Palace of Westminster should be given to The National Trust suggests Darren Jones, Bristol North West MP.

On January 10th an article appeared in the Western Daily Press entitled "MP suggests Parliament is for visitors".  Here are the first two paragraphs:

"MPs should move out of Parliament for good so it can be turned into National Trust visitor attraction, a West Country MP has suggested.  Labour's Darren Jones, the Bristol North west MP, says the country's politicians should swap the ornate 19th century Palace of Westminster for a building that can meet modern demands - while also pub-free.

The Government has a difficult decision to make over how the multi-billion-pound refurbishment of the Houses of Parliament is carried out, with a temporary "decant" for MPs being suggested while the work takes place."

The article prompted me to pen the following letter which was published in the Western Daily Press on January 17th. 

"I agree with Darren Jones, Labour MP for Bristol North West, when he suggests that MPs should abandon the Palace of Westminster for a building that could meet modern standards (Western Daily Press, January 10).  However, I am not so sure his proposal to hand the old building to the National Trust as a visitor attraction would be welcomed by that organisation.  The multi-billion-pound cost of refurbishment and subsequent maintenance might well be too much for the National Trust to bear.

Would it not be just as well to allow the Palace of Westminster to gracefully fall into a state of picturesque ruin on the banks of the River Thames?  Let it become a monument to those politicians whose decisions created and then lost the 'empire on which the sun never set'."

S.W., Ilminster, Somerset.