The Red House is Parliament

THE EDITOR: I cannot believe the Government is serious about constructing a new building to house Parliament. There are so many things to be done in this country and these people want to waste what will be a fantastic sum of money on unnecessary window dressing. Mr Saith must take the people of this country to be a bunch of fools — to stand up and make that announcement about the new parliament building. Doesn’t the Government have any respect for tradition?  Mr Saith said some rubbish about there being insufficient space to house the legislature and its accompanying offices.

The solution is not to put up a new building — it is to modify the existing one — I understand there are several government offices in the Red House unconnected with the work of Parliament, and these can be moved elsewhere, thus creating more space. For many people the Red House is Parliament, it represents our democracy — it isn’t just any old government building that can be dumped by politicians ignorant of history and tradition. I wonder what the British and American people would say if some idiot wanted to get rid of the buildings they use for their national assemblies — Westminster and the Capitol are much older than our Red House — their populations have grown — why aren’t they making the same foolish suggestions?

JEREMY BOYD
Gulf View