Professor John Robertson OBA
Thanks again to Dottie for this:
From the Standard yesterday:
A new front door at a main entrance to the House of Lords, that cost nearly £10 million, does not work, it has been disclosed. The project has been described as “a complete white elephant and a disaster”.
Peers heard a member of parliamentary staff had to be permanently stationed at the door to press a button to open it. It also emerged that the price tag of the project spiralled by nearly 60% from the original estimate of £6.1 million.
What else could we do with that £10 million? Could CalMac use it better?
They did in 2024, freezing all fares to the Scottish Isles and West Coast ports at the cost of £10 million. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/23618570.ferry-ticket-prices-fares-freeze-extended-2024/
Maybe one of the CalMac welders could go down and weld that door….shut!
Talking-up Scotland 
spiralled by nearly 60% from the original estimate of £6.1 million.
No one ever thought that a price of £6.1 Million was a ridiculous price to pay for a door in the first place?
An obscene waste of taxpayers money, can the Lords just blow any amount they feel like without any kind of audit?
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If a door for UK Westminster Parliament costs ten million pounds (£10,000,000 ). What is the agreed budgeted cost to refurbish the UK Westminster Parliament? Fa kens.
UK Westminster Government dictated and still does that Westminster is to be “refurbished” whatever the cost. £10,000,000 – Ten Million Pounds for one door that disnae work.
How much for the edifice to empire? Who pays ? It’s remaining Colonies’s resources including Scotland and Wales.
Any further comments about CalMac is answered by Westminster Government, Labour and Tory splashed £10,000,000 – Ten Million pounds on a door that disnae work.
Dottieb
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Can you imagine if this was at the Scottish Parliament the out cry from the Yoons would be heard for months just as they did and still doing about the Ferries,all aided by the likes BBC Scotland unionists,
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£10million ! For doors! That don’t work. Let me hazard a guess as to why this isn’t all over the msm, oh yes, the doors are in the hallowed grounds of england/ britain!
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Various articles from February 2023 cite ” The cost of renovating the front door of the House of Lords’ has tripled to £7 million in just a year ” implies the cost in 2022 was 2.33 million, but part of the ” part of a £76 billion project to restore the Palace of Westminster ” – So the Standard would appear to be ‘blowing smoke’ with this story ” It also emerged that the price tag of the project spiralled by nearly 60% from the original estimate of £6.1 million ” – Based on the 2022 figure the 9.6M ” spiral ” is over 312% in 3 years….
For the Glen Sannox and Rosa, original estimate 97M in 2017, best current estimate 380M, so a ” spiral ” of 292% over 8 years would appear better value – However consider the revenue flow of the Lords v CalMac – 371 a day attendance allowance from the taxpayer versus fare paying passengers and freight even with SG subsidy…
An extraordinary original cost for door/s, no doubt ‘justified’ at the time as having to be bespoke built using scarce skills and materials to copy the original door/s – Yet what appears to have more seriously irked the Lords is ” a member of parliamentary staff had to be permanently stationed at the door to press a button to open it ” – I’d hazard a guess that there was always a member of parliamentary staff at the door, but the Lords never noticed….
Makes you wonder what the final cost of renovation will be 76bn or 313bn ? You could build a lot of ferries for either cost, and wouldn’t have to pay the passengers…
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