New boundaries: 'Campaigners are likely to be disappointed'

THE officials charged with sorting our electoral boundaries have something in common with the managers or Hearts and Hibs – they'll never make everybody happy.

Any redrawing of almost any line by the Boundary Commission for Scotland might correct one particular anomaly – but as often as not it throws up another problem. Every single time the map is changed someone has a grumble.

So it is again this time around. And, on the face of it, it does make little sense for Midlothian to be split in two, or for Musselburgh to be moved about yet again.

And why anyone thought it was right to take Newtongrange and Gorebridge and lump them together with parts of the Borders is a complete mystery.

MSP Jeremy Purvis is leading the charge, calling the changes "flawed, perverse and inconsistent". He'll be hoping to have some influence on his fellow Lib Dem Danny Alexander when the new Scottish Secretary comes to consider the Commission's proposals.

Local opposition is entirely understandable, especially when people see traditional links broken and neighbours left in different seats with other MSPs representing them.

But they should be prepared for disappointment in their campaign to force a rethink. The Commission has already had to go back on various points and says that these are its final proposals, and that they are in line with statutory requirements.

On the plus side for the complainers, there's bound to be another set of boundary changes coming around sometime soon.

And if a mood for a more radical redrawing of boundaries takes hold – especially among Tories with larger English constituencies at Westminster – these latest changes could be as nothing.

Loud and proud

FRANKLY, football anthems are rarely any good – especially when Scotland hasn't made it to the World Cup.

There are already dozens of unofficial England anthems on the internet, and presumably an official FA track will be upon us soon, as an unwelcome reminder of our own failure to qualify.

But help is at hand in the form of a new album of Scottish football favourites. Play it loud and it may just drown out the chants of "1966!" – or the cries of grief as another vital English penalty is missed.