Tuesday 29 July 2003

You couldn't make this up....

After going ten times over budget you would have thought that the seats in the new Scottish parliament building would be the right size.

Not so:

The sit-in bay windows on the MSPs’ office block at the new parliament complex were designed to allow politicians a quiet place for contemplation amid the whirlwind of debates and controversy.

However, not all the seats will be wide enough to accommodate the posteriors of the plumpest of Scotland’s 129 elected representatives.

So we have a sizeist parliament building. This is not acceptable in the twenty-first century. Fortunately one of the building's long-term critics has a solution:
The former SNP MSP Margo MacDonald is one of the Scottish parliament’s most generously sized members.

MacDonald, now an independent list MSP for the Lothians, said: "I know we are supposed to be trying to get a good cross-section of people into the Scottish parliament, but at this rate the next parliament will need to have a percentage of people with restricted growth, because they’re the only folk who could squeeze themselves in.

Yes indeed. Clearly, there needs to be a quota in the parliament for "people with restricted growth". And perhaps a modicum of economic understanding could be achieved by instituting a quota of business people.

But(t) no, that wouldn't do: they'd be fat cats.