In a recommendation that'll have MPs wishing they'd already built a moat to keep the barbarians from the gate, the Alliance suggested permanent homes could be established on the site after 2012. The cost would be around £110 million; given the £11.5 million currently spent annually on second home allowances, it could pay for itself within a decade. A similar system currently operates in Sweden, and given all the scarcely credible apologies and promises of honesty in recent weeks, slumming it out like student freshers would be the perfect riposte to those who dare claim that politicians are only in it for the moolah.
Although we doubt it'll happen anytime soon, the idea did get us thinking about how such housing arrangements would work practically. The athletes in 2012 will be living in pretty close quarters on the 24 acre site, and our MPs may have to share apartments with eachother. Some would probably work well as roommates: brothers Ed and David Miliband, for example. Others may not: Ann Widdecombe wouldn't want to be around Michael Howard when darkness falls, and it'd be imperative to keep a randy David Blunkett away from Sarah Teather, while those who saw George Galloway's time as a BB housemate might be wary of his penchant for furry fun. And like that weird kid with the winsome smile at the Fresher's Fair who nobody spoke to, Gordon Brown would struggle to attract someone, anyone, to agree to be his roomy.
