Just a thought, but maybe the Olympics would make a long-term difference to the country if we allowed them to - if we supported, fostered, and encouraged the resilience, buoyancy and cheerfulness in our behaviour and in the national and local discourse. A lot of Britain seemed to be happy and proud simply because there was something to be happy and proud about. It was a needed and welcome injection - almost a relief. None of this means we don't need to work hard to bring the economy back up, solve social issues, etc., but it might mean that a little optimism that we can make it happen might help it to actually happen. Nothing to lose by trying, everything to lose by tearing things down.

The Olympics was a party, but not much more. Watching on Spanish TV they didnt seem any better than the Beijing ones. Obviously it would have been a better experience watching in the UK or being in London

I'm glad people in Britain enjoyed it because it cost £9 billion of tax payers money i.e. £150 for every person in Britain

As for medals, all host nations do well as they get funded for the 8 years at much higher levels than previously. I was reading in the paper how the Spanish medalists are now going back to their full time jobs. Funding for athletics in Spain is dire and reflected by the medal count.

The tax payer funded most of the British athletes to be professional who wouldnt previously have been (e.g. they actually paid for the British handball team to play in professional European leagues to gain experience even though they weren't good enough)

Now the Olympics are over the funding will be cut (quite rightly) and the medal count will drop.

In my opinion, the London Olympics will probably be the most extravagent we see in some time as they were planned before the global crash

I don't know if it's always been the case but as a nation we've become far too complacent.
Not only that but we've become a nanny state expecting the govt or whatever authority to be at our beck and call to solve our every tiny problem otherwise we moan and groan or kick up a stink rather than get off our arses and do something positive to help.
It doesn't apply to everyone, of course, as we have seen from the volunteers efforts in the Olympics and various charity fund raising activities as examples.

It seems that it takes a major event such as the Olympics or even a major war to get the nation as a whole motivated to a single cause, otherwise we simply slip back to our lax old ways, which I fancy will be the case once again in this instance.

The taxpayer (us) funds lots of things that are considered public goods. Your opinion on what is a public good may differ from mine, but there it is.

Far better than leaving everything to private commercial interests, imo.

I'm honestly not sure whether we are lazy and complacent, or whether we simply expect our elected government to do the job we pay it to do. If the latter, that isn't nannying.

Actually that's not strictly true. Half their funding was sponsor related (e.g. Visa). The other half, which yes was given by UK sport, was a combination of money from the Exchequer and the National Lottery.

I just wanted to mention that as I have read a lot over the past few weeks about how National Lottery funding has made a big impact on British athletes; their support and training.

http://www.britishhandball.com/briti...ng-is-doubled/

http://www.uksport.gov.uk/pages/about-uk-sport/

I'm personally pro Olympics, but anti ridiculous national posturing. I just posted the money as a reality check. After spending £9 billion you'd hope it would be a good show and that the hundreds of millions extra spent funding elite sportsman would show some reward. And it did

British athletes havent become amazing over night. They were paid to train full time with the best facilities for many years. Most countries dont have that money to spend. And neither will Britain in the next 10 years

It would also be nice if the government spent £9 billion on school sports so people get to play sport rather than just watch it, I wonder what the budget is there?

I honestly don't see the national enthusiasm over these games as ridiculous national posturing. In my view, the elite athletes aren't the sole beneficiaries. Sport and athletics have a cultural role to play in our society,and for the large part it is a good one involving the spirits of community, fair competition, aspiration, personal and team accomplishment, sportsmanship, self-sacrifice and effort. Those are all values I think form an important part of society. The personal success of the elites matters less, and is in any case short-lived - pretty much all of them have to move on to do something else.

I agree that a huge amount of money should be invested in education, infrastructure in poor areas, decent housing, etc. I just don't see these needs as mutually exclusive with the sports. Without being an economist, I would be willing to bet that there are other areas that money could come from - weapons manufacture and sales comes to mind.

As I understand it the govt now intends to continue the same degree of funding from similar sources for the next four years to be used at all levels of sport.

So get over your sour grapes Cman as it looks like you will have another king sized helping of them to deal with in another four years time.

Oh, if only! Sometimes it seems the British are only happy when they've got something to moan about. Two weeks of almost unanimous enthusiasm was totally refreshing! As they (we) say in Spain, ¡Podemos! We can do it!

don't worry, it will all change in the next couple of weeks when all the negative stories start to surface, they will seem to outweigh all the happy clappy success

especially with the French and Australians leading the pack to convince the world that Britain cheated.

also Britain will be back to complaining about the weather and all the other things needed to get to the end of the day.

Some get no funding at all, the guy who won the shooting gets nothing from either the National Lottery or grants/ sponsorship, the Makhtooms had to help him out.

Absolutely, the atmosphere was great everywhere last week. People sat in parks, mixing and talking to different nationalities. No drunks as I noticed. It would be good if that lasted.

You didn't see all the returning competitors being interviewed? They spoke highly of everything, the Dutch, Australians etc. Even an American said the accommodation had been super and they are always whingers if everything isn't perfect.

I recall problems in Beijing when the first athletes arrived there.
Some reported raw sewage swishing about in their bathrooms and others that there accommodation was in a terrible mess as though someone had been using it and left in a hurry.
So at least we did a little better than that.

Regarding the departing Olympians, did anyone see the news reports from Heathrow where they were openly flaunting lovely new blankets and the like which they had obviously stolen from their accommodation ?

Some gratitude, eh ?