At last, somebody says no to the Olympics! Governments should be banned from financing or sponsoring any part of commercial events like the World Cup for football, the Olympics, the Eurovision Song Contest, or MTV Europe Music Awards Gala. Our tax payers’ money is not meant to finance events where the sponsors are have more than enough to run them by themselves. Calculations showing the gain to any country can be bought from the likes of McKinsey and Boston Consulting, just like the Guggenheim Helsinki project that “proves” its profitability with the vision of 500 000 visitors each year! Do you really believe that the folk at Guggenheim believe these numbers are true? If they did they would be the first to fund this project with their own cash!

So it was with great pleasure that I saw Norway turn down an offer to finance the Winter Olympics. Sport and exercise for ordinary folk are so much more important than financing a elite collection of players who live tax free in Switzerland and Monaco.