Cost of Olympics out of hand

Whether the 2012 Olympics is a good thing or a bad thing is a separate debate. What is crazy is that our winning bid was based on a budget costing of £2.375 billion and now the forecast is £9.3 billion.

But how will this affect us in the Peak District and Derbyshire?

Quite simply the government will mug the lottery to pay for a Games bill which has rocketed out of all recognition. Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary and Olympics Minister, confirmed an extra £675 million of lottery cash would be swallowed up.

That means that £2.2 bn of lottery cash will now be switched to pay the Games bill, which has soared due to an unforeseen £836 million VAT charge, extra security costs of £600 million and a £2.2 billion contingency fund demanded by the Treasury.

To the embarrassment of Miss Jowell, lottery, sports, heritage and arts bodies reacted in fury to the extra raid on good causes. Dame Liz Forgan, the chairman of the Lottery Heritage Fund, said: "This is bad news for the UK's heritage."

Peter Hewitt, the chief executive of the Arts Council England, which will lose a total of £112 million, said "we are disappointed more money is to be diverted from the arts to pay for the Games".

So what type of projects will be cut - church restorations, public park restorations, museum extensions, community arts projects etc etc.....

Cultural leaders accused the Prime Minister of hypocrisy for the raid.

Last week, Mr Blair spoke of his part in guiding Britain to a "golden age" for the arts.

He described how arts spending was a drop in the ocean compared to the commitments of other Whitehall departments and he said he would not countenance a return to the years of "boom and bust". Dr Ian Dungavell, director of The Victorian Society, said: "This is a disaster for everyone. Lottery money has been the single biggest source of support for heritage projects for many years.

"Our country's heritage makes up our identity. It is one of the reasons we won the Olympics in the first place. To slash the funding further just at the time when Britain is on show to the rest of the world will be a huge mistake."

David Barrie, director of The Art Fund, the country's biggest arts charity, which gives £4 million a year to buy objects for museums, said yesterday that Mr Blair's speech "now rings a little hollow".

He went on: "This looks to me like a short-sighted raid. The long-term effect is going to be pretty damaging."

It's a fair bet that the public purse will be stretched further, and good causes plundered again, before the Queen rides east to open the Games and why is this a cert try Tessa Jowell.

If the good lady couldn't be fagged to check the mortgage documents she signed with her husband, how can she be trusted to run a major undertaking like this? Nor can she expect too much sympathy for opting to place her political career ahead of her marriage to David Mills.

Can a culture secretary whose idea of culture extends to pub opening hours and super-casinos be the best person for the job?

There is a "contingency fund" of £2.7 billion in place, but you would have to be very wet not to know that the budget, having been trebled, will rise to the power of four or five before every steel girder is flattened into shape. Look at the shambles of the Millennium Dome and the debacle at Wembley.

There is plenty of scope for further embarrassment before this business runs its course and we will all end up paying for it one way or the other.

Chris Sabian, Peak District View - 2007-03-18 04:50:16

No to Trident

Almost two thirds of Labour backbenchers oppose the Government's decision to replace Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent, according to a poll.

As MPs prepared for this week's crucial Commons vote, of the 101 Labour backbenchers who responded to a survey by BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend, 64 said they were against Trident renewal.

Only 22 backed the Government's plan to acquire a new generation of nuclear missile submarines and to update the Trident D5 missiles, while 15 said they were still undecided.
Eighty MPs did not respond to the survey while another 27 could not be contacted.

The findings underline ministers' fears of a substantial backbench revolt in the Commons on Wednesday.
Rebels have warned that the Government could be forced to rely on the support of the Tories to carry its motion backing Trident renewal.

On Saturday Labour leadership contender Michael Meacher promised to reopen the decision to replace Trident if he wins his bid to succeed Tony Blair as Prime Minister.

The former environment minister accused the Government of trying to "bounce" MPs into accepting a replacement. He said if he was in No 10, he would order a fresh vote on the issue after a "full and proper" public consultation of at least six months.

"The consultation on Trident has been a sham. By fixing the vote in the Commons next Wednesday, No 10 is bouncing Parliament into a momentous decision years before expert opinion says that is necessary," he said.

"As leader, I would reopen this decision. I would arrange a full and proper consultation lasting at least six months and embracing all the relevant options and then have at least a two-day debate in Parliament ending with a fresh and much more authoritative vote."

Well he is making the right noises but will Blair's bully boys get him before he becomes a serious contender to Brown.

Chris Sabian, Peak District View - 2007-03-11 03:19:42