Forget the IOC. London needs a new Games

Forget the IOC. London needs a new Games

suppose that anyone with the title of Olympics Minister is bound to go over the top. But Tessa Jowell excelled herself on Wednesday when she described the London Olympic Games as “gold dust... economic gold in a time of economic need”. This was two days after The Times had revealed the hushing up by ministers of a detailed Downing Street report in 2002, which forecast that there would be little economic upside to staging the Games, and no impact on the numbers of people playing sport. Ministers were told that their best hope was that the Games would be a morale-boosting party. They made the bid three months later. To describe a project costing £9.3 billion as “gold dust” is the kind of idiocy people spout once they become courtiers to the International Olympic Committee.

www.timesonline.co.uk