Olympic minister says London 2012 will not be austerity Games

Dec 31, 2011, 11:54 GMT

London - The London 2012 Olympics will not be austerity Games in difficult economic times, but are rather to serve as a boost for Britain's economy through sufficient funding, Olympic Minister Jeremy Hunt said.

Hunt told Saturday's edition of the Daily Telegraph paper that voters would never forgive the government if it did not 'make the most' of the unique opportunity of being the centre of attention of the whole world during the July 27-August 12 Games.

'You can take two attitudes to the Olympics. You can say: these are times of austerity and therefore we should pare them down as much as possible. Or, you can say: because these are times of austerity we need to do everything we possibly can to harness the opportunity of the Olympics,' Hunt said.

'We're going to be the centre of global attention and it will be the first time that we've had a major sporting event that's watched live by half the world's population. People would not forgive us if we didn't make the absolute most of this moment.

'This is going to be an incredible expression of Britain's culture, Britain's history and Britain's creativity. So, we decided that the sensible thing to do is to make sure that we finance it properly.'

While London hosted austerity post-war Games in 1948, the government has now invested some 9 billion pounds (14 billion dollars) into the Olympics.

Hunt named the investment and the Games important for the economy and said he expected a significant effect from the Olympics.

'I don't want to overstate that because there are many other factors ... but if you are saying, 'Will the Olympics have a massively positive impact on our economic confidence?' I think the answer is resoundingly yes.'

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