TIME TO SHUT THE PLACE DOWN AND START AGAIN?

According to a story on the BBC website, there are toilets in the House of Lords which require an upgrade because they haven't been improved since the 1990s (how terrible) and the state of them is of concern to members and distinguished visitors. The cost is estimated at around £100,000 of your money and mine.

This is indeed a worry.

After all you would think that the aristocrats and "distinguished visitors" who make use of these facilities, and the staff who maintain them, could manage to keep them in a state which would not be "of concern". You know, most of us manage with the odd wipe around with disinfectant and Flash .... (No pun intended, John Brownlie!).

The inordinate cost is apparently down to the fact that English Heritage lists the Palace of Westminster as a Grade 1 building, with attendant consequences.

This is in addition to the renovations which are required to bring the whole building up to standard, which have been estimated to cost somewhere in the region of £1.5-£2 billion.

If this royal palace is starting to become a massive liability to the people of the UK, then isn't it time that MPs and Peers looked at moving to a building more in keeping with the austerity that the rest of us are obliged to live under, leaving the current building to be made into a museum and for use on state occasions.

In any case, it has always seemed to me to be wrong that the UK parliament is housed in a royal palace within which normal laws do not apply. It adds to the impression these people seem to have of being a bit above the rest of us.

It may, then,  be time for parliamentarians to consider moving to cheaper, more practical accommodation on the outskirts of London, or maybe Birmingham, Liverpool, or why not Newcastle, for day to day work.