A missed opportunity

A shame, this.

Damian Hockney, a 'One London' member of the GLA, is to run for Mayor. I appear to disagree with him on almost everything. However, my interest was aroused by his stance on the Olympics. His manifesto starts off very promisingly: London's Olympic bid was either a fraud or the product of serious maladministration, perpetrated by the Government and the Mayor on London's taxpayers. Damian Hockney was attacked by politicians from all parties at the London Assembly when he predicted three years ago before the bid had even been won that the Olympics would cost £10 billion. He was even accused of being unpatriotic! But the government has now increased its estimate from £2.375 billion in 2004 to £9.3 billion. Already it looks like that figure will be breached later this year (but after the mayoral election). Aha, I thought; that looks more like it! Perhaps he will use his candidacy as a last ditch effort to campaign against the Olympics. He could simply refuse to honour the commitments made so far - and damn the consequences. If he promised to spend the entire period in the run up to the election on that theme then he'd garner lots of support - including my own.

But no, it's a damp squib. Here's his promise: Londoners must not pay a penny more for the Olympics and a strong Mayor is needed to defend this position. The current mayor has already agreed to increase Londoners' liability by £300 million (an increase of nearly 50%). Damian Hockney has never been a cheerleader for the Games and would be prepared as a last resort to withdraw London's support for the Olympic Games if the budget continues to balloon out of control. This would mean handing full responsibility to national government, which would then need to decide whether to withdraw its invitation to the Olympic Committee to host the 2012 Games or to stage further raids on overstretched national taxpayers and lottery funds. If the government can contain the budget, Damian Hockney as mayor will offer full support in ensuring that the Olympic Games are a truly memorable sporting event of which Londoners can be proud. Big deal. He'll huff and he'll puff and then he'll run away.