Wednesday 31 March 2010

Not to worry, we saw it coming

The London Olympics project is facing a "worryingly tight" financial position, a Commons committee has warned. The public accounts committee said building for the 2012 Games was on track, but unforeseen problems were putting pressure on contingency funds.


Oh, right. I've just double-checked, and this is definitely on BBC News, a site dedicated to bringing us, well, news - but yet I'm not at all surprised by this. As much as I'd like to be even slightly patriotic and supportive, we do have a history of royally fucking this kind of thing up. When I watched China's opening ceremony, part of me was fairly impressed (albeit with niggling feelings about the CGI fireworks and the fact that they'd probably all been beaten into performing it well) but I also had feelings of dread that whilst it would be hard for any country to follow that, we're perhaps the worst ones to do it.

Is it just me that feels that despite Seb Coe's earnest pleadings, our ceremony will be fucking shit, and we'll be billions more over budget than we are now? I can't help but feel the rest of the world is excited to see just how shit our ceremony is, and how we can't add up:

The £9.325bn budget for the Olympics is triple the original estimate for the project.

The PAC report concludes: "Staying within the budget also depends on receiving some £600m receipts from the Olympic Village development.

"So the position is tight, with no room for complacency and limited flexibility to respond to new problems as the Games approach."


Also not a surprise. And what the fuck are

unforeseen problems
?

Maybe you'd like to tell us what the fuck problems you've come across that are unforseen? The building is behind schedule? Maybe over budget? They're fucking builders, for fuck sake, what did you expect? I dread to think the amount of air that was sucked through teeth when this project was first proposed, and now you're fucking standing there staring at your feet and admitting you've spent nearly all the money on contractors and advisors who have probably sat on their arse knowing they in turn can blame "unforeseen problems" at the last minute and demand you pay them more money?

I'm fucking dreading this.

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