The Palace of Westminster, Mother of Parliaments, nada,
nada, nada. Yes, very nice, and don’t get me wrong, it’s very attractive… from
the outside. The inside is nice in parts too, but only in parts. You wouldn’t
want your office to be there for one thing – dark, gloomy, cramped (even for
senior Parliamentarians). And yes, it’s convenient for the eight-minute dash to
the voting lobbies – another absurdity in itself – but the offices in the
surrounding Parliamentary Estate are much nicer, with windows that let in
light, facilities that work reliably and space to keep all of the research
material that a modern Parliamentarian still needs.
“Ah, but,”, I hear you say, “it’s a UNESCO World Heritage
Site, and Grade 1 listed to boot.”. Well, yes, but is it really worth something
north of £3.5 billion to keep it standing up and drag it up to twenty-first century building standards?
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| credit - www.Greatbuildings.com |
Well, in truth, you could just hand back the keys to Her
Majesty – it’s a Royal Palace, after all – and opt to establish a new
Parliament, but where in central London could you find a site big enough to
build such a replacement? And even if you could find one, how much would the
land cost, let alone the building work that would be necessary?
The obvious answer, if my fellow provincials are to be
believed, is to move the whole show out of London, to Bradford, or the
Midlands, or somewhere that isn’t London. And yes, I can see the attractions. I
myself have noted the London-centric nature of our politics and of our decision
making, exacerbated as it is by the fact that so many of our key players –
Civil Service mandarins, corporate heads and politicians – live in or around London,
and spend much of their time in it.
But a capital is what it is for a reason, as a focal point
for governance (note I don’t say government), and it is helpful to have all of
the key personnel in one place. And don’t believe that video conferencing will
replace face to face networking and random encounters any time soon. If you
move the Parliamentarians, you would need to move all of the key civil
servants, policy advisors, and other paraphernalia of government with them.
Think of the cost, the disruption and the likelihood that the mindset would
merely change to reflect the attributes of the new location. You will feel no
nearer to government in Bristol if MPs and Peers sit in Creeting St Peter or
Cromford (although the mill does sound nice).
And it isn’t just government. All of those lobbyists,
voluntary sector representatives, national organisations, embassies and high
commissions, would want to move too. They want to influence, or meet with, government
too.
So, moving Parliament is not as simple as it might be, at
least, not on a permanent basis. It requires all sorts of support services,
accommodation and infrastructure, all of which is currently available in, or
around, London SW1.
On the other hand, you could just move Parliament out for a
while, knock down the old Palace and build something fit for purpose. That’s
almost as radical an option as moving out of London, and equally unlikely, I
fear…
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