British Labour Party MP Oona King for being "too political'' when she threw her weight behind Government's proposed Constitutional changes.

Ms King, who also gave beleaguered Premier Jennifer Smith a boost, was right when she said afterwards that she was speaking at a political gathering; how could she not be political when she spoke? The major question is whether she was speaking for the British Government when she threw her weight behind the PLP's constitutional proposals and Opposition Leader Pamela Gordon is now seeking clarification from the Foreign Office on that.

The likelihood is that she was not, but was speaking only as a Labour Party backbencher.

It would have been quite another matter had Baroness Scotland, the Foreign Office Minister for the Overseas Territories, given the same speech.

Having said that, Ms King should perhaps have done more homework before speaking out on subjects she could not be expected to know very much about.

She spoke at some length about how the PLP and the Labour Party were going in the same direction, and how a commitment to democracy underpinned both parties.

That may be true; what was omitted in the speech was the fact that the British Labour Party has been experimenting with proportional representation, which the PLP has steadfastly rejected.

She also failed to note that British constituencies have some of the same inequities which exist in Bermuda.

Ms King's seat of Bethnal Green and Bow had an electorate in 1997 of 73,008, which is fairly typical of British constituencies, but not the rule; some have as many as 80,000 voters. Some have considerably fewer: Labour MP Ian Davidson -- one of the moving forces behind the British-Bermuda Parliamentary Group and an ally of the PLP in the UK -- represents Glasgow Pollok, which has an electorate of 49,284, roughly two-thirds the size of Ms King's.

The point is that determining one man one vote of equal value is difficult, whether it is in Britain or Bermuda, and regardless of whether they are dual seats determined by parish or single seats determined by "natural boundaries''.