Boris Johnson BBC Radio 4 Today transcript - the Olympic interview

Boris explains how he plans to safeguard £10 billion.

Its amazing how uncritical we can be when we consume media such as radio and TV.  It’s as if we become so hypnotised by the soothing flow of sound and pictures we overlook the absurdity of the content.

I’ve started freezing the moment in words to make sense of just how devoid of meaning they actually are - another example of someone with with nothing to say saying just that.

Transcript:
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JH: Well the Olympic flag will pass to London tomorrow in the shape of Boris Johnson, Mayor of London since May.  Mr. Johnson may or may not still be mayor when the London games begin in 2012 but what is certain is that there will be many rows between now and then over how preparations are progressing; there always are - there already have been.  That’s the problem, it always is.
Mr. Johnson is on the line from Beijing, good morning to you

BJ: Good morning, John

JH: Now then, the Chinese spent £30-odd billion, we’re going to spend less than £10 billion, you say you will come in under budget…how?

BJ: Well, I’m absolutely determined to deliver a fantastic games and  together with everybody involved in this we are resolved to produce..a.. brilliant British successor to these triumphant Beijing games.. ah, one that is full of wit and imagination, ingenuity, er, but is coming in under the £9.3 billion ceiling that we set ourselves…

JH: How-

BJ: I’m absolutely sure we can do it..

JH: How?

BJ: By.. showing some …. flair for economy and er producing - we’re going to have a more intimate games, don’t forget-

JH: More intimate?

BJ: The Chinese site is 76 hectares, ours is 36 hectares; it will be ah less spread out, the feel will be, er different … we are looking, you know… now at what we can do, ah with the various sites and the various venues to make sure we, ah, don’t have, ah, significant waste of taxpayers’ money - and I’m absolutely certain we can do that.

JH: Alright, well we’ve been looking at what you’re doing tomorrow at the sort of handing over of the baton ceremony,  we’ve got 8 minutes and what have we got.. [muffled]

BJ: [muffled] .. it’s a flag

JH: What?

BJ: It’s a flag

BH: Flag, baton, whatever

BJ: These things matter

JH: ‘Cause they do, I stand corrected.  We have, we have, what have we got tomorrow… we got a double-decker bus, we’ve got David Beckham and we’ve got the shipping forecast.. so..so.. so the Chinese

BJ: (Over JH) I think you should be jolly pleased, I think you should be jolly pleased that something from Radio 4 has made it into…

JH: staged the greatest show on earth and we’ve got a pensioned-off bus, a pensioned-off footballer .. what?

BJ: I think you should be jolly pleased and proud that something from Radio 4 has made it onto .. an icon and an emblem of…

BH: I’m absolutely delighted  just slightly puzzled really

BJ: I think everybody will enjoy the 8 minute segment - let me give you an example:-

JH: Go on, tell me why we’ve got the shipping forecast?

BJ: I don’t want to ..to dilate for too long or, you  know, weary your readers with, ah your viewers, your listeners..

JH: Or even your listeners…

BJ: Or even your listeners, ah, with, ah, er, any kind of elaborate explanation of the wondrous things they’re gonna see tomorrow during the eight minutes - I wanted to ah get back to the serious point which is ..

JH: Well I was being a bit serious, I mean it does sound a bit backward-looking, really, you know, David Beckham, double-decker bus, shipping forecast…

BJ: It’s gonna be, it’s gonna be - well, there you go - it’s going to be superb and I think you should save your criticism, John, until you see it.  I think you’ll enjoy it.

JH: Alright, alright but it won’t be spectacular, will it?

BJ: (long pause) Well, eh, uh, ah, that’s,let’s let the British public be the judge of that:-

JH: We shall

BJ: Any, any kind of advance cynicism is unnecessary - you can be cynical after the event..

JH: Aaalright, let’s, let’s, let’s - possibly not cynical after the event, who knows, maybe it might be..

BJ: You might, you might, even you -

JH: - hugely impressed

BJ:  - might be caught up in this sort of  ‘Olympo-fervour’ that is sweeping Britain

JH: (Laughs) Is that the word? But, but one is entitled as you would expect, to be sceptical, if not cynical about policians promising savings without any evidence that they can do it! I mean we’ve already had problems here, haven’t we, because the original deal was supposed to cost… what was it? Two and third billion pounds, now it’s going to be nearly ten billion - it’s gone up nearly three times before we’ve even started..

BJ: And that’s why w- as soon as I came in as Mayor, I made sure that we put in some new procedures and I’ve got David Ross in at Locog representing us on the organising committee and we are looking very seriously at ways of making sure that we can have a fantabulous games but without wasting money - and let me give you - you asked for an example..

I mean.. we are looking at ways of making sure the site budgets don’t overrun and clever ways of, of ah, producing a brilliant games without wasting it.  This year, this building I’m talking to you from is called London House, it’s in Beijing…ah… under the dispensation of the old Mayor it was going to cost about ah three and a half million ah we’ve managed to shave 1.1 million at least from that budget and, you know, it’s still the hottest ticket in town.  Everybody wants to be ah at the British London House, er.. everybody is turning up and including the Prime Minister I’m thrilled to say, and, ah, you know, I think that an illustration of the kind of thing we can do.

JH: But do you know what puzzles a lot of people I think, is, is who is actually in charge because you say ‘we’ meaning your administration but yesterday we had on the programme Tessa Jowell who is, as you know, the Olympics minister, so therefore one must assume that she is in charge.

BJ: Well, as you know there’s a quondaminium of all the interested parties and actually the organisation’s very streamlined and very efficient ah the London budget is about 1.1 billion of the total envelope of 9.3, I sit on the Olympic board with Seb Coe, Colin Moynahan, Tessa Jowell  and we basically take all the big decisions about the way the projects should be run and actually it works extremely well.

JH: Let’s have a word about base politics, you’ve had a few problems…..

[the interview became even more bizarre after this point and wandering off into a rather-too-long and bizarre metaphor about broken washing machines....]

August 27, 2008 | Filed Under GRRRR!!!, feedback 

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