Detailed review by TerryfaeScotland
TerryfaeScotland
United Kingdom90%
I had never been to Holyrood before, I'm not really that interested in politics, but on Feb 1 2008 I went with the school for the day. I thought we would just be getting a tour of the building but instead we were doing some things that were a lot more fun. It was about ecology, climate change, transport, the economy and wildlife. This is what I did:
9:35am - we arrived at the parliament (5 minutes late). We had to go through the metal dectector (which I thought was stupid - did they expect schoolkids to be carrying guns and knives around with them?) We then went to the cloak room and left our coats on the hangers (which was more difficult than it sounds 'cause they couldn't be taken off the rails).
9:50am - we went into the chamber. A lady came and spoke to us all and then we had to listen to people from other schools. They were telling us how the got their green flags (it's an award given to schools for being ecologically friendly). We were then sent away to other places.
10:30am - all the kids were split up and sent to different talks. Me and another boy from my school, Ashley, were sent to a talk about a man called John Muir. It was boring - we had to do a lot of drawing and writing.
12:00pm - lunch! We all ate where the MSPs eat (but they weren't there). There wasn't much of a selection and only a few things vegetarian. During lunch we were allowed to wander about parts of the parliament (although we were watched most of the time). There were some more people with stalls in one room but I didn't get to see them. My school group got to go to the gift shop aswell because we were leaving early.
1:00pm - we were all split up again. This time we were sent to conferences. Me and Ashley were together again and we were discussing the economy and energy. I did some talking but not a lot. I did enjoy it, though. I got to meet some new people and there were some MPs there too.
2:00pm - back to the chamber. We listened to other people tell us what they had been discussing in there conferences.
3:00pm - my school left. We got an energy saving lightbulb.
It was a good day and I saw a lot of the building (but not everything).
The building looks OK. It has a lot of windows and it's supposed to be ecologically friendly but there were around 100 light bulbs in the one room. The gift shop has quite a good selection in it. There are a lot of stairs, but also elevators. The rooms are all really big and airy. It looks good from the outside, but inside is much better.
Even though it's a nice building I don't think it was worth the money it cost to build it. Sure, it's a nice looking building and there's an awful lot of technology in there but it just isn't worth £700m.
Overall, I think it's a good building with lots of very good features.
Holyrood Scottish Parliament Building9
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