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Olympic Promises: Falling at the first hurdle? |
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News Archive -
News Archive 2007
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Thursday, 31 May 2007 |
The experience of past games around the world in recent decades is that the poor and the working classes rarely benefit. It is looking increasingly likely – despite the hype from official quarters – that London 2012 will be no exception.The London bid was won, after all, on the premise that it would regenerate one of the poorest areas in Europe; and ‘regeneration’, as those at the sharp end have come to know, is often far from a beneficial process.
There have been losers already, for those in the way of the Olympic Park. Olympic planners have tried to depict the area as a wasteland needing clearance, but they have already met unexpected resistance from those who live, work and play there. It would be easy to depict these campaigners as spoil-sports or NIMBYs, but they are also well aware that they will not be the only victims of the Olympics. The field is already littered with broken promises.
- The ODA has reneged on its promise to guarantee workers a ‘living wage’. London Citizens and TELCO have called it “a cynical betrayal” of agreements reached prior to the success of the Olympic bid.
- The rising cost of the Olympics – said to have spiralled to £10billion – threatens the social legacy of the games, as developers profits will be secured by land sales for luxury private housing instead of affordable housing and community use.
- A raid on the national lottery is due to cost good causes £2.2billion, including community arts and sports organizations.
- A recent government report has questioned the sports legacy of the Games, admitting that it’s not necessarily the case that large sporting events increase sports activity (hardly surprising if local funding opportunities are slashed to fund just three weeks of athletics in 2012).
For more information about London 2012 – without the hype and gloss – visit http://www.gamesmonitor.org.uk/, a site that debunks Olympic myths. You can also join the Games Monitor yahoogroup to keep abreast of developments and join in local campaigns. For those who are happy wading through the academic language, the London Assembly report, “A Lasting Legacy for London?”, suggests that all that glitters is indeed not gold, as the legacy promises made about employment, skills/training and sporting involvement is as far from assured as the rosy-tinted spectacled suits at the ODA would have us all believe…
http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/reports/econsd/lasting-legacy-uel-research.pdf
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