Columnist Ross Clark throws a stick but it's really a boomerang
Express columnist Ross Clark warns that Labour are seeking to ‘manipulate voting rules’ to fudge the result of the EU referendum (May 26, p12). He accuses the party of ‘blatant gerrymandering’ in calling for the vote to be open to 16 and 17-year-olds.
Mr Clark even decides to show off a bit with some trivia about the provenance of the term:
“What they are doing is a grubby piece of gerrymandering – named after a 19th-century governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, who redrew electoral boundaries in such a way as to maximise his chances of winning.”
This certainly is a grubby move. But isn’t there another contemporary example that better suits the charge of gerrymandering?
Perhaps the scheme to redraw electoral boundaries in such a way as to maximise their chances of winning by the current Conservative government..?
Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter
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20 Responses to “Who’s really ‘gerrymandering’? Express attack on Labour backfires”
Brumanuensis
A bit prejudiced Alan. I don’t support votes for 16 or 17 year olds – because I think that eligibility to vote should be tied to the legal age of majority – but I think caricaturing teenagers in the way you have is unfair. They may not know much about politicians or political parties, but in my experience they do have strong views on politics and are interested in political ideas.
AlanGiles
I think the problem is because they are so easily influenced they might be easy to “put one over on” and if a 16 year old is promised something and they don’t get it, they are far more likely to by cynical about politicians afterwards. It’s fine being a cynic in your fifties or sixties because life by then has few surprises.
I think some very manipulative politicians are keen to lower the voting age, because they only think about the next vote or next election, but I suspect if they continue to behave in the future as they have in the past, you will find that even fewer people vote, long term. We had a Green candidate to vote for in May, but if we hadn’t for the first time in my long life I just would not have bothered, frankly.
As for your point about cariacturing teenagers – yes you probably have a point, but if Joey Essex at 20 something believes the 2nd world war started in 1979, or that Tony Blair was the PM when it broke out (I am sure he would have loved to have been), it makes you wonder what he was like at 16. Sadly, ignorant people like him are treated as heroes, which is a sad indictment on society.
I think elections are already too much like circuses with ageing drag queen Eddie Izzard inviting himself along to so many events in full slap, God knows how much further the show would be dumbed down if we had to cater for young teenagers
wilwa
Wrong. They most certainly are based on the population within a constituency, The Tories want to change it to registered voters within constituencies because it is believed that a higher proportion of potential Tory voters are registered than Labour voters. A cynical ploy and one which most certainly qualifies as gerrymandering. You really should check the facts before claiming something that is actually the opposite of the truth.
Brumanuensis
Sorry, you are completely and utterly mistaken here. Look here for example, for a summary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_Commissions_(United_Kingdom)#Considerations_and_process
“Firstly, each proposed constituency has to comply with 2 numerical limits:
the electorate of each constituency must be within 5% of the United Kingdom electoral quota. The electoral quota is the average number of electors per constituency, defined as the total mainland electorate divided by the number of mainland constituencies, where “mainland” excludes four island constituencies: Orkney and Shetland, Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles), and two on the Isle of Wight.
the area of a constituency must be no more than 13,000 square kilometres”.
N.B. the ‘electorate’, not the ‘population’.
http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/boundary-reform
“One of the main issues with the current law is that unregistered voters are not considered when drawing up constituency boundaries, although they are obviously still entitled to support from their MP. Urban and socially deprived areas where registration is low will be under-represented while affluent areas where registration is high will have disproportionate representation”.
Harold
If these changes go through I feel we will; enter a period of One Party Rule, with the right wing press and media, re-drawing the boundaries and weakening the Union/Labour links it will be a long time before any party or parties get the chance to form a Government. This may well please the newspaper non-doms and their supporters but the Lib Dems, Ukip and the Greens will not be too happy. If we are to have a re-drawing it should be regular and in a manner which does not give anyone an advantage.