Thursday 29 July 2010

Remember remember the 6th of September

and not just because it marks the end of the school holidays.

6th September is in my diary because that's the day Parliament is due to give a second reading to the Parliamentary Voting and Constituencies Bill - which could spell either the end of Cornwall's exclusive ownership over its own constituencies, or the end of the coalition government.

This is Nick Clegg's "big reform" Bill, aimed at paving the way for a referendum on scrapping the first-past-the-post voting system in favour of the Alternative Vote system. The Bill is also intended to re-draw the boundaries of Parliamentary constituencies to make sure they all contain the same number of voters.

And that's the problem. Because the Bill aims at radical reform in both areas, Labour has spotted the chance to whip its MPs into voting against - even though Labour's election manifesto promised a referendum on AV. And because around 50 Conservative MPs are known to be unhappy about AV in principle, there is a chance the government might be defeated. And if the government cannot deliver on voting reform, why would the Liberal Democrats continue to keep it in power?

But the main reason I'm fascinated by the Bill's second reading is that we will have the chance to see how Cornwall's six coalition MPs vote, given that support for the government would almost certainly mean the end of Cornwall and the introduction of at least one "Devonwall" constituency.

Conservative Sheryll Murrary (South East Cornwall) and Liberal Democrat Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall) have pledged to fight against a Devonwall constituency, as has Cornwall Council. Yet the vote of every coalition MP might now be vital if Nick Clegg's Bill is to survive. Putting it bluntly, will they vote for Cornwall or vote to stay in power? I'm sure this is a tricky issue for some Devon MPs as well.

6th September is also the deadline for anyone wanting to bid to become a Local Enterprise Partnership.

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