[Closed] Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Olympic opener ceremony.

Worth watching? Debatable. I'm sure it'll have its moments
Worth watching after spunking £10 Billion of taxpayers money on, while the economy disappears beneath the waves? Erm... now let me think.....?

Worth watching after spunking £10 Billion of taxpayers money on, while the economy disappears beneath the waves?

We'll make ten times that amount of money back selling plastic tat to foreigners though.

So, it'll be fantastic for China's economy.

I wonder if this charming aspect of our "green and pleasant" will be represented?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18422204

Mr Woppit - Member

I wonder if this charming aspect of our "green and pleasant" will be represented?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18422204

Why have you shoehorned that tragic news article into this thread ?

What a stupid thing to do Woppit, even by your standards.

My memory of Olympics goes back as far as the 1976 Montreal edition and I've yet to manage to watch a complete opening ceremony as I've always got a bit bored half (bit before that truth be told) way through and done something more interesting. Not anticipating this one being any different and as such I'm not sure my views are particularly important on the subject as they are clearly not intended for me.

Personally I'd have liked London to say "screw that bollox, let's get on with the fun stuff" and skipped it completely but as I say, that's a personal preference about the whole concept.

Not "ignoring" me then, ernie?

It's a follow-up to an earlier post that pointed out the sordid realities of life in the UK today that will not be included in the ceremony.

Not surprised you didn't recognise that purpose, however. Perhaps you'd like to subject it to some of your incisive, scalpel-like Marxist dialectical clarification, having once again reduced a thread to some sort of personal argument.

Or not.

Whatever.

I find it utterly inexplicable that anyone would ever watch the opening or closing ceremonies of anything. Life's too bloody short. If i ever reach a point in my life where watching that twoddle was the best thing on offer, then.... well....

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Seriously... does [i]anybody[/i] sit through that crap volountarily?

Any chance that it might be an idea to see it before writing it off as a pile of crap?

I wouldn't mind all the poking fun at the Olympics if it were done with wit and humour (after all, Brits are usually pretty good at making fun of themselves) ... unfortunately it's all just a load of tedious moaning, seemingly by people who are all qualified accountants seeing as most of the negativity boils down to the cost

Excellent choice of firearm, aesthetically...

Perhaps you'd like to subject it to some of your incisive, scalpel-like Marxist dialectical clarification

What the **** you on about ? 😕

This thread is allegedly about the Olympic opening ceremony, but you want to talk about child abuse, and make some weird attack based on your opposition to Marxism ? Is there no limit to your daftness ?

That's pathetric. Even by your standards...

Closure looming...

Seriously... does anybody sit through that crap volountarily?

just a load of tedious moaning, seemingly by people who are all qualified accountants seeing as most of the negativity boils down to the cost

While we are in recession tho I think the money aspect is quite valid.

Considering the amount of personal debt a lot of people rack up, and the amount of money 'spent' against credit cards, it's quite amusing that we're all saying to the Govt "why are you spending money you haven't got" ...

imho all these big event openings are tedious irrelevant and a complete waste of money

as impressive as 1000 choreographed drummers are it just doesnt in anyway interest me

ultimately they are completely unnecessary id rather have a nice brief speech maybe some fireworks and the queen or someone cutting a ribbon and then on with the games

at least this ceremony is a bit leftfield i suppose but id still rather that it was avoided alltogether

Ah, opening ceremonies generally are a waste of time money and energy as opposed to lets slate our one that we've not even seen yet as being crap. Now theres a whine I can buy into.

The opening ceremony looks like a copy of Peter Jackson's hobbit city ... 😆

Think you are portray as little people trying to think big ...

[img] [/img]

Considering the amount of personal debt a lot of people rack up, and the amount of money 'spent' against credit cards, it's quite amusing that we're all saying to the Govt "why are you spending money you haven't got" ...

Maybe the realisation of the problems of the former approach are causing a healthy dose of realism among the population. Hence the latter.

27 million spondoolees on an opening ceremony, in the present economic climate, is akin to being out of work and bunging a family holiday to Disneyland on the plastic IMHO. We all know what the national defecit is. They keep reminding us of it, as they slash yet more money from Hospitals/schools/essential services. It all represents a pretty ****ed up sense of priorities

Looks like something I had to "present" in my first year of high school in Art, but forgot I had to do it until the night before, then went mad with prit stick and rolled up newspaper.

Facepalm here. I love the attitude that lead to its creation though "we can't beat beijing and it's always going to fail, so starting from that point I made this....

😯 🙄

27 million spondoolees on an opening ceremony, in the present economic climate, is akin to being out of work and bunging a family holiday to Disneyland on the plastic IMHO.

Thats a ludicrous comparison. How does an opening ceremony generate income? How does any of this generate income? Never mind the £10 billion needed to be generated to cover the costs.

That's like saying the Office Party generates business revenue!

How does an opening ceremony generate income? How does any of this generate income? Never mind the £10 billion needed to be generated to cover the costs.

Well you could say that about pretty much all of it as it all has the same appeal and likelyhood of generating income. People will want to go and see it and be part of it (god knows why, I wouldn't) and sure enough they will (you'll see) and they'll stay in hotels at vastly over-inflated prices, park in car parks at vastly over inflated prices and pay for over-inflated food. Tens of thousands of them. It's all part of the whole process isn't it. If you can't see how it generates income I think you need more economics knowledge, though I do wonder about cost/benefit on this one.

It's not just like it's all about the running and jumping, apparently it's all about the coke, the samsung and the strange folk running next to the torches too.

Looking at where the profits are going, compared to who's paying, It seems to me the same principle as the banking industry is being applied. Privatised profit, socialised debt

The total cost is £10 billion. Of this, £9 billion has come from us [s]mugs[/s] taxpayers. Collectively the [s]parasites[/s] official partners have contributed £1 billion

And for that, it appears we get to watch some people running about 'n stuff. On telly, because there's no chance you'll ever get a ticket. So it might as well be *ing anywhere!!

The sponsors get a captive audience of cattle to sell ludicrously overpriced muck too,. But more importantly it seems to me, they get to be some kind of de facto government for the duration. Dictating just about everything. While they're driven to events down roads closed for their benefit, no matter what the inconvenience to everyone else. Then, when they've finished with these publicly funded venues, they'll be handed over to private firms for a fraction of what we've paid for them

The whole thing is *ed!!!

But if you're whining about it being publicly funded you'll never be happy, because you can never win. If you made it privatised you'd whine too because it'd be rammed with sponsors and sport would be a second priority.

If you were so cheesed off with the arrangements you should have been outside number 10 demonstrating publicly.

Considering the amount of personal debt a lot of people rack up, and the amount of money 'spent' against credit cards

Collectively the [s]parasites[/s] official partners have contributed £1 billion

How does any of this generate income?

Ah well thats goes right to the root of economic debate. It depends whether you believe that money flows in an economy, i.e. spending it one place will generate purchases in another, which will then lead to spending in another etc etc ad nauseum or cutting spending, avoiding paying tax and never buying anything expect for cash is the way forward doesn’t it?

I think we’ve already spotted the flaw in the latter as unemployment rises, services get cut, unemployment rises further, tax revenue goes down, (we’ve already figured out that it’s the lower end who are more vulnerable to redundacny who pay the highest proportion of taxes) and outgoings go up as the unemployed start claiming benefits……. Which incidentally is why this delightful bunch started out on their pleasure trip with a huge assault on those benefits. Cyncially knowing that what they were about to do would put more people onto them.

Personally, I think the regeneration of East London and for that matter Manchester makes the running of an event like the Olympics or Commonwealth Games cheap at twice the price.

But if you're whining about it being publicly funded you'll never be happy, because you can never win. If you made it privatised you'd whine too because it'd be rammed with sponsors and sport would be a second priority

but what we got was 90% publicly funded with 100% privatley controlled, awesome.

IS that really the case, or is that by any chance the belief youve got from the media?

Them's the stats fella. 90% public funded. Though you'd think that Coca Cola and MaccyD's funded the lot between them. I expect to see their CEO's being carried through cheering crowds on Sudan Chairs

Sorry, but the Beijing opening was great.

I hope ours is half as good. What with about 10 Billion watching.

People will want to go and see it and be part of it (god knows why, I wouldn't) and sure enough they will (you'll see) and they'll stay in hotels at vastly over-inflated prices, park in car parks at vastly over inflated prices and pay for over-inflated food. Tens of thousands of them. It's all part of the whole process isn't it.

I believe it's predicted that foreign tourism to London/the UK will be reduced by the Olympics - presumably because many visitors aren't actually that bothered (/can't get tickets anyway) about the Olympics and (probably rightly) suspect that everything will be incredibly expensive, busy and chaotic.

slimjim78 - Member
Sorry, but the Beijing opening was great.

you mean you actually sat through it?!!!

I hope ours is half as good. What with about 10 Billion watching.

That would be an impressive audience.

Has Mars got Sky now then?

you mean you actually sat through it?!!!

Frankly, you're a mug if you missed out.
It was easily the most captivating opening to anything ive ever seen.
No-one has done it as good as the Chinese IMO.

Granted, most other events get flicked over after a few mins.

That would be an impressive audience.

Those viewing figures are utter BS anyway. There was a thing on More or Less about how they calculate the estimates for how many people watched the royal wedding (supposedly 2 billion!). They apparently include people who might have seen a brief news item about the wedding after the fact in the viewing figures, and in countries where they don't really have any kind of reliable measuring (like a lot of the ones with enormous populations) they just guess. This then gets reported like there's actually 2 billion people sat round tellies at the time the wedding is on, which is utter nonsense.

How many TVs are there in the world actually in use anyway I wonder?

How many TVs are there in the world actually in use anyway I wonder?

Well somewhere in the region of 2 billion people have no access to electricity, which isn't far off a third of the world's population. So if 2 billion watched the royal wedding then that means that at least a third of the world's population with access to electricity watched it. To get that sort of figure you need a substantial amount of people in countries such as Argentina and Uzbekistan to have watched it, I'm not sure why they would. And pretty much every single person in the UK. I didn't watch it.

IS that really the case, or is that by any chance the belief youve got from the media?

*no doubt all this covering up will add yet more cost to the games.

oh,dear! 😳 How do you guys think of the slogan of London Olympics?

It was easily the most captivating opening to anything ive ever seen.

[img] ?m=1313861492[/img]

'Inspiring a generation'...

Hopefully to say "Never again will we indulge in such a wasteful farce"