A period of stress and distress
Posted on 15. Sep, 2008 by Richard Barnbrook in Latest News
It’s not often that you can describe the financial headlines as truly apocalyptic, but with the announcement that Lehman Brothers has become the latest domino to fall, that’s exactly what we are dealing with. At just after 15:00 I find myself transfixed before the press conference organised by Price Waterhouse Cooper directly from Canary Wharf.
There are those who are reporting the enormous job losses within the banking sector in an almost mocking tone, implying that those poor souls who will imminently be made jobless in some way are not deserving of sympathy or pity. I wonder if the same attitude would be pervasive if this crisis was impacting on the broadcasting industry?
At City Hall there is a certain amount of concerning the financial meltdown and the funding of the Olympic Games in 2012. Already the figures for the residual values of the homes created by the construction of the Olympic village have had to be revised. That however has not stopped the astonishing level of activity at the Olympic site and I feel obliged to share with you the latest progress report from the Olympic Delivery Authority:
The progress on the Olympic Park to date includes:
- 192 buildings demolished
- Over one million cubic metres of soil excavated to shape the Park
- Two six kilometre underground tunnels and 200km of cabling complete to house the power-lines
- Construction started on the Olympic Stadium three months early and the Aquatics Centre two months early
- Construction is underway on the Olympic Village and utilities infrastructure.
Background
- Over 2,600 workers are now working on the Olympic Park site and at the peak of construction over 9,000 workers will be based on site. Nearly half of these workers live in London.
2. Over one in ten workers on the Olympic Park workforce were previously unemployed before finding work helping deliver the Games and over a third of these workers live locally. Around 17 per cent of the total workforce live in one of the five Host Boroughs and there are over 90 apprentices and trainees working on site.
Also of note is the fact that the ODA have told me that they have clocked up another one million man hours without a reportable accident. Apparently this is the fifth time that this has happened.
Amazing lot the Liberal Democrats. I can remember at their last conference they were bragging about how they had the integrity to offer a “mature political choice” by proposing substantial tax rises. Just twelve months later they have completely changed course and are busy trying to beg votes by offering tax cuts.
A senior Conservative recently told me how he could accept the BNP’s platform even though he didn’t agree with it all. At least, he told me, you know where you stand with you lot. However, describing the LibDems as running with the hare and riding with the hounds he correctly identified probably the most cynically opportunistic outfit in British politics.
The flight tickets have come through for my trip to Cologne. I was beginning to worry, with just a few days left, but even so I am of the opinion that the ticketing system for both air and rail travel in this country is archaic. That’s not to blacken the name of every travel company as some of them have been successfully experimenting with e-tickts and bar-coded text messages to mobile phones that can be swiped by ticket inspectors. As for the London Underground, even though the Oystercard system recently stopped functioning completely for a day the other week, it is still a decent system.
