2012 Olympic Ceremonies Great Value at £80m

How on earth can spending £80m on the Olympic ceremonies be justified when athletes are struggling to compete through lack of funding, and when our country itself is all but bankrupt? These should be the austerity games - a chance for us to lead the way and show that hosting the Olympics needn't cost the earth?

Besides, who would miss the ceremonies - certainly not the Athletes. The ceremonies are just TV spectaculars and therefore quite unneceesary. All that's really needed is to march the Teams in and round the stadium , play a bit of music and light the flame - job done. As to the closing ceremony , many of the athletes have already returned home - so it's not for their benefit. And who cares anyway? Once the 4 x 400m has finished it's all over. But doesn't it make military action in Libya look cheap at £212m

Referenda

There was an intriguing suggestion on the TV last night re the Greek situation to the effect that some matters are too important to be trusted to a referendum. What an incredibly arrogant and undemocratic suggestion. I would say that some matters are so important that a referendum must be held! What is an election if not a weak form of referendum – weak in that we are asked to vote on a whole range of measures in a manifesto that may or may not actually be implemented. A referendum on a specific subject is a very strong form of democratic practice.

The arguments against holding referendums tend to concentrate on the cost and the potential for delay. I rather suspect that it has more to do with politicians not trusting the public to come up with the answer they want! But politicians really should be capable of arguing the merits of a given case. As it is the suggestion made implies the public cannot be relied upon to make a true judgement on a given case.

Of course referenda should not sought on every issue that arises but there must be a case for canvassing public opinion on key issues to judge whether a referendum should be held. I would go as far as to suggest that a referendum must be sought on any major issue – short of national security – that arises but was not contained in the governments election manifesto! That would sort out some of the nonsense we have as a result of the current coalition government. Failing that, I rather like the Swiss model where referendums must be held in certain situations or if demanded by enough petitioners. There’s a good article on Referendums in Wikipedia.

Schumacher to join Vettel at Red Bull

Wouldn't that make a great headline and an interesting team pairing! Anyway, it's good to see Michael back on form - it certainly looks like he's on a level with Rosberg now. But wouldn't it be interesting to see him in the best car up against the current best driver in the world.

The way things are going Michael must start wondering if all his records will tumble to Vettel. But anything could happen to the cars over the winter so who knows what 2012 will bring. Loved the India circuit - should be even better when the dust has dispersed. And wasn't it good to see Lewis and Felipe waving handbags around watched by Mr Bean!

Doesn't the BBC know when Halloween is?

Halloween is pretty obnoxious at the best of times but is not improved by the BBC trying to stretch it out over 3 days! Don't they know it's only Halloween on the 31st October - and not on the two days prior to then as well. Standards in West London have been slipping for some time. It's time we sent the ridiculous festival back to America where it belongs. Yet another commercial excuse to sell tat. And don't get me started on Xmas.

Give us our referendum

So once again we have been denied a referendum on our membership of the EU. Surely there can’t be a more important topic than who actually governs us. We were conned in 1975 and since then there hasn’t been an opportunity to voice our views on the direction the EU project has gone. Totally disgusting – won’t the politicians ever listen to the people that keep them employed? We elected each and every one of them on the basis that they would represent and reflect our views as our servants and not our masters. I applaud all the Tories that defied the 3 line whip – but what about the rest? I for one will never vote Conservative again. Now, come on David Cameron, give us our referendum!

A bad week for motorsport – RIP Marco Simoncelli

I was terribly saddened to turn on the TV to hear the awful news of Simoncelli’s tragic freak accident. Coming so soon after Dan Wheldon’s death it will no doubt set the anti-motorsport crowd off. So be it. I just hope things are kept in perspective. To my mind, road accidents in which families suffer tragedies through no fault of their own are far worse. I lost my own Mother, Aunt and Uncle in a car crash eleven years ago and it has not changed my views/enjoyment of motorsport. At least competitors in all motorsports know what they are doing and choose to put themselves in a position of risk.

Marco might not have had too many friends up and down the MotoGP pit lane but he certainly blew a breath of fresh air into the sport. Now, sadly, we will never know how good a rider he could have become. RIP Marco Simoncelli.

The Jury's out on DRS

As we near the end of the season it may be time to reflect on the introduction of DRS. So has it been the much heralded solution to the lack of overtaking in Formula One? Well, we’ve certainly had a season full of overtaking and many people will say with some justification that it has made overtaking too easy! But this year was always going to be difficult with DRS zones being set by guesswork. Now with plenty of statistics to go on it should be possible to set DRS zones far more accurately next season. That being the case perhaps we should only judge DRS after next year. Having said that, it would seem that there is quite a lot of interplay between KERS and DRS where one can sometimes be used to nullify the other. KERS is beginning to look like a defensive tool against DRS and perhaps DRS works best when combined with KERS. It’s certainly giving drivers something else to think about - and wasn’t it interesting to see Webber overtake Hamilton in Korea only to be instantly repassed.