Now the seat of the newly elected Scottish National Party, the opening of this new parliament building in 2004 brought the Queen up to Scotland. It also brought a number of spectators who, in various ways, expressed their interest for Scotland to devolve further from the United Kingdom and, particularly, to become independent from the Monarchy. The construction of the Palace was immensely controversial, due mainly to the costs that spiralled well beyond what might be considered as reasonable spiralling. This led to a public inquiry. On the day, besides the Queen - whom we missed as we were at the wrong corner - Sean Connery turned up:
and protesters were given an unreasonably wide birth on the proceedings:
