Waste on an Olympic scale

I must point out that I don't normally read the Independent because it seems to me to be anything but. However, in my defence I was on holiday and they gave me a free copy...

My attention was caught by an interesting article by Dominic Lawson about the bullshit that is being spread about by Coe and his cronies over the supposed benefits to Britain of the forthcoming Olympic fiasco. Apparently, there a good, solid grounds for believing that there are no benefits. Indeed, the games will do more harm than good.

According to Tessa Jowell who was the poor sod originally handed this particular poison chalice, the £2.4bn we spend (now four times that, of course!) will bring a £2bn boost to tourism. Now the Greeks in 2004 and the Aussies in 2000 made similar assertion only to be proven totally wrong.

The MD of the Ozzie Tourism and Transport Forum observed that the legacy of the Sydney games was damn near a ghost town. He said "There's fewer tourists on Sydney 5 years after the games than before...Where the hell are you?!" He reckons it's because tourists were put off by hiked hotel prices and overcrowding whilst people who come to watch sport tend not to bother with tourist sights and theatres.

Sound familiar? Well, I reckon he's got a good point and London will go the same way.

Personally, I'm still trying to decide where to disappear to for two weeks so I can avoid it altogether...