Millions wasted on boundary changes that won’t happen could have paid for more than 500 nurses

The boundary commission revised changes to constituencies have been published today, even though Nick Clegg has said they won’t pass – despite Tory plans to bribe Clegg and his party which were mooted yesterday. The total cost of this boundary review is £11.9 million. That’s enough to pay for:

562 nurses

And even if we only count the money spent on the boundary changes after Clegg decided to make his MPs vote against, the money wasted – £4 million – would pay for:

188 nurses

Incidentally, there are 4,500 fewer nurses in the NHS than there were in 2010. Perhaps if less money was wasted on gerrymandering that won’t even happen, the government could have afforded to cut fewer nurses…