Voting reform is a distraction – there are more important battles for democracy

The Lib Dems (and others) are still hankering after proportional representation, but there are other struggles to be fought first, says John Rentoul

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Two big constitutional changes are now paused while parliament is in recess until September. One is the bill giving the boundaries commissions their instructions for updating the map of UK constituencies for the next election. The other is the law to replace the Fixed-term Parliaments Act (FTPA), which is still at the consultation stage and hasn’t been published.

So before MPs and peers dispersed for August, they had a chance to take their constitutional hobby horses for a short canter around the paddock, when the House of Lords debated the Parliamentary Constituencies Bill this week, and when Chloe Smith, the constitution minister, gave evidence about the government’s policy on the FTPA to a Commons select committee last week.

Most enjoyable was the hereditary Earl of Clancarty explaining to the Lords on Monday why proportional representation is a good thing. He is a British and Irish peer, and also, as Marquess of Heusden, a member of the Dutch nobility, who is elected to sit in the upper house – by his fellow hereditary peers.