IF NOT A BONG, THEN A CLOCK, PM SAYS
LONDON • Boris Johnson is to have a clock projected on to the walls of his Downing Street residence to count down to Brexit after his attempts to get Big Ben to bong failed.
The prime minister will also deliver an address on television, hold a cabinet in the north of England and ensure Parliament Square will be lined with Union flags to mark leaving the European Union on Jan. 31.
Downing Street also confirmed that the long-planned 50p Brexit coin will enter circulation, stamped with the Brexit date and the message: “Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations.”
The light display will include
“a clock counting down to 11 p.m. projected on to the black bricks of Downing Street. Buildings around Whitehall will also be lit up.”
The projected clock is likely to be digital and in red, white and blue, though aides are studying other options.
A source said: “We hope to bring the nation forward as we all move forward to a brighter future. After three years of rancour it is now time turn the page as one united country.” It came as the row over Big Ben’s bongs deepened after The Telegraph website disclosed that the 500,000 pounds cost of allowing Big Ben to bong on Brexit night was 35 times more than the bill for New Year’s Eve.
Conservative MP Mark Francois demanded an inquiry, while Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the pounds 500,000 figure had been “conjured up deliberately to stop any discussion about Big Ben sounding.”
The commission rejected a request to allow the Great Bell to chime last Monday, despite 60 Tory MPS demanding it in a letter to last weekend’s Sunday Telegraph, saying it would cost pounds 500,000. But that figure was called into question when Sir Paul Beresford, a senior Tory member of the commission, told MPS that the bell cost just pounds 14,200 to sound on other occasions.
Beresford told Francois in a Parliamentary answer: “The costs associated with striking Big Ben on Remembrance Sunday and New Year’s Eve were pounds 14.2k, including VAT, on each occasion. If the project team is required to strike the bell with less notice the costs would substantially increase due to the unexpected impact on the schedule.”
Francois, who organized crowdfunding that raised pounds 220,000 toward the cost of paying for Big Ben to sound, said: “What was becoming an embarrassment is now evolving into a scandal. I have always suspected the costs were inflated but I never dreamt it was 35 fold. I will be writing to the head of the National Audit Office on Monday formally ask them to investigate the entire Elizabeth Tower project.”
Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, said: “It appears this figure of pounds 500,000 was conjured up in a deliberate attempt to stop any discussion about the Big Ben sounding. This bell must sound. If it sounded at New Year’s Eve and on November 11 then it should sound for this because this is a big, big moment.”