![]() Hugh Robertson of the TUC said: “At nearly 120 decibels, it’s like putting your ear next to a police siren. Health and safety advisers have defended the decision to silence the bongs. “The House of Commons commission has agreed to look at the issue when we’re back, and what I take that to mean is look at whether there is perhaps more scope for the bells to be rung on other ad hoc occasions,” he said. The Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake, a member of the Commons commission, said it was prepared to look again at whether the bells could be rung more regularly to mark special occasions. The keeper of the clock, Steve Jaggs, said the silencing of the bell was a “significant milestone in this crucial conservation project” that would safeguard the clock on a long-term basis. Though the clock’s mechanism will also be dismantled, at least one clock face will continue to operate via a temporary modern electric system, but scaffolding will cover three of the four clock faces by the end of October. The clock is to be dismantled piece by piece, with each cog examined and restored, the glass repaired, and the hands removed and refurbished. “I look forward to getting back in September and back down to business, and when you see the footage of our colleagues who gathered at the foot of Big Ben, you will not see too many colleagues who have careers ahead of them,” he told the BBC’s Westminster Hour. The Conservative MP Conor Burns said there had been “the most enormous amount of nonsense talked about this”. Many MPs have distanced themselves from colleagues demanding a rethink of the restoration programme. This is not the first time the bells have fallen silent: they were stopped for maintenance in 2007, and between 19. The Great Bell, the official name for Big Ben, traditionally rings every hour to the note of E, accompanied by four quarter bells that chime every 15 minutes. Members of the public packed into Parliament Square and lined Westminster Bridge to hear the final bongs. Photograph: Dinendra Haria/Rex/Shutterstock People take selfies in front of Big Ben before the bell falls silent for a period of repair work. Three Eurosceptic Conservative MPs – Bone, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Andrew Bridgen – have previously called for the bongs to ring at midnight after the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019. “Sometimes we have to strip away at some of the layers of sentimentality and tradition just for the sake of it.” “We’ve seen what happens when you scrimp on health and safety – Grenfell is the extreme example,” the Ealing Central and Acton MP said. Huq, who had finished giving a tour of the Houses of Parliament to a group of constituents, said politicians needed “a sense of perspective – it’s not a day of national mourning”. “I don’t care about those bells, but one thing I do really care about is worker health and safety.” “That’s what’s more important,” she said. Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley, said she had returned to speak to the Home Office on behalf of a vulnerable constituent. The Conservative MPs Peter Bone and Matt Hancock also listened to the final chimes among the crowd. Pound was joined by the Labour MPs Jess Phillips and Rupa Huq, who both said they had been walking across the yard coincidentally while in parliament to deal with constituency business. Have you ever known any government project come in on time or on budget?” he said. “They’re not going to be back in four years. Pound said he doubted that the chimes would return on schedule in 2021. It’s an elegiac moment of sombre sadness as the bells cease.” “I think it’s the passing of something that means a great deal to a great many people – certainly to my constituents. “This is a desperately sad moment and you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone,” he said. As the final bell rang, Pound called the sound “misery in the key of E”. “Bong-o gone-o, that’s so wrong-o,” Pound told reporters as he arrived in the courtyard. In New Palace Yard, 200 parliamentary staff watched the bell bong, with the jocular Labour MP Stephen Pound wiping a tear from his eye. The Commons commission said it will review the timescale after complaints were raised, including by Theresa May, who said it “cannot be right” for the bells not to chime regularly for four years.Ī handful of MPs gathered by the members’ entrance to the Houses of Parliament on Monday to mark the occasion of the bell’s final chimes. But it will still sound for events such as New Year’s Eve and Remembrance Sunday. House of Commons authorities said workers would not be able to operate safely next to the ringing of the 13-tonne bell.
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