War On All Fronts

Written by Lynne Featherstone on Fri 24th Jan 2003

Poor old London. We are embattled - be it ricin in Wood Green, war with Iraq, war with the Government or war with the Mayor's budget!

Let's start with Gordon Brown. His overall political strategy is clear - sit quietly in the background when there's a controversy, let Tony take the public flack and hope this helps achieve his real aim - to succeed Tony in Number 10 sooner rather than latter. So it's no great surprise that Gordon Brown hasn't come out with a clear view on a London Olympics bid.

What he has done though - even this early in year - is in the running for the cheekiest political suggestion of the year. Gordon, who resolutely refused to allow the Mayor of London to borrow money to improve the tube - and has insisted on privatisation instead - now says, "London can have the Olympics, but the Mayor must borrow the money to pay for it."

I guess we should be glad he's not insisting on a PFI-backed bid for the Olympics. I can just imagine it - the 100 metres final cancelled due to leaves on the track, hurdles races called off because the contractors forgot to supply any hurdles and the length of the marathon course being wrongly measured.

On the tube, just about every transport expert pointed out how Gordon's privatisation plans were far more expensive than the alternative - letting the Mayor issue bonds to raise the funds for improving the tube. What's sauce for the Olympic goose clearly isn't sauce for the tube gander. (A convoluted metaphor - but you get my drift).

Add to that minister Tessa Jowell's sanctimonious cry that the government doesn't want to take away money for hospitals and schools - well, it never bothers them when a war is in the offing. Imagine the spectacle - the Secretary of State for Defence getting up and saying that the government doesn't have the money to pay for a (UN backed) attack on Iraq, so in a bid to save costs it's going to put it out to tender to Jarvis or Capita.

And quite frankly, that isn't the equation - the Olympics would regenerate great swathes of east London. CrossRail would get built faster and London would be the winner. Therein lies the problem. This government isn't that bothered about London and certainly doesn't want the Mayor to have any perceived feathers in his cap. Combine this with the government's debacles over the Dome, the World Athletic Championships and Wembley and you can see a deadly combination of self-doubt and the desire to keep London down.

The truth is that, as one of the richest countries in the world - if we really want to do something, the money can be found for it. Having seen the report on the feasibility and planning of the Olympics - financial costs, benefits and physical planning - I have no doubt that if the government backed this wholeheartedly and joined the Assembly and Ken and Londoners - of whom the vast majority want us to go for it - we could really benefit in the way that Sydney did.

But on both the Olympics - and Iraq - the views of the majority don't seem to matter to Labour. The idea that we should not go to war unless there is proper United Nations backing is so straightforward - yet government ministers are continuing wriggling, trying to sound like they back the UN but refusing to rule out backing the US even if it goes to war unilaterally.

And whilst my military strategic knowledge is limited, I do know that you're not meant to open up a war on two fronts, let alone three - but sadly for London the third front is looming in the form of the Mayor's budget - the first debated round of which will be in the public arena by the time you read this. The Mayor will be asking for a huge percentage increase on his last year's budget which will be added (barring our efforts to bring it down) to the precept to fund his plans for London. And whilst London needs more police on the streets and vastly better public transport - it also needs a Mayor who will stop just taking and start delivering!