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Reality bites after jubilee in Britain

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McTavish, Thunderbird2

Are you sure you are supposed to be posting comments here given the doom and gloom that you must be living in there. Our thoughts are with you. Chin up.

I suppose I could try to be more downbeat and miserable, but I won't. I've just booked my flight to Japan for November so I'm happy.

Britain will regret about hosting that extravagant events in the future. It will get another economic nightmare like Greece, Spain and Ireland if she is keep spending like that. No more Greek tradegy.

Should I break out the sack cloth and ashes now? Or find a bridge to jump off into the Clyde?

Sorry, I don't do doom and gloom. My dad recovered from a stroke last year which left me realising that life is too short to be wasted on self pity.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Ahtletes You may well be right about the Barcelona Olympics too. Dr. Jones only intimated that the Barcelona Olympics had worked (financially, in the long term) better, for the reasons stated above, than other several recent Olympics, which at the time I met him did not include China.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Canada hosted Monteral Olympic before. They have to recover the huge cost of low return event for more than twenty years. Spain, US, Greece which have hosted the big game are terribly broke now. Australia and China are only host nations which are relatively well at the moment, If we minus the resource rich Australia, only China has sustained the economy and balanced budget after hosting Olympic. They have huge saving, enormous trade surplus and mountain of foreign currency reserve. Britain is not strong like China. Budget for Olympic was many times smaller too.

Britain will regret about hosting that extravagant events in the future. It will get another economic nightmare like Greece, Spain and Ireland if she is keep spending like that. No more Greek tradegy.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Why do countries want to host the Olympics/ World Cup etc. so much and spend so much money on bidding for these events to take place? The answer is very simple - money. Whatever the expenditure is on hosting the Olympics the return will be much greater. You can debate and be critical but seriously it will be a huge boost to the British economy.

I met a tourism economist (Dr. Calvin Jones http://business.cardiff.ac.uk/cy/contact/staff/jones ) who seemed to be of the opinion that even after an analysis of all the "satellite accounting" (of revenues incurred in all the myriad ways that that an event boosts income in so many sectors of the economy) that often the Olympics make an overall loss. He did say that the Barcelona Olympics were an exception and worked well, especially because the infrastructure created for the event (especially transport facilities) was well used and contributed to the economy afterwards. He felt, I believe, that the reason why "countries" want to host large sporting events is largely impacted by political desires, as politicians want to be seen to have done something in the mind of the people, and people want to feel that their vote has done something.

Politicians that don't spend should be lauded but they are often invisible and not re-elected. Thus politicians want to spend well, but the onus is on spending, visibility, "stimulus", "investment," and only so many of their schemes work, especially since their creations are staffed by those that do not have a profit incentive.

I have read also that the Athens Olympics which created facilities that were not so useful/revenue creating afterwards was particularly unsuccessful and contributed to public debt and the financial situation faced by Greece today.

Having said that, the satellite accounts of something like the Jubilee celebrations, that maintain perceptions of the UK as that traditional (thus trustworthy, stable, and in the past world-changing) culture may be especially difficult to compute. In the case of a country like the UK that was so much "greater" in the past than it is now, festivities - which are also PR events - such as the Jubilee that reinforce the connection between the past and the present, may be good value for taxpayer money. The illusion of a "Great" Britain is probably something that the British themselves should move on from, but the longer that they can encourage others - tourists, business partners, enemies - to think of that (my) small nation in even a little awe, the better.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Thanks ArchwayTowers but I'm living in Tokyo so I'm pining for the drabness of home. Mind you, the rainy season's not far off!

1 ( +3 / -2 )

McTavish, Thunderbird2

Are you sure you are supposed to be posting comments here given the doom and gloom that you must be living in there. Our thoughts are with you. Chin up.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I'm from the UK and love a good moan. What they should have done was drain much more money from the public purse in order to have 2 flotillas come down the Thames. Then make sure the first one was delayed so that the crowds lining the banks could grumble about it in the rain. Finally, 2 would come along at once. British people love having their spirits dampened. I can't wait for the Olympics, it's going to be awful!

1 ( +4 / -3 )

I think this article was written by one of the regular anti-Britain posters here. Do they live in the same UK that I do?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

your solution for the economic 'gloom' is to force everyone in retail to work on their public holidays?

Not force them to - allow them to. Its one of the few times people with regular jobs have time to shop, so it would boost the economy. Works here I think.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

2 points to make

Why do countries want to host the Olympics/ World Cup etc. so much and spend so much money on bidding for these events to take place? The answer is very simple - money. Whatever the expenditure is on hosting the Olympics the return will be much greater. You can debate and be critical but seriously it will be a huge boost to the British economy.

What do people need when faced with 'doom and gloom' ? INSPIRATION! Not more of the same doom and gloom.

@davestrousers - your solution for the economic 'gloom' is to force everyone in retail to work on their public holidays?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Not only Jubilee, but also hosting the Olympic is extravagant. It is just wasting money during the doom and gloomy time. Britain GDP was lower than Europe during the first quater of 2012.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

a gloomy economic reality dampened more by the cost of two public holidays

It seems to me a big difference between UK public holidays and here is that in the UK almost everything closes. Over here there is almost always something going on, and at least people can go shopping as normal so I bet its not so much of a cost to the economy here as people are still spending money.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Yes and amazing how they forced all the people onto the streets and told them they had to celebrate.

In fact all of the £10.5m budget was been raised from individual donations and corporate sponsorships, and a "substantial" surplus has been raised which will be given to charity via the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust.

The BBC did pay for the staging of Monday's Diamond Jubliee concert at Buckingham Palace but the artists were playing for free and the BBC sold the event to over 140 countries - so revenue from that will also generate a surplus which would be given to the Diamond Jubilee Trust.

The network of 4,212 beacons will be lit around the country and the Commonwealth - all funded by local groups, such as Lions Clubs, parish councils and so on.

I do not wish to debate whether this money could or should have been spent better elsewhere but I do wish to correct the assumption that this cost billions of pounds and the 'economy' paid for it. Quite the opposite and generating interest and in turn revenue for the UK is rather a good thing when times are tight.

Enjoy your Friday night. You are also contributing your little bit so well done. ( assuming you are in the UK)

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Yeah billions of pounds for a few hours happiness, I'll try that at the pub on friday night to see how it goes.

Utter waste of money and burden on the economy when it can least afford it.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

What a miserable article. Must be fun to spend a few minutes with whoever wrote this. Many bad things happen everyday and life is tough everywhere. But even if for just a short while it is nice to see people happy, proud and enjoying themselves. Better to have that with all the hardship everyone tells us we are living in rather than not have it and still have the same hardship.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

At least they made everybody happy for a few days. Memories are priceless. I will never forget that flotilla and it felt great experiencing such a historical day. Love that exquisite dress the Duchess of Cambridge is wearing.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

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