I, like many others, have wondered whether we could just get shot of this whole Olympics thing.
In 1970 Denver was awarded the 1976 Winter Olympics. By 1972 the estimated costs had trebled (a smaller increase than we have already seen for 2012).
As the US is a democracy, the people of Denver were allowed to vote on whether to continue with the Games. A 60 per cent majority voted against Denver ‘s taxpayers footing the bill and so the Winter Games were handed back to the IOC and held in Innsbruck instead – as Innsbruck had hosted the 1964 Winter Games, they already had much of the necessary infrastructure in place.
Yes! We Can!
Unfortunately in Britain we are unlikely to be given any such choice. The conclusion is clear, though not a single politician has dared state the obvious – all work on the 2012 Olympics should be halted, the organizations managing the Games disbanded and the Games handed back to the IOC, because it is now clear that a mixture of incompetence, arrogance and greed from those bringing us the Games mean that the UK cannot stage the Games at a justifiable cost.
So, who can I vote for to get that to happen?
3 responses so far ↓
1 Liberty Alone » Blog Archive » It seems there is precedent for declining to host the Olympics // Apr 30, 2008 at 10:41 am
[...] So says Tim [...]
2 Mark Wadsworth // Apr 30, 2008 at 11:35 am
Can you still vote in the UK? Or, more pertinently, in London?
Tim adds: UK, yes, it’s an obvious requirement for a) belonging to UKIP and b) standing in the hustings. London, no: Bath.
3 Derek W. Buxton // Apr 30, 2008 at 11:45 am
Best idea yet, stop the bloody games now. It is close to being fraudulent any way when you look at how the “circus” was won.
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