BEEN ruminating on those budget ideas I gave you last week Boo?
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Well, I’ve thought them through a bit.
When you get rid of those seven excess parliaments, and I’ve got to say again – one parliament for every three million people seems a bit excessive, as well as the cost savings, you’re going to have a lot of good solid buildings and some prime inner city land to make hay with.
A word of warning: don’t fall for the temptation of turning any of it into cultural precincts.
Remember the furore when Cuthbert and Ginge doled out those school halls?
You blokes were livid, though I’ve got to tell you that the schools are still dancing.
Point is there are no votes in culture, Boo, no votes in concert halls, art galleries, opera houses and the like.
You could go residential: convert the old buildings, develop the land, residential shopping centres, that sort of thing but again, you’ve got to be careful.
You could torpedo inner city real estate values and that might get you in dutch with the negative gearers.
The best track is to turn it all into sporting facilities: arenas, ice palaces, stadiums, swimming pools, kayak runs, shooting ranges; there’s a huge range of possibilities if you make clever use of the topography.
Just think of the range of new sports that could be introduced to inner city life: American Football would be popular, if you left some fields a bit rough Mongolian horse racing might be the go; possibilities are endless.
But I’ve got a cracker for you!
Remember how popular the Circus Maximus was in Rome when the emperors pitted lions against unwanted humans?
Well, what about one in every capital city?
But I wouldn’t use animals, Boo, you know what sort of hell breaks loose when you hurt an animal, but there’s a lot of unwanted people to team up; an almost endless supply if you play your cards right, just don’t give the job to Scotty.
Think though, spectacular regional tournaments building to a grand final.
The ticket sales, the TV and media rights from seven cities going into your coffers Boo and helping with the budget - it’d be Cubans all round - that is if you don’t privatise and lose it on us.
Fred Goldsworthy