So just what benefit is the olympics going to be for UK PLC

Thats some pretty weird logic going on Sancho

And none of the overspend is really going to have any impact on any of us.

So its not coming out of our taxes then? Is it just going to appear by magic? Are the Chinese donating the cash?

Besides it’s a drop in the ocean to compared to the 1 Trillion we have as a national debt.

And how much did previous ridiculous vanity projects ie: the Dome contribute to that

But so what if there is no legacy for the rest of the UK, it’s the Olympics and it’s in the UK. and that is fantastic.

Do Londoners moan that they dont get Euro development money to build a mountain bike playground in Dalby?

The Olympics was massively sold and promoted as being of benefit to the whole of the UK. A lot of the legacy for the south-east is also nothing like what was claimed. London already receives massive subsidy and the SE is already the most economically developed area of the country. The reason most places get trail centres etc is because they are economically under-developed.

hardly I would say pessimistic on overdrive reading the comments on here.

It’s nothing to do with pessimism. The games will be great I’m sure – but the ridiculous overspend and the massively inflated claims about ‘legacy’ aren’t.

I take it TJ et al won’t be tuning in to watch the 100m Final, then coming on here raving about another WR?

Having Jamaica and the USA based in Birmingham will apparently generate £20M for the City. I presume therefore the sports facilities are pretty good in Brum.

Having Jamaica and the USA based in Birmingham will apparently generate £20M for the City.

I’d love to hear the reasoning behind that figure. If you ever listen to More or Less on R4 you realise how little basis many of these often-quoted figures have.

hardly I would say pessimistic on overdrive reading the comments on here.

I don’t think most here hate the olympics they are however critical of how things are being done (promises made, olympic legacy assurances, budget decided, now all changed) and how much it’s costing.

Besides it’s a drop in the ocean to compared to the 1 Trillion we have as a national debt.
Or the extra billions we are going to give the IMF in a couple of months

10 billion a drop in the ocean? if you say so. Hardly the time to be on a big spending spree then.

People unbothered by the budget tripling or whatever – would you be happy if it tripled again? How much would be too much? Have you ever managed a project and been allowed to go over the budget more than 3 times over?

I wonder if it’s some of the same people who usually moan about public sector waste and inefficiency.

Interesting article on it on C4’s website. Its not pessimistic to point out just how much its costing us.

http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-will-we-strike-olympic-gold-this-summer/9020

There is no way in hell there will be a net economic benefit given the cost overruns

I’ll still tune in to watch it though after all we have all paid for it (dearly) so we might as well get our moneys worth

I wonder if it’s some of the same people who usually moan about public sector waste and inefficiency.

Dunno but at a quick glance and my (admittedly pretty limited) memory says the reverse is true 🙂

edit nice link

What Mr Hunt’s department has done is commission a “comprehensive meta-evaluation of the impacts and legacy of the Games”. We’ll get an interim report in 2013 and a final analysis by 2020

2020? when all those responsible will be retired enjoying their kickbacks consultancy fees.

Have you ever managed a project and been allowed to go over the budget more than 3 times over?

With something like the Olympic’s, once you’ve started you can’t just stop if it starts costing too much – “sorry, Olympics cancelled due to insufficient funds” – the implications would probably be just as costly.

Perhaps this is why initial costs have been proven to fall massively short – the construction companies know that the job needs completing by a very specific deadline, almost whatever the cost, so will bid as they see fit then just ask for more money later. (Too cynical?).

I cant’t wait – I’ve got a ticket for the womens XC so looking forward to it. and eveything it stands for.

All projects overspend its government public sector what do you expect.

anyone remember the 12 billion written off on the the wasted IT project for the NHS that SAP could have implemented by now if the government had any clue about IT.
or the two aircraft cariers or Trident. etc etc

not everything has a direct benefit to us in the North, however, the nation will benefit maybe not financially but then this kind of thing isnt about financial benefit for the likes of me, however we will as a nation feel good about it, remember how proud we were as a nation when we kicked the argentinians out of the Falklands, we get very nationalistic at times like these and gets everyone feeling good.

Well said Sancho …..

well apart from having a ticket for the XC .. couldn’t agree more

I’ll feel good when I’ve had my operation. Did I mention I’ve been waiting since beginning October?

Sorry but it makes me angry seeing these sums of money being bandied about.

It will go way over buget and you can bet that pleanty of puplic service workers will lose there jobs as this goverment try to blance the books after it has finshed and the true cost of the games come to light.
Lets hope we dont end up like the last host,s you couldnt really afford to host them .
While all the world press is over here it would be a good time for all the unions to find there long lost backbones and have a few marches about job cuts ,pay cuts etc.

Hurray! You’re bang on Sancho. All that’s needed to whip the nation up into a total orgasmic frenzy is for us to go on a killing spree of some greasy dago’s on the other side of the planet!

We could spank another few billion quid in the process, and the nations joy would be unconstrained

Actually the legacy of the games was an inherent part of the bid and was very much prompted by the complete debacle of the Athens Olympics. The majority of the venues are complete and have had test events, the Olympic Park is essentially complete, and the legacy benefits will continue to generate work for another 2 years.
They were still building some of the Athens venues the night before the events!!
I think some of you are just professional glass half full-ers 😕

I think some of you are just professional glass half full-ers

You mean glass half empty-ers?

And we are, after all, British!
If complaining was an Olympic event, we’d wipe the floor.

All projects overspend its government public sector what do you expect.

anyone remember the 12 billion written off on the the wasted IT project for the NHS that SAP could have implemented by now if the government had any clue about IT.
or the two aircraft cariers or Trident. etc etc

Just because it’s being done for the public sector doesn’t mean it’s being done by the public sector. Big difference.

Ok so.. it’s happening, we’re committed to it, the money’s been spent, we probably couldn’t afford it so let’s just enjoy it and focus on trying (positively) to get as much legacy benefit as we can.

remember how proud we were as a nation when we kicked the argentinians out of the Falklands, we get very nationalistic at times like these and gets everyone feeling good.

Yes bet you where porud when some old woman gave the order to blow up the belgrano and kill all the sailors aboard for no reasoin and the scum with its headline Gotcha.

Yes must have been a very proud moment for idiots and fools.

Is there a new blowing up the argies event!! Somehow missed the tickets for that one… Mind you we will need the practice when they want the falkland oil fields back in a few years.
I think in a way we should try and consider hosting the olympics an honour.. yes it will be shite, yes London will suck and no we wont win many medals… This is what will make it so great.. as we can all moan about it for years to come.

aP = what legacy? seriously there is so little that will be a public benefit.

Much of what we were told would be a legacy is not happening.

the Olympic legacy seems pretty good to me:

Seoul: democracy
Aha ha ah ahhaha ahha ahahaha ha hah aha haha hahah ha ha!

I love the Olympics. I’ll be watching lots of it on TV. I’ll also be out to wave as the Olympic torch goes past less than 100m from where I’m sitting right now (it goes right past the front gates of my son’s school). Sadly I won’t be going to see any of it live, as it all just seemed like too much hassle with a couple of very little kids (though I wish I had applied for tickets to the sprint canoeing – the most easily accessible venue, a sport I kind of do, and one where we’re very likely to be winning medals every finals day). I guess I’ll just have to take them to see some other major event in the future, where the performances will doubtless be just as good, but it will be far less hyped and much easier to attend.

However that doesn’t mean the whole thing isn’t a huge waste of money and a big junket for the big boys. I can’t help feeling that we’d all be better off if Paris had won the bid.

London already receives massive subsidy and the SE is already the most economically developed area of the country. The reason most places get trail centres etc is because they are economically under-developed.

FFS – London makes more money and pays more taxes for UK than any other region and always has done.

As for questioning the legacy what do you bright boys all think is gong to happen to the athletes’ village, the media city, the velodrome etc – they won’t just just sit their rotting will they? Media city = offices = jobs (geddit?); athletes village = housing; velodrome, well if Manchester has one we need a better one and so on. I live 3 miles from Olympic Park and the area has been improved massively already so to say there will be no legacy just makes no sense. Weymouth gas a long overdue new road, hotels and other misc infrastructure. You may argue its poor value for £10 billion that may be a better argument but not much.

If you all have such a miserable attitude to the rest of your lives you really will have short sad miserable existences. Where do you get it from? I blame your parents. Everyone I know in London and Dorset (Weymouth, sailing) thinks it will be great. Cheer up FFS.

Athletes village – wrong sort of housing and not significantly more than was demolished to make way for it.

Media city – hugely expensive office buildings in a city full of unused office space

London mtakes more net money and pays uses more taxes for from UK than any other region and always has done.

FTFY

You may argue its poor value for £10 billion that may be a better argument but not much.

It’s actually an incredibly good argument when you look at how much useful infrastructure you can get for that much money. I mean exactly how much was Weymouth’s new road?

London makes more money and pays more taxes for UK than any other region and always has done.

This is complete balls – successive London mayors have made this claim and the substantiation has always been dodgy. Most likely it relies on corporate taxpayers based in London and describing their domestic tax revenue as being “earned” in London because it was reported there – but of course it was paid as a result of profits made all over the UK.

PS I blame Fatcha.

As aracer says enjoy the games, a celebration of sport, a good thing. Hopefully win some medals and get a few more people into various sports (but no it’s not going to motivate the nation) But the event is being used by a lot of people to make money, gain kudos or improve their image and I think all the bull***ers, industrial strength scam artists and outright liars should get nailed to the wall afterwards.

Hosting the olympics is something to be proud of (altho being typical brit I’m half expecting it all to go wrong, an unreliable guy at work is involved in the cycling stuff 🙄 good luck with that) Spunking an obscene amount of cash (is it so hard to get a proper budget and set penalty clauses for rubbish contractors) and lying about UK net profit and legacy (hah) is not something to be proud of and dare i say it, worth getting our collective knickers in a twist about.

I’ve never been a fan of the Olympics in general. Not really a sporty type, cycling is a bit of an enigma in my make up. But then it is more of a pass time than sport for me.

What really turned me against the whole Olympics thing was news footage of people in China being forcibly evicted from their homes in the middle of the night with nothing new offered, just turfed out on the streets. This just illustrated the whole thing for me. The sport is secondary, it’s all just a PR campaign for Politicians and their corporate masters. It does sicken me and I really have been sick to death of it since this time last year. I dread the rest of this year.

And don’t give me that crap that areas are redeveloped as a result. Yes they are, but if you really cared you could have done that anyway. Window dressing on the grandest most morally dubious scale IMHO.

The country is in dire straits but we can afford an EXTRA £40M for the opening F***ing ceremony on top of whatever was originally set aside for it. And that is just one example that “they” haven’t even hidden away.

I wonder how long it will be before the IOC simply award the rights to opening ceremonies and they ditch the sport as it costs too much to do that. It would alos mean they could make it an annual event rather than every four years.

Perhaps the unemployed should be asked for their views? It’s insulting to those who are struggling whether due to unemployment, disability etc.

There’s no legacy to be left, just another example of financial mismanagement of a vanity project.

I think we should actually start wondering quite why it is that Scottish railways receive nearly 15x the subsidy that Wessex region railways gets? Just got 2 more tickets to an Olympic cycling event – quite looking forwards to it all tbh.

Given the amount of ‘work from home’ projects being initiated through the public and private sector on the back of the expected transport overload and disruption, the biggest benefit could be a change in culture to show working at home is viable, succesful etc. Leading to more time spent productively – whether that’s with familes, pursuing interests or working, and less time sat in car/trains etc. Oh, and a few less cars on the road wouldn’t hurt either.

Richard
(working at home productively today)

The latest installment of olympic cringe…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16747032

Why is that cringe?
Would you prefer superimposed fireworks that aren’t real instead?

We could go for the comedy angle, as haapened when Diana Ross opened the World Cup in the USA by scoring a goal… she missed but the grand climax started anyway…

why is it cringe – cos its a bit shit

So then TJ, as you’re an expert on everything, what would you do instead?

Why not have a simple (and cheap) opening ceromony and just get on with the games?

I wouldn’t be doing it at all.

There was an opportunity to take the olympics back to basics. It was missed.

Assuming I was in charge of this I would simply have a parade and a simple opening ceremony – what is the purpose of wasting all this money on something we all know will be a bit shit

How much money is being wasted on this and compare that to where that money could be used to do something useful 80 million quid is it?