Will this have our organising committee salivating at what we can arrange to improve or outdo the Chinese presentation? I firmly believe a brake needs to be applied to rash spending. While not advocating an austerity Games in 2012, I am sure that future host countries would quietly appreciate such a stance by London who could set a suitable precedent.

With the Chancellor currently saying our coffers are empty, I think Mr Micawber's famous quote should be heeded. I participated in a variety of sports as a young man and thus will enjoy several hours watching the Olympics over the next 10 days. However, I hope we remember it is the sport that counts and that the hype, frills and fireworks off the track are strictly secondary. Let us then provide what we can afford and not some utopian dream.

From: Terry Duncan, Greame Road, Bridlington.

SHOULD not the Government insist that all TV licence fees be returned to the poor and the pensioners who cannot afford digital services, in view of the British Broadcasting Corporation imposing, without consultation, almost total coverage of the Olympics on BBC1, thus depriving them of little choice of programmes to watch?

And, in future, should not everyone unable to afford digital TV from servers like Sky and their opposite numbers in Europe and further afield be excused having to pay any fee for having a television set in their home which cannot receive non-analogue transmissions?

This would be an easy choice to police – maybe the Chancellor of the Exchequer will dither again – through enforcing all digital providers
to open their books to scrutiny, including those who feed porn into homes through the use of said digital services.

When the transmissions go all digital, as planned, then everyone over the age of 65 should get a free community service licence.

From: Stanley D Parr, Maple Avenue, Pershore, Worcestershire.

BEING a TV channel-hopper and not an avid sports fan, I was hoping to catch up on some jobs, during two weeks of continuous sport.

Quite by chance I clicked on the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing. Wow!

The mass precision and discipline shown during the opening ceremony must have struck a note of terror into all military personnel around the world, even though this was technically a peaceful display, the message was clearly there!

Perhaps I am worrying too much about this sleeping giant – but one wonders.

After seeing this wonderful opening ceremony, I would paraphrase: "The future's bright – and the future's red!"


Criminals, not blades, are the true cause of crime


From: Coun Dr Philip Thomas (Conservative), Wakefield Council.

AS the subject of your article, "Resign call as Tory says knives are 'cool'" (Yorkshire Post, August 8), let me clarify that I take violent crime extremely seriously, despite sentences from my blog taken out of context appearing to represent the contrary.

Friends of mine have been stabbed; my grandfather was stabbed in the chest during a robbery; I personally was beaten and shot at while recovering a stolen handbag from three armed muggers.

My point was that we have detached individuals from the responsibility for their actions. We blame the knives, the guns, the booze, and the drugs and ignore that behind all these are people that chose to do evil.
We must recognise criminals, not the blades that fill most kitchen drawers, as the true cause of crime or crime will continue to worsen.

Furthermore, we must empower people to be able to step in and confront criminals directly. That is why I posted videos supporting individuals engaged in self-defence. While violence should always be a last resort, politicians have emboldened criminals by frightening the public into thinking the police will arrest them for getting involved. This must stop.

As for knives being "cool", I called on kids to "pour scorn on those that require weaponry", suggested a publicity campaign mocking the "false bravado" of knife criminals and demanded tougher sentencing for knife crime. However, if you've ever been to the Royal Armouries
in Leeds, along with thousands of other visitors, you can
make the moral distinction between being interested in a sword and wanting to use it against someone.