If objections are raised, local inquiries are scheduled. There, an assistant commission (AC) invites those who made written submissions/objections to make oral presentations, where they may be questioned by the AC and cross-examined by others who have made submissions.
Electoral considerations cannot be discussed, but the proceedings are invariably dominated by political parties. They use the criteria in the rules, especially those concerning community ties, to influence the AC to recommend constituencies to the commission that are in their own electoral interest. On the basis of what has been presented, plus site visits when chosen, the AC's report summarizes local opinion on the provisional plan, discusses any counterproposals presented, evaluates the evidence and recommends whether the commission should change its provisional map.
The boundary commissioners usually -- but not always -- accept the AC's recommendations. The reports and the reasons for accepting or rejecting offered recommendations are made public.
If the commissioners redraw the boundaries, further inquiries may be required. The process can be long-winded and repetitive. For example, the commissioners started work on their Third Periodical Review in 1976 and did not produce their final report until late 1982.
Acceptance by Parliament: Once the final plan has been completed, the commissions present them to Parliament, which can accept or reject, but not modify, it. In the past 100 years, Parliament has never rejected the constituency boundaries prepared by the neutral boundary commissioners.
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Clear Skies
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looking for a saviour in these dirty streets
Jul 2000
time: 05:18
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quote:
Originally posted by Atahualpa
Why do the Tories have such a hard time |
Short answer: because they're sh1te.
Long answer: because at the 1992 election they won on one platform only - the economy and their competence in running it. Polls showed that the electorate thought Labour would be better on healthcare, education, and so forth - but in the event they voted Tory because they wanted their incomes to keep going up (forgive the oversimplification, but that was the basic reasoning).
Now that perception has been utterly destroyed - the Conservatives are blamed for Black Wednesday (when they were forced to drop out of the exchange rate mechanism) and the ensuing recession. Now Labour (rightly or wrongly) has a reputation for economic competence that any Tory chancellor would envy; unable to challenge them there, the Tories have been desperately trying to gain ground in the social arena, and failing miserably for the most part. They have a dreadful tendency towards knee-jerk reactionism, attacking immigrants, ethnic minorities and asylum seekers with woeful predictability.
Add to this the recent furore over their proposed spending cuts (the party's deputy chairman was sacked, expelled and deselected after revealing that the Tories planned expenditure cuts far deeper than they'd announced). Add to that the depressing state of their election campaign, which (as the election flyer I got today testifies) focuses on hospital cleanliness, school discipline and the 'handover of power' to Brussels - distinctly lacklustre even when compared to the government's vague promises. Add to that...
I could go on. Suffice to say the party is weak, disorganised, has no clear agenda and has had its traditional electoral safeground comprehensively stolen by New Labour.
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C0ckney
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Big Up The Macedonian Massive
Apr 2000
time: 05:18
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clear skies, when have the tories attacked 'ethnic minorities'?
i don't see why the tories should fail miserably on any 'social' agenda. the number of deaths from MRSA, and the undereporting of them, is a scandal, gun crime and violent crime in general is on the rise, and has been for some time, and our immigration system is, despite years of talk by labour, nothing short of shambolic. these are issues that people care about and the tories should certainly be attacking on these fronts.
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Dr Strangelove
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Couldn't Tony be removed via a vote of no confidence, or could it be that most Laborites are secretely pleased at the progress of the war in Iraq?
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Dr Strangelove
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quote:
Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
I'd like to remain a subject of the queen, thank you very much. |
Ahh, for the good old days when you could be compelled to attend the Queen's church too. Now that's monarchy!
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Clear Skies
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looking for a saviour in these dirty streets
Jul 2000
time: 05:18
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quote:
Originally posted by C0ckney
clear skies, when have the tories attacked 'ethnic minorities'?
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Do the Romany ring a bell?
And you should've seen the campaign they ran in our local elections up north. In every ward they couldn't win they practically begged people to vote BNP 'to keep Labour out'.
quote:
i don't see why the tories should fail miserably on any 'social' agenda. the number of deaths from MRSA, and the undereporting of them, is a scandal, gun crime and violent crime in general is on the rise, and has been for some time, and our immigration system is, despite years of talk by labour, nothing short of shambolic. these are issues that people care about and the tories should certainly be attacking on these fronts. |
The Conservative plan to stop MRSA deaths is, wait for it, to publish hospital cleanliness tables. Not to increase funding to badly overstretched hospital management departments, not to remove the absurd provision that forces them to contract out their cleaning services to the lowest bidder (read: crappiest provider), not even to place underperformers into some remedial management category (a reasonable ploy that's been used by Tories in the past) but to name and shame hospitals for doing what is forced upon them.
What I meant, however, editorials aside, is that in large part the Tories' social agenda has been usurped by Labour. "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" ring any bells? The Tories' problem is that they're left without a leg to stand on, playing catch-up to an agenda that they feel should be theirs by rights. I'm reminded of a Steve Bell cartoon portraying Jack Straw (then Home Secretary) and Tony Blair as 'Maggiepies', stealing jewellery labelled 'Law and Order' from Thatcher's handbag. The Tories' problem is that Labour make better Tories than they do; they're stuck needing to distance themselves from a government that's roundly hated, but that's roundly hated and sitting squarely in their traditional territory. Hence the voters leaving Labour in droves - but decamping to the Lib Dems rather than the Tories, as the polls show. And hence the attacks on the traditional middle-class bogeymen - asylum seekers, immigrants, yobs and so forth. Blair's Labour is pushing the Tories off their territory and onto the fringes; as an electoral strategy, you can't really fault them. After all, it's won them two, soon to be three elections.
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C0ckney
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Big Up The Macedonian Massive
Apr 2000
time: 05:18
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quote:
Originally posted by Clear Skies
Do the Romany ring a bell?
And you should've seen the campaign they ran in our local elections up north. In every ward they couldn't win they practically begged people to vote BNP 'to keep Labour out'. |
yes as a matter of fact. so who has mentioned the romany, who are an ethnic minority, in a negative light? the answer is no one. the tories have mentioned ‘travellers’, who are not an 'ethnic minority'. take a look here for a discussion on the issue and exactly what the tories have said.
i'm sure you'll forgive me if i don't take your word for it about the BNP, don't suppose you have any proof...?
MRSA, well yeah great, attack the tory plans, if that makes you feel better. but you might want to remember who has been in power for eight years, increased NHS funding three fold and yet in all this time, with all this extra money (our money), still hasn't been able to keep hospitals clean. that record is what the tories are attacking, and rightly so.
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Clear Skies
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looking for a saviour in these dirty streets
Jul 2000
time: 05:18
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quote:
Originally posted by C0ckney
i'm sure you'll forgive me if i don't take your word for it about the BNP, don't suppose you have any proof...? |
Nope. But I co-founded the anti-racist group at my sixth form that helped beat off the BNP candidates and we were appalled by the hostile attitude we got from the Conservative candidates. Since I didn't tape-record all the abuse we got, no, I can't prove it.
quote:
MRSA, well yeah great, attack the tory plans, if that makes you feel better. but you might want to remember who has been in power for eight years, increased NHS funding three fold and yet in all this time, with all this extra money (our money), still hasn't been able to keep hospitals clean. that record is what the tories are attacking, and rightly so. |
But my point was that they aren't actually planning to do anything useful about it. There's no point 'attacking a record' when your own plans are just as dismal. It doesn't 'make me feel better'; I'd far rather there was an effective opposition to this excuse for a government, but this sort of non-policy makes me want to tear my hair out. Do you honestly think that simply publishing these 'tables' is going to solve the problem?
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Apolyton Time is 00:18. |
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05-04-2005 18:39
) swings to 10001 baby!
sounds really organised, generalise the whole parties from that experience, way to go.
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