[djm]

You do raise an interesting point. There are certaintly problems with splitting the country into different constituency areas. For example, an MP representing a constituency with a small number of residents has the same voting ability in the commons as an MP representing a constituency with a larger population.

Your solution is problematic too though. If we simply voted for a party then we would no longer be electing local representatives which would mean that local issues would not have representation in the house of commons. It also creates the difficulty of deciding who would actually compose government - if we just voted for a party then does the party decide itself which individuals form government?

It's also important to keep in mind that the government and our elected MP's are two different things. MP's are elected to the house of commons, not to government. Whilst all members of the government are MP's the vast majority of MP's are not members of the government. Although they are constrained in voting by the whip system they do frequently address issues relating to their constituencies in the commons.

[waqf]

Maybe a delegated voting system, as discussed in http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2484995#?

[djm]

Thanks for digging that up, I hadn't seen it the first time it came around. It seems obvious now but I really hadn't given any thought to how fairness in voting systems would ultimately come down to math. I'm not going to dig into it now but I've bookmarked it for reading on a rainy day. Cheers :)