Why I’m proposing we move our MPs and Lords... into Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace is a ghost ship and the Palace of Westminster is falling apart, writes Alan Rusbridger. The solution? Ask the King to vacate and temporarily move the Commons and Lords chambers into his pad

Buckingham Palace: the saddest building in London? (Getty)

If there was a prize for the saddest building in London, Buckingham Palace would surely walk it. It is a statuesque ghost ship – too vast, too chilly, too puffed up to be loved, even by the family for which it was built.

It is currently being “reserviced” – such a charming euphemism for a £369m makeover which the taxpayer will fund through an inflated sovereign grant. But, even when done, there is little sign that our newish King wants to live there.

By all accounts, King Charles prefers the more modest quarters at nearby Clarence House – with occasional forays to Windsor, Sandringham, Balmoral, Highgrove, Birkhall, Dumfries House and his other pads, including his estates in Romania.