Back to the Future

Those clever people at Democratic Audit have now published the full detail of their investigations into what the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act will mean for Cornwall. It looks like a return to some old constituency boundaries, and a first-time leap across the Tamar.

Democratic Audit thinks the new-look constituencies will be Falmouth & Camborne, Truro & St Austell, Bodmin & Newquay, St Ives and South East Cornwall. There would also be a cross-border constituency called Torridge & Tintagel. Democratic Audit says:

"From the point of view of Cornwall, the immediate interest (until the Act can be amended) is in finding a least-worst option. The worst option would be for the border to be crossed more than once, for instance a seat in the south adding some tightly defined areas (Saltash and possibly Torpoint) to Plymouth plus another border crossing in the north. The BCE is unlikely to follow such an option.
The basic question then becomes south or north. One commonly discussed option is to cross the Tamar in the Plymouth urban area. One needs to remember that we are talking about nearly half a constituency (32-37,000 electors). The four wards of Saltash amount to 13,315. Taking in Torpoint and the hinterland wards of St Germans and Rame brings us up to 27,000, and then one would need probably Gunnislake and Kelly Bray (and possibly Callington). On the Plymouth side, the wards would probably be St Budeaux, Devonport, Ham and Stoke. It would be a pretty incongruous seat, combining some very urban and very rural areas whose communities have rather little to do with each other (both may share links with central Plymouth).
In some ways, crossing in the north is the lesser of two evils. It would bring communities with something in common together (tourism, agriculture, moorlands) and one could at least cross from one bit of the constituency to another without paying a toll!
A northern crossing would also involve less of a radical redistribution of the constituencies in the rest of Cornwall (see below). It enables a reconstruction, more or less, of the pattern that existed before the 2010 boundary changes and the sixth seat. Abolishing South East Cornwall would lead to large shifts in the rest of the county and the combination of unfamiliar towns in the same constituency.
Note: Cornwall UA wards are occasionally split between current constituencies. Such split wards are listed below with the current constituency to which the majority of its electorate belongs, although the number of electors accurately reflects the allocation of partial wards. The new model does not split any wards."

Arise, Sir Graham

Congratulations to South West Lib Dem Euro MP Graham Watson, knighted in the Queen's birthday honours, and henceforth to be known as Sir Graham. Obviously no relation to South West Lib Dem Euro MP Graham Watson whose name is listed as a supporter of the anti-monarchy pressure group, Republic. (In case you were wondering, I am no relation to Graham Smith, Republic's campaign manager).

Is it too late for Alec to learn from Alex?

Jan Powell is said to be "taking advice" before speaking publicly about her removal from the Health & Adults Overview & Scrutiny Committee at Cornwall Council. I think there's a good chance we'll hear her considered opinions about the matter on BBC Radio Cornwall before too long.


The reason I say this is that council leader Alec Robertson this morning declined my invitation to talk about it on the grounds that it was "an internal political group issue." This confirms that Jan's removal from the committee, which had elected her as its chair, was nothing to do with competence or popularity. And there is no shortage of councillors, from all political parties and from none, who tell me that this is all about the worsening feud within the Conservative group at County Hall.

It's only a couple of months since Cornwall's Conservative councillors held their annual general meeting and Alec narrowly survived a challenge to his leadership. Then wheels started falling off his plan for Cabinet Support Members; he lobbied the government to approve the St Dennis incinerator project, despite having opposed it himself; and then he had to spend the best part of a week fighting fires caused by the Daily Telegraph's "credit card scandal" - a non-story of the council's own making.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, Alex Salmond is today reaping the rewards of what happens when you take a rather different approach to a very similar set of initial conditions. In 2007 the Scottish Nationalist Party leader found himself at the head of the largest group in the Parliament, with 47 of the 129 seats (in 2009 Alec had 50 out of 123 in Cornwall).

Rejecting the idea of coalition, Alex Salmond then lead a minority administration which picked only those parts of his election manifesto which could command broad support. At the end of the term, many commentators described the administration as being notable for its competence, rather than political ideology. Despite this Scotland remained a land without university tuition fees, but with good schools, an excellent health service and universal care for the elderly. Earlier this year the Scottish government even abolished NHS prescription charges and today Alex Salmond commands all that he sees, with no need to ask any other parties about anything in Scotland if he doesn't want to.

I suspect that Alec Robertson sometimes has to deal with some backbench members of his own Conservative group who are perhaps less pragmatic than those in Alex Salmond's party in Scotland. But the bottom line is that there is no point behaving as if you have an overall majority if the reality is that you "command" only 40 per cent of the votes. And in Alec's case, with a hopelessly divided group, not even that. As I have blogged previously, a cardinal rule of politics has always been to keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

What would it take, I wonder, for the Cornwall Council Independent group - currently junior partners in the Conservative-lead administration - to draw up their own list of key priorities and then do a deal with the Liberal Democrat and Mebyon Kernow groups, and other individual councillors? Or perhaps those on the Opposition benches at County Hall are currently having too much fun.

The changing countryside

The Royal Cornwall Show website is a useful barometer of what's hot and what's not in life outside the city walls. Type the word "solar" into the exhibitors' search engine and you get no fewer than 13 entries from subsidy-seekers. Type the word "organic" and you get 15 entries. I've no idea where this thread is going but as I write this, the Women's Institute is meeting in Liverpool and debating whether to call for a ban on factory farming. Suggestions, please, for exhibitors' entries in the year 2030...

STOP PRESS: It looks as if the Women's Institute decided not to debate the factory farming motion after all, following complaints from some delegates in Liverpool that it lacked clarity and needed a tighter definition of what was meant by a "factory farm."

The view from Wadebridge

To the Royal Cornwall Show, which of course is a showcase for rural life as it really is and not as some London-based media-types would have us believe. From the exhibitors' list:

"The Hoseasons Group is committed to ensuring your second home earns the highest income possible..."

Women's Institute vs National Farmers Union?

The Calender Girls are heading to Liverpool for their annual conference on Wednesday and will debate this resolution:

"This meeting abhors the practice of factory farming particularly large animals such as pigs and cows and urges H.M. Government to ensure planning permission is not granted for such projects."

I think you can hear more about it on BBC Radio Cornwall tomorrow morning.

Towards the playing fields of Eton

Musing over the list of exhibitors at next week's Royal Cornwall Agricultural Show at Wadebridge I notice there are nine schools touting for business. Seven of them are private schools, one is a state boarding school from Somerset where parents pay for the accommodation, and there's Bodmin College, now an academy. I wonder what Wadebridge School thinks of that?