Olympic Gigantomania

Simon Jenkins in yesterday's Guardian takes aim at Olympic Gigantomania: the cost of the Olympics, he says, could soon be £1 billion a day; a level of spending which makes the money flushed down the toilet on the Dome look like "petty cash". By comparison, the Royal Opera House cost £214 million, Tate Modern £134 million, and Wembley Stadium £798 million. The cost of the Olympics has risen by 40% since July 2005, and the extra cost is to come from London council tax payers and lottery funds. Six temporary stadiums are to be built for 16 days of sport: "...the kind of gesture once confined to Persian monarchs and African dictators".