BBC Staff Told Not To Be Patriotic

In a rather perverse ruling, BBC staff have been warned not to focus too heavily on British success in London 2012.

Director General Mark Thompson has advised them to remember that other countries are competing too.

Does not the fact that it is the British Broadcasting Company and that it is the London Olympics entitle the presenters to show some patriotism?

After all, it's not as though we have done so well in the past. Furthermore, I am sure that US, Chinese and Russian networks (to name but a few) focus on their own athletes' successes at the expense of others.

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No Escape

Seemingly there will be no escape from next year's Olympics.

As a foretaste of the wall to wall coverage during the games, the BBC intends to cover every mile of the 70 mile torch relay, live.

The Olympic torch's journey around Britain starts on May 19, and ends at the Olympic Stadium in London on July 27.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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The Olympic Joke

The Associated Press reports that the BBC is to parody preparations for the London 2012 Olympics in a new comedy series.

"Twenty Twelve" has been shot in the style of mockumentary series "The Office".

The BBC says the six-part series will deal with "such hot topics as how to phase the traffic lights across London to get people from west to east."

Writers have also tried to make light of the process of selling a taekwondo hall after the Olympics, the search for someone to run the Cultural Olympiad and how wind turbines will operate in the absence of wind.

The series will air on BBC 4. Broadcast dates haven't been announced.

The real life preparations have been comical enough (not least the farce over the "budget"), the BBC don't need writers it is writing itself.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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BBC Screws Up Again

The BBC seems not to have learned its lesson wrt rigging phone votes etc, as it was revealed that Florence Jackson the 9 year old girl who won the Olympics 50p coin is in fact the daughter of Andrew Jackson (the head of the BBC's Natural History Unit and a former BBC reporter).

The BBC said:

"We strongly refute any allegations of wrongdoing. The judging panel who short-listed the finalists was not given any indication of the name, sex or age of any of the entrants.

Their decision was based purely on the design of the coin.

Any suggestion that anyone at the BBC could have had undue influence on the selection of the winning entry is totally wrong and without any foundation whatsoever. The competition closed in March, before any discussions between the NHU and Andrew Jackson.

The eventual winner was selected as a finalist in March. Andrew is due to start at the NHU at the end of October".

I don't doubt the impartiality of the panel for one moment, nor the fact that Florence deserved to win. The trouble is the BBC is media organisation and should have seen how this would play out in the media, and would have known before Florence was announced as winner that Andrew was joining them again.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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BBC Olympic "Budget"

The Sun has outed the BBC's travel "budget" for the London Olympics.

"The BBC is to land licence-payers with a £3 million bill to send sport staff to cover the London Olympics from Manchester – just a year after it relocates from the capital....flights, train fares, taxis and accommodation".

The reason that the BBC, based in London, is expecting to spend so much money is that (for reasons that only a "detached" and poorly managed bureaucracy such as the BBC can understand) the BBC sports department are moving out of London to Manchester one year before the Olympics.

Clearly an intelligent plan would have been to move after the Games.

The BBC then go on to dig themselves into a deeper hole by saying that, because plans are still being developed, they "can't speculate on the costs involved".

In other words, they have no budget (clearly taking their cue from the organisers of the London Olympics!)

Not very impressive is it?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Women's Boxing Given Green Light

The IOC's decision to allow women's boxing at the London 2012 Olympics has produced an effusive outburst of joy from Tessa Jowell (who will not be Olympics Minister by the time the games are staged).

She is quoted by the BBC:

"It will be a landmark moment come London 2012 when for the first time every sport will have women participating in it.

There are still major disparities in the number of medals women can win compared to men but this is a step in the right direction.

In this country women's boxing has come on in leaps and bounds and is growing quickly at all levels.

London 2012 will now create the first-ever generation of boxing heroines and hopefully inspire even more women to take up the sport."

Funny that, I thought that Labour and the Nanny state were anti boxing; as they regard it as dangerous and violent?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Gagged?

BBC London claim to have found that some contracts between the London 2012 Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) forbid the contractors from talking to third parties (without ODA permission) about costs, plans and other issues.

The BBC also claim to have seen contracts that allow the ODA to search companies' premises and emails, if they are suspected of breaching the confidentiality clauses.

The ODA deny this, and are quoted in the Telegraph:

"We have not seen the contracts to which the BBC are referring but we have an excellent record on transparency."

I guess the BBC were mistaken then?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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A Shot in The Arm?

Tessa Jowell referred to the Olympics 2012 as being a "shot in the arm", whilst appearing on BBC Two's Daily Politics programme, at a time when Britain is expected to go into recession.

She noted:

"But, as it turns out, facing a recession deeper than any that we have known, almost certainly, the Olympics is, I mean, it's economic gold at a time of economic need."

Given that the out of control "budget" currently stands at £12BN (including £2BN running costs) and is likely to rise further, as private finance deals fall through, why is so much money being wasted on this white elephant which will not produce any meaningful legacy?

This waste of resources is more akin to a shot in the head, rather than a shot in the arm.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Scots Want Their Money Back

The Scottish Government is asking for the return of £150M in lottery funds, which it alleges was diverted from good causes to finance the 2012 London Olympics.

Communities Minister Stewart Maxwell has sent a bid document to UK Sport Secretary Andy Burnham.

Maxwell cites the claim as being "a matter of natural justice".

The BBC quote him:

"We are pressing for the return of the money as a matter of natural justice because we believe it is fundamentally unfair that Scottish good causes should suffer to pay for London 2012.

From the smallest arts groups, through sports clubs, to health promotion centres and local day care facilities, we want to see communities embracing opportunities to make change for themselves and help to improve the quality of their lives and those of others."

However, "natural justice" or not, it is unlikely that the claim will succeed. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, is resisting the claim.

Quote:

"Scotland has received over £2BN in Lottery money since 1994, and around £150M in the last financial year alone. Since the lottery began, over £315M has been spent on grassroots sport in Scotland.

The Olympic Games will bring immense benefits to the UK: a legacy of world class facilities; the inspiration of a generation to get active and take up sport; as well as huge economic and business benefits with £6bn worth of contracts.

London 2012 will leave a lasting legacy for everyone in the UK, including Scotland, which will host Olympic football at Hampden Park.

In addition, 29 locations across Scotland are included in the official guide to pre-games training facilities for foreign teams in 2012."

The Scots don't have a cat's chance in hell of succeeding with their money back claim!

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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IOC Warns Against White Elephant Legacy

The head of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, has stirred up a hornets' nest by publicly stating that London 2012's main stadium does not need an athletics legacy.

He told the BBC that the main concern for London 2012's organisers should be to avoid leaving behind "white elephants".

Quote:

"If the best solution is to transform the track into something else then we would be in favour of that.

We had the same situation in Atlanta where the Olympic Stadium was changed into a baseball stadium, which kept an interest for sport.

We don't have problems with that. I don't want to enter into specifics but we don't want to leave white elephants."

This of course means that the stadium can be turned into a football stadium afterwards. All very well, but hardly the "legacy" that the government had promised.

Lord Coe promised that the £525M complex would be a "stadium with track and field as its primary legacy".

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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The Olympic Scam

The BBC have uncovered an alleged scam whereby hundreds of East European workers have been conned by a promise of non-existent jobs at the London 2012 Olympic site.

550 Slovakians paid cash deposits of £600 to convicted fraudster Nigel Lewis, who is based in East London. They were promised accommodation on a cruise ship in Docklands, and jobs on the site of the Olympic Village.

Mr Lewis has insisted that he made no profit from his UK Cruise Line venture.

The BBC will show the programme today, in which they claim that Mr Lewis advertised for catering staff and tradesmen to work in East London.

After deposits were transferred to Mr Lewis's firm UK Cruise Line Ltd in 2006, the BBC alleges he vanished.

BBC London tracked him down to a hotel in Dartford, on 1 September, and quote him:

"I've worked on this project almost 12 months solid and I've got nothing for it, just heartache."

He also said he had intended to buy three cruise ships and secure jobs at the Olympic site but that "it just went out of control".

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Scrap The Games

Bernie Ecclestone, the head of Formula 1, has put the boot firmly into the testicles of the London 2012 Olympics by claiming in a BBC interview that in comparison to Beijing it will be a massive let down and would be better off scrapped.

Then, to add fuel to the fire, he called for an earthquake so that the Games would have to be cancelled.

He said:

"There is only one way down for anyone involved. If it goes well, you're not going to get any credit and if it goes bad you're going to get the blame."

When asked how London will cope following Beijing, he said:

"With great difficulty. I can't see how anyone can follow that.

We've got to do something completely different and not try and do a 'Las Vegas' if you like - or we are going to look idiots."

Asked what London could do he said:

"I suppose pray there's going to be an earthquake or something so it doesn't happen."

I wonder if he would have had the same opinion if Formula 1 was an Olympic sport?

Olympic Medals Won

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Record Audience

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics pulled in a record number of TV viewers around the world.

NBC in the USA, despite not showing the event live and delaying it to primetime, managed to score its highest ever rating (over 34 million viewers) for a non-American hosted summer Olympics aside from the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

In China between 63% and 68.8% of China's total audience, a record, watched the opening ceremony.

In Australia, the Seven Network said that its audience was over 3.3 million viewers. In Germany, 7.7 million watched it on ARD; in France, 4.4 million watched it on France 2 and in Italy, 5.5 million watched on RAI. The BBC had an audience of 5 million.

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The Great Firewall of China II

For those who have problems in China wrt accessing the certain sites on the net, Amnesty International Australia have set up the Chinese Internet Censor Index for you to record you frustrations.

The Telegraph reports that politically sensitive sites, including those dealing with Tibet and Taiwan and the BBC (technical problems are blamed), are still blocked.

However, you can buy porn in the Games village bookshop, which sells erotic books featuring pictures of naked women with titles such as "Drawing book for the Nude".

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Londoners May Get Stiffed With Olympic Bill

It seems that there is some doubt as to whether the government will pick up the tab for any cost overruns for the 2012 London Olympics, this would mean that Londoners would get stiffed with the bill.

The issue was given prominence by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, on the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme.

Mr Johnson said:

"There is a dispute at the moment between the GLA and the mayoralty and the government about who is up for the over-runs in so far as they may or may not occur.

The details of this deal are from clear.

What I want to do is to make sure there are no over-runs."

Whether the government picks up the tab, or Londoners do, it will still be the taxpayer that foots the bill.

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Lack of Support For London Games

The BBC conducted a survey in April that showed that 60% of Londoners felt that the 2012 games would bring no real benefit to London.

Ex-Athens mayor Dora Bakoyannis has now pitched in, and said that Londoners need to "endorse" the games.

She is quoted on the BBC:

"You need the big support of the people in this city.

You need the big support of the people in this city."

Ms Bakoyannis, who is now Greece's foreign minister, also said:

"They have to be proud of London, they have to be ambitious.

You can do nothing alone."

Maybe so, but even though the residents of Athens ended up supporting the gamnes in 2004 they were still saddled with an enormous bill that will take decades to pay off, and derelict stadiums and venues that are of no use to man nor beast.

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Work To Commence on London Stadium

Work on the construction of London's 80,000 seat Olympic stadium for the 2012 games will start in the next two weeks, according to the BBC.

When the games end, the current plan is for the stadium to be turned into a 25,000 seat community venue.

Strangely enough, given the shambles of the budget, construction is actually going to start 3 months ahead of schedule.

A cynic might raise the following caveats:

1 Given the shambles of T5 and Wembley, the contractors will need all the time that they can get in order to finish their work in time for the games; this is bound to run over schedule.

2 By starting work now, the contractors lessen the chances of anyone revising the budget and design.

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Apathy

A poll, commissioned by the BBC, reveals that 70% of British people believe the 2012 London Olympics will bring no real benefit to their area.

This is hardly surprising, the government and quasi bureaucracies have a terrible track record when it comes to managing/implementing large scale projects; eg The Dome, Terminal 5 Heathrow, the budget for the 2012 Olympics etc.

There will be no tangible legacy from the Games that benefit the people of Britain.

Quell Surprise!

It should come as no surprise to learn that the costs for the out of control London 2012 Olympics (the budget currently stands at £12BN, including £2BN running costs) have a 20% chance of rising.

Only 20%?

That is the warning given by a government report which has been leaked to the BBC.

However, please do not be alarmed. Our government has issued an assurance that ministers are confident the budget is "robust".

HAH!

They would say that, wouldn't they?

Never allow a politician to run a long term prestige project. They have neither the skill, nor the attention span, to do an effective or reliable job.

Get On With It

The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, has issued a thinly disguised "hurry up" message to the London Olympics organisers.

Rogge told the BBC that London "is doing OK", but must focus on delivering the Games on time.

Quote:

"We urge them to work as soon as possible and to prepare today for the unforeseen of tomorrow."

Hardly a ringing endorsement of progress made so far.

Rogge also said that he remained optimistic that a permanent tenant for the London Olympic stadium will be found.

The current legacy plan is to reduce the stadium's capacity from 80,000 to 25,000 in 2013, and use it as a multi-sport venue with athletics and community facilities at its heart.

However, LOCOG need a football or rugby club to become the "anchor tenant" and thus subsidise the stadium. The trouble being that the plans for the stadium do not include a roof for the majority of the seats.

Another example of the poor planning of this event.