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Originally Posted by Damien
I don't see the merit in this. First all whilst there is too much centralisation in London it would seem to be that the centre of Government should be in the capital.
It's not just as if you would need to move the MPs themselves but also large chunks of the Civil Service and the Government machine. The MoD, the Home Office, the Foreign Office and the Treasury are just a few of the departments that would need to move what with ministers having to ferry between them often.
The capital also serves a useful place for meeting. There are direct trains and planes to London from almost every UK city, from almost any major city in the World in fact, that cannot be rivalled by anywhere else. It's not as if moving Parliament to Manchester will suddenly see Manchester Piccadilly gaining more commercial routes just because a few civil servants and MPs have to get up there.
It's also got a lot of history and existing traditions that the famous structures around Whitehall help display. The State Opening of Parliament would work weird if it was in a soulless office block just off the M60. That sense of history in fact is something that it would be a shame to lose. It's the home of the oldest parliamentary democracy in the World and when MPs sit in the chamber then they're surrounded by the history of who went before and what those people did.
Finally we have to renovate Parliament anyway. It's a famous historical landmark and a World Heritage Site. It would be cultural vandalism to let it decay into ruin for temporary populist appeasement and a little bit of saved money. Most of the buildings around it are fit for purpose anyway.
While we're at it I don't think the Government sitting anywhere else in the UK would make them more in-tune with the population. Just because someone lives in Liverpool or elsewhere doesn't make them an expert on the 'regions' across the UK.
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Couldn't they decant to somewhere else within London then? Perhaps Buckingham Palace to save HRH all that bedroom tax?
