From the We Should Have Seen It Coming Department:
The budget for the London 2012 Olympics could reach £5bn, more than double the original estimate, after games officials admitted yesterday the final cost is likely to be "significantly higher" than first predicted. The fears were highlighted yesterday after it emerged that the Treasury is advocating a contingency fund to deal with a potential overspend of 60% on construction work.
60%? Great idea - let's say 60 and watch it rise to 120. Ken is also less than pleased with the idea:
Describing it as "absolutely breathtakingly ridiculous", he said it would merely encourage contractors to overcharge and underperform. The mayor said he would accept a contingency figure of 20%, while he said the ODA was seeking a figure to cover cost overruns of 30%.
How about instead of spending £5bn on all that crap we just set up a series of computer simulations like the one in the trailer for the new Rocky movie. Buy a few PCs, stick in all the relevant data like how sporty and/or drugged up the athletes are and then put the results up on Sky. Give everyone some medals and then build some more houses and tube lines with the money saved without having to go to all that bother with the actual tedium of the games.
You could free up a lot of space by letting the opening coin toss decide the final outcome of football matches too.
