³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

The idea that disgruntled voters can force their MPs to face a by-election is extremely interesting. It looks as if the proposal, outlined in the Queen's speech this morning, requires 10% of the electorate in a constituency to sign a petition.

The idea was first floated several months ago as a response to the MPs' expenses scandal, but surely has other uses - such as when electors cast their vote for a political party which had promised to oppose the policies of another political party, but then changed its mind and joined that party in a coalition government.

In Cornwall, there was only one constituency (North Cornwall) where the combined anti-Conservative and anti-Liberal Democrat general election vote failed to exceed 10%. In every other Cornish constituency there would appear to be sufficient "anti-coalition" support to worry the MP. Will we now see petitions hoping to trigger by-elections on the grounds that voters had been sold a false prospectus?