Yes. By all means cancel the 2012 Olympics in London.

RalphG, New Malden,

Scrap them , apart from the cost, they are a great security risk and opportunity for the nutcase terrorists to create havoc in London.

Living in London near one of the venues I am very apprehensive for my family.

Whose idiotic idea was it to have them here anyway?

David, London,

I am 40 years old and never ever watched any of the Olympics and 2012 London will be no exception.

I'm only a wooley-back from Derbyshire and will not make the slightest bit of difference to my life at all.

Andy, Chesterfield, England

Alice, if you've read 'The Lords of the Rings' or 'The New Lords of the Rings', you'd want nothing at all to do with the Olympics! It might not even be the 'whole truth' but what there is is awful.

Ash, Cape Town, South Africa

David is quite correct, the consultants are called in to conduct a review. Not 'the consultants are called into conduct etc'. Into is for things like 'come into the house, it's freezing outside'.

Ash, Cape Town, South Africa

How typically British. A lot of countries were clamouring to get the Olympics and would be honoured to have it, yet we finally get it and then we complain.

Bayo, London,

I suggest the opening ceremony consists of a young girl, holding a sparkler.
The rest of the games can be found in various sites around London.
Swimming in the Leyton Pool. Rowing on the Thames, Archery in Epping Forest. Riding in Epping Forest.

Running,from Hoodies in East London on a Friday night

Carrie, London,

Dear Steve of Aberdeen,

David's right. It should be 'Consultants called in to conduct a review'. Not into.

Val, Canada

Val Hamblin, Hamilton, Ont, Canada

If you want Keynesian pump priming via public works surely the expenditure on the infrastructure associated with the Olympics is just the ticket?

Ian Stuart, Frederick, USA

Let those who want it pay. I don't and I don't want my taxes used for this tiresome waste of time.

C Smith, Norwich, UK

just to be pedantic, David, but the article is actually correct with "into"

Steve, aberdeen,

Alice Miles is absolutely right. So much money spent on a few weeks of sports is sad. And the sporting venues will lack the financing to maintain. Does no one remember the Millenium Dome? Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should ring fence their taxes to exclude Olympic spending.

mike, london, uk

Deal with it, we're hosting it and it'll be wonderful. What a bunch of pessimistic naysayers you lot are. Why not try being positive for a change? Recessions happen, the world doesn't and shouldn't stop for them. So wonderful to see that the British national sport (moaning) is still thriving.

John, London, UK

I completely agree Alice. I am quite happy for other taxpayers to enjoy things I'm not interested in as long as we can afford them but now when times are tight I think we should focus on the essentials. Building a new facility for the games every 4 years is pure profigacy

Michael, Bromley, UK

I was visiting the UK when the decision was announced , the euphoria and hysteria were quite the silliest I have ever witnessed by supposedly adult intelligent people. The sooner someone over there has the courage and sense to bin them the better otherwise watch out brit taxpayers!

gordon, auckland, new zealand

I don't understand the resentment and bitterness of people who don't want to have the Olympics in London. So much hard work has gone into bringing the greatest spectacle on earth to Britain. Cheer up! It's a party and you're all invited! Why is there is so much self inflicted misery in this country?

Rob, London, UK

Why not, just hold your olympics here, If you pay the green fee of those empty stadium. We are happy for that

Nell, Beijing, China

I'm from Sydney and as much as I enjoyed the spectacle of the Olympics it has been a financial mess for the State of NSW. I wouldn't pretend to be an expert on just why our State's finances are poorer than any other state in Australia but my suspicions are that this event is partially to blame.

Peter, Sydney, Australia

Don't want 'em, never wanted em', will never want 'em. What will the North get out of this? Nowt that's what. Let London pay for what London gets. While we're at it, why did the Cockneys get the national soccer stadium when they only have one decent team (Arsenal) to the nine in the North?

Bob, Liverpool, England

They had a dandy Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984 and it didn't cost a dime. Peter Ueberroth ran it in such a way that it paid for itself. Try that. Not only would it keep the Olympics in London, it might teach everyone a thing or two about living within their means.

Daniel J. Houghton, New York City, USA

Yes, please rid us of the Olympics.

Sedgwick, London, UK

" US tv audiences demand a shiny place" ? Hardly. We could not care less about the venue. It's the competition , not a "shiny" floor . Someone is trying to pull the wool over your collective eyes. Sounds like a colossal waste of $ to me.

mjkane, chicago, usa

Alice Miles for 2009 Nobel Prize for Economics

Alice Van der Bester, London,

Reading these articles, i have begun to understand why the Bristish empire have gone with the wind.

Keats , Shanghai,

My 5 year old announced last evening that he had learned the difference between "Wants and Needs" at school yesterday. Under needs, he listed, "Food, shelter, water, air". Under wants, he declared, " Ice skates, toys, and enough money to pay for your family's needs." Brilliant.

Joanne, BC, Canada

What a ridiculous article. Stop with the comment seeking pessimism.

If we can afford Iraq, we can afford the Olympics. Some benefits cannot be measured in pounds.

Chris, Bristol,

The olympics itself is a swindle. It is no longer about the sport, but about the advertising deals and the money. It needs to go back to its simple roots. And they need to cut back on some of the unpopular events.

blah, ny, us

I've said from the start that we should never have bid for the games. The budget forecast is now three times over the starting figure so the final cost will greatly exceed even the estimate given above (£20 billion). This might not seem a lot compared to the bank bail-out but 'every little counts'.

Stuart, Beccles, UK

I knew as soon as it was announced that it wasn't a great idea... another fantastic present left by Toni the Great, together with the Iraq war, the collapse of the financial markets and the housing bubble.

Anna, Leeds, UK

No William Garret, complaining about £9.3 billion being taken from £1.9 trillion spread over the next 4 years = insanity.

Lawrence, Salisbury, United Kingdom

Or Paris - revenge for the CAP

Philip C, Wallingford, Oxon

It's a strange thing but those of my friends and colleagues who cheered when London beat Paris and got the Olympics can't now seem to remember having done so !

James, London, UK

£9.3 billion for three weeks of sport = insanity

William Garrett, Harrow,

In many replies to Times articles, I've said that the Olympics should be cancelled. We can't afford them - financially or morally in the current climate. To spend over £10 billion on a two-week athletic binge is just totally obscene when there are going to be many people made homeless by 2012.

Ian Dickson, Brighton, UK

Dear Lord, no! Leave our poor city alone.

Tom, Beijing,

As an ex-Brit living in Athens who witnessed the profligacy of the 2004 Athens Games, and is still paying for it, I warned you all back home to give it a miss in 2012. Now I'll be paying for both for the rest of my life since I also pay UK taxes. Worse still, I didn't watch one event in 2004!

Dr DavidGreen, Athens, Greece

The majority of people will watch the Olympics on TV, so why waste money on expensive stadia with huge spectator capacities?
Never mind what US TV demands for basketball. Put the the event in a disused aircraft hangar. It will still be boring wherever it is located.

Tom Williams, Oxford, Oxon

Why on earth they don't build a permanent location in Greece, and each country can host it in turn.

alex, forres, uk

The sensible thing would be to move them to some place where they just love pointless money wasting on useless infrastructure, Dubai comes to mind.

I'm sure they'd appreciate being given the chance to build the biggest most obnoxious stadiums ever seen, the UK just can't afford this Olympic circus.

luca, turin, italy

Show me where to sign up for cancellation of this mistake, or should it be viewed as a keynesian 'hole in the ground'?

Also - well spotted david trewick!

Chris, Reading,

I cannot believe we are still going ahead with this nonsense.

Steve, Bournemouth,

The OLYMPICS belong to the GREEKS they already have the means to present the 2012 merry go round.

Tony, Derby, UK

Seems like a good candidate for a petition on the Number 10 website to me.

Tony, London,

They are still paying for them in Greece. But don't worry they lots of empty stadiums to compensate.

Rex Lester, Surbiton, Uk

the london olympics are no more a pointless waste of money now that at inception. just be grateful we won't have to see ken "did I mention how wonderful I am? (p.s. advert paid for by you)" livingstone's face. although there will still be the bitterness and complaints about boris, of course.

jem, london, uk

maybe we could auction the olympics to the highest bidder

steph, london,

Give the Olympic Games to Qatar.
They successfully hosted the Asian Games in Doha two years ago, and have the infrastructure, the money, and - most importantly - the will, to build anything required to house the events not yet catered for.
And they already have an Athlete's Village...

Phil, Doha, Qatar,

Brilliant idea! Why not have them in China? Does it really matter any more where they are? National pride? What rubbish, we are BROKE and by 2012 we will be really broke so how can we possibly justify them and what has to be sacrificed to pay for them? Hospitals? Schools? Welfare?

maggie, Castle Cary, UK

Ms Jowell should be hanging her head for so shamelessly misleading us about the cost of this project. It was clear form the beginning that the 'budgetary forecasts' were just a wild shot in the dark.
This is just a self-promotion exercise for some public figures, playing games with our money.

Gordon, Liuzhou, China

The Olympics were not the cause of the current economic crisis. I would have thought that against the huge cost of bailing out the banks, the Olympics would now seem like a bargain.

If you were able to recoup every penny and donate it to the treasury, it would still be just a drop in the ocean.

Nick, Grayshott,

very good idea. china already has all the stadiums, has escaped most of the credit cruch, and uk athletes did very well there.

ade alade, london, uk

The Olympics is our only chance to get people believing in Britain again, encourage our own and foreign investment and help drag us up off the floor. Surely some of the Govt spend your way out of trouble money can be used to invest, athletes accommodation designed for hospital use after for example

David, Tianjin, China

Great article. Now, how to spell it out to those in charge? Preferably in words of two syllables or one syllable:

We. Don't. Need. It. We Can't. Afford. It.

Should be fairly understandable, one would think.

T Austin, London,

Alice is spot on today! From the moment it was announced, I said it would cost this country £20 billion in the end and I still think I will be proved right.
In the context of the whole community, we just can't afford this.

Matthew Wetmore, Halesworth,

How tiresome.
Those who want us to give up the Olympics have been against them from the start. They are just miserable and mean spirited.

Andrew, London,

Estimates of (Lord) Coe's income and expenses from this jamboree are said to exceed £2million.

Can this be true?

Peter Lewin, Northwood, UK

This is a great opportunity to collapse the Olympics into what they were the last time they were held in London (1948) i.e. something sensible. Use whatever venues already exist, let participants sort out their own accommodation and transport and treat it like what it should be: just a bit of fun.

Stewart, Beijing,

We couldn't afford the Games before the credit crunch - our government exists in Cloud Cuckoo Land...

Amanda, London,

I was against the Olympics from the start. Waste of money and you certainly couldn't trust this government to be honest with the initial cost.

By the way, just to be pedantic:

'Consultants called into conduct a review last week...' into should be in to.

David Trewick, Luton, England

I fully agree with this very good article. There is no need for Olympics in London in 2012. We should tell the IOC we can't afford it and we'll even give it for free to anybody interested (Paris, Dubai, etc...). Maybe we should have a petition online calling for the cancellation of the Olympics?

Ahmad, Tunbridge Wells, UK

What a miserable article!

Toby, London, UK