Olympics

[kimi]

I think its fantastic that we won!  :hokus-pokus: 

Its about time! and so what if its all over the news for the next couple of weeks its about time us brits won something! Im proud to be british and anything that annoys the french even further is great!   

We should support our country with this and i know ill be going!  B)

Yes they will get behind with the building and everything will go over budget - that just gives everyone something else to moan about though 

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Well said Tegan

i'm not an olympic fan tbh but its good britain has won something at last!

its good to get one over on france too,they did not like losing did they

[alanbradley]

I'm really pleased we won and I usually have no interest in sport whatsoever (last olympics cost me a fortune in Frasier DVDs to block it off my TV!)...

Its just good to know that we can do it and that other countries trust us. Oh, its mot all going to be in London, its not even all going to be in England and the whole country will benefit from the additional tourism ("We'll go to London for the Games and then a few days in Scotland...").

An all-round good and productive set of events - provided it doesn't get mucked up... <_<

I'm sure it will be fine

A

[Moffmo]

whoa.. we have to pay to host it???

[dazwan]

They're saying it will cost £5 Billion (that's £5,000 million as I understand it!). I didn't realise the country had that sort of cash just lying around! I'm in the camp that says we could put that sort of money to better use investing in health, education or even improving public transport.

We are going to be paying for this for years, all the revenue from hosting the games will not in any way cover the cost. Greece is still massively in debt after having hosted the last olympics, why are we going to be any different.

I hope it all goes well and what not, but don't be fooled into thinking this is going to improve the economy.

[System~G]

I'm in the camp that says we could put that sort of money to better use investing in health, education or even improving public transport.

I hope it all goes well and what not, but don't be fooled into thinking this is going to improve the economy.

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I'm with you on these points

But I think that they have already begun improving the transport side of things - allbeit solely for the olympics. They have built tunnels for additional underground trains. The entire underground system will need serious rejuvination and all overground transport systems too. unfortunately it will only be greater London benifiting from this and not the rest of the country

I hope not to be anywhere near London (or surrounding roads) at the time. Imagine the M25, M11, M1, M40, M4 motorways??? They are all bad enough as it is. It will be like rush hour 24/7 during the course of the event I'd imagine the underground and busses will also be ramed full 24/7.

The olympics however, will bring a major boost for the tourism industry. Hotels and vendors will be absolutely milking it. The West End will also see a major boost in ticket sales as will art galleries, museums etc... and every other thinkable "touristy" business. So this could be good.

Then you also got to look at the aftermath... Look at news reports of the Olympic areas of Greece. Deserted ghost towns. Unemployment at it's highest etc...