(Hertsmere)
(Con): The obvious example to cite is India. According
to a House of Commons briefing, it has on average 2,192,379
electors per representative.
Mr (Forest of Dean)
(Con): My hon. Friend makes a good point. I am not
proposing that we reduce the size of this Parliament to that
extent, but if a legislator in a similar type of system is
capable of representing more than 2 million people, I do not that
our rather modest changes should be completely beyond our wit.
(Richmond (Yorks))
(Con):...This House is frequently compared with others
around the world. One comparison I have heard is that this House
is larger than the US House of Representatives and the US Senate
combined, which is a surprising statistic given that the United
States has five times the economy and five times the population.
But, as has often been pointed out, the legislature of a federal
republic and that of a unitary parliamentary democracy such as
ours cannot be so easily and directly compared. It may be more
appropriate to touch on some of the other parliamentary
democracies around the world—systems that have emulated our
Westminster-style of government. Japan is one such example. It
has a population of 127 million, but its House of Representatives
has just over 450 Members; a Japanese Member of Parliament has,
on average, 270,000 constituents. The Canadian House of Commons,
again similar to ours, has only 330-odd Members, with each
Canadian MP representing more than 100,000 constituents.
Australia is leading the charge on having a streamlined lower
House, with only 150 MPs. It was with interest that I noted the
constituency of Richmond in Australia boasted 35,000 electors
more than my constituency of Richmond in Yorkshire. As an aside,
because we are here on a Friday, I thought it was worth noting
that Richmond is the UK’s most copied international place name,
with more than 55 Richmonds to be found across the world, in
places as diverse as South Africa, India and Germany—
(Thirsk and Malton)
(Con): And London.
: And indeed
London. My hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Zac
Goldsmith) is not in his place, but he will of course know that
Henry VII, the earl of the original Richmond in Yorkshire, was so
taken with the place that he decided to rename that part of
London called Sheen and build a palace there in honour of the
Richmond in Yorkshire—but we digress...
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