London 2012 - worth it?

Fed up talking videogames? Why?

Worth it?

Yes
40
80%
No
10
20%
 
Total votes: 50
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floydfreak
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PostRe: London 2012 - worth it?
by floydfreak » Fri Jul 26, 2013 5:35 pm

I wasn't that bothered about it but after seeing the torch relay and then the opening ceremony i really got into watching the events. I wanted to get tickets for the rowing as that was close to where i live but never got tickets in the end wish i did now.

bear
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PostRe: London 2012 - worth it?
by bear » Fri Jul 26, 2013 5:48 pm

BID0 wrote:
bear wrote:The main Olympic stadium has turned out to be a bit of a lemon but apart from that have any of the other facilities been considered failures?

The Olympic park is amazing :| it's fantastic for music festivals.


I did specifically say the stadium and like I said to Peter the amount of extra cash required to refit the stadium due to poor planning originally makes it a lemon as far as I'm concerned.

I thought the Olympics was great to watch but it didn't cost me a penny so it was easy for me to enjoy it.

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Dowbocop
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PostRe: London 2012 - worth it?
by Dowbocop » Fri Jul 26, 2013 6:25 pm

Cal wrote:I was living in London at the time of the build-up to the games and, as such, I was subjected to an increase in my Poll Tax to pay for the damned thing. I wasn't asked and I wasn't given an opt-out - the money was just stolen off me for an event I had no interest in and never intended viewing in the slightest. I couldn't refuse to pay for it without risking a court appearance.

How many other tax-funded expenditures have you been given an "opt-out" of? The £90bn in EU regulation you mentioned the other day in the politics thread? Green subsidies? You can quite reasonably hold the opinion that the Olympics were too expensive, but claiming that tax for something you don't personally like is tantamount to theft isn't reasonable.
Cal wrote:So it was for many thousands of Londoners who were forced to pay for something that started out as a New Labour vanity project and ended up a cheesy, distasteful Cameron smug-fest.

Many thousands out of how many taxpayers? I'm aware that "many thousands" is a very rough estimate to demonstrate that it's not just you who felt that the money was wasted, but it's a meaningless figure without comparing it to the number of people who were quite happy to pay for it (or at least weren't completely up in arms about it).
Cal wrote:The subsequent two weeks of people running about winning medals completely passed me by. Thank God. :lol:

So you spent seven years bitching about it and then ignored the best part. No wonder you think it was a waste of money :lol:

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Moggy
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PostRe: London 2012 - worth it?
by Moggy » Fri Jul 26, 2013 6:36 pm

Rex Kramer wrote:The worst thing about the Olympics for me was the dawning realisation that I don't actually live in Danny Boyle's Britain, I live in Cal's Britain. :(


:lol:

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Cal
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PostRe: London 2012 - worth it?
by Cal » Fri Jul 26, 2013 6:39 pm

Dowbocop wrote:How many other tax-funded expenditures have you been given an "opt-out" of? The £90bn in EU regulation you mentioned the other day in the politics thread? Green subsidies? You can quite reasonably hold the opinion that the Olympics were too expensive, but claiming that tax for something you don't personally like is tantamount to theft isn't reasonable.


Of course it's reasonable. I think the forum is well-aware of my views on both the EU and 'green subsidies' - both theft as far as I'm concerned. I wasn't asked if I wanted to pay for wind turbines, but every month I'm robbed by my energy providers through my energy bills to pay for such utter nonsense. And all of us are paying - whether we like it or not - for the wretched EU. Just stop and think what £90bn pa coming back into the UK economy could do for infrastructure, services, etc. It's a disgrace and one that I certainly don't find reasonable at all.

The fact that London 2012 was a one-off two week event which took the best part of seven years of taxpayer investment to realise makes the whole thing even more of a wasteful charade. Sure, it was great for a multitude of businesses and services who piled in to grab their share of the £9bn largesse our government so generously doled out, but for the average taxpayer..? I see no reason to change my view that it was at best a hugely expensive folly, at worst a shameful waste of unimaginable amounts of money that could have been much better spent elsewhere.

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Moggy
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PostRe: London 2012 - worth it?
by Moggy » Fri Jul 26, 2013 7:01 pm

We all agree and disagree on at least one thing tax money is spent on. Either all tax is theft or no tax is theft.

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Tafdolphin
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PostRe: London 2012 - worth it?
by Tafdolphin » Fri Jul 26, 2013 7:49 pm

What it must be like to be Cal. My my. All of life, one huge annoyance.

Have you ever tried hard drugs Calvin? You should. You really should.

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Dowbocop
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PostRe: London 2012 - worth it?
by Dowbocop » Fri Jul 26, 2013 7:58 pm

Cal wrote:
Dowbocop wrote:How many other tax-funded expenditures have you been given an "opt-out" of? The £90bn in EU regulation you mentioned the other day in the politics thread? Green subsidies? You can quite reasonably hold the opinion that the Olympics were too expensive, but claiming that tax for something you don't personally like is tantamount to theft isn't reasonable.


Of course it's reasonable. I think the forum is well-aware of my views on both the EU and 'green subsidies' - both theft as far as I'm concerned. I wasn't asked if I wanted to pay for wind turbines, but every month I'm robbed by my energy providers through my energy bills to pay for such utter nonsense. And all of us are paying - whether we like it or not - for the wretched EU. Just stop and think what £90bn pa coming back into the UK economy could do for infrastructure, services, etc. It's a disgrace and one that I certainly don't find reasonable at all.

The fact that London 2012 was a one-off two week event which took the best part of seven years of taxpayer investment to realise makes the whole thing even more of a wasteful charade. Sure, it was great for a multitude of businesses and services who piled in to grab their share of the £9bn largesse our government so generously doled out, but for the average taxpayer..? I see no reason to change my view that it was at best a hugely expensive folly, at worst a shameful waste of unimaginable amounts of money that could have been much better spent elsewhere.

Just like I didn't want to pay a penny towards that quasi-state funeral earlier this year. But the government didn't steal my money, they just wasted it :lol:

I also picked those examples for a very good reason - we can all agree that the Olympics did something positive for this country. Even you said above that it was good for related businesses, and if nothing else it made millions of people happy. So compared to things like the EU and green subsidies* the the Olympics wasn't that bad a deal.

Furthermore, looking at this chart of Olympic funding, 9.3bn isn't a truly accurate figure of wasted taxes. £2.2bn of that came from lottery funding (not taxes) and a further £40m came from Sport England (surely part of their remit, no?).

*which I would guess from your post history that you see as thoroughly useless, although this isn't the right thread for those discussions!

Skippy
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PostRe: London 2012 - worth it?
by Skippy » Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:08 pm

Why do people still indulge Cal? It's Friday night for strawberry floats sake!

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Tafdolphin
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PostRe: London 2012 - worth it?
by Tafdolphin » Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:15 pm

Skippy wrote:Why do people still indulge Cal? It's Friday night for strawberry floats sake!


I'm stuck in a town with no friends, no means of transport and no money. For five weeks. I'm just getting started.

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Games wot I worked on:
Night Call: Out now!
Rip Them Off: Out now!
Chinatown Detective Agency: 2021!
EXOGATE Initiative: Early Access Summer 2021
t: @Tafdolphin | Twitch: Tafdolphin
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Spindash
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PostRe: London 2012 - worth it?
by Spindash » Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:50 pm

I enjoyed watching it, but I'd have enjoyed it whichever country it was in. People being happy for two weeks watching sports which have since faded back into obscurity doesn't justify such a huge overspend imo.

And the only legacy I've seen is the Mario & Sonic game which is still on my shelf.


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