The devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have begun physically dismantling their capital cities and hauling the masonry toward Brussels, following through on their joint declaration that their future belongs inside the European Union.
The first convoy left Cardiff on Tuesday morning, carrying the Senedd's debating chamber on a flatbed lorry. A second column departed Edinburgh with the Scottish Parliament's ceremonial mace strapped to a farm trailer, and a third set out from Belfast with Stormont's front steps loaded onto a ferry at Larne. Officials estimate the full relocation will take fourteen months and require the temporary widening of the A55, the M8 and every road between Holyhead and the Belgian border.
«We are not asking Westminster for permission to leave,» said a joint statement read aloud at all three departure points. «We are simply leaving. The buildings are coming with us because we paid for them.»
The European Commission has reportedly offered the three nations a shared car park outside Brussels where they can reassemble their institutions in the order they arrive. A Scottish government official confirmed that the Holyrood roof will be the last item to travel, «so that we can still hold debates in the rain until the very end.»
Westminster has not commented, though a Downing Street source described the convoys as «a logistical matter for the devolved administrations.»