The feelgood offensive I've mentioned before has been in full effect, with David Cameron holding a cabinet meeting at the Olympic Park and Paul Deighton, the chief executive of games organisers LOCOG, warning the nation not to miss out on the festival of fabulousness that London 2012 is going to be. That's their job, and I'm happy for them. Meanwhile, it's my job - well, part of it - to mention a few feelbad factors as the countdown reaches minus 200 days.
Shortly before Christmas it was decided that Dow Chemical will have none of its corporate branding on the fabric wrap around the stadium it is sponsoring. This development was characterised by campaigners against the deal, who claim that the company has continuing liabilities arising from the 1984 Bhopal disaster, as "the first real chink in Dow Chemical's armour."
But Dow continues to insist that the issue has been dealt with and LOCOG chair Lord Coe has continued to defend the deal. So the campaigners, who include London Labour MP Barry Gardiner, have now challenged both Coe and London mayor Boris Johnson to sample the contaminated water Bhopal residents have to drink. They issued their challenge in Trafalgar Square. Here's how an Indian TV channel reported the event.
Feeling bad, yet? If not, it may help a little to know that just as responsibility for the park is passed from the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to LOCOG, so the debt accrued from the purchase of the land on which the park is built has continued to passed from one Olympic-related public body to another. The complex history of this process can perhaps be most easily summarised as a series of financial "black hole" discoveries. These tend to occur every autumn. Here's a timeline.
Black Hole Number One: In September 2009 it emerged that £160 million overspend by the London Development Agency, the mayoral body responsible for purchasing the land from its array of inhabitants, had not been spotted. In City Hall, political unpleasantries ensued.
Black Hole Number Two: In October 2010 a London Assembly report identified one of £387 million (LDA) will be left owing £387, which it reckoned the LDA would end up owing the Government as a result of the arrangement to transfer the land debt to the Olympic Park Legacy Company.
Black Hole Number Three: This one, located in November 2011, is £231 million in size, and according to Boris's chief of staff Sir Edward Lister will not have to be paid off by Londoners. Boris himself might be asked a few questions about this when he appears before the Assembly's budget and performance committee later this morning.
Feeling good yet? I just knew it.
From Mr Mustard ( mrmustard@zoho.com )
From The Greenwich Phantom
From Going Underground's Blog
Comments
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10 January 2012 8:53AM
Has Cleggy (allegedly) just seen a flying Peppa Pig or maybe his lost manifesto from the last election
10 January 2012 2:36PM
So, we can look forward to a bigger. better black hole next Autumn, as the Aftermath kicks in?
10 January 2012 2:51PM
The point that's often missed in the Dow Chemical London 2012 discussion though, is that they aren't really being criticised for liability for the 1984 gas-leak - but Dow are wrong when they say that's been settled, there is constant litigation in the Indian courts because of the failings of the intitial settlement in 1989.
They're being criticised for the issue that has never been tackled; the water & soil contamination caused by Union Carbide's negligent waste disposal practices.
UCC escaped India before this damage was discovered and thousands started dying. They are still wanted on charges of culpable homicide and Dow & the US are essentialy harbouring fugitives from justice. As Dow own UCC as a full subsidiary, responsibility for this toxic legacy falls to them.
It would be great to see the guardian tackle this side of the story more. It is, after all, 'the point.'
10 January 2012 4:01PM
There are also myriad compelling reasons to be troubled by BP's prominent role in the Games and the Olympiad. Art Not Oil is inviting creative folk to contribute to a 'Cultural or Vultural 2012?' at www.artnotoil.org.uk, so slide over and have a look if you have a minute...
10 January 2012 6:30PM
There are all sorts of fun things you can do during the Torch Procession throughout the UK, as a way of countering the corporate brainwashing accompanying both it and the London Olympics in general. Coca Cola (torch sponsors) have just as inauspicious a history as Dow and BP, with strong ties to Nazi Germany, groundwater theft in India and union-related murder in Guatemala.
If you want to make the torch fizzle out then go to http://thesietch.org/mysietch/keith/2011/11/10/ready-the-fire-extinguishers-the-coca-cola-olympic-torch-is-coming/.
A pretty full rundown of the major sponsors (including Rio Tinto, Mittal, EDF, Atkins, BP and British Airways) and how they aim to bend public opinion at the games can be found at http://thesietch.org/mysietch/keith/2011/07/25/london-2012-crass-commercial-and-completely-acceptable/