The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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10:03am on Sunday, 30th June, 2024:
Anecdote
The Conservative candidate for our constituency has now sent us a letter, through the post, urging us to vote for him. Not a flier through the letterbox: an actual, stamp-in-the-corner letter. He must think he's in real danger of losing his seat. Labour, meanwhile, has sent us nothing.
Our constituency is not constructed very well. The Boundary Commission does its best, but the problem is that the population in this part of England keeps growing. We're in a village just to the west of Colchester, but our constituency is Harwich and North Essex, which takes in the port of Harwich. No-one here has much of a connection with Harwich; there can be hardly anyone round here who works there. Colchester is the natural nearest "big town" (although it's now formally a city). We're far more interested in what goes on in Colchester than we are in Harwich.
The constituency boundary also extends east and south of Colchester. Years ago, it was a doughnut constituency, entirely circling Colchester, which made a lot more sense. It's almost that now, but it has this awkward spur running out to the east to incorporate Harwich.
It's not a form of gerrymandering — the Boundary Commission is independent, consultative and data-driven — it's just that Harwich had to go somewhere and it was either our constituency or Clacton, which is too big population-wise to take it. The population of Harwich is 20,000, but Clacton is 53,000; add in the towns in between (Walton-on-the-naze 19,000, Frinton-on-Sea 5,000) and there's no room for Harwich. All UK parliamentary constituencies have to have an electorate size within 5% of 73,393, except for a few islands such as Anglesey (which is within 5% anyway, but doesn't have to be). This is why our constituency took in Harwich and ceded some wards to Witham (prounounced "wit-um"). The Witham constituency now overreaches so much that it actually takes in Stanway, which everyone thinks of as being part of Colchester. Let's put it this way: if someone committed a minor crime in Stanway, it would be reported in the Colchester newspaper, not the Witham one. People round here don't even like Witham, because it's made of concrete and it's Witham.
Now, as for why our sitting MP is desperate enough to send us actual letters, well the constituency includes Essex University and a relatively run-down part of Colchester called Old Heath; my guess is that the Labour candidate is rallying support there and leaving the staunchly-Conservative rural parts of the constituency alone. If he did campaign here, disgruntled locals might think he was a threat and decide to vote Conservative after all, instead of protest-voting for Reform UK.
It would be interesting if we did have a Labour MP, but he'd only last one term so I don't suppose he'd be interested in doing a great deal for the area (especially as he lives six constituencies away).
Oh well, our current MP is 65 so would probably be retiring next time round anyway. He has his knighthood, so is good to go.
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Copyright © 2024 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).