Smash hit

5. The Olympic Games is a living mythology and its myths endure and become a part of us and a part of they way we look at life. Sir Steve Redgrave provided the heroic myth of the man who sacrifices all in pursuit of victory. The last Games gave us in successive days new tales to tell: Sir Matthew Pinsent's tears of victory, Paula Radcliffe's tears of defeat. The London Games would give us stories of the greatest possible vividness: living myths that would stay with us forever.

That is what the Games are about: to provide meaning and drama and excellence, also misery and disappointment and anger and resentment. The presiding note is the enjoyment of being alive. It's about joy: and **** the begrudgers.

Five Reasons Against, by Camilla Cavendish, Leader Writer

1) In financial terms, isn’t this a gamble of Olympic proportions? £3.8 billion is a lot of money to spend on feeling good for a fortnight (or just feeling sweaty and late, see next point). That’s more about 2p on income tax, and it’s only the initial estimate. The bill for the Athens Olympics is likely to come in at about £6 billion, more than double the original budget, even though the Greeks got the EU to foot most of the security bill. The 2000 Sydney Games went over budget and Australians are paying £18 million a year to prop up the Sydney venues. The good people of Montreal are still paying for the stadium built in 1976.

2) And don't forget we Brits haven’t a great track record in estimating the cost of public projects - the Channel Tunnel, the Dome, the Jubilee Line Extension, Portcullis House, Wembley Stadium. Very few Games have ever made a profit. And who will pay for the cost overruns? The unwitting taxpayer, of course, especially those of us in London. The Chancellor confirmed that ages ago. Remember, guys, we will want to see audited consultants’ fees and expenses bills after all this is over.

3) Tubes might fly, but they don’t. Sunny forecasts that we’ll easily squeeze a quarter of a million people passengers into our dismal sweaty carriages in seven years' time, at rush hour, when we can’t even mend an escalator in less than a month, seem misplaced. London will be playing host to roughly half a million spectators a day, up to half of whom are expected to travel to the Games every morning through central London. This is apparently going to cause minimal disruption, “given extensive Games-time management”. In reality they’ll just be doubling the signs urging you to take a bottle of water.

4) We keep hearing that the Olympics will “get people involved in sport”. Well many will watch it on television, and maybe even buy a St. George’s flag to hang out of the car window. Or maybe mug the odd athlete who takes the wrong turning. But if we really want to get a new generation involved in sport, if we want to create a base to nurture the athletes of the future, we need to spend money on inner city sports facilities, not elite performance venues. Some local sports projects have already been cut because Government has raided the sports budget to fund the Olympic bid. The budget for south-central London has fallen from £27 million over a three-year period to £16 million over four years. That’s money that would have gone to local basketball courts, tennis courts, playing fields. Sport England’s community budget is £2 million a year for the next five years for the whole of London: what is that going to buy?

5) Lastly, I dread the smug pomposity of all those who supported the cause - and of those who changed their minds at the last moment so as not to look uncool. Seven years is a long time to bear a national epidemic of sporting smugness.