Reply to: Security Costs of Olympics £11 Billion

[BrilloPad]

the £11 billion was well spent. we just went on HMS Ocean at Greenwich - very impressive. We avoided a 2 hour queue due to the kids autism - then got to play with lots of guns and equipment. The marines and naval staff were all incredible.

[Robinho]

Are you really so thick that you are incapable of constructing an actual argument with written words?

[AtW]

London produces a ~20 billion tax surplus every year. So, no, the rest of the country isn't paying.

[BrilloPad]

Classic olympic security joke in the Telegraph Matt cartoon today.

Matt cartoons witty political cartoons and satirical sketches - Telegraph

[Robinho]

What is the revenue expected to be? And the anticipated net profit or loss, whatever the financial term for that is.

Is it a little unfair that London should benefit and the rest of the country pay?

London produces a ~20 billion tax surplus every year. So, no, the rest of the country isn't paying.

[Doggy Styles]

No idea, you should ask Paddy. My understanding of the OP was that Paddy claimed the security alone was costing an additional £11 billion to the already accrued £24 billion cost. Which is clearly wrong.

I agree, that's exactly what the OP says, but those numbers are totally new to me.

I was asking Paddy actually, but if anyone else can help please do!

[wobbegong]

I couldn't get into that FT link. Where did that figure of an extra £24 billion in the OP come from?

No idea, you should ask Paddy. My understanding of the OP was that Paddy claimed the security alone was costing an additional £11 billion to the already accrued £24 billion cost. Which is clearly wrong.

[Doggy Styles]

Which would surely equal a total of £35 billion?

Yet Margaret Hodge now estimates that the full cost to the public of the Games and legacy projects is "already heading for around £11 billion".

I couldn't get into that FT link. Where did that figure of an extra £24 billion in the OP come from?

[BrilloPad]

I don't quite understand the reasoning behind this and the anti-aircraft missiles. Firstly I doubt that any terrorist organisation has an airforce which is going to strafe London and secondly if a terrirost is going to fly a plane into a building and they decide to blow it up or shoot at it while it is in the air, surely the falling wreckage, which would be spread out over a large area cause untold damage?

Ever thought someone might get a paraglider and try to parachute into the Olympic stadium?

It was planned for 2006 for World cup final in Germany - alas things did not quite go right....

[darmstadt]

This doesn't come cheap:

Olympic security: London's green space transformed by anti-aircraft guns for Olympic ring of steel | Mail Online

I don't quite understand the reasoning behind this and the anti-aircraft missiles. Firstly I doubt that any terrorist organisation has an airforce which is going to strafe London and secondly if a terrirost is going to fly a plane into a building and they decide to blow it up or shoot at it while it is in the air, surely the falling wreckage, which would be spread out over a large area cause untold damage?

[TimberWolf]

This doesn't come cheap:

Olympic security: London's green space transformed by anti-aircraft guns for Olympic ring of steel | Mail Online

[sbakoola]

Which would surely equal a total of £35 billion?

Yet Margaret Hodge now estimates that the full cost to the public of the Games and legacy projects is "already heading for around £11 billion".

And this is going to stop some silly Bob walking into a public place and causing acts of terrorism ?

[wobbegong]

That's £11,000,000,000 on top of the £24,000,000,000 cost to taxpayers. (About £1500 per taxpayer?)

Which would surely equal a total of £35 billion?

Yet Margaret Hodge now estimates that the full cost to the public of the Games and legacy projects is "already heading for around £11 billion".

[escapeUK]

Unfair is the new normal.

Didn't you get the memo?

Hardly new.

[TimberWolf]

Host cities routinely underestimate the costs and overstate the benefits of the Games. London is no exception. The city's bid proclaimed: "Every sector of the economy will benefit from the staging of the Olympic Games." Originally slated to cost about £2.4bn, Olympic costs jumped to £9.3bn by 2007. The National Audit Office noted that public-sector funding has almost tripled, while private-sector contributions dwindled to less than 2%. Recently, the House of Commons' public accounts committee revealed costs were "heading for around £11bn". Meanwhile, Olympics critic Julian Cheyne of Games Monitor calculates costs at £13bn. A Sky Sports investigation included public transport upgrade costs, catapulting the five-ring price tag to £24bn.

London organisers were anxious not to add to the herd, so in August 2011 they sold the village at a taxpayer loss of £275m to the Qatari ruling family's property firm. Quizzically, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt championed the transaction as a "fantastic deal that will give taxpayers a great return and shows how we are securing a legacy from London's Games".
What is the real price of the London Olympics? | Jules Boykoff | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

And so on.