Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Why our constituency names should celebrate Britain’s history

(Photo: iStock)

The real story of the proposed boundary changes is not which MPs might end up seatless or whether the new boundaries help Labour or the Tories, but what it means for ever-lengthening constituency names. Queen Mary university politics professor Philip Cowley says:

Professor Cowley points out that the mean number of characters in a constituency name would hit 15.7 under these proposals, compared to 12.6 in 1950. Whereas almost half of English constituencies had a single-word name in 1955, only one third do today and the new titles would take it down to 31.5 per cent. Now, you might think people who care about such things must’ve had their heads flushed down the toilet one too many times at school – or perhaps not often enough – but the longer constituency names get, the uglier they become.

The Boundary Commission proposes, for instance, that the already ugly Cities of London and Westminster be hived off into two even uglier nomenclatures: City of London and Islington South and Westminster and Chelsea East. The Commission has also given up the ghost and recommended that Corby become Corby and East Northamptonshire, after the fashion preferred by local politicians. Other mouthfuls include Luton South and South Bedfordshire, Copeland and the Western Lakes, and the elongated Washington and Sunderland South West.

Rather than caving in to this fashion for swelling and ungainly seat titles, we should follow our Australian cousins in naming parliamentary constituencies after national heroes, inventors and pioneers. The Australian federal House of Representatives names most of its electoral divisions after celebrated Aussies, as do most of the lower houses of the states and territories.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in