Don't worry, they're only below stairs workers and they're only there for a few weeks.

Do you think the deduction for accommodation will be pre or post tax ?

You don't? They have taught me the wrong way to run the country that is for certain.

Precisely the response I expected, and therein lies the problem - you think you know everything. No, you KNOW you know everything.

But I forgot. You used to drive wagons. You are the font of all knowledge. Get a lot of time to think behind the wheel, I guess.

Anyway, if you're so bothered by the plight of the poor cleaning staff sleeping in shared dorms (gasp) and sharing showers and toilets (shock) for a bit, what will you be doing about it? Bugger all, that's what.

Thatcher's children? If by that you mean I don't suffer fools or moaning lefties, call it what you like.

No-one is made to work at this sporting event, save as to those in uniformed public service.

Although there is some dispute as to the exact nature of the conditions, people could vote with their feet and look elsewhere for work. No civilian has to be there.

I am not a massive fan of the Olympics, but I think that some of the negativity surrounding it is quite simply laughable. Yes, there are huge moral issues what with sponsors blah blah blah, but Olympic bashing seems to be a whole sport of its own at the moment.

Thanks for that, whenever anyone points to those ten years of my working life, as if that's all I've ever done, then I know I'm dealing with an intellectual dwarf.

Possibly because its been one of the biggest public spending projects of at least the last decade, has spanned two shades of government and each has promoted it heavily and reminded us at every opportunity what a great event it will be and how its a chance to promote everything thats good about this country to the rest of the world.

I'm looking forward to the competitions (well some of them anyway), I'm really gald that the construction industry pulled out all the stops and delivered their projects on time as promised, but the bits where the current incumbents have tried to force their "private is best" dogma onto the scene has frankly been an outstanding failure for them - who seriously thinks that further privatisation of the police force is now still on the menu ?

And you were a car salesman. Forgot about that.

Whatever, it's spewed you out as a right little drama queen, desperately histrionic, frantically scouring the web for "scandals" and gleefully scurrying to break the news to the RL world, as if that makes a difference.

Sad, really. All bile & no bite.

Meanwhile, the majority are weary of the negative press and the constant sniping at anyone & everyone involved with the Olympics. The rest of the world us laughing at our petty press coverage. It's absolutely no surprise that such a massive event will have issues, but for feck's sake, just deal with what needs dealing with, get on with it and enjoy it. The positives far outweight the bickering.

Really?

I've yet to meet a single person in London who is cock-a-hoop. There are varying degrees of disillusion and anger and just plain old resignation, but no great swathes of utter joy and excitement.



And what are they, little ray of sunshine?

Personally, I expect more bang for my buck that you, since I've been paying more for it through a levy on my council tax for several years.

You can include, within your answer, exactly what 'the legacy' is going to be, because this has been one of the most hyped aspects of the whole shebang.

What is great about the Olympics is the thought of the world's best athletes congregating in one place to see who wins.

What is scandalous is that the event has been taken over wholesale as a pure marketing rip-off, for the world's mega-corporations, and a moneymaker for the many parasitic get-rich-quick merchants (see, for example, the ticketing farrago). The games themselves are almost incidental.

I'd agree with this completely.

The only cars I've ever sold in my life have been those that belonged to me. As I said, an intellectual dwarf

What? People in London are negative?!! Who'da thunk it! Anyway, in breaking news, London isn't the centre of the world, petal. EVERYONE I speak to, without fail, is sick to the back teeth of the negativity of the press. They are enthusiastic for the games - the absolutely amazing turnouts for the torch relay across the country reflect that. Granted, us commoners out in'sticks might not be as 'inconvenienced' by the event and can largely just enjoy it but don't pretend the cynicism and negativity of you miserable lot in the capital is reflected across the country.


Erm, the Olympic games themselves, my little grey cloud of cynicism? Go and see, you might find out.


What do you expect? Usain Bolt delivering your milk? If you don't go, don't participate and enjoy the events, what the hell do you expect your perception will be? Nothing but negativity and inconvenience. You want some 'bang for your buck', you need to go out and get it, not waste time on here whining about corporate sponsorship.

The legacy of the games is what we make it. Primarily it will be the sporting legacy - hopefully masses of British success. A run-down area of London has been redeveloped. Tourist numbers will be up. Thousands get to work at and experience the games (I know several going and they're all bursting with excitement). Hopefully kids will be inspired to get out and do more exercise. I'm sure there's more but I'm not scouring the internet. However unfortunately it seems the press are determined to pick the games apart and that's starting to look like part of the legacy we'll leave ourselves.

If you thought thousands of companies worldwide would suddenly throw masses of investment at the UK you're very naive.

As I said earlier, it's amazing how no-one ever trusts or believes a word politicians say, yet when it comes to their outlandish 'legacy' talk, every word they say is suddenly taken at face value. No agendas there, of course.

Or did you lease them? Whatever, lease them, sell them, who fcking cares.

Call me what you like, the opinions of angry old men mean very little to me. Hardly an intellectual heavyweight, are you? Streams of banal and bitter rants do not an intellectual make.

That to me is the lasting legacy of the almost £10bn that will have been spent by the end of September.

After that it is going to be very interesting to see what the Village is turned into, we all know what the politicians said it would be - a social legacy to that previously deprived area of London - for me that sounds like those blocks of hotel rooms will be quickly converted to family sized apartments (thats how they were designed), and then - and here's the crunch - those publically owned buildings rented out at affordable rates (using the max housing allowance cap as a guide) to those who urgently require them.

That to me would be a wonderful legacy, a tad on the expensive side maybe, but we'll get three weeks of sporting excellence and a huge wedge of social housing from governments of all shades who had previously forgotten what "social housing" actually was.

Turning the developments over to housing associations or the local council would be wonderful, controlling the rents in line with housing benefit would be almost unthinkable but a simply excellent feather in the cap for any politician - selling the developments to private investors would be like putting a bullet in the head of Cameron and his second term wet dreams.

This, for instance [urlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/housing-network/2012/jul/19/olympic-legacy-social-housing-east-village[/url sounds positive.

I suppose that's one way of responding to having your own factually incorrect statement pointed out.





My goodness – I had never realised that! Thanks for the edumacation.

Which, of course, is also why I don't remember claiming that it was.



The legacy will be 'what [uwe[/u make it", eh? So what's your contribution going to be then?

There are 'ordinary' tourists staying away. There are theatres closing down for the duration ([url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/07/olympics-london-hotels-slash-pricesprices being slashed at hotels and theatres for exactly this reason[/url). There are businesses told not to open (unless in the middle of the night). Deliveries to other businesses will have to take place pretty much at night too – hiking costs.

One hilarious point is that you yourself seem determined to take the 'legacy' claims absolutely at face value.

As opposed to others who remember things like [url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/front_page/9111865.stmthis[/url.

Sounds positive, indeed. Unfortunately, it's a dimple in terms of what needs doing.

If you say so.


Perhaps not, but your claim was "I've yet to meet a single person in London who is cock-a-hoop", as though London is all that matters. However, as much a it might gall you, the overwhelmingly positive response and massive turnouts for the torch relay on a national level is a far better indicator of public opinion than your depressing whining.


Probably as much as yours.


Aw look, there she goes hunting for links again. Yes, ordinary tourists are staying away (and also business travellers - you missed that out). And wow, some things have changed to accommodate the disruption of the world's largest sporting event coming to town. Who would have expected there would be changes to the norm, some disruption, and not everyone would be happy! Shocking revelations there, well done you.


If that's hilarious I suggest you get out more.

I'm not sure what you've been reading, but seeing as I've been saying ALL ALONG that anyone taking the legacy claims at face value is naive, I can only assume you're being your usual obtuse self.


Cuts to funding during a global recession, with the Olympics taking priority? Absolutely astounding.

You wrote: "Meanwhile, the majority ..."

What you really meant was: 'the majority of people I have personally spoken to'. There is a difference.



In terms of the London Olympics ...



It was all the offers of free Cokes and free Samsung flags.



I haven't claimed that it'll be "what we make if". You have. So the question remains.



As opposed to you, who claimed you couldn't be bothered to look for anything to support your claims. I wonder why?



It's always amusing watching you try to squirm out of things being proved to you after your own dumb blanket assertions.





That's a really poor attempted swerve even by your standards.

If the legacy is supposed to be at least partly about – according to [uyou[/u – getting more children active, then it doesn't actually help when schemes that do exactly that are cut. It's also an utterly false economy given rates of childhood obesity.

But then you seem to be suggesting that prioritising a sporting event is a good use of taxpayers' money over such things.

Yep, exactly the same as you.

But then actually the majority of public opinion I've seen has been the hundreds of thousands turning out to watch the torch relay. Not a few cynical journalists and internet "intelligentsia" [size=85(cough)[/size.


Of course, they rest of us aren't allowed an opinion then. London snobbery at its finest, my dear.


And you say I'm squirming? Got a real issue with sponsors, ain'tcha.


I realise it's easy for you to be obtuse, but it's also rather dull. 'We' is the UK, LOCOG, the athletes, the workers, the spectators, the press, etc, etc, etc. But you knew that.


I'm not utterly desperate to prove my position and don't find hunting for bad news fulfilling. Not in my personality you see, unlike some...


Always a "giggle" to see you trying to blow up every piece of negative news into an outrage. Even ones that will be over within a couple of weeks.


As the article says, most of the shortfall is being made up by National Lottery cash, and who's to say that funding wouldn't have been cut anyway? Bit of an economic crisis going on, in case you hadn't noticed. And is Sport England and Olympic funding directly linked or from entirely unrelated budgets?

Love it - the London Olympics will be responsible for child obesity. Deary me.

No. Not the same.

You made a sweeping statement.

I countered with a less sweeping statement – one that was specifically and clearly about responses from whomsoever I had personally encountered. However, it was a fairer indication of something than your sweeping statement about "the majority" , which then turns out to have been grounded in nothing more than 'people I have spoken to'.



Don't fret – you'll never be accused of being a member of any such latter group.



Nothing has been said to that effect. Your chip is showing.



Nope. I'm sponsoring a football team myself this coming season.

I have a "real issue" with what FA described very succinctly a few posts ago.



But not so dull that you don't keep returning for further punishment.



So what will your contribution be, as part of that "we"? Because if everyone says: "'We' is the UK, LOCOG, the athletes, the workers, the spectators, the press, etc, etc, etc" as a way of avoiding answering the question directly, there really will be no legacy of the variety you claim "we" will make.





What?

So the importance or otherwise of any story is based on how long it might be around?



Nobody is saying "funding wouldn't have been cut anyway". And yes, there is an economic crisis: one that is being increased by cuts and 'austerity'.



Who has claimed that in general? And here specifically?

Remember my rule on quotes? Neither the time nor the inclination.

I'll leave you now, wallowing unattractively in self-adulation, cynicism and negativity and looking down your considerable nose at the poor saps who clearly don't know any better.

Meanwhile, I'll not worry too much about a few cleaners bunking up together for a fortnight or a few people getting their wrists slapped for trying to cash in on the Olympic brand, and I'll drink a beer (contributing to the economy, you see) and enjoy an epic event taking place in the UK.

As for internet "intelligentsia" - you're welcome to each other.

Well, not now, anyway.

bye

Jesus, the day I'm approved of by you two sad cases is the day I give up.

Thanks for the replies, cheered me right up.