London 2012 Olympics: Concord or Discord
Since London’s bidding triumph in 2005, next year’s Olympics have been hailed as a British cause for jubilation and national pride, as the last Olympics to be hosted by Britain were back in 1948. Logos are always symbolically charged, and Olympics Minister, Tessa Jowell called the upcoming games’ design, unveiled in 2007, “an iconic brand that sums up what London 2012 is all about - an inclusive, welcoming and diverse Games that involves the whole country.”
In spite of this, London 2012 has revealed itself to be distinctly, well, all about London. On one hand, it could be considered only natural that tradition take precedent over an event so prestigious, and that the successful capital to win the bid should represent the hub of Olympic action. Still, unlike most other countries, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are financially and governmentally affiliated with England as well as being independent entities. Naturally, a relationship which complicates issues of spending costs for the adjoining non-English countries, which have chosen to spend resources very differently in other economic matters, such as free prescriptions for Scotland and Wales.
The eco-friendly approach of London 2012 has demonstrated commendable intentions, by converting 2.5 square kilometres of previously contaminated land for the Olympic Park, as well as building new venues with recycled materials. Plus, if Gordon Brown’s estimations are correct, 30,000 people will have been supplied with jobs by 2012. However, the budget of £9.325 billion remains a colossal one, even with the new coalition’s deduction of £27 million. It begs the question of whether money was spent as wisely as it could have been, and whether the input of all the British countries was considered equally.
The golden logo itself cost £400,000 to create something that many of us think a (free) primary school competition could have achieved. It seems as if this would have been a better idea, given that organising chairman Lord Seb Coe said the committee had wanted it to appeal to “young people”. As part of the budget, newly built facilities have included an aquatics centre, basketball arena, BMX track, handball arena, hockey centre, Olympic stadium, velodrome, and water polo arena along with several temporary venues like Greenwich Park.
The Olympic Park alone accommodates 9 venues, added to the 13 others within London. Out of the 10 outside of London, a mere four are not in the south of England: Hampden Park, south of Glasgow; the Millenium stadium in Cardiff; Old Trafford near Manchester, and St James Park in Newcastle. This distribution significantly marginalises Scotland and Wales from the 2012 experience, Northern Ireland most of all. Arguably, transport could be viewed as problematic the further away from the centre of the games sites are. Yet many wonder if improving national transportation could have been an option rather than building so many new venues that most likely will not be as useful to the country once the Olympics are over. With so much forewarning, this would have been an achievable goal since Eurostar has already announced that later in 2011 connections from Leeds will become available.
Population demographics of England’s neighbouring countries compared to London and its environs was most likely a factor in negotiations of itinerary. Nevertheless, the imminent topic of Scottish independence becomes all the more relevant when the country as a whole is paying for an event concentrated so predominantly in the south of England.
Phoebe Linton
