What did you do when the Olympic Torch passed by?

[Gareth Hughes]

A little strong language, but opinions no stronger than have been doing the rounds here of late:

http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2012/08/13/we-want-the-old-you-back-–-an-open-letter-to-britain/

 

[FamilyWiggs]

New MORI poll finds just one person in sample of 1,007 who did not believe London 2012 had been a success. bit.ly/NAVkJZ

Was it you Biff? Preumably Lime was out at the time they called. :wink:

 

[biffvernon]

Don't be daft. It was a success on all sorts of levels, though one really needs to define what success means and for whom. I personally know a couple of people who earned a tidy sum out of it.

My point, if you care to go back to the early part of the thread, was that it should not have involved the corporate sponsors. They detracted much and added little. I expect a Mori poll would come to similar conclusions.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

My point, if you care to go back to the early part of the thread, was that it should not have involved the corporate sponsors. They detracted much and added little. I expect a Mori poll would come to similar conclusions.

"Detracted much and added little"???

Just a little bit of balance and a few pesky facts are required biff. Irksome I know, but that is real life for you. :roll:

McDonalds are a corporate sponsor. I'm sure you think they are evil. Certainly they sell some horrible food, but I have been known to eat it. I doubt I'd like all of their corporate practices - but they employ and feed an awful lot of people in the UK.

London 2012 were the first games to use a commercial partner to train volunteers. McDonalds do an awful lot of staff training for their employees to work in a fast-paced, customer facing environment. They are good at training large numbers of people and have good facilties to do this.

No doubt that is one of the key reasons LOCOG turned to them to recruit and train 70,000 Gamesmakers.

The Gamesmakers are universally acclaimed to have been a resounding success and exceptionally welcoming hosts - and at least part of this must have been down to the recruitment and leadership & customer service training they received. They're being offered the chance to convert their training into City & Guilds Level 2 Award in the Principles of Customer Service to help secure an employability legacy. Those who complete that scheme are guaranteed an interview for one of Ronald's apprenticeships. Yep, McDs are one of the largest providers of apprenticeships to young people in the UK. Sorry if this doesn't fit the picture of them as evil ratbags.

I reckon the MORI pollees would have taken a more pragmatic view of McDonald's coporate sponsorship and contribution to the Games success, if they were presented with this picture, rather than your simple "they're corporate, so they must be on the take" caricature.

Big business is not just evil Biff (although is not entirely good either). MiLady called you on Dow and their wind energy division the other day, Gareth called you on your misrepresentation of news coverage of the bike protest, and I've now called you on McDonalds and corporate sponsors "adding little and detracting much". Please try and be more balanced and evidence your assertions. Thanks.

 

[Flyfisher]

All this talk of corporate devilry reminds me of a joke:

McDonalds manages to arrange a meeting with the Pope at the Vatican.

After receiving the Papal blessing, the McDonalds official whispers 'Your Eminence, we have an offer for you. McDonalds is prepared to donate $100 million to the church if you change the Lord's Prayer from 'give us this day our daily bread' to 'give us this day our daily burger.'

The Pope responds, 'That is impossible. The prayer is the word of the Lord. It must not be changed.'

'Well,' said the McDonalds man, 'we anticipated your reluctance. For this reason we will increase our offer to $300 million.'

'My son, it is impossible. For the prayer is the word of the Lord and it must not be changed.'

The McDonalds guy says, 'Your Holiness, we at McDonalds respect your adherence to the faith, but we do have one final offer…. We will donate $500 million - that's half a billion dollars - to the great Catholic Church if you would only change the Lord's Prayer from 'give us this day our daily bread' to 'give us this day our daily burger.' Please consider it.'

And he leaves.

The next day the Pope convenes the College of Cardinals.

'There is some good news,' he announces, 'and some bad news. The good news is that the Church will come into $500 million.'

'And the bad news your Holiness?' asks a Cardinal.

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'We're losing the Hovis account.'

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I have to admit that apart from the opening and closing ceremonies, and slightly less than ten seconds when some people did some very fast runnings, I have watched hardly any of the Olympics coverage with deliberate intent, so my view of it is derived from those three events, a few TV news reports, and what happened to intrude into the corner of my eye.

BUT...

I really didn't notice much, if any, visible evidence of a takeover by the commercial sponsors. I'm not saying commercial sponsorship is good or bad, just that it didn't seem very obvious. That may have been a different matter for people who were actually there (though I hear from some who were that a wide range of refreshments was available - at what were reported to be "typical London prices", ie too much but not outrageous, and indeed that it was quite difficult to find a McDonald's, but easy to find the free water fountains at which bottles could be filled).

Adidas, who were sponsoring, seem less evident in the general cloud of Olympicness than Nike, who weren't.

I still think the whole thing was a colossal waste of money, of course, but then I'd have preferred to see nine billion wasted on on an arts festival that the sport lovers wouldn't want to care about or engage in.

 

[Flyfisher]

£9bn is certainly a lot of money, but put alongside all the other government spending, it's not actually all that much - even more so when you consider it was spent over many years. For example, motorists alone contribute about £38bn to the treasury each year.

Another way of looking at it is that £9bn is about £140 per person in the UK or only about £20 per person per year for the past 7 years since we won the bid for London 2012. So, for the price of a couple of bottles of wine each year, we could host a similar event every seven years. In that context, it's little more than 'throwaway' money, such are the truly staggering sums that government spends each year.

 

[Lime]

£9bn is certainly a lot of money, but put alongside all the other government spending, it's not actually all that much - even more so when you consider it was spent over many years. For example, motorists alone contribute about £38bn to the treasury each year.

Another way of looking at it is that £9bn is about £140 per person in the UK or only about £20 per person per year for the past 7 years since we won the bid for London 2012. So, for the price of a couple of bottles of wine each year, we could host a similar event every seven years. In that context, it's little more than 'throwaway' money, such are the truly staggering sums that government spends each year.

Oh! I love it!
£9,000,000,000 isn't all that much!
LOL, LMAO & LSHTTARDML followed by ROFLAPMP.
Obviously you must be a treasury advisor because your justification was even funnier.

 

[Flyfisher]

I'm pleased to have brightened up your day.

If you wish to take things out of context then of course it's a lot of money and I believe I said as much, but when you've eventually stopped rolling around with laughter and regained your composure, the relative figures will still remain.

Government budget expenditure figures for the past seven years since we won London 2012:

2012 - £682bn
2011 - £711bn
2010 - £697bn
2009 - £671bn
2008 - £681bn
2007 - £587bn

I make that £4029bn, which makes the Olympics spend look fairly insignificant in the scheme of things. Perhaps we should more concerned about what the other £4020bn was spent on?

But we can all pick and choose our preferred things to spend and save on. The last I heard, the proposed Trident nuclear deterrent replacement was going to cost about $20bn with annual running costs of about 1.5bn. Those running costs alone would fund London 2012. I know which I'd rather have.

 

[tobydog]

I know I'll probably regret dipping my toe in this pond, however, how much are we expected to get back in overall revenues from all sources in the end? I realise some of these are hard numbers and others are estimates.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I posted somewhere back in the early pages in this thread some departmental spending stats.

The 2 weeks of the Olympics cost about the same as 2 weeks of all types of welfare spending, if I recall. I haven't gone back and checked, so biff can call me on it if I am wrong! 8)

2 weeks of olympics for the same as 2 weeks of welfare spending - with all the downstream benefits of the olympics spend. I know which I'd prefer - but of course it'snot an either/or situation; we spent the Olympics money and did all the usual stuff too.

Notwithstanding the tourism gain over future years, I have no doubt most of our embassies around the world are having trade seminars and missions extolling British expertise and products in many many fields.

It was a trimuph in many respects.

Good.

I can't wait for the Paralympics... and have tickets to go down see some athletics and spend a day with the family in the Olympic Park. I am also doing a sponsored bike ride with Graham in October to support the disabled athlete friend of his he wrote about. Maybe someof you will sponsor us and help him.

It's just a shame Graham got fed up with the negativity earlier in the thread and hasn't posted since. I wish he'd come back. His expertise on the forum is missed.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

£9bn is certainly a lot of money, but put alongside all the other government spending, it's not actually all that much - even more so when you consider it was spent over many years. For example, motorists alone contribute about £38bn to the treasury each year.

Another way of looking at it is that £9bn is about £140 per person in the UK or only about £20 per person per year for the past 7 years since we won the bid for London 2012. So, for the price of a couple of bottles of wine each year, we could host a similar event every seven years. In that context, it's little more than 'throwaway' money, such are the truly staggering sums that government spends each year.

Oh! I love it!
£9,000,000,000 isn't all that much!
LOL, LMAO & LSHTTARDML followed by ROFLAPMP.
Obviously you must be a treasury advisor because your justification was even funnier.

Absolutely right Lime - you've hit the nail on the head. £9bn is a truly piffling amount. About 0.2% of total government expenditure overthe period.

I've just worked out what 0.2% is of our family budget.... it's about what we spend on margarine as a family.

So there you go - the Olympics cost less than a tub of margarine. Thanks for pointing it out. Most helpful.

 

[Feltwell]

I'm currently on holiday not too far from Weymouth. Whatever the overall efffect of the Olympics, it''s certainly not popular with traders down here - lots of reports of takings being 30 - 40 % down over the Olympics, as lots of tourists- ourselves included - stayed away over fears of congestion. The oppoisite turned out to be true - it was "absolutely dead"l , to quote one local I spoke to.

Some tourists will come afterwards instead, as we have - but how many more just stayed away completely?

No matter how wonderful having the Olympics is, previous venues reported a drop in tourism which took a long time to recover - why should we see anything different?

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Yes - I've seen similar reports. The Olympics is big TV business, but less so for personal visitors. As I've said throughout, it's a balance.

Weymouth has had 2 weeks of excellent publicity the world over... that's got to be a good thing for tourism at home and abroad. Not to mention the construction and operational spend before and during the games.

 

[Zebra]

I've just worked out what 0.2% is of our family budget.... it's about what we spend on margarine as a family.

Gosh really? I spend at least 50% of my household budget on margarine.

I don't know much about this Olympic legacy, but I can tell you watching it on the television has really got me inspired to watch more television.

 

[Feltwell]

Yes - I've seen similar reports. The Olympics is big TV business, but less so for personal visitors. As I've said throughout, it's a balance.

Weymouth has had 2 weeks of excellent publicity the world over... that's got to be a good thing for tourism at home and abroad. Not to mention the construction and operational spend before and during the games.

Hmm - bit optimistic there I suspect Robin. **May** be true for Weymouth itself - although frankly I'm a bit sceptical on that given the reports from past venues - but certainly not true for the surrounding area. For example - Corfe Castle, which we're camped very close to - the NT staff told me they have been extremely quiet, and that must be at least 45 mins / 25 miles from Weymouth.

Claim the Olympics to be a resounding success by all means, but I wouldn't do so on economic grounds.

Howver, I shoud add that I enjoyed it, and I do not have a single sporty bone in my body!

Interesting to now see that footballers are getting flak for their pay & behaviour both on &off pitch in comparison to the Team GB athletes....

 

[FamilyWiggs]

We werecamping in the Lake District for the first week - place was nice and quiet. I suspect many people were at home watching it rather than going out to NT properties or other places.

I guess the same happens when we do well in a football world cup?

 

[LadyArowana]

I guess the same happens when we do well in a football world cup?

Which is of course approximately, what, maybe once every 50+ years ?

 

[Feltwell]

:lol:

That's optimistic I'd say - especially if FW has started following the Welsh team!

I'm sure football has some effect, but it can't be as great as the Olympics.

 

[worms]

I don't know much about this Olympic legacy, but I can tell you watching it on the television has really got me inspired to watch more television.

:lol: