Discussion
V8mate said:
Puggit said:
jbi said:
WTF were they thinking?
I google for world's largest helter skelter, and all I found were links back to this.
t helter-skelter; you can't even slide down!I'm utterly baffled at the astounding amount of money utterly wasted on this whole thing.
jbi said:
This is the biggest stain on the olympic landscape IMO.
WTF were they thinking?
Blame Boris. He was insistent the Olympics needed a large piece of public art. Still at least they should have got a good deal on the steel since most of the money for it comes from Mittal.WTF were they thinking?
Edited by plasticpig on Friday 1st June 14:24
V8mate said:
Behind France too, aren't we?
apologies - yeah, third http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16332115
rover 623gsi said:
Britain has the second biggest economy in the EU (behind Germany) and the seventh biggest in the world. Not exactly a quiet little backwater.
What about France? Anyway, the size of our total GDP isn't what determines whether we are a backwater of the EU or not.
First off, the fact that we are in the EU does. The UK is not a self governing country. We don't even have the confidence to take back self governance, nor the ability to change the EU to something we like. Which is very backwaterish behaviour.
We don't have any real notion of what we are as a country. Where Americans have liberty, the French add egality and fraternity. Britain has this limpwristed "tolerabnce" based multiculturalism that hinges on Indian curry and a black friend, some vague notions about fairness and the NHS. This means that almost anything we do turns out crap because we don't really know what we're meant to be putting into it, so we end up like some benighted tribe of savages with these nonsensical symbols, representing something we feel we must do in order to fulfill some purpose we don't understand.
Why did Britain want to host the Olympics in the first place? To show we could? To remind the world that Britain is still here? Or demonstrate that we can do things well? As you say we're already a large economy with lots going for us, was the world really in any danger of forgetting about us? And will hosting the Olympics really help our cause if they were?
Then how do we show that? Here's a fat girl on a 100 year old boat. Here's an animated pepper shaker with union flag colouring, and a sort of broken jigsaw arrangement. What does any of that mean? What does it say about Britain in 2012 and it's place in the world? Big fat nothing.
It's just a political showpiece. A big waste of everything which will achieve nothing except making politicians passingly feel important.
mgtony said:
More likely was dropped on their head as a child.
£15 to go up it I believe, to get a good view of Stratford!
Well I have bought tickets and am looking forward to it! Sorry £15 to go up it I believe, to get a good view of Stratford!
Possibly the only view inside the stadium I will get in person..... But working on that!
ps - ANd I am gettign excited and really looking forward to the whole thing
AJS- said:
rover 623gsi said:
Britain has the second biggest economy in the EU (behind Germany) and the seventh biggest in the world. Not exactly a quiet little backwater.
What about France? Anyway, the size of our total GDP isn't what determines whether we are a backwater of the EU or not.
First off, the fact that we are in the EU does. The UK is not a self governing country. We don't even have the confidence to take back self governance, nor the ability to change the EU to something we like. Which is very backwaterish behaviour.
We don't have any real notion of what we are as a country. Where Americans have liberty, the French add egality and fraternity. Britain has this limpwristed "tolerabnce" based multiculturalism that hinges on Indian curry and a black friend, some vague notions about fairness and the NHS. This means that almost anything we do turns out crap because we don't really know what we're meant to be putting into it, so we end up like some benighted tribe of savages with these nonsensical symbols, representing something we feel we must do in order to fulfill some purpose we don't understand.
Why did Britain want to host the Olympics in the first place? To show we could? To remind the world that Britain is still here? Or demonstrate that we can do things well? As you say we're already a large economy with lots going for us, was the world really in any danger of forgetting about us? And will hosting the Olympics really help our cause if they were?
Then how do we show that? Here's a fat girl on a 100 year old boat. Here's an animated pepper shaker with union flag colouring, and a sort of broken jigsaw arrangement. What does any of that mean? What does it say about Britain in 2012 and it's place in the world? Big fat nothing.
It's just a political showpiece. A big waste of everything which will achieve nothing except making politicians passingly feel important.
As to the Olympics themselves, the cost to the taxpayer is less than gets spent on social security in a week. A WEEK FFS.
I'd happily much rather pay for such an enormous, prestigious event than pay for a few thousand Waynettas to drop out several more future promising footballers
oyster said:
Can you name one country that doesn't have big showpiece buildings or public structures that politicians thought would make the country more important?
As to the Olympics themselves, the cost to the taxpayer is less than gets spent on social security in a week. A WEEK FFS.
I'd happily much rather pay for such an enormous, prestigious event than pay for a few thousand Waynettas to drop out several more future promising footballerscriminals.
Part and parcel of the same thing. Waynetta will be watching the Olympics and thinking how she wishes Labour were still in power, because they made Britain important by winning the Olympics but now she's socially excluded by not getting a box seat and a load of free stuff due to the evil cuts.As to the Olympics themselves, the cost to the taxpayer is less than gets spent on social security in a week. A WEEK FFS.
I'd happily much rather pay for such an enormous, prestigious event than pay for a few thousand Waynettas to drop out several more future promising footballers
AJS- said:
We don't have any real notion of what we are as a country. Where Americans have liberty, the French add egality and fraternity. Britain has this limpwristed "tolerabnce" based multiculturalism that hinges on Indian curry and a black friend, some vague notions about fairness and the NHS. This means that almost anything we do turns out crap because we don't really know what we're meant to be putting into it, so we end up like some benighted tribe of savages with these nonsensical symbols, representing something we feel we must do in order to fulfill some purpose we don't understand.
The Americans indeed do have liberty. They also imprison people without access to habeas corpus. This liberty lark is only available when it is not inconvenient. The French have fraternity, eh? Good for them. Where do they keep it? In a box I suppose. If you do not want to become totally French then sorry mate, no brotherly love for you.And tolerance is hardly limp-wristed. It is an extremely difficult, and totally unselfish, discipline. Before WWII one country in the world doubled the 'quota' of Jewish refugess from the pogram. Many others all but stopped them. Tolerance helps make this country great. The UK has moved on from how it used to be. I have friends who are not from the UK, and relatives now, who are treated fairly and in a freindly manner despite their differences. I've policed Brighton where, despite problems, the large gay community can be themselves. There are a number of countries where this would be impossible, tantamount to suicide.
What I like about the UK, or rather the English, is the total lack of silly historical myths defining us. Sorry to pick on Wallace but he's a myth, no more real as portrayed than Robin Hood. The English/Welsh have a once and future king whom most people ignore except when they go to Cornwall.
What the British do badly is accept that we live in a great country. The real history, not the mythical, is all around us. Such as their aqueducts - of course the Olympic flame should go along one. These are magnificent creations. Rather than deride them we should look upon them in wonder.
Brunel is the nearest thing England has to a national hero and he's an engineer. How cool is that? Not someone who killed a lot of people which many countries go for, but someone whose legacy is all around us. Walk under the Maidenhead Bridge and it still makes you gasp. It looks all wrong and took a genius to prove it right.
We invented railways. I prefer this as a national symbol to silly clothing. Another feature of this country is delf deprecation. I'm not a supporter of that.
There's a lot wrong with this country. Class or wealth distinction is an increasing problem. One wonders if Brunel would be able to emerge from the state of the state schools. But that is fixable.
I am grateful - although I'm not sure to whom - that I was born and brought up in this country. My father was going to emigrate to the USA, Hollywood actually, in the early 50s. My brother's date of birth would have meant him being conscripted during the Vietnam War.
An artic driver suddenly discovered people in his trailer just before the container was going to be X-rayed. These were a group of illegal immigrants - although in essentials nothing more than jumping the gun by a year or two - from Eastern Europe. They had been in the truck for days, going through Italy, Germany and France before coming to England. When I asked them why they didn't get off at those coutnries with a higher GDP that England - seeminly the measure of how nice a country is - their leader pointed to the fact that he was drinking tea made for him by the police, easting sandwiches as my shift had shared their with the group, and eating the superitendent's posh biscuits (without his knowlede of course.)
He said that in many other European countries they would have been beaten and would not have got food. That's my England. That's who we are.
[quote=Derek
An artic driver suddenly discovered people in his trailer just before the container was going to be X-rayed. These were a group of illegal immigrants - although in essentials nothing more than jumping the gun by a year or two - from Eastern Europe. They had been in the truck for days, going through Italy, Germany and France before coming to England. When I asked them why they didn't get off at those coutnries with a higher GDP that England - seeminly the measure of how nice a country is - their leader pointed to the fact that he was drinking tea made for him by the police, easting sandwiches as my shift had shared their with the group, and eating the superitendent's posh biscuits (without his knowlede of course.)
He said that in many other European countries they would have been beaten and would not have got food. That's my England. That's who we are.
[/quote]
But they weren't coming here for the tea were they? They were coming because we're the only bunch stupid enough to let them stay, not to say give them money and free health care.
That's who we are.... sadly.
An artic driver suddenly discovered people in his trailer just before the container was going to be X-rayed. These were a group of illegal immigrants - although in essentials nothing more than jumping the gun by a year or two - from Eastern Europe. They had been in the truck for days, going through Italy, Germany and France before coming to England. When I asked them why they didn't get off at those coutnries with a higher GDP that England - seeminly the measure of how nice a country is - their leader pointed to the fact that he was drinking tea made for him by the police, easting sandwiches as my shift had shared their with the group, and eating the superitendent's posh biscuits (without his knowlede of course.)
He said that in many other European countries they would have been beaten and would not have got food. That's my England. That's who we are.
[/quote]
But they weren't coming here for the tea were they? They were coming because we're the only bunch stupid enough to let them stay, not to say give them money and free health care.
That's who we are.... sadly.
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