Holyrood Babylon

THERE'S MORE than a wee fuss going on north of the border about the cost of building the Scottish Parliament's new home at Holyrood. The original estimate of the cost – about £40m – was exceeded a long time ago, and last year the Scottish legislature voted to cap the cost at some £165m. That too has proved an underestimate. Public opinion is enraged. It's a disgrace.

Which it is. Such projects are always expensive monuments to the vanity of those who commission, design and build them.

But the Edinburgh building compares rather well with some other examples. Not just the Dome, the world's first £1bn tent; anything looks good value beside that bauble.

Let us take Portcullis House, the Palace of Westminster's new outhouse for MPs, lavishly appointed and built to last for 200 years – as it should be for £230m. Or the European Parliament at Brussels which came in at £800m. Or the original Palace of Westminster, commissioned in 1834, which took some 26 years to complete, by which time its architects, Barry and Pugin, were dead. Who now would deny that it commands respect as a building of global stature? Scotland too deserves a building of which she can be proud.