i Newspaper:
Why does nobody want to host the Olympics anymore?
3 March 2017
The Olympics shouldn’t be sold as bringing any wider benefits at all – but, instead as a very expensive party. Hosting the Olympic Games in 2012 cost about £150 per UK tax payer – but it did make Londoners happier. Londoners were happier during the summer of 2012 than those of 2011 and 2013, a study by the Centre for Economic Performance found. But in times of austerity, the happiness argument is a hard sell. That is especially true when the benefits are concentrated in the glitziest city – normally the capital. In the 2012 Olympics, citizens in poorer parts of the country effectively subsidised the happiness of Londoners.