The £24 Billion Flashlight

The Olympic Games have come a long way since 776 BC. No longer are the Games about anything as trivial as individual achievement, honouring traditions and stopping wars - now they are all about the two great driving forces in the world; money and perceived international influence. 

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 When the bid for the Olympic Games was launched it was portrayed to the public as a minor spending item which would return vast intangible benefits by turning the eyes of the world on London, and if that weren't enough it would also bring in heaps and heaps of cash from all the Olympic tourists. But as we get increasingly close to the over hyped opening ceremony is there any good evidence this is going to be the case?

Firstly it should be said that London does not need to hold the Olympic Games to spring from obscurity onto the world stage. Founded as one of the furthest bastions of Rome near the height of its power, two millenia of growth and change saw London become the centre of the world's largest empire and the most populous city on the planet, survive the bloodiest conflicts in human history, and now, although slightly diminished, it still remains the financial capital of the world, Europe's richest city, the busiest hub for global air passenger travel and a list of other accolades and achievements that speaks for itself. London is not in danger of disappearing into the darkness anytime soon.

 But glory aside, will there be riches at the end of the Olympic rainbow? Unfortunately this seems to be the same answer as the glory - yes if your Middleofnowhereville, not really if your London. Tourism already contributes around £15 billion a year to London coffers and provides 350,000 jobs. 14 million international visitors come to London every year - more then any other city in Europe. The Games aren't going to change that. A report by Tourism Insight (a think tank of tourism professionals who report on trends and events in British tourism), reaches the conclusion that while the Games do attract Olympic Tourists (who henceforth will be termed Lympies) they also deter regular tourists who don't want to get caught up in the Olympic furore. The net effect? Yes Summer 2012 will be a busy year for London - will it be busier then any other "good" year? - No.

This story of lympies replacing regular tourists extends to the facilities and events. Free cultural events planned around London and the wider country steal customers from businesses which rely on the tourist trade, no doubt pushing many to the brink and some into closure. Once the games are done we will be left with surplus stadiums and sports parks which will compete with existing facilities for an unchanged residential demand, again the result will be sport and leisure businesses finding their trade reduced or dry up altogether. The legacy of the Olympics will not be a shimmering place on the world stage and an economy recovered from a slump by a surge in sports related tourism and domestic spending, but another set of unneeded monuments to our political class's obsession with international prestige and the ruin of a swathe of small and medium sized enterprises pushed out of existence as public spending again swamps private business.
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So, to recap the Olympics are a £24,000,000,000 white elephant that will do little to boost London's already stellar tourism industry, and will have a damaging knock on effect on the wider economy, what could we do with that money instead? Here are a few ideas;

• Provide safe, clean water to every person on the planet. In addition to saving as many as 2 million lives a year in some of the world's poorest regions this would boost African economies by as much as £100 billion a year by ending productivity losses from water related illness and disease.
   
• Provide free primary school education to every child on the planet. (£10 billion)

• Pay the combined average salaries of 27,000 teachers or 10,000 GPs for the next 35 years.

• Double the average salary of every UK Firefighter for the next 10 years.
  
• Maintain Britain's nuclear deterrant for 10 years.
  
• Provide a boost to the UK economy of £432 billion by funding adult and junior apprenticeships.
  
• Fund 500,000 university courses, including all fees and living allowances.

Or, if your slightly less altruistic, how about giving everyone in the country a lump sum of £4,000 to do with what they want? At the end of the day the home-grown Lympies can use the money to go visit whichever global city the politicians have decided to make an example of next, and leave the rest of us in peace.

Happy Trails,

Zarl