Jack Straw is right to decouple the AV referendum from legislation to reduce the size of the House of Commons.

He says there is a risk of gerrymandering if independent boundary reviews are scrapped.

This led a furious Martin Kettle to denounce the Labour Opposition in the Guardian. He accused Labour of opportunism for deciding to oppose the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill which is to have its second reading in the Commons on Monday 6 September – the first day back after the shortened summer recess.

Last week, the Director of the Constitution Unit at University College London, Professor Robert Hazell, said: “Constitutional change is too important to rush in this way. These bills have been introduced with no consultation, no Green or White Paper, and the government now wants to push them through Parliament at equally reckless speed. Both bills raise important constitutional issues, which demand proper scrutiny in both Houses of Parliament”.

Spot on, I’d say.

Re-drawing constituency boundaries to reduce the size of the Commons to 600 from the 650 we have today is bound to be controversial given that the changes are to be all done and dusted before the anticipated date of the next General Election.

Just think of all the casualties.

With truncated appeal mechanisms, I can see only trouble ahead.

To my mind, the problem is not primarily about the size of the Commons but more about the independence of its members and their willingness to stand up, speak out and be counted.

And, by the way, the House of Commons in 1832 had 658 members for an electorate of 812,938.

We are 44 million now.