The Olympics

The Olympics

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News, information and stories about the Olympic Games in Athens 2004 and the Olympics in general up until 2007.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

London Hogs The Limelight

The British government has just woken up to the fact that, unless it acts now, the money it is pumping into the London 2012 Olympics will be gobbled up by London based firms and foreign owned companies.

Tessa Jowell, the Olympics minister and culture secretary, is now trying to bring other UK businesses onboard. She is trying to stimulate them to bid for the £3.3BN state spending on the event.

The government panic is as a result of a report issued by PwC, last month, that said that the games could leave the regions about £2.8BN worse off than if another country had staged the event.

On what do they base this rather dubious conclusion I wonder?

Ms Jowell, ever mindful of the ongoing moans form the regions that London gets all the money, said that the government would be "proactive and aggressive" in encouraging regional involvement.

Quote:

"We are absolutely determined to see the benefits diffused around the country."

It seems to me that if the businesses outside of the capital do not have the nounce or the drive to do this for themselves, then they are probably not up to the job of providing goods and services for the Olympics.

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