The government’s announcement that it is looking at moving the House of Lords north to York has been dismissed by peers as “completely ridiculous” and showing “contempt for the constitution.”

And while it seems likely that the idea is more of a Dominic Cummings PR ruse than a serious proposal there is something rather delicious, in this age of anti-establishment disruption, about the horror which the prospect of moving north has elicited from the likes of Lord Forsyth and Admiral Lord West.

It’s also far from certain whether a sudden influx of 795 disgruntled fuddy-duddies would benefit the north of England in any meaningful way. But it makes for an interesting architectural provocation all the same. There are plenty of repositories of centralised state power, other than the upper chamber, which could, and should, be moved from London to the regions.

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