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Subscribe to RSSThousands of people line the streets to applaud British athletes who brought home 185 medals at this year's Games. ITV's Geraint Vincent reports.
More than three-quarters of British people thought the London Olympics did "a valuable job in cheering up a country in hard times," according to a new survey.
The Guardian/ICM poll, published Wednesday, found that 78 percent of people agreed the 2012 Games were a good idea, but 20 percent thought the event was “a costly and dangerous distraction.”
The survey found similar levels of support across different age groups, social class and every region — apart from Scotland.
But even there 69 percent of people were in favor of the Games, with 31 percent against.
Brits revel in gloom ahead of London Olympics, but don't believe the gripe
The Guardian newspaper said that a poll last year had reported that 60 percent of people in the U.K. expected Britain to become a more miserable place overall in 2012.
But the new survey found that 49 percent of people thought the U.K. had become a better place to live during the year, with 41 percent believing it had got worse.
The Guardian said the figures suggested "a positive public take on the Olympics is coloring wider perceptions of the year."
London 2012: Who were the real winners, losers?
Cam Cardow / Ottawa Citizen, Politicalcartoon
Click here to view this cartoon slideshow.
However the poll also found that 61 percent thought British power in the world had been reduced, with 27 percent saying it had increased. And 51% expected the U.K. would still be struggling with economic problems in 2013.
The paper said ICM Research had interviewed a random sample of 1,002 adults aged 18+ by telephone on 19-23 December 2012.
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Until the final bill comes in.
it's paid.
Looks like the Brits got polled again.
Gloomy Brits? Must be all that fog. Lousy weather.
Are you confusing this for the 18th century? We get no more fog here than you do in your own cities.
What an unsurprising result.
I love the British and I really love their humor but they are the largest group of cynical, complainers on the planet.
@77 observer. How pig ignorant can you be? The notion of of a perennially fog-bound London dates back to the 19th century when a densely packed populace used to warm itself during the cooler months by using coke (no, not the drinking variety) to fuel their fireplaces, which resulted in a very smoggy atmosphere interacting with the moist conditions of the climate - hence the heavy and famous fogs.
I lived in the UK for a time and love the British as well, but talk about a class-conscious and miserable lot who ceaselessly complain about everything! So many of them still cling to delusions of grandeur based on Britain's past glories, while their country increasingly becomes less and less relevant on the world stage. While the rest of Europe's royal families whither and slip increasingly into the background the British prop there's up, their one last futile attempt to assert and validate their smug sense of superiority.
And when it comes to sport - please! The rest of the world has long since passed England by when it comes to football (soccer) yet the inventors of the game still cling desperately to the notion that no one dare highlight how utterly bereft of technique their players are these days, how woefully behind the times their training and development is, or how utterly delusional the country is in its belief that their national team is only ever one major tournament away from restoring itself to its 'rightful 'position at the pinnacle of the sport.