| In a startling twist to
the ongoing controversy surrounding the new parliament building, Donald Dewar told a
hastily convened press conference in Edinburgh that, following retendering for the
construction work, the final cost had been reduced from £200 million to "Just over
£200". The First Minister told the
assembled press that an offer from Roy Rogers Building Services of Larkhall had
"significantly undercut other offers by some £199,800,000."
Mr Dewar went on, "I can also reveal that
further savings are possible provided we pay Mr Rogers cash in hand with um, ehr, no
questions asked." |
The First Minister said
that he hoped this new cost figure would draw a line under criticism of past cost
estimates, " I hope," he told the attending press, "that we can now put
this matter behind us and move on to develop a more positive reporting style of the
Parliament's work." A query from the floor, questioning the difference between the
two figures, went unanswered by the First Minister. Instead, Mr Dewar stood up and
produced an AK47 shouting "Right! That's it! I've had enough! Take this, you
bastards" before firing wildly into the attendant throng. Later, David Whitton, the minister's press spokesman, insisted that
Mr Dewar's massacre of the Scottish press corps had "been taken out of context." |
