Apparently the renovations of the House of Commons propose desks to remain for the front benches, and benches with foldout trays for those in behind.
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Apparently the renovations of the House of Commons propose desks to remain for the front benches, and benches with foldout trays for those in behind.
Not sure how I feel about this. I note that the Mother of Parliaments has benches only, no desks. But Canada's #Parliament has always had desks.
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Apparently the renovations of the House of Commons propose desks to remain for the front benches, and benches with foldout trays for those in behind.
Not sure how I feel about this. I note that the Mother of Parliaments has benches only, no desks. But Canada's #Parliament has always had desks.
I am also curious about the direction that the Ho'C will accommodate a growing number of MP's.
I had a look at the data from Westminster. It is 46 by 68 feet 14 by 20.7 m (46 by 68 ft) and the benches only accommodate 427 butts, the remainder of the 650 have to stand at either end.
The Canadian HoC chamber is a bit bigger, 16 by 21 m (52 by 69 ft) with 343 seats with desks.
So, decades from now, when the Canadian population is enough that we exceed 650 MP's it looks like it will have to be SRO for some of them, even if they introduce all-bench seating, instead of having desks for the front bench.
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I am also curious about the direction that the Ho'C will accommodate a growing number of MP's.
I had a look at the data from Westminster. It is 46 by 68 feet 14 by 20.7 m (46 by 68 ft) and the benches only accommodate 427 butts, the remainder of the 650 have to stand at either end.
The Canadian HoC chamber is a bit bigger, 16 by 21 m (52 by 69 ft) with 343 seats with desks.
So, decades from now, when the Canadian population is enough that we exceed 650 MP's it looks like it will have to be SRO for some of them, even if they introduce all-bench seating, instead of having desks for the front bench.
@RuthODay2 The British HoC was bombed during WWII, and MPs considered how to rebuild it. Semicircular is popular for modern legislatures, should they do that? No, they decided they wanted the adversarial nature of facing benches.
What about making it large enough for all MPs to fit? Seems crazy to have a chamber too small for its occupants... No, best to keep dimensions that allow for an intimacy in debate, no need to use microphones, make a member stand at a rostrum, or shout.
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@RuthODay2 The British HoC was bombed during WWII, and MPs considered how to rebuild it. Semicircular is popular for modern legislatures, should they do that? No, they decided they wanted the adversarial nature of facing benches.
What about making it large enough for all MPs to fit? Seems crazy to have a chamber too small for its occupants... No, best to keep dimensions that allow for an intimacy in debate, no need to use microphones, make a member stand at a rostrum, or shout.
@RuthODay2 Those may not have been the right decisions, but they show attention to factors that are relevant for debate, but are not obvious.
As for size, we could easily keep the number of MPs the same and increase the number of citizens per constituency; that's what the US has done federally [0]. There's nothing magical about our current target of 100 000 citizens per riding.
[0] Though generally, if something is a feature of American government, it's probably wise to do the opposite...
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@RuthODay2 Those may not have been the right decisions, but they show attention to factors that are relevant for debate, but are not obvious.
As for size, we could easily keep the number of MPs the same and increase the number of citizens per constituency; that's what the US has done federally [0]. There's nothing magical about our current target of 100 000 citizens per riding.
[0] Though generally, if something is a feature of American government, it's probably wise to do the opposite...
Decades ago I heard of a rule of thumb for the size of a legislature then came across it again, recently: the cube root of the population. On this basis the hoserian HoC would have 345, the UK would have 410, and the usian House would have 698.
It would be interesting to compare shape of the legislature versus effectiveness.
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Decades ago I heard of a rule of thumb for the size of a legislature then came across it again, recently: the cube root of the population. On this basis the hoserian HoC would have 345, the UK would have 410, and the usian House would have 698.
It would be interesting to compare shape of the legislature versus effectiveness.
@RuthODay2 On the one hand, it's nice for citizens to have a representative with not too many constituents, so that they can receive more individual attention; on the other hand, giant legislatures make individual MPs less important.
#Subsidiarity is part of the answer, I suppose.
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Apparently the renovations of the House of Commons propose desks to remain for the front benches, and benches with foldout trays for those in behind.
Not sure how I feel about this. I note that the Mother of Parliaments has benches only, no desks. But Canada's #Parliament has always had desks.
@mpjgregoire only first class up front will have desks. In coach they will try to pack more seats with less legroom and narrower seats. By making coach as miserable as they can, they hope MPs will be willing to bribe the PM for a first class seat
I think making centre aisle narrower might allow addition of a row and thus allow growth in nunber of MPs while keeping desks. -
@mpjgregoire only first class up front will have desks. In coach they will try to pack more seats with less legroom and narrower seats. By making coach as miserable as they can, they hope MPs will be willing to bribe the PM for a first class seat
I think making centre aisle narrower might allow addition of a row and thus allow growth in nunber of MPs while keeping desks.@jfmezei But if we make the centre aisle less than two sword-lengths in width, we're going to have dueling again..
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@mpjgregoire only first class up front will have desks. In coach they will try to pack more seats with less legroom and narrower seats. By making coach as miserable as they can, they hope MPs will be willing to bribe the PM for a first class seat
I think making centre aisle narrower might allow addition of a row and thus allow growth in nunber of MPs while keeping desks.@jfmezei @mpjgregoire Maybe it will force them to require more legroom in economy by law.
*draws cutlass for self-defence* (no, I don’t own a cutlass)
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