An Abomination in Mayfair

The current American Embassy in Grosvenor Square in London’s Mayfair district is an abomination. In a district of wonderful Victorian and Edwardian buildings, the huge concrete monstrosity is an eyesore of the greatest magnitude. How it ever got planning permission is beyond me.

And now the Americans are putting in planning permission for a huge new embassy across the Thames to be situated between Chelsea and Vauxhall Bridges. They feel that the security problems inherent in Grosvenor Square means they have to move but the new proposal has run into problems – ha ha !

The newish mayor, good old manic Boris Johnson, who was actually born in New York, has told the Americans to stuff it unless they come up with the goods. And what are the ‘goods’?

Well the Americans have not paid a penny in congestion charges since the scheme started saying their ‘diplomats’ are exempt. They owe £3 million and good old Boris says they need to stump up the readies if they want to get their plans passed. He’s also demanding that they contribute a rather smallish £2.5 million towards the London Crossrail costs which is a bit rich cause I don’t think that line will go anywhere the new Embassy. The Yanks also want to construct the building with its ‘back’ to the river with a 15 ft earth embankment at the front to prevent car bombs.

All of this is troubling Boris (not a name you’d normally want to use to negotiate with the Americans) as he struggles to impose his will on the Yanks as they strive to get out of Mayfair.

However, nobody seems to have mentioned the real reason that the Americans want to move across the river. If constructed, it’ll be not too far from Britain’s MI5 spy centre and no doubt the old US listening devices will be pointed at Millbank House hoping to hear a few snippets of ‘offensive counterintelligence’. If they did listen in, hopefully they’d hear the national outrage over the case of Gary McKinnon, an Asperger Syndrome sufferer who hacked into the Pentagon looking for details of UFOs and alien contact. The Americans want to extradite him and McKinnon’s lawyers are fighting this. If extradited, we all know what will happen – he’ll get some ridiculous sentence. Maybe 20 years for an offence which would maybe get a large fine in the UK.

Anyway – I back Boris. I love Americans but just sometimes they get a little too big for their boots.