Another Labour white elephant, just like the Millenium Dome and we all know what a waste of money that was!

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

alex, forres, uk

So did I. I cursed Chirac the night that he said 'why should the Olympics go to England? They have the worst food in the northern hemisphere . . . . except for Finland' and that was enough to flip the Finnish vote in favour of London. I have moved to Paris.

david, Paris, France

All this money should be spent on child poverty, not the fulfilling of inflated egos.

Glyn Pope, Angers , France

Mark from Yorkshire.

My feelings exactly.

Well said

David Kinsley, Derby, UK

half the cost of the £400 million media centre. What is the point of this village in the middle of nowwhere. It will be a disaster like moving the BBC to Manchester, and to compound it all the staff of the BBC who moved have negative equity of the worst order as they all moved at the peak

Nicholas Iles, Oswestry, Shropshire, United Kingdom

Enough is enough.
Tough times calls for tough decisions.
The Govt. will gain some respect from the taxpayers if the Olympics are shelved and show some credibility about saving taxpayers money.
Who cares about global posturing?
Oh yes! Of course Brown!

Dek Crossingham, Birmingham, England

it is a rerun of 1948. Most teams wont be able to afford to come.The rest will just be grateful there is someone daft enough to stage them in a period of austerity.

ged, manchester,

The whole world has changed since we agreed to host the 2012 Olympics. We can no longer afford to do so. This is Force Majeur and we should not feel in the slightest bit embarrassed in calling the whole thing off.

Tony Jones, Grantham, Lincs

Smart move would be to sell/concede Olympic rights to Madrid whose mayor is charged with bidding in 2016 ( is repeat in same continent within 4 years,a precedent??) and were competitors for 2012.

Rogelio, Calpe, Spain

Can I put a tender in to build the basketball arena for 50 million. That will save the tax payer 10 million and it only has to stand there for a couple of weeks before it's torn down. How hard can it be?

Phil, Atlanta, USA

Clearly the nation hasn't got the money for this. The organizers failed to get the funding necessary so they should be cutting their costs. Where are the plans to scale back this extravagent and trivial, pointless competition?

Chris, Derby,

This is a joke right?
Who is going to stand up and stop this madness?
The Olympics are not that important to the country.
This is London's problem, not mine.
DO NOT use my taxes for this.

Mark, Yorkshire,

It's just hubris at the expense of the ordinary citizen. I have been against the Olympics from the start. It has just become a competition to see who can put on the best show...yes the true Olympian spirit is a worthy thing but not when your economy is on the cusp of a major recession...

Shelasoul, London,

May be a meaningful lesson for Japan, whose capital is
now aiming to become the host of 2016 Ollympic Game.

M. Murakami, Tokyo , Japan

So we in the provinces are expected to bail out londons olympics and get next to nothing in return?London and the south-east are the main beneficaries of the olympics,so let them pay.

martin, darlington, england

It would be useful produce a list of things that aren’t going to get bailed out, as the bailout list is getting too long to follow now.

I shall have a go:
1. The taxpayer.

I think that’s the lot.

Pat, Coromandel, NZ

If only we had a government or a Mayor of London who would have the guts to cancel this stupidity.

Frederick, London, UK

Why should we waste more money tarting up London again?

David, Poole,

We were not balloted about the olympics and we should not have to pay for them ... If they were being held in Manchester or Birmingham the cost would not be so great - why London - a drowning dirty inaccessible pile of historic mess?

Sue Reynolds, Sudbury, Derbyshire

This is all deja - vu. We knew when it was announced that we would have literally to pay through the nose for some-thing that only those in the afflent south could enjoy. Shame on you surely the Senior Citizens deserve an extra slice of the pie instead of the unworkable, unmanageable, unwanted games

James Robertson, Accrington, U>K>

I agree with Charlie - we CAN'T afford to host the Olympic Games, so let's admit it! I, for one, am not willing to give 1p of my money to fund the games - will we, as taxpayers, be allowed to opt out of paying for them?

Jax, Brighton, UK

tHIS GOVERMENTS RESPONSE to anything . throw taxpayers money at it .Most of the events are using existing venues so why does it cost so much? No the NHS is not starved of cash its Glutted on bureacracy.

g.p.edlin, london , uk

The building for the games is a joke, the equestrian park which they are determined to build in inner London is set to be dismantled afterwards. Other countries have national equestrian centres, this should be an opportunity to provide better permanent facilities throughout the UK for all sports.

Claire, Reading,

We should just give back the rights of Olympics to the international organization that deal with it.It is still cheaper.We do need to bite our pride but need to admit it that we can not host an Olympic game.Full stop.

Charlie Koch, Birmingham, England

But hey, around one third of the Uk thinks new Labour IS working if you believe the polls! Who ARE these people?

Simon Robinson, Gibraltar, Gibraltar

We have the same problem with the 2010 winter games in Whistler. Taxpayers money to allow a few nonentities ( organisers) to strut their stuff in front of the world cameras. . I think the Winter Olympics needs $60 million to complete the athletes village. Sound familiar?

wxalexander, Delta, canada

Does this mean we get free tickets, and free travel on the partially nationalised rail service? Higher rates for saver and lower rates for mortgage holder on the partially nationalised bank service? Can we have lower taxes as the taxpayer is funding Labour's mess of the economy? Is Brown smiling?

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

Portugal built 9 football stadia for less than the cost of Wembley.
Hand the whole thing over to them to build as our architects and contractors are too bound by their own egos.

Danny, Ashford, Kent

sell the Olympics to the French the electricity to light the arenas will be 3/4 the cost !

Mike, Sole Street, England

This is the time to bring the Olympic costs back into line for the future. London should reduce the size of the total Olympic site, extend the Olympic period and use the accomondation and stadiums/facilities multiple times. Give longer employment to the many part timers to make London 2012 the best

Sue, Swindon,

When the initial 2.4 billion cost was announced, I immediately said that the final cost would be ten times that amount - so who is surprised? Whether it is worth that amount is a matter of debate.

alex, forres, uk

Scrap this nonsensical whimsy and pay pensioners to stay warm and not die in the winter. At this rate,Cameron and co must be wondering if it will be worth getting into power,what with all the debts to settle. No wonder Broon don't care anymore,it won't be his problem !!!

Keith Rogers, arapkoy, cyprus

Alistair
Lord Coe and his mates are lining their pockets.
Are their no checks on how these people are remunerated? Millions already paid in fees.

No wonder they were so ecstatic when London was awarded the games.

Peter Lewin, Northwood, UK

another mess, Did we not all know this was going to happen,A silly non realistic first costing to get everybody on board then bang off it goes spiraling out of control upwards endlessly upwards this government has and does treat us all as idiots..And what for a glorified school sports day

WILLIAM, NORTHAMPTON, ENGLAND

Nice drawing by the way. Reminds me of something. Ah yes. The Millenium Dome, another BliarBroon production of lasting value to the nation.
Better a lame duck now than a dead duck then. We can't afford the athletes but we can afford paying to enrich developers and bankers ? Weezbin robd.

Tezza, Guildford, UK

The Olympics has come at the worst possible time for the UK economy. The UK economy is in extremely serious trouble, with far worse prospects than the US or Euro land. Stop expenditure and cancel the Olympics immediately.

Ron, Oxon,

I don't suppose Lord Coe would consider asking the Lords of the Rings to reduce their substantial fee?

Colin, Melbourne,

How was it that the L.A. Olympics did not cost the taxpayer, Federal, State, County or City, one penny? By using existing facilities and the commercial endorsement of venues. And - it made a profit! The same could have been done with London, a larger city. A pity that Greek pressed the wrong button.

David Cunard, Los Angeles, United States

The government will print the money to meet these liabilities effectively raising the money by inflation which will most affect people on fixed incomes. Government employees with index linked pensions will be largely unaffected.

Julian Pedley, Mansfield, UK

Yet even more reason to put a serious brake on this excessive and expensive ego-trip. These astronomical sums being spent on a two-week sporting event are unjustifiable in the current economic climate and God knows what state we'll be in come 2012. Taxpayers money should be used for more wisely.

Ian Dickson, Brighton, UK

what - the tax payer is going to get shafted again?? my word, there's a surprise.
Shift the horsey stuff to well established venues, shooting to Bisley , rowing etc if not already sorted - Henley. Sailing is already set..UK is tiny. Use it all and make it the UK Olympics. Don't spend unnecessarily

Alex Dean, NY, USA

Hmm, and to think, I thought tax payers money was being used for the Olympics in the first place: how wrong I was...

Farrukh, Woking,

Any surprise, but surely with a lack of new builds starting, labour should be cheaper, materials are coming down in price. Who is lining their pockets with this one?

Alistair Kipling, Birmingham,

use to have a brilliant sports day at school, i reckon i could compete fro gold in the egg and spoon race and they dont charge much for hiring out school playing fields.

amit hindocha, birmingham, uk

If I remember correctly it was Ken Livingstone "I Presume?" who said "nobody outside the London Area will pay anything,it will cost the Council tax Payers the price of a Walnut Whip,it will cost 2.2 Billion " We should give China the chance to hold them again and who knows,gain some Respect .

G.D Flynn, Rotterdam/Hague, Netherlands

Its high time the government took the bull by the horns and conceded that neither the UK, nor indeed the world, can afford the 2012 Olympics. I am completely nonplussed as to why money can be found to fund a fortnight of sports when the NHS is kept severely short of funds?

Peter, Pinner, UK

Well what is an odd ten billion here and a hundred million there! Superman Brown and his followers could not find after all the £500bn they have so far thrown about. Just tap the current tax payers or better still the future ones who can be bequeathed with all lovely public borrowings to settle.

S Yogarajah, Harrow, UK