‘Burn’ it like Beckham as flame heads for the UK
(CNS): UK’s footballing hero David Beckham was one of a number of dignitaries escorting the Olympic flame from Athens to London Friday. When the flame lands in the UK this evening it will trigger a 70-day torch relay leading to the opening of the Games in London on 27 July. The former England soccer captain joined Princess Anne, the London Games chairman Seb Coe, London Mayor Boris Johnson, and Olympics minister Hugh Robertson on a golden-liveried Airbus – the 'Firefly' from the Greek capital. The flame was handed over to the London delegation at a ceremony in torrential rain at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.
"When the flame arrives and the torch relay starts to get under way, that is a physical moment in terms of the process towards the Games," the Princess, who formally received the flame at Thursday’s ceremony.
The plane will land RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall in south-west England, when at a special welcome ceremony Beckham will use the flame shielded in a miners lantern to light a golden torch and a cauldron. "To be travelling back with the flame tonight, and to be lighting it, is something very special. Something that I am going to cherish for many years," Beckham said.
Some 8,000 torchbearers will carry the Olympic flame through hill and dale across the UK. The bearers are mostly local people who have worked to better their communities.
Category: Sports
As if anyone really gave a s**t?
This event is turning into the scam of century, something that the UK will live to regret and end up paying for over the next decade or more.
Beckham (who hasn't even lived in the UK since 2003) heading a bunch of hangers-on living it up at someone else's expense sums things up rather nicely.
The majority of people in the UK will be very glad when it's all over.
That’s the Olympic spirit right there..!
Enjoy the spectacle and chill out Man..!
Well you really need to get that chip on your shoulder seen to, if it gets much bigger you'll sink into the c**p you are spouting!. Are you sure you actually live here in the UK?, if so you would see that the whole country is now getting on board for what will showcase our country and all the athletes from around the world. So you think David Beckham, Sebastian Coe and team are "hangers-on" do you?, please get a life. Ben Ainslee the UK's triple Olympic sailing champion left Lands End at 7-00am this morning with the Olympic Flame to start it's tour of the UK, that combined with the Queens Diamond Jubilee in June will give our Country a wonderful 2012!!!!. Ps And don't worry we will still be able to bail out the Cayman Government when they overspend this year!!!!.
Yup, I do actually live in the UK and have done so all my long life. I also have been looking at the runup to this farce ever since it was announced.
I don't know anyone in the UK who has 'got on board' this gravy train. My opinions are almost certainly shared by millions of my fellow countrymen.
This is what the Olympics are going to do to the UK –
1. Completely disrupt one of the largest financial and business centres in the world for roughly a month at what is a critical time of the year for the banking industry. Some people I spoke to in this sector are actually not going to be able to get to work on many days and that is going to potentially cost the country £millions.
2. Including what has already been thrown down the drain in the preparation work, cost the taxpayers of the country £billions that will never be recovered.
3. Generate vast amounts of bad publicity for UK tourism as the numerous scams being attached to the event are revealed. Does the revelation that visitors will pay £600+ a night for a hotel room that previously cost a tenth of that make the UK look good? At least one major hotel chain has decided not and they have pulled out of support for the Olympics.
As for the so-called benefits.
1. People being offered work during the Olympics are getting terms that are a joke. They may get minimum wage (and that's not certain) but under conditions that almost amount to slavery.
2. Will the newly-built facilities turn into assets or liabilities? Look at Barcelona and decide.
There are no identifiable long-term benefits from the event, except to a select group of people who will (or probably already have) make a nice financial killing out of it all.
And finally, do not link our Queen's Diamond Jubilee with this Olympic nonsense. That is a celebration, the other event is a disaster.
Well after all that perhaps you shouldn't be living in the UK!!!. Have you seen any of the TV coverage of the people carrying the Torch, including many disabled people, being cheered on by thousands of ordinary people lining the streets?. I too live most of the time here in the UK but am lucky enough to have a home in Cayman. I too am fed up with the way our country is being run sometimes and the crazy policies that the coalition government come out with ——but, just for a few weeks lets celebrate the fact that we are hosting the most important sporting event in the world and perhaps we will learn from the likes of Barcelona about making the best use of the facilities after the games are over. By the way you say you don't know anyone who has got onboard this "gravy train", have you tried getting tickets for any of the events?, that should answer your question.
I agree with you. Except for your "most important sporting event in the world" comment. That would be the world cup.
Or womans beachvolley ball.
Or bikini mud wrestling.
I think the technical term for this type of person is “a miserable git”.
The UK has not "bailed out" Cayman so far and won't be asked to do so this year or any other year.
Well I am going and looking forward to it. It is a shame that being miserable and cynical was not an Olympic event – you would be in for a medal. Watch out this Christmas, as the ghost of Christmas past will be coming your way.