London 2012 Olympic ceremonies budget doubled

[mattx]

London 2012 Olympic ceremonies budget doubled - but it's ok folks because there are still schools up and down the country falling down !!
And people are taking pay cuts and having to work longer - but don't fear because the govenment [ who remember says we are all in this together ] is # wasting money # on an opening ceremony !!
Something is seriously wrong with this country.

BBC News - London 2012 Olympic ceremonies budget doubled

[tech_guy]

I'm incandescent with rage over this. What a waste of money. And how much do you want to bet the money will be awarded to companies owned by Cameron's snout-in-trough chums?

[mattx]

I'm incandescent with rage over this. What a waste of money. And how much do you want to bet the money will be awarded to companies owned by Cameron's snout-in-trough chums?

I bet you 40 Million. [ Of money we don't have remember because we are all in this together ]

[SteseD]

Unfortunatley, this shows that they are all no better than each other... Cameron wasn't in power when we won the bid way back when... IIRC correctly, Mr Brown was... i'm sure they knew the budget would go out the window on the first day... but they'll hope we'll all forget this, when it comes to re-election time!

[localzuk]

Not *really* sure what your arguments are here - the money was already earmarked for the games, they're just moving stuff around, so that the ceremonies have more funds, and other areas of the olympic budget get cut.

Its not like they decided to take the money out of the education budget to buy more fireworks.

[Theblacksheep]

The entire games are a waste of money.

[Pottsey]

How much money do they expact the olympics to bring in? I assume local business will be packed and selling a lot which should I guess bring in a lot of extra tax. But is it enough?

[localzuk]

One thing I don't get is what 81million quid buys for opening and closing ceremonies.

Choreographers, performers, lighting, sound riggging, computer gear to run stuff, fireworks, etc... How do you spend £81m on that?!

[Pottsey]

Staff wages perhaps? 1000’s of people on 15k or 20k or whatever it is soon adds up.

[localzuk]

Staff wages perhaps? 1000’s of people on 15k or 20k or whatever it is soon adds up.

20k for a half an hour ceremony? Ok, fine, they have to rehearse etc... but still...

[tommej]

Oh right because they haven't been preparing for this for years.

[localzuk]

Oh right because they haven't been preparing for this for years.

The opening ceremony? Seriously, you reckon 1000s of people have been working full time on the ceremony?

[Earthling]

London 2012 Olympic ceremonies budget doubled - but it's ok folks because there are still schools up and down the country falling down !!
And people are taking pay cuts and having to work longer - but don't fear because the govenment [ who remember says we are all in this together ] is # wasting money # on an opening ceremony !!
Something is seriously wrong with this country.

BBC News - London 2012 Olympic ceremonies budget doubled

Very seriously wrong.

[Pottsey]

This really is just guess work by me but surly people who provide the food have to work for weeks if not months before hand. Surly most of the staff will not be just for the opening ceremony.

Lighting, rigging, computer networking on that scale would takes months to setup wouldnt it? then practice then the opening. It’s not just half an hour opening many will be used throughout the whole Olympics I would have thought. There must be a better breakdown somewhere around the web.

[nicholab]

The most annoying thing is why can't the IOC officials use Boris bike/Public transport instead of special car lanes!!!?