Puginism

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It is with some interest and not a little vexation that I read that the restoration bill for the Palace of Westminster could reach £14bn over the next twenty years, and that the seat of British (soon to be English, hopefully) government will have to park itself somewhere else for the duration, an arrangement which will really annoy Jacob Rees-Mogg. But, no matter how iconic a building the place is, fourteen billion quid: I ask you? According to the Infamous-Red-Bus-Of-BoJo, that sum represents forty weeks of NHS funding that Europe was supposed, allegedly - no - falsely, to have nicked from us over the years of our membership of the EU.

If the tidal wave of Omicron infections turns into a tsunami of hospitalisations, the extravagance of such building preservation - never mind the billions already slid sideways into the pockets of every Tom, Dick & Del-Boy that Doris and his mates know - will stick very firmly in the craw of any right-minded person without access to the ticket office to the gravy train that is Tory cronyism and establishment folly (most of us). The artist in me says preserve the building. The pragmatist in me says it's simply not worth the cash.

I'm not the kind of Stalinist philistine who would sweep all aside in the service of modernism and Stakhanovite productivity, but at the moment we have far more pressing concerns before us, such as keeping the population safe and fed in the teeth of economic strife, and addressing climate change. It's worth reminding ourselves that the Palace, at the time of its construction, was considered rather modern and vulgar, a further reminder that all things are relative. Chartres, it ain't.

Rational and radical decisions, based on need and available resources have to be made, and not just for this bauble. My solution is simple. Ask half-a-dozen billionaires to pony up a small portion of their net worth each to pay for it. If they're so addicted to the old guard Establishment and the honours and opportunities it affords, then that should be the price of admission. Just don't make Poor ol' Joe Soap pay for it is all I ask.

Comments

  1. Joe Stoner29 December 2021 at 17:03

    We JUST need an equitable and operating system of taxation mate. NO hidden gravy-train rides!

    ReplyDelete

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