17th June 2011

Olympic Glory

I admit it: I was an Olympic cynic.  Nine billion quid was a huge amount even when the economy was doing well.

Having toured the Olympic Park on Wednesday with fellow MPs, all I can say is that the money has at least been well spent.  Some of the buildings – the Aquatic Centre, the Handball Area and the on-site power station – are very fine indeed.  The stadium will make a good home for West Ham – and having been inside it, fans can have no worries about intimacy, as it is actually quite compact.

But best of all was the new riverside park.  What was once a tip sitting atop poisoned land straddled by pylons has been turned into a stunning, staggering streak of urban green.  It literally took my breath away.

There will be thousands of new houses and a new school – which will make good homes, even if the whole athletes’ village is more reminiscent of a 70s Romanian housing scheme than an innovative new city space.  It was, frankly, the only off-note in what is a vast redevelopment site, much of which has been done with very considerable success.  Best of all – after the games the area will be run by a local corporation, not by the neighbouring councils who on previous form would not have taken long to muck it up.

After some radical cost surgery by the new government this time last year, the whole caboodle will come in on time and under budget – despite the fact that much of the expected private sector money vanished as the 2008 recession took hold.  Would I spend the money given the chance again?  Er... it will be a great few weeks and a wonderful new district of London has been born.  But at £7 billion, when the government is scratching around for every last million they can find, it is a very expensive way to sort out a patch of forgotten contaminated land.

Dr Kwarteng

The picture above shows me with my friend Kwasi – or Dr K to his friends.  Kwasi was a great mate at university and has been since.  Since we were both elected together in 2010 I have had the pleasure of being able to be in the same place with him again.

 Famously, Kwasi won University Challenge all on his own: if you totted up his individual score for Trinity College Cambridge, it was more than the three members of the opposing Oxford team.  So he’s a clever boy – and also a genuinely good man.

Legal Friends

Speaking of friends, I wrote an article in the Times this week, attacking the organisations that represent lawyers.  This has not made me popular with one or two of my lawyer friends.  I have had to spend a little time explaining that it was not lawyers I was cross about, but the legal trades unions who do them a disservice by objecting to almost any reform of our world-leading legal aid bill that the government plans.

The fact is that it is not fair for some people to have taxpayer-funded legal wrangles that others on low incomes could not possibly hope to afford.  It is also stupid that we cannot adopt the kind of divorce mediation that is so widespread in other countries – like Sweden and Germany – who care as much about fairness and justice as do we.

Homecoming

Finally – welcome home to 4 Regiment Army Air Corps, just back from Afghanistan.  But do keep in mind those in North Africa.  I hope they too can come home safely soon.