There are some duff jobs for journalists
a comic book hack
It’s not much fun being paid a pittance by a local paper to cover cat-stuck-up-tree type stories or writing for magazines that appear on Have I Got News For You, such as the one featured recently for collectors of car tax discs.
But the biscuit surely must go to the hacks that have to write about the Olympics in the years leading up to them. There are only two stories to write: they will cost a lot and construction completion will be late.
So, for about three years these hacks will churn out stories saying they will cost a little bit more than when they last wrote. And then for the next two they will say that the construction will be delayed by a few more weeks than when they last wrote.
Today, the story was a cost one. Shock, horror: the estimated cost of the main stadium has gone up by £16m to £525m.
Frankly, I’m looking forward to the games. I think they’ll be a huge boost for London and be great to watch. They are something we Brits should be proud of putting on.
So, does it really matter how many billions they will cost, especially when three-quarters of the money is for the long-term regeneration of the Stratford area.
If the same checks were carried out on where the money that is allocated to the NHS goes as they are on the Olympic Games, then I think we’d be truly shocked. The NHS is waste on a proper scale, not the Olympic Games.
