The Boundaries Commission has asked for public input on the question of constituency changes. It deserves to get it.

Regardless of whether people support the changes or not, they have the opportunity now to state how they wish to be represented in the future.

These are not easy questions, and in all the controversy about the means by which constitutional change should occur, there has been very little public discussion about them.

As a starting point, people need to consider whether they wish to be represented by a fixed number of MPs from one election to the next, or if the number should be set according to the population based on a fixed constituency size.

Under the first system, there would always be 30 MPs, for example, regardless of whether the population grew or not. Thus the 30 MPs might represent 1,000 voters each today, but 2,000 voters each at some time in the future if the electorate doubled.

Under the second approach, there could be 30 MPs each representing 1,000 voters, but that number would increase to 60 if the electorate doubled at some time in the future.

This is a fundamental question and the Boundaries Commission needs a sense of what the public wants. Until now, this debate has been driven almost entirely by politicians. Now it is time for the people to be heard.