Why Boris Johnson will lose vital credibility over London transport if he fails to stop aping Livingstone for the crass Crossrail hole scam...

By©Muhammad Haque
0920 Hrs GMT
London Thursday 5 June 2008


Boris Johnson, who made a rare appearance during the parade of parliamentary parasites called the PMQs staged in the 'Palace of Westminster' on Wednesday 4 June 2008, is soon going to be an ex-MP. Allegedly. Because his being an ex-MP is not likely o take away from him the considerable access that he has to various lever of power that affect the lives and the rights of the people of and in Lon don...

One of those is the costs that the people will have to bear of staging the gigantic Olympics stunts of 2012.

How is the 2012 Olympic Games hosting linked with Boris Johnson and Crossrail?

Because they are. Also because Johnson is showing signs that he is not going to call a halt to the Big BUSINESS elements setting the AGENDA on London... That is why JOHNSON inserted in his latest comments about ‘alcohol ban’ an unnecessary reference to CRASSrail... In fact, it was both unnecessary and unjustified...

So Boris Johnson needs to get to grips with the actual costs and the other evidence of HOW Crossrail is a diversion, a waste and an obsolescence...

As a helpful backgrounder dated today, I here reproduce the item carried by the web site of the Western Mail, which makes some arguments that are valid against the wastefulness of huge 'infrastructure projects' especially the staging of the 2012 Olympic Games in the name of London....

PS: I should point out for the records, that in the WESTERN MAIL piece, there is this rare reference to Ken Livingstone';s confidence trick. As Livingstone had admitted in that PANORAMA version of the 'Lon don mayor DeBASE' fronted by David Dimbleby.. This is rare except the fact that it had been PREDICTED in and by the KHOODEELAAR! campaign. In the AADHIKARonline pieces ! I examined Livingstone's admission to lying at the time of his confession.......

[To be continued]


PS: I should point out for the records, that in the WESTERN MAIL piece, there is this rare reference to Ken Livingstone's confidence trick. As Livingstone had admitted in that PANORAMA version of the 'London mayor DeBASE' fronted by David Dimbleby.. This is rare except the fact that it had been PREDICTED in and by the KHOODEELAAR! campaign. In the AADHIKARonline pieces ! I examined Livingstone's admission to lying at the time of his confession.......

[To be continued]





"
2012 Olympics – sporting dream or nightmare?

Jun 5 2008 by David Williamson, Western Mail

THE most terrifying visions of mayhem are not found on the horror channel but the in the nightmares of the men and women charged with delivering the London 2012 Olympics.
If the last drops of goodwill towards the Games evaporate in the coming months, as costs soar faster than any summer heatwave, Britain may be destined for a fiasco that will make Terminal 5 seem less traumatic than a tremor in a cup of espresso.
The British – and Londoners in particular – glory in wry cynicism and detached irony. As a nation we refuse to take the Eurovision Song Contest seriously, and even the Women’s Institute declines to give the Prime Minister a decent round of applause when he visits.
A country which venerates Victor Meldrew as a role model is not temperamentally suited to host an event which involves welcoming energetic young people from every corner of the globe for a gala of frenetic physical activity and fireworks. And nothing aggravates us British more than the suspicion we have been ripped off.
Such dark convictions are already stirring in Wales and the English provinces.
Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price made headlines last year when he claimed Wales was losing out on £437m.
This calculation centred on the prediction Wales would be denied Lottery funding worth £110m, coupled to the argument – based on the Barnett funding formula used to decide the share of UK spending that Wales receives – that the nation is entitled to £327m as a percentile of the Government’s investment in the Games.
The Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP said it would be a disgrace for some of the poorest regions of the UK to subsidise a London regeneration project.
His complaints gained credibility when then-London Mayor Ken Livingstone was accused of staging a “con trick”.
With not even a hint of sheepishness, he said: “It was, literally, absolutely – this has worked as I planned.”
He told the audience of a London hustings: “I bid for the Olympics because it’s the only way to get the billions of pounds out of the Government to develop the East End.”
The Review of Cultural Tourism in Wales, commissioned by the Assembly Government and launched this week, warns the industry to expect a drop in funding from “traditional sources” as a result of the Olympics.
In December the Assembly Heritage Minister Rhodri Glyn Thomas admitted the situation was bleak, telling a cross-party group of MPs: “The estimate I have heard is we could be losing up to £70m in Lottery funding, and certainly on behalf of the Government of Wales I would say that we would be very disappointed if there were a further raid on Lottery money...”
Cuts to the Arts Council of Wales have already triggered fears that venues such as the St Donats Arts Centre, home to a spectacular international storytelling festival, are now in doubt.
Scepticism may well fester into outright hostility when cutbacks lead to closures and then job losses in parts of the country far from the Olympics. Concern is already swirling around Britain, and such angst has four years in which to gather destructive momentum.
Such animosity could pit the regions against the capital, but there is just as great a chance that Londoners will not want to miss out on an opportunity to grumble – an activity refined over the centuries into both a national sport and an art form.
The city’s residents are already wondering how it has been possible for the budget for the aquatic centre to spiral from £73m to £242m.
Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell has said we should not claim that the cost of Games has rocketed from £2.3bn to £9.3bn. This second figure refers to the entire regeneration effort, she says.
Such comments will not convince critics who believe the original estimate was plucked out of the ether at a time when few thought Britain was a serious contender to host the greatest sports extravaganza yet conceived. But by linking the spectacular investment to regeneration and not to sporting she is effectively summoning ministers from Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast to demand a slice of this (very rich) cake.
Ms Jowell has much more to worry about than complaints from Celtic fringes. There is the concrete challenge of ensuring there is water in the swimming pool and seats in the stadiums by the time the Games comes round.
Britain may have once been an imperial nation but its project management skills have been in doubt for a decade.
Cost overrun and/or logistical collapse has defined architectural adventures such as the Millennium Dome, that wobbly bridge, the Scottish Parliament, the new Wembley Stadium and, of course, Terminal 5.
Can we do it? Bob the Builder, and now Boris the Mayor, will shout “Yes we can!”. But if the credit crunch further constricts family incomes and repossessions and unemployment start to spawn headlines, the question may quickly become: “Why are doing it?”
The long-term economic benefits of hosting an Olympic competition is a subject of debate among hard-headed economists. The pressure of deadlines can force up construction costs, and the sporting festival is the type of giant distraction from work that stamps on productivity.
But surely the sight of people with mightier muscles than the pistons on a steam engine will encourage the British public to cancel that night’s kebab and send us running to the local racetrack for a healthy sprint? Could there be a better tool than the Olympics to defuse our fabled obesity time-bomb?
Calvin Jones of Cardiff Business School regards this argument as spurious. He told the BBC last month: “In Sydney, Barcelona, in Athens, no Olympic city or nation has seen any upward swing in participation levels in Olympic or non-Olympic sports following hosting of the Games.”
He added: “Lots of quite clever people in sports consultancies, marketing companies and sports organising bodies have become very adept, very clever at getting lots of money out of the public sector on the basis that there will be long-term benefits that will never be actually measured.”
Criticism has also come from luminaries of the political left, such as George Monbiot. He was appalled by a report from the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions which claimed: “The Olympic Games have displaced more than two million people in the last 20 years, disproportionately affecting minorities such as the homeless, the poor, Roma and African-Americans...”
Are the Olympics just a tool of neo-oligarchs, a bread-and-circuses distraction which allows the wealthy to remake cities shorn of affordable housing?
Even without injecting such subversive ideas into the populace, it is likely that Londoners will bridle at any constraints on their freedom the contests will impose.
The threat of a terrorist outrage now looms over any major event, none more so than the Olympics, when the world’s attention is fixed on a single city. The challenge for security experts is to find a way of monitoring the multitude of risks without making London seem like a film set for a big-budget version of Orwell’s 1984.
Democratic protesters will also be devising ways to use the Games to blast international limelight on their causes. The chaotic journey of the Olympic torch around the world so far has demonstrated that even the most mildly disruptive act can end up being broadcast that night on global news channels.
Activists already scale the Houses of Parliament at every opportunity; now there will be an even greater choice of roofs from which to unfurl banners and shout slogans.
Yet it is the British public themselves who are the most unpredictable element in the Olympian equation.
Street magician David Blaine stood on a 22m pole in New York for 35 hours in 2002 and was surrounded by cheering well-wishers who saw him as an icon of human resilience.
The next year he came to London to sit in a glass box suspended by Tower Bridge and not eat for 44 days. People from across the country flocked to the spot to mock his vanity, fire paintballs and shout Chaucerian insults.
Britons do not like to be herded or instructed to respond to events with awe and appreciation. The country refused to thank Michael Heseltine and Peter Mandelson for the Millennium Dome they had each worked so hard to fund and fill.
However, as the Queen has discovered on significant birthdays and anniversaries, when the public believe they are choosing to take part in a moment of national celebration they are more than happy to take to the streets and wave flags with happy abandon,
It is critical that the vibrant, diverse and bubbling populace of the UK believe they have ownership of the Olympic Games and it is not the project of the political class and property developers. This can still happen, but the time of “con tricks” must come to an end.
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