Britain's New Parliament Could Be This Giant Floating Glass Blob

Britain’s parliament is falling to pieces, and the best answer is to dump the country’s politicians in the River Thames.

That might sound like an internet comment under a Brexit article, but it’s a real answer to a debate going on in London right now. According to a report from the UK’s parliament, the Palace of Westminster, which it calls home, is in increasing danger of going up in flames like a stack of dry kindling. The Houses of Parliament (as they’re more commonly known) were completed in 1870 and have wiring and ventilation systems scarcely touched since the middle of last century. To make things worse, some of its electrics are clad in asbestos. If MPs aren’t moved out so they can be refitted, the report says, there is a “substantial and growing risk of either a single, catastrophic event, such as a major fire, or a succession of incremental failures in essential systems.”