HEROD'S TEMPLE REBUILT ON ARTHUR'S SEAT?

Herod the one about an MSPs' temple on top of Arthur's Seat?

IAN SWANSON
SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR (The Scotsman)

THE controversial �431 million Holyrood parliament could one day be replaced by a replica of Herod's Temple positioned on the top of Salisbury Crags, according to a new book.

Edinburgh-born architect and author Alan Balfour came up with the vision as he tried to imagine what the Scottish Parliament would be like in 500 years' time.

But Mr Balfour, now a professor of architecture in New York, is quick to make clear he is not advocating such a plan. But in a new book on Enric Miralles' Holyrood building, Creating a Scottish Parliament, he visualises how the parliament will develop over the next 50, 100 and 500 years.

By 2505, he says, the current parliament will be too small. And he goes on: "Imagine it sitting in the shadow of its successor - a new building, formed to the disgust of those who would wish to separate religion from politics, in the most theatrical reconstruction of Herod's Temple, spread across the crest of Salisbury Crags.

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Yeah, and imagine how much that project would go over its budget.