In a speech to the Hansard Society last night, Jack Straw, Justice Secretary, derided Conservative plans to reduce the number of MPs in the House of Commons as undemocratic and dangerous. The underlying reason for this disapproval was an accusation of gerrymandering.
But Mr Straw said: ''The apparently virtuous call to cut the cost of politics is actually camouflage for a dangerous, destructive and anti-democratic piece of gerrymandering.
''The Conservative Party proposes to cut the number of MPs by 10% without testing the will of the people in a referendum and without any proper effort to seek any kind of cross-party consensus.
As the Telegraph article points out, the current geography of parliamentary constituencies benefits the Labour Party. A possible result at the next General Election is a Labour government with far fewer votes than the Conservatives: an undemocratic outcome.
Is reform to amend an unfair system and to redress an existing bias towards a political party gerrymandering? Only if the reforms were to lead to an inbuilt bias towards the Tories. But Straw's accusation should be contrasted with the sin of omission. Knowing of their inbuilt advantage, does the lack of action and continuance of a Labour advantage count as gerrymandering? The answer is Yes.
With such a hypocritical contrast displayed during a meeting on electoral reform, we hear the continued slogan of electoral reform disguising changes designed to cement Labour's dominance. Their contempt for democracy is palpable.