we're going to need a bigger contract

This picture is of that well-known clock tower housing Big Ben.

Once a world-famous landmark, now an example of the most highly specified scaffolders' craft. Why, there is scarcely room to insert a further scaffold pole into the structure.

I idly think of it as a metaphor for some of what is happening at the moment. Like Battersea Power Station had to keep a complete chimney during the restoration works, Big Ben must keep a clock face visible at all times.

Some might think of the scaffolding as expensive at £3.5 million. There's certainly a lot more scaffolding than back in 1984, maybe because of new regulations?

Then there is the cost of the actual conservation work, in 2016 estimated at some £29 million. Some 18 months later, it has moved to £61 million.

I suppose Parliament may have been distracted with other matters, whilst this single PCSA project right outside of its own offices casts its own lofty spending profile.