Dear Sir,
No edition of our Majorca Daily Bulletin is complete without some comments on at least one of the following: increasing winter flights; spreading flights UK wide; extending the tourist season and the Palacio de Congresos. Yesterday’s MDB (Friday) hit the first 3. Let me up the ante and hit 4 out of 4 by bringing in the last subject by introducing another seemingly unrelated topic also mentioned twice yesterday – elevation to the House of Lords.
The House of Lords now has 826 members and is the second largest legislative body in the world. No prizes for guessing number one – the Chinese National People’s Congress with a daunting 2987! The link is that the House of Lords is falling down as is the House of Commons (with another 650 members). All these people need a Congress Palace to replace their Palace of Westminster while it is made fit for purpose.
Buckingham Palace is also crumbling but the Queen has no problems as she has at least four other palaces or castles to choose from. Our MPs and Lords have no such choice and the most efficient way of carrying out the work would be if both Houses were empty. Minimum estimates for their repair work is 6 years! With a bit of lateral thinking why not rent the parliamentarians our Palacio de Congresos and hotel?
With our local Palacio experience we can confidently expect a project overrun which could last at least another two years leading to a total rental income that should recuperate the whole capital cost.
The parliamentary year largely coincides with our off season so every Monday morning when Westminster flies in to Palma (they don’t open for business until 2.30 pm) a couple of thousand hotel rooms would be occupied and a couple of thousand plane seats available returning to all parts of the UK where the parliamentarians hailed from – an extra bonus!
On Friday evening thousands of stags and hens could arrive for their weekend flings, replacing the Lords and Commoners returning home on the same planes to their constituencies. At a stroke the saga of the Palacio would be solved as would the dearth of off-season flights to the whole of the British Isles.
Did I achieve 4 out of 4? Can I expect my name in next year’s honours?
Mike Lillico
Playa de Palma