The IOC, having completed their two day inspection of London's preparations for the 2012 Olympics, have magnanimously stated that the UK is justified in spending £12BN (including £2BN running costs) on the games.
Given that the money is not coming out of the IOC's pockets, and the continuing existence of the games justifies their junkets and salaries, the IOC would say that.
Denis Oswald, the head of the Coordination Commission is quoted in The Guardian:
"In every city where you organise the Games, it's a unique opportunity to improve the infrastructure in one way or another.
If you look at most previous cities like Athens, they have a new airport, they have a new train line, they have a new metro line, they have a new tramway, they have a new motorway... all this was done on the occasion of the Games.
These were investments which were needed by the city in order to be a modern city and I think it's a very similar situation with the east end part of London which needed improvement. The Games are just the best opportunity to do it."
Oswald neglects to mention that the hapless citizens of Greece will be spending years paying off the debts of the 2004 Olympics, and that many of the venues constructed for the Athens games are now rotting.
Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics
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I suspect the committee members, the government reps and all the other hangers on, see these inspection tours as a couple of nice days out with plenty of freebies thrown in to boot.
ReplyDeleteNice work if you can get it!!
I hate to be pedantic but the 2Bn running costs are actually provided by the IOC and comes from their TV rights deals and other sources of income... essentially the IOC pay to host the Games proper and the other 9.3bn (from private finance, lottery and the government) goes on providing the venues and infrastructure.
ReplyDeleteNow... I know you've described East London as 'ugly' on here but if (like me) you lived here and could see the HUGE developments taking place right now and improving the area you'd say it was money well spent - trust me, it wouldn't have happened here without the Olympics. (FYI 75p in every £1 from said 9.3bn is being spent on regeneration and construction) This is a GOOD THING for London, I can't understand why you'd be so against it - aren't you proud to be hosting this global event? Events like the Olympics keep Britain on the global stage and by comparisson to other public spending projects is in fact small fry (£1 TRILLION for a useless new nuclear missile system anyone??!) Bring on the Games!