Scottish Parliament Building

Magnus Linklater, in the Scotland on Sunday, writes the best article I have yet read about our impending parliament building: Holyrood blockbuster in the making

In scale, concept, and sheer ambition, this is a truly extraordinary building. Nothing in it is, even remotely, commonplace.

As we’re about to enter the Fraser Inquiry, more nonsense is about to spout forth from all and sundry. I don’t know why anyone ever believed it would cost £40m anyway—that’s just ridiculous. £400m seems a far more realistic figure for such a unique structure and its contents.

I believe that Dewar and Miralles (Scotland’s first First Minister and the building’s Catalunyan architect, neither of whom can speak at the inquiry, of course) intended this building be representative of the parliamentarians who will use the building in the years to come; not those who are there at the moment, who are representative of nothing more than farce.

Scotland’s parliament will not be fully effective for another 15-20 years, when people who understand its powers and what good can be done for Scotland come through and are elected.

Sadly, I expect nothing more than muckraking and slinging from the current incumbents.