The Problem: Pariliament needs a new home to enable vital refurbishment of the Palace of Westminster.
The Solution: Move Parilaiment to Buckingham Palace.
According to a Guardian article from February 2022, renovating parliament could take 76 years and cost £22 billion. But if MPs moved out, the cost would be much less and the process much quicker.
The perfect location for parliament to move to is Buckingham Palace – it already has the security required, it follows the tradition of the Royal Family offering a palace to house parliament, and it is close enough to Whitehall to minimise operational disruption from a move outside the city.
And, conveniently, King Charles has already said that he does not wish to move into Buckingham Palace, so there is capacity to convert it for parliamentary usage.
Other London palaces could be used to host foreign leaders, such as Kensington, St James, or even Windsor Castle, so there would be no diminution in Britain’s capacity to provide royal banquets and other such events that help our standing on the global stage.
And the annual garden parties and New Year’s Honours List ceremonies could be moved to other palaces, starting a new tradition under King’s Charles, while still continuing to provide a Royal occasion for those who provide public and charitable service to be recognised and rewarded for their work.
Such a shift also affords the opportunity to deliver small modernisations to how parliament is run, keeping important traditions and pomp and ceremony as much as possible, but also adapting better to modern living conditions, such as including more women’s toilets, offering childcare facilities, better enabling remote speeches and voting to allow MPs to spend more time in their constituencies rather than in London, and providing a bigger public gallery so more people can watch democracy in action.
Much, and perhaps all, of the required security infrastructure is already in place at Buckingham Palace, so that key consideration is not a barrier to this idea as it might be for other locations. And Buckingham Palace’s proximity to Whitehall is about the same as Westminster’s, keeping government departments close to MPs.
Something has to be done to fix the Palace of Westminster, current home to Parliament, and it is far better for all concerned, including the public purse, if MPs move out to allow the renovations to be carried out quickly and cost-efficiently. Buckingham Palace offers a location that can be quickly made ready for such a move with minimal disruption to MPs working processes and minimal cost to the public purse.
It's time for Parliament to have a new home. Where better to move from the Palace of Westminster than just a few hundred yards up the Mall and into Buckingham Palace?
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