Never again should so much be wasted by so few

se1man

You miserable git.

You and David Selbourne should get together -- and emigrate.

startledcod

Hear, hear! I couldn't have put it better myself. Its just people running and jumping. The whole Olympic ideal, the so-called Olymipc Spirit not to mention the 'legacy' dreamt up to somehow justify the whole ridiculous waste of money - bah, bah!

There is something deeply unpleasant about the arrogant swanning around done by the unpleasant troughers on the Olympic Committee whose, in many cases (with the exception of the Princess Royal), biggest achievement has been to get onto the Committee in the first place. They are matched by the troughers at the helm of FIFA; is there anyone more self-important than Sepp Blatter. Who IS he?

The only reason I support our bid for the 2018 World Cup is that most of the infrastructure is in place and it might enhanc eour chances of winning the thing.

Glenn Haldane

Hear, hear. I could not agree more. But no-one will listen and the folly will continue forever.

Puncheon

The modern Olympics were invented by a Frenchman (yes, I know all about the one in Shrewsbury a few years before),as was the football world cup. 'Nuff said,then, 'nuff said.

Paddy

I keep telling my son to get into the spirit of the olympics and then I read this!

David Ossitt

“Absolutely nothing can happen in London in July 2012 – or thereafter – to conceivably justify the grotesque £9bn price tag that this is due to cost.”

It is The Bloody Dome all over again, a sheer waste of money; bloody New Labour,
Bloody Ken Livingstone.

Chris

se1man:

You miserable git.

You and David Selbourne should get together -- and emigrate.

X2

A Wallace

Good to know that as soldiers were dying due to a lack of kit, billions were being spent maintaining Britain's record as champions at riding a bike.

Andre

Small wonder Britain is heading for defeat militarily, economically and culturally. Such defeatism is reprehensible. You seem to have no concept of the trading and commercial benefit the Olympic Games will bring our country and London. I find it doubly worrying that you hold a responsible job at an economic think tank. Heaven help us.

yank

I believe last time through, we'd narrowed it down to some type of sexual activity, but have we finally settled on who exactly is being depicted in that Olympic symbol?

The left participant is easy. Labeled "London", and back facing, it's clearly the recipient, as the other 1/2 of the coupling kneels and presents. But who is doing the presenting? Has Mr. Blair accepted employment with the Olympic committee?

Edward

Two years? It's been going on ever since London 'won' it five years ago!

If I haven't emigrated by then, I will be leaving London for the duration of the Games.

JohnPage

Entirely agree with this polemical post, but increasingly this view will struggle to be heard as the Olympics get closer.

Verity

Agree with every word Mr Littlewood wrote.

This should be the last Olympics. It's lunacy.

If fans of synchronised swimming and people jumping over bars want to indulge, let there be a permanent venue somewhere far away.

Disband that venal bunch of freeloaders, the Olympics Committee. And while we're at it, pull down that vile mosque they're putting up in London. This is the same philosophy - the domination of islam - that is motivating them to put up a mosque on the site of 9/11, and cause them to build a mosque, hundreds of years ago, on the hill where Jesus preached. Nasty, aggressive ticks, but that's a by the way.

What's going to happen when every sport is maxed out? No one can jump higher or run faster or make a bigger fool of themselves? They've already added synchronised swimming to fill some gaps. What's next, synchronised tatting? Synchronised dog grooming?

TrevorsDen

He is not miserable - he is absolutely spot on right. £9 billion is an obscene amount of money to spend on what basically is a swimming pool and a velodrome.

IF you want to rejuvenate anywhere why not spend the difference between costs and revenues on realistic revitalisation?
But Labour did not. This Olympics is just a not very carefully disguised bribe to the labour voting parts of London.

Verity

David Ossitt - odd that you mentioned the loony Millenium Dome. I was thinking about it, in connection with the moronic Tony Blair just last night. Remember (at the time of the Millenium) that he announced that on 1 Jan 2000 the eyes of the world would be on Britain because we had Greenwich Meantime. It must have come as a terrible shock to him when he saw Australia celebrating the new century six or so hours before GMT.

All that money squandered on exactly nothing.

RKing

Has anyone calculated the actual cost per athlete on this total waste of money.

Michael

Sorry Andre, your comment is rubbish. Ask any recent host.

AndyinBrum

It's Lisa Simpson doing the act, and the author is also a miserable defeatest fecker

Robert Taggart

Agreed. No England 2018 then ? !
Better still, no more sporting / cultural extravaganzas here for a generation at least.
You know how it goes... we give the world games to play (well, we at least codify others games for them !) and they come along and beat us ! Masochistic or what ? !

In2minds

I sort of agree, if we really are in the age of cut backs then the Olympics goes first. The problem with the sporty folk is that they think we should pay for them to do things like slide down a mountain on a tin tray, I don't. They are not "doing it for England", simply doing it, a world of difference and a waste on money.

But I disagree about football, it's as boring as athletics, skiing and such like. Also you say you are "a keen follower of sport", you mention motor racing. The follower suggest you watch and don't do it. Motor racing is a joke.

I was a motorcycle grass track racer for a few years and paid my own way. My advice? Always participate never follow.

Dave-o

Couldn't agree more

If I wanted to see a bunch of drug addled wasters run around and jump up and down and lift weights, surely a CCTV camera feed of exercise hour at Wormwood Scrubs would suffice, for nothing at all either.

£9,000,000,000 is only the start of it, take that figure and then double it and it is probably getting close to reality, just.

My dream is that the workers go on "strike" and we end up with not half full stadiums but half built ones, one can but dream.

Andre

Michael: Atlanta 1996 - now wonderfully redeveloped, Atlanta relied on commercial sponsorship and ticket sales, resulting in a profit of $10 million

Spurgeon

Well I suppose hosting the football World Cup, the cricket World Cup, the rugby World Cup and any other type of global sporting event is out then...I bet you would say no, making you a biased blowhard

Dig for Victory

R4 used the words 'austerity games' today, sounds more realistic. Top post, except F1 is not really a sport.

Noa Zrk

Well said Mark Littlewood.

The Olympic bid was a manifestation of the political egotism of Blair, Cherie and the whole of NuLab luvviedom given the opportunity to rifle the public purse in a megalomanic bout of self promotion. In normal business circles the supporting financial and cost benefit analyses would have resulted in prosecution for fraudulent deception.

Please post more often.

MaxSceptic

Is it really too late to give the blasted games to Paris?

Noa Zrk

Spurgeon 9:14pm

Isn't the difference that these tournaments cost very little, the pre-existing infrastructure being utilised, not duplicated?

Oh and FIFA excepted, the respective governing sports bodies have a realistic understanding of their own importance and overhead burden.

Wullie

Er, cricket is England's national sport.

Verity: beach volleyball?

Iain

I agree with every word - very pertinent piece..

RedBull

I don’t understand why people from a country which spends circa £80bn a year, every year paying people not to work; or £9bn (net) a year, every year to belong to the pointless EU; seem to be in such a twist about the £1.2bn a year that we are spending for a fixed period of 7 years in the run up to the Olympics.
Roll on 2012. The Olympics are one of the good things in the world, and they help bring different peoples and countries together for a change. It is an honour for our country to be chosen to hold them. I am certain that they will be a great success, leave a good legacy, & make us all really proud.
So I say “bah-humbug” to you ‘bah-humbug bores’!

Jabba the Cat

Another white elephant along with the dome, and all in an armpit area of London that no one with any sense would visit during daylight hours let alone after dark.

steveal

You feel bad as a Londoner.
Imagine how us folks from Lancashire feel!
Here's how important 'the North' is: We have a world class cycling arena in Manchester. Could we use that for the Olympics? No. Build a new one at West Ham (wherever that is).

TGF UKIP

Hear, hear, hear! And the only amazing thing about this is that it comes from a fully paid-up member of the London Mob.

Someone above mentioned £9bn, well dream on baby. It's already at £12bn and that will almost certainly be another underestimate.

Typical fucking London, they foist all their trendy values and mores on us and then pillage us to pay for their own self-indulgence.

As for all three political parties being in favour of it, well there's a surprise - just remind me again where all three parties are based and draw most of their elites from.

Marcher Baron

@Puncheon "The modern Olympics were invented by a Frenchman (yes, I know all about the one in Shrewsbury a few years before)" Right county, wrong town - it was Much Wenlock.

We can't afford the Olympics (nor the bill for the welfare state or membership of the EU come to that), but the thing which annoys me most is the building of a new shooting facility which will be demolished afterwards when Bisley is first rate, not to mention the desecration of Greenwich Park when we have excellent facilities in Burghley, Badminton and Hickstead, which can all accommodate more spectators and are already well established. The argument that they are not in London is flawed; nobody is advocating holding the sailing and rowing events on the Thames and the Serpentine, as far as I know.

Living here in the sticks as I do, the only legacy of the Olympics I shall get is the bill.

As for being given a football season ticket - that would be even more boring than the Olympics. The best definition of football I've seen was in a CiF comment on the Guardian - "22 millionaires ruining a lawn".

wrinkled weasel

£9 billion eh? On a sporting event, whose only benfit to date has been to itinerant migrant workers, which is ok, except that this is tax payer's money, and it is being diverted from elsewhere.

National Grandstanding on this scale was anachronistic and financially ruinous when Hitler did itin 1936, so God knows what you call it now.

It is time to get real and this article is an exemplar.

2trueblue

You are a little joy. Get a grip. Some things are so far down the line that the train has to carry on.

nonny mouse

How can someone claiming to be the "Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs" be talking down the country so badly. Even if you are right about it being a poor use of money, you should be talking the country up, not wishing it to fail. Maybe you should be looking for a new job. I think that with your attitude you would make a great union leader.

Snowman

spot on, Mark.

the modern Olympic games are to sport what porn is to sex. How could any of the shaving of the milliseconds enthuse any youngster? Who has the time, money and stuff to go for it?

and it wouldn’t surprise if the final bill by far exceeded the already massive £9bn. It’s hard not to find the whole spectacle perverse when the Government charges wounded soldiers recovering in hospitals for watching the box. Madness.

as Verity says the nimious circus, nine Domes so far, just aggrandizes politicians leaving the unwashed to foot the bill.

Frank Sutton

One of the justifications touted for this £9bn yawn-fest is that it would promote grass roots sports.
Which makes me wonder why Seb Coe's office saw fit to order a long established, thoroughly amateur charity sports event to change its name.
So it went ahead with a different name, after years as the Potters Bar Olympics.
Not so much about promoting sports as protecting the trademark, it seems.

simon

Like Boris I'm very excited about the Olympics coming to LDN, and I hope to be sitting in the new magnificent Olympic Stadium watching Usain Bolt break the WR in the 100m final, and it's worth every penny.

TGF- LDN draws in talent like a pitiless, ravenous monster, we are the centre of everything in this country, culture, finance, politics and cool. Leaving the rest of the country with the also rans and the wannabes.. All the real talent is here!

Roger Davies

We are stuck with it, so let us do everything possible to screw as much revenue as possible. Put up all prices to within 1% of the unacceptable level pain threshold. Introduce a special one off tax on all visitors to the games and provide them with a voucher that they can proudly frame and hang on their walls. Use volunteer labour wherever possible. Charge a fee to take part. Charge for the medals at cost plus 100%.If the Olympic Comitee dont like it then tell them to pi55 off and by the way they are not welcome.

Cuffleyburgers

Personally I was pleased when we won the bid - in my innocence I thought we would do a pragmatic British job of hosting it making good use of existing facilities, and with a couple of billion extra to fill in the gaps.

I am disgusted by the 20bn we now know this will cost, and it is a perfect reminder of the Labour spend now pay sometime philosophy which has done untold damage to our poor country.

What is galling is it is so unnecessary - a well managed olympics could have shown how future games need not be the white elephants we have grown used to.

Tragic shame. ANd how many times have we had to use those words over the last 13 years.

Nicholas Hallam

The modern Olympic games is massively overblown and crudely nationalistic.

It is time to return to the true spirit of the ancient Olympic Games. (1) The number of events should be cut to a bare minimum: cut the joke sports (e.g. synchronised swimming, beach volleyball, basketball); cut the number of related events in sports like swimming and cycling; cut the team medals; cut anything that relies on a subjective judgement (e.g. diving, gymnastics, synchronised swimming again). (2)Competitors from all over the world should compete as individuals. (3) Competitors should compete in the nude.

Laura Light

It has become such a sad and corrupt pantomime.

Time the Games were returned to Greece, with all competing countries contributing, pro-rata, based on the number of athletes they wish to enter.

And not in August, when competitors die of heat exhaustion, September is usually a little cooler.

Victor Southern

At the time when we got the Games we were very distracted by the horrific tube bombings. However, a few days later I posted on various threads that I thought we could not afford this extravaganza. People were so infuriated that they were talking of raising a posse to come after me with a rope.

We are too far into this project to talk of pulling out or even amending the idiocy of some of the venues so I cannot agree with the author that failure would desirable.

I am a grumpy old git but Mark Littlewood is the gittiest. I hope his lunch today gives him the runs.

EyeSee

Yeah, I understand what you are saying, but what if they are a success? Does that negate your whole negative point of view? It certainly seems so from your own opening comments.

What do I think about it? I'm not sure. It does seem on the face of it terrifically wasteful, but glorious in other ways. My own fear was that the uselessness of those in authority wouldn't get it built (and we still wait to see what cock-ups are built-in). What troubles me though, is that initiatives such as this always seem to be imposed on us by other people, this country doesn't seem to have its own ideas. Anyway, as Tony Blair didn't support it, it is probably a good thing. That, or none of the builders were willing to pay enough for his, er, endorsement.

Maggie

I switched support to Germany during the World Cup because I didn't want to be associated with the same team as the millions of hysterical over-the-top 5Live presenters.
After just one day I already hate Mo somebody-or-other who won something yesterday and is being portrayed on air as the new Messiah.

HJ

It is quite possible to have misgivings about the whole way that the Olympics is bid for and paid for and to point this out without the appalling attitude shown by Mark Littlewood (he never looked like the right man for the IEA to me).

The Olympics are a fabulous event but I would much rather that they were not so overblown and that the IOC did not insist on government financial backing. However, given that they do, we either accept it or never bid for the Olympics.

Mark Littlewood points to the £9bn cost but ignores income and other benefits which should be offset against this. It is often quoted that the Sydney Olympics cost twice as much as budgeted - true, but it ignores that fact that TV and other revenues were twice what was budgeted.

There is also much infrastructure that can be offset against costs - about 8000 flats available for sale afterwards - and facilities (such as the pool) which London has sorely lacked compared to other major cities. The location and demand means that the facilities will mostly not lie unused afterwards.

If Mark Littlewood wants the net cost to be minimised, he should be hoping for every seat to be full and for British athletes to do well. I don't approve of either the NHS nor state-run schools, but this doesn't mean I want more people to die because of poor NHS care or pupils to be badly educated just to prove my point.

The athletes are simply trying to do their best to win - he should not wish them ill just because the Olympics has become overblown - this is not their fault.

For example, my sport (rowing) will be using a facility that was privately funded (by Eton College) and should not have cost the taxpayer a penny. However, the authorities deemed that the bridges linking the lake to the return channel were too narrow and they have been replaced at great (taxpayer) cost. This was entirely unnecessary since the course has already been used for the World Championships at which there are more crews and events. None of the rowers asked for this.

Furor Teutonicus

XX Andre
July 27th, 2010 7:33pm
You seem to have no concept of the trading and commercial benefit the Olympic Games will bring our country and London. I find it doubly worrying that you hold a responsible job at an economic think tank. Heaven help us. XX

So. Because Britain hosts a mutual wank fest for all those in the world that were so thick and useless at school, they had to take up "sport", the whols world will start buying Chedder cheese by the ton, do you mean?

Percy

Who on earth is this Ebeneezer Littlewood!

Ian Walker

For the fans of top-level athletics, gymnastics, swimming etc. who will absolutely cram the stadia, I hope that it is a success.

I agree with the sentiment, however, it isn't necessary to punish the athletes and fans just to vilify some politicians.

Britain has many faults, but you can guarantee that every venue will be sold out for every day of every event. No need to bus in fake supporters like the Chinese had to do.

By the way, I don't know what the job of "Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs" involves, but clearly there's not a lot of economics involved, or you would know about the Sunk Costs Fallacy.

Moraymint

Whether we should or should not commit public monies on this sort of scale to the Olympics (or similar grand projects) will not even be an option in the coming years (decades, probably).

I find it darkly amusing to think that this sort of ludicrously unjustifiable expense, which has simply added to our grotesque national debt, will not be possible in the foreseeable future.

As one outgoing Labour minister said, "There's no money left ...". And there ain't going to be any public money for years and years and years, other than for expenditure on the absolute essentials of state services.

Spending £9 billion on the Olympics is a wholly ineffective, inefficient and uneconomic use of taxpayers' money - however wonderful the spectacle at the time. It's as simple as that.

Frank Sutton

Could someone among those touting the economic benefits of the Olympics point us sceptics towards a balance sheet that non-accountants like me can understand?
Thanks!

libertarian

I agree with you Mark

@Andre

What business advantage would that be then? I think you ought to do some research before accusing people of not being fit for job.

Atlanta is a good example as it is a well research fact that all the gains made by the Atlanta Olympics came at the expense of a total drop off in visitors to other areas resulting in a massive loss overall.

Here is just one analysis of the damage
done

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4127/is_200510/ai_n15705690/pg_5/

libertarian

@Marcher Baron

Using your criteria then I guess that Olympic Athletes are just a bunch of state sponsored drug addicts running round in circles

JM

Bastard. For those of us who particpate in athletic sports (as opposed to childish entertainment dressed up as sport - football) the Olympics in your own country is a once in a life time event. I can't wait. Stay on your fat couch and shut up.

RKing

If you use the figures for the 2008 Beijing Olympics there were 10,500 athletes competing. (According to WikiAnswers)

So £9,000,000,000 divided by 10,500 = £857,143,858 per athlete. (Assuming we use the american £1b)

Value for money....... I don't think so!

How many hospitals can be built for the cost of one athlete?
How many schools cane be built for the cost one athlete?
How many people can be given expensive cancer treatment for the cost of one athlete?

I could go on!!

Michael

And the Atlanta games cost only $1.8BN, whereas the London event has already been estimated as having real end costs of $18BN. An absolute farce.

Paul Young

Makes you proud to be British, doesn't it? Why are all football fans such miserable gits? Maybe we can pay for the Olympics with a huge levy on football clubs. There are far too many of them.

Private Schultz

JH - good post, agree wholeheartedly.

John Lea

JM - congratulations! I think your remark is the most selfishly moronic I've ever come across! Let me just reiterate your point again, in case I've misunderstood. As I read it, it's essentially: I like sport, so the £9 billion price tag is worth it. If the majority of people in the UK don't like athletics, and are annoyed about picking up the bill (for something they don't want, remember), well, they can just 'shut up'. Is that your point? Genius, sir.

Graham Booth

Wullie, @ 1024 'Er, cricket is England's national sport'.

Foxhunting used to be. Rugby Football, cricket, soccer etc. were then, properly, described as games...

HFC

R King: So £9,000,000,000 divided by 10,500 = £857,143,858.

Er,no. The answer is £857,144 to the nearest £.

But to bloody costly all the same.

Simon Too

If Sebastian Coe and Ken Livingston have given their personal guarantees for all these costs, isn't this piece a touch dog in the manger ?

JM - athletic sport : I didn't realise beagling was included in the Olympics.

RKing

Correction
£857,142.858 per athlete

The Oncoming Storm

Mark you make some valid points about the cost of the Olympics but you do yourself no favours with petty and snide digs about "proper sports." You say you're a motor sports fan, you will know that motor sport is regularly derided as "not being a proper sports" I certainly consider athletics and cycling to be proper sports, synchronised swimming is a different matter!

You also say you're a football fan, so do you support the 2018 World Cup bid? If you do why do you see that as different from the Olympics?

alexsandr

olympics lost appeal for me when they removed the amateur status for athletes. Now it is just showcasing for the athletes sponsors.
(The have buggered rugny union in the same way)

Moraymint

... and that logo is marketing madness btw. Who the hell signed-off on that?

Petty

The football world cup makes money (unless held in an undeveloped country (Safrica)) as all the stadia are either already in place and used (Wembley, Old trafford etc)or are desperately needed and will be used (e.g New Anfield) not leaving an 80000 seater stadium empty. As well as this nearly all games are sell outs with the odd exeption (Skorea vs Greece anybody). It is also a truly global event. Ask any South American, African, Mexican and most europeans what they would rather see, their country at the top of the medal table in mickey mouse sports like synchronized swimming or shooting which a small minority of people have access to or winners of the one truly global sport which shows a countrys real sporting prowess. Compare Brazils record in the FWC compared with the Olympics and you can see which one they really care about.

Happy Michael

If you love misery so much, why don't you go live there. It's somewhere in Somalia.

Andy Carpark

Nothing that does not involve Phil 'The Power' Taylor is 'property sport'.

George Laird

Dear All

It is an interesting piece by Mark Littlewood.

An attack on the ‘hope and aspiration’ set who aren’t grounded in reality.

He refuses to be sucked into the hype but why should he be.

Ken Livingstone said the Olympics were to rebuild the east end of London.

I don’t know if he used the word 'con' but he wasn’t thinking of sporting glory, just infrastructure.

Mark bravely declares:

“I hope that the London Olympics absolutely bomb”.

Obviously enjoying himself, he goes further:

“I want half empty stadia, feeble athletic performances (particularly from British competitors) and embarrassingly low television viewing figures. Because - after this fiasco has finally ended - I don’t want there to be anyone who can seriously claim that it was a success; that it was worth it; or – most cringe-making of all – that I should feel proud to be a Londoner on the back of it”.

Like this boy already, a keen sense of not tolerating complete and utter.

“I do, however, want there to be a lasting Olympic legacy. And I want this legacy to be that no politician will ever again dare to sanction a multi-billion pound splurge of taxpayers’ money on hosting a fortnight of sporting activity in any British town or city”.

To further add to Mark Littlewood’s sense of outrage, the Chair of the Legacy Trust which is supposed to leave a ‘legacy’ after the 2012 games, isn’t even a Londoner, doesn’t even live in London or even England.

The Chair of that crap, I have met him, is a team player, not a visionary in what I describe as the sense of the word.

More howls needed Mr. Littlewood on that score.

“Absolutely nothing can happen in London in July 2012 – or thereafter – to conceivably justify the grotesque £9bn price tag that this is due to cost. If West Ham United get a decent new stadium and transport infrastructure improves in some parts of the city, that’s precious little comfort”.

Quite so sir!

Mr. Littlewood has missed something, Labour expected to be in power and this London donkey sucking up cash was effectively ‘Dome 2’ but over a wider area.

The ‘public’ or to use a generic term ‘suckers’ to that word add ‘ding ding’ will get little value or the new facilities.

“The argument that the Olympics are a “great opportunity” to rejuvenate the East End is pitiful”.

It wasn’t to Ken Livingstone.

“Why do you need Bulgarian weightlifters and Korean kick boxers to justify rejuvenating something? If you want to rejuvenate parts of London, just go and rejuvenate them”.

Sensible but for one slight problem, politicians, not all but some are stupid and want to be seen as effective. To that end, they aspire to ‘big vision’ without detail.

Seen to be doing something when they lack the intelligence to think for themselves, just moving with the herd!

Someone says ‘moo’, they say ‘moo’!

“Even allowing for the grotesque inefficiencies of the public sector, you should be able to build 100,000 units of affordable housing for the cost of hosting the Olympics. They’d be very affordable indeed, because you could give them away and still spend less than is being wasted on the 2012 games”.

But who gets the glory?

Who gets the praise?

“If you're after a sporting legacy, why not focus on the national sport of football?”

At this point, I feel I have to step in, Mark son, grow up, what is needed isn’t football pitches but full equipped sports centres.

How many old dears play football?

“You could hand out - for free - one million Football League season tickets to help prop up the grassroots of the game. And you could afford to do this for the next twenty years before you match the bill we’re picking up for a fortnight of athletics”.

Does solve the health problems and the pressure on the NHS, but conditioning training to give people better quality of life would.

“Leading politicians from all three main parties supported the Olympic bid from the outset”.

‘Baa, baa, baa”!

One sheep jumped right over another sheep’s back
One sheep jumped right over another sheep’s back
One sheep jumped right over another sheep’s back
They were only playing leapfrog
They were only playing leapfrog

Get the picture?

“The obscenity of their decision will become apparent as higher taxes and major austerity cuts will probably reach their height just as the Olympic torch arrives in London. That’s no basis for national pride. On the contrary, it’s a national disgrace”.

Mark Littlewood articulates the problem of Britain.

Politicians don’t care.

“Mark Littlewood is the Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs”.

And a football supporter!

He likes guys chasing a ball full of air about on a piece of grass to put it in a goal.

He should go watch the weightlifters maybe he can pick up some technical points.

I like his rebel talk though, very freshing.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Eddie

Is'nt it strange how you English act when is time to give back. For centuries you take and take ,now when you bid and won to host he world for two weeks you complain like little kids ,football and cricket are great sports but would be no good if only english people play and watch , stop your complaining and give the games a chance and let the World see London for the beautiful city it is .
Don't kill the spirit of the games before it even start , you english can be narrow minded as history indicates now is time to open your minds and be positive.

RKing

Thanks for the advice Eddie but johnny foreigner isn't footing the bill.

If athletes want it let them pay for it.

If johnny foreigner wants to see our country the doors always open...... well most of them are here already anyway!!!

AdamClarke

Several people calling the Olympics "The Dome 2". I assume that would be the O2 Arena which is now officially the number one events venue IN THE WORLD, selling more tickets that Madison Square Garden. And if you've been there (on the sly, as you won't admit it after moaning about it for years) they you can see why, it's brilliant.

Let's get a few more white elephants like that please.

ginger

YES. You have expressed what EVERYONE I chat to thinks about the Olympics. I often converse with the person next to me on the bus or waiting in some queue. Several people a week, and that's not even counting friends. We mention how the NHS, education, public transport desperately need more funding.
We wish the Olympics could be cancelled, but know that Hubris
prevents this. It is scandalous, and shameful. No Londoner I've spoken to wants it. How is it possible that the government
should be so deeply at odds with the people it's supposed to serve?

William Boyd

It's not just athletics and the Olympic ideal is a fine one.

If it was all going to run at an enormous loss then of course we should be raising the kind of questions you do.

But there's no reason to suppose that it will bomb and every reason to suppose it won't and that it will be an enormous success as was the Los Angeles games. Even the Athens games more or loss broke even for a small loss and a few white elephants and of course subsequent events highlighted just how profligate Greek spending is.

The Beijing games were enormously expensive but they did serve their secondary purpose of introducing the Forbidden City and Chinese culture in general very well indeed.

If you had explained convincingly why you think the games will bomb then there would be some point to your piece but you don't and rather confide you 'wish' it will.

Well that's just childish and not I imagine a very good advertisement for whatever you do at the Institute of Economic Affairs whatever that does, nothing important I hope.

Adrian

Would you say the exact same thing if we were pitching to host the FIFA World Cup? Could it just be that it's 'not your sport'?

Agreed though, it is a waste of money, but that is what government does best - we should all stick to what we do best shouldn't we?! At least hosting the Olympics only happens once every 50 years or so. The sort of government spending that gets to me is the wastage that goes on day after day after day. Especially by local councils.

mike craig

There is an excellent Youtube video of a Jonathan Meades program on urban regeneration which basically trashes the whole idea. One example he uses is Liverpool - it has wasted 100's of millions of pounds on fatuous schemes which could have been used in concrete ways to improve local schools and health care and provide subsidised jobs for school leavers.

Watch it - and all his other programs on Youtube (its a complete education)

Clive

As an Englishman and therefore a conscripted cash cow, I call for the extirpation of the parasitic Olympic Movement, so future hosts may be spared its depredations.

James

Wow, what a bunch of complete and utter miserable people we are. Whether this is people playing to stereotype I don't know, but it seems we just cannot do anything as a nation without belittling ourselves in any and every way possible.

I'd be the last person to praise the funding situation - we are paying more than half a billion pounds for a stadium which is to be dismantled later, for example. Contrast this to Beijing, which has a much more impressive stadium architechturally and which cost less. I do think, based on past examples, that it would have been possible to design a permanent stadium for less than we are paying for a temporary one.

However, this is not just about paying for the hosting of a two-week sports competition. The word "legacy" has been bandied about so often that it often becomes nauseating, but it is true that plans for the use of the Olympic park after the Games have finished have been fairly well thought out in most areas and do have the capacity to provide the benefits which were promised during the bid. You cannot expect to reap benefits without putting money into it. It has become too-familiar a cliche to keep rolling out the Dome as an example of how this country cannot run major events, but that was well over a decade ago and it is time to look forward at what we can achieve, not cannot.

As for those complaining this is all about London and how it is typical of politicians, you may be interested to know that there were three previous UK bids, two for Manchester and one for Birmingham (possibly vice-versa), and all were unsuccessful. London was the fourth time we bid, and it was successful. Besides, Glasgow is hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Do you hear southerners complaining? Let's all, if only for once, be proud of what we can achieve and put on a great show for the world.

Ridic

get a life