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| November | 22 |
| 2006 |
Alice Miles has a simply brilliant piece on the obscenely expensive farce that is, already, the 2012 Olympics. Do read every word of it. And recoil in horror at the financial scandal unfolding before our eyes. We're almost six years away, and already the budget has soared out of control. God alone knows what the bill will be by 2012.
This is the most significant paragraph:
It is criminal to spend so much public money on such idiocy. I asked the International Olympic Committee yesterday what the penalty would be for walking away now. Would Britain be sent to the international version of Coventry, perhaps? The contract signed with the IOC stipulates that we would have to “indemnify†the IOC if we pulled out. Indemnify it for what? It hasn’t cost them anything.
It's still not too late to pull out. Yes, some contacts may have been signed within the UK and there will be money due under those. But not the £8 billion pounds or more that we are going to have to spend so some athletes can run round in a circle. It really is obscene. Other than some internal contracts, the cost of pulling out will be close to zero.
Now is the time to start a campaign to pull out of these wretched games. It's not too late. To that end, I have submitted the following petition to the Number Ten site for approval:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to withdraw from our agreement with the IOC to stage the Olympic Games in London 2012, before it is too late to prevent the waste of billions of pounds.— Stephen Pollard
Deadline to sign up by: 22 May 2007
More details:
The cost of the Olympics has already spiralled out of control - and we are not even within 5 years of the games being held. It is clear that the eventual costs will be far in excess even of the most supposedly over the top estimates. It is not too late to pull out. We must act now to save ourselves from an obscene waste of money.
I'll let you know if - hopefully when - it's approved.
MessageSpace
Who could possibly have predicted that a grand project with Blair, Jowell and Livingstone at the helm would be grossly mismanaged and over budget?
Jacques is currently gloating over his uber-nuclear-world-destroying-plant so why not drop the Olympics in his lap too and say - here, we don't need them any more.
Perhaps the opponents should take legal advice from that brilliant solicitor who advised Neil Clark in his case against Oliver Kamm. Perhaps not.
Two other issues:
1) The security nightmare.
2) Britain's finances: it looks bad now when Britain's finances are in fairly good shape, but if Israel attacks Iran and oil prices soar, the dollar collapses in the next few years (an event that is certain according to both Robert Rubin and Paul Volcker), Britain's massive housing bubble bursts (the BoE has warned banks to prepare for up to a 40% drop in house prices), and Britain's economy goes into the crapper for any or all of those reasons, what then?
Even without 1 and 2 above, it looks like it's turning into a financial fiasco on the scale of the 1976 Montreal Olympics, or even something much worse.
You're all party poopers. Regrettably, you're dealing with the two huge egos, Bliar and Livingscum. They'll push this through whatever the cost to the British taxpayer.
(Pulling out of the EUssr will save us £40 Million pounds a day)
I'd like to hear what greengoddess (aka Neil Clark) has to say on the matter.
"Pulling out of the EUssr will save us £40 Million pounds a day"
Pulling out a a few years ago would have had 500,000 other advantages.
And, for the record, I am a firm believer in open immigration. Africans, Chinese, Latin Americans, Indians, Pakistanis, welcome one and all. I hold a very different view for very obvious reasons of immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe.
Do you support open immigration for Israel, Joshua?
The usually flatulent Joshua has gone mysteriously quiet. I can't think why.
I agree with your campaign Stephen
Also, lets not forget that as well as the obscene cost of this event, the Olympics will also be used by militant Islamists to enlarge Londistan by the building of Britain's biggest mosque, holding up to 40,000 worshippers. I wonder how many other agendas contrary to the British (dare I say English ?) interests will ride on the back of the Olympics ?