There's a good little article in today's Guardian on Ken's recent comments regarding the London Development Agency's decision to use a compulsory purchase order to secure the property needed for the development of the Olympic Village.
During his weekly press briefing yesterday Ken got a little worked up over the deadline that landowners had been given:
We gave notice to the landowners that the deadline was last week and we would not budge from that. We were happy to negotiate in advance but we could not hold off the CP if people were taking too long.
Deadline not movable. Got it.
In this process, when we say there is a deadline we can't move, people must accept the fact that we are serious about that and the deadline will not be moved.
Timetable good. Moving deadline bad. Yep, all clear.
We are not going to put at risk the delivery of the Olympic Games on time and on budget by not sticking to the timetable.
You need to let it go Ken. Get on with your life. Move on.
If we hadn't made the CPO we would have been dependent on their cooperation to deliver the games on time. This would have become the biggest ransom strip in development history and we would have had to pay tens of thousands to get to the site. We can't put ourselves in a position where we can be blackmailed. We are not going to give any commercial player the right to alter the timetable.
You want the truth...YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
Ok, so we added that last bit, but still: somebody send Ken a stress ball. If this is what he's like now, think what he'll be like come 2012 (and yes, he still wants to be Mayor when the 'Lympics roll around).
The upshot of all this is that the LDA have been accused of "control freakery" (our new favourite noun) and a few people have even dared to suggest that Ken's language was somewhat "emotional".
To top it all off Ken also suggested that the firms who were delaying the development process and accusing the lDA of trying to buy the land at a 'knockdown price' were "trying to get the International Olympic Commitee to give the games to another city."
After the press brieifng we're told that Ken retreated to his office where he drew the blinds, switched off all the lights, and sat at his desk cradling a revolver while dictating a press release detailing how the residents of Lea Valley are attempting to control his thoughts using radio waves.
