A gold for spin

I FEAR that your editorial staff (Comment, 20 July) may have been taken in by the hype, and spin, being put out by the 
London-centric media on the success of the 2012 Olympics.

Conveniently omitted from the success story is the online pre-event ticket buying fiasco, the filling of empty blocks of seats at some venues with military personnel and security duties being carried out by more military staff due the the incompetence of the privately-run security contractor.

As this event was being beamed around the world imagine, what some countries made of the presence of soldiers, in an official capacity, at a peaceful sporting event; that says a lot, to them, about the state of the British nation.

If we move on to the opening ceremony it may have been astonishing, but village-green cricket, dark, satanic mills and people jumping around on hospital beds would have been lost on the majority of the world’s population.

Finally, down to the cost and the measurement of success. As it was a London event, I assume that all of the £9.3 billion cost would be met by the London boroughs; somehow I don’t think so. And whichever way you want to cut it, the £10bn estimated economic boost will be felt nowhere but London and the Home Counties. As to success, the medal table reflected the prowess of the British athletes. The other great success being touted is that of the Games-makers, how ironic then that these people were mainly volunteers. Their cost, in unpaid wages, should be added to the final bill.

Yes the benefits will roll, not here in Scotland though, but only into the permanently overheated economy of London and the south-east of England.

David J Mackenzie

The Maltings

Inverkeithing, Fife