UK Wide protests

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

The Dutch capital is Amsterdam. Their parliament meet in the Binnenhof in The Hague.

It's not without precedent and given we're the most centralised economy in Europe I'd say some pretty desperate measures need taking.

We are, after all, all in it together. If we end up moving government from the Palace of Westminster for a while anyway may as well ensure we get best use out of the new facilities.

I don't have an issue with moving them out whilst the repairs are being done. However I don't think it's feasible, economically sensible, or practically worthwhile to permanently move the Parliament.

We could look at moving other things out of London and ensuring new industries can develop in other places but if there is one thing London is historically and practically set up for it's being the capital of the UK and the home of it's Parliament. It's all there on Whitehall. The only snag is having to redevelop the Houses of Parliament themselves which we have to do anyway as it's one of our biggest historical attractions.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

The hypocrisy of the Palace of Westminster if it ends up being renovated and returned to service as seat of government is pretty grim. For a fraction of the cost Parliament could be moved elsewhere, achieving two worthwhile goals in one.
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I very much doubt that. I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but a new building would have to be constructed and the record of spending public money on such things is very poor. - Scottish Parliament for example - then all of the government depts and ministries are in London, you either relocate them too or you have to commute between locations as well as your constituencies.

Better off leave it where it is.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

They have been refurbishing the Houses of Parliament for many years, and there is no need for them to move out.

I worked there many year ago, and money is no object. The place is always being done up.

I think that this question is a 'red herring' considering it was mentioned just before the protest march.

Just to give you an insight into what they spend there. The gold that you see, is real. Not imitation stuff.

Can you imagine the outrage it would cause if the cost went into billions, and they agreed to it.

And everyone else is being hit by cuts

Unfortunately, Arthur, your viewpoint is not congruent with actuality.

A close friend of mine worked for a comms consultancy company (done lots of work for MOD and lots of foreign Governments in this area), and he was asked around 3 years ago to look at revamping the IT Infrastructure/Networks in the Houses. His month long review found huge issues that needed resolving before the IT work could begin, such as removal of lots and lots of asbestos, and rotting supporting walls/beams/etc. - even then, a rough quote was around £2 billion.

The current quote is in the range of £3 to £6 billion.

btw, is there anywhere you haven't worked?

btw2, what gold?

[Ramrod]

Probably on ornate wooden scrollwork.

Oh, gold leaf...

I was imagining hundreds of gold bars just lying around....

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

Probably on ornate wooden scrollwork.

Not on their pensions then?...


Rather like many areas of our infrastructure, the whole place has been patched up and botched in a fairly ad hoc manner for decades and this has exacerbated the problem we now face and there's a massive bill to put it all right.

[heero_yuy]

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