Tories insist on spending £80k a year on printing laws on calfskin despite call from Lords
THE Conservative Government has decided Parliament should remain in the eleventh Century and keep spending £80,000 of taxpayers cash a year printing laws on the skin of dead calves.
The Magna Carta was printed as a vellum
The House of Lords last week signalled the Tories should bring the long-standing tradition to an end and switch from vellum parchment to archival paper, saving thousands of pounds a year.
But Tory Cabinet Minister Matt Hancock has waded in, insisting taxpayers' should continue to fund the archaic extravagance.
For a thousand years, legislation passed by MPs in Britain have been printed on vellum paper made of goat and calf skin.
The cost of printing on vellum, rather than archival paper which can last for 500 years, runs to a staggering £80,000 a year.
Laws are currently printed on the skin of dead calves
Matt Hancock said scrapping vellum was an outrageous act of constitutional and cultural vandalism"
Traditions are an important part of our parliamentary heritage
But the Tory MP said a change to less expensive paper as an "outrageous act of constitutional and cultural vandalism".
A Number 10 spokesman has also expressed David Cameron's support for the long-standing tradition.
The Prime Minister spokesman said: “Traditions are an important part of our parliamentary heritage and it’s right that we should look to preserve them wherever possible."
Some of the country's most important historical documents have been printed on vellum, including the Domesday Book of 1086, Magna Carta and the Lindisfarne Gospels.
John Bercow had spent tens of thousands of pounds wining and dining fellow MPs at official functions
It comes after it was revealed Commons Speaker John Bercow had spent tens of thousands of pounds wining and dining fellow MPs at official functions.
He blew cash on lavish dinners, posh claret and £2,000 on hand-made beeswax candles for the the state rooms.