21/11/2007
NEWS STORY
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Speaking at the launch of the official Formula One 2007 Season review DVD, Bernie Ecclestone took the opportunity to launch yet another attack on Silverstone, warning that - as if we didn't already know following the previous 872 warnings - time is running out.
"Britain is supposed to be the heart of Formula One racing and our circuit is bottom of the list," he said, according to the BBC.
"With a tiny percentage of what the government are wasting on the Olympics, they could support Silverstone," he continued, though Ecclestone, and the organizers of the 2012 London Olympics, have previously boasted that he played a significant role in helping London to win the bid.
Turning his sights on the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC), which owns Silverstone, he said, "They know exactly what they have to do. They've known for at least five years.
"It's not for us to say where the money comes from," he continued, even though he has been suggesting that the government picks up the tab for some time, "but it's strange because most of the events we have now are supported by governments."
The F1 supremo also admitted, that he remains confused as to why there has been no serious attempt to organize a race on the streets of London - clearly having failed to notice that among London's many other problems there is the small matter of total gridlock that the capital already faces.
"Mayor Ken Livingstone was very helpful and we laid a plan out of what we could do," he said. "It would have happened, it was just a question of where the money was going to come from. It would cost a small amount compared to what they're spending on the Olympics. If they look at it from a pure business point of view, all the revenue it would bring in, I just don't understand why it isn't happening."
Sadly, there is already a long line of people eager to gorge themselves at the trough provided by London taxpayers, the mugs who have no choice but to cough up the ever increasing demands from the Olympics organizers. As is often the case where money is no object, it is being spent with little concern as to value for money. Then, once the Olympics are over, and the London taxpayer continues paying for this monstrous white elephant, certain parties will move and in and grow rich on the pickings.
As for the British government assisting the Grand Prix, it aint going to happen, not while it - or rather the taxpayer - is propping up the Northern Rock (bank), currently to the tune of £25bn. Then there's the little matter of the National Health Service, education, our armed forces, the fight against terrorism and the need for three million new homes needed over the next twenty years in order to meet the needs of the rising population.
Even though Work and Pensions Secretary, (Perma-tanned) Peter Hain, is a massive F1 fan, whatever Gordon Brown and his merry men are thinking about when they awake each morning it is certainly not the future of the British Grand Prix.