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ToranDell

Listed below are comments made by ToranDell between Saturday, 9th August 2008 and Tuesday, 19th August 2008.

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Britain's cycling success - is it cricket? 1:50pm on 19 Aug 2008 A silly article for all of the reasons that others have mentioned. It's not good for us to win so much? For goodness sake. I'm damn proud of how well we are doing. I want us to do even better - especially in 2012.

How typical of journalism today. Find the negative slant. This is more typical of your tabloid press; it's not what I want from the BBC. You might be trying to be provacative, James - will you get paid extra for generating so much interest? The trouble is too many people take note of this sort of attitude and believe the negative. If there were medals for moaning then the British would win them.
Super-heavyweight Price is (up)right for boxing glory 1:00pm on 19 Aug 2008 I agree with you Crowperson.

Read these and other blogs and it is so DEPRESSING. The ability of British people to always focus on the NEGATIVE rather than on the POSITIVE has now become such a cultural trait that I think it is now seriously damaging to our country.

I for one am PROUD of our achievements and want to CELEBRATE. I would hope that the Olympics helps to generate some sense of a "feel good" factor. Yes, things can be even better both for the range of sports, sports in the UK, the nature of the Olympics and how individual countries behave. But that means we should strive to be better, not slag everything off.
Sensory overload at the opening ceremony 10:44pm on 09 Aug 2008 I have to say that I enjoyed watching the opening ceremony and I understand, as others have mentioned, that this is China wanting to make a statement to the world. I think we must understand and respect that whilst at the same time not compromising our values. For those that think this is just sport and not a political event - well, I think you are wrong. But let us remember that the sporting event is short lived and the political stuff goes on. Have all those people who are now being critical of the political issues been saying that before the Olympics? Or will they continue after? I wonder. Despite that though, I think we should congratulate China on what they have achieved so far and work with them to help improve things for their country and all of us for the future.

Like others, I also feel uncomfortable about some of the "conflicting messages" (e.g. being environmentally friendly when pollution is high in China and talking about one world when human rights should be much better in China). However, as other people have said, I am not sure that we in the UK (and the Western world) can always hold our heads up as being without fault. And whilst, in a world and in a country (China) where there a lot of poverty, spending the millions of pounds that have been spent is also something I have problems with, I also think it would be a sad world if we did not have events like the Olympics or spectacular opening ceremonies like we saw yesterday.

As for the comments made by Tom, I doubt whether they are made with any sense of jealousy. They could well have been made a bit "tongue in cheek". However, I must admit that I found them a little too negative. Too much of journalism and reporting these days is about finding fault rather than celebrating the positives. I feel this is becoming too much a feature of British culture and one that I hope will not cloud our preparations for the 2012 Olympics. I want those to also be spectacular and perhaps help to restore a bit of British pride and positivity. They don't need to compete with China or anyone else. They just need to celebrate the good things about Britain. Perhaps Tom and all of us could help do our bit to achieve that.

PS. And, yes, I am a UK citizen and BBC license payer!

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