Taking bets on 2012

[alan refail]

Now the projected cost of the London Olympics has trebled to £9 billion plus, which of you can correctly predict the final cost (only another 5 years to go)?

Alan

[Chantal]

Think of a number and triple it seems to be the key, so I'll go for £18 billion. I can'd do much worse than the "professionals"

[Primrose]

I'll opt for £20 billion. I think this is going to be another farce far outweighing the Millenium Dome. Winning the race to stage the 2012 Olympics here was probably once of the worst things which could have happened to us. The good taxpayers of Paris must be thanking their lucky stars that they lost the vote when they look across the Channel and see what's happening here. Just think what this sum could have done for the NHS, or some other important function of British national life.
Rant not over yet. I think this one is going to fester on for another five years by which time I'll be an even older Grumpy Old Woman !!

[oldherbaceous]

Well it's bound to go up a little from the starting price surely.

[Chantal]

From £2.4 billion to £9.3 billion in 2 years is not a "little" in anyone's book.

[oldherbaceous]

Sorry all, i couldn't resist it.
I too think it is quite scandalous.

[Jenny Green]

Apparently they've already paid out thousands of pounds to a fictitious contractor who didn't do any work whatsoever!

[Chantal]

They could save themselves some money by not building over those allotments.

[peter]

£100,000,000,000.00 at least.

Plus at least one major security "incident".

[Tigger]

My OH says all building estimates are 3 times the original figure plus 10%.

Is that anywhwere near?

[alan refail]

I was, of course, thinking of offering a generous prize for whichever of you get the answer right (+/- a couple of billion!), but not for another five years

Here's a thought: the 1948 London Olympics, which we were begged to stage, cost a massive £750,000. Given a rise in RPI of about 30 times since then, the next Olympics should be costing £22,500,000. OK they were a pretty primitive affair
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/mak ... og1d.shtml

But suppose we allow more to upgrade them, say ten times as much, or even a hundred times as much, it still doesn't reach even the original estimate for 2012.

I was going to set a supplementary: estimate the carbon footprint of the 2012 games, but on googling I find the government has beat me to it. It's all going to be "sustainable". So that's fine.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4299876.stm

[John]

Hello All
Quite apart from these astronomical costs, another thing we have to look forward to is the onset of the 'will it/won't it all be finished in time for the start of the games' syndrome. This condition is easily cured though by paying the construction people yet more huge amounts of cash to finish a job they've already been paid for.

Yet another fine mess Mr TB and his sidekick Mr GB have got us into.

John

[alan refail]

Oh, don't be so cynical, John. Of course it'll be finished on time. Even those idle Athenians got it sorted in the end

[Weed]

I am afraid I just cannopt understand the way these people operate.
In my business I submit a quotation and when accepted this forms a binding contract.. If I foul up in the pricing process then I have to stand the cost.

If I make a mistake I have to put it right...at my expense.
When the jokers built the Millenium bridge which subsequently wobbled they actually paid them again to put it right

I must find out how to give a quotation then be able to double/treble/quadruple it ...and get away with it.. obviously it must only apply to Government contracts..... but then its not there money they are spending

A very cynical Weed