Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Time to rename Henley Constituency?

Is the East Oxfordshire Parliamentary seat known as Henley, a British example of gerrymandering of the drawing of constituency boundaries? Well it does seem that way; it takes fewer votes to elect Boris Johnson MP in Henley as compared to electing Andrew Smith MP in Oxford East or Evan Harris MP in Oxford West and Abingdon. At present Oxfordshire has just six constituencies BANBURY COUNTY CONSTITUENCY (78,817), HENLEY COUNTY CONSTITUENCY (72,331), OXFORD EAST BOROUGH CONSTITUENCY (78,679), OXFORD WEST AND ABINGDON COUNTY CONSTITUENCY (75,153) and WANTAGE COUNTY CONSTITUENCY (74,774). To make it fairer the County needs an extra constituency or the existing six should be redrawn. The end result of either option would mean there would be fewer safe Tory seats in the county.Also naming this East Oxfordshire Parliamentary seat after the Reading dormitory town of Henley, rankles many living in the constituencies other towns and villages such as Thame or Benson, as it does not reflect the true character of the constituency, perhaps a more accurate name for the area is after the TV show which is filmed in the area ‘Midsommer’ or after the range of hills that are such a beautiful feature of the constituency ‘the Chilterns’.