Leader: Safety first for parliament’s fearties

IS THERE no end to the security paranoia that grips the Scottish Parliament building?

Having already spent £223,000 on a new roundabout, £300,000 on turnstiles and £1.5 million on concrete bollards and benches to thwart “drive-in” suicide bombers, city planning officials are now set to give the green light to yet another cunning plan to deter international terrorists: a free-standing “pavillion” expected to cost up to £5m.

It is here that visitors will be put through the airport-style personal and baggage screening before being allowed to enter the building. What with the anti-bomb-blast ramparts, the parliament is turning into an architectural Fort Knox.

Sceptics have queried why terrorists should have any strong desire to blow up the parliament considering the damage MSPs on their own are able to inflict. And architectural critics have savaged the new plans, one describing at as equivalent to a bothy next to the Royal Scottish Academy on Princes Street. Perhaps after the next security consultants’ review, the entire building could be dismantled and the parliament sunk underground, leaving only a grassy knoll covered in barbed wire. Just a few ventilation shafts patrolled by armed guards in mine-proof 4x4s would tell the world we had a Scottish Parliament at all.