Just how representative should parliament be?

I’ve been thinking about the whole 50% of the shadow cabinet must be women quota thing.  I am against quotas/all [trait] lists etc. Lazy people tend to blame this on the fact that I am a white man. 

There is obviously no way I could match the marvellous (and probably magical) Charlotte Gore's take ("Positively discriminate this"), and it would be pointless and embarrassing to try.  Edit: In an amazing coincidence Robstick has posted on the same topic this morning ("A Question of Equality")

So instead I thought I'd ask “What would make parliament a truly accurate reflection of the population?”

It’s true that parliament has a wildly different ratio to the UK as a whole:

Party	Sex	Percentage of population	Theoretical number of MPs	Actual Number of MPs	Actual % of MPs	Difference	Absolute % Difference
Total Parliament	Male	49.50%	322	509	78.3%	187	29%
	Female	50.50%	328	141	21.7%	-187	-29%
	Total			650
Conservative	Male	49.50%	151	265	86.6%	114	37%
	Female	50.50%	155	41	13.4%	-114	-37%
	Total			306
Labour	Male	49.50%	128	177	68.6%	49	19%
	Female	50.50%	130	81	31.4%	-49	-19%
	Total			258
Liberal Democrats	Male	49.50%	28	50	87.7%	22	38%
	Female	50.50%	29	7	12.3%	-22	-38%
	Total			57

But is the solution forcing the issue? Interestingly 47% of Welsh Assembly Members are women (at the last election), so it’s much closer here.  As far as I know Plaid are the only ones with a policy of positive discrimination which has lead to some controversy (see last link).

Party	Sex	Percentage of population	Theoretical number of AMs	Actual Number of AMs	Actual % of AMs	Difference	% Difference
Total	Male	49.50%	30	32	53.3%	2	4%
	Female	50.50%	30	28	46.7%	-2	-4%
	Total		60	60
Conservative	Male	49.50%	6	11	91.7%	5	42%
	Female	50.50%	6	1	8.3%	-5	-42%
	Total		12	12
Labour	Male	49.50%	13	10	38.5%	-3	-11%
	Female	50.50%	13	16	61.5%	3	11%
	Total		26	26
Liberal Democrats	Male	49.50%	3	3	50.0%	0	1%
	Female	50.50%	3	3	50.0%	0	-1%
	Total		6	6
Plaid Cymru	Male	49.50%	7	8	53.3%	1	4%
	Female	50.50%	8	7	46.7%	-1	-4%
	Total		15	15

Ethnicity

Parliament is actually much closer to an accurate reflection of ethnicity than of sex, but only because the numbers are so small:

Party	Ethnicity	% of population	Theoretical number of MPs	Actual Number of MPs	Actual % of MPs	Difference	Absolute % Difference
Total	White	92%	599	623	96%	24	4%
	BME	8%	51	27	4%	-24	-4%
	Total		650	650
Conservative	White	92%	282	295	96%	13	4%
	BME	8%	24	11	4%	-13	-4%
	Total		306	306
Labour	White	92%	238	242	94%	4	2%
	BME	8%	20	16	6%	-4	-2%
	Total		258	258
Liberal Democrats	White	92%	52	57	100.0%	5	8%
	BME	8%	5	0	0.0%	-5	-8%
	Total		57	57

But again I am not sure that forcing the issue is the answer. Not only that, but there are large variations in the demographics across the country from 29% of the population on London to 2% of the North East and South West (both in 2001).  Should a quota apply across the country or just in areas such as London? The North East has 29 seats and the South West has 55. For an accurate reflection the South West should have one BME MP and the North East none.  London’s 73 seats should have 21 of the theoretical 51 BME MPs.

Don’t get me wrong, I would be delighted with a representative parliament – different perspectives would improve it no end.  I wholeheartedly support the efforts of the many people working to increase the diversity of the various parties.  There are many barriers to getting involved and standing for election and for many groups these are, or appear to be, insurmountable.  Anything that breaks down these barriers is likely to be a good thing for parliament and democracy.  My difficulty is that if you go down the quota route, where do you stop?

Religion

It’s remarkably difficult to find details of MPs’ religion – particularly given the monitoring forms that everyone else has to fill in.  Should religion be a factor?  Mehdi Hasan appears to think it is important.  Should we try to ensure that there are 101 MPs with no religion, 465 Christian etc?  If so, which of the 24 Jewish MPs should be kicked out since (if you want to go down the quota route) they are clearly over-represented?

Religion	Percentage of population	Theoretical Number of MPs	Actual Number of MPs	Difference
Christian	72%	465
No religion	16%	101
Muslim	2.7%	18	8	-10
Hindu	1%	7
Sikh	0.6%	4
Jewish	0.5%	3	24	+21
Buddhist	0.3%	2
Other Religion	0.3%	2
Not Answered	7.3%	48

Disability

How about disabilities?  If gender, ethnicity and religion are important enough to warrant quotas (and arguments have been advanced elsewhere for all of them) surely disability is too?  

Disability	Percentage of population	Theoretical Number of MPs
All Disabled	18	115
Mobility	10	68
lifting, carrying	10	64
manual dexterity	4	29
continence	2	16
communication	3	21
memory/concentration/ learning	4	23
recognising when in danger	1	7
physical co-ordination	4	26
other	6	37

Sexuality

8.4% of men (=27 MPs) and 9.7% of women (=32 MPs) have had a same sex encounter.  2.6% have had a same sex partner in the last 5 years.  Accurate figures for homosexuality are hard to come by, but the general one used seems to be 3%. This would give 20 MPs.

Other

And then what about other traits?  97 MPs should be binge drinkers, 26 should be alcohol dependent, 150 should have mental health issues, should have used illicit drugs within the last month (and 455 should support the legalisation of cannabis) and 3 should be paedophiles. While obviously all unrelated, each of these would give a different outlook and set of experiences.  Should we ignore that or legislate for all of them?

Of course, the other problem with these quotas is, as mentioned above in the section on ethnicity, there is wide variation across the country.  As such any quota would presumably have to be on the basis of proportional representation.  If we’re having that...

Party	Percentage of vote	Theoretical Number of MPs	Actual Number of MPs	Difference
Conservative	36.1	235	306	+71
Labour	29	189	258	+69
Lib Dem	23	150	57	-93

I doubt the delightful Ms Harman will be advocating giving the Lib Dems an extra 93 MPs though.