Olympics Review

Well the last month has been dominated by the Olympics and I like millions of others have been caught up in all the excitement. Now that we have had a few days to catch our breath and look forward to London 2012 lets reflect on the highs and lows.

Before the Olympics began we had the controversy, talk of boycotts and demonstrations, even previous posts in this blog highlighted this. The West complained about Darfur, Tibet, human rights and pollution, the East retorted with Iraq and look who's talking. In the end everyone came, there was the odd controversy, demonstrations were minimal and the world enjoyed a party and a celebration of some amazing performances starting with the opening ceremony. The budgets for 2012 is likely to be half of what China has spent and we are unlikely to see anything as vast and spectacular as this again. Some 14,000 performers were involved including an amateur pipe band from Dundee, "The Mains Of Fintry Pipe Band" spotted by Chinese officials playing in France last year, they've never previously played in any major competitions and found themselves playing to an estimated TV audience of 4 billion people.



Some of the fireworks ( the 29 giant firework footprints) were computer generated and the little girl singing was lip synced, picked for being prettier, as were the different ethnic minorities represented by children all from the one area, something the BBC in the current climate would not be able to get away with.

What made these games so great for us was the medal haul of Team GB, 19 golds compared to just one in Atlanta. The cycling team alone won more gold medals than the whole of the British team in ten of the last twelve Olympics. The target this year set by UK sport, ( the distributor of Lottery funds to athletes) was 35 medals and eighth place in the medals table. 90 million has been invested since Athens and a total of 3 billion since it was launched 14 years ago. Lottery funding also helped finance the Manchester Velodrome where Britain's cycling team perfected their skills.

Swimming and the cycling led the way, with Nicole Cooke winning gold followed by Becky Adlington's double gold, who also picked up a pair of gold Jimmy Choo shoes as promised to her by her local Mayor of Mansfield, Tony Egginton. Chris Hoy won three golds at the same games in three different events; Ben Ainslie added a third gold in as many Olympics; Rebecca Romero won a gold in cycling adding to the silver she won in the last Olympics for rowing; Christine Ohuruogu overturned her Olympic ban to win gold on the track and Bradley Wiggins has equalled Sir Steve Redgrave's record British Olympic medal haul. Other highlights was Tom Daley reaching an Olympic final at 14 years old and Louis Smith winning Britain's first medal in men's gymnastics for a century.

Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals was amazing to watch as was the Jamaican sprinters with Usain Bolt cruising to his golds and world records despite the Jamaican team being drug tested 32 times in a seven day period with some being tested up to three times in four days.

The disappointment for Britain was the lack of success on the track and field. 26 million has been invested in athletics reaping only five medals including one gold out of 47 events. Archery, shooting and Judo also yielded no return after a further 15 million of investment. Was also disappointed we did not do better with the professionals in the tennis.

As the government prepares to put another 400 million into Olympic sport for 2012, the target was fourth place will we now demand the bar is lifted even higher? A fifth of any investment was due to be raised by the private sector but in today's economic climate this could be a struggle, given the rise of public enthusiasm after the Beijing Olympics it would be a brave government that denied the resources needed for sporting success in its own backyard. We will need to make sure that the investment made in the various sites does indeed leave a legacy without creating white elephants, that the games are accessible to everyone and with no empty seats. I look forward to seeing what new events might be added as we aim to compete in all 26 sports. Will we indeed see a GB football team? A debate which I'm sure will get an airing in this blog at a later date. The problem will be getting all the FA's of the home nation's to agree without any repercussions from FIFA.

The top ten of the medal table finished like this, I'm sure that the Americans will have published it in order of total medals won which would put them top, this chart lists by number of golds won. Either way Team GB finished 4th. Now what could I do in 2012? .........

Nation : Gold: Silver: Bronze: Total:

1. China 51 21 28 100
2. USA 36 38 36 110
3. Russia 23 21 28 72
4. G.B. 19 13 15 47
5. Germany 16 10 15 41
6. Australia 14 15 17 46
7. S.Korea 13 10 8 31
8. Japan 9 6 10 25
9. Italy 8 10 10 28
10.France 7 16 17 40.

Gas Prices

This week has seen British Gas raise its gas prices by a record 35% (with some customers facing an even bigger rise) this is their 2nd rise this year on the back of a 15% rise in January. This comes just after EDF also put there gas prices up by 22% and it's only a case of time before the other energy suppliers follow suit. Soaring wholesale energy prices are blamed with prices this winter estimated to be up 89% on last year. The UK is also suffering from diminishing gas reserves which means we will import an estimated 40% of our gas this year compared to 27% last year. The price of gas has also gone up so drastically as it is linked (in Europe) with the cost of oil. There is some debate over whether the fact the cost of gas being linked with the cost of oil is a good thing. In America for example, the price is gas-indexed as opposed to oil - indexed and the price does not differ much in the long run. There are periods when gas indexed prices are higher and vice versa, however gas indexed prices are more volatile than oil mainly because it is more difficult & expensive to store gas than oil. If we were to change to gas indexation, prices would not necessarily lower (other than the immediate short term) and would definitely create problems of price volatility and higher risks. Oil indexation is a protection against any major exporters monopoly power, prices based on oil indexation remove market power from both buyer & seller eliminating the ability of any one player to influence prices. For more information on this debate have a look at : http://www.energypolicyblog.com/?p=171

As consumers there are two things we can do to save money, use less fuel (or make our homes more efficient) and switch to a cheaper supplier. Some suppliers also offer long term fixed contracts ( at a premium initially). There are plenty of price comparison websites out there, you could have a look at the energywatch website for an impartial view, however when I checked yesterday they were still showing British Gas as the cheapest for dual fuel in my area despite the 35% rise which I find hard to believe, so try http://www.uswitch.com/ http://www.simplyswitch.com/ or http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ . Millions of households have already switched but half the UK's households have yet to switch! If you're worried that after you've switched your new supplier then raises their prices you are only tied to any company for 28 days so for best deals you might need to review say once a year. If you have never switched and are still with British Gas or the company that took over from your regional electricity board you are likely to be on their highest tariff and could save more than a hundred pounds by switching.

Much has been made about the profits that these companies make (although profits are expected to drop this year) the average profit made on a duel fuel customer over a year is estimated as low as 50/70 pounds a year, the profits made come from the transportation, buying and selling to the national grid, additional services such as boiler cover, phone & security services, broadband & some supplier are now even looking at water as being a future investment. The big six suppliers will undoubtedly be pressurised by the government to do more help to those classed as being in fuel poverty but they are also under pressure to increase the percentage of energy supplied from renewable energy. In 2005 only 4% of the UK's energy supply came from renewable energy and the government target is 10% by 2010. Scottish & Southern Energy last year made an estimated 1billion pound profit but spent 1 billion buying Airtricity who develop and operate wind farms, so as a company and individuals there is a balance to be found, we can't have it all ways!