Personally, I'd prefer a wider variation of constituency sizes. In particular, Birmingham should be a single constituency, and that's ten MPs at the moment, or about eight on our proposal to reduce the size of constituencies, while there probably should be three single member seats (Orkney & Shetland, Na h-Eileanan an Iar and Isle of Wight).
A great advantage of multi-member constituencies, especially if you have a wide variation of sizes, is that you can draw boundaries based on real communities rather than on population and just add an extra MP when a seat gets too big, or lop one off when it gets too small. At some point you would have to merge or split constituencies, but probably only a handful in each review, which could easily be made every 20 years, while number of MPs per seat could be adjusted each election based on the actual electoral roll on the day.
Some example constituencies, to show the advantages:
Birmingham London, East End London, West End Inner London, South of the River Cornwall Bristol Surrey Highlands (of Scotland) Glasgow Borders (within Scotland) Cumbria
The most difficult are the large towns / smaller cities which presently have 1-3 MPs and where county seats get impractical. Hampshire, for example, currently has 18 MPs but has no natural divisions other than Portsmouth (2 MPs) and Southampton (2.5 MPs).
no subject
A great advantage of multi-member constituencies, especially if you have a wide variation of sizes, is that you can draw boundaries based on real communities rather than on population and just add an extra MP when a seat gets too big, or lop one off when it gets too small. At some point you would have to merge or split constituencies, but probably only a handful in each review, which could easily be made every 20 years, while number of MPs per seat could be adjusted each election based on the actual electoral roll on the day.
Some example constituencies, to show the advantages:
Birmingham
London, East End
London, West End
Inner London, South of the River
Cornwall
Bristol
Surrey
Highlands (of Scotland)
Glasgow
Borders (within Scotland)
Cumbria
The most difficult are the large towns / smaller cities which presently have 1-3 MPs and where county seats get impractical. Hampshire, for example, currently has 18 MPs but has no natural divisions other than Portsmouth (2 MPs) and Southampton (2.5 MPs).