As you probably know, today marks one year exactly until the British Olympics get underway. No doubt you’re place of work has allowed you to dress up for the day, there are Olympic themes for the afternoon and perhaps you’re excitement runneth over so much that you’ll be heading to Trafalgar Square to boogie on down with Mayor Boris and Lord Seb, impatient for the javelin and Greco wrestling to get underway.Â
Or, you know, perhaps you don’t give a rat’s ass.Â
The truth is of course, this is the London Olympics rather than the UK Olympics so it’s no wonder that Scots, Geordies, Liverpudlians and Mancunians etc are a bit sniffy at a £9bn party that they won’t see any discernible benefit from, aside from a football game or two. Scots have the option, if they really don’t like it, to vote accordingly in the upcoming independence referendum but, in the meantime, they are going to have to lump it.
However, for me, the world would be a poorer place without a quatro-annual Olympic Games held in it and that opinion alone dictates that a country like the UK needs to take its turn every now and again. So ‘value for money’ and an even geographical gain take something of a backseat. After all, you don’t throw a party in order to make a profit and you don’t congregate evenly across a function’s space. Stratford won a watch for 2012, it is the party’s kitchen and the disco’s dancefloor. North of Gretna is the third bedroom on the left; it may play host to a few exploratory revellers but it won’t be the soul of the party.
The Glasgow Commonwealth Games should provide a natural fairness though question remarks do remain over how fair it is for Scotland to pay for 2014 when there are no Barnet consequentials from 2012. Still, mustn’t grumbleÂ
We’re getting a round in for the world next year and we Scots already have a bad reputation involving long pockets when it comes to that. Let’s not grumble too much about taking part in the greatest show of earth then, even if it is largely just paying for it.
And are we paying for London 2012 with this £9bn or, in a way, for every Olympics since the last one we hosted?    Â
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#1 by Indy on July 27, 2011 - 9:03 am
I don’t have an issue with the London Olympics per se. But I do have an issue with Lottery money being used to support it. That is a misuse of the money in my view, it’s not what the Lottery was intended for and at a time of financial constraints in the public sector it is wrong to take money from good causes and use it to support the Olympics.
#2 by Jeff on July 27, 2011 - 9:34 am
I don’t know, maybe you have a valid complaint Indy, but I’m really beginning to see the lottery as the ‘squalid raffle’ that Harold Wilson suggested it was back in the day. If people want to give to charity, give to charity; I find it difficult for people to take a moral high ground and complain about where lottery money goes when they were really trying to turn themselves into millionaires rather than support local causes.
If people play the lottery in the numbers that we currently see, perhaps taxes are too low, and if taxes are too low then why are people complaining about this £9bn in the first place.
#3 by Indy on July 27, 2011 - 11:02 am
I am not in favour of the Lottery either but given that I understand that people from deprived areas are disproportionately likely to buy lottery tickets I think that the money should go back to them rather than being swallowed up by the Olympics.
#4 by Random Lurking Scotsman on July 27, 2011 - 1:09 pm
As much as the 2012 Olympics will be there to show off London, it’s also going to bring a lot of people to the UK from around the world, and if Scotland sets out its table strongly during then I’d wager that many will like what they see and come visit.
I suppose I could get all sniffy about the concentration of resources for 2012 in the South East, but perhaps the better response is simply to try and attract as many of those foreign visitors up to Scotland after they’ve seen all they want of the 2012 Olympics. If VisitScotland plays its cards right, more visitors to the UK = more money for Scotland.
#5 by Jeff on July 27, 2011 - 2:44 pm
Yes, that’s the spirit! Pulling out the opportunities from this is the challenge (Visit)Scotland faces. Some of the adverts down here tempting rUK and tourists alike up North are excellent so they seem to be in a good place to capitalise.
#6 by Barry on August 9, 2011 - 9:28 am
The 2012 Olympics are meant to be the UK’s Olympics but are really London’s. The benefits are almost exclusively linked to England and indeed London.
What your opinion piece failed to mention is just how dismissive of Scotland these games are.
The Cultural-Olympiad has a price tag of £80million. It’s meant to show off the UK’s culture. Out of 1174 specified events, only 7 have been awarded to Scotland — that equates to 0.6% of all events. England meanwhile is getting
over 98% of all events.
Is that fair? Do the hearts of Glaswegians and Aberdonians beat with excitment over the thought they are getting less than 1% of all cultural events.
English construction firms have been awarded 98% of all construction contracts.They have made in excess of £5billion from them. Scottish firms have made approximately £22million. Northern Irish firms have made approximately £17million. Welsh firms have made a meagre £500,000.
Hardly an ‘inclusive’ UK-wide exercise in fairness, is it?
Also, your point about Glasgow 2014 is moot. In the commonwealth games, all UK home nations compete separatly. Scotland is hosting them, not the UK.
When Manchester held the Commonwealth games in 2002, it received over £112 million of lottery funding to build its main stadium.
Glasgow is receiving NO lottery funding for their games. Weird that. When an English city hosts, it gets lottery funding but when a Scottish city hosts, it gets sweet, f*ck all. Indeed, Glasgow’s funding is being split 80/20 via the Scottish government and Glasgow city council.
As for the wishful thinking of attracting visitors up to Scotland from London, then that’s just wishing thinking. Why would people, having spent thousands of pounds on tickets, merchandise, hotels etc, then spend more money, in an economic recession, to visit another part of the UK? What evidence is there for this hopeful wish?
Fact is, the London 2012 Olympics are being funded by the UK taxpayer and the non-English nations are getting very little from the games. Scotland had to give up its share of lottery funding (£150million) and give it to London for the games. Scotland is not getting anything like that amount back in terms of supposed benefits from the games.
Most people conflate the UK to mean England. Indeed, most English people think like this. These games are merely for England’s benefit. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are merely atm machines for the Olympic circus.