Mary Reid's blog

Fair votes always have my vote. But the bill on having a referendum on the Alternative Vote system on May 5th is having a slightly rocky ride through the Commons.

The first stage was passed yesterday evening by a substantial majority. And indeed a commitment to this bill was part of the coalition deal, so the Conservatives and Lib Dems will eventually all vote in favour. But there are rumblings from both the Conservatives and Labour MPs about it.

The problem arises because the legislation has two elements, tied together as a package - one is for the referendum on AV, and the other is for a change in the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies (which will not be part of the referendum).

I wrote about Alternative Votes some weeks ago, so I want to look at the boundary changes today.

As populations move, so the number of electors in constituencies fluctuate. It makes sense to adjust the boundaries every so often so that they are all the same size. At the same time, there is some demand for a leaner House of Commons. So the bill proposes reducing the number of MPs by 50 and equalising the number of voters per constituency (to around 76,000).

I'm not an expert on the details of the boundary issue, but I know a man who is - Mark Pack has the British Academy review of its impact on his blog.

Conservatives are in favour of the boundary changes but against AV (although they will allow the referendum to go ahead, they will vote No next May). Labour is in favour of AV but against the boundary changes. And guess why? Well, because each is judging the issue from the perspective of their own party interests, rather than in the interests of fairness. Labour will generally lose seats from boundary changes, and the Tories will gain.

What is unpalatable for me is the attempts by both parties to justify and manipulate the system in a ways that are clearly unfair. Labour knows only too well that smaller inner city constituencies work in their favour, so are opposed to them being enlarged to an average size, which would reduce the number of safe Labour seats. The Conservatives on their part have set the reduction of seats at 50 at a specific level that gives them a distinct advantage.

Liberal Democrats believe both AV and boundary changes are fair in principle, but are unhappy at the way the Conservatives have rigged the boundary issue to favour themselves.

So, Tony Blair doesn't like bloggers. He quite contemptuously dismissed people who write blogs as non-representative of the views of the population as a whole. Instead, he claimed he had a direct link with the people and knew exactly what they thought. He was equally dismissive of journalists.

Andrew Marr had to remind him that intermediaries - the media, in all its professional and amateur forms - necessarily stood between the PM and the people.

This exemplifies a problem that is a real one for everyone in public life. Politicians inevitably come under attack, and in order to maintain their mental equilibrium they do have to distance themselves from much of it. There are several strategies they can use - they can dismiss all opposition as worthless or unrepresentative, or they can simply not listen at all. They protect themselves with a wall of support, which becomes more and more solid as time goes on.

This is the real corruption of politics; the loss of perspective, and the self-perpetuating belief in their own innate rightness. (And I write that as someone who has experienced a little bit of the pressures and has had to consciously work to avoid listening only to those who agree with me.)

Tony Blair really didn't get the mood of the people, either just before or since the invasion of Iraq, but has convinced himself that he still does have the sympathetic support of most of the country.

This, of course, should have been his legacy:

(Just to prove that I was at Stormont at the weekend!)

The Good Friday Agreement was the highspot of his term as Prime Minister. I had nothing but praise for him and Mo Mowlem when they pulled it off.

Instead, his name will forever be linked with the illegal decision to invade Iraq and for the disastrous handling of the aftermath.

And that's before we consider the attacks on civil liberties at home - ID cards, 28 day detention, imprisonment of asylum seekers' children, RIP Act. He took New Labour so far away from its roots that it has become virtually unrecognisable as a socialist movement.

During the day a number of my Facebook friends have been reporting that they have taken the Votematch Labour Leadership quiz. You are given a series of policy statements to which you agree or disagree, and at the end you are told which of the five candidates you are closest to. The surprise has been that all my Lib Dem friends seem to match with Diane Abbott. So I tried the quiz myself, and, yes, I found that I agreed 86% with her policies.

What is going on here? Diane Abbott is, after all, the most leftwing and progressive of the candidates. It just seems to confirm the widely held view that the Labour Party has moved so far to the right that its leftmost members sit alongside the social liberal wing of the Lib Dems.

Diane - you are welcome to join us when your party, as redefined by Tony Blair, rejects you, as it inevitably will.

It's been a very special summer for us. Our older son Stuart was married on 21st August to Gwyneth McBride in Carnmoney Church, Belfast.

Both are professional musicians, as are most of their friends, so we began with half an hour of glorious music from a nine piece string ensemble (a nonet?). They were then joined by a band and singers during the service itself. Stu surprised Gwyn just as they were about to march down the aisle by singing 'Can't take my eyes off you' in a version that he had recorded earlier, and we all joined in 'I love you baby'. Aaah....

They held the reception in the stunning setting of Belfast Castle - and the weather was very kind to us, so we started off enjoying the beautiful grounds, playing arcane garden games like boules and croquet, and listening to a string quartet.

It didn't rain until we were all inside enjoying the meal, and then we were rewarded by a beautiful rainbow over Belfast. Finally, a scratch band made up of friends and relations gave us a great ceilidh through the evening.

I did say I was taking a break from blogging over August, but have come out of hiding to say something about Chessington Live.

This is a really interesting initiative of David Lindsell, a reporter with the Surrey Comet. Have a look around the site. There is a lot of local news and views, as you would expect from a community website.

But it goes further than that, because if you log in you can then leave comments or post an article. The idea is to encourage conversations about local issues - a micro version of the (national) Guardian's Comment is Free section. It's early days, but people have started writing posts and commenting on others.

Spread the word!

I should have mentioned earlier that I am taking my usual break from blogging over August. Back in September!

Some really major work is starting in Garrison Lane today. The whole road has to be reconstructed - not just a tarmac resurfacing but a full rebuild of the road's foundation.

This is going to cause some problems because it is a bus route. But then the problems have been partly caused by the buses anyway.

The best advice is to avoid the area if you can, but if not to read the information on traffic diversions etc on the Council website.

Seen in Finsbury Square today.

There are plenty of docking stations (as they are called) in the central area. You can find out how the scheme works and see a map of locations here.

It costs £1 per day, or £5 per week, or £45 per year, plus £3 for the key. Then every time you borrow a bike you get 30 minutes free but are charged for anything more. I'm not a cyclist but thought you ought to know.

I bumped into our Borough Commander Chief Superintendant Martin Geenslade yesterday at the Freedom Parade. He told me that the lease had, at last, been signed on the police base for the Chessington Safer Neighbourhood teams.

So the two police teams for Chessington North & Hook and for Chessington South will eventually be moving into the shop next to the Debra charity shop in Hook Parade. They were given planning permission for the work some time ago, so are hoping to be ready to move before the end of the year.

It's been a long ride, but I'm pleased that finally our local police teams will be based where they should be, within their own area.

I don't usually do military, but I always make an exception for the Territorial Army, and particularly for Kingston's own TA unit.

They are the 256 (City of London) Field Hospital Volunteers - all medics who, amazingly, volunteer their services on top of their demanding professional lives as doctors, surgeons, nurses, physios etc. Last year they were deployed to the field hospital at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. That is a tough placement for anyone, so I am full of admiration for them all.

Back in March 2009 a special meeting of the Council was called to agree to confer the Freedom of the Borough on the unit. This gave them the right to parade through Kingston, which they did today, led by the band of the Royal Army Medical Corps.

First, there was a civic ceremony outside the Guildhall, when the Mayor (no doubt, very warm in her full regalia) inspected the troops.

We held a minute's silence for the victims of war, during which there was perfect quiet - quite extraordinary for a Saturday morning in the town centre.

After the National Anthem, they marched off to claim their right, all round the Market Square and back to their base on the Portsmouth Road.

Then we all met up again in the Guildhall for an awards ceremony and a chance to mingle.

One of the pleasant consequences of having been Mayor is that I do get invited to civic events like this. It was good to catch up with the only two living Honorary Freemen of the Borough - Robert Smith (former Vice Chancellor of the University) and David Jacobs (former Deputy Lieutenant of the Borough) - both of whom received the honour when Ian was Mayor.