The most expensive national party ever?

There is a story in today's Times which suggests "little support for the claim that the (Olympic) Games would produce significant economic returns or more people playing sport".

Worst still, the report said that "Leading economists and civil servants commissioned by the Prime Minister’s strategy unit and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport found that the main motivation for staging the 16-day event should be a morale-boosting national party".

Surely, £9.3 billion for a national party at a time when families and businesses will be paying more taxes is something that should be reviewed urgently by this Government.

Certainly, this should become a 'national' Olympics rather than focusing just on London and should use existing facilities across the UK (including the Millennium Stadium and the Newport Velodrome) to get the cost to the taxpayer down.

It would also mean that charities in Wales do not lose out as a result of the large increase in the original budget of £2.4 billion at a time when donations from the private sector are drying up due to the recession.

Comments

Anonymous said…

There is a suggestion that many of the agencies which hand out grants and aid are being stifled to ensure that there is spare money available for the Olympics.

The usual method being to make the claiming process so complex and difficult to comply that the money goes unclaimed.

This money then going into the pot marked London 2012 and no budget has had to be reduced to make it happen!

Well done, Sir Humphrey!

December 03, 2008 12:12 pm

THE IMPORTANCE OF FRANCHISING

When we talk about start-ups and entrepreneurship, rarely do we discuss the potential of franchising not only as a way of establishing new ventures in the economy but also as a method of growing existing businesses. According to the British Franchising Association, franchising is the granting of a licence by one person (the franchisor) to another (the franchisee), which entitles the franchisee to own and operate their own business under the brand, systems and proven business model of the franchisor. The franchisee also receives initial training and ongoing support, comprising all the elements necessary to establish a previously untrained person in the business. This enables individuals to start their own businesses without having to develop their own ideas and utilising an existing brand and established market. Of course, whilst each franchise business is owned and operated by the franchisee, the franchisor controls the quality and standards of the way in which the business is

THE MANUFACTURING STRATEGY FOR WALES

Last night, I received the following comment on the previous post relating to a piece I had written back in early 2007 about the state of the manufacturing sector in Wales. "Dylan, you seem to be ignoring the fact that manufacturers in Wales have written the manufacturing strategy. Small and large manufacturers, all represented at the Manufacturing forum, have co-written this strategy. WAG has recently supported this strategy and have funded a co-ordinator with resources. Manufactures are happy with this progress as they are following the strategy they wanted. I know that the Conservatives have attacked the strategy as they seem to think that WAG wrote the strategy. They couldn't be more wrong. The Manufacturing Strategy was written by manufacturers, for manufacturers and is supported by WAG. If you don't agree with this, then I can invite you to the next Manufacturing Forum and you can explain to the manufacturers how their strategy is wrong....I appreciate that there is

INTRAPRENEURSHIP

Whilst we often consider entrepreneurship to be associated predominantly with new start-ups, larger firms - in order to compete effectively in fast-changing global markets - are adopting more innovative and enterprising approaches to management within their organisations. One of these approaches is the development of entrepreneurship within a corporate environment (or intrapreneurship). Research has shown that intrapreneurship is not easy, and there are considerable differences between an intrapreneurial and a traditional corporate culture, with the latter having an emphasis on a culture and reward system that tends to favour caution in decision-making. For example, large businesses rarely operate on a "gut-feeling" for the market-place, as many entrepreneurs do. Instead, large amounts of data are gathered before any major business decision is made, not only for use in rational business decisions, but also for use as justification if the decision does not produce optimu

PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

Search This Blog