A bad day for London, now that the International Olympic Committee has inflicted the 2012 Olympic Games on us.
No doubt the NuLabour politicians like Ken Livingstone and Tony Blair will try to claim some credit, even though neither of them are likely to be still in power in 2012, so they will not have to pay the political price for the inevitable cost overruns, which we the taxpayers of London and the rest of the UK will have to fund.
Livingstone has already announced that each London Council Tax payer will have to pay £20 a year for 12 years i.e. £240, even if the Games do not make a loss , which is extremely unlikely.
Thanks to Mr Blair. Congratulations for London 2012. Signed: A really happy NOPARIS2012 supporter....
i say stop id cards, but will done ken livingston for winning the olympics, despite the moronic behaviour of seb coe, and other royal morons, ken won it, i am sure royalist scum will claim credit
I am sure Ken Livingstone will try to claim "credit" for anything to do with the Olympics, but so will Tony Blair etc.
Objectively, what exactly has Ken Livingstone's contribution been, apart from not standing up to the Treasury and committing London Council Tax payers to underwriting the cost overruns of the project ?
How long before he renages on his promises, just as he has already done with his election manifesto pledges ?
His public relations disasters only harmed London's international reputation.
How many Olympics have you attended? When was the last time you visited Melbourne, Sydney, Atlanta, Barcelona or Seoul?
Yes it costs money to host an Olympics, but there is no big surprise there. The benefit that hosting the games has is almost immeasurable. It promotes sport in the city as well as promoting the city to the world. It also FORCES regeneration and improvement in areas that would have languished.
The positive aspects of hosting an olympics really need to be seen to be believed. Everyone has to get behind it to make it work properly.
"Yes it costs money to host an Olympics, but there is no big surprise there."
If the Olympic Games were self financing, like any other commercial entertaiment or major sporting event, then there would be frewer objections to them. Even the Olympic Movement itself accepts that they have grown to be too big and too complicated.
Since most people only ever see the Games on television etc,., what is the justification for moving them to a new venue every 4 years ? Why can't the franchise be for , say 4 or 5 Games, which might justify the costs of what are always white elephant sports facilities, as we can see in Sydney and Barcelona etc.
"The benefit that hosting the games has is almost immeasurable."
You can spend your own money without conducting some reasonable cost benefit exercise, but do not expect me to spend my money, or to see public money wasted like that.
"It promotes sport in the city as well as promoting the city to the world."
Are you seriously suggesting that London will have a higher "name recognition" factor after 2012 than before ? Ask anyone to name the top 5 capital cities in the world, and London will be on the list, Olympic Games or not.
Promoting Sport is already a function of the Department of Media, Culture and Sport, irrespective of London actually hosting the Games.
Training aththletes to win lots of Olyympic medals is a separate issue and budget from that of hosting the Games - this should be done no matter where the Games are held, so the "promotion of sport" argument is a false one, especially as the National Lottery funds available for grassroots sports will be cut by the special Olympic Lottery, which will compete for the same pool of dispoasbale income from the public, but which will be wasted on the legacy white elephant stadia, instead of going to local schools and sports clubs.
"It also FORCES regeneration and improvement in areas that would have languished."
That might be true in communist Beijing, but not in London.
If an area of a city deserves "regeneration" than it deserves that to happen *without* the Olympic Games, and without the planning blight caused by the Bid process uncertainty.
There are no major regeneration or transport investment projects e.g. Cross rail, Stratford Channel Tunnel link etc. which are not *already* underway in London "win or lose".