Home—Blog—A modern blasphemy
Aug 22, 2012, 02:57
Posted byMerryn Somerset Webb
Comments (48)
When Alain de Botton appeared at the Edinburgh Festival this week, he spoke about the way in which parts of the secular world can replace the religious world for non-believers. De Botton argues in his newish book Religion for Athiests that, while the “supernatural claims of religion are of course entirely false”, religions do still have important things to teach the world.
So, instead of mocking them we should steal from them, looking to them for insights as to how we can do everything from addressing our emotional needs via repetition and time management to building a better sense of community – perhaps in the same sort of way that Mass works to “strengthen congregants bonds of affection”.
His 'religion for atheists' would be what he calls 'Atheism 2.0'. It would accept that “there is no god, no deities, no supernatural beings, no angels” but it would move on from there, accepting too that most people love the “moralistic communal side” of religion (to say nothing of Christmas carols). You can watch Alain’s TED talk on the subject here (and you probably should regardless of whether you are a believer or not).
However, in his talk this month, he referred to various things that take the place of religion for some of us – lectures instead of sermons, museums instead of churches and so on. In passing, he mentioned the Olympics as being something of a religious experience for much of the UK (the Olympics were originally religious of course): the stadiums, the churches, the BBC presenters, the vicars, the gold medal winners, the saints and so on.
If this really was the case in the first half of the month, it makes some sense of this week's mail bag. Why? Because last week, I clearly committed a kind of blasphemy: in my editor’s letter I wondered if the £9-15bn the event cost the UK taxpayer wasn’t just a little bit too much.
Don’t think about it now, I said – it might be a bit early – instead, wait until the next budget when you can’t remember who won the diving and your taxes go up again. Our subscribers didn’t like that much. “I look forward”, said one (in a sentiment echoed by many), “to your condemnation of that other flippant and unnecessarily expensive celebration, Christmas”.
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All too many others told me that I have “fallen from grace”, that I am guilty of “knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing” (I rather expected a lot of these ones and I certainly got them…), that in criticising a “wholly magnificent occasion” I have made myself “ridiculous” and that I have utterly failed to understand that this kind of “national bonding” is priceless. Oh, and that my “negative emotions” are the biggest enemy to recovery there is (beating global deleveraging by a mile it seems).
Oh dear. In my defence, I would say that I didn’t mean to suggest that the Olympics weren’t fun and that they didn’t offer fantastic moments and bring much of London together with rather more community spirit than usual. Of course they did. They were also a nice showcase for our capital city in that, in the end, there were no terrorist attacks and no tube-related disasters. There may even be a legacy in some regeneration and a renewed interest in non-sofa related activities in the UK. That’s all nice.
But enjoying something doesn’t mean that you get to completely suspend your critical faculties. Just because the Olympics were good doesn’t mean that they came in within budget (they were at least four times over the original budget which was a mere £2bn).
The fact that the UK managed to get all the venues ready on time also doesn’t show that we can manage huge infrastructure projects well. Instead, it shows that given enough money (I repeat, four times the original budget), we can get them done.
There’s a difference there, as the excellent John Kay (who thinks we should take a much tougher line on all grossly overpriced projects) says here. It is worth remembering that the Olympic Games held in the UK in 1948 cost £750,000. Adjust for inflation and that’s £23m – a tiny fraction of even our original 2012 budget of £2bn. I’ll leave the final word on this to one of my few supporters in this matter:
“Of course it is a good thing that we, as a country, should support excellence in competitive sport as well as in many other things including science and technology, but these Games seem to have been high-jacked by political and commercial interests and turned into a showbiz style extravaganza regardless of cost, notwithstanding our allegedly parlous financial state as a nation. It seems to me that it is one more example of the contempt in which the political classes hold the general populace when it comes to prudent (Gordon Brown’s favourite adjective) and efficient use of tax revenues and the long-term debt outlook.”
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(22 August 2012, 03:50PM) Complain about this comment
"So, instead of mocking them we should steal from them, looking to them for insights as to how we can do everything from addressing our emotional needs via repetition and time management to building a better sense of community..."Isn't that basically what Nazism and Communism have tried to do? But get rid of the supernatural bit and it doesn't actually work.So yes, expect the excitement of the olympic period to last no more than a few weeks into the new football season. And when it wears off, there's always alcohol...
(22 August 2012, 03:56PM) Complain about this comment
I think there's a lot to like about the olympics and some of the expense is worth it. Certainly it provided Britain with a lot more gold than Investment banks have in the past decade (and propping them up has cost a lot more!).But the olympics have become bloated, it needs to be pruned back a bit. Let's focus on athletics and do away with the beach volleyballs, the footballs, hockey, bmx!! and so forth.
(22 August 2012, 04:02PM) Complain about this comment
I have, for many years now, noted the religious parallels in the "faithful " attending Shopping Malls and their worship of the celebs (saints) that offer them hope. The Steve Jobs worshipping gadget fiends exhibit the same fervour as do football fans. The latter offers a number of distinct sects to either adhere to or vilify and oppose. Humans are by and large easily led. Few of us are confident and informed enough to make our own way without copying others or angsting about being an outcast.
(22 August 2012, 05:43PM) Complain about this comment
And then there are those who frequent these pages who worship a dense yellow metal of no particular practical use. Imbuing it with all manner of supernatural abilities to save them from the hell of inflation and the collapse of their paper currency.
(22 August 2012, 05:46PM) Complain about this comment
Olympics - something of a religious experience.My definition of 'religion'': 'a medium through which a relatively small hierarchy of devious individuals controls the masses in the remainder of a society'.The fear of God, celebrity worship ... means to control the masses to enrich their devious selves. They, the relatively small hierarchy of devious individuals, are controlling the masses through the latter's seemingly innate susceptibility of needing to worship; whether it be God, a celebrity, a hero/heroin, a Nobel prize winner, ... , a champion.And its all done at the expense of the masses. They've manipulated the masses into consumerism, into debt ... if their favourite celebrity has it, they want it; if their favourite hero does it, they want to do it; if a Nobel prize winner says it's right, then it must be. cont ...
... contThese Olympic champions will effectively be bribed to have things, do things, say things, etc; things intended to further encourage debt via advertising which, of course, the masses ultimately pay for.Devious? Don't we have more than enough debt already. Of course, this latest and greatest extravaganza was conceived before the devious hierarchy seemingly fell victim to its success.And guess who it is now foisting its liabilities upon. But it probably won't prevent Rio de Janeiro being an even greater extravaganza. And when the Great Bubble bursts and illusions are shattered, who or what will the masses then turn to and put on their pedestals to be exploited by the devious wealth and power worshippers?
(22 August 2012, 06:13PM) Complain about this comment
@ 5&6 Rick. That is a very interesting synopsis of the ruling classes using the masses psychology against them. And its no accident religion is just above the rank of the military on the chess board. We, of course, are the highly expendable pawns! No harm then to have a healthy cynicism of those who administer religions or try to harness a kind of euphoria where self is handed up to the throng or an ideal. I hate national anthems!I was brought up in a Catholic family and have learned to separate the religion from the church, taking what I need from the religion but ignoring the orders and judgments from those who were appointed as the bishop on the chessboard.
(22 August 2012, 07:34PM) Complain about this comment
@ 7. Ellen, you have made an interesting analogy - I hadn't previously thought of the chessboard as being a corrupted 'playing-field'!
(22 August 2012, 08:12PM) Complain about this comment
"religion for atheists' would be what he calls 'Atheism 2.0'."Atheism 2.0? Is he an American perchance? Many of the rest of the world might call it "humanism".http://www.humanism.org.uk/
(22 August 2012, 10:51PM) Complain about this comment
Ever so cleverly, some try to rationalise their lives but the truth is most of us have self-will: to follow 'young' Matthews tips or 'dis' them, to believe in an '-ism' or not, to watch the Olympics or play outcast for a while, to support a football team or not, to stay in Blighty or to go whinge and pay taxes elsewhere, etc. Only the very few truly wretched in this country have no opportunity. Don't take the easy option and blame a religion or political concept. All ideals are inherently flawed because upon application the human ego corrupts them. Last time I looked, it was called life.
(22 August 2012, 11:15PM) Complain about this comment
An invitation to commit blasphemy? Irresistible.The Olympics are aggrandized egg-and-spoon races, ridiculous entertainment. Games and sports are the rightful exercise of children who use them to develop their physical bodies. "When I became a man I put away childish things". £18 B could have built the Bristol Channel Barrage and its free electricity for ever for the nation. Wrong priority.Actually there are spirits, gods, higher states of consciousness etc.. not for everyone apparently, but for a mystical few, who strangely realize the world is an illusion, no more than the projection of light upon the screen of the mind. What is mind?.. inner space which if penetrated to profound depths leads to outer space, which also is mind... universal mind. It is all in the mind. What is life? Life and time are coiled up in the solar plexus, unwinding slowly, presenting the scenes of your life to your watching consciousness. The metaphysical world is stranger than quantum physics.
(23 August 2012, 11:22AM) Complain about this comment
Merryn, you are right on the money. I enjoyed the Olympics but you have committed the heresy of not subscribing to the compulsory national feelgood consensus. Cue much finger-wagging from the tutting puritans of our ruling clique. No doubt you were also one of those "unacceptable" people who failed to be "shocked, disbelieving and united in grief" over the death of Diana.
(23 August 2012, 11:37AM) Complain about this comment
As one of the 50% plus who were not looking forward to the Olympics I can fairly say that I was delighted with our 29 gold medals but I still wish that the games had been held somewhere else. The cost of holding them was extortionate and I agree with Merryn that the 'legacy' will just not be worth it. Even though the number of people saying that the games were a 'good thing' has increased, it has not done so overwhelmingly. A high proportion of people still have their feet firmly on the ground and realise that this sort of expenditure is no longer acceptable when the resulting returns are so minimal.
(23 August 2012, 11:43AM) Complain about this comment
I read Merryn's editorial with a smile. My brother had just got back from three weeks holiday and shared the same incredulity. How had the nation gone from sullen cynicism to blind unquestioning euphoria in such a short space of time? I enjoyed the games enormously but I think Merryn is absolutely right to place a 'reality check' on the whole experience. No doubt the Nuremberg rallies were enormously well organised, uplifting and uniting for anyone in attendance...but I'd like to think one or two people walked away thinking 'What just happened here?' As enjoyable as the games were I think it's crashingly inappropriate that the lead sponsors were Coca Cola and McDonalds. It was also hilarious watching experts try to link the financial cost now with the potential future savings from being a fitter nation! Really? Now that does take some faith. Especially as we now subconsciously link Coke and burgers with health.
(23 August 2012, 11:50AM) Complain about this comment
Exercise is important, to avoid obesity, raise matabolic rate and lower blood-glucose, retain flexibility, and lower blood pressure. It can keep us healthy as we age. But the sort that takes place in the Olympics, which also takes up 95% of the contents of standard texts on Sports Physiology, just causes joint damage.My blood pressure was up, and I brought it down to 113/79 using simple isometric exercises using weights and hand-grips.But you won't find any gymn recommending these, and sports trainers and weight-training web-sites are completely ignorant of them. Walking and cycling would not work for me, but isometrics did. There is a growing body of medical opinion in favour of these.But our idiotic obsession with personal-bests and world shortest times, means that insufficient research is being done, and few people learn the truth about exercise.People involved in sport have let us all down badly. Invest the money elsewhere !
(23 August 2012, 12:31PM) Complain about this comment
Good for you Merryn-stand your ground-I wasn't against the Olympics but the outrageous waste and imperial attitude of the organisers- why does it cost so much. I think all media should be banned from using the words billions and trillions and should have to instead say how many millions it costs to give people a better idea of the gargantuan costs- havin to say nine thousand seven hundred million pounds doesn't fall off the lips so easily
(23 August 2012, 12:43PM) Complain about this comment
The O'Limps seemed important to people who had nothing really serious to do or think about as an alternative. A fabulous life can be lived without them, blind to them, immunised against the whole fatuous charade: no television, no opiates in your home. I wish it was a mass movement, to cut something back to size like you do with a naughty creeper. I'm with Jaw, a spiritual Olympian whose luminous words transformed my day. The Limps, and summer's rioting thieving twittering youth... just a pageant, and related. They celebrate such trite stuff, and the people: such plonkers. And of course, the cost was predictable: snouts in trough, builder's tricks, stupid planners. Disgusting !
(23 August 2012, 01:25PM) Complain about this comment
Agree with all - the health of the nation (time bomb on Obesity and aging etc) would have been better served at grass roots - not for the elite - although well done. But it could have been done somewhere else. JAW - yes the legacy of the Bristol Channel Barrage and freeelectricity would have been very appreciated in these austere times!
(23 August 2012, 01:37PM) Complain about this comment
There's a creeping politicisation at Money Week that makes me uncomfortable. Monbiot and Toynbee quotes seem to appear too regularly and now that idiot De Botton's views are regurgitated. I might have to up sticks to Shares magazine.
(23 August 2012, 03:09PM) Complain about this comment
Olympics positives:- hoardes who normally traipse around shopping malls because they cannot think of anything else to do actually preferred watching/attending the Olympics than shopping. (No, the way out of this economic mess is not to encourage people to buy more of what they don't need).- sports stars were cheered for personal & team achievement achieved through hard graft (not because the media decided to elevate some nonentity to 'celebrity status')- the elderly, families and children could attend, for example, football at Wembley and have a great time (no hooligans anywhere)- very few arrests for disorder were made during the Olympics- competitive sport between schools, counties etc should be promoted and green playing fields retained- the Olympic sites/stadia were not covered in any advertising - not even Coca Cola .......and much moreI prefer this wastage of public money than the other ways it is wasted. Shame that the effect is unlikely to be long lasting.
(24 August 2012, 03:59PM) Complain about this comment
Merryn please find a seat up for election and put yourself up. Your common sense rings through the unceasing hype. It is already a distant memory these games, but of course we are being force fed the para olympic bore-athon. And woe betide anyone who criticises this ultimate PC event.
(24 August 2012, 06:41PM) Complain about this comment
Well done Jonathon Todd. Merryn will have my vote.I don't think the Olympics were a bore, but , worth the money? No! Not in a thousand million years. (Is that the right way to say a Billion Years?)
(24 August 2012, 06:46PM) Complain about this comment
Well said Jonathon. Merryn will get my vote. I don't think that the Olympics were a bore but not worth the money. Not in a billion years.Sorry, a thousand million years.
(24 August 2012, 09:55PM) Complain about this comment
In defence of the olympics, surely this was for most normal people a wonderful example of a meritocracy. We are so used to being bombarded by celeb culture, the only way is essex, big brother etc,. that it was great to see that people who decided years ago to follow a goal, work at it every day, put off other ambitions - achieve their aims. Most people I know who loved the olympics weren't the chavs, they were the silent professional classes - you know, the backbone of society?
(24 August 2012, 09:56PM) Complain about this comment
When the men won the 4 rowing golds, one of them said 'four years, every day for four years' Surely this is the type of attitude that we want to foster in the UK, not just for sport, but for work, business, charity work etc,. The message being, individuals matter, you can work and make a difference - it is a huge self sacrifice, but it can be done. Everyone I have spoken to, got that message out of the olympics. A breath of fresh air, compared to all the other toxic media fame related rubbish that we've had forced on us recently.Ok, rant over!
(24 August 2012, 11:22PM) Complain about this comment
#24 Damian. You contradict yourself in just 7 lines. You refer to a meritocracy in relaation to a games where 43% of medals were won by public school types. Then sneer at the "chavs" who didn't share your joy.#25 Do you really think it is a good example to expect people to work "everyday for 4 years" ?
(25 August 2012, 10:39AM) Complain about this comment
Do not be offended at the criticism of your comments. I suspect the vast maority of your readers are in complete agreement with you. Euphoria and emotion are powerful barriers to rational argument.I enjoyed the Olympics and I recognise the numerous peripheral benefits that the UK gained from holding them, but that does invalidate your argument that they were grossly over budget at a time when the nation is virtually bankrupt. Having committed to spend that amount of money, I am relieved that the Games were such a success.I'm grateful for you realistic insight.
(25 August 2012, 11:14AM) Complain about this comment
Merryn's comments were necessary despite being unwelcome, just when the euphoria was happily distracting us from the parlous state we are in economically. The argument cannot be resolved: celebration of the Olympics is an international festival which links nations around very simple aims. If that is agreed, then lavish presentation is unwarranted.
(25 August 2012, 12:07PM) Complain about this comment
Stand your ground Merryn! This was a modern version of Rome's bread and circuses run for much the same kinds of reasons - and will do the UK as a whole about as much good. And before anyone crows about all the economic "benefits", they ought to read Bastiat's story of the broken window - and think about all those businesses that didn't grow or even get off the ground at all, thanks to the taxes that paid for this £115m per medal jamboree.
(25 August 2012, 01:19PM) Complain about this comment
Were the Olympics 'worth it'?How would we know? None of the participants (spectators/contestants) directly paid for it themselves, so it's impossible to say. We are then forced into the collectivist mindset of attempting to weigh the pros and cons of supplying private goods by coercive, public means. Only when you have true price discovery - ie, people paying for things by choice - can you know if it was 'worth it' because value is subjective. And no, I'm not referring to public, non-excludable goods like policing or national 'defence' (though these have both long been hijacked by moneyed interests), I'm referring to private goods (ie, things that are excludable) which spectator sports definitely are.
(25 August 2012, 01:21PM) Complain about this comment
Were the Olympics 'worth it'? Yes, if you were a medal winner, a sport lover, or someone who benefited from the infrastructure upgrades. No, if you were a nett taxpayer, or someone on a fixed income who is watching their purchasing power being eroded by the destruction of their currency.As Voltaire noted, “In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.”
(25 August 2012, 01:31PM) Complain about this comment
“I look forward”, said one (in a sentiment echoed by many), “to your condemnation of that other flippant and unnecessarily expensive celebration, Christmas”.Many a true word is spoken in jest. Definitely scrap Christmas, please (and I'm not jesting). Give the money (you'd have spent on yourselves) to charities. Keep the shops open when they should be open. No extra traffic jams. No more overcrowded shops than normal. No more greed than normal. No more postal delays than normal etc. etc. etc...
(25 August 2012, 02:24PM) Complain about this comment
I am with Merryn 100%, fine while it lasted but what a way to dig a still deeper hole for our national financial mess & yes I am in the anti Lady Di camp as well.I fail to see how G Osborne thinks plan A will work, encouraging infrastructure projects is all very well but it is so long term it will take for ever to impact on curent finances, what is needed is a stimulus for the people who still have real, rather than borrowed, money, to go out & spend it, my first move would be to reduce VAT to 10% to try & generate a 'feeling better' sense for the populace which would in turn encourage the normal economy.
(25 August 2012, 03:50PM) Complain about this comment
The Olympic Flame. Only the British could think of turning what was effectively an overgrown nightlight into a razz-ma-tazz parade. And it was on the main news every night! What a comedy. As for the Games, they were presumably watched by many couch potatoes who will never ever have any interest in taking part in any sport themselves. How does the government equate spending so much on this extravaganza and then authorising (it was reported) selling off school playing fields for development (i.e. building)? For my part, I have never understood what is so important about running 100 metres 0.01 seconds faster than someone else. To the athletes, well done, but don't expect me to buy the products you will no doubt be paid fabulous sums to sponsor.
(25 August 2012, 04:39PM) Complain about this comment
Well Merryn, as a new subscriber to MoneyWeek your editorial on the Olympics was my introduction to the magazine. I found your comments most refreshing. We did not watch any Olympics mainly because we do not have a television and also not particularly interested in sport and all the celebrity culture that goes with it.What really shocked me was the revelation that the gold medals although "bigger than ever" were only plated with gold. I seem to remember that they were originally solid gold. How cheap can you get?Anyway great editorial; keep up the good work.
(25 August 2012, 10:58PM) Complain about this comment
When the majority of the population relies on the government for its income in one form or another - wages for government employees or social benefits - and because the main driver for politicians is re-election, populist moves such as the games will be prioritised over the need to solve our economic problems. Politicians will not make the hard decisions needed and will make ridiculous statements such as "the games came in on budget" when we know they were 300% overspent. Our model of parliamentary democracy is regrettably fundamentally flawed.
(26 August 2012, 09:00AM) Complain about this comment
Well, above all, I thoroughly enjoyed reading all these posts. It's good to know that, as a Money Week reader, I am in such good, erudite, company!I have just two observations:1) Maintain a balance in all things. Many enjoyed and were inspired by the Olympics, as was I, but how much of that enjoyment and inspiration could have been generated at less cost? Some sort of cost/benefit analysis might have thrown some light on this.2) I have no doubt the scale and depth of opinion amongst their readers may have given pause for thought to the MW team.Yes, of course, we value their independence of thought and analysis - that's why we subscribe. Surely they should always, however, subject their writings to the the cold test of relevance to the core objective: helping us all to see all the factors directly affecting the price and value of the financial instruments available to us in finding homes, however temporary, for our hard-earned cash.
(26 August 2012, 12:40PM) Complain about this comment
@ 38. mrI would have thought that anything to do with the economy is relevant. Investors (gamblers) need to assess the level of the risks involved when 'finding homes, however temporary, for their hard-earned cash'. My observation has been that as the insiders have taken more and more control of our lives so too has their control of the rigging of markets increased. Good odds for insiders.It could be that their control of markets began to backfire on them a few decades ago but manifestations of that negative feedback have not become significantly apparent until quite recently. I am now wondering, if not the fruits of a conspiracy, if what is beginning to show is evidence of a much wider loss of control.Gambling is getting riskier; including for insiders.As for the Olympics; it just goes to show the recklessness with which the powers-that-be treat the public purse. And, to me, this particular act of recklessness is merely symptomatic.Good luck.
(26 August 2012, 01:54PM) Complain about this comment
@BorisTechnically you were contradicting me, rather than me contradicting myself. Also the Sutton Trust has it was 37% of medal winners going to fee paying schools rather than the 43% you state (picking hairs I know).However, just because someone had a door open to them at school (which I did not by the way), that does not put them on a fast track to a gold medal at the olympics - they still have to work for it, and work extremely hard - hence I used the term meritocracy.I don't expect everyone to work everyday for 4 years to achieve a goal, but if you want to be the best on the planet, that is what it takes. You can then interpolate between that and a couch potato to reach your own conclusion about input vs output/achievement.Sneering at chavs! Ha. I'll slap my wrist and bow down to your self-appointed-moderator high horse!
(26 August 2012, 03:42PM) Complain about this comment
#39 Damian. I'm glad that you and the silent professional classes you consider to be "normal people" so enjoyed the Olympics. It is also encouraging that the number of medals won by the 6% who attend private schools fell from 43% to 37%. Some of the chavs must have embraced your work ethic and knuckled down for 4 years.Is this the attitude youe want in the UK? One where the toffs are seen as normal and the poor as feckless.
(26 August 2012, 05:14PM) Complain about this comment
"Thats all nice" 'Damned with faint praise' if ever I heard it!
(26 August 2012, 10:27PM) Complain about this comment
To waste one million pounds is a tragedy. To waste ten billion pounds is a statistic. The Olympics were a nice little circus and few breadwinners (even those who would rescue a poor lost little £50 note from the gutter and offer it a warm dry home in their wallet) want to think about the appalling cost.
(28 August 2012, 01:27AM) Complain about this comment
I support your original piece Merryn. The thing that turned me off was the issue of tickets for undefined events. How could any serious investor take part?
(28 August 2012, 10:05AM) Complain about this comment
@Aaron James. I agree absolutely about scaling back the Olympics, The first to go should be anything to do with horses, after all the horses don't get a medal and they are the ones that do the work. I would also broadly agree about the emphasis on athletics. There were also too many obscure cycling events. However, beach volleyball and bmx have proved to be among the most watchable of sports. The fact that Latvia received its few medals in these sports and the fact that I am of Latvian heritage are, of course, in no way connected!
(28 August 2012, 11:15AM) Complain about this comment
Ha, ha, Londonlat. On the basis that the horses do all the work (simply not the case by the way - try it sometime!) then you would exclude all sports involving any assistance given to the competitor such as archery and shooting.There was surely be some balance between skill and courage on the one hand and popularity on the other.I have no idea what the answer is but felt the need to balance up the logic.
(28 August 2012, 12:39PM) Complain about this comment
The £9.7 billion going mainly into one of the wealthiest Cities in the world should have been subject to open public debate at the start with some options on alternative investments. £10 billion equates to every UK City getting £200 million, or every county getting £100 million to spend on local schools, hospitals and public transport. If asked Jo Public may well have said let's have that money invested locally for my family and community and let France pay the £10 billion tag. The Games would have been run just as easily 100 miles away with minimal cost to UK. We may have lost a few more gongs but we would be sitting on thousands of permanent local community infrastructure services which save lives, improve our kids education and enhance everyone's quality of life . Jo Public has a right to decide. Our £10 billion should have been invested in our cash-starved vital services across the whole of the UK community. What a shame there was no debate when the initial budget fell apart.
(28 August 2012, 06:40PM) Complain about this comment
I think it was a prestige achievement for the benefit of the government to boast about to the rest of the world."Look what we have done", they will say to the other governments and those other governments most likely will do the exact same thing!So expect an even bigger jamboree in Brazil!
(30 August 2012, 10:37AM) Complain about this comment
Completely with you about the olymipcs, Merryn, and found it utterly refreshing to read your opinion on the matter. Full respect to the athletes, and some respect to the liberal values that the UK has successfully championed to the rest of the world. But really ... £12bn? what sort of science institute could have been set up with that money? I believe Said Business school cost ~£150m. £100 - £200m should have been the maximum budget for the olympics, and I view it as an enormous stimulus package for East London (vote buying) and crony capitalism.
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