London to bid for the Olympics - No thanks.

Great Debates
1

There is a lot of debate in Britain, and London in particular, as to whether London should bid for the 2012 Olympics. There is no overwhelming consensus yet.

However I am against us bidding. Here’s why:
“It will put London on the map”:

We are already on the bloody map! There are three world-class cities in the world – London, Paris, New York, these do not need putting on the map.

I think that the Olympics may have value in this regard to second rank cities like Barcelona and Sydney, but for the top rank – it’s not necessary.
“It will Bring in visitors”:

The last thing that London needs is more visitors. It’s bulging at the seams. There aren’t enough hotel rooms etc to deal with any more. Never mind the infrastructure.

I know the argument against this says that new hotels will be built, infrastructure will be upgraded etc. So what happens after the games have gone? We have empty hotel rooms, and railways to nowhere (has anyone used North Greenwich tube station since the Dome closed?).

“It will improve infrastructure”:

And by golly we need it. But we don’t need it in SE London (which is full of diddicoys and lowlifes). It’s the infrastructure in proper London that needs improving, and the games won’t do this, but the money we would spunk on them would.

There is also an argument that it will improve SE London. This simply can’t be done. Sorry. No one wants to live there, and building a shiny new bicycle stadium isn’t going to change the fact that the place is full of morlocks.

And there’s no point in trying to improve anywhere else, there isn’t enough space.

I understand that the Sydney stadium is already a white elephant. What are we going to do with an SE London mega-bowl? Put West Ham in it?
We have a labour government and a labour mayor:

This means that there is absolutely no possibility of it coming in on time and on budget. They’ll have to have the swimming in the Thames while Ken and Tony try to open a half finished swimming pool in Plaistow.
There is also no chance of Tony and Ken working together (they loathe one another heartily).

There is also a culture of incompetence in this government that meant that we had to give back the World Athletics Championships in 2003, as we couldn’t organise a running track and a sand pit.
The Olympics are crap:

Well they are aren’t they? The athletics is groovy but that’s about it. The rest of the sports are pony. Greco-roman wrestling, rhythmic gymnastics, weightlifting etc.

These aren’t sports we Brits would cross the road to watch, never mind trek out to Plumstead to watch.

Get somewhere else to pay for them as a civic phallic symbol, and I’ll watch them on the telly.
So does anyone want the Olympics? If so why?

What about foreigners? What do you all think?

2

Understood. Best to leave it to a city that would like to display itself as a tourist atraction ala Atlanta and perhaps Sidney.

3

Please explain your use of this word.

4

What? LA and San Francisco are backwater burgs to you?

5

Agreed, the idea of having the Olympics here is completely laughable. Not only do we not have anything like enough space, but even if we did you can bet your last penny that this is what would happen :

2003 Many millions of taxpayers’ pounds given to armies of accountants and lawyers working on behalf of gov’t and construction companies so that contracts can be drawn up.

2005 Work begins on multiple large-scale construction projects costing many billions of pounds, at least twice what Sydney spent on the entire event.

2009 All contracts run late and over budget by at least 80%, some as high as 300%. Many extra billions of pounds end up given to construction companies (who immediately pay it out in shareholder dividends), and countless more millions to the armies of accountants & lawyers who will argue the issues for both sides at great expense until doomsday.

2012 Olympics is complete disaster and Britain an international laughing stock. Special multi-million pound payments are made to all directors of all private companies involved as bonuses for the ‘risks’ they took in doing the work.

6

Well… I can name quite a few Norwegians who think Lillehammer should bid for the Winter Olympics again. Count me among them. Sure, it was a hassle, but it was also the best excuse we’ve had for a party in ages, and it lasted for two whole weeks!

But that’s the Winter Games. The Summer Games, though, no, my god you’d have to be mad. Too big, too political, too many events, too many athletes and press droids and spectators and did I mention too freaking HUGE?

7

Personally, I do not like sports (Any) and I am an american (Male none-the-less). I believe this whole Olympic’s thing needs to stop. It seems like a waste of time and everything. Some of the sports people like, alot of them no one gives half a cent about. Either they need to remove it or ‘Edit’ out the sports no one cares about (Do an International Poll or something and see how the numbers fare). Just my ideas. Seems like a huge waste of time, effort, and money in the long run.

As for the location, I’d say give it to people who actully want it and are capable of hosting it.

Just my 2 cents about this matter

8

Because Sport is all about the viewer, not the talent needed by the sports people to be the best in the world at your event.

9

Owl wrote:

“There are 52 acceptable positions.” — Pinneli in Biloxi Blues

10

FWIW, I don’t think London’s world class, although I never saw a morlock throughout the time I lived in Bow. (I’d also be careful of your use of the word “didicoy” unless your deliberate intention was to associate Romany descent with undesirability.)

Nor New York, and certainly not LA, although I think San Fran and Sydney are nice. I’d say Barcelona beats all of them by a long shot, but still sits behind Bangkok and Tokyo in the World Class City rankings.

11

Logic tells me that the Olympic games should be in Greece - permanently. We have television these days.

Self-interest says Barcelona:

  • they were easily the best Games I’ve ever seen;
  • Barcelona’s in my time zone;
  • the weather’s nicer there than in East London;
  • the beaches are better too;
  • so’s the food;
  • it’s probably just as easy these days to get from Glasgow or Belfast to Barcelona as it is to get to East London.
12

Me too.

As someone who used to live in Plumstead and now lives near Crystal Palace Sports Centre, I can’t decide whether that makes me a Morlock, a lowlife, or a diddicoy. Hell, I don’t even know what a diddicoy is.

<checks fridge for Eloi>

Nope – must be a lowlife then.

I hear Wimbledon FC is still looking for a home. Let’s see, that would give them… about 12,000 seats per each home supporter. Lots of leg room that way.

Heh. I remember looking at a project plan for the infrastructure development for the Commonwealth Games that gave a completion date of 2005 for the rail links. This would be the Commonwealth Games held last year.

Why single out this government? It’s not like the Tories could organize a pissup in a brewery.

I dunno. Any nation that will watch televised darts, curling, snooker, sheep herding and (worst of all) cricket is hardly in a position to turn its nose up at a few wrestlers.

Or you could just go into the City and look at Norman Foster’s latest monstrosity.

That would be a big Mr. NO.

God, no – we don’t want any of them either.

13

In my manor diddicoy (and diddy and indeed pikey) = lowlife in general, underclass type. Not deliberately offensive to gypsies.

14

Or members of the morlock community.