" I reckon my house has gone up by
20% since the announcement was made. Well worth paying £250 more per
year over six years! "

Yeah, well writing as someone (like about 54 million others) who
doesn't live in an East End slum, and to whose house the Olympic
fiasco will add not one penny of house value, I'm happy for those who
benefit to finance the project, but why should the rest of us have to
pay anything?

National pride: I am content with what we have (and have had for almost
1,000 years): a relatively stable, democratic country with a rich
cultural lie which has exported its experience and benefits to about
1/3 of the globe in one form or another. The Birthday of Her Majesty
The Queen, like her Golden Jubilee 4 years ago, an the 50th and 60th
Anniversaries of D-Day and V.E/V.J. days sums it all up for me - and
none of these cost anything like the sums being poured into the
Olympics.

Marc.