Olympic biddy?

[Dr Lobster*]

Well there we are, the bid is all over and we won it.

Shame we'll all be picking up the bill for this in a few years time.

Isn't it interesting that blair can find time for all this rubbish, jetting all over the world, but he couldn't be bothered to attend the moscow ve day celebrations?

[cdd]

I'm firmly against the bid and annoyed London ended up with it. Still, it'll have its positive aspects, so I'll have to focus on those!

Out of curiousity, what would have happened if these terror attacks took place yesterday? With just a 4-vote majority it would well have changed the result.

[Pete]

Interesting thought, especially as New York's bid seemed to be entirely "oh give us pity, we had 9/11"

[cdd]

Well those in Spain clearly had an impact on their bid.

[rts]

I'm firmly against the bid and annoyed London ended up with it.

Of course you are entitled to your own opinion. But it would be helpful to state the reasons why you are against the bid?

This is a forum after all!

[Dr Lobster*]

in my opinion, i think we should focus on getting the things which are wrong with this country put right before we spend money, time and effort on something which, at the end of the day is entirely pointless.

[Spencer For Hire]

Well those in Spain clearly had an impact on their bid.

Well we don't know that for certain. If anything I'd have thought had the attacks taken place a day earlier, London may have gained more votes out of sympathy. Anyway, surely all the IOC members would have know that London's a prime terrorist target, whether an attack had happened or not.

[cdd]

I'm firmly against the bid and annoyed London ended up with it.

Of course you are entitled to your own opinion. But it would be helpful to state the reasons why you are against the bid?

This is a forum after all!

If I may quote myself a few times (I know it's bad form to quote yourself but these are desperate times...)

It costs a fortune to set up the olympics, and few countries actually make it back. The tourism only generates a certain amount of money. We'll end up with a load of stadia whose overall purpose will be of no interest or benefit to me.

I appreciate that if the olympics DO make it here it will be a good source of revenue, albeit a horrific capital waste of money.

However, if we don't, then so much money will have been wasted on this propaganda.

Can't the government / councils be a little more careful with their money?

I realise that there will be much revenue from this (mostly from tourism, etc) -- but I stand by my original point -- if we don't get the games in 2012 we've wasted an awful lot of money. Plus WE DON'T EARN THE BENEFIT. It's OUR money being spent, but the people who earn the money are shop owners; building corporations; architects; a much smaller group of people get the benefit, which is one step closer to complete capitalism, where a small percentage of population have a lot of money. Do the government learn nothing [...] [...]

[...]

And about prestige -- baloney. What will we be left with? ANOTHER stadium London doesn't need (we've already demolished one -- and we're going to build another for the Olympics?)

Ultimately it will have its advantages and it's worth focussing on those (at last an excuse for the transport to be sorted out, for example!) but the "cons" seem to heavily outweigh the "pro's".

[rts]

If I may quote myself a few times (I know it's bad form to quote yourself but these are desperate times...)

You will respect that those are not quotes from this thread, and at such desperate times, desperate measures would be appreciated to clarify your arguments.

[Johnny]

I'm glad we won it, at least Stratford will finally get a facelift.

The East London Line extenstion will finally get off the ground

And hopefully the next generation of kids will be more interested in sports & more fitter than the current bunch of obese yobs.

However I do admit that I am worried they will overspend & end up in debt rather than profit once it is all over

[cdd]

If I may quote myself a few times (I know it's bad form to quote yourself but these are desperate times...)

You will respect that those are not quotes from this thread, and at such desperate times, desperate measures would be appreciated to clarify your arguments.

And that's why I meticulously went through those quotations to make them appropriate to this thread. Still, because I'm so oberwhelmingly generous, I'll summarise my concerns into a bullet-point list:
<ul>
<li>The Olympics will cost a lot of money which we are unlikely to make back
<li>Additionally, the cost of making the bid has been a lot and that seems ridiculous
<li>The Olympics are not something a city in such a state as London needs
<li> Observe the detrimental effect the Olympics had on Athens
<li> We'll have lots of stadia which will be useless to me -- I have absolutely no interest in sport and London does not need still another stadium
<li> The regeneration of the "Yew Valley" is irrelevant to me, I have never been nor am likely to visit that area and it will have no direct effect on me
<li> It will produce an unfortunate influx of tourism, something of which London gets plenty more than its fair share
<li> The little benefit that the Olympics do bring will only profit businesses -- airlines due to increased travel, hotels due to desire for lodgings, electricity companies, shopkeepers -- and a rise in profit for companies generally realises a rise in prices, a bad situation which is all being contributed to by our tax
</ul>