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Cameron less radical than Howard Jan 13

A non-musial interlude now with this brief foray into politics.

I read the news today, oh boy, and it said

Cameron would cut MP numbers

which was like déjà vu all over again. Haven’t the Tories talked about this before?

Ah, yes. Here’s Michael Howard’s pledge from 2004:

The Conservative Party would cut the number of MPs by about one-fifth if they were elected, Tory leader Michael Howard has said.
[…]
The precise number of MPs to go would depend on the result of the Welsh referendum [to scrap the Assembly], but it would probably mean a reduction of around 120 from the current total of 659.

And here’s Cameron’s “new” proposal:

David Cameron would remove more than 60 MPs as part of a Tory plan to make parliament work more efficiently.

Drawing on plans drawn up by Kenneth Clarke, the former chancellor, the Tory leader today pledges to introduce legislation in his first term as prime minister to cut the size of the Commons by 10%. There are currently 646 MPs, a figure that is due to increase to 650 at the next election.

So Cameron – via Kenneth Clarke’s constitutional review – has managed to come up with basically the same policy as before, except significantly less ambitious.

And while we’re playing House of Commons size reduction top trumps, let’s check what Nick Clegg’s position is:

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is calling for the number of MPs in the House of Commons to be cut by 150.

That’ll be two-and-a-half times more MPs gone than the Tories are offering.

4 Responses

  1. […] David Cameron backs down on plans to cut MPs Jan 13th, 2009 by Liberal Democrat Voice. Now, you might be seeing in the media today that David Cameron wants to cut the number of MPs. But as Will Howells has spotted, in fact the plans are a watering down of the previous Conservative plans to cut the number of MPs. Rather than wanting to cut them by 20% (their previous plan), now it’s a 10% cut. Will’s blog has the details… […]

  2. 2
    David’s paucity of ambition (via Pingback)

    […] we’re on the topic, let us not forget a post by Will Howells, formally of this parish, but writing on his own blog in January. He lines up the ducks to show […]

  3. […] Now, you might be seeing in the media today that David Cameron wants to cut the number of MPs. But as Will Howells has spotted, in fact the plans are a watering down of the previous Conservative plans to cut the number of MPs. Rather than wanting to cut them by 20% (their previous plan), now it’s a 10% cut. Will’s blog has the details… […]

  4. […] Rather than wanting to cut them by 20% (their previous plan), now it’s a 10% cut. Will’s blog has the details… […]