Torchure

On the journey of the Olympic torch I'm in firm agreement with Post commenter LeighWoods1 who said 'One thing, closing one of the main arteries to the city [Bristol] for what is essentially the procession of a large zippo lighter is a huge waste of resources and I would like someone to assess the impact upon our economy of this silly and pointless exercise.' (more here)

And as for the massive news coverage of this torch - we have weeks and weeks more of it to go yet and its already very tiresome and wasteful. Its torchure.

@ raverbaby1 - "finding all the negative comments a bit shocking really - can i assume you all feel we should have disregarded history and tradition..."

No, just wanting a decent sense of proportion, perspective, good sense and a proper sense of priorities. Many people have gone far over the top with claims about what staging the Olympics can do for our country - its something that is easily said but very hard to demonstrate historically and with hard facts, especially economic ones

@ Bristoldjsuk - “I am excited for the olympics and the sports etc, however the torch spectacle is a bit odd. The corporate band wagon and advertising is becoming increasingly tedious and I feel it's detracting from the actual point of the olympics, the sports. It's still months away, yet we are being hyped into a frenzy as if it's tomorrow..."

Yes, absolutely. I'm dead keen on the Olympics but purely as a sporting event. It shows us the excellence that can be achieved by human efforts - if we have the motivation and discipline we can all harness our talents, sometimes with support, sometimes because we are not supported. We may gain as people from the example and experience of this. What I dont buy and am opposed to is the weeks and months of hype, the waste of resources, the possibility of overall economic gain due to staging the event, the sponsorhip and corporatism - and the misplaced nationalism.