Twice as many public-funded workers as athletes are being sent to Beijing at a cost of almost £7million to the taxpayer, it has emerged.

 

The Government came under fire as new figures revealed that Britain's Olympic squad of 313 athletes will be outnumbered two to one by more than 600 politicians, civil servants, police and BBC staff.

 

The extraordinary number of public sector workers flying to Beijing has already led to a series of questions from opposition MPs in parliament amid accusations that the event is being treated as a 'junket'.

 

Although many staff have important roles in organising the London 2012 Olympics, critics say taxpayers' money is being squandered by many departments.

 

Gordon Brown, who is flying out to attend the closing ceremony, will be accompanied by 20 aides at a cost of £114,000.

 

Whilst the Department of Culture, Media and Sport is sending 13 people at a cost of £75,000.

 

Another 11 Whitehall ministers and officials will be going to China.

 

In contrast, just seven public servants attended the Athens Olympics in 2004, including the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

 

Many bodies involved in organising the 2012 London games are sending representatives, with the capital's Tory mayor Boris Johnson taking 13 staff at a reported cost of £167,000.

 

The London Development Agency has also spent £3 million to hire out a private members' club in Beijing for the duration of the Games.

 

In addition, the taxpayer is footing the £240,000 bill for 39 Metropolitan Police staff to go on a fact-finding tour in Beijing.

 

Dorset Police is sending four people to find out how to police the 2012 sailing event and Greenwich council, which will help host the gymnastics in 2012 in the O2 Arena, is sending six officials at a cost of £14,000.

 

In total, 639 people at a cost of £6,846,700 will attend - most of them BBC staff involved in coverage of the games.

 

The BBC is spending £3 million and taking 437 staff to China to anger of many viewers who have accused the corporation of giving staff a 'free holiday'.

 

Last night viewers reacted with fury to the decision to send Ten O'Clock News anchor Huw Edwards in addition to an army of news and sports reporters.

 

Dozens of viewers bombarded the Points of View website where a discussion group called 'Why is Huw Edwards in Beijing?' was set up.

 

Critics claim the BBC is wasting money by duplicating the roles of its staff at big events.

 

Source: Daily Mail

With London holding the next Olympics I could possibly understand the Mayor and the Police going out there... But over 400 BBC staff????? Come on, that's some kind of fukkin' liberty........ <_<

And Gordon Broon needs 20 aides? :blink:

Anyway it's chump change compared to the astronomical overspending taking place for the London 2012 games. How many BILLIONS is that over budget now?

Anyway it's chump change compared to the astronomical overspending taking place for the London 2012 games. How many BILLIONS is that over budget now?

 

Yeah, and I wonder how many generations of Londoners it'll actually take to pay for the damn thing ultimately.... <_< Aren't they still paying for the Montreal games that took place almost 30 YEARS ago......?

 

Is it all worth it....?

 

 

 

Well the BBC coverage has been excellent so far, I'd much rather they spend money on this than most of the $h!te that's on TV!

Well the BBC coverage has been excellent so far, I'd much rather they spend money on this than most of the $h!te that's on TV!

 

And the coverage of the Athens games wasn't....? Why the hell do they feel the need to send a damn sight more people to these games....?

 

But how many went to Athens? The onlymention of 2004 in that article is regarding civil servants, not BBC staff...

Critics claim the BBC is wasting money by duplicating the roles of its staff at big events.

 

They "claim"? We all know they do - when Maddie McCann went missing, they had one person for the 1pm news, another one for the 6pm news, and yet another one for the 10pm news. AND, I believe, they had someone else for their news channel.

 

In contrast, the Ipswich Prostitute Murders had - at most - two people.