Given that this is Jenkins of course he gets the solution wrong but still, halfway is halfway:
The building, it recommended, should become a construction site for between six and 32 years at a cost of between £3.5bn and £5.7bn. These estimates depended on how far and for how long the two Houses of Parliament were prepared to go elsewhere. Since then the wiring has miraculously survived and new estimates were published by a parliamentary commission. The job would now cost up to £40bn and take between 11 and a staggering 61 years.
I have seen the Westminster basement on two occasions and am neither an engineer nor a cost expert. Its maze of pipes and wires could certainly win it a Turner prize. There are fire risks and I am sure asbestos needs removing. But if the entire roof can be replaced for £80m, the figure of £40bn, or 500 times higher, is clearly absurd, a fantastical try-on. It would be like John Maynard Keynes aiding the economy by digging holes and filling them up. You could demolish parliament and rebuild its facsimile for less. It is also a racing certainty that £40bn would soar upwards, as happened with HS2.
Well, Yes, OK. Given that the British state is run by incompetent phantasists we’d better get used to using the British state for as little as we can.
Works for us, to be honest.
Tim Worstall