Who is Margaret Hemmings?

Quick answer, she's a Tory who comments on Conservative Home, and has just posted this little gem about electoral reform. I wanted this to reside in Google forever as I'm sure that along with everyone else who comments on ToryHome, she wants to me an MP some day.

We should campaign to lower the number of MPs by 50. (most of the 1st 50 to go are Labour MPS so will boost our chances of winning).

Redraw electoral boundaries so that all constituencies have the same number of electors. Would deliver another 20 seats.

Remove more Welsh/Scottish MPs from the chamber as most are non tory.

Increase the deposit required to stand for election to £5000 at least. That would discourage UKIP/BNP candidates from standing and deliver more votes to us.

That is the kind of electoral reform this country needs and should guarnatee almost unbroken tory rule.

So, let me get this right. This Tory wants to only introduce reforms that will directly benefit her own party, and also admits that the Tories are scrapping for votes with UKIP and the BNP. Sounds about right to me.

Big Fish, Little Pond?

I was fascinated by this post from Norfolk Blogger about people 'famous' inside the Lib Dems for being, er, Lib Dems.

Its a story I can relate too in a sense, people who have done every job on every committee inside the Party, and expect deference for it. Its the natural extension of our obsession with debating policy (often at the direct cost of winning elections!) that some people become very prominent without ever having actually achieved anything at all, whereas we have thousands of activists, councillors and council leaders who can't get on the podium at conference or a mention in the Party's press.

Is this just a Lib Dem thing? I have no idea, but it certainly does happen. Not that I was aware of an "inner circle" of bloggers mind, that'd be a weird night out....