The Olympic budget was set at £9.3bn today. But let's deconstruct this a bit:
There is a contingency of £2.7bn – try prising that from Gordon's sweaty mits...
There is a £840m tax bill for the Olympic Delivery Authority that the government will pay. Quite why they could not waive it in the first place, I do not know, probably some EU bobbins...
£600m extra security. Well, if we will make ourselves a target...
£1.7bn for "regeneration and infrastructure" — this buys you a DLR extension, opening up new housing and facilities in the Lower Lea Valley, a revitalised Stratford (have you been to the town) and much more besides. All of this would have been spent, albeit slowly and begrudgingly, by government as part of the regeneration of East London and the Thames Gateway. Now there is a justifable question about whether this will be regeneration or gentrification but it would have happened anyway.
All the above basically adds up to £5bn. Take that from the overall budget and you have, I think quite reasonably, a budget of about £4bn to completely transform one of the grubbiest bits of London. This will include the largest new urban park in Europe for 150 years, 4,000 new homes, many of which will be 'affordable', a major new employment location (the press and broadcasting centre - where hopefully local people will get some of the post-2012 jobs) and some top notch sports facilities, which, other than Wembley, London has not got.
Also, the Government owns all this land, which it will have got at a pretty decent price. When it sells the homes, the media centre etc it pockets the profit – so for once the public sector benefits from its own investment, unlike, for example, the Jubilee Line extension.
And to put the anti-Londoners to rest, we subsidise you to the tune of £13bn a year – don't get me wrong, I don't agree with it, there should be more regional investment but that's how economics works today – HSBC aren't gonna set up their international HQ in Leeds. You don't want the Olympics, you don't want the most unproductive part of London to improve, then screw you, we're putting up a wall.
Overall, yet another depressing tale of what a bunch of whining, defeatist tossers this country is turning into.
Update by Rich: good work, Stef. Having personally benefited from a good sports infrastructure and the possibility of competing at a previous Olympics in my chosen sport, and all that entailed in terms of fitness, my upbringing etc. I'd have to assume the "whining, defeatist tossers" are probably exactly those who don't play sport anyway and don't know the non-monetary value of such activities. Just for info, here's some more info deconstructing the new budget.
