Many of those responsible for the flawed bid will do well out of the Games, says richard brooks |
 |
The recent news that the cost of the London Olympics has more than tripled to £9.3bn before a single brick has been laid raises the question: Who got us into this Olympic bid in the first place?
The answer is of particular interest to those who run good causes funded by the National Lottery, and who are just now receiving the news that their cash will be cut back to meet the cost of the Games. (The Arts Council has been forced to slash grants by a third.)
For it turns out that many of those responsible for cheerleading the London bid - based, it now transpires, on bad maths - still stand to do nicely out of the Games.
In 2002 the Government commissioned a report on bidding for the Olympics from the consultants, Arup. Their conclusion was that it would cost a mere £1.8bn. Though this was quickly bumped up to £2.4bn by sceptical civil servants, the Department of Culture, Media |
|
 |
 |
|
| ‘Tessa was a very important influence,’ said the PM. ‘And Cherie too played a big part’ |
|
|
and Sport felt confident enough to frame a bid.
Crucially, it was argued the cash could be found entirely from a modest £20-a-year council tax rise for Londoners and limited raids on Lottery funds. Looking back, it seems odd that no-one explained why Paris - which already had its main stadia in place - was costing its bid at a higher £4bn.
The London bid's key cheerleader, ultra-Blairite Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, still had to convince the Cabinet, including the PM himself. In this she was encouraged by the unelected Cherie Booth, QC.
As the PM would later tell the official historian of the bid, Mike Lee, for his book The Inside Story of How London Won the Bid: "Tessa was a very important influence. She was absolutely certain that we had to go for it. And Cherie too played a big part." Lee wrote that the PM's wife "undoubtedly played a key role in persuading her husband to get behind London".
With Blair on board and a deal on how to pay the bill agreed with the enthusiastic  |
