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Post by East Anglian Lefty on Oct 25, 2017 22:12:27 GMT
I know I'm in a minority here, but there should be far more constituencies named after local authority districts. The 1983 review had the right idea, and I deplore the Small Town & Little Piddling names we are increasingly getting instead. The names would be shorter too. Sittingbourne & Sheppey should simply be called Swale. Folkestone & Hythe should be Shepway. Clacton & Harwich should be Tendring. And so on. There's this ridiculous idea that has gained ground that if there's an orphan ward hived off somewhere you can't name a seat after the local district. I agree entirely with your last sentence but strongly reject your suggestions about Shepway and Tendring (as you would expect given my earlier statements about Wyre Forest etc but even more so as Tendring is itself literally Little Piddling) The Clacton & Harwich seat doesn't actually exist, of course, but the proposed boundaries don't even include Tendring. Granted, the district is named after the Hundred rather than the village, but it'd still be an absurd name on just about every grounds. |
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Khunanup
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Portsmouth Liberal Democrats
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Post by Khunanup on Oct 25, 2017 22:44:23 GMT
Easington. A minor town in a constituency with a clear major town (Peterlee) while Easington Lane is in Houghton and Sunderland South. Special mention to St Ives, which should really be called Penzance but surivives because the constituency can never substantially change. St. Ives isn't much smaller, especially when you consider Carbis Bay, which is essentially a suburb of St. Ives. Further many people live in the St. Ives Bay, Lelant, Hoyle etc.And Penzance is at the far end of the seat. Especially given the age of the seat name I'd keep St. Ives. Ps Seaham is as big as Peterlee. It should be pointed out that Hayle and most of St Ives Bay isn't actually in St Ives constituency currently. Both St Ives and Penzance are geographically peripheral in the constituency. If you were wanting a more central 'major' settlement you could call it Helston or go all Tatton and call it Breage! Or Scilly of course if centrality still doesn't matter... |
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Post by Pete Whitehead on Oct 25, 2017 22:47:43 GMT
St. Ives isn't much smaller, especially when you consider Carbis Bay, which is essentially a suburb of St. Ives. Further many people live in the St. Ives Bay, Lelant, Hoyle etc.And Penzance is at the far end of the seat. Especially given the age of the seat name I'd keep St. Ives. Ps Seaham is as big as Peterlee. It should be pointed out that Hayle and most of St Ives Bay isn't actually in St Ives constituency currently. Both St Ives and Penzance are geographically peripheral in the constituency. If you were wanting a more central 'major' settlement you could call it Helston or go all Tatton and call it Breage! Or Scilly of course if centrality still doesn't matter... Or Penwith if you are John Chanin |
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Khunanup
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Portsmouth Liberal Democrats
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Post by Khunanup on Oct 25, 2017 22:51:22 GMT
It should be pointed out that Hayle and most of St Ives Bay isn't actually in St Ives constituency currently. Both St Ives and Penzance are geographically peripheral in the constituency. If you were wanting a more central 'major' settlement you could call it Helston or go all Tatton and call it Breage! Or Scilly of course if centrality still doesn't matter... Or Penwith if you are John Chanin ...& Kerrier |
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Post by John Chanin on Oct 26, 2017 6:48:23 GMT
Amusingly I just posted Penwith before seeing Pete's contribution....
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Post by Arthur Figgis on Oct 26, 2017 7:07:07 GMT
St. Ives isn't much smaller, especially when you consider Carbis Bay, which is essentially a suburb of St. Ives. Further many people live in the St. Ives Bay, Lelant, Hoyle etc.And Penzance is at the far end of the seat. Especially given the age of the seat name I'd keep St. Ives. Ps Seaham is as big as Peterlee. It should be pointed out that Hayle and most of St Ives Bay isn't actually in St Ives constituency currently. Both St Ives and Penzance are geographically peripheral in the constituency. If you were wanting a more central 'major' settlement you could call it Helston or go all Tatton and call it Breage! Or Scilly of course if centrality still doesn't matter... Lizard & Scilly. Or is that a description of its MPs. |
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WJ
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Post by WJ on Oct 26, 2017 7:39:10 GMT
It should be pointed out that Hayle and most of St Ives Bay isn't actually in St Ives constituency currently. Both St Ives and Penzance are geographically peripheral in the constituency. If you were wanting a more central 'major' settlement you could call it Helston or go all Tatton and call it Breage! Or Scilly of course if centrality still doesn't matter... Lizard & Scilly. Or is that a description of its MPs. I was going to make a similar suggestion. I'm not a fan of St. Ives (the constituency name not the place!) Due to the confusion with St Ives in Cambridgeshire. Lands End, Scillies, Lizard, Penzance or a combination of them would be much more appropriate. |
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WJ
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Post by WJ on Oct 26, 2017 7:41:06 GMT
Alyn and Deeside and Delyn. Should be East and West Flintshire. Delyn isn't even a word. I think "Buckley & Hawarden" and "Flint" would be better names than any "<Compass Point> <County>" names. "Buckley & Hawarden" doesn't sound nearly Welsh enough for the Welsh Boundary Commission I would imagine. |
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Post by Arthur Figgis on Oct 26, 2017 8:02:24 GMT
I think "Buckley & Hawarden" and "Flint" would be better names than any "<Compass Point> <County>" names. "Buckley & Hawarden" doesn't sound nearly Welsh enough for the Welsh Boundary Commission I would imagine. Bycli ac Hywardden? Popty ping and all that. |
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Post by Pete Whitehead on Oct 26, 2017 8:44:56 GMT
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. Although the previous name, Langbaurgh, wasn't much better - would anyone have known where that was? They should just call it Cleveland |
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Post by greenchristian on Oct 26, 2017 9:03:09 GMT
Also the fact that cities like Birmingham and Manchester retain traditional constituency names while Edinburgh and Glasgow do not. If insist on compass point names, then naming the Birmingham Constituencies becomes a complete nightmare, and even the politicians will have trouble knowing which Birmingham constituency they live in. If try for areas within cities, it's possible that Edinburgh and Glasgow simply don't have large enough areas or enough prominent landmarks outside the centre for a suburb/landmark name to be workable. |
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Post by LDCaerdydd on Oct 26, 2017 9:22:20 GMT
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
I also pause and think every time I hear West Bromwich West mentioned.
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Khunanup
Lib Dem
Portsmouth Liberal Democrats
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Post by Khunanup on Oct 26, 2017 9:51:04 GMT
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. Although the previous name, Langbaurgh, wasn't much better - would anyone have known where that was? Not even people who lived there knew where that constituency was! I know I'm in a minority here but constituency names should mean something to the residents who live there, everyone else be damned. I actually like it when us amateur psephologists know where confusingly named constituencies are when everyone else is either confused or mystified! |
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Post by John Chanin on Oct 26, 2017 10:00:16 GMT
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey I also pause and think every time I hear West Bromwich West mentioned. West Bromwich West is indeed very strange. The municipal (county) boroughs of West Bromwich and Warley were only formed in 1966. The constituency names (east and west in both cases) came from the late 1960s review (famously not implemented until 1974). But by then proposals were already in hand to create the metropolitan borough of Sandwell by amalgamating them. The Boundary Commission's dislike of changing names has preserved both this and Warley, although both are entirely wrong-headed.
West Bromwich West is basically the old boroughs of Tipton and Wednesbury, and Warley West was similarly Oldbury and Rowley Regis. Warley East was just a renamed Smethwick. So the 4 constituencies should have been renamed at the review that came into effect in 1983. At the subsequent review (effective in 1997) when half a seat was lost, it might have been more sensible to have Sandwell NW, NE, and South, although West Bromwich, Tipton & Wednesbury, and Smethwick would still have been reasonable (Oldbury was split up).
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2017 10:00:42 GMT
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. Although the previous name, Langbaurgh, wasn't much better - would anyone have known where that was? Not even people who lived there knew where that constituency was! I know I'm in a minority here but constituency names should mean something to the residents who live there, everyone else be damned. I actually like it when us amateur psephologists know where confusingly named constituencies are when everyone else is either confused or mystified! That's why my view has always been that constituency names should be more like Canada, less like the USA. We need to bring people into voting, politics, current affairs, pavement politics, all of it, and that means making every element of the democratic pathway recognisable at first glance. "West" as a ward name might not mean much: "Thomson Street and Lake" might help a lot. Anyway, like I said, I've banged this drum before. Not going to do it all again, it's what it is. |
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The Bishop
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Post by The Bishop on Oct 26, 2017 10:30:00 GMT
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. Although the previous name, Langbaurgh, wasn't much better - would anyone have known where that was? It is the name of a small hamlet, which is actually in N Yorkshire (ie *not* the former county of Cleveland) Though the seat (as with a few others down the years) was actually named after the former wapentake of that ilk. |
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ian48
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Post by ian48 on Oct 26, 2017 10:49:46 GMT
"Buckley & Hawarden" doesn't sound nearly Welsh enough for the Welsh Boundary Commission I would imagine. Bycli ac Hywardden? Popty ping and all that. It would actually be Bwcle a Phenarlag! So the first part isn't not far off, but the second half is fully Welsh! But you couldn't have a seat with Hawarden in the name. For one thing most people would pronounce it 'How-arden', instead of the local pronunciation used in North East Wales and round Chester, which is 'Harden'. I remember Simon Schama mispronouncing it on one of his programme when he was doing a programme about Gladstone, who lived at Hawarden Castle. |
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Post by East Anglian Lefty on Oct 26, 2017 12:58:37 GMT
Also the fact that cities like Birmingham and Manchester retain traditional constituency names while Edinburgh and Glasgow do not. If insist on compass point names, then naming the Birmingham Constituencies becomes a complete nightmare, and even the politicians will have trouble knowing which Birmingham constituency they live in. If try for areas within cities, it's possible that Edinburgh and Glasgow simply don't have large enough areas or enough prominent landmarks outside the centre for a suburb/landmark name to be workable.No, it isn't. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2017 13:18:39 GMT
Also the fact that cities like Birmingham and Manchester retain traditional constituency names while Edinburgh and Glasgow do not. If insist on compass point names, then naming the Birmingham Constituencies becomes a complete nightmare, and even the politicians will have trouble knowing which Birmingham constituency they live in. If try for areas within cities, it's possible that Edinburgh and Glasgow simply don't have large enough areas or enough prominent landmarks outside the centre for a suburb/landmark name to be workable.This. What about seats like Edinburgh, Pentlands and Glasgow, Cathcart which existed for decades before 2005? |
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Post by jigger on Oct 26, 2017 13:30:50 GMT
But a substantial proportion (and maybe a majority) of the present Sefton Central was in Ormskirk before 1974. A seat based around the majority of Crosby has been named after that town since 1950. Formby came in from Ormskirk in 1974, but most of Crosby proper was already in Crosby constituency. Maghull also came in from Ormskirk in 1974. Out of interest, have you ever been to Crosby, @conservativeestimate? |
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