Um… can’t the UK just let our diplomats telecommute?

In an effort to keep the site more secure, the US is moving its embassy out of the congestion of Grosvenor Square into a former industrial site. This sounds good, until you hear that we’ve made plans to spend a billion dollars to build a giant cube, with a moat:

The United States has unveiled plans for its new $1 billion high-security embassy in London — the most expensive it has ever built. The proposals were met with relief from both the present embassy’s Mayfair neighbours and the residents and developers of the Battersea wasteland where the vast crystalline cube, surrounded by a moat, will be built.

The decision to abandon the former site in Grosvenor Square by 2016 came after a prolonged battle with residents angered by the security measures demanded after the September 11 attacks. More than a hundred residents took out a full-page advertisement in The Times to oppose tighter measures that they said would leave the area more vulnerable to attack.

The new embassy, on a former industrial site behind Battersea power station known for its gay clubs, will be designed by Kieran Timberlake, the Philadelphia architect.

Additionally, the UK assesses a 17.5% VAT tax on all new structures, but we’re probably going to refuse to pay that, because we’re the kind of jerks who like to just drop big cubes with moats in people’s backyards and scream diplomatic immunity. I bet we don’t pay our parking tickets either (and hah, according to this article, we don’t – we probably owe about $50 mil in unpaid congestion fees to the UK).

Granted, if the US sells the land in Grosvenor Square and buys this plot in the low-rent side of town, it’ll save a few bucks that way, but does that still justify a billion-dollar structure?

Opinions? We haven’t done a poll in a bit…