Queen: Set for Holyrood opening

The Queen formally opened the Scottish parliament on Saturday with politicians north of the border hoping to move on from the controversy surrounding the building.

During a day of celebration, the Queen opened the building which sits next to her Edinburgh residence.

The parliament's presiding officer said "a tremendous amount of thought and planning" had gone into the ceremony.

"There is a no more fitting way to mark the beginning of this historic chapter in Scottish life than to take the occasion beyond the dignitaries and celebrate it with the people of Scotland," said George Reid.

"I am also delighted to have welcomed guests from more than 25 parliaments and devolved institutions."

The day opened with a ceremonial event in parliament hall, the seat of the first Scottish parliament.

MSPs then joined a "riding" down the Royal Mile to Holyrood which will included schoolchildren, community groups and representatives of civic society from every constituency in Scotland.

However it was also be a day of protest, with Scottish Socialists boycotting the event and around 500 demonstrators calling for an independent Scottish republic.

Time to move on?

First minister Jack McConnell hopes Scots will now move on from the building fiasco - which ran three years late and cost nearly 10 times its £45 million budget.

The Queen opened the first ever session of the Holyrood parliament in its temporary building on the Mound in 1999.

She returned to the building to open the second session last year and pledged to open the new building upon its completion.

But the building is not without controversy and has divided opinion.

The Fraser inquiry into the Scottish parliament fiasco found a series of fundamental errors and failures in the project.

In his 267-page report Lord Fraser detailed 10 recommendations to avoid a repeat of the £430 million building fiasco.

In a wide-ranging report the Tory peer said "there is no single villain of the piece" but raised questions about the conduct of civil servants, MSPs, architects and the late first minister Donald Dewar.

The building itself has also split opinion. Window bars designed by the late architect Enric Miralles are said to stop light entering some MSPs' windows.

Others have said the building is too warm - complaining about the inability to open more than one office window.

The building has already been hit by flooding - prompting concern that it could be susceptible to water from nearby springs.