Dear God, those maps are depressing...

Damn those people for making a democratic choice eh? Rather puts paid to the "liberal"/"Socialist" consensus that is trotted out time and time again BTL......

How democratic a choice is it really, though?
I live in a safe Labour seat and am lucky enough to be one of those few people with a genuinely good MP. Otherwise, I would never vote Labour and my vote would be entirely meaningless.

Democracy in action. What would they have been under AV?! ;-)

Somebody stole Chesterfield's MP in the right-hand map.

Probably worth someone adjusting the colours on northern Ireland before you give the Prods a hear attack. Sinn Fein landslide!

Good point! We're having trouble adjusting the colours for Northern ireland

What a poxy system FPTP is. All this map does is remind me that my vote is going to count for bugger all, just like in 2010.

Looks like the usual gerrymandering, so no surprises there. Interesting that the map suggests a pretty clear political/cultural divide roughly along the Welsh border on the one hand, and roughly along a line from Barrow to Middlesborough on the other. Makes you wonder if Scottish independence might be followed by similar moves from Wales, and perhaps Cumrbia and the Northeast, especially as the alternative would appear to be an English Tory boot in the face forever...

We were merged into a safe Tory seat the last time around and the new boundaries seem to make it even safer.

It's almost like they've done this to stack the cards in their favour.

Even less proportional. More Labour seats with a lower percentage of the vote.

Obviously it does not represent population densities proportionately but overall the maps look remarkably similar. The differentiation must be in the detail. As ever, this sort of mapping dives the break-up-Britain argument its usual cogency.

Democracy - Your chance every 4 or 5 years, on a given Thursday (or no chance if you have a full time job and have no time) to cast a completely pointless vote.

and we wonder why , election on election less and less people vote. Parties generally vote themselves out by default as opposed to the country deciding.

We have 2 main parties apparently at either end of the scale fighting over ownership of the same policies. Therefore there is now little to choose other than the colour of the prime minister's tie.

The caption says that the map

Assumes uniform vote across old constituencies

Gerrymandering may also be about making the most of the fact that constituencies are often not at all uniform. Pockets of high rates of Tory voting in predominantly Labour areas [for example] are drowned out in FPTP; moving this pocket into a more marginal seat may help swing the seat. It would be interesting to know whether the proposed boundary changes will favour one party more in this way.

Either way, though, I'm already feeling that Tory size 12 on my face...

Read the small print: "Assumes uniform vote across old constituencies".

I suspect the new map has very much been drawn with a consideration that it isn't.

Democracy: rule by the floating voter. Who is, let's face it, easily led, venal, vindictive, short-sighted, self-centred, timid and a slave to the zeitgeist. Is this really, as we are constantly asked to believe, the best of all possible systems of government?

Give me a benevolent dictator any day.

You say you have no chance to vote if you have a f/t job or no time, but polling stations are open from 7a.m. to 10p.m. If you work that much, you have a problem, and if you can't find 10 minutes in your day to put a x on a piece of paper, again there are problems. But if Thursdays are a nightmare, there's always the postal vote, so no more crappy excuses.

Am I reading this right?

It looks more like left is existing boundaries (it has Blaby and a large area Hallam for Nick Clegg) which would make right the new boundaries.

With the total collaspe of Lib Dem vote Monmouthshire now looks like a more winable seat for Labour. Three times winner Huw Edwards please come back all is forgiven.

And the muppets still don't understand why so many people no longer bother to vote, they have no faith in the system especially as they, the muppets keep trying to gerrymander constituencies to their own benefit.

The whole sick edifice needs a complete overhaul and brought into the 21st century.

I set off at 6.30 to catch the train. I'm self employed, so taking the morning off is impossible without losing money. I'm not back by 7-8 pm. I'm working and grateful for it. The last 2 postal votes in my area were investigated for postal voating fraud.

The point I was making is voting is pointless when there is little to distinguish between parties.

Altering constituency boundaries for party political advantage - just makes me disconsolately pine for proportional representation all the more.

Co Durham should have been allowed to join Scotland years ago after successive Tory administrations have all but bleed the region dry. Remote government in Westminster is just as distasteful as undemocratic government from Brussels just 240 miles further away, Although the EU and is regulations have done more to temper the excesses of the there's no other way Tories than the Nu Labour administration.
We have had the big stick treatment for over 30 years now if we breakaway we might get some of the carrot.

Move to Scotland, Paul. Or start your own secessionist movement :)

poor old Shetland.

SUCKERS! all those who voted against electoral reform... you @$$ holes are now going to get what you perhaps should deserve but what none of us truly do deserve.

Nice pair of maps, though on the right map, parts of North Bristol have been disenfranchised.

Poor lone Scottish Conservative Westminster MP David Mundell.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde,

"To have one Scottish Conservative MP may be regarded as a misfortune; to have none looks like carelessness."

They could always sell-off the party conference centre, http://gb.fotolibra.com/images/previews/25766-telephone-box-scotland.jpeg