THE lavish expenditure on the Olympic Games was largely defended by our political elite as “money well spent”, any legacy would galvanise the national mood and the inference was that this might kick-start the national economy.

Certainly there was a welldeserved feel-good factor, but an economic recovery will require more than an improvement in the nation’s physical fitness. The Third Reich showed that.

What the Games did prove is that the Government can spend large amounts of money if it so wishes – £9.3 billion in this case.

The three hour opening ceremony is rumoured to have cost £60m alone.

The national economy continues to stagnate under the Coalition. The best legacy would be for the taxpayers of the UK to feel some practical benefit from an event which, we were assured, would make a profit.

One such measure would be for the Bank of England to transfer £1,000 to every UK family with the provision that this be spent before Christmas.

This would roughly equate to the amount the games cost, in profit and loss, and hopefully save some hard-pressed retail businesses from bankruptcy.

VJ Connor, Bishop Auckland.