Polls are predicting the Tories will be victorious in 2020 – let’s make sure we reform our first past the post system before then

POLLS predicting a Tory landslide in 2020 are even more extraordinary when you remember that the election system has been biased in Labour’s favour for years.

Population shifts have left them needing fewer votes on average to win their seats than the Tories.

So ignore Labour supporters claiming next month’s review of parliamentary boundaries is a ruse to rob them of 30 MPs and skew elections the Tories’ way.

It will just even up constituency populations — and the sooner the better.

Our “first past the post” system isn’t perfect, but it beats the alternatives.

Yet its public support will wither if votes increasingly carry unequal weight.

Backing these changes will be hard for MPs whose constituencies may vanish.

But reforming boundaries is more vital for our democracy than their jobs.

Phil the coffers 

OUR new Chancellor intends to get tougher than the last on tax avoiders.

Great.

We know where to start.

Avis staff seem happy to slap a random “Brexit tax” on Brits.

The firm is less keen to pay tax on its own profits.

Not a penny of £9.3 million made in the UK last year was paid to the Treasury.

The biggest scandal is not that big firms do it.

It’s that our law lets them.

George Osborne considered them too important to chase for tax, unlike small companies.

That was grossly unjust.

Philip Hammond must insist that profits made here will be taxed here — in full.

EU shambles

FOR proof of how hopelessly unwieldy the EU is, look at the apparent collapse of its landmark trade talks with the US.

Three years of squabbling between 28 member states, as well as with the Americans. Result?

Stalemate.

How much easier it will surely be for Britain alone to sign a free trade deal with the States and many others.

And the huge influx of investment, admittedly seen in pre-referendum figures, shows what a powerhouse we have become.

Maybe the two-year exit deadline triggered by Article 50 will focus EU minds on striking a new deal with Britain.

Somehow we doubt it.

Non starter

THE sole result of Calais sending its illegal immigrants on to Britain for processing would be even more turning up in France.

Once they saw it as a sure route here, they would pour in.

Many would opt to stay in France.

Others without valid papers would be barred from Channel ferries or trains to the UK.

Ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy has his own reasons for wanting the deal he signed in 2003 torn up.

Logic isn’t one of them.