Biased Games Legacy Debate – Scotland Tonight
On Scotland Tonight the other evening Dr.Libby Porter from the Glasgow Games Monitor challenged the boosterist promotional drivel of both the SNP (Shona Robinson) and the Labour Party (Patricia Ferguson). While they both told us how wonderful everything was going to be because of the Games, Dr.Porter reminded them forcefully of the “disbenefits” that have been ignored by the media and politicians with particular reference to the destruction of Dalmarnock: the Accord Centre and the shocking neglect of disabled children; the brutal eviction of the Jaconelli family; and the CPO’s of the shopkeepers in Dalmarnock. We’ve covered all this extensively on the blog and in the last edition of our paper voice, the East End Eye.
MYTH: The programme also continued to perpetuate the myth that the Games are on budget. This is a patent lie. As we’ve observed here before the initial budget was £373 million. This was then raised to £454 millon before being been increased again to the current figure of £523.6 million – a 40% increase from the original estimate. The same deception is being pulled at the London Olympics where the initial budget in 2007 was £2.4 billion, then it increased in to £9 billion within two years. It is now running at £11 billion! (and this in a time of austerity for the poor and enormous wealth for the rich). We are still two years away from the Games in Glasgow remember, and ‘hidden’ costs will soon appear.
You may need to download a new version of flash to see the clip below:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JArSjt3shc&w=560&h=315]