Devonwall Bill gets thumbs down from experts

I always thought David Penhaligon's description of experts ("ex-spurts: ex is a has-been, spurts are drips under pressure") was slightly unfair. You quite often find valuable opinions from experts on Parliamentary Select Committees. For example, the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee of the House of Commons has just published its view of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill. It says:

"The government's failure to attempt to reach cross-party consensus on its boundary reform proposals adds fuel to the fire for those claiming the bill is being brought forward for partisan motives and may embolden future governments to do the same.

"The committee also questions why the public is not being offered a referendum on constituency boundary reform, which significantly affects how voters are represented in Parliament.

"While the committee agrees that there may be a case for reducing the number of MPs, it says the Government has singularly failed to make it.

"The impact of boundary reforms on local politics appears to have been given little or no consideration and the committee expresses concern about the potential impact of the current proposals on the ability of MPs to fulfil their responsibilities to their constituents."

I think David Penhaligon would have agreed.