XPost: soc.culture.scottish, soc.culture.irish, uk.media.tv.misc   
   From: pah@nojunkmailplease.co.uk   
      
   In uk.media.tv.misc on Sun, 21 May 2006, allan connochie wrote :   
   >   
   >Of course you are right it doesn't work like that and cabinet places   
   >shouldn't be given out by post-code. However there are 356 Labour MPs of   
   >which about 41 represent Scottish constituences. Hence statistically once   
   >rounded up you'd expect around 12% of the cabinet posts to be filled by   
   >members from Scottish Labour constituencies. So of the 26 main cabinet   
   >places youd expect there to be either 3 or 4 from Scottish consituencies.   
   >There are in fact  5 hence there is only one more cabinet member from a   
   >Scottish constituency than statistics suggest there should be.  Hardly major   
   >over-representation.   
      
   Opponents of the gov't us a different calculation though.   
      
   They point out that since Scotland's population is roughly 1/12 of the   
   UK's (5m/60m), the 'correct' number would be more like 2 places out of   
   26. Personally, it makes no difference to me what part of the UK they're   
   from - of far greater concern is how they are running the country.   
      
   IMO it's a red herring anyway - it would only be a problem if Scotland   
   were doing much better than the rest of the UK through this   
   'preferential' treatment. I see no evidence of that.   
   --   
   Paul 'Charts Fan' Hyett   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)