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Letter: New Commons, same old chamber

Derek C. W. Jones
Monday 05 May 1997 00:02 BST
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New Commons, same old chamber

Sir: Not everything has changed. When Tony Blair's new democrats assemble for parliamentary business, it will be in Charles Barry's 150-year-old chamber, a cramped hall designed for confrontational, two-party politics.

If a new democracy is to sweep us into the new millennium, it is time, too, for our representatives to work in modern, efficient surroundings. Sentiment and tradition aside, all our MPs (and the people they serve) merit both decent offices and a functional fan-shaped debating chamber.

Rather than the transient ideas mooted for Greenwich, would it not be more fitting to pour the talents and resources of the nation into creating an assembly building fit for the 21st century?

DEREK C W JONES

Haselbury Plucknett, Somerset

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