unbeleivable !!

I think the fixtures are great. I have tickets for the Olympics and we are down there for 2 weeks. We are at home the friday before we leave, at london while we're down there and at home the friday after we come back. Couldn't have worked out better. And we are camping down there for the full 2 weeks...bargin!!!!!

The Olympic torch is passing within 50 yards of my house. I'll be going out somewhere that day.

the torch is passing in front of Bolton college , the college bosses want a party that day, i feel it is a good day to highlight the cuts that are costing 42 lecturers their jobs at the college.

I too am threatened with redundancy from my teaching job because of a general lack of funding by the government. However, I find this negativity about the Olympics quite frustrating. The lack of funding in education and the health service is nothing new and is not caused by money spent on this one off event. The Olympics has provided jobs in many industries and will provide a boost to an ailing economy.

Sending soldiers to their deaths in Afghanistan in a war that was not ours and one that we cannot win however, is a criminal. Add to that money wasted on the infinite government QUANGO's that do very little, MP's expenses, the Royal family and the Queens jubilee etc etc.

I assume that since our stadium was built using tax payers money that you will not be attending any Salford matches, Sale matches or the RL World Cup in protest at your money being spent for sporting venues and events.

I recognise everyones individual right to have no interest in the games what-so-ever but to lay the blame for public sector job losses at the door of a once in a lifetime event when there is money wasted year on year on the same useless stuff baffles me. We are talking about sport! We are talking about 2 weeks of global entertainment and an opportunity to inspire youngsters! We are talking about something that could be so positive if people embrace. I forgot though that people on here don't like anything positive! We wallow in negativity and only seem happy when we are being so.

I for one will enjoy the Olympics and everything that goes with it whether I get laid off next week or not. Sorry if that is far too positive and happy for everyone

Good forum this.Not just rugby league but politics thrown in.
I think people were frustrated with the Olympics because it is London-centric and once again,like the Dome,is aimed at an audience beyond the working-class scattered in other parts of the country.To see Ken Livingstone,not regarded as having any interest in any sport,rejoicing in the manner he did when the Games were awarded to London added to the dismay.
Without going into the long-term costs of wars,perhaps preventing future costs of terrorism,refugees,court costs.appeals,imprisonment etc. I have found these
rl18bn for Afghanistan Warrl
rlThe cost for,and after maintenance,of the under-visited Domerl

Some people are also against the Olympics because they view it as a drugsfest.
I am aware of a stadium which holds nearly 50,000 people which was constructed with European money as it was built on the site of a former colliery.I don't think the Europeans expect to be reimbursed.
The following report states the taxpayer money for the SCS was a loan of rl22 millionrl

Enjoy the Olympics,but I suspect a bit like Wimbledon,once it ends the local schoolchildren turn their attention elsewhere without being coached in any particular sport,and without improving in that particular sport,while the already rich rub their hands with glee.

I shall be purchasing my ticket to see SCR win in London from the club - thereby giving them a valuable penny or two.

For one as I have said before you can stuff your Olympics where the sun don't shine, money is being dragged from Education for this bonfire of the vanitys, I feel that a lost generation of youth missing out on their education because of overcrowded classrooms is too dear a price to pay for two weeks promoting London.
But if anybody is interested Travel lodge have reduced the price of their rooms for the weekend of the 4th August after first putting them up 600% and finding they could sell them. So for £85 we have train travel, match ticket and room at Travel Lodge in Kings Cross if anyone else wants to get in on this and we can put two fingers up to the LONDON olympics at the same time.

Did I mention social Cleansing?

I was supportive when we got the Olympics and viewed it as largely a good thing but the reality has turned out far from that. I heard it described the other day 'as a multi-billion pound tax payer funded advertising campaign for some of the world's worst companies' and I couldn't agree more.

I can see valid reasons for red13pjb's feeling of optimism and I do hope their does turn out to be a tangible legacy after these games but we are currently as far from the original Olympic ideals as it is possible to be. The people of East London in particular have been viewed as an unfortunate inconvenience by the IOC and the organising committee.

The 2012 Olympics is a perfect example of how New Labour operated. Always trying to tackle the major problems we as a society face with headline-grabbing eye-catching expensive initiatives that attempt to mask the issue while doing very little to tackle the root cause of it. Pev, if you are annoyed at money being chucked at the Olympics that should be keeping teachers in a job then blame the New Labour government that backed the bid.

Afghanistan and Iraq, in particular, were the two biggest foreign policy mistakes made by this country since appeasement and as you said wasted billion upon billion of pounds of taxpayer's money. MP's expenses are so miniscule in comparison to the cost of the games that there is no comparison. I agree about scrapping the Royal Family but the financial case for their abolition is far from made. However, like yourself, I don't have a problem with taxpayer's money funding the Olympics, my objection is more to do with what the modern Olympics has become. I will still be watching it though.

Another one for Pev to sweep under that massive New Labour rug...

rlNot good for school sport(s) eitherrl - but some interesting comments after the article.

Politics. Zzz.

I hope, in some way, sitting next to me on a plane has helped extinguish your interest in politics.

Or more likely the fact politicians are trying to.curb his future bonuses