Calm down, Dave
DAVE’S getting a bit hot under the collar about Labour’s decision to oppose his Preservation of LibDem Constituency Boundaries (Gerrymandering, etc) Bill. He seems to think he can convince people that the only measure in the Bill is the referendum on the Alternative Vote.
If the PM can drag himself back to reality for a mo and start being honest, he will understand that support for the whole Bill would mean support for arbitrarily cutting the number of MPs, while at the same time guaranteeing that if you’re a Scottish LibDem representing two hundred people in a (geographically) huge constituency, your seat will be protected. It would mean supporting the removal of the right of people to have a local inquiry to object to changes proposed by the Boundary Commission. And it would mean supporting a plan to hold the AV referendum on the same day as the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections.
Labour is opposed to all of these things, so why on earth would we vote for the Bill at Second Reading?
I’m sure at some point the Chief Whip will take Dave aside, calm him down and explain that at the committee stage of the Bill, there will be opportunities to vote on individual clauses, including the AV referendum. At that point, Labour’s front bench will decide whether to support the referendum in principle.
But the Bill as a whole is anti-democratic, opportunistic and cynical, aimed purely at the preservation of a dysfunctional and unhappy political marriage. Which is why it, like the marriage itself, deserves to fail.
