General Chat

Hi Ann, you ok, you are up early or are you off to bed late lol

Margieann, have nudged the thread up with a list of abbreviations - will keep you busy reading those!

Night now, I am off to bed, Happy New Year all,

Lizxx


btw, I am staying Sparkly as I did last year, will match the frosty nights we keep getting lol and the sparkly bits in my hair when the roots need doing lol (silver threads amongst the odd dark brown hair left, and blonde hair out of a bottle)

There is hope, in yesterday's 'Independent':

'This year's celebrations in London may be the last with a free New Year's Eve fireworks display. London's Mayor, Boris Johnson, confirmed that he is considering the introduction of ticketing to bring increased "sustainability" to the £1.6m show. "The planning, management and financing of the event remains a challenge, due to the large numbers of people wishing to attend the fireworks and the limited [180,000] capacity of the viewing areas," said Mr Johnson. "Only 40 per cent of the event budget is spent on the actual fireworks and lighting displays. The remainder is spent on crowd management.

We are considering a number of options, which may include ticketing, all of which will ensure the sustainability of future New Year's Eve celebrations."

Though goodness knows how they will check that only ticket holders attend!!

As the first fireworks went up I said "Credit crunch? What credit Crunch" Have we no shame?

Ann
Glos

I agree entirely with the thoughts money could be spent on a more worth while cause. Every year my OH used to count how much had gone up around us, and say they must be mad to spend that.

We noticed this year, only a few fireworks went off at 12. Not like other years when they were going off from 8pm until 1am, Nobody was having the parties liked they have done in other years.

We never let fireworks off when I was young, it was only Guy Fawkes night, then it was only a few, and sparklers were the norm. Old Years Night it was out with dustbin lids and horns bringing in the New Year, and the darkest man in the house did the first footing. Nobody in our house was dark enough, as we were all fair or ginger.

On first thoughts I thought yes what a waste of cash but then dont we all waste cash in some shape or form. I had Christmas crackers for example and they are a waste of cash and I'm sure I would have survived without my yo-yo but hey ho its part of Christmas.
By the way Happy New Year everyone

To be honest I think the display etc was paid for months ago, before the apparent economic nose dive.

I agree its a disgraceful amount to be spent, but what about the free local borough firework displays on Nov 5th ?

Now put them all together & wonder how much that cost for the whole of the country ! Not so much fuss was made than.

Last nights fireworks were a morale boost for our country, it lifted my spirits watching them on the telly, imagine being there, with the great atmosphere. I think it gave the country the message not to give up, and things will get better.

It also created an extra days work for 100s of people, from the police staff, security people, medical staff, to tea / burger/ van vendors.Not to mention the overtime for tube drivers, bus drivers, cabbies & BBC camera staff, rigging/lighting (hubby worked the scissor lift with the lighting on last NYE at Somerset house & got paid overtime for it)

Its all cash in families pockets.

As for the argument about the homeless & starving kids, they would still be homeless & there would still be kids starving with or without the money spent on fireworks.

It diddnt cross many peoples minds (and mine before you all shout) when they/we sat down at Xmas eating their turkey dinner, opened those often unnecessary indulgent presents, & spent ££ on alcohol & when they bought often 3 days worth of food for one day.

:o((

PS

Just a thought

How many millions are wasted each year when people light up their fags ?

Smokers get joy out of puffing away, & people get joy out of watching a ruddy good display of fireworks

No difference

Thats burning money too...isnt it ?

I'm sure the money could go to a better cause than a load of bang's and lights.


Marion

well said Mildred x

Tourism, how much does it bring into London, it must bring some. That is why Funchal spent €1.2million and that was on the fireworks. Crowd control not a big issue here. In fact where we drove to last night we passed one of the firing stations on the back of a lorry, parked on the side of the road. Bit of plastic sheet to keep it covered up, in case it rained. (which it didn't)
It was a fabulous display, only 5 cruise ships compared to 12 last year and occupancy in the hotels at 90%.
We all enjoyed the party before, the fireworks and the entertainment after. This was a private do, ages from 3 - 83, lots of fun.
Yes there are people starving, we used to be told to eat our dinner because people were starving in Africa, but they couldn't have had my dinner and some are still starving today.
Money is wasted in all sorts of ways and you could use the same argument for those wastages that the money could be better spent on other things.
Cheer up, it's a New Year.

Rosalind

Trouble is £1.6m goes nowhere. Given there are 8 million residents in London, it is only 20p per person, so no one in authority will get too worked up about it.

It is the likes of the Olympics that I am more concerned about. In a report to be published next Tuesday, the Commons public accounts committee will criticise the bill for the Olympics, which has spiralled from about £3.4billion to more than £ 9billion. One source said: "It's a hardhitting report."

This means a cost of £150 to every single man woman child, pensioner in the country, and if the governments past performance with major projects is anything to go by, it will continue to rise further and could more than double to £20billion, according to some sources.....! That's a bill of over £1,300 for a typical family

I fully understand what everyone is saying - £1.6 million is probably a piddling amount in the scheme of things these days, but I just felt horrified when I heard the sum spent - I know you can't make a poor man rich by making a rich man poor and all that, but it just seems like squandering to me. Call me an old grouch - probably am, and was pretty down in the dumps when I watched it last night, but I still think it was an obscene amount of money to go up in smoke

It probably did lift peoples' spirits, but during the war we all had far greater trials and tribulations to face and we all pulled together, saved every scrap of everything and faced it together.

The fireworks display in Sydney Harbour last night cost a staggering
5 Million Dollars and they have another one on Australia Day on the 25th January,
Must admit it was spectacular but I could think of better things to spend the money on like Hospitals

Jackie

I have to say I really love discussions like this - glad I started it - long time since we'd had something to get our teeth into - I won't launch into the Olympics - no doubt you'll be pleased to learn - or I could fill a couple of pages

I just thought - "during the war" - I'm beginning to sound a bit like Uncle Albert off Only Fools and Horses!!!!

It so nice to see 2 sides of a debate...

The food we eat at christimas and the cigs I smoke all year are brought by me, the amount of money I spend on pressies for the family is brought by me/us and we have the choice of the amount we can or cannot spend, we choose to do that. As taxpayers we have no say in how much tax we pay or where that money is spent. I still think that £1.6 million pounds can be spent better else where rather in just one night.

The money spent is not the issue. The extra staff needed to police the event, man the casualty departments, private security firms, clean up of the streets afterwards all have to be paid for somehow.

I personally couldn't care less what was spent as long as it is paid for out of London's Council Tax bills and not from treasury funds.

You can be sure that the Met will be moaning about the salary costs in their next quarterly review along with the local hospital trusts and transport systems audit boards.

Sue

Well I think that London are just trying to keep up with the Jones over in Sydney...~~~~ waves to Sue happy new year love xx

To be honest I think it was money well spent. It was a wonderful display and was a great advertisement for the U.K.

In the scheme of things £1.6 million is a piffling amount. I have just spent 4 weeks in hospital and believe me the waste of money and resources in the Health Service has to be seen to be believed.

Jean x.

~~~~waves~~~~ back to Hayley and to you too :-))

and everyone else on this thread....

Super grumpy Sue

x

Before coming to a decision about this I think I'd need to know more facts about who actually paid for the fireworks, when the money was paid and where it all went.

I think sometimes it's easy to assume that money spent on frivolities has somehow been wasted but the actual money wasn't burned. It was simply redistributed.

Presumably the people who got paid were those employed to make the fireworks, transport the fireworks, sell them, arrange the display, set up the display and clear up afterwards. These may be people who'd be without a job otherwise and who will then go out and respend the money in the economy.

As long as money keeps being moved around in an economy it isn't wasted. It is only useless if burnt or stored under a mattress!

Some time ago I read a website about spending no money whatsoever at Christmas. The site owners praised themselves for doing everything for nothing and somehow felt this was virtuous. But a huge number of people are employed in providing for Christmas in one way or another and without it so many would be out of work and unable to support themselves.

This could be seen as a similar situation.

The less we spend and the more we cut back generally the slower our economy is going to get.

Sue