Boundary changes could lead to an English parliament

MPs like Greg Mulholland, who oppose the proposed boundary changes, are being unreasonable, undemocratic and ultimately, selfish. Mr Mulholland, a Liberal Democrat, only opposes the changes because his own Leeds North West seat is at risk of being altered.

The reason we are having these changes is to improve democracy. We need equally sized constituencies as far as possible. Currently, a seat should have about 76,000 constituents. At the moment, the numbers of constituents differs widely, mainly to the benefit of smaller, mainly Labour, inner city seats.

Why should 110,000 people of the Isle of Wight only have one MP, when Leeds North East and North West, with a combined electorate of 133,000 can have two MPs?

Okay, it will possibly involve changes every election and that may be inconvenient for politicians’ careers, but it will be much more democratic for voters and it should result in a fairer electoral outcome.

Furthermore, we need to reduce over-representation and the high costs of paying MPs their exorbitant expenses and salaries. That’s why the number of MPs is also being reduced from 650 to 600, as we clearly have too many representatives compared to other countries.

For instance, in the United States there are only 100 senators and 435 representatives for 300 million people. The UK has a population of only 60 million and we will still have 600 MPs even after the proposed changes. We also have 789 Lords.

However, if we’re really serious about democracy, let’s correct the ultimate democratic deficit, which is the fact the England is the only country in Europe without its own Parliament.

We could also save a lot of money by introducing an English Parliament. I believe a separate English parliament could manage with as few as 150 MPs. Westminster could possibly be retained for a while as a UK-wide assembly, with a similar number of representatives.

Getting rid of more than 1,000 MPs and Lords would, over a period of five years, more than pay for the new English Parliament. I would estimate we’d save about £100m every year, as every representative easily costs the state £100,000 a year.

Once set up, an English Parliament should have the power to leave the UK and the EU if it wanted.

From: Matthew Shaw, Golcar, Huddersfield.

SOME 52 million people are squeezed into England. Interestingly, the population of Yorkshire (about six million) is similar to those of Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Croatia and Ireland.

Little wonder that the English regions feel under-represented, as our own Celtic fringe nations command disproportionate attention within the UK and around the world.

The ancient boundaries of pre-1974 Yorkshire would be more than capable of finding its place in the world.