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[Varche]

My version of council minutes.

We need to do some maintenance on the clock. OK

It will be out of service for four years OK

No chimes as a danger to workers OK

Next item


Why didnt someone come up with a Little Ben and make a tourist attraction of it and auction it off afterwards. .? Could have been an LCD clock with speakers half way down the building. Bit lacking in imagination.

[Entwood]

I don't see what all the fuss is about .. the tower needs fixing, the bells need to stop ringing, its just the "luvvies" finding a way to have a go at government .. yet again ....

[ronnyd]

The Japs would probably done it in about a fortnight.

[Sir Tigger KC]

2 quick off the cuff solutions! 

1) Turn the bongs off during the day when the guys are working on the tower and turn them on again in the evening and at weekends.

2) Install speakers on the Victoria Tower and play the bongs from there.

Or maybe a combination of the 2.  Simples! 

[frostbite]

Then it would have an led casio billboard flashing on the side like picadilly circus

[Varche]

I don't see what all the fuss is about .. the tower needs fixing, the bells need to stop ringing, its just the "luvvies" finding a way to have a go at government .. yet again ....

Well i am not a luvvie and havent read about anyone having a go. I was gobsmacked when i saw the news item on uk tv a fw days ago.. lots of tourists go to see Big ben , houses of parliament, tower and buck palace. I just think we missed a trick through lack of imagination. Handled well it would have been cheap, good tourist publicity.

I havent an issue with the four years to refurbish.

[Entwood]

I don't see what all the fuss is about .. the tower needs fixing, the bells need to stop ringing, its just the "luvvies" finding a way to have a go at government .. yet again ....

Well i am not a luvvie and havent read about anyone having a go. I was gobsmacked when i saw the news item on uk tv a fw days ago.. lots of tourists go to see Big ben , houses of parliament, tower and buck palace. I just think we missed a trick through lack of imagination. Handled well it would have been cheap, good tourist publicity.

I havent an issue with the four years to refurbish.

That's my point .. its not a news item .. until the "luvvies" decided to make it one. They closed a road here for 2 years whilst a new bridge was built ... that didn't make the evening news did it ??   

[Doctor Gollum]

I suspect thast the safety elf has been misconstrued...

Yes the bongs would be rather loud, but more importantly, the resonance of the bells tolling would probably cause a real issue with the scaffolding... the works are due to take four years, ergo the bells need silencing for that time to prevent significant issues with the scaffolding and nothing at all to do with hearing protection.

I suspect that in the name of 'journalism', this has been contrived to sell outrage

[Nick W]

I don't see what all the fuss is about .. the tower needs fixing, the bells need to stop ringing, its just the "luvvies" finding a way to have a go at government .. yet again ....

They're not rung, but chimed. And anyone who has been in a belfry will understand why the bells need to be silenced whilst working near them.

[TD]

I don't see what all the fuss is about .. the tower needs fixing, the bells need to stop ringing, its just the "luvvies" finding a way to have a go at government .. yet again ....

Well i am not a luvvie and havent read about anyone having a go. I was gobsmacked when i saw the news item on uk tv a fw days ago.. lots of tourists go to see Big ben , houses of parliament, tower and buck palace. I just think we missed a trick through lack of imagination. Handled well it would have been cheap, good tourist publicity.

I havent an issue with the four years to refurbish.

That's my point .. its not a news item .. until the "luvvies" decided to make it one. They closed a road here for 2 years whilst a new bridge was built ... that didn't make the evening news did it ??   

It did in the local rag..

A road in RWB is hardly a tourist attraction....where as Big Ben is....

[Gaffers]

People dont go to hear Big Ben, they go to see it, or rather the Elizabeth tower, to get some kind of photo.  Once that is done they often but some over-priced sh!te from one of the stalls and bugger off to the next attraction.  They dont wait around for the bongs and you dont hear a tourist saying "I was really excited to hear the chimes of Big Ben". 

If you want to keep hearing Big Ben twice a day during the refurbishment then listen to R4 news at 6pm and midnight.  They have thought ahead made a recording, in fact they have known about this for a while and it is no suprise to anyone who listens to the PM programme.

It needs fixing, so let it be fixed.  Whingers, wailers and attention-grabbers can do one.

[Kevin Wood]

Why didnt someone come up with a Little Ben and make a tourist attraction of it and auction it off afterwards. .? Could have been an LCD clock with speakers half way down the building. Bit lacking in imagination.

Yep, my mate has one of those in his hallway. Plays the chimes and everything. Could hook one of those up to a giant PA system. About 10kW ought to do it. Wouldn't be cheap and tacky at all - well, not in comparison to all the other tat that the tourists lap up in spades there.

[Bigron]

Actually Monsieur le Guffer, loads of tourists DO wait around for the chimes - especially the Americans, whom you might have expected to be impatient - and pass the time looking at the river and/or chatting to cockneys....me, for example, which is why I know.
Long may they do it; we get money from them!
Ok, I appreciate that the tower/clock/bells need renovation, but FOUR YEARS? Must be council workers!   

Ron.

[Rods2]

Politicians have no business sense, who would have thought it? If they had they would be making much more money running businesses! I don't have a problem in protecting the workforce while they are working on it, I can't see why it can't be rung at other times, which is apparently what the Government has very belatedly decided, but when you have an over promoted office junior, bimbo, serial political failure as PM, who concentrates on making fashion statements, no surprises that no action was taken until there was an outcry.

[aaronjb]

Long may they do it; we get money from them!

Cockney pickpocketing?