Three billion minimum to repair the Houses of Parliament

[dxg]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I rather suspect that was the point of the comment!


I really like the idea of relocating to Manchester / Birmingham. After all, HS2 will make that a practical commute from London.

But I fear we don't have it in us to create a building of the magnitude that the institution deserves. It will wind up looking like an out of town office block, class C in about twenty years. Or worse, like the Apple HQ.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

cirian75 said:

build a new one in Brum, watch how fast London declines.

And watch how fast parliament declines. It's a st job anyway. basing it in Brum would turn off the few decent people MPs, leaving us with 100% losers.

[Claudia Skies]

FourWheelDrift said:

Convert it into a combined hotel, club, bar and brothel.

Actually it needs no converting. Just throw the current squatters out.

I think you're getting confused with Buckingham Palace.

[FourWheelDrift]

They could move to the replica House of Commons at Wimbledon Studios.

http://www.thestudiotour.com/wimbledon/sets_common...

[p1stonhead]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

New Apple one is interesting though;

http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/apple/apple-spac...

[matchmaker]

Pity Enric Miralles is dead. If he could have designed a new one and Bovis made responsible for construction, £3billion would look like a drop in the ocean!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Parliament_B...

[spadriver]

Three billion? Easy, that would still leave twelve for foreign aid.

[Elroy Blue]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

And watch how fast parliament declines. It's a st job anyway. basing it in Brum would turn off the few decent people MPs, leaving us with 100% losers.

Perhaps we'd get people who want to actually do a decent job rather then ones who are in it for the perks

[V8 Fettler]

The building has got Wetherspoons written all over it.

[mph1977]

FourWheelDrift said:

Up until the reform act of 1832 there were included in the total 57 robber buttons rotten boroughs. All owned by the controlling MPs family and the most notorious was Old Sarum. It was owned by the Pitt family and it's voters consisted of 3 rather mangy cows, a Dachshund named Colin and a small hen in its late forties. Nobody had actually lived there since they all relocated to Salisbury in the 14th Century. Even with 57 removed there were still far too many for the House.

now the rotten boroughs have slightly bigger electorates but compared to the population and /or area of some other constituencies it's unsuprising that labour don't want reform as they might lose their inbuilt advantage

[Chlamydia]

matchmaker said:

Pity Enric Miralles is dead. If he could have designed a new one and Bovis made responsible for construction, £3billion would look like a drop in the ocean!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Parliament_B...

Christ yes, if the same people that did Holyrood were involved it'd be up to 20 billion before a shovel was lifted.

[z4RRSchris99]

according to those in the know the idea is to decamp for 5 years

[spadriver]

MPs would not feel comfortable enough in Starbucks, one reason being the pushchairs would stop them from streching out and the second reason is the constantly crying babies would keep them awake.Still, they could hold a massdebate over breastfeeding in public.

[McWigglebum4th]

It suddenly came to me


Our current crop of MPs don't deserve to be in the palace of westminster


Lets ship them out to some desolate industrial estate in the midlands

[jmorgan]

Leave them there and never repair it properly.

[RYH64E]

It would make sense to sell the asset and build something more suitable elsewhere, maybe keep part of the building for ceremonial purposes but the day to day business of parliament would be better carried out in a purpose built, modern building. The new building could include on site accommodation for MPs so that we don't need to fund second houses for them in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Like many things in life, if you started with a clean slate you wouldn't come up with the current situation, so why not take the opportunity to start again?

[jonah35]

Convert to flats or sell to a billionaire/big company.

Spend £5m building Houses of Parliament in Leeds or Manchester.

[Sway]

RYH64E said:

Like many things in life, if you started with a clean slate you wouldn't come up with the current situation, so why not take the opportunity to start again?

From my perspective, because we would lose more than we gained...

The quality of the people forming government vary, and always have done, however the institution of the British Parliament is something we should all be proud of. A big part of that is instilled through the environment Parliament sits.

After all, does anyone really have any faith that a fresh start wouldn't cost just as much or more, and the opportunity would be taken to further pet agendas and empire building? Far better for them to conform to the same environment that their predecessors occupied, than give them even more rope.

[Rosscow]

jonah35 said:

Convert to flats or sell to a billionaire/big company.

Spend £5m building Houses of Parliament in Leeds or Manchester.

£5m?! That wouldn't build you much!

[RYH64E]

Sway said:

A big part of that is instilled through the environment Parliament sits.

I don't see it that way, the process of government is 1% ceremonial and 99% administrative. Rather than throw another £3bn at a building that's never going to be fit for purpose I'd sell it and spend the money on a purpose made complex somewhere cheaper. Something like a big University style campus with accomodation, offices, restaurants, meeting rooms and debating chambers all on site. Central London is a terrible location for Parliament, it was perfect a couple of hundred years ago, but times change.