Tag Archives: olympics

Why would watching someone swim fast inspire you to mow your lawn?

By Mark Pack | Sun 5th April 2009 - 9:20 am

I’m all for encouraging gardening. More gardening can make people healthier, benefit the environment and improve the local area. And, far more importantly, for many people it’s a great source of enjoyment.

I’m also relaxed about the idea of government in some way being involved in such encouragement; for example, by local councils running gardening courses.

But I really can’t see how the government can claim with a straight face that encouraging more gardening is one of the objectives for the 2012 Olympics. For as the Financial Times reports:

Ministers sought to dig themselves out of an allotment-sized hole on Friday to

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Posted in News | Also tagged tessa jowell and tom brake | Leave a comment

Brake: fears Olympics will turn into new Millennium Dome

By The Voice | Wed 11th February 2009 - 7:50 pm

The Times reports:

Taxpayers face a multimillion-pound maintenance bill at the Olympic Park after organisers admitted that they had failed to find a commercial operator to take over the main venue after 2012. … The Times has learnt that the Olympic stadium will cost at least £800,000 a year to keep open. Projected revenues from athletics events and a proposed sports academy will leave a big funding shortfall at the venue, where building costs have already spiralled from £282 million to £547 million. There are fears that the final bill could be much higher.

As Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrats’ Olympics …