Do you think the money would have been spent on the NHS had we not been awarded the Olympics?

Excellent news. Can't beat having a trophy or your photo in the paper! Just a shame we can't raze all those housing estates and turn them back into playing fields.

Not at all, its great news and if I read Seth's post correctly the Games have created 130,000 paid jobs during the events - fantastic news.

What do we do in September ?

i don't know, £10,000,000,000 is a lot of money, some of it could have been spent on the NHS, some could have gone towards getting every child of school age to have a face-to-face personal interview with David Beckham in order to inspire them with the equivalent of an Olympic Games style fervour for sport, there would probably have been enough left in the pot to buy them all a skipping rope too, and then some.

You could work it out really easily yourself, just google the number of UK taxpayers, deduct Jimmy Carr and Phillip Green from the number, and then divide into £9,600,000,000.

As far as JSA is concerned, no-one should be asked to work in order to receive JSA, indeed if an individual decides that they can work (even for free) whilst in receipt of JSA then they'll find themselves in deep trouble - you're even supposed to declare when you go away to visit relatives for a few days or go on holiday.

Its Job Seekers Allowance, max £65 per week to pay the expenses incurred when looking for work, pays for bus fares to interviews, a clean shirt, that sort of thing but its absolutely dependant on you actively seeking work and the theory goes that if you are already working somewhere then you are not actively seeking work and should not be claiming the benefit.

Always has been thus and for a government to start requesting job seekers to work for their job seekers allowance would be / is (because its already happening) a national disgrace - you can't prosecute jobseekers for doing the same thing that HM Gov is requesting them to do, its either not permissible or it is permissible .

I'll be taking a trip to Germany, moaning about the build up of traffic now the kids are back at school and reflecting upon a wonderful summer of sport.

You?

Wouldnt the X Billions of pounds spent on the olympics be better spent on re building our manufacturing industry and creating new jobs to get people off benefits, more affordable housing for first time buyers and not reducing the amount of workers in the NHS and emergency services.

That said I dont think anyone could have predicted how much we are in when we actually decided to bid for the games back in 2005 or whenever it was (although im sure we pay people to do exactly that). At that point the economy was booming.

Ok, I did. Top search result was [url=http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080410050121AAMgjSbJust over 60 million[/url. It's rough and ready and not authoratative but it was your suggestion. Anyway, using that as a refence it's £150 a head for the tax payers.

That's fine with me. Money well spent. Of course, the figures you throw around are just the cost. They don't take into account income from sponsorship and ticket sales, tax earned from jobs created and money spent. The cost to me, if there is one, could be much much less.

Thanks for clarifying. Like I said, I've no idea how the benefits system works having only ever been fortunate enough to be a contributor to it. rather than claim from it.

I note your views about what Claimants should. or more importantly, shouldn't, have to do to receive a benefit my taxes pay for.

The actual cost to the tax payer is also closer to 7bn too, so that would be around £116.

That's almost what Bulls supporters were asked to pledge to keep afloat an insolvent private company for a couple of months before inevitable administration, for a little perspective.

Add the fact that we've not been asked to immediately caugh up our £116, (it's more likely equivalent to £5 a month for 2 years) and what's the fuss! I'll happily pay another £10 a month for others if I didn't have to hear their moaning.

Climbing the Yorkshire three peaks and then celebrating my birthday, again.

Not my views, the actual law - i thought thats what you did for a living in between your meal breaks ?

Thats very magnanimous, how do we arrange this and are you willing to pay for more than two people who don't want to contribute ?

Go on, its not like your job doesn't depend on it.

You pay for me for something I don't like, I'll pay for you for something you don't like, we're all happy then!

"The Law" can be a very fluid concept.

"thats what I did". The Law. Break it? enforce it? Practice it? Make it?

I'll let you into a secret. Nobody actually knows what i do for a living. I just happened to occupy a desk in a solicitor's firm 25 years ago and have never left. Before the Internet got invented I took lunches, played solitaire and went to the loo with a copy of Razzle for hours on end.

Now and try and convince miserable auld buggahs on the Internet to cheer up and enjoy the Olympics.

It certainly is when its HM Gov that are deciding to break their own rules.

You decide to do some free work for someone while you're on JSA - you're in court.

You want JSA ? HM Gov wants you to do some free work for it to keep "Outraged of Basildon" happy

Hypocrites.

Well I would argue that building say a new airport or hospital would create many on-going permanent jobs as against temporary very short term jobs of the sort a 2 week even like the Olympics can produce. The construction industry jobs for both projects are "real" enough and of equal benefit.

Or if the money had been invested in R&D it would IMO create more real jobs for long into the future.



Suggesting that you prefer to spend/waste (delete as appropriate) public funds on the Olympics rather than a War(s) is an odd sort of a point to try and justify this extravangance.

Good knowledge, the event is actually a total of 28 days.

I do understand people having concerns, though not at all the overriding negativity for some who are not at all enthusiastic about the biggest sports competition in the world coming to our country. Im going to stop caring too, it's terribly British to pull to pieces anything positive and those that the occasion passes by, it's a shame.

The Olympic torch came to our event today with the kids wide eyed and open mouthed to see and touch it, the inspiring torch barer gave a great talk too, power of the Olympic Games right there!

Do you think that construction jobs relating to the Olympic project have really lasted two weeks?

Can you remember the date we won the Olympic bid, the date construction projects began and the date the Olympics will finish?

A great many construction industry jobs have been created by the Olympics.


a bit like suggesting the money would be better spent/wasted on an airport. Where will you be putting this airport? Which companies will be flying out of it? Where will they be flying to? What will be the green impact?

Very many real jobs have been created as a result of the Olympic bids over several years. Much of the funding has come from corporate sponsorship and ticket sales, money that wouldn't have existed for your new fictional airport.

The Olympic village and other areas will also be developed into affordable housing, which is as im told very much needed in the area.

[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ouch/2012/06/news_round-up_the_inspirationa.html[/url
Between 18 May and 27 July, Eight thousand torchbearers, each nominated by someone they know as "truly inspirational", will each take their turn to carry the flame for part of the journey. And there's no shortage of disabled people getting involved.

This week, the BBC reported that the first torchbearer on Welsh soil was Gareth John MBE, chairman of Disability Sport Wales and that Mia Rathband, daughter to blinded police officer PC David Rathband, will take his place in the relay.



[urlhttp://www.london2012.com/torch-relay/torchbearers/torchbearers=allannah-mccready-116/[/url
My daughter Allannah 21 is an absolute inspiration. Born with a complex congenital condition & very poor prognosis she has battled the odds. She walked when she shouldn't have walked, talked when she shouldn't have and fought every step of the way to live her life to the full inspiring us to do the same. As one example, when we signed up to be permanent foster carers she underwent training so she could fully support us to care for the two new additions to our family. She has worked continuously now returning to college to study social care in order to support other young adults with disabilities because she understands the challenges they face and wants to support them. Allannah is a successful member of a local disability swimming club winning 4 gold medals at the national championships. She wanted to give something back so underwent training earlier this year to coach young disabled swimmers.



[urlhttp://www.london2012.com/torch-relay/torchbearers/spotlight=courtney-limb/index.html[/urlCourtney Limb, 14, from Lincoln was selected through the Coca-Cola Future Flames programme and will carry the Flame through Bracebridge Heath.

Courtney has Type 1 Diabetes but this does not stop her fulfilling her passion of all sports. Her dream is to represent England Ladies and is currently an elite player for Lincoln Ladies Centre of Excellence.

[urlhttp://www.london2012.com/torch-relay/torchbearers/torchbearers=eric-cooper-874/index.html[/url
Eric is 86 years of age and registered blind. He is a war veteran; he has 1 daughter and 2 grandchildren. He was registered blind in 1987 and is truly an inspiration to all who meet him. He for a number of years has tirelessly fundraised for a number of charities. For the last 4 years he has run in the Sheffield Fun Run for Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind and on the 15th May he did a 160 metre zip slide for the charity. He wears an army uniform from his regiment or all the events and when he ran into Don Valley Stadium to finish the fun run this year everyone stood and applauded him. There have been 6 press release and 2 radio interviews on him over the last month. He is an amazing and well loved guy whose phrase is if 'You rest you rust'


There are eight thousand other "media bull inspired non events". I'd invite all the cynics and miserable old gits to spend some time reading them.

The torch bearer at our schools event today talked about the charity he set up building schools in Africa, they now have 900 African children accessing free school where they didn't before, inspirational guy.

Did you walk away thinking it was a "non event" created by "media bullting"?

Absolutely, I though that just as i wiped a tear away.