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There's no limit to what we can do when we really try. We put a man on the Moon. We discovered how to transplant hearts. We have decoded the genome. So let us not have any question about it: we could, if we wanted, still cancel the 2012 Olympics. The announcement this week that the cost of the main stadium alone has soared by another £43 million to £547 million has to be the last straw.
This is not a joke or a rhetorical flourish. The planned opening ceremony is still more than three years away. We do not need to accept this vast imposition as a fait accompli.
The event could, at this juncture, be relocated in one of the other cities that have already held the Olympics recently. And where they are broadcast from is a matter of complete indifference to any Londoner I've ever met, even among the minority who actually get something out of the old hop, skip and jump.
As for the zones in Stratford and elsewhere, construction should be halted at once while costings are made for converting the sites into houses and hospitals instead. There may well be a Keynesian argument for supporting major works with public money but they need to be better planned than these single-use stadiums. Unless stopped, the Olympics will leave a “legacy” of structures to be converted afterwards. Do it now.
None of the arguments put forward by the hapless Tessa Jowell make sense. The 2012 Olympics will not inspire young people to take up sport themselves and become more fit and healthy. That can only be done at ground level, not by building a daft “velodrome” at a cost of £105 million.
And we were, of course, deliberately duped about these Olympics all the way. The original estimate used to launch the bid of £2.4 billion was just a con-trick, as Ken Livingstone admitted last year. By the time of the actual bid in 2005, the figure had risen to £4.1 billion, a sum the Public Accounts Committee subsequently dismissed as “entirely unrealistic”.
In March 2007, Jowell announced a revised figure of £9.345 billion and the Games chiefs still insist they will remain within this budget. But a former Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, Jack Lemley, has admitted that they had long been working with an estimate of £12 billion and the real figure might be £20 billion. We do know the figures will only go one way: up.
One result of the crash is that we all have begun to take these vast figures of public debt more seriously. Where before they seemed just too big to have any personal consequences for us, we have begun fearfully to realise we and our children must pay every penny. We may have been tricked into the 2012 Olympics but this is one nightmare we can still change. Can't we?
What I suggest may sound unthinkable. But what's really unthinkable is to continue with this ever more costly monstrosity.
Dame Judi's industry perk
It's always creepy when critics come over all lovey-dovey and, instead of carping, present awards. It's like a bunch of wolves getting together to tie a bow on the year's prettiest lamb.
The Critics' Circle, the professional association of reviewers of dance, drama, film, music, art and architecture was originally formed back in 1913 but it was not until 1980 that the film contingent decided to start bestowing their own prizes each year. The performance still doesn't come naturally.
At the Film Awards bash at the Grosvenor Hotel on Wednesday, a pundit called David Gritten presented Dame Judi Dench with the “Dilys Powell Award” for a lifetime's contribution. Unfortunately, his speech didn't come out quite right. While trying to say that she had already received their annual Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts, he actually said that Dame Judi received from the critics an “annual service”. Luckily, the old banger took it in good part.
* Splendid news that some Christian groups are replying to those atheist bus ads — “There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” — with slogans of their own. The Trinitarian Bible Society is paying to put the first line of Psalm 53 on a hundred London buses: “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.”
Great stuff. And there's a lot more where that comes from. “For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool” would enhance any route. And why stop there? The Victorian travel writer Alexander Kinglake wanted to see inscribed on every church up and down the country these three words: “Important if true”. Let's do it! Surely a text that both sides could endorse.
Museums – the best crèches in town
Mariella Frostrup, usually so irreproachable, is calling for museums to become yet more child-friendly. Frostrup has a three-year-old and she thinks seeing him “become so animated about the origin of species” is fantastic.
In fact, the current Darwin exhibition in South Kensington is almost unvisitable by adults, so overrun is it with yelling infants. Parents ruthlessly treat all museums as random outings to distract their tots for a few hours.
This is not what museums are for. On that we can surely agree. So long as we don't even raise so vile a heresy as to hint that the central purpose of the great museums is not to entertain visitors at all but to nurture conservation and research.
Reader views (25)
JC, SE1 and everyone in favour of the Games in theory - have you read any of the preceding practical negative comments? I live in Hackney - NOBODY round here wants the games now, ever wanted them, will ever get anything out of them. We are hardly getting any of the construction jobs, highly skilled workers, for example in the NHS, have left London to get away from the building site they were forced to live next to, allotments have been destroyed ("This will be the Greenest Olympics ever"), the largest housing co-op in London was demolished ("The Games will provide a lot of affordable housing"), the Hackney Marshes football ptches will be decimated ("We want to encourage more grassroots participation in sport"), loads of grassroots arts projects have had their funding cut ("We want to stimulate the arts with out Cultural Olympiad") ... I could go on, but I will make myself even more depressed. And for what? 3 weeks? A few extra tourists? There's just as many who will stay away because they want to avoid the Olympics. Personally, I would throw the biggest party if they were scrapped, but is this realistic when our politicians won't want to lose face (though they might ask if Ken lost the election over the Olympics)? Simon Jenkins wrote a great article some months ago saying that it would be feasible to run a perfectly adequate Olympics using mainly existing facilities, and this seems like a reasonable compromise to me. Any takers?
- Sharon, Hackney, London
I for one would not want to face the international shame of cancelling the Olympics because we were too afraid to make it a success. Yes, it will cost money but look at the legacy it will leave for a regenerated Stratford (which is already taking place, FYI, do you propose we leave a half fininshed stadium in East London?), and the money in tourism it will bring with spectators at venues all across London.
We should be striving to make this the best possible Olympics in light of the circumstances and absolutely showing the world what we CAN do when we DO put our minds to it.
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity we should be proud of, thinking about how we can use it to inspire our children, not sitting staring at our belly buttons in fear and retrospection. People complain very readily that London and the UK have gone to the dogs but the Olympics are just the sort of thing to show the world and ourselves how great we all actually can be.
I, for one, can't wait for London 2012 and think it is just the shot in the arm we need right now. Bring it on!
- Mary, Bethnal Green, London, England
Perhaps rather than carping about the Olympics people should have a look at what major sporting events have already given to London??
Wembley Stadium (the old one) from the Empire Games, the same with the Empire Pool at Wembley. The White City Stadium too. There has been NO investment in sporting infrastructure in London in 50 years, except for football stadia. The Legacy though does not go far enough as we have been losing facilities for years. The money should have been spread wider to give London and the South East a huge sports legacy so that it is easier for young people to get into sport.
For those of you too lazy to get out of your armchair and do anything. Don't denigrate those who do. There is, largely unseen, a huge number of people involved, voluntarily, in sport in and around London, but crucially, far fewer than if we had the facilities available around london to afford people access.
Stratford and the surrounding area needs regeneration and this is the impetus, London needs the sporting facilities that will be provided. It is currently the only major city that can't host an athletics or swimming championships. Not a good advert for the capital.
Sadly, we have some inept politicians trying to prove they can run it, but that is par for the course.
Yes, some of the Olympic cities made a complete mess of it - Athens being a shining example - But look a little closer at cities like Munich where 36yr after the games the major facilities are well used in a great park.
- John Whitby, Peterborough, Cambs
Whilst Livingstone, Coe, Jowel et al wised to boost their already over-inflated egos, the tax payers were not consulted. Now we are faced with a legacy of debt of catastrophic proportions which we will be repaying for decades. The games should be cancelled and money saved used to build homes, schools and hospitals. Olympic sized stadia are of little use to people living in run down areas. They would prefer (and benefit from) better housing and schools. CANCEL NOW AND SAVE BILLIONS.
- R.F., Yorks, UK
Will everybody stop being pessimistic about London 2012.Everybody should just grab the feeling of the Games and go out and enjoy the pleasure our new park will bring.The people calling Coe&co idiots for bidding for the Olympics are the biggest idiots themselves.I have never heard of anybody not wanting the Olympics.When you see what a success it is,you will be kicking yourselves.STOP MOANING ABOUT THE NEGATIVES OF THE GAMES,LIKE TAX,AND ENJOY THE GAMES.
- H.J.Jones, London UK
£300 million went missing during the building of that last Blair/Brown disaster The Dome. Where did it go? The court case got cancelled. Why? How many billions are being siphoned off during the Olympics project ? And the disasterous IT projects? Whose checking? Anyone?
- Jane, London, England
If you seriously want to encourage people to be fit and healthy, a better idea would be the levelling of every fast food outlet and build housing on the sites.
Two birds with one stone!
The olympics are for the self aggrandesment of athletes and their various parasitical servants, nothing to do with the nations health - that`s just spin.
Cancel it - spend the billions on worthwhile causes.
- Darius Midwinter, London UK
Cancel it for God's sake.
Then you can spend the money on school sports facilities and training for young athletes, healthcare, housing and regeneration of actually useful stuff.
Major countries should stop being the patsies of the IOC and get sensible about the whole thing.
- Thalia, London
Spend the money on housing for the 400,000 people living on the streets of England, on food for the world's hungry and any left over money on real education and CULTURE. Many people like me HATE SPORT! It's an absolutely ridiculous waste of time, energy and money. Did you not see the hypocricy of China? In London it would be a travesty. CANCEL IT NOW! CH
- Caroline, France
Please, please cancel the London Olympics.
I don't know of any Londoner who wants the games or has ever wanted them.
But then we were never asked were we?
- Ann-Louisa, London
Robh clearly didn't bother to read the article, otherwise they'd have noticed the bit that proposes, "converting the sites into houses and hospitals instead."
The £3 billion spent would not go to waste. The land needed to be cleared up. For good or ill, this was never going to be done by a commercial developer, the return on investment just would not be there, and so needed central procurement.
Go to any previous Olympic site, and you will see desolate, soulless facilities, entirely unsuitable for any sustained purpose. Nothing proposed about the Stratford Olympic venues is different.
The only city venue that has prospered following the staging of the Olympics is Barcelona. Here, what was once a seedy, dirty, port town, has been cleaned up and turned around into a desirable place to visit...even though the Olympic Stadium remains a white elephant, unused but in constant need of attention, at a cost of millions.
London does not need the same sort of clean up Barcelona benefitted from. Visitors taking a stroll along The Mall, as they would anyway, are not going to hop on the Jubilee Line to go along to Straford to visit empty stadia.
On costs. The Athens games, held just one year, and proposed in a bid some 9 years before London won the bid, came in at around 10 billion euros (est. at 7 billion). The very idea that a London Games would cost £2.4 billion, even taking VAT and security off the bottom line, is nonsense, lies even, bordering on the criminal.
- Escobar A-Lop-Lop, Camden County
The I.O.C. are responsible for the increasing cost of staging the Olympics. Their demands and expectations to better the previous games puts an incredible strain on Olympic cities, both socially and economically. Things are getting out of hand. London has the opportunity to tighten things up and prove to the world that a fabulous games can be staged without spending exorbitant amounts of money, that could be better spent in so many areas. The Chinese, in their desperate attempt to impress a global audience (and they did so momentarily) are no better off now than they were prior to Beijing. A similar scenario played out in Sydney in 2000. The London organisers have to get real and appreciate that the city will be the focus of the world's gaze for two weeks. But it's just the worlds gaze, and is merely for two weeks. Nothing more. Life does not change for Londoner's when everybody goes home.
- Milo, Melbourne
Remember the Millenium Dome? Soon the lottery will be helping out I suppose like they wasted our money on the Millenium Dome. It will be a white Elephant too. I love the way these people spend money that doesn't belong to them, and never ask if it's OK. Should have rid us of Red Ken years earlier. It might have left us with some dignity and money. Cancel now, we can't afford it.
- Dave Robinson, Schuylkill Haven USA
Simply make it a 'European Games' if you must have the frightful event at all - spread the cost throughout the EEC. David Smith, Cannes
- David Smith, Cannes, France
Ok, someone please tell me which country has made a profit out of the Olympics, who have then afterwards used the facilities built for it, to benefit the host nation / areas within and the residents that have to put up with the displacement and utilise the left over dead Dome sites to proper effect? I think that there is one on Mars or it could be Utopia.
- Douglas Macdonald, Wimbledon London
I've not met one single person in London who wants the Olympics - we dread it!
The reason it won't be cancelled is because so many people in charge will lose face.
As for the resulting unemployment - why not give huge compensation? This would cost US less. For this is OUR money. Never mind show-off sport - a greater priority for our country is to provide proper education (which only a minority of children get - innit?) and proper care for the sick and elderly. Also on the priority list is improving transport so that in future we'll cope with snow and ice.
And how about spending millions on researching the common cold?
- Dee, london
Another 1976 Montreal Olympic nightmare in the making??
Despite initial projections in 1970 that the stadium would cost only $134 million (CAN) to construct, strikes and construction delays escalated these costs. By the time the stadium opened (in an unfinished form), the total costs had risen to C$264 (CAN) million.
Montreal tax payers continued to have to pay for the Stadium for 30 more years! In November 2006 the last payment was made on it!!!!
Montreal city hall has also admitted recently that the "Stade Olympique" has become a white elephant, with almost no sport taking place there and costs around $20 million (CAN) a year to maintain! There is now talk of Demolishing Stadium at an estimated cost more than $500 million (CAN).
Is this a vision of the future for London? Surely London already has enough brilliant stadiums to use instead... Where is the vision here!!
- Brent Mctavish, London
Agreed, Let's cancel stop this jamboree now, be brave and start a 'New World Order' for the Olympics.....
Have all countries that wish to compete in the 2012 Olympics donate to keeping a permanent Olympic site in Athens, the 'ancestral home' of the Olympic Games !
...oh, and send all the workers off site until some accurate construction costings have been done
- Cap, london
Is Mr Sexton going to tell the 6000 people currently employed on site and their families that they haven't got jobs to go to tomorrow? Is he going to tell the hundreds of firms who have Olympic contracts that they no longer have them and they'll have to find work elsewhere during the recession?
And what does he suggest we do with the half finished stadium etc. etc?
The "choice" is finish the job properly, have a great games, and at least have a chance of regneration and legacy or do what Mr Sexton proposes and let the 2 or 3 billion that's already been spent come to no use, with a muddy field the size of Hyde Park sitting there empty in the middle of east London.
- Robh, London / Kent
Man on the Moon, the genome project... cancelling the 2012 Olympics? Yeahhhh great thought-provoking link that. Wow the Evening Standard of journalism!
- Barry M, London
Yes PLEASE scrap them now before the bill hits a £billion. This is another Dome farce all over again. END it now
- Mike, London England
Yes please, please, please! Get rid of these horrible so-called Olympics, the Disneyworld of what used to be sport, and the musclemen and women (where do the muscles come from?) who are there to honour Baron de Coubertin's famous slogan: "The important thing is not to win, but to walk away with tons of gold bars." Save millions, billions. And lots more not having to pay for "Lord" Sebastian Coe's after-dinner speeches.
- Heli, Cambridge
If only someone in politics had the gumption to take up the idea of cancelling the Olympics. They'd get my vote.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland
the best reason for holding the olympics is nothing to do with the bricks and mortar but the energy it will bring to london and the UK in the period leading up, during and after - a restored sense of confidence, perhaps even a revived sense of patriotism (without the less positive shades of nationalism), employment and the feelgood factor. And the money - in the scale of what has already been lost to the bankers and the economy - I suggest we grab the nettle and do it well - The last two occasions London did the games they were both austerity games and were very positive for the country;s identity and well being.
If we do cancel -the games would go back to beijing - ?
- Jc, se1
What a great suggestion! Given that the UK is, for many, already the laughing stock of Europe because everything came to a stop on Monday when the snow arrived, I am sure no one would lose anymore "face" if we decide to back out of hosting Olympics 2012. The thought of all those extra people around London and the other venues scares me.
- Fred, London
