Nine Billion pounds and counting

[peter macdonald]

http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/...778589.0.0.php

PM

[JAWS]

Typical self centred attitude. What about Wales, Northern Ireland, the North of England and the West Country? They will suffer just as much by London grabbing everything as usual.
You would think the "poor Scots" were being specially singled out for neglect.

Besides, it was those two Scots' Exiles, Blair and Brown, who came up with the bright idea and lied about the costs in order to push it through!

[Bill Fernie]

The chances of winning are so small anyway that you could protest by giving your £1 or however much you spend on lottery tickets to a local charity. Or for a much smaller gamble, but probably better chance of winning, to Wick Academy Football Club Scorrie Scoop weekly draw. They definitely will not be spending the money for anything else except to keep the club going.

If you still want to gamble it would be far better to buy premium bond by sticking a pound or two in a jar until you have £100 and march down to your local post office and then you have 100 chances every month of wining a million and you can still get your money back.

[JAWS]

Couldn't agree more, Bill. The National Lottery was never intended to subsidise grandiose schemes intended to feed Government egos but that is what it has been hijacked for.

[Rheghead]

I don't mind giving a pound or two to help fund the olympics in London. The regeneration of London will be major and it needs it. I'd rather do someone a good turn than not. If the same happened in Edinburgh then I'd do the same. I don't do north/south petty politics.

[porshiepoo]

Would the general opinion be the same if we were talking 'Edinburgh Olympics'?

The Olympic games stand to benefit the whole of the UK, why shouldn't lottery funding be used?
One minute Mr Maxwell claims that the London Olympics will be good for Scottish athletes but then turns round and says that the funds used for the same Olympics is robbing Scottish Athletes.
Doesn't really back it up either does he!
Where does he expect the funding to come from?

[Oddquine]

Would the general opinion be the same if we were talking 'Edinburgh Olympics'?

The Olympic games stand to benefit the whole of the UK, why shouldn't lottery funding be used?
One minute Mr Maxwell claims that the London Olympics will be good for Scottish athletes but then turns round and says that the funds used for the same Olympics is robbing Scottish Athletes.
Doesn't really back it up either does he!
Where does he expect the funding to come from?

Mine would....I see no benefit to any area of any country outside the immediate main Olympic stadia, and I fail to see how it will even benefit the whole of England, far less the whole of the UK.

And lottery funding shouldn't be used because the Olympics is not a good cause.......it is a method of acquiring public funds to regenerate the London Area and should be funded from all those businesses who will benefit from that regeneration.

And I will say exactly the same if Glasgow gets the Commonwealth Games for which I believe they are considering bidding.

But then, lottery funding will probably not be available for that anyway.

[Oddquine]

Typical self centred attitude. What about Wales, Northern Ireland, the North of England and the West Country? They will suffer just as much by London grabbing everything as usual.
You would think the "poor Scots" were being specially singled out for neglect.

Besides, it was those two Scots' Exiles, Blair and Brown, who came up with the bright idea and lied about the costs in order to push it through!

Jaws, it was a Scottish Minister at a Scottish University during a sports related visit ..........why would he mention any other country/region?

Anyone with a lick of intelligence would be able to extrapolate from the remark that the hi-jacking of Lottery Funds would apply to all instances of lottery funding wherever they happen......because I guess the reductions won't only be in sports related awards.

Don't think so...........it was the Government, the Mayor of London and the British Olympic Association that commissioned the Arup Report..........and the Arup Report that consisted of mostly wishful thinking and creative accounting.

[Rheghead]

If you don't like what is decided as a good cause for lottery funding then don't buy a ticket if you feel that strongly about it, it's really that simple if you think it through.

[Oddquine]

I did buy tickets from time to time, Rheghead.....but haven't since the Lottery anouncement.

[golach]

Gambling is a sin, we should not be gambling at all.

[Ricco]

This'll be why Richard Branson's public lottery never got a look in - there would have been no chance of hi-jacking that.

[changilass]

It could have been a lot worse, they could have said it had to come out of the coffers and raised all of our poll tax (or whatever they are calling it these days)

[Rheghead]

It could have been a lot worse, they could have said it had to come out of the coffers and raised all of our poll tax (or whatever they are calling it these days)

Since the SNP are against the poll tax then they would just simply raise the income tax to pay for an auld reekie games.

[Oddquine]

Since the SNP are against the poll tax then they would just simply raise the income tax to pay for an auld reekie games.

I'd hope that any future Scottish Government would realise that an Olympic Bid is a waste of money.....and actually getting it would be a monetary catastrophe going by the London bid and so many of those which have had them before.
And no Government would dare raise taxes to pay for an Olympic Games which only benefits the few.

[Rheghead]

I'd hope that any future Scottish Government would realise that an Olympic Bid is a waste of money.....and actually getting it would be a monetary catastrophe

I will agree with you, given the fragility of a post-independent Scottish economy.

[Oddquine]

I will agree with you, given the fragility of a post-independent Scottish economy.

I'd hope that fragility of economy or not, any sensible Scottish Government would do what a sensible Westminster Government should have done.........say to the BOC..........if you want it.........you pay for it yourself.

[Rheghead]

No Olympic committee can afford an olympic games themselves, I doubt if that is what they are there for and/or if it has been done in another country, it is just ludicrous to think they could. Mind you, Greece has never looked back since they hosted the OGs, the spin offs have greatly increased their prestige and economy. The benefits are not always direct and can therefore be overlooked/under-stated.

I dare say the SNP would love to jump into a celtic alliance with Ireland to stage them.

[Oddquine]

No Olympic committee can afford an olympic games themselves, I doubt if that is what they are there for and/or if it has been done in another country, it is just ludicrous to think they could. Mind you, Greece has never looked back since they hosted the OGs, the spin offs have greatly increased their prestige and economy. The benefits are not always direct and can therefore be overlooked/under-stated.

I dare say the SNP would love to jump into a celtic alliance with Ireland to stage them.

If they can't afford it, they shouldn't have it then! It is, after all, an optional extra to life!

Good grief, if London had its prestige increased more than they think it is already, it won't be able to get its head in the door!

I'd be interested to learn about all these benefits to Greece, as opposed to Athens ,as, as far as I can see in tourism at least the areas furth of the London won't see much return............so far it is calculated that the £9bn and rising cost will benefit the rest of the UK outside London by 10% of £3bn in increased tourism over 10 years.

Doesn't seem much of a return does it?

[Rheghead]

If they can't afford it, they shouldn't have it then! It is, after all, an optional extra to life!

Good grief, if London had its prestige increased more than they think it is already, it won't be able to get its head in the door!

I'd be interested to learn about all these benefits to Greece, as opposed to Athens ,as, as far as I can see in tourism at least the areas furth of the London won't see much return............so far it is calculated that the £9bn and rising cost will benefit the rest of the UK outside London by 10% of £3bn in increased tourism over 10 years.

Doesn't seem much of a return does it?

The OGs is a cultural thing. Like all cultural things, eg National Art, sport etc, profit or self finance is desirable but not everything is expected to make a profit even though that is how the politicians would like us to think. Prestige is the aim and having the OGs does that and more some. If we only endeavoured to do things that would be profitable then Scotland would be a very dull place indeed.