Plan to redraw boundaries 'chaotic'

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;londonglossy&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2011&sol;01&sol;plan-to-redraw-boundaries-chaotic&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full" title&equals;"Proposals are being rushed through Parliament to equalise the size of Westminster constituencies" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;londonglossy&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2011&sol;01&sol;min-plan-to-redraw-boundaries-chaotic&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Proposals are being rushed through Parliament to equalise the size of Westminster constituencies"&sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Proposals being rushed through Parliament to equalise the size of Westminster constituencies risk a &&num;8220&semi;chaotic&&num;8221&semi; redrawing of boundaries without regard to local loyalties and historic ties&comma; a report has warned&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And the changes &&num;8211&semi; which demand an electorate in almost all seats within 5&percnt; of 76&comma;000 &&num;8211&semi; will require regular&comma; disruptive changes to the electoral map to keep up with population shifts&comma; said the report by thinktank Democratic Audit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Allowing more flexibility would prevent constituencies straddling county boundaries and stretches of sea&comma; stop rural areas being grafted onto city seats and might even be more favourable to the Conservatives in electoral terms&comma; said author Lewis Baston&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He warned that ministers will &&num;8220&semi;repent in leisure&&num;8221&semi; their decision to combine the equalisation measures with the referendum on AV voting in a single Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ministers are determined to get the Bill on to the statute book by February 16 &&num;8211&semi; possibly requiring all-night sittings in the House of Lords &&num;8211&semi; in order to be able to stage the AV referendum on the scheduled date of May 5&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But the report warned that this means sacrificing the detailed consideration needed to iron out flaws in the seat equalisation plans&comma; which Mr Baston predicted would spark a &&num;8220&semi;revolt&&num;8221&semi; among MPs within a few years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He called for the new constituencies to be within 10&percnt; &&num;8211&semi; rather than 5&percnt; &&num;8211&semi; of the national average number of voters&period; And he said boundary commissioners should be given more leeway to make exceptions for island seats&comma; rural areas and constituencies &&num;8211&semi; mostly in inner London &&num;8211&semi; where the number of residents hugely outstrips the number of voters&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>These amendments would make little difference to the party balance&comma; but could marginally favour Tories&comma; said the report&period; Democratic Audit calculated that&comma; under Mr Baston&&num;8217&semi;s proposals&comma; Conservatives would have led Labour by 292 seats to 238 in 2010&comma; compared to 289-240 under the proposals in the Bill&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Under the proposed changes&comma; the number of constituencies will be cut from 650 to 600&comma; and each &&num;8211&semi; with the exception of two island constituencies in Scotland and the geographically massive Highlands seat of Ross&comma; Skye and Lochaber &&num;8211&semi; will have between 72&comma;200 and 79&comma;800 voters&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Government argues that this will end the unfair distribution which currently sees the MP for the Isle of Wight elected by 103&comma;480 voters&comma; while the member for Arfon in north Wales answers to just 42&comma;998&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ee2a33c161d">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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