Tessa Jowell has finally announced the budget for the 2012 London Olympics, it will cost £9.3BN (before running costs of £2BN).
In other words, as has been predicted on this site for many months, the costs of the Olympics will be around £12BN.
The question therefore arises, if I could come up with the figure so quickly and so long ago, why the hell did it take Ms Jowell so long?
Thursday, March 15, 2007
The Pig In A Poke
Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary entrusted with overseeing the London Olympics 2012, will announce today the budget for the games.
Cynics amongst you might ask why there is still no budget, given the fact that Britain bid for the games some years ago.
One would have thought that a bid could not have been put together, or indeed accepted by the IOC, without a budget. However, in the world of Olympic politics all things are possible.
My own personal guesstimate as to the costs, currently stands at £12BN (which includes £2BN running costs).
At a stormy session of the Commons public accounts committee last week, officials were accused of presiding over a "pig in the poke" and "Alice in Wonderland" finances.
Quite!
However, whatever the budget figure announced today turns out to be, you can be sure that by the time the Olympics are held in 2012 it will be much more than that.
Never allow politicians to become involved in large scale projects.
Cynics amongst you might ask why there is still no budget, given the fact that Britain bid for the games some years ago.
One would have thought that a bid could not have been put together, or indeed accepted by the IOC, without a budget. However, in the world of Olympic politics all things are possible.
My own personal guesstimate as to the costs, currently stands at £12BN (which includes £2BN running costs).
At a stormy session of the Commons public accounts committee last week, officials were accused of presiding over a "pig in the poke" and "Alice in Wonderland" finances.
Quite!
However, whatever the budget figure announced today turns out to be, you can be sure that by the time the Olympics are held in 2012 it will be much more than that.
Never allow politicians to become involved in large scale projects.
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