Comments on: Three cheers for the EU

By: chris

chris — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 02:24:00 +0000

Chris, Julia, EDS as prime cons with Fujitsu designing the infrastructure.. YES! Everything ready for the Olympics in Newcastle in 2022, and only 1000% over budget.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 14:55:00 +0000

Do you think Seb’s got P.Y.Gerbeau’s phone number? He might need it sooner than he thinks . .
BTW Chris, I doubt the Tories need the help of a f***ed up Olympics to make them unelectable for another 20 years . . .

By: Jasper Milvain

Jasper Milvain — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 14:48:00 +0000

Also, as I understand it, central government has to pay for the overspending. So the more of a boondoggle it is, the more London’s subsidised.

By: Gary Monro

Gary Monro — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 13:01:00 +0000

This bit about subsidising fox hunts... I didn't realise we did that.

How much do we subsidise them by? In what way? And what's the rationale behind subsidising fox hunting?

Some links would be useful - I'll blog on it if it turns out that we really did spend tax payers' money on fox hunting.

GM

By: JuliaM

JuliaM — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 12:57:00 +0000

"I can only hope they pick EDS to do the IT, please god oh please… "

Or any contract with Fujitsu as part of it – it’d be just the same…..

By: john b

john b — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 11:42:00 +0000

Hmm. The Times’s £4bn figure includes £1.6bn of privately funded running cost; the £2.4bn Olympic infrastructure figure allows for overruns of 50% on all projects (ie the actual budgeted figure is only £1.6bn, but they’re well-aware of Dome-ish upset); and the £8bn general infrastructure figure covers stuff like the North London Line upgrades that absolutely needed to be done anyway, but might not have been done without the bid.

By: Chris b

Chris b — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 11:33:00 +0000

http://www.liebreich.com/LDC/HTML/Olympics/London/Athens.html

http://londontown.com/London/Cost_of_the_Bid/

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4662-1366511,00.html

From The Times they reckon it’ll cost about £12bn or so total, £4bn in direct costs and £8bn in infrastructure upgrades.

Frankly I reckon its good strategic play by Labour. They fuck it up badly before they get unrelatedly kicked out of office at the next election. The Tories win but get the Poison Pill and become unelectable for the next 20 years.
Result for Labour and a great smoke screen for a massive tax hike post the 2012 Olympics to pay for all the bits that didn’t get finished in time. (By this I mean all the infrastructure bits we’d carry on using not the massive white elephant of the village complex itself).

I can only hope they pick EDS to do the IT, please god oh please… Reward my cynicism as fully as is warranted

By: Chris Lightfoot

Chris Lightfoot — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 10:58:00 +0000

"Europe will not follow America’s insane lead in allowing software patents" — you’re a bloody optimist! I’d expect the directive to reappear in a few months in a slightly different form. They’ll try again, again and again until they get the bloody thing through.

By: Jim Bliss

Jim Bliss — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 10:30:00 +0000

It would’ve been good to watch Seb Coe trying to put a brave face on losing though.

By: David Duff

David Duff — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 10:28:00 +0000

Such touching innocence from our host! Perhaps he could point to some other government-inspired boondoggle that ever came in on budget. Whilst he searches with, I hope, increasing panic, I will, because I’m a kind-hearted chap, whisper two words, very quietly in his ear – ‘dome’ and ‘sucker’!