…well perhaps not…

In an interview with Thomas Kielinger, UK correspondent for the German newspaper Die Welt, Evan Davies on the Today program discusses the German perspective on coalition government. Thomas talks about the adversarial system of democracy, exemplified by the seating arrangement of the House of Commons, to which Evan Davies quipped about getting the interior designers in to make it more conducive to co-operation.

I like Germany, I lived there as a teenager. Even then the Germans were decades ahead of the UK. For those who are still sceptical of coalition government look at Germany, the strongest economy in Europe – coalition government since the war, and Greece who they are bailing out – one of the few European countries with single party government. And then think of the country the markets are talking about after Spain & Portugal… Britain with its single party adversarial system and it’s inability to escape the 19th century!

So why not demolish the House of Commons and… no that would be architectural vandalism. Turn it into a museum for the tourists, demolish, say the Millennium Dome, and get Richard Rogers or Norman Foster to build a 21st century Parliament where everyone sits in a circular arrangement like everywhere else.

Edit oops! How silly of me – the Millennium Dome was designed by Rogers!