Holyrood Babylon

by David Black

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The jinxed attempt to create a modern Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood is one of the most ill-fated episodes in the history of public architecture. It has been compared to the Sydney Opera House and the Millennium Dome, but the reality is that it will almost certainly upstage even these projects in terms of budget over-runs and the degradation of its architectural vision. The heart of the World Heritage Site which includes Britain's oldest royal palace is being devastated - all for a Cool Britannia extravagance which will not even work as a symbol of devolution since, like the Poll Tax, it was imposed on Scotland with the authority of Downing Street. Former Sunday Times journalist and conservationist David Black searches behind the project to reveal the full scale of the debacle. Between them, Tony Blair's government and a handful of Scottish civil servants were determined that the mothballed neoclassical parliament-in-waiting on Calton Hill was a 'shibboleth' which had to be avoided at all costs.


A bemused population looked on as arrogance, paranoia, panic and ineptitude eclipsed what should have been the success of Scotland's first democratically-elected parliament in three centuries. How did this happen and why? Who was to blame and who should bear the costs? Everyone who would like answers to these questions should read this book. The cost of the Parliament continues to soar and David Black's original predictions, ridiculed at the time, have come to fruition. At over GBP400 million pounds - a cost to be borne entirely by the Scottish taxpayer at the behest of 10 Downing Street, the scandal of the Parliament building eclipses even that of the Dome. This new edition of David's rivetting book takes the story of the Parliament completely up-to- date and includes a special 'Parliament Dictionary'.
  • ISBN13 9781841582634
  • Publish Date 31 March 2003
  • Publish Status Cancelled
  • Out of Print 31 August 2004
  • Publish Country GB
  • Publisher Birlinn General
  • Imprint Birlinn Ltd
  • Edition 2nd Revised edition
  • Format Paperback
  • Pages 224
  • Language English