Some thoughts from a think tank

Those thought-provoking people at Democratic Audit have sent me a very interesting pamphlet about the Parliamentary Voting Systems & Constituencies Bill. Here's an extract:

The DEVONWALL problem: territory and identity
The 'Devonwall' problem is where the arithmetic and geography demand the violation of a boundary that has a very strong basis in community identity. The difference between Cornwall and Devon is long-established and clear, but the Bill's boundary rules will involve a constituency that straddles this frontier. The two parts of the constituency will never gel properly. As David Cameron observed, the Tamar is not the Amazon, but representation is about the communities that people feel and live in, and local identities are important. It seems oddly centralist and non-conservative to disrespect these feelings.
There have been protests already, supported by all the Cornish MPs and the local authority, that Cornwall should be kept whole. While it is an extreme case, the Bill risks similar unpopularity in other areas, rather like the rationalist imposition of the Heath-Walker local government reforms in 1972-74 - anyone proposing a 'Luton West & Dunstable' seat would be well advised to stay away from Dunstable, for instance.