Refurbishing Westminster building could cost more than setting up Independent Scotland..

MPs and peers should not be moved out of the Palace of Westminster when it undergoes billions of pounds worth of repairs, the government minister in charge of the House of Commons has said.

A report is yesterday   conclude today that repairing Parliament’s crumbling buildings will cost the taxpayer at least £3 billion. But that figure could double to £6 billion if builders have to work around MPs and their staff and it would take many more years to complete the renovation.

Chris Grayling, the Leader of the Commons, told MPs this morning that he did not want to see MPs evacuated to a temporary location, suggesting it would undermine Britain’s democracy.

Giving the fact that there are 66 MPs (SNP.Plaid Cymru.SDLP and Sinn  Fein) who would gladly leave  the bloody place permanently it might be prudent to consider the future of Parliament  including  whether powers should be dissolved to an English Parliament or its regions before spending 6 billion  om a edifice that is crumbling faster than the state itself.

It is interesting to note that a disputed Treasury  claim that The cost of setting up an independent Scottish state could  have been  as much as £1.5bn, , but it may well be the total cost of repairing  the Westminster Parliament be more per head for Scottish Citizens than  setting up an Independent state.

So Scots will have to contribute towards the cost of a building many would like to se the back of as well as the annual running of a building in which the two chambers cannot accommodate all their members seated.

Personality be happy to see the end of Westminster as a Parliament and if we are to remain in the Union see a new building fit for a 21 century  democracy modelling the chamber on on the Scottish Parliament  or Welsh Assembly.

True the Scottish Parliament building  scheduled to open in 2001] it did so in 2004, more than three years late with an estimated final cost of £414 million,[many times higher than initial estimates of between £10m and £40m so a new Parliament building in London (Does it have to be London) would cost considerably more but unlikely 3-6 billion .

Misty eyed British Nationalist can then visit Westminster remembering the good old days of Victorian Values   where  the pesky working class were denied the vote  and the Scots and Welsh were wiling tools of that Empire.