Happy Expat Christmas

We're getting ready for Christmas here in Little-Blighty-on-the-Great-Lakes. The big feature here is Christmas dinner (if you don't count family high tea on Boxing Day). I'm looking forward to Turkey, Stuffing, Bread Sauce, Roast Potatoes, Sprouts, Parsnips and Gravy (Aah Bisto!). Not forgetting mince pies.
We've been watching old episodes of Last of The Summer Wine on Youtube and Annette just had to have the squeezy tomato sauce bottle as used in Sid's Cafe, 'sourced' on ebay. Naf is the new kind.
Eat, drink and be merry as for 2012 I predict that governments will continue to spend money that they have borrowed; at least one country will leave the Euro but the resulting problems will turn out to be a blessing; the soon-to-be £10 billion plus Olympics will bring three weeks of 'sport' promoting hamburgers, fizzy pop and credit cards. Let us hope we see the back of some more dictators. Meanwhile have a Happy New Year!
Photograph by Annette.

Folie de grandeur

I first called for the cancellation of the Olympics back in May. (See: Olympics). Now the story has reached the mainstream press. As the cost soars past £10 billion taxpayers surely know now, if they had failed to spot it, that they are being taken for a ride.
From The Times:
This month Tessa Jowell, the Minister for the Games, admitted that the Government would not have bid for them if it had seen what was coming. “Had we known what we know now, would we have bid for the Olympics? Almost certainly not.”
After the £1 billion Greenwich Dome flop you would have thought they would have seen it coming. Not these sleazebags.
Update: Suppressed report warned government of Olympic folly.

Taxpayers in fresh Olympic sting

An Olympic-sized bill is heading the way of UK taxpayers. Now surely is the time to cancel the Olympics, as the government can no longer justify this folly.
Update: Vancouver taxpayers due for haircut too.

Standby for killer Olympics

A cycling story from the Evening Standard:

"More than half of those killed are involved in accidents with lorries and experts fear the death toll could rise as construction lorries pack onto London's roads in the build up to the 2012 Olympics."

Five ring circus II

This column is an Olympic free zone. With the exception of this piece in The Times.

Olympic 'champion' airbrushed out

£10bn for UK to 'sponsor' this; an event rotten to the core. Still plenty of time to cancel the whole sorry charade in London.

Five ring circus

Discredited London Olympics running on tick. Taxpayers are the patsy.

Olympics £1 billion black hole

The boondoggle goes on.

£10 Billion for four weeks of "sport"

Ken Livingstone ducks as the Olympic boondoggle spins out of control. Makes the Dome look like a bargain. The Guardian has the story.

Olympic financial nightmare

Taxpayers underwriting this freak show will receive a hefty bill for years to come. The Times counts the cost.

Costs soar for London Olympics

The boondoggle spins out of control. The Dome Mark II will impoverish all taxpayers. The Times has the story.

Olympic budget out of control

"Fears will grow that the UK taxpayer, National Lottery players or even London council tax payers will foot the bill."
PunchBuggy Passim: Go here, here and here.

Greek Tragedy

The Times has the story of how London won the Olympic bid due to a "Greek typing error." This is all the more upsetting to UK taxpayers who will foot the multi-billion pound bill for this discredited freak show. The lesson from the Greenwich Dome is, if you are going to waste other people's money, go big.

Full cost of Olympic folly revealed

After the Dome the multi-billion Olympic folly unfolds. Nowadays a device for selling hamburgers and fizzy pop to a sedentary TV audience while watching discredited drug-fuelled freaks on the track. The Telegraph has the numbers. The British taxpayer has to underwrite this shindig, carrying any losses without a share in the profits. The government is not funding basic services like schools, hospitals and transport yet can waste money on this circus.
The "Olympic Movement" long ago lost sight of its sporting ideals in the rush to get rich. Bad luck to them.