Disastrous Figures

The government claims that there will be a "sporting legacy" from the London 2012 Olympics. The government has made much of a target to increase, by two million by 2012, the 6.8m people playing sport, or doing some form of physical exercise for 30 minutes three times a week.

However, quarterly figures just released show that only three sports (athletics, canoeing and cycling) have recorded an increase in the number of people participating at least once a week; all the others have flatlined.

Don Foster, the Liberal Democrat shadow culture, media and sport secretary, is quoted in The Guardian:

"These disastrous figures show the government's Olympic legacy strategy is going badly wrong. Many sports which have had huge funding increases are actually witnessing a decline in participation."

Throwing money at a problem is not always the best way to resolve it.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Ken Cocks It Up

It seems that the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has made a rare admission of a mistake.

Well, rather, he has blamed an underling for a mistake.

The cock up relates to an invitation issued to Linford Christie (banned for steroid use) to be one of the Olympic torchbearers at the London 2012 Olympics. The invitation was in writing, and signed by Ken.

However, once it became public knowledge that Christie had been invited, there was an almighty storm of protest about how having a cheat acting as a protagonist in the Games would send the wrong message.

Initially the Greater London Authority (GLA) tried the old trick of denying the story, saying that the reports were "inaccurate".

However, the truth finally overcame the spin and Ken was keen to extricate himself from the mess. He revoked the invitation blaming an underling for the error.

IOC President Lambasts London Olympics Budget

The chickens are well and truly coming home to roost for the government and the organisers of the London 2012 Olympics, over the spiralling and out of control budget (currently £12BN including running costs) for these unwanted games.

Jacques Rogge, President of the IOC, has put the boot in by saying that the government handling of the budget review had imperilled public support.

Rogge, being a true politician, tries to pour oil on troubled waters by noting that much of the increase can be accounted for by the fact that 2004 prices were used in the bid and VAT was ignored.

Disregarding that spin, he then notes that the huge increase in the headline figure has led to public uncertainty.

He is quoted in The Guardian:

"There are two issues that have made things confusing for the general public because they were not included in the original budget.

These are elements that have been added to the budget. They are VAT, which was not included at the beginning, and the second is a strong contingency fund, all of which gives the idea to the general public that there has been an escalation. In fact these are new elements.

Another issue is that in the bid books we had 2004 prices, but we are speaking about a project that will culminate in 2012 ... and that creates confusion among the general public who think that the budget has exploded.

There is a perception that there is a big difference but if you look at the constant impact of inflation it's not such an explosion."

Whatever political spin is put on the £12BN cost figure that the taxpayers are now facing, can't hide the fact that £12BN is a very large sum of money (one which will rise as the deadline draws ever closer) and that one that the British taxpayer does not want to fund.

The organisers by their ineptitude and spin tried to hide the true cost of the games when they made the bid, as they knew that the public would never have supported them.

The chickens are well and truly coming home to roost, and the politicians are finding it more difficult to hide the true costs of the games.

The Grim Reaper

The Royal Air Force have confirmed that it will deploy armed "Reaper" unmanned aerial vehicles during the London 2012 Olympics.

There is, it has to be said, a degree of risk in deploying armed "Terminator" inspired robo planes over London. However, the British government in their desire to keep the population under control regard the political benefits from spinning the terrorist threat as greater than the risk of any of the drones going awry and killing a civilian.

The Reaper is the latest version of the General Atomics Predator hunter-killer UAV, it can carry an array of laser-guided bombs and missiles including the Hellfire air-to-ground weapon which has been used against Taliban forces in Afghanistan.

Hunter-killer UAVs are controlled by a ground station that directs them to the enemy and remotely fires its weapons.

The 11m-long Reaper can fly for 14 hours and carry an array of sensors including cameras, radars, electro-optical and infra-red that allow it to be deployed around the clock in all types of weather.

UAVs are used primarily for surveillance and targeting, but can make a highly cost-effective offensive weapon when armed with bombs and missiles.

So that's reassuring then!

Thumbs Down For The Olympics Stadium

The London ODA continues to heap embarrassment and opprobrium upon itself, not content with allowing the budget to run out of control and not even being able to set a firm price for the stadium, they have now managed to attract derision and scorn for the lousy design of the 2012 London Olympics stadium.

The design was revealed yesterday, with all the usual hype and pr spin usually reserved for a third world dictatorship.

The result?

A very predictable damp squib.

A boring oval shaped stadium that has no defining features of beauty or originality, and worse it will have to down size from a capacity of 80,000 during the games to 25,000 afterwards.

Why?

Simple, there is no need for a stadium in that part of London. At best it will used, maybe, by a football club.

Hardly legacy architecture, is it?

Then again, the legacy of these games (an out of control budget, bad planning, hype, spin and lousy architecture) is rather in keeping with the capabilities and performance of the current government.

The Olympic Legacy

One of the curious side effects, or to use the fashionable term beloved by the IOC and other Olympic organs - "legacy", of the London Olympics 2012 is that of preserving Camelot's monopoly stranglehold over the UK lottery industry.

Camelot is expected to hold on to the National Lottery today, it has run the National Lottery since 1994. However, it is facing a rival bid from Sugal & Damani, an Indian based rival.

Despite the fact that Camelot is in a monopoly position, and as such it could be argued that it would be beneficial to open the market up to competition, it is unlikely to lose its stranglehold.

The simple reason being that it has been asked to guarantee £2.2BN for the Olympics 2012, the budget for which is spinning hopelessly out of control.

Sugal & Damani would have problems in guaranteeing that sum.

So those who look for an Olympic legacy need look no further than the lottery monopoly, something to be proud of!

Darling's Doubts Over Olympics

It seems that the new Chancellor of The Exchequer, Alistair Darling, has some doubts over the London Olympics 2012.

Darling has been outed as a long-term doubter of the Olympics.

Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former spin doctor, has revealed in his diaries that Darling was a "very clear no", when the Cabinet was discussing in 2003 the prospect of an Olympic bid.

Darling raised concerns about the cost of the Games at the time, when the bill was only expected to be £2.6BN. The current budget has now ballooned to a staggering £12BN, and is likely to continue to grow.

The Treasury claim that Darling now no longer has any doubts.

Quite how this change of mind, given the fact that the budget is now more than four times the amount that caused Darling to reject the bid, came about is beyond mere human understanding.

Doubtless Darling's conversion was a "road to Damascus" moment.