5. An Assembly will require a new building, again at great public expense. Despite reassurances from local luminaries, the reality will be far different from the platitudes and rhetoric. Don't forget this is also OUR money.

In Scotland, opposite the Palace of Holyroodhouse, a new parliament building is being constructed at a cost of £400 million - 10 times the original estimate. There are few Scots who believe that the latter figure will be the final total. The bill for the inquiry set up to investigate the scandal is expected to cost more than £1.2 million.

The Welsh Assembly's biggest calamity has also been its planned new building. Lord Rogers, the architect, won a competition to erect a three-storey modernistic glass debating chamber on the edge of Cardiff Bay for £12 million by April this year. In 2001, when the costs had hit £27 million and were reported to be rising to £47 million, Lord Rogers was sacked and work was halted. The Assembly then held on to his drawings and advertised for a fixed-price builder. Taylor Woodrow Construction won the work and brought in Lord Rogers as a sub-contractor. The Assembly then announced the cost of the work was £41 million, to which has to be added IT equipment, furnishings, professional fees and VAT. A spokesman said the completion date was scheduled for August 2005.