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ABOUT THIS BOOK

PUBLISHER: Birlinn General

FORMAT: Paperback

ISBN: 9781841581675

RRP: £7.99

PAGES: 240

PUBLICATION DATE:
May 1, 2001

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All the First Minister’s Men

David Black

The attempt to create a modern Scottish Parliment building at Holyrood has been compared to the Sydney Opera House and the Millenium Dome but the reality is that it will almost certainly upstage both in terms of budget over-runs and the degradation of it’s architectural vision. The cost of this building, now #250 million and rising, has come from the Scottish Exchequer. The author presents Holyrood as, at its heart, a system of denial. Between them, Tony Blair’s government and a handful of Scottish civil servants were determined that the neoclassical parliment-in-waiting on Calton Hill was a shibboleth which had to be avoided at all costs. How did this happen and why? Who was to blame and who should bear the cost?

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David Black

Born and educated in Edinburgh (George Heriots School), David Black was the first chairman of the Southside Association and his role here included writing material for Gordon Brown’s Rector’s Working Party on Planning. His first book was published in 1972. He has also written for the Sunday Times, Observer, Scotland on Sunday, Herald, Spectator, TLS and Scottish Field on subjects ranging from planning and architecture and the fine arts through to a good drink guide for Virgin Publishing. It is a wonderful romp of a read. I defy any reader, except Tony Blair, not to give many a belly laugh at the record of how Labour re-branded itself. The chapter on Calton Hill should be made proud reading in every school. This book is a roaring record of muddle and deceit. Start turning the pages. You won’t stop until you reach the end. – Ian Hamilton QC