SNP MP Pete Wishart's parliamentary question shows how badly Scottish firms are served by the Olympic Delivery Authority

Dear All

Everyone is familiar with the expression fair’s fair.

If the Olympics are about anything, they are about people having an equal chance to succeed in competition.

We were extensively told that the Olympics would benefit the whole of the UK, it was a selling point massively pushed by Sebastian Coe and the Labour Government.

The truth is considerably different from the reality.

The responsibility for delivering the games falls to the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) who contract firms to provide various services and constructions for the events.

A parliamentary question from SNP MP Peter Wishart has produced some startling results.

Here is the question;

“To ask the Minister for the Olympics how many Olympic construction contracts have been awarded to firms based (a) in Scotland, (b) in Wales, (c) in Northern Ireland, (d) in England and (e) elsewhere. [289486]”

The response;

a) Scotland: 17
b) Wales: 4
c) Northern Ireland: 3
d) England: 1,022
e) Outside UK: 17.

England, 1,022, does that look even remotely like the Olympic Delivery Authority operates a policy of fairness.

I would say that serious questions have to be asked of the people running the ODA.

For Scotland, it is a double hit, we lose our money from the Lottery to support local groups and then Scottish firms are effectively shut out.

Pete Wishart said;

“The UK Government is clearly failing to honour assurances that companies across the country will benefit from the London Olympics, and in the process, Labour Ministers are failing Scottish businesses.”

Don’t expect fairness to reappear anytime soon now this information is now in the public domain.

I believe this clearly shows how we are losing out and why the people of Scotland need to increase SNP representation in order to protect our interests.

Luckily we have the opportunity to add to the number of SNP MPs on November 12th when the people of Glasgow North East vote in David Kerr to fight for them and the rest of the country.

Scotland only got 17 contracts.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University