Where is the project to rebuild the opera house? All that is being proposed is a consolidation of the ruins of the building together with a recommendation to carry on utilising the site as an open-air theatre. Is this an acceptable response coming from the mythical Renzo Piano?

Fair enough, there can be merit in the proposal as it is being made, but is this what we have waited 60 years for? As a concept, is Mr Piano considering our opera house ruins on a level similar to the Taormina amphitheatre, or the Coliseum in Rome? Are we paying for a project or an opinion?

I do not know, I am lost. I do know however that open-air theatres can be utilised and enjoyed only in cool summer evenings, as in practice we are currently doing with our beloved ruins. So what's new?

And where is the project for the new City Gate and the general renovation of the city entrance area? The project appears unbelievably simple - basically demolish the present horrendous gate and don't touch the resulting gap in the fortifications! Again, fair enough. But did we have to wait 60 years, and did we have to engage one of the world's most renowned architects to make us aware of a solution that has been adapted to our fortifications for over 150 years?

So what is new about Mr Piano's project so far? Practically nothing, except that it seems he was given a very different brief from what all of us believed. The brief was not to rebuild an opera house or a cultural centre. The brief was not to create a new City Gate and renovate the city entrance area. How stupid we all are! The brief was, build us a new Parliament House. And frankly that is what Mr Piano has delivered.

That is his project, a new Parliament House with all the modern amenities that will also include a comfortable underground car park for the convenience of our Honourable Members of Parliament. It now looks very obvious how the budget for the Renzo Piano project will get apportioned: two per cent Royal Opera House, three per cent the gap in the wall and 95 per cent for our dear Members' House. In other words we have all been fooled. The opera house and City Gate projects have been hijacked from under our noses and subordinated to the building of a new Parliament House.

Should we all rise and protest? I do not think it is worth our while.

We have waited so long, we have put up with such a mess of a City Gate for all this time, now all we want is to get on with it. But it is a pity that an opportunity for the creation of something extraordinary and magical is being wasted. In consolation we are getting a Parliament building where extraordinary and magical events will, I am sure, keep happening.