Quietly, quietly, Suffolk is going to become just a little bit more influential. That's bad news for some...

Be afraid, be very afraid...

The newspaper headline at the station newsagent this morning reminds me that, whilst the population of the United Kingdom is growing, it is growing fastest in some unexpected places.

My quiet corner of the English countryside is one of them, and that means that the county has to manage that growth despite planning policies that rule out additional housing in the many small villages that dot the landscape, such as Creeting St Peter. Instead, towns such as Stowmarket, Sudbury and Haverhill come under pressure to absorb the new residents.

And, to complicate matters further, it is predicted that the county's population is aging too, with projections indicating that more than a quarter of Suffolk residents will be 65 or older by 2031.

That makes for a set of 'interesting' challenges for our political leaders over the next decade.

But it does also have an effect on the rest of you. One of the unexpected outcomes of the aborted Boundary Commission effort to draw up new Parliamentary constituencies was that, despite the proposed reduction from 650 to 600, Suffolk was slated to gain representation, not lose it, with a new 'Ely and Newmarket' constituency making seven and a bit, as opposed to the original seven.

Suffolk's seven MP's are currently all Conservative - they held on in both Ipswich and Waveney, much to my surprise - and adding the new seat will simply dilute a series of huge Conservative majorities to little political advantage for their opponents.

Oh well, I suppose that I might have to console myself that we might get some more services to deal with all of these newcomers. And, you never know, there might be a few more liberals about the place...