Athletes have had their lot

2:42pm Friday 4th January 2013 in Letters

NOW that 2012 has come to a close perhaps we can also bring a closure to the Olympic Games.

Phenomenal though they were, plus the fantastic achievements of our athletes, I think they have all had their just rewards. The winning athletes’ egos and bank balances have been swollen, but no matter how many medals (plus Queen’s honours) they have in their trophy cabinets “the feelgood” factor for the rest of us has evaporated and reality has kicked in. Families in poverty are relying on food banks for survival, more homeless, OAPs struggling to keep warm and much more. Perhaps when the next Queen’s Honours list is published the people who make a real difference to our lives, surgeons, doctors, nurses, paramedics, firemen, the police, our armed forces and all those unsung heroes will be recognised.

R John Smith Greenwood Avenue Cwmbran

Comments(16)

Bobevans says...
4:31pm Fri 4 Jan 13

It is time a halt was called to thuis wate of money. THe declared costs is £12B but real cost was a lot higher lots of things got moved off of Olympic budgets on to other budgets

We had the same thing in Wales with the Ryder Cup with the exact same results the claimed benefits during the event never materalized nor did the legacy

What has been kept very quite as well was the Olympic Park was made a TAX FREE ZONE. The participants, IOC staff. LOCOG STaff & Sponsers have not had to pay one single bean in tax.

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Mervyn James says...
6:01pm Fri 4 Jan 13

It served its purpose on enriching Londoner's pockets and prestige who cares now ? The only way Wales can get anything from it, is to compete via the welsh flag, and not UK' one. We saw how UK football failed to take off, mainly because the premier league is won by foreign imported players, and, no-one dares to suggest UK rugby ! I'm still waiting to see WHAT benefit the London Olympic arenas and sport village is going to bring here... None ?

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Llanmartinangel says...
7:49am Sat 5 Jan 13

Mervyn James wrote:
It served its purpose on enriching Londoner's pockets and prestige who cares now ? The only way Wales can get anything from it, is to compete via the welsh flag, and not UK' one. We saw how UK football failed to take off, mainly because the premier league is won by foreign imported players, and, no-one dares to suggest UK rugby ! I'm still waiting to see WHAT benefit the London Olympic arenas and sport village is going to bring here... None ?
Same parochial isolationist claptrap Mervyn. As part of the UK, Wales is part of a global player. On its own it will be a third world banana republic invisible to everyone except the few people who would choose to live in it.

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Mervyn James says...
11:25am Sat 5 Jan 13

It is not just Wales, Ireland, the North of England, and Scotland lost out as well. Not parochial, DISCRIMINATION and GREED by the capital city of England. It's not even about being a global player, it is about sharing the kudos and wealth and progress fairly, it never happens.

No wonder Cameron and Boris were rubbing their grubby hands with Glee at New Year. I bet they never advertised London Landlords evicting tenants for 4 months so they could charge visitors 6 times as much.... or using tear gas on bike readers at the Olympics, or submitting ATOS as a sponsor at the paralympics at the same time they were cutting the ground from underneath disabled feet and calling them frauds scroungers, and rip off merchants too lazy to get a job. They soon reverted to type after didn't they ? And it is not as if any of those people were elected either.

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Mervyn James says...
11:25am Sat 5 Jan 13

It is not just Wales, Ireland, the North of England, and Scotland lost out as well. Not parochial, DISCRIMINATION and GREED by the capital city of England. It's not even about being a global player, it is about sharing the kudos and wealth and progress fairly, it never happens.

No wonder Cameron and Boris were rubbing their grubby hands with Glee at New Year. I bet they never advertised London Landlords evicting tenants for 4 months so they could charge visitors 6 times as much.... or using tear gas on bike readers at the Olympics, or submitting ATOS as a sponsor at the paralympics at the same time they were cutting the ground from underneath disabled feet and calling them frauds scroungers, and rip off merchants too lazy to get a job. They soon reverted to type after didn't they ? And it is not as if any of those people were elected either.

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Llanmartinangel says...
11:34am Sat 5 Jan 13

But London's gain IS Wales's gain. You can't face the fact that the bankrupt province you keep banging on about us totally bank-rolled by England. Wales has only 4000 people paying the top rate of tax. Only 85000 from the entire Welsh populace pay 40% rate and half don't earn enough to pay any income tax at all yet someone pays for their health, pensions, benefits and education. Care to speculate who that is exactly Mervyn?

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Llanmartinangel says...
2:05pm Sat 5 Jan 13

And are you suggesting Welsh landlords wouldn't have done what it took to get the market rate if a similar event was held here? How naive is that?

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Mervyn James says...
7:00pm Sat 5 Jan 13

At least WALES would have had the benefit. Anyone who thinks Wales ever benefits by London lives in a dream world. Name 3 or even 5 areas where Wales has EVER benefited via London ? As someone who is apparently 'pro-British' perhaps you can display where the equality and fairness actually is ? Should be easy for you 'Pro Uk' people. Frightened the handouts will stop ?

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Llanmartinangel says...
10:49pm Sat 5 Jan 13

Err. They fund Wales's benefits. I'm very self-sufficient and have other houses elsewhere so not worried. The ones who should worry are those on benefits in Wales. If you ever got your desire Mervyn they'd all starve. Admit it.

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Llanmartinangel says...
11:40pm Sat 5 Jan 13

And 'equality and fairness' aren't going to happen. They are as close now as they will ever get, I.e. those who don't work or can't get fed and looked after. Expecting any more is a nice dream but unrealistic.

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Mervyn James says...
11:22am Sun 6 Jan 13

I am shamed by the totally defeatists attitude posters are taking here about Wales, no wonder nothing happens. Anyway come april there will be no benefits to rely on. So your answer is ?

Welsh people are already queuing up at food banks don't you read the papers at all ? That suggests whatever 'England' is doing for Wales, isn't much ! I wouldn't feel any pride belonging to a nation of dedicated beggars... would you. All the response you get is 'don't bite the hand the feeds' sad.

There has to be a way out of the whole situation, and that starts with Welsh people taking it upon themselves to make change. Soon you will have no choice but to do that as the London cash dries up.

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Llanmartinangel says...
4:33pm Sun 6 Jan 13

It's not defeatist it's realism. Even you as a dedicated Welsh nationalist must see that Wales runs a massive deficit and that if fixing that was easy it'd be done long since. Stoking the victimhood and dependence culture just makes matters worse. You've never answered how all the financial needs of Wales could be met if the funding tap from England was closed. It's not an oil state which would be its only chance of self sufficiency.

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Mervyn James says...
6:48pm Sun 6 Jan 13

We need to create our own jobs and wealth basically. I belive if we by-pass Westminster and develop trading patterns for Europe apart from England we can make some headway. Any funds we got even as 3rd world status from Europe in the Past was stolen by Westminster and headed off before it came here, instead Westminster passed on grants from Europe then deliberately cut off other funding we were entitled to in equal measure, which means we got nothing basically.

We do have some resources still e.g. water. we could move on that and keep the revenue here instead of it going elsewhere. Maybe tax concessions for business outside of English control to make Wales more attractive to investors. At the same time prevent Westminster getting any of it.

Funding and investment should come here direct not through anyone else. We been short-changed repeatedly, we need to stop that happening. The reason we lost jobs was because Westminster favoured areas in England or used funds for Wales to bolster the english vote. we know those who gain the London voter majority run the UK, we are constantly outvoted by default as we cannot match the numbers, its robbery basically and fraud.

I think a welsh government would put an end to migrant invasion too, again foisted on us by London letting all these people in then sending them on here to cope with but with no support to do it. Time charity started here, at HOME.

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Llanmartinangel says...
8:37am Mon 7 Jan 13

Oh lord. However large a grant you got from the (broke) EU, it wouldn't be 17 Billion a year and can only be used for capital projects not paying benefits, pensions, health services etc. and to trade with EU you have to manufacture something first. Water falls from the sky and you couldn't add much of a premium before England would build more reservoirs and who would you sell it to then? As for immigration, most comes from the EU anyway. You're proposing taking handouts from Europe instead of London? Still dependant then. Wales is so dysfunctional that it happily spends 100 million on broadcasting to a tiny audience while its kids go hungry, patients shiver in side rooms and has no viable transport infrastructure. Talk about priorities.

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Mervyn James says...
9:46am Mon 7 Jan 13

Many areas of the UK got funding from Europe, including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, and Scotland did too. The funds were intended to regenerate area that Westminster had abandoned basically, but that funding (Which was to be in ADDITION), to what we got never arrived.

Europe gives us NOTHING itself, what it is doing is returning what we sent them (Some of it). Where is the proof £100m is being spent (I am assuming you are having another go at welsh language output again). BBC Wales is English too.

Priorities are helping our sick and providing work for those who can. I don't think attacking Wales and their population repeatedly is helpful.

'Realism' is standing there with your hand always out ? I thought that was the very opposite of what you believe is right ?

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Llanmartinangel says...
3:40pm Mon 7 Jan 13

S4C's annual budget in 2010 was £102million. That doesn't include radio. I'm not attacking Wales and its people, it's nationalism which is holding it back. Yes the funding model of the EU is bizarre and unsustainable. The UK loses out if you take regions into account. But constantly attacking England or London is just stupid. All large cities gain disproportionately but that doesn't make them wrong.

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