Olympic relay rant1

knightstyle

Really dissapointed with this, it passes 12 miles from our town, population 18,000 but will go on a bus! So little chance of seeing it unless we all go to a tiny village 14 miles away.
Then it is meant to be LOCAL people carrying the torch but our neighbors son had to go over 60 miles away to do his bit and the people carrying it in the nearest village are from all over the place, we are in Lincolnshire but of the five torchbearers we have Leicester, Sheffield and Nottingham.
The words p*ssup and brewery come to mind.

System

I think it's pretty impressive how much of the country it's actually gone to. A town of 18,000 is not very big. They can't run round the whole country, at some places a bus has to be used

ladylouise62

It's one hell of a logistical task they had there and I think they've been fairly decent at it.
There are over 430 towns with populations over 20k - a lot of places if they had to visit each one!!!!
There was no way that they could please everyone and I'm afraid that you got one of the short sticks

As for the bearers - quite a few of the places were filled by the sponsors (and without them it would have cost much much more of our taxes), which is why they don't necessarily fit with locations.

POPPYOSCAR

Dqvvx wrote: »

Hate to be the one to break this to you, but your town is probably crap.

Why should that stop them..It is going to a town near me that fits that bill.

Tina20

Is there a reason why this is 'rant1'? Should we expect 'rant2' later?

whitewing

I imagined it was for security reasons that torchbearers went outside their town.

sweetcheekz

I lost interest when "celebs" like Chris Moyles and Will.i.am got to run with it

kiss_me_now9

Same, our town has 17 torch bearers, 6 from the town or surrounding areas, 6 from 30 + miles away (one from the middle of Scotland, poor lass as I live in Buckinghamshire) and 5 from elsewhere, including Los Angeles and Mexico. Very local and British - not.

phill99

Nearly 20 year ago I used to work in Stratford, East London, just a few feet from Carpenters Lane which is the epi-centre of the Olympic Park. Be under no illusion, the area was nothing more than a very large exploded colostomy bag. It was dire. And it was only getting worse. A !!!! hole of sh1tholes. I went there a few weeks ago and was absolutely gob smacked at the transformation. New infrastructure, huge development, upgraded rail connections, new housing etc etc etc.

Yes it's cost a lot of money, yes there will be inconveniences if you live in the area, but it is bloody marvellous. The benefits will be felt for years to come and the financial benefits in terms of tourist income etc will be huge. Bear in mind that the games haven't been in the UK since 1948, and are unlikely to be with us for another 70 years. So we should rejoice th fact that it is a very unique and significant event.

And if the only thing you can do is winge that you have to get off your fat backside and pull yourself away from Jeremy Kyle show and stop eating your bargain bucket, then what a very sad, miserable, winging life you lead. No doubt if it was up to you, you would have had the Olympic torch coming through your lounge so that you could continue forcing another doner kebab into your gob without having to get up.

bargainbetty

My god-daughter ran with the torch on the Plymouth section, not far away from the Cornwall/Devon bridge. She lives in Tavistock, so was running approximately 20-30 miles from her home, technically in a different county. It was late, she waited for ages, we got rained on a bit, and the whole thing was done without closing off the main roads, so there were traffic issues and the whole entourage of sponsors etc got stupidly big once you included all the vehicles and bikes etc.

It was ace. It was the only part of the Olympics I'm happy about, and I drove from London to watch her do it. So very proud of her!

It is an international event, why shouldn't foreign nationals who have come to Britain to work participate? Didier Drogba looked fab with it, though not quite as wonderful as him carrying the European Cup....:)

Jeff_Bridges_hair

phill99 I think i love you