Onwards to £500 million

Today's Scotsman gives some detail of where the extra spending on the Scottish parliament building has been incurred:

More than £4 million was spent on cranes, twice as much as expected, and more than £10 million was spent on specialist glazing - four times the amount initially planned.

For the main debating chamber, Holyrood planners initially expected to pay £14.7 million for the frame - a figure which has soared to £34.4 million - and £5 million for joinery, the latter figure having more than doubled to almost £12 million.

And if the politicians still want to take the piss:

..... toilets in the Holyrood building were planned to cost £1.3 million, but the final bill is expected to reach £2.4 million, an increase of 87 per cent.

But the really interesting news was in yesterday's Mail on Sunday for which there is unfortunately no website. The Mail reported that the contractor responsible for the Assembly building frame (up from £14.7m in 1998 to a staggering £34.4m) was O'Rourke Scotland Ltd and that they had "in 2001 donated to Labour Party funds by taking tables at fundraising dinners and contributing gifts to the value of £5,000 or more." I wonder if Jack McConnell will give back the donations. Let's hear it from the opposition.