Boundary Commission carves up the Highlands
May 22, 2009 · Filed Under Politics
Quite incredible proposals by the boundary commission to slice the Highlands into just 3 pieces – with one poor sod of an SMP expected to cover something in the range of “everything north of the Black Isle” in Scotland (see image above).
The article covers the general outrage from the local politicians:
Boundary plans ‘utter madness’
In the meantime, Nairn gets lumped together with Inverness as a single proposed constituency.
Good idea, really?
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Understandable surprise – nay outrage – in the press article from current MPs and other observers about the size of the proposed new (North West) Highland consituency of Caithness, Ross and Sutherland.
What is of more concern to Nairn in the new proposals is the extent to which they reinforce the Inverness-Nairn axis. This is likely to be disastrous, and to result in Nairn’s interests and priorities being neglected or ignored even more than at present. The new constituency of Inverness and Nairn would also separate Nairn even more from the Moray Firth Coast region of which it is a natural part. At least in the existing constituency, Nairn is grouped with only part of Inverness, and the inclusion of Lochaber (even though that area has few links with Nairn) helps to counterbalance the dominance of Inverness.
So… a radical suggestion. Why don’t we lobby the Boundary Commission for the redrawing of the boundary to bring Nairn together with Moray? There used to be such a constituency, pre-devolution.
Two obvious arguments. First, the traditional ‘shire’ of Nairn has a lot more in common geographically, economically and structurally with Moray (eg both border the Firth, both have small urban centres and significant agricultural and natural hinterlands). Second, a linkage at this political level with Moray would give Nairn a counterweight to the administrative ‘pull’ which Inverness exercises via the Highland Council, and which largely operates to Nairn’s disadvantage.
Some people just don’t know where to draw the line do they?
Interesting on the Inverness-Nairn axis – further reporting suggests that Nethy Bridge, Boat of Garten, and Grantown would also be included in the same constituency. A way of diluting the influence of Inverness, perhaps?