Why our constituency names should celebrate Britain’s history

The real story of the proposed boundary changes is not which MPs might end up seatless or whether the new boundaries help Labour or the Tories, but what it means for ever-lengthening constituency names. Queen Mary university politics professor Philip Cowley says:

Professor Cowley points out that the mean number of characters in a constituency name would hit 15.7 under these proposals, compared to 12.6 in 1950. Whereas almost half of English constituencies had a single-word name in 1955, only one third do today and the new titles would take it down to 31.5 per cent. Now, you might think people who care about such things must’ve had their heads flushed down the toilet one too many times at school – or perhaps not often enough – but the longer constituency names get, the uglier they become.