Should Parliament close for up to five years so that it can be thoroughly renovated? There is a lot to be said for it. The whole building is looking tired, although it is still a magnificent building to spend time in. But it is not good for disabled people, although everyone does their best for us. If you push a walker, as I do, the first problem one has to confront may be one of the fire doors which only opens with a pass. They are so heavy I have to wait till someone comes by to help. Sometimes only half a double door is open, and again I have to get someone to open the other half. If I have to get down to the ground floor on the river side, I have to walk what seems like miles into the Commons end in order to take a lift down a floor, and then walk a long way back. Why doesn’t the existing Lords’ lift go down to the ground floor? Because, I am told, it would end up in the middle of the Commons’ kitchens.
As for mice – I haven’t seen any for a bit, but got quite fond of the mice in the Bishops’ Bar before their lunchtime bonanza was stopped by a strict regime of after -lunch hoovering.
There is certainly a lot of blue asbestos about, probably in the many fireplaces and chimneys. And the disabled lavatories all need renovating. If it rains, buckets in corridors aren’t unknown, and the windows are often either unopenable or uncloseable.
What is remarkable is that the building operates so well, given the number of people working in it, and the modern demands of both technology and security.
More money for the unelected.
Nothing like running extortion racket, using violence and its threat to feather your own nest. Expenses? That will do nicely. New offices? Not a problem, we’ll send the boys round and take 3K a year off minimum wage earners. After all, we need nice offices.
Dear Baronness,
I wish her Majesty makes some space for the House of Lords at Burkingham palace where it belongs. Hope her Majesty hears my little voice.
Message to her Majesty
Dear Queen,
I wish her Majesty hears my little voice and grant the House of Lords an office for them to hold their regular meetings. I am sure that her Majesty pays recognition to the good job of the Lords and their attachment to the traditional values of the Monarchy.I am sure that her Majesty reads this blog and hope that she will consider my suggestion to give her blessings to the right honorable lords to have their office at Burkingham palace. May her Majesty accept my suggestion and accomodate the lords as a tribute to their good jobs and their attachment to the traditional monarchical scope.
I hope her Majesty hears my little voice.
God save the Queen and the Lords. God bless the United Kingdom.
Yours faithfully
Nazma FOURRE
Like so many people at some time or other I used a pair of crutches to get round and even that is no easy task; pushing the doors open very difficult. Getting up slippery steps the devil’s own job.
The atrium in Portcullis house has probably been designed to take temporary full chamber meetings, of either house with some less permanent structure and of course there is Westminster Hall. Nobody would like it, but it does need to be done, and the mouse ridden House of lords should get the treatment first!
Temporary accomodation might well cause some wastage in membership too, which would be no bad thing.
I was a member of a club in Northumberland Ave called the RCS (royal commonwealth society) and they close dit doem gave all the books away, to nobody knows whom, and opened a 4 star hotel on the new site with a club which was a mere dining place on the ground floor, compared with value accomodation and excellent restaurant before the renovation.
Perhaps they could do the same with the top London club called the House of lords! A museum would be the best income generator, of all formerly UK colonial/imperial countries which now have democracies of one sort or another, or none.
Gareth – the atrium at Portcullis House is dominated by a large water trough surrounded by fig trees. There are lots of tables and chairs used by the coffee bar and the cafeteria, so that area wouldn’t be useable. Westminster Hall is also quite unsuitable. But you’re probably right in saying that temporary accommodation somewhere might reduce the number of Peers!
Nazma – Buckingham Palace eh? Now there’s an idea!
The Queen’s residence is no more suitable for this purpose than it was in 1834, but what about the nearby building named after Her Majesty?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7673377.stm
It turns out the Commons have even worse problems than the Lords, Portcullis House notwithstanding. At least the Lords Chamber is in a good condition; although plans are made to start work on the upper-level stonework and statues, I imagine sittings of the House could continue under a false ceiling. This is what happened in the 1980s, when the Chamber’s ceiling underwent restoration after a carved boss fell off and nearly landed on Lord Shinwell. (Imagine the scandal if a peer were struck dead like that, during a sitting of the House… I do not feel particular affection for Lord Shinwell, but I’d hate to see such a blemish on the history of the Lords.)
Except you kill people in other ways.
For example 600 million over a term. Think what could be achieved with that money spent on Doctors and nurses.
Aid is important to those who make huge salaries and bonus’s out of the pool it generates. And they are calling ‘green amber’ as their increases, per annum, are diminishing.
The West are persisting in forcing countries, against there sense of propriety, to accept a Western lifestyle that is directly against their health needs and social policies.
What is happening here is blackmail. Threatening to reduce AID in order to meddle in their affairs. This is an indication that the will to give is tied up with more than feeding the starving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnyhdOwsHYA
Feeding the world has nothing to do with Gay Rights. Our Aid money should not depend on other societies taking up our new standards of equality.
Nobody would like it, but it does need to be done,
Changing the shape of the chambers more in keeping with a multi-party democracy would be the first priority.
Twm O’r Nant – I quite agree. Sooner or later, the House of Commons will be elected by a proportional system, and then they really will have to change the shape of the Chamber. In the Lords, the cross benches are home to all those Peers who are not members of political parties, but there isn’t enough room for them all on the benches which are literally across the Chamber, so they have to sit at the end of the opposition benches.