Big Ben Leans - but which direction?

Big Ben is leaning.  I’ve heard about this too and decided to look into some British history to see exactly which way it might actually be leaning.

With some help from Wikipedia, I fount that prior to the mid-19th century politics in the United Kingdom was dominated by the Whigs and the Tories. These were not political parties in the modern sense but somewhat loose alliances of interests and individuals. 

The Whigs included many of the leading aristocratic dynasties committed to the Protestant succession, and later drew support from elements of the emerging industrial interests and wealthy merchants, while the Tories were associated with the landed gentry, the Church of England and the Church of Scotland.

By the mid 19th century the Tories had evolved into the Conservative Party, and the Whigs had evolved into the Liberal Party. In the late 19th century the Liberal Party began to pursue more left wing policies, and many of the heirs of the Whig tradition became Liberal Unionists and moved closer to the Conservatives on many of the key issues of the time.

The Liberal and Conservatives dominated the political scene until the 1920s, when the Liberal Party declined in popularity and suffered a long stream of resignations. It was replaced as the main left-wing party by the newly emerging Labour Party, who represented an alliance between the trades unions and various socialist societies.

So it seems that it’s really leaning in the direction of your point of view.

From the bridge the Conservatives claim Big Ben is leaning to the Right.  From the other side, the Labour Party claims Big Ben is certainly leaning to the Left.

It’s not leaning much yet.  Experts say 1.64 feet (9 mm per year)  this is 1/16th the lean of the Tower in Pisa. They conclude:

"Our resident expert believes it will be between 4,000 and 10,000 years before it becomes a problem. They don't know what's behind the acceleration, however, and say that there's "No real proof what has caused it"."

An American entrepreneur has suggested moving Big Ben to Washington DC to solve the problem of which way it’s leaning and, hopefully someday to fix it.  

This was not approved, however, since experts estimated that the Administration, Congress and The House would not be able to agree on this for at least 15,000 years.  Big Ben would then share the Mall Reflecting Pool with the Washington Monument in its horizontal resting place.


It's always something...