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It's not spin at all - this happens all the time in projects this size for number of reasons.
I listening to a very interesting documentary on radio four a while ago about large projects for the MoD. The basic gist of it that if a contractor knows that they'll have to budget, say, £2 billion for a project, they will put in a bid that will say they can do it for £1.2 Billion. They know that the MoD would never splash £2b outright but if they bid low then once they've received the initial outlay the MoD will be reluctant to cancel the contract having spent so much already. As such they can ask for more money and get it as the MoD have already invested a lot and want the project to get finished.
I assume the same thing happens with many major projects, and has happened with the olympics. -
If anybody read the interview with Boris in the Standard yesterday, it's quite clear that he's a megalomaniac whose motives must be questioned, which is the same as saying he's not to be trusted one bit.
I took from it that Boris is now quite settled in the job which he had previously thought was second best only to the Prime Minister, the job he's previously made no bones about coveting, as he thinks it's to Cameron's chagrin that he's Mayor in the first place, and may well be for another term having not entirely screwed it up. He's probably right, and is only to happy to be a continuing irritant to Cameron, but that's not a healthy reason to stand for public office. He's trying to get one over on Cameron, and vice-versa, in a power struggle that is doomed to failure at some point. The pair don't like each other and probably never have, and being so familiar with one another given the path they've shared gives them greater impetus to try and put the other in their supposed place. It's pure vanity and self-congratulation, which Ken knows a thing or two about as well.
And you can't take class out of it - Boris was loath to give up his column in the Telegraph, considering its £250,000 pay-packet to be 'chicken-feed'. Only an over-privileged moron with no concept of equality would go on the record with such a remark. In spite of all of that I don't mind Boris, but I'd never dream of voting for him.
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I listening to a very interesting documentary on radio four a while ago about large projects for the MoD. The basic gist of it that if a contractor knows that they'll have to budget, say, £2 billion for a project, they will put in a bid that will say they can do it for £1.2 Billion. They know that the MoD would never splash £2b outright but if they bid low then once they've received the initial outlay the MoD will be reluctant to cancel the contract having spent so much already. As such they can ask for more money and get it as the MoD have already invested a lot and want the project to get finished.
I assume the same thing happens with many major projects, and has happened with the olympics.umm not really the same with large building projects that last a number of years - The main problem is inflation - wages increase, the cost of materials increase, plant rental increases and so on. Also there will be unforeseen problems that are impossible to budget for.
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DaveH - you make it sound as if the Olympics budgeting morons didn't take inflation into account.
While I agree that they are indeed morons, I absolutely guarantee that they will have built SOMETHING in for inflation.Also, there would have been some contingency funding too.
To suggest that someone coming up with a budget for something to be completed 8 years away hadn't taken inflation into account is to insult their already limited intelligence.
Of course if you are just saying that inflation has been WAY OVER anyone's reasonable expectations then that of course is true.
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DaveH - you make it sound as if the Olympics budgeting morons didn't take inflation into account.
While I agree that they are indeed morons, I absolutely guarantee that they will have built SOMETHING in for inflation.Also, there would have been some contingency funding too.
To suggest that someone coming up with a budget for something to be completed 8 years away hadn't taken inflation into account is to insult their already limited intelligence.
Of course if you are just saying that inflation has been WAY OVER anyone's reasonable expectations then that of course is true.
Sorry thought that was obvious. Inflation is just one reason why the budget has to increase on these kind of projects.
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Isn't it interesting that the fabled critical liberal press (e.g. The Guardian) don't investigate the veracity of such claims and the narrative for humanitarian intervention trumpeted by Western governments (and their proxies e.g. Saudi & Qatar)?
"Around that time, I had come across my first list of Syrians killed in the crisis, reportedly compiled in coordination with the SOHR, that contained the names of Palestinian refugees killed by Israeli fire on the Golan Heights on 15 May 2011 and 5 June 2011 when protesters congregated on Syria’s armistice line with Israel. So my first check was to see if that kind of glaring error appears in the SOHR list I investigate in this piece.
To my amazement, the entire list of victims from those two days were included in the SOHR casualty count – four from May 15 (#5160 to #5163) and 25 victims of Israeli fire from June 5 (#4629 to #4653). The list even identifies the deaths as taking place in Quneitra, which is in the Golan Heights.
...
The report issued in January by Arab League Monitors after their month-long observer mission in Syria – widely ignored by the international media – also witnessed acts of violence by armed opposition groups against both civilians and security forces.
The Report states: “In Homs, Idlib and Hama, the observer mission witnessed acts of violence being committed against government forces and civilians...Examples of those acts include the bombing of a civilian bus, killing eight persons and injuring others, including women and children...In another incident in Homs, a police bus was blown up, killing two police officers.” The observers also point out that “some of the armed groups were using flares and armour-piercing projectiles.“
Importantly, the report further confirms obfuscation of casualty information when it states: “the media exaggerated the nature of the incidents and the number of persons killed in incidents and protests in certain towns."
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People have to stop this knee-jerk, opportunistic, hysterical obsession with numbers of dead Syrians, and ask instead: “who are these people and who killed them?”"
-- http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/4645/ -
Raspberry Pi launches (http://www.raspberrypi.org/) crashes both supplier sites, and prices are higher than they said they would be...
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Isn't it interesting that the fabled critical liberal press (e.g. The Guardian) don't investigate the veracity of such claims and the narrative for humanitarian intervention trumpeted by Western governments (and their proxies e.g. Saudi & Qatar)?
"Around that time, I had come across my first list of Syrians killed in the crisis, reportedly compiled in coordination with the SOHR, that contained the names of Palestinian refugees killed by Israeli fire on the Golan Heights on 15 May 2011 and 5 June 2011 when protesters congregated on Syria’s armistice line with Israel. So my first check was to see if that kind of glaring error appears in the SOHR list I investigate in this piece.
To my amazement, the entire list of victims from those two days were included in the SOHR casualty count – four from May 15 (#5160 to #5163) and 25 victims of Israeli fire from June 5 (#4629 to #4653). The list even identifies the deaths as taking place in Quneitra, which is in the Golan Heights.
...
The report issued in January by Arab League Monitors after their month-long observer mission in Syria – widely ignored by the international media – also witnessed acts of violence by armed opposition groups against both civilians and security forces.
The Report states: “In Homs, Idlib and Hama, the observer mission witnessed acts of violence being committed against government forces and civilians...Examples of those acts include the bombing of a civilian bus, killing eight persons and injuring others, including women and children...In another incident in Homs, a police bus was blown up, killing two police officers.” The observers also point out that “some of the armed groups were using flares and armour-piercing projectiles.“
Importantly, the report further confirms obfuscation of casualty information when it states: “the media exaggerated the nature of the incidents and the number of persons killed in incidents and protests in certain towns."
...
People have to stop this knee-jerk, opportunistic, hysterical obsession with numbers of dead Syrians, and ask instead: “who are these people and who killed them?”"
-- http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/4645/The problem with investigating any reports coming out of Syria is that they are very difficult to verify, as the Guardian, BBC WS etc have stated in all the reports on these claims. There is no free press in Syria, no freedom of movement for foreign press, and the Syrian government has a well-documented history, going back at least 30 years, of brutal suppression of opposition, armed or otherwise, regardless of the consequences to its own citizens.The Syrian government still denies that it massacred 20 000 + people in Hama in 1982, whilst putting down an armed rebellion by the Muslim Brotherhood. There are very few details about the rebellion itself, other than the fact that it was armed, and that it resulted in the deaths of many government officials - but the suppression of the rebellion involved the use of armour & heavy artillery, which was used to level the city - similar to Grozny. This was confirmed by the few foreign correspondents & diplomats that were able to reach Hama during the assault.To call a concern that the Syrian government is using exactly these same tactics (artilley & armour deployed against urban areas) in Homs & other cities 'hysterical', when, on the rare occasions when foreign correspondents have been able to access Syria they have seen exactly that - heavy weapons being fired into built-up areas, with inevitably high civilian casualties, is ridiculous.
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Raspberry Pi launches (http://www.raspberrypi.org/) crashes both supplier sites, and prices are higher than they said they would be...
Balls - had my eyes on a model b.
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http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/bespoke/bespoke7.jsp?ICID=I-RASP-HPBLOF-0015&bespokepage=farnell/en_UK/promotions/raspberryPi.jsp should take you direct to the Farnell page for them, reported prices are at around £25 if you get through.
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=raspberrypi allows you to register interest, with the likelyhood of being contacted later in the week apparently, and who knows what prices will be
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http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/bespoke/bespoke7.jsp?ICID=I-RASP-HPBLOF-0015&bespokepage=farnell/en_UK/promotions/raspberryPi.jsp should take you direct to the Farnell page for them, reported prices are at around £25 if you get through.
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=raspberrypi allows you to register interest, with the likelyhood of being contacted later in the week apparently, and who knows what prices will be
Thanks mate,
F5, F5, F5, F5
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I've been hearing that Farnell have sold out, but also that they have been accepting orders for multiple units, which they are not allowed to do, so more may become availiable later. They are going to be manufactured to order once the original 10,000 are sold, I think that early reports were tht manufacture to shipping/delivery dates are around 4 weeks.
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FWIW, Robert Fisk has been living on Syria's doorstep (or backyard, depending on how you look at it), and his analysis of the situation is here:
Well worth a read, if you give a shit.
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DaveH - you make it sound as if the Olympics budgeting morons didn't take inflation into account.
To suggest that someone coming up with a budget for something to be completed 8 years away hadn't taken inflation into account is to insult their already limited intelligence.
If as was reported they were incompetent enough to forget about VAT then I can believe anything.
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If as was reported they were incompetent enough to forget about VAT then I can believe anything.
Hasn't VAT changed twice since the original proposal?
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http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/bespoke/bespoke7.jsp?ICID=I-RASP-HPBLOF-0015&bespokepage=farnell/en_UK/promotions/raspberryPi.jsp will now let you preorder a (an?) rpi :)
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It's not spin at all - this happens all the time in projects this size for number of reasons.