Houses of Parliament renew?

 We all know that this building is being neglected and will probably fall down soon without action. Some of you will know this is not a building I admire and if it were to fall down I would not feel particularly upset. However many people think it should be preserved and much discussion has taken place but no action has followed. The longer the the parliamentarians take to wake up the more expensive the process renovation will be and probably the longer it will take.

 

One of the causes of dispute is whether or not the Houses of Parliament shouls consider sitting whilst the renovation is being carried. It is obvious to any sensible person that closing the whole building down and renovating it whilst empty be the would be the best option. The question now is what would happen and how will parliament function if the Houses of Parliament are closed. It would be a great opportunity for a serious rethink of how they work.

 The first major step would be for the hoiuses to sit most of the time virtually. Anyone who watches parliament live will rea;lise that for most of the time most MP's and probably Lords do attend the chamber to listen to discussions. A bell rings and they all troop along to vote, I sometimes wonder if they even know what they are voting about, they certainly have not listened to the debate but have been told how to vote. Nost of this could be done online, some of this was done during the Covid emetgency. my poroposal would be that parliament should only meet in person one week per month, that shoud be sufficient to talk in perspn to other MP's. 

More controversially they should meet for differnt weeks in different places. There would be twelve weeks for paliament to meet, I suggest two each  in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London, in alphabetical order and one each in Birmigham, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle. I believe that in the past the sovereign would process around the country. Given a timescale of about 10 years this would give plenty of time for everone to get used to the idea. It would also move the focus away from London and England, note that parlimant would only meet in Enland half the time. 

This should be combined with some other reforms. One that is needed are the rules about doing work outside of parliamentary duties. It would be a mistake to ban this completely because some MP's do useful work and it keeps them in touch with their previous lives. However anything they earn would be put into the fund for the renovation of the Houses of Parliament.  It would then be clear how many are just doing it for the money rather than for helping them keep in touch. I am sure that being on TV programmes is good for their profile but that will happen whether the pocket the money or not.  

Another beef I have had  for a long time is the provision for office and secretarial staff for MP's in their constituencies. These should be provided by the civil service and not used as slush funds. If the office is provided centrally it will stay in the same place and at least one or two wokers should be there permanently. It has never seemed to be good practice for work an MP has done for a constituent of business should be tied to that individual. I realise that sometimes a new MP may not feel that they wish to support somehtinga previous MP has been involved with but they should have the integrity to say so.

 

 

 

 

Who defends the antisemites?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/01/antisemitism-racism-jews-britain, this is one of the most depressing articles I have read for many years.

Like many jews, not religious, but clearly of jewish heritage, it had seemed to me that many of those who supported Palestinians and opposed their treatments by the Israeli state as being genuinely concerned about the Palestinian people. In discusions which I did manage to have with the supporters it seemed they could never answer the question of what about the Jewish population of Israel. There seemed a blank in their brains or their thinking when faced with this question. 

The population of Israel and Palestine combined, "the land between  the river and the sea", is about 15 million split roughly equally between Jews and Arabs. These figures are all disputed by various sources. Thje Jewish population is also split roughly equally between those whose me recent heritage is Europe/USA and the middle east, coumtries like Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey amongst others.

How to resolve the conflict between the two main groups of of the population is not easy. One solution which seems to be popular with extremist is simply "genocide", eliminate the other side, this is the stand of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian state on one side and of the present Israeli government and many of the settlers on the West Bank. Inevitably if someone chooses one side or the other they are forced down the difficult path of seeming to support genocide.Is this the reason that that those who join marches in support of the Palestinans have difficulty answering the quastion, what ahppens to the Jewish population. 

I had liked to think they were embarrassed  by this conclusion, perhaps they still are but more worryingly perhaps they support the genocide of jews. To put it differently may be they are just antisemitic. Jeremy Corbyn has expressed his horror on both Instagram and Twitter I am glad to say, just as he did over the attack on the synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur. Is there any action, perhaps a dem,and for a march in support of Jewish people in Britain. It is interesting to compare his reaction to the terrorist attack oin Finsbiry Park some yearts ago, His defence might be that he is the MP for the area but his comments on the recent antisemitic attacks are by his standards very mute and generalist, they can be found on Facebook and Instagram. The organisation "hope not hate" been vocal in supporting British jews, a statement on Instagram, again not exactly running to the barricades.

Before finishing this blog it seemed like a good idea to look at some other comments. One was from one f the organisers of "Stop the War Coalition". I had never looked at their website before and it horrified me. It doesn't seem to be against war, merely against Israel. The title seems innocent but the content is entirely aimed at Israel and is a platform for the more extreme plastinian causes. There seem,s to be no recognitioom that  Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran aand the Houthis have been waging war on Israel for the last twenty years or so. Israelis have been driven from their homes in the north of Israel by constant rocket attacks. Hamas have been firing rockets from Gaza into Israel for sometime and as we saw on October 7th would cheerfully murder Israeli civilians and burn them in their homes. What is also shows that if the Palestinian groups had the same fire power as the Israeli grovernment they would behave with the same diregard for human life. Not a very comforting thought. If "Stop the War Coalition". is not just a front for the war mongers on the Palestinian side where is the balance in their stand. It is difficult not to see them as AntiSemitic organisation. 

If peace is to be achieved in the the Middle East it will not be though one-sided marches or campaigns, it will have to come through dialogue and  a realisation that evryone who lives there jas a right to live in peace.The tragedy is that the actions of Hamas on October 7th has put thos ehope back by 50 years, that is an optomistic guess.

I do not see how anything that the groups supporting thge Palestinian cause will do anything in Britain except encourage antisemitism. Probably Netanyahu would like nothing better. Harass jews in Britain, attack the current government, and hope for more emigration to Israel. Perhaps the antisemites in these organisation would like to drive jews from Britain.