It's all in the detail...
I've blogged before about the implications of the Coalition's proposals to cut the number of MPs from 650 to 600 - and the considerable redrawing of parliamentary boundaries that would be required.
Now the Electoral Reform Society . They found they couldn't do it within the rules proposed in the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill - at least, not without breaking up local government wards (the normal building blocks for parliamentary seats) which they regard as undesirable. In the end, they made the redistribution work by allowing a 10%, rather than a 5% variation from the electoral quota - the standard size for a Commons constituency, about 76,000 voters.
The result is that in many counties the boundaries don't change and the big cuts fall in urban areas - West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Merseyside down four seats, Strathclyde down three, Outer London down two, Tyne and Wear down two. Wales down 11 - where the crop of new Welsh Conservative MPs could be severely culled.
The ERS's work could intensify the debate over the rules for the redistribution - because they found it impossible to apply the rules the Coalition proposes. So we could find that rather technical issues about permitted variance from the electoral quota suddenly assume considerable importance when a committee of the whole House begins to chew on the bill on 12 October.
Not least because those issues will have a direct bearing on the career prospects of many of those who occupy the green benches of the Commons.
I'm Mark D'Arcy and I'll be writing about what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms at Westminster.
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