Why Clement Freud would be smiling at the boundary review

I have probably spent far too much time looking at parliamentary boundaries over the last few days. I have been trying hard to get my head around the Boundary Commission’s proposals and their implications – and I haven’t even got beyond the East of England region yet. However, I have come across one proposed change that I reckon would get the approval of a much loved former Liberal MP.

The late Sir Clement Freud famously won the Isle of Ely by-election in 1973 and went on to represent that part of North East Cambridgeshire until 1987.

Under these new proposals it turns out that the City of Ely is to be combined with the Suffolk town of Newmarket to create the new Newmarket and Ely seat. A seat that would therefore contain the whole of Newmarket Racecourse.

Given that Sir Clement was a passionate follower of horse racing and an enthusiastic gambler I suspect that this new seat would have suited him down to the ground. I reckon he would be smiling at the prospect. Well, maybe not smiling. Possibly raising a lugubrious eyebrow above a dead pan face, but nevertheless, he’d be pleased.

This content was originally posted on my old Strange Thoughts blog.