SPEND IT WISELY

That old little pet hate of mine, the sheer financial burden that is the 2012 Olympic Games, raises it’s very expensive head again today. As I have outlined in the past, thousands of community and social programmes are going to see funding curtailed as the National Lottery diverts more and more money to the sporting equivalent of The Dome. It came as some surprise then, to read that the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee has proposed a novel but very good idea as to how the games should be funded. Its approach revolves around loans from the Lottery funds, repayable through the corporate and media sales that the event will inevitably generate. Secure in the knowledge that money (at least some if not all) will be returned as the games progress, the Lottery’s organisers would still be able to allocate funding to existing but unrelated causes.

Whilst the idea is not without pitfalls, at least somebody is trying to tackle the issue in a constructive way. Mind you, I don’t know how well this will go done with the Olympic organisers, many of who head media, PR and consultancy firms, all of whom stand to make a tidy sum out the games. Handing income back means there is less to be shared around!