Liam Rudden: Don't keep coal in the bath or steal the cutlery

Published on Friday 12 February 2010 14:30

UPTURNED boat hulls – architect Enric Miralles' vision for the Scottish Parliament boasts a nautical theme, but for every individual who hails his design as cutting edge, there's another crying 'blot on the landscape.'

However, contrast its futuristic angles with the majority of our MSPs and you have a dichotomy. Watching most MSPs brow-beat some particularly parochial point on TV is cringe-making. Talk about the nanny state. Listening to them, you'd be forgiven for imagining a Scottish Parliament lined with flock tartan wallpaper and housing a canteen with an exclusive line in subsidised haggis.

It's a mentality that drives me to distraction and one high-lighted recently in an invitation to a reception thrown by the Fringe Society in the Garden Lobby of the Scottish Parliament.

The welcome e-mail included, believe it or not, a 'code of behaviour,' the preamble stating: 'You should ensure that you read this Code carefully as your confirmation that you will participate in an event constitutes your acceptance of this Code.'

Explanations of security and such are all very well, but do our elected representatives have such a low opinion of their electorate that they feel the need to remind them to 'Enter and leave the building quietly... Conduct themselves with consideration for the safety and comfort of other guests... and act responsibly in a manner that is respectful to others with courtesy, dignity and positive regard.'

If this a reflection of how the people we put in power see us, it is an insult that reinforces how out of touch MSPs and their ilk are. Hardly surprising, though, the e-mail also reveals that, 'The Scottish Parliament is serviced by Lothian Regional Transport bus nos. 35 and 36.'

LRT has not existed since January 2000, when deregulation saw the formation of Lothian Buses. Nice to see our Parliament has its finger on the pulse.