Anybody fancy a Paralympic countdown thread?

[EduStudent]

The Olympics may be over, but we've still got the Paralympics to come

Really, really excited, I wanted to get tickets to see something but I start a new job in a different city as it starts, so won't make any of it hopefully the coverage will be as good as it has been for the Olympics.

Anyone going down to see stuff? Also, anyone know the routes of the torch/torches? I found it hard to work out on the official website

I want to know where the flame is coming from. Is there a new one coming from Greece?

We've got three lots of tickets - rowing, equestrian and athletics. Unfortunately, it is too complicated to get there after that because the children are back at school.

I will keep an eye out for weekend tickets, but having been to the Olympics, I know that it is exhausting, so should not be striving for five days in a row. I would love to go to the swimming.

The flame will be lit at the birthplace of the Paralympics - Stoke Mandeville.

Ooh, apparently they're lighting 4 flames, in London, Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh, which will all the travel to Stoke Mandeville and combine to make one Paralympic flame. Here

I just signed a petition about the ticket arrangements for wheelchair users. Apparently people in wheelchairs can't be guaranteed seating with their families, only with one other person.

Sounds a bit crap, considering its the Paralympics and all...

This is the petition

What can the organisers do if ther isn't enough wheelchair space at the venues? Wouldn't it be better to allow more wheelchair users to use it rather than lots of able-bodied relatives?

Plan better?

Like 7 years ago?

What good can a petition do now?

Yeah, you're right. It's all pointless. All of it. Why bother voting, caring, thinking.

Explain what you want to happen in the next four weeks.

Do you want able bodied family members to limit the number of wheelchair users who can visit the Games? Because that is the only decision that can be made at this time.

I would like fairness. So do the people signing the petition. Bit obvious, really.

The petitioner Beth Davis-Hofbauer writes:

"Like millions across the UK, I was inspired by the London 2012 Olympic Games. I decided I wanted to take family to the Paralympics to sample the once in a lifetime showcase of disabled sport in London.

I am a wheelchair user, with a four-year-old autistic son and a nineteen-month-old baby. Naturally we wanted to sit together and, particularly as it?s the Paralympics, I assumed there would be adequate provision for this to happen. I was stunned to hear that there was no way that this could happen as there is a policy that wheelchair users can only be accompanied by one other person.

I cannot believe that this event, designed to inspire a new generation of athletes, has a discriminatory ticketing policy. It?s essential that my husband sits with me as he helps me with things I need to do and clearly my kids can?t sit separately. Quite apart from these practical considerations, I want to share this special occasion with my family, but I?m being prevented from doing so just because I am in a wheelchair.

Please join my campaign to get the organisers of the Paralympics to change this ticketing policy for these and future Games - so every family may share the Paralympics together."

Define fairness in this situation.

Is it fair for one spectator to have many family members accompanying them, at the expense of other people who can't get tickets at all?

Explain, define ...

I am happy signing Beth Davis-Hofbauer's petition, as explained and defined by her.

Fine - she wants to have three able bodied people with her. It's a valid choice.

It is either one person in a wheelchair with three companions, or two people in wheelchairs and a total of two companions.

I think the organisers have gone for the second option, but whatever you choose, there will be winners and losers.

The alternative headlines and petitions would be all about able-bodied people taking up valuable wheelchair space.

I really don't think this is petition material.

Apparently the Paralympic Torch relay is only on 24th-29th Aug. The route is here.

We have athletics tickets for the 8th Sept and i'm really looking forward to it. Never mind Usain Bolt - we have five 100m finals in one night!

We were in the stratosphere when we saw 3 British gold Olympics medals, but our Paralympics tickets are in row 7!

Claire, Beth Davis-Hofbauer says she wants her husband and her two very young children with her, all sitting together.

p.s. I feel as if we are some bizarre cross-purpose here.

You can't always get what you want.

Should two children, too young to appreciate the event, exclude another eager person for whom this space is their only chance to be part of the action?

There are no right and wrong answers. Everything is a choice with positive and negative consequences. Just like life as a whole.

Not petition material.

there is a policy that wheelchair users can only be accompanied by one other person.

Is that statement in the petition factually wrong, does anyone know?

As far as I understand, you buy the tickets then inform them that you will need an accessible seat. These are separate and one person may accompany the person in the wheelchair, the rest sit in the 'normal' seats. So they're not taking tickets away from others at all. I may have that wrong, but again, I don't see why the people accompanying them have any less right to a ticket than anyone else, otherwise why would they let anyone buy more than 2 tickets?

But anyhow.

Will the torch be going along the roads like the Olympic one did? I can't see a map showing that, just the stops, although it looks like it should be coming near to me. Will just have to keep a eye out in the local newspapers

Um, no.