Would you press the ‘cancel the Olympics’ button?

GlasWolf

Amen, GeorgeHerts! I also hate the implication that those voting against are being "negative", or "whinging", or not "supporting our athletes" - just a complete straw man of an argument.

Put simply, hosting a brief sporting event should not cost every British taxpayer £400.

Treehugged

I was against it right up until a few weeks ago when the whingeing got a bit stale and I started to think we're moaning too much. 2008 I vowed not to be in the country come 2012-I hoped to travel for the duration but I couldn't afford to so there was nowhere to run.

I'm glad I couldn't because I am loving it. From the opening ceremony I was both proud and hooked in to the Olympics.:beer:

stevemcol

GeorgeHerts wrote: »

And anyway, if I said to you "Here's £9 billion to spend on the best thing you can think of for the good of the country", would you really put it into two weeks of running and jumping? Especially when the national (and continental) economy is in such terrible shape?

Geo.

PS The same applies to World Cup, Commonwealth Games, etc.

You could put £9bn into quantitive easing and it might disapear as though it never existed. At least the 'feel good' factor from the olympics seems to be generating a sense of optimism. Recessions are created and broken almost entirely by human behaviour so if the Olympics gives us even a nudge in the right direction I'm all for it, even with some taxpayer funding.

I see your point about private funding but you just wouldn't ever achieve it. If you did, as soon as government relinquich all control, it would turn into your worst case commercialised nightmare.