The Times says in a leading article (£) this morning:
The new Olympic Stadium has been finished, on time and under budget.
Yes, it really has: £486 million is not a small amount of money, but it is well below the £525 million set aside for the project in late 2008. One may be impressed, but one should not be surprised. With hardly any more fanfare, the new Olympic Velodrome was completed in February, also on budget. Who knew this could be the British way?
This is an important achievement for the Mayor of London Boris Johnson. (Who is able to joke about holding a "snap Olympics" early.)
Under Livingstone, with his scarcely veiled disregard for squandering taxpayers money, the Olympics cost with spiralling our of control.
At the previous Mayoral elections, Labour attack on Boris was that he would be unable to cope with the executive challenges of the office. Even some Conservatives, who like Boris as a personality, were worried there might be something in it that claim. That Boris was an attractive personality but too bumbling to cope with the job. That line of attack had "traction" but it will be harder to sustain with the effective delivery on that ultimate challenge of the Olympic Games.