Parliament of the Imperial Federation

"Freedom, Fraternity, Federation": The British Empire in 1886.

Assuming each seat represented 500,000 constituents, here is the representation by population for a "Parliament of the Imperial Federation," as envisaged once before World War I. The idea is now underfgoing a revival, thanks to the near-collapse of the EU.

Most of those currently pushing the idea speak of limiting it to the “developed” members of the British Commonwealth. The following are usually given as the most likely members:

England: 102 members

Canada: 68 members

Australia: 44 members

Scotland: 10 members

New Zealand: 8 members

Wales: 6 members

Northern Ireland: 4 members

Total: 242 members; population circa 121 million.

But Malta, Cyprus, Singapore, the Bahamas, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago now also seem to qualify as developed:

Malta: 1 member

Bahamas and other islands of the West Indies: 1 member

Barbados and other islands of the West Indies: 1 member

Trinidad and Tobago: 2 members

Singapore: 10 members

Cyprus: 2 members

Total: 257 members; population circa 128 million.

This is still, of course, far from the entirety of the “Anglosphere.” A number of big players are missing:

Ireland: 9 members

Jamaica: 6 members

USA: 628 members

India: 2410 members

Philippines: 207 members

South Africa: 98 members

There are obvious problems with incorporating some of these. The USA would dwarf the rest put together. India would dwarf the rest including even the USA, and flood the union with cheap labour. The Philippines would also be a huge injection of cheap labour; Jamaica a smaller one. Which might be either good or bad.

Leaving aside labour and wages, I cannot see a union working well with any one member too dominant. The danger of democracy is of any large majority bullying and oppressing any distinct minority.

Personally, I'd like to see a union including Ireland, the USA, Jamaica, and the Philippines. I would hope that including the Philippines would give enough counterweight to prevent complete domination by the US.

And since it's my fantasy, I guess I get my way.