Tuesday 6 March 2012

The Cost of the London 2012 Olympics

The budget is now around the £10 billion mark, a figure which does not include the escalating costs of the security operation. Commentators claim the final budget could top £20 billion. So what are we getting for our money?


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The true legacy of the Olympics is this litany of collapsed deals and broken promises by a confusing array of quangos and companies. An Olympics in tune with the public spirited legacy claimed could only have gone ahead if the concept of the ‘public good’ retained some meaning in today’s political discourse. Instead this term was quietly removed from legislation in 2004 reflecting the extent to which the market has squeezed the notion of the ‘public good’ out of politics. Given the context, the Olympics have never stood a chance of fulfilling a public spirited legacy in tune with 1851 or 1951.



Anna Minton is the author of ‘Ground Control: ?Fear and Happiness in the 21st Century City’.

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