Doesn't quite work like that....

The cost was split around most countries in Western Europe depending on who built what and running costs and stuff BUT it has only cost $6billion so far CONSIDERABLY less than the London Olympics budget... It isn't going to find cures for illnesses directly but some of the spin offs might help... for example they have developed a new version of the Internet which could help hospitals and stuff. It really should be seen in the same light as going to the moon, humans trying to further their knowledge of the universe around them. They might actually find out what gravity is... apart from the fact it pulls down we really are completely ignorant on what it actually is! We've just got to hope for the spin offs that are being developed to help with their research end up helping every one of us.

The NHS should spend more on obesity... Obesity is the biggest killer in this country and has been for a few years. Healthy eating should be optional in my eyes though, get obese it's an individuals choice how they want to live their life but if people aren't willing to take the advice the NHS is giving I don't think the NHS should have any obligation to spend any money on helping them get better after they've got a obesity related disease...

Oh and printing more money would make the current economic climate sooooooooooo much worse... we don't want to become the next Zimbabwe now do we...

Indeed. If it did, people would just go on mad spending sprees thinking the government would just print more money and the economy would just collapse. The pound would become worthless, and as Tom22 said, we'd have Zimbabwe-type problems.



The Olympics is definitely going to do good through re-generation of the east end area of London. From how I understand it, the cost is mostly coming from London tax-payers but I suspect some may be coming from the national pocket, which is a bit unfair really - a bit like the Millennium Dome when it was built nearly a decade ago.

Ken Livingstone admitted that one of the main reasons to get the Olypmics here was so it would be an easy way of regenerating the east-end of London, but I reckon if they'd put their heads together they could've done it without the Olympics! But I suppose they needed a good kick up the backside to get things done, and they've now got that kick with the Olympics coming here in 2012.

The Olympic Games are supposed to end up in a profit for the country, with the money coming from the new jobs created by the Olympics, new businesses moving into the regenerated area, tourists coming to the capital during the Games and so on. The positive effect should be long-term, and the profits will (or should) be invested in all sorts of nationwide projects. However with the cost of the whole thing seemingly soaring with each estimate they give, I'm not sure what the profits will be, even in the long-term. Even if they do make a healthy profit from it all, I'm suspicious about where exactly the money will be spent... hopefully it won't end up in the pockets of property developers.

I think the cost of the Olympics can just about be justified as it should have positive long-term effects as I said. Hopefully though this Big Bang experiment will produce results which will have a positive effect (on potentially the whole world) in the long-term.

unfortunately you cant just print extra money or else the worth of it goes down, isnt that just defeating the object?????

I know a family who do print their own money. [And no, not mine!]

Oh dear.... the economic situation would appear to get worse and worse now the US lawmakers have rejected the rescue programme created by Bush. And there's also news that Bradford & Bingley have gone under too...

Stupid credit crunch. Or should it be credit explosion now?

There's a perfectly valid case for saying this 'bailout' is about as unfair as some of the ones we see on DoND (:P) and not very effective either, but there are lots of complexities to this situation and even as an Economics student I don't pretend to understand many of them.

Printing money's not going to be an option unless things really change - the critical thing in my opinion is that this is coming hand-in-hand with rising commodity prices which any other time would either send inflation spiralling or (more likely these days, certainly in the UK and Europe) send interest rates spiralling to prevent that...

I've been watching SKY News this morning... and it's all very much doom and gloom and things have turned a huge turn for the worse now. Iceland is set to become the new Zimbabwe with soaring inflation and a depreciating currency. All the EU countries seems to be wavering and setting out there own policies like Ireland and the UK isnt doing an awful lot.. The FTSE 100 is down nearly 300 points already (at a 4 year low) and there is still a long time left today. The US need to sort out there bailout thing (apparently they are in recession now), the UK needs to sort what it's doing and everyone should buy alot of tinned food and little camp heaters and camp down ready for winter

Well, the press have recently been suggesting we're heading for an 'Economic Armageddon'. They thrive off doom and gloom.

Jimmy... lend me a couple of grand please... I hear u work in the financial sector

We are officially in recession now!

Looks like we're in for a Black Friday at the moment

Oooh how odd, I was just painting my nails Black too... looks like I made a wise choice

I've just heard on the news something about a "Charles Bean" working in the Bank of England... now we know where we went wrong. Mr Bean is working at the Bank of England.

I was looking at a magazine in a shop while I was waiting to pay for my stuff and a bit in it said something about a woman who had her horse carved up while it was still alive by yobs.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... quiry.html

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 023135.ece

Does Russell Brand have nothing better to do with his airtime?

I never had anything against Brand and Ross is a legend but this was just dull... what the hell were they thinking?!?! All the papers are calling for them both so be sacked now.

Too right. Regardless of how many times they apologise, they're a complete disgrace (as are the BBC for their handling of it!).

It's pathetic what they did... and they should be reprimanded for it without a doubt. Calling up anyone (especially an OAP) to leave disgusting messages is wrong and against the law... doing it on a national radio show is more than wrong.

It doesn't help matters that Andrew Sachs' granddaughter is apparently in a sadistic pop band called "Sadistic Sluts". But it doesn't detract from the fact that Brand and Ross are in the wrong. Russell Brand did try to make an apology about it but went off on a rant about the Daily Mail and how they printed a letter which was in support of the Nazis in the 1930s or something... it's not the point really, and he's just trying to defend himself by criticising others.

Pathetic.