By Cllr W Gwyn Hopkins
The current position is largely captured by the following table of the Tory Cabinet:
MEMBERS OF PRIME MINISTER THERESA MAY’S CABINET; JULY 2016
| NAME | POSITION HELD | CONSTITUENCY | Country of Constituency | COMMENT |
| Theresa May | Prime Minister | Maidenhead | England | Since 13/7/16 |
| Philip Hammond | Chancellor of the Exchequer | Runnymead & Weybridge | England | |
| Boris Johnson | Foreign Secretary | Uxbridge & South Ruislip | England | |
| Amber Rudd | Home Secretary | Hastings & Rye | England | |
| David Davies | Minister for exiting the EU | Haltenprice & Howden | England | ER Yorkshire |
| Liam Fox | International Trade | North Somerset | England | |
| Michael Fallon | Defence Secretary | Sevenoaks | England | |
| Damien Green | Work & Pensions | Ashford | England | |
| Priti Patel | International Development | Witham, Essex | England | |
| Justine Greening | Education (England only) | Putney | England | |
| Chris Greling | Transport (England only) | Epsom & Ewell | England | |
| Greg Clark | Business & Energy | Tunbridge Wells | England | |
| James Brokenshire | Northern Ireland | Old Bexley & Sidcup | England | |
| Jeremy Hunt | Health (England only) | South West Surrey | England | |
| Sajid Javid | Local Government (England) | Bromsgrove | England | |
| Liz Truss | Justice Minister (Eng & Wal) | South West Norfolk | England | |
| Karen Bradley | Culture/Media/Sport (Eng) | Staffordshire Moorlands | England | |
| David Mundell | Scotland | Dumfries/Clydesdale | Scotland | |
| Andrea Leadsom | Defra (England only) | South Northamptonshire | England | Envi/food/RA |
| Gavin Williamson | Chief Whip | South Staffordshire | England | |
| Patrick McLaughlin | Duchy of Lancaster | Derbyshire Dales | England | |
| David Gauke | Chief Secretary of Treasury | South West Hertfordshire | England | |
| Alun Cairns | Wales | Vale of Glamorgan | Wales | |
| David Lidington | Leader of the Commons | Aylesbury | England | |
| Natalie Evans | Leader of the Lords | Lives in Walford, England | Baroness | |
The 25-Member Cabinet is, of course, easily the most powerful and influential political body in the UK.
The table shows that 22 of the 24 Tory MPs in the Cabinet (92%) represent constituencies in England (English MPs – for short), with the 331-Member Conservative Parliamentary Party having 319 English MPs (96%). Even the current Parliamentary Labour Party has 89% of English MPs (206 out of 232). Moreover, implementation of the constituency boundary changes proposed by the UK Government today will mean that Wales’ House of Commons representation will soon reduce from the present “tiny” (40 out of 650 MPs – 6.2%) to “miniscule” (29 from 600 – 4.8%)
The prospects of Labour winning a Westminster General Election depends – to a very large extent – on whether or not it can substantially increase the number of its Scottish MPs from the current 1 to somewhere near the 41 it had before the 2015 General Election (of course, this is impossible in the – not unlikely – event of Scotland soon becoming Independent). This is irrespective of the current disarray within the Labour Party (and how it will “pan out”). The current strength of the SNP is such that Labour is highly unlikely to gain many of the 40 seats it lost to them in 2015 any time soon. Without its Scottish MPs Labour would have won only 3 General Elections since WW 2!
The constituency boundary changes announced today will also harm Labour’s chances of regaining power.
For Wales this will very likely mean continuous Tory Government for quite a long time, which means being governed by an enormous majority of English Tory MPs – in the Parliamentary Party and the Cabinet.
WHAT A PROSPECT!!
Although a small number of people in Wales already realise this, is there any prospect that it will at last “dawn on” an increasing number of them? The exclusively pro-Unionist media certainly won’t alert them to it.
It is, therefore, imperative for those of us who despise English Tory Rule (now so overwhelming) to publicise – continually and by every means possible – the fact that: The only choice for the people of Wales is now
LONG-TERM ENGLISH TORY RULE or HOME RULE
Gwyn Hopkins 13/9/2016
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