Will the London Olympics be a success?

Alain Quay

I hope so. I think there will be a few benefits: urban regeneration, improvements in tourism and service, and it might help tackle London/British cynicism. That said,
road and rail infrastructure, weather, chavism, litter, etc. are potential embarrassments.

wildmoustache

I doubt we'll come 4th in the medal table, although by focussing on sports where there are lots of medals on offer we are being clever if total medal haul is the goal.

Personally, I think we should never have bothered, but should have put loads of cash into sport instead. In many ways London is a very difficult city in which to hold the Olympics (already jammed)

Tourism? Well, London is doing pretty well already, so I don't see that as a benefit.

Do you mean British cynicism about London? I can understand some of this, but no-one living in London cares a 5hit for what those living elsewhere think of them and why should they.

We did well with the Tour de France. Very well in fact. I think the Olympics overall will be hailed as a success but not as good as what could have been done with the dough ... and not as sensible in development and cost terms as hosting them in a developing country.

Stewie Griffin

I cant wait for our under used London roads to lose a lane to Olympic only traffic. I look forward to seeing all the friendly Londoners waving to all the fat freeloaders from the IOC as they speed past in their Limos on the way to some stadium that as a taxpayer I will have to fund for many years after, especially as I live over the other side of London and will therefore probably never see any of these white elephants.

Didnt Quebec's taxpayers take THIRTY years to pay for the 1976 Olympics? How long will Athens take to pay its £4.8bn debt?

I hate Lord Coe, smarmy tw@t :evil: . I always cheered Ovett on as a kid 8) .

4th in the Medal table? Yeah as long as Phelps doesnt become a Country in the mean time, our entire haul could be beaten by one man

fast as fupp

theyre having the olympics in london?

ye gods!

thats a recipe for disaster

Alain Quay

I can imagine Shane MacGowan being offered the gig of singing at the opening ceremony, only to be replaced at the last minute by James Blunt miming a Pogues song,
because Shane's teeth aren't up to being shown around the world

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 558140.stm

demmerson

London? Where's that?

wildmoustache

demmerson wrote:

London? Where's that?

eh up lad ... you after a muck 'n brass olympics?

epicyclo

It will be a good time to be out of the country.

fast as fupp

i saw on the telly the other night that some bad men were blowing up london when the olympics were on- it was all right in the end coz some nice boys and girls came along and sorted the bad men out

but boris johnson?

so for that reason im out

SteveR_100Milers

Is there any reason why they won't be any worse than previous hosts? China doesn't exactly have a track record on hospitality now does it, yet the current games seem to be acceptable so far...

fast as fupp

if you think beating up journalists etc is acceptable then yes

fast as fupp

on second thoughts if theyre sun "journalists".............................

SteveR_100Milers

I didn't say I thought it was OK, just that they are goiung ahead, being shown on TV etc etc, in other words, if China can get away with running them whilst beating up foreigners, then we have nowt to worry about.