London Benefits from Olympic Games - Everyone Else Pays

I wish to reproduce in full the posting from Tartan Hero. This is truly scandalous.

London's Olympics paid for by everyone else

Just watching the Dispatches programme on Channel Four which is exposing the real cost of the 2012 Olympics and how the rest of UK is paying for London's games. The Olympic Cash Machine is the aptly named title of the programme. Both the Telegraph and the Guardian have run stories on this on Friday last.

The programme's cornerstone is the realisation that economic impact research by Dr Adam Blake of Nottingham University was hidden by the DCMS. More so that the (under-budgeted) funding of the Olympics was sanctioned by Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor.

Key messages:

• The London Olympics costs have spiralled to £9billion (originally £2billion)
• London benefits to the tune of £5.9billion in public expenditure
• The rest of the UK loses £4billion in central resources
• Lottery Fund loses millions
• Many associated with running the Games will benefit financially from their involvement

And no matter how much the Culture Minister (and Olympic Games Minister) Tessa Jowell tries to suggest others are making political points scoring, she has been put in her place before:

Her tactics appeared to backfire as Kate Hoey, a Labour MP and ex-sports minister, rebuked Miss Jowell for interpreting constructive criticism as an attack on the London Games themselves.

So, this is making the Dome, Portcullis House, the Scottish Parliament, even Glasgow's Transport Museum over-runs seem like pin money. But it doesn't get away from the fact that the Unionists of all parties who tried to put down the SNP over their concerns about how the London Olympics will benefit Scotland (and other parts of the UK).

And after it's all finished, London and the Lottery bodies will collect the receipts from the sale of the Olympic assets.