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.