to think that with all the talk of benefit caps and cuts, a TRILLION national debt.11 BILLION spend on the Olympics

[therehastobemore]

is a fucking joke

FFS

KatieMiddleton, again great post the legacy of this games should have been of a democratic country not wasting the money of it's population like it's their own personal piggy bank.

You know something, I'm really pissed off you've slagged off my partner actually. Yes, his job is wasteful, pointless, frivolous - he'll happily admit that himself. He is also my carer.

I agree, my aplologies yellowcoat - it is quite different, i appreciate that x

Sorry, cross posts there yellow - where you missed my apology, so i will say it again, i really didnt mean it to sound like it did as if folk want to get his business with "pressies" thats great actually. Sorry x

Is the new infrastructure just being being built in London?

yellowraincoat, I have no argument with private companies spending their money how they wish although I have concerns regarding the reolacation of monies etc.

Yellowcoat, i am sorry, i have asked Mnet to remove my post - reading back it did seem a bit personal and i certainly didn't intend it to be, i am fully aware that how business works and am not suggesting that people shouldnt be frivulous. Just not with my Tax! :)

The other thing is how many non-Olympic businesses are being disrupted because of the Olympics shenanigans, and what cost will that be to the economy. Businesses have been advised to have as many people working from home, or taking leave so that the transportation system won't completely fall over. What effect will this have? Particularly as the UK economy is contracting again.

I mean, it's all nice and all paying for the IOC officials to have their own lanes and hosting hundreds of public officials and the MASSIVE associated security cost so we can all watch people run around in shorts, but is it really the best thing to be doing right now? The UK is about to tip over into a second recession.

yellow - you were the one who brought up your partner. Why?

ok, im off :) its been fun - i only rejoined the other day to get some advice about my DP, folk were kind - now im wasting time procrastinating again

TTFNx

YANBU. It's also pretty amusing in a laugh-or-you'll-cry way that all the tories who spend the rest of their time posting about how we can't possibly afford to give a single more £67 a week while she looks after toddlers, or pay £100 DLA to someone's child so they can get out of the house occasionally, will come onto these threads and say 'actually we're not poor in this country so we can afford it'. Either we are in trillions of debt, in which case really we have no business worrying about being a 'drab colourless country' until we've sorted that out (just as apparently poor people shouldn't be buying huge tellies), or we can afford it in which case we aren't that poor and don't need to cut services/benefits to the vulnerable. I'd much rather be a drab colourless country where no children were stuck in all day and no mothers killed themselves over debts or were forced into prostitution (which is what the tories seem to want), myself. Priorities and all that.

Yes wibbly it goes against every grain of common decency to spend on such a scale unless it is going to benefit the country esp those who are stuggling.

If we rented out our house where would we go?

How does that work unless you already have a bit of money behind you in the first place?

I cant see how my borough is going to benefit or how local businesses will.
Will we get hoards of tourists looking for kebabs and cheap clobber?

Or will they be siphoned off to Westfields Straford and away from the less sparkly parts of East London?

We have lost public amenities because of the Olympics. Somewhere generations of people have been playing football is gone. Masses of Saturday and Sunday games finished forever.

I have no doubt the borough will be clean for a few weeks and then we will have to find the money to pay for that bit of showboating. If the borough is on its arse for the rest of the year how can we suddenly afford all the extras?

I repeat - I was ALL FOR the games 18 mths ago.

Stupid venue for it. Who can afford to travel to London, then across London then stay in London plus the overpriced tickets.

YANU. And they will go way way over budget as usual.

Can't see there being any economic benefits to anyone where I live (rural South West Wales) yet we are paying from our taxes, too. The Olympics - just another example of the London-centric organisation of Britain. And yes, I know it was a bid for London, not Britain, but that's kind of the point. Why not Birmingham? Or Cardiff? Or Manchester? Or Glasgow?

I was pleased when 'we' won them, but it is clear now that 'we' have not won anything. The ticket lottery was a farce, too. I want to be happy about them, but I can;t. I don't know anyone who is, anymore.
Those in charge need to scale back/cancel anything that has not already been completed. It's a World recision. Other countries will understand.

Let's boycott the Olympics...

I can't afford to go so it's easy for me to say

I used to love watching the Olympics but in all honesty I don't know many of the athletes competing because it doesn't seem as popular.

The only time I see athletes is when they are pimping/pushing products on adverts. The Olympic ethos has long since gone out of the window.

According to Andrew Rawnsley, in his book, "The End of the Party" (about the final years of the last Labour government), Gordon Brown never bought into the legacy idea at all - but didn't want to be seen as "the one who said we couldn't have the Olympics". In other words, even back in 2005 it was clear that the Olympics would cost more than they would bring to the country.

But what to do ... make the best of things, I say and hope that at least some of the promised benefits materialise.

That is how I feel cardi

Every day we have to listen to MPs telling us to behave and pull in our belts and keep calm and carry on. Dont moan about shrinking wages and cuts in the public sector.

As all around me I see money being spent on something we cannot afford and do not need.

But we are expected to do without things we need because we cant afford them and suck it up.

There were def rumblings about finances as far back as 2005.

here

TBH back then DD was in the middle of her chemo, life was dark and the Olympics seemed to be a bit of ray of sunshine.

I remember seeing we won the bid on a hospital tv.
Next day was bloody awful though with the bombs.

so sorry mrsdevere xx

OP YANBU AT ALL! I am absolutely infuriated and raging about the whole thing.

I don't have the exact figures to hand but very few local people were/are being employed as they were promised - the village has been sold off to the Qatari Royal family - only a few were kept for social housing. My heart sank when we were awarded the olympics and the more I hear the angrier I get. As usual the locals will be pushed aside, a huge gated community will be built and no one will spend their money in the local community.

Canary Wharf generates billions yet Tower Hamlets has the most poverty and highest unemployment - go figure? and the olympics are going to change all that yes? I'll eat my hat if it does!