The organisers of London's 2012 Olympics have been accused of undervaluing women's sports and contravening the Olympic Charter's commitments to equality. Sue Tibballs, chief executive of the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) said: "There is no doubt it sends a clear message that women's sports are not valued equally.

In 2005, when London won the 2012 Olympics, Seb Coe of Locog Ltd wrote "The London 2012 Games will provide a unique opportunity for businesses of all shapes and sizes across the UK, providing essential goods and services for this historic event." Unsurprisingly, as with most Olympic promises, the reality has turned out to be somewhat different.

Looking at some recent stories in the Indian news media about the construction of the Commonwealth Games facilities it is apparent that the 'same old same old' influences of privatisation, poor institutional oversight, greed, corruption and the brutal exploitation of the vulnerable poor labouring on the project have been clearly highlighted for some time.

More knock on effects of the Olympics.

VisitBritain admitted ahead of a report shortly to be published by the European Tourism Operators Association that tourism would suffer during the Olympics. Makes me wonder if VB did this because they knew the ETOA was about to issue its report.

Hey, what's new? Another Olympics another overspend! This time it was Singapore's Youth Olympics. S$107 million ($80 million) ballooned to S$387 million.

An Olympic source has said organisers are having 'fruitful discussions' about how much to charge for tickets with some in LOCOG and the government favouring £3,000 for the best seats at the opening ceremony and other key events. However, it seems some idiots have been making "public statements that the tickets would be affordable and that is causing some disquiet.”

A novel take on the 2012 Games. Apparently businesses are anticipating losses from the London Olympics. A range of legal, financial, media and public sector organisations are unhappy at the lack of attention being paid to the possible disruption and loss of revenue the Games may bring.

Today Mr Higgins kindly sent me an email message in which he said:

'We remain within budget and on track to complete the vast majority of the venues and infrastructure with one year to go.'