HOW many MPs sit in the House of Commons? Nice round number – 650, though of course if all are present many are unable to sit. You might remember the intention of David Cameron’s government to reduce the number – by 50. There still wouldn’t be seats for all. But Theresa May has quietly abandoned any reduction.

Presumably, with her flaky majority she daren’t risk tampering. Even if tilted towards her own party, the plan might backfire. It’s happened before.

In any case, 50 shaved off 650 really is neither here nor there. It’s my strong conviction that the number of MPs could be slashed by half with no adverse effect.

The example of William Hague’s packed diary as a star on the speakers’ circuit, while remaining Richmond’s MP after giving up the Tory leadership, spoke volumes on this. Literally volumes, too, since he also managed to produce weighty biographies of William Wilberforce, the anti-slave campaigner, and William Pitt the Younger, prime minister at just 24. There were business link ups too, and at the time I suggested a single MP for North Yorkshire might do.

Now we have Sir Michael Fallon, one-time Darlington MP, powerfully, if inadvertently, making the case for a drastically slimmed down House of Commons. Out of ministerial office since quitting as defence secretary, he remains MP for Sevenoaks. Yet a few days ago he popped up in the distinctly un-Kentish setting of Teesside, not with any constituency or indeed government business on hand. No – a former energy minister, Sir Michael was promoting the offshore wind industry. He explained that besides his constituency duties he was “pursuing different business interests. This is one of them”. Perfectly legal of course. But if Sir Michael is so readily able to pursue what his words suggest is a clutch of business interests it does pose the question of whether an MP has enough to do. Beyond that, I would say that the practice of MPs, especially former ministers, taking outside work has “Rotten Borough” stamped all over it: a contemporary equivalent of the system whereby MPs were returned for places with few voters while major new cities, like Birmingham, were unrepresented.

It might even be said that the knowledge of lucrative fall-back jobs if a political career goes belly-up might well influence a cabinet minister’s work, though I wouldn’t for a moment level such an accusation at Sir Michael, a honourable man as demonstrated by his resignation. Of course William Hague’s probity is far beyond question. Still, there is a serious issue here. By the time MPs return to the Palace of Westminster after its imminent six-year £4bn restoration, there should be more than enough seats for every MP – without adding an inch to their chamber. As for the Lords, they shouldn’t return in anything like their present form. An even-riper rottenness swells there.

DON’T know about you, but I would be embarrassed beyond words if my mother lobbied on my behalf for a job. Assuming Prince Charles knew his mother was about to make that pitch no wonder he looked strained walking with her into the Commonwealth gathering. Or was that because he feared the accident of birth might not, just this once, work its customary magic?