The £1.2M Olympic Ticket Giveaway

How "nice" to see that the government spent £1.2M of taxpayers' money on providing ministers and their chums with free tickets to watch the London 2012 Olympics.

Aside from being a colossal waste of money, it highlights the fact that there was clearly a massive shortfall in demand from genuine paying spectators for some events.

Annex A – Summary

Annex B – Ceremonies

Annex C – List of recipients to sporting events

Annex D – Accreditation

Annex E – Parliamentary Ambassadors

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The Olympics Legacy

West Ham United have until March 2013 to seal a deal for the Olympic Stadium after being selected as “first-ranked” bidder.

As to whether a deal is agreed remains to be seen, as some doubt West Ham's willingness to stump up a "fair price" for the stadium.

Boris Johnson displayed some public doubts, and applied some pressure yesterday. The Telegraph reports that that he said that he will pursue a “Plan B”, that does not involve football, if a deal cannot be struck.

It is ironic, is it not, that the taxpayer having spent millions on a state of the art athletics track the legacy will most likely be a football stadium that will earn the football club (not the taxpayer) millions?

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OIympics Boost To GDP?

Allegedly the London Olympics contributed to the1% rise in GDP during Q3, as ticket sales boosted the growth figures.

However, the Olympics also caused a fall in retail sales which may have in fact overridden the one off boost that the games have allegedly given to GDP.

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Olympics Depress Retail Sales

Unsurprisingly, the recent Olympics had a depressing effect on retail sales (as people stayed at home to watch the Games).

The Office for National Statistics reports that retail sales fell by 0.2% in August compared to July.

Despite the fact that people stayed at home, online sales were worst hit (falling by 0.9%). Online retailers are of the view that people were so "enthralled" watching the Games on the TV, that they stayed away from the PCs.

Really?

I am not so sure, many will have watched the Games online.

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Locog and G4S Square Up To Each Other

Locog and G4S are squaring up for a battle over G4S's fees for the security cover they provided (or rather didn't provide) for the London 2012 Olympics.

Paul Deighton, CEO of Locog, told the Home Affairs Select Committee that Locog stopped payments to G4S on July 13, two days after G4S admitted that it would not be able to deliver the 10,400 security guards it had agreed to deploy.

The Telegraph reports that Locog has paid G4S £90M of a total £240M, and that the rest (according to Mr Deighton) is subject to negotiation.

Deighton said:

“We had absolutely clear and consistent reassurances from the senior management that they’d be able to deliver ... up until that fateful day on July 11. We shouldn’t over-complicate this. They just failed to deliver because their own processes broke down.”

Step forward Nick Buckles, CEO of G4S, who also appeared before the committee. Unsurprisingly he has a different view, and is of the opinion that G4S should be paid in full:

“I’m not going to sit here and say we did a great job, but we delivered a significant proportion of the contract. I expect them to pay us in line with the terms of the contract.”

The contract would make fascinating reading. However, I doubt that we will ever be able to read the contract as it is shrouded in secrecy.

As I have stated before:

"This is of course what happens when a major project/event is not run in an open transparent manner, and is not subject to scrutiny by independent professionals acting in the interests of the taxpayer."

The hapless taxpayer will end up footing the bill for the largess and incompetence of Locog and G4S.

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Paralympic Opening Ceremony

Professor Stephen Hawking kicked off last night's Paralympic opening ceremony, which focused on "enlightenment" as its core theme.

Channel 4, which broadcast the ceremony, chose to interrupt it a number of times with adverts.

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Boris Johnson Dances

The closing ceremony of the London Olympics went without a hitch last night.

A smorgasbord of British talent appeared including; the Spice Girls, the Who, George Michael, the Pet Shop Boys, Kate Moss, Eric idle and Madness etc.

I can't say the sound quality for Madness or the Pet Shop Boys was particularly good.

I was also a tad perplexed as to why Sebastian Coe and Jacques Rogge referred to "Your Majesty" in their closing speeches, given that the Queen was not actually in attendance.

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The Real Legacy of London 2012

As James Pearce has said, Replacing G4S personnel with personnel from the armed forces made London 2012 friendlier and safer.

Thus proving the old adage that every cloud really does have a silver lining!

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Coe Appointed Olympics Legacy Ambassador

Lord Coe has been appointed as the UK's Olympics legacy ambassador.

Quite what that means, and how much he will be paid for this undefined role has yet to be clarified.

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BBC Staff Told Not To Be Patriotic

In a rather perverse ruling, BBC staff have been warned not to focus too heavily on British success in London 2012.

Director General Mark Thompson has advised them to remember that other countries are competing too.

Does not the fact that it is the British Broadcasting Company and that it is the London Olympics entitle the presenters to show some patriotism?

After all, it's not as though we have done so well in the past. Furthermore, I am sure that US, Chinese and Russian networks (to name but a few) focus on their own athletes' successes at the expense of others.

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Reliant Robin To Appear At Closing Ceremony

As the Olympic closing ceremony on Sunday approaches, speculation is mounting as to exactly who and what will be featured.

Thus far, the "informed" speculation states that a Reliant Robin from Only Fools and Horses will appear together with over 4,100 performers, among them 3,500 adult volunteers and 380 schoolchildren from the six east London boroughs where the Games are taking place.

Rumours are that Kate Bush, the Who and George Michael may also appear.

The closing ceremony starts at 21:00 BST Sunday 12 August.

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NBC Shrouds Itself in Olympic Glory

For reasons best known to NBC (they claim it was to protect their $1.2BN Olympic rights) they decided not to show Usain Bolt's 100M victory on 5th August live on TV, instead saving it for precious "primetime".

NBC of course do have a live web stream that, in theory, should have shown the race.

Can you guess what happened children?

Yes, that's right, it didn't work.

Well done NBC, $1.2BN well spent on denying other US networks the chance to broadcast the Olympics professionally and in real time!

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