Bloody Olympics

[badpenny]

Nope not the Aristocrat bandit, in fact not even about slots at all, just a need for a grumpy old man moan.
As I need to grab every opportunity to bill a day's work imagine how thrilled I am today to learn that the city of Lincoln has come to a grinding standstill.
Why? ....... Security alert? Unexploded religious holiday? First day of the sales at The Jobcentre?

Nope! ........ What little Commerce and Industry that has survived the 21st Century over here has been strangled today to accommodate random people in identical fancy dress running around with flames.

What time is this pagan lookalike charade occurring?
Around 5 pm it seems........ so from what time do we need to close off roads, prohibit entrance to car parks, isolate shops from customers and threaten to brand anyone who attempts to live a normal life as a criminal?
Sunrise it would appear, or if we're talking about coning off parking outside your own house, then obviously yesterday afternoon.

The only reason I can conclude for expecting so many people to be thronging the pavements is that they've not seen fire around here before!

[coppinpr]

the flaming torch relay race has the distinction of being the ONLY Olympic event an English man will finish first in, with luck, while in Wales they sent it down the wrong road,took 2 hours to get it back on track, how British, pity they bothered really

[badpenny]

To insult our collective intelligence the lying incompetents that have been throwing our tax money around like a man with no arms proudly announced today that the whole kerfuffle will come in £476M under budget WOO HOO

Errr ...... No!

In 2005 when we were stupid enough to bid and unlucky enough to win this self congratulatory two week non productive activity the budget was £4.2 Billion ..... which after two years was quietly raised to £9.3bn. Reminds me of wife number two who returned from the shops claiming to have saved me £200 by buying all this make up at half price.

Simply put, we can't afford it. Just think of the better uses that amount could be used for ........
A real apprenticeship scheme for Britain's youngsters and our struggling industry.
Or.
An injection in the arm of the NHS
Or.
Proper equipment for the lads and lasses in Afghanistan
Or.
Effective funding for the charities of this country that undertake the excellent work that really should be the responsibility of the government.

Buying me that Coronet from andy

[toibs]

The London Olympics will generate £10bn in revenue for the British economy as a whole. (Lloyds TSB)
Revenue from tourists attracted by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are forecast to add up to an additional £2.1bn. (London Councils 2012 Team).....

Saying that it's probably cost 3x that to set it all up......

[treefrog]

It is interesting, one of the more recent motivations for hosting Olympic, beyond pride has been the supposed regeneration and wealth it will bring a deprived area or economy.....The problem has been been over the last 20 years, this generally has not happened, look at Atlanta. In Greece they became overly confident and just on borrowing more. I guess the exception to the rule is Barcelona, which no doubt changed from a deprived run down old port into one the most popular cultural cities in Europe. Interesting that the old Olympic facilities there were the only thing left to run down.

I suspect I am a fan on these types of events as overall they do bring a feel good factor and someone has made a whole load of money in the east end from the value of their properties and it becoming a popular upmarket place. The thing that gets me is the ridiculous price of tickets to go and see an event, on the basis we have already paid through our taxes and lottery funds, we then have to pay ludicrous amounts of cash to watch a sport in horse guards parade no one would penny to watch under normal circumstances. These types of events are over managed and restrictive, like the Jubilee celebrations.

The thing that tops it all off is the opening ceremony event which has been handed over to a over inflated film director, who has stuck a field in the middle of the stadium, surely there are thousands of things that could have been considered to be proud of....

[andydotp]

Ooh, err,
You're such a stirrer BP, now look wot you've started. Members all hot under the collar everywhere..
And don't blimmin' start me on the Melbourne F1 Grand Pricks wot I contribute towards from my 43% YES 43% tax per week and paid $210 for a few yrs ago so the future ex missus (now past, was right all along) could get a crick in her neck and a blown eardrum to (almost) glimpse 'our' Mark Webber hurtle past in a Femtosecond before he spun out into the kitty litter...
Am going the pub.....

[coppinpr]

From what ive read in the USA financial press the Olympics WILL generate more for the country than it cost (but not directly for the government,although partly as business taxes) so you have to decide if the gov correctly spends this sort of money to kick start business around the Olympics. The queens jub earned almost 4 times what it cost for the country in tourists (although ,once again only indirectly as tax for the gov who paid for it) The BIG BIG worry MUST be terrorism , MI6 are already saying they know of over 50 people who have entered the country after terror training in the last few weeks!! One major hit at the opening and three things happen at once, the games are canceled, they never happen again,ever, and heathrow will be a mad house as thousands of Americans fight to leave the country. This is actually a bigger target than 9/11, a world stage in one of the terrorism biggest enemy's country, im sure al queda are sending a team to the Olympics, we just wont see them in the parade.

[badpenny]

Well commented coppinpr.

Also I read that the costs for increased security which runs into millions is separate to the audited budget and although not debited directly against the olympics will still be paid for by you and me. That will eat heartily into any incoming money even if the audit isn't transparent enough to make it obvious.
I predict massaging of any figures we the electorate get to see.

[bryans fan]

That is very kind of you and coppinpr to pay for the security badpenny! You`ll have to sell a bandit or two to pay for that lot.

[badpenny]

That is very kind of you and coppinpr to pay for the security badpenny! You`ll have to sell a bandit or two to pay for that lot.

The helicopter mother ship moored on the Thames was the one that could have cost me the most, I nearly wiped out the Woolwich Barrier squeezing it through.

coppinpr is getting it back out again, I'm not going near it.

[coppinpr]

Im going to get my money back after the Olympics by leaving it there and turning it into a Mcdonalds, the Navy dont have a use for it , might do more harm than terrorists that way but what the hell

[badpenny]

I accidently trapped myself in front of a television the other night the same time as The Olympic Boasting Show, now what I want to know is where the hell are the following .......

Aruba, Benin, Burkina Faso, Comoros, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nauru, Saint Timor-Leste,
I thought the planet was already finished and all of the available bits had been allotted, so where have they tacked these bits on?

I was most intrigued by Independent Olympic Athletes, what's going on here? Are they from outer space? Or are they humans that have rejected their own countries? When they win a medal what happens for their National Anthem? Does everybody just stand around whistling what ever takes their fancy? There are four of them, three men and one woman. I guess she's going to be busy, she could look like the back of a bus and still be beating them off with a stick.

Federated States of Micronesia, are these The Borrowers? Are they exempt from the high jump? Are they allowed to run beneath the hurdles? It seems only fair.

Lesotho. Now I'm a staunch supporter of Diversity, but I got this one hopelessly wrong. Less said the better.

Palau I was pleased they got in, I love their rice.

Saint Kitts and Nevis & Vincent and the Grenadines. I am convinced these are those people you meet on holiday, swap addresses with and tell each other "if you're ever our way you simply must drop in and see us" then pray they never do.

Vanuatu. This one didn't fool me at all, I clearly remember The Starship Enterprise visiting this one. It was the episode where Sulu gets whisked down to the surface and has to use martial arts to fight a man dressed in a marshmallow whilst Uhura tries to snog Kirk.

[coppinpr]

Burkina Faso is a skin disease, Benin is what you treat it with, the team from Myanmar is made up from the staff of the Spanish hotel of the same name, Comoros is the tour company who got them there, Kirbati is an Indian bread, Nauru is the guy who eats it, Kyrgyzstan has duel nationality (South African and Essex) and Saint Timor-Leste is the patron saint of not winning any medals (ever).
Aruba I must defend, been there four times, it's a very pretty island just off the coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean, till recently part of the Dutch Antilles and still used the Dutch guilder until they went independent. Now they use the $. They went out on their own because they are rich and the rest DA are not! Known as one of the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao).

[operator bell]

Womens' beach volleyball, Brazilian team. Enough said.

Apart from that, meh.

[Guest]

the somalian olympic committe have apologised saying there team did not realise
that shooting and sailing were 2 different events

[badpenny]

The channel changer on my TV has broken. No matter what button I press I can only get grown people chasing each other around in circles. Sometimes just for a change I get stuck with someone poorly interviewing what can only be described as an old woman who looks like a wrinkled old man.

Consequently I'm getting knowledgeable about running.
How many different running games do they need? There's all sorts from 100 metres to Gas, carrying sticks, jumping puddles and lying on the floor afterwards - running contests.
Why is one considered more important than the other? Plus it takes them all ages to do and they need a special running track to play on.

I think they should all be in just one race, held down the nearest park. They could start off doing 100 metres forward hopping skipping and jumping over the dog turds, followed by running backwards for 100 metres avoiding discarded needles then 100 metres forward egg and spoon over a couple of winos on benches ending with 100 metres laying on their back.
That should sort out the good ones............ oh, and they should do it at night when I don't watch tv.

[coppinpr]

What gets me is 100 mt runners all thank their coaches, mothers, fathers, wives, the crowd and the general population of their home country but never a good word for the plantation owners who got them there in the first place!

[badpenny]

That's bananas!........ and you know it.

[john t peterson]

My British Friends,

At the risk of poking the hornet's nest one last time, I offer my sincere congratulations for an Olympic Games done right! The last two weeks have been nothing short of spectacular, both in spectacle and execution. Despite the misgivings of our diminutive Mitt-the-Twitt, you've set the bar for future games very high indeed.

Well done, lads and lasses.

J Peterson
Your American Admirer of Olympic Proportion

PS Where'd the Queen learn to skydive?

[badpenny]

That's very kind of you John, however we only paid for it, mainly with money stolen from the charities that are relied on to do the government's work for them.

What I think you may have missed is that we are so anally retentive over here, that was just a practice; the proper event is still to happen.