Olympic Games

In my thoughts yesterday about government spending, I said nothing about the 2012 Olympic Games. I have been against this mad project from the beginning. Whatever a country's financial situation, these games are a waste of money. In the present condition of government accounts spending a few billion pounds on 2 or 3 weeks of school sports is crackers. For any country that involves themselves in this quadrennial nonsense the costs are now astronomical. There are many who will, of course, do very well out of the project as they are paid to provide the buildings. goods and services to get the job done. It seems to have been acknowledged that the cost will reach £9.5 billion, yet every week we hear of more costs. The new press centre and the security seem set to cost £2 billion and there is no indication where this extra money will come from. The final bill will be, as I have said before, something nearer £20 billion than £10 billion. It is likely that numbers will be massaged and spun to make it look as though £9.5 billion was enough. But even if the costs remain within the budget the amount is still ridiculous.

Another matter that has come to my notice is that the IOC [International Olympic Committee] is lobbying for the UK government to introduce legislation to make use and possession of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs [PEDs] a criminal offence. At present it is only an offence to supply. They want such action to be taken prior to 2012. Pressure is being brought to bear from other quarters as well - specifically the American DEA. Various British governments have taken the view that criminalizing the violation of rules in a sporting event is not their responsibility. The government should not be charged with the prevention of cheating. They do not do this in any other area. The responsibility of government within the prescription of the Misuse of Drugs Act is to prevent damage to health and/or social cohesion. The evidence that PEDs cause serious problems of any kind is limited - and tiny compared with legal substances like alcohol and tobacco - and action against users would be a severe over-reaction. At the same time, I do not feel that it is acceptable for the IOC to try to dictate UK policy on this or on anything else. Nevertheless, there has been a world-wide over-reaction to steroids - particularly in the USA, where they have gone totally OTT - and I am not hopeful that the British government will continue to resist the demanded change.

Take into account all the chaos and disruption to day-to-day living and all-in-all, having the Olympic Games in London is not an attractive prospect.