The Beijing Olympics has been a triumph for Team GB. The whole country has felt good about day after day of sporting triumph. Our cyclists have been phenomenal, while swimmers like Rebecca Adlington have mixed athletic endeavour with personal modesty that grossly overpaid Premier League footballers could never match.
Yet Britain's Beijing glory must not be used to justify giving London's 2012 Olympic Games an open cheque. The budget for the event has already soared to grotesque levels. Failed politicians like Colin Moynihan, chairman of the British Olympic Association, have called on the Government to make up for any shortfall in funding for London 2012. Olympics minister (a bizarre concept in itself) Tessa Jowell and London mayor Boris Johnson have rightly rejected the idea. Beijing has put on a spectacular display. But unlike China, Britain has to listen to the people. Voters in Cardiff, Cumbernauld and Coventry would not thank a government that wasted even more money on a 16 day circus - no matter how many gold medals Team GB wins at its home games.
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