Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, addressing a dinner for "leisure industry bosses", said that the Government would not have bid to host the Olympics in 2012 if it had anticipated the scale of the current economic downturn. Well, duh, whoduvthunkit.
However, the Minister is comforted by the the thought that the work generated by the Olympics is "creating jobs for thousands" - apparently unaware that most of the thousands on the main Olympics site are migrants so the "skills legacy" promised by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) will disappear from the UK as soon as the migrant workers go home to Poland or other European countries.
Way to go, Tessa. So when there was no recession in sight, we bid £2.4 billion. Now that we are entering a recession, and it's all going to cost £9.3 billion plus, cannot even the dimmest lightbulb in the Government see a reason for using existing equestrian facilities for 2012 instead of trashing Greenwich Park?
Update: Now we're all neo-Keynesians, of course, there's less chance than ever that the Government will see sense. The Games are supposed to regenerate east London and bring 3,000 jobs to the Olympic site in Stratford, which works out at a mere £2m per job. Independent, 16 November 2008
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