OLYMPICS(London Calling)

Must admit i feel very very sorry for the Frogs very very sorry. Tears are running down my leg

Pissing ones self-laughing isn?t very British!
If only they had fishing as an Olympic sport we could beat the Frogs again.

Glad we beat Paris to the games.
Just hope it doesn't turn into a 'white elephant' and cost us all loads more tax.

I hope it is a 'mega' success. I know a lot of people have put a lot of time and effort into the bidding process.

Just realised that me and the missus will qualify for low cost OAP tickets by then.

I bet they make them so expensive that we end up with another "Dome".

It's about time they sorted out London's transport system. It was much more efficient in the 60s.

Mind you now they will have to.

I think it'll be great.

I just saw Ken Livingstoke saying how teh East End of London was the poorest part of Britain. I can imagine there's some people in Glasgow, Liverpool, South Wales, the North East and even round here (South Yorkshire) who might disagree with him on that.

I just wish some money would get spent elsewhere too (especially around here.)

Still, it'll be a memorable spectacle and will benefit the country and sport as a whole.

Just think lads no more square cheese to go with their square onions

I doubt we would end up with another "dome" in terms of tickets. The Olympics is huge and I am sure tickets will be difficult to get. I think the "dome" analogy could be true though for after the event.

I dont know how they are financing themselves but I am sure some is "written off" as future facilities investment. My question is are they sure they will be able to run the new facilities without further Government funding afterwards?

Anyway, I am sure that will be asked in the future, so for the time being I would like to say.........

"Thankyou Mr Chirac for probably supplying the swing votes for us at the death. After your imbecilic comments, a large number of ealderly Britons who risked their lives for your country felt let down by your comments. But who is laughing now??"

I am not a great fan of Mr Blairs policies, but you have to hand it to him, at least he handles himself properly (or is just plain slippery!).

Now, must be off to phone some French colleagues.....

Looks like Agincourt all over again!!

They should wave a union flag with the two finger salute in the middle

call me unpatriotic,call me a sour puss etc....i dont care.
why should it take the olympic games coming to london for the government and local authorities to make a desparately needed overhaul of the tube system,the railway network etc....
why should it take the olympics coming to london for the government and local authorities to build new sporting centres and arenas,to encourage our children to take up sporting past times and lead a more healthy,active life.
this government has ripped us off left,right and centre with its taxation policies....all these things should be here already,payed for with our hard earned dosh!!!
our railway network is an absolute joke....tracks are crumbling away,trains are forever being delayed etc...ticket prices are a scandal and alot of trains are over crowded.
only the other morning,i heard on the radio that its being suggested that londons underground network should be closed down for a total of 10 years while urgent repairs and rebuilding etc is carried out.now you can read into that what you want but i say,how long before there is a major accident with alot of fatalities under the streets of london???
as for the roads in and around london....
the m25 and the north circular can at best be described as shite!!!
i`m afraid that the only people this is going to benefit are the future labour government and the labour backed mayor of london that will no doubt be in power when the olympic cicus arrives in town.
congestion charges have just gone up by 60%,labour are proposing a pay as you drive scheme and have put aside i believe 18 million pounds for some local authorities to trial it already!!!i wonder if it will be brought in properly after the olympics have gone???
one other thing,good old red ken has said that the olympic village will be used as housing after the athletes have buggered off....i wonder how many eastern european immigrants and assylum seekers have been earmarked to live there???

sorry,forgot to mention that the only good thing to come out of this shambles is that weve beaten the bloody french!!!

Nick - there is a lot of infrastructure investment going in to it.

In the perfect world you would hope that putting in a proper infrastructure for sport should be a given anyway. Sadly its not, so why I am really happy is that it may just be the kick start it needs. Lets hope so.

And while it is Government backed, it is only partly funded through tax, so IF managed properly, it should benefit us.

I think its brilliant !!

Lets lobby for fishing as a "demonstration" sport !!

I would find it interesting to read some comments from people that live in London?

Can someone from Sheffield (I think) remind me why "World Student Games","White Elephant", and "Oh,dear, here we go again" keep bubbling up in my brain?

World student games is minor league compared to the Olympics !!

Malc - I live in London, family from East End, and it is long, long overdue. I tell you, while many cities suffered, the East took the brunt of the blitz and yet very little has been done to re-generate the area.

So as long as they benefit, I think its fantastic news for them. Lets face it, only one area could benefit out of the process, so why not be positive about it?

Roast them if they f... up, but lets hope its is a roaring success.........

T - Shirts for sale..1 Euro each, Paris 2012 logo,..contact M Chirac. :0)

Nick King - you have expressed my every thought on the subject. Anyone living in Stratford now who thinkis they'll be living in that area come 2012 is on another planet. And come 2015 or some such year after the Olympics we will all be saying 'I thought they were going to sort out the transport system in London for the Olympics' as we all realise that somewhere along the line some dubious fat cats and their companies have made fortunes out of this so called 'good news' but not actually delivered what the public think ther are going to get. Come 2011 I'll wager that the government will have to be rescuing the whole palava with a donation of ?200-300m.

The public at large are too fixated on the frontline news of london being awarded the games but I wonder how many (including those on this thread)know just how drastically the Sports Council cut funding to our athletic and Olympic sports bodies following what was a generally poor Athens showing? I don't have the full figures but some sports have been cutback by up 75%! All this crap being spouted about 'how wonderful for the kids' and 'how great for all the future athletes' is ridiculous talk - come 2012 there may well be not enough British athletes to compete at the right level with this much much lower level of funding.

If the French had been awarded the games then they could have had the woryy of getting it right and needing more funding and we could have invested more heavily and properly in grass roots levels of ALL sport! That way we may have some semblance of a medal all at those games!

I would like to treat those Froggies to some good old British food Chicken Tikka Massalla Chicken Korma Peking Duck and some sour grapes for afters

Im from Sheffield and we are still paying for the failed student games and no doubt we will be paying for the next forty years for this lot

Nick, you're right.

However it's easier for governments to spend the amount of time and money on this with public and cross party political backing. Now this is in place it's much easier for them to do all the things they should be doing anyway.

Governments are shackled by the fact that taking unpopular, but often necessary descisions will often see them ousted from power.

How many people would give up their cars for instance? We all know cars are bad for the environment to the point were it's not infinately sustainable.