Not to take anything away from the athletes but this was sold as an economic shot in the arm wasn't it?

"The research arm of Citi has just completed its assessment of what the 2012 Olympics contributed to the UK economy.

In a nutshell, the Report illustrates with the use of several convincing graphs, that the Olympics was great news for British athletes, but economically pointless….and probably, in the end, likely to be consigned to history as a cost centre. In simple terms, the event cost 0.7% of GDP, and produced an economic boost of 0.2%. While there was a positive effect on local employment levels, post-event figures suggest very strongly that these weren't permanent….and even ignoring that reality, the employment uplift vs non-Olympic boroughs was, um, 0.3%.”

So might have got a better result by not actually having the Olympics.

An ultra-expensive distraction - unless you happen to have been one of the very few in the South East who derived some temp benefit. If it had been assigned to one of the UK's regions of high unemployment it might just have had some point. Did wonders for the Greek economy!

The French may have been gutted to lose it, but they should be smiling now. So many things so much taxpayer's money could have been spent on, even if just mitigating some of the present massive public service cutbacks. Though, I suspect that many of those who were celebrating the "win" are now amongst the most vocal opposition to the "cuts".

I suppose "I told you so" is too obvious . . .