My Advice To London’s Mayor Boris Johnson: Pull The Plug On 2012 Olympics

Now that everyone in Britain apart from Lord Coe accepts that it would not be a great idea to host the summer Olympic Games in 2012 in London, considering that there is no money available, StirringTroubleInternationally once again calls on London’s Mayor Boris Johnson to make that crucial decision and simply pull the plug on the Games.

Yes, after the Government itself accepted last year that had it known that a crisis was coming it would have rejected the idea of staging the Games in London, Mr Johnson should tell the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the British capital simply does not have the money to provide the same level of organisation as the Chinese did in 2008.

Because, so that you know, that is what the President of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, has demanded. He wants London to match Beijing on all counts in 2012. Otherwise, he said, the IOC would consider the London Games to be a failure. Pompous bastard!

The IOC President should be told by the London Mayor that he can take his beloved 2012 Olympics - easy does it boys, no swearing please - and stage them some place else, like Greenland, for example.

It was never possible for Britain to compete with China anyway. China is run by an authoritarian regime that was determined right from the start to spare no expense in organising the biggest propaganda show on earth, called ‘Long Live The Chinese Communist Party’, aka the Beijing Olympics of 2008.  Chinese communist leaders have never been accountable to anyone. They had no budget constraints and they could spend any amounts of money on the organisation of the Games.

It has now transpired that China probabaly spent something like $60 billion on the preparation and running of the Olympics. This figure would have been much higher if the Chinese authorities had not used so many ‘volunteers’ to help run and police the Games. Not to mention that labour costs in China are about a hundredth of what they are in the West and, as a result, the price tag for construction of the Olympic stadiums and improving the infrastructure generally turned out to be lower than it would have been if everyone had been paid properly. With all this in mind, we figure that the real cost of the Beijing Olympics was probably closer to $100 billion.

The IOC knows perfectly well that no sensible nation can match such expenditure and provide such a high level of organisation. But is the IOC prepared to listen to reason? Nope, it never listens to anyone. It has its own agendas and plays its little games, so to speak.

London has a budget of about £9.3 billion for the Olympic Games, so how on earth can it provide the same level of organisation as the Chinese? Authoritarian regimes have always been better at staging lavish sporting events than democracies. Dictators view the Olympics as an excellent opportunity to brainwash their own people into believing how great they are and prove to the outside world that they have unlimited resources at their disposal so it would not be a good idea to meddle with them.

Let’s not forget that the Olympic Games held in Nazi Germany in 1936 were a great success in terms of organisation and, ahem, execution. If by some miracle North Korea or Cuba were tomorrow given the chance to host the next Olympics instead of London their rulers would happily bankrupt their countries, force their people to work day and night practically for nothing and, as a result, would be able to dazzle the world with some spectacular extravaganza. To the great delight of the IOC, no doubt.

I know the subject well because I had witnessed it first hand in the Soviet Union when Moscow was hosting the 1980 summer Olympics. It was an expensive propaganda exercise right from the start: unlimited funding was given, millions of ‘enthusiasts’ were involved, every facility was delivered on time, lavish opening and closing ceremonies took place and - surprise, surprise - security presence was massive. Sure, many countries did not participate, in protest against the invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet troops in December 1979, but the fact remains: the Olympics were delivered on time and, ahem-ahem, executed with military precision. Not to mention that the Soviet Communist Party used the occasion to whip up some serious patriotism in the country.

I’ve never been a fan of Olympic Games, especially in recent years when they became heavily politicised corporate sponsored events, with obscure sports thrown in like beach volleyball, synchronised swimming and mountain biking for the sake of diversity and to please the idiots who will watch anything as long as it happens under the Olympic umbrella.

Now that the latest figures have shown that the recession in Britain will run for another five years at least the 2012 Olympics are simply not affordable anymore. Whatever the organisers are saying about their determination to stick to the agreed costs, in the end they are bound to ask for more money. You may be assured that the budget for the London Games will increase even further and I would not be surprised if it overshoots £20 billion and even reaches £25 billion.

Already the cost of policing the 2012 Games alone is projected at £1 billion. Is it really a good idea to blow that much money, considering that Britain’s economy is in trouble? It will be a total waste of money and resources. You know what they call this, don’t you? Having a feast during a plague.

Besides, what does the British capital need to prove to the rest of the world? Attract more tourists? It is already overrun by visitors from other countries, who clog up the city and put a smile on the faces of owners of crappy hotels, cheap eateries and souvenir shops. London should actually be trying to cut down on the number of tourists rather than lure even more of them. And let no one fall for the con that the Games ‘will contribute to the development of London’s infrastructure’.

This is total rubbish. Infrastructure should not be tailored for some stupid sporting event. It should be developed evenly, throughout the entire city, for the benefit of the people living in it, not to please the IOC and accommodate thousands of athletes from all over the world for a couple of weeks.

London should cancel the Games immediately. Greece, the country that gave us the Olympics in the first place, should take over. It has all the facilities in place anyway and they are standing idle.

By pulling the plug on the useless Games that Britain cannot afford Mayor Johnson would enjoy the support of all Londoners. He would do his country a great favour and would go into history as a man who had the guts to finally break the stranglehold that the IOC seems to have over everyone.

Go on, Mr Johnson, show two fingers to the IOC. London and Britain as a whole simply do not need the Olympics.

– End –

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