Barometer | 10 December 2011

Let the Games begin

The budget for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics has been doubled to £81 million, the government has announced. The move has ignited fears that the ceremony could prove an expensive disaster — but there is no guarantee that things will go well even when kept simple.

— The London games in 1908 saw the first Olympic opening ceremony, consisting of a gym display by the Ladies London Polytechnic and a procession by the athletes, bearing the flags of their countries.
— The Finns sulked because they had been told they must march under the Russian flag. The stars and stripes was by accident flown from a stadium flagpole at half-mast. Angered by this, the shot-putter carrying the US flag declined to dip it in honour of the king as he passed the royal box.
— But at least the Games didn’t cost much: the entire budget was £20,000.

Minding the gap

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Some countries where the rich are growing richer faster than the poor:

Average annual increase in real household income between mid-1980s and late 2000s

Bottom 10%	Country	Top 10%
0.9%	UK	2.5%
-1.1%	Israel	2.4%
0.5%	US	1.9%
0.1%	Germany	1.6%
0.2%	Italy	1.1%

… and some countries where the poor are getting richer faster than the better-off:

3.9%	Spain	2.5%
3.9%	Ireland	2.5%
1.7%	Belgium	1.2%
1.6%	France	1.3%
0.8%	Turkey	0.1%

Source: OECD

Common complaints

Jeremy Clarkson attracted 31,000 complaints to the BBC after saying strikers should be shot. What makes BBC audiences complain?

55,000 Jerry Springer: the Opera
38,000 Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand phoning Andrew Sachs
8,400    A baby being swapped after a cot death on EastEnders
416*      Nick Griffin on Question Time
60         A doctor on Casualty suggesting that drug abuse is a Scottish national pastime

*243 of whom felt Griffin had been treated unfairly