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In the six months since the election of this new minority Westminster Government, the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon has being kicked into the long grass; we’ve been told that there’s no money to pay for electrifying the railway line between Cardiff and Swansea; and money for Wales to spend on things like the NHS, local government services and schools continues to be slashed.

But tomorrow, Westminster will seek to spend in excess of £5bn on redecorating the Houses of Parliament.

MPs will be given a choice between carrying out basic renovation work, working around Parliamentary business, over an indefinite period of time at a cost of around £5.7bn; carrying out a rolling programme of substantial renovation over a longer period of time, working around the continued use of the Palace at a cost of between £4bn and £4.5bn; or for MPs to temporarily leave Parliament to allow substantial renovation to take place in a concentrated period of time at a cost of between £3.5bn and £4bn.

To put these figures in context, we’re talking about the same amount of money as we spend on the whole of the NHS in Wales every year.

With such extortionate sums of public money being proposed, MPs must be given a fourth option – to relocate Parliament out of the Palace of Westminster as an alternative to this false choice of how many billions of public money we should waste.

In a time of rising socio-economic inequality, and public faith in democracy shaken, it’s perhaps typical that the Westminster establishment has mobilised ultra-efficiently to protect its own interests.

Renovation is the only option on the table despite the eye watering costs. Relocation hasn’t even been considered.

When £60m was allocated for the building of our national parliament’s Senedd building in Cardiff, there were howls of protest from the Tories in particular.

Yet the very same people seem completely relaxed about spending a hundred times more on the Palace of Westminster.

What Westminster is actually proposing to do is renovate a dilapidated building centered in a city that is infamous for being part of the problem, rather than the solution, to the widening geographic inequality across the UK.

There is already a deep disconnect between a large number of the population and the Westminster bubble.

Is it any wonder that trust in Westminster is so poor when we are told that £400m is too much to spend on Welsh railways, when there’s £145bn being spent on just three projects in England?

If the British political class think that spending £5bn on our own place of work is going to re-build trust in the political process, then I challenge them to visit communities across Wales who have been completely let down by successive Westminster governments.

The UK is one of the most unequal states in the world.

That it is home to some of the poorest regions in Europe like west Wales and the Valleys, as well as the richest region by far – inner London – is shameful.

To anyone from outside Wales, the fact that we must leave our own country, cross the border and cross back over again to take a train from the north to the south is bizarre, but to us it has become an annoying, but accepted fact.

The same applies to the fact that all our motorways lead to the English capital, with no such roads linking Wales together, let alone with other cities across the border.

It isn’t difficult to make a case for relocating legislators outside London for a protracted period of time. Broadening horizons is always a good thing for any politician but there are many reasons why we should do so:

Capital costs of relocation as well as the extortionate revenue costs for sustaining Parliament in London thereby reducing the cost of politics;

decentralising the British State by moving political power from London;

stimulate increased public investment outside London;

modernise Parliament with a more modern chamber (a seat each even!) as well as electronic voting with better and more appropriate facilities for MPs and staff; and

reboot British politics following a catalogue of rotten political scandals.

The Parliamentary estate was built in 1840 at the height of Empire when MPs presided over a quarter of the globe.

Brexit Britannia couldn’t be more different, with both Wales and Scotland fighting back against a Westminster power-grab; Irish reunification becoming closer than ever; and England becoming more and more isolated, insular and protectionist against a globalised world.

A £5bn renovation might fix a crumbling Palace of Westminster but it won’t fix a crumbling Westminster establishment.