Commonwealth Games

Little over a month after a triumphant conclusion to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the City delivered a resounding vote for Scottish independence. Glasgow's 194,779 'Yes' votes (a 53.5% share on a 75% city-wide turnout) could not overcome what was, in the end, a reasonably comfortable 'No' vote across Scotland as a whole. But it did raise the intriguing question as to the impact of the Games on Glasgow voters (in a referendum, incidentally, in which all Commonwealth citizens resident in Scotland were eligible to vote). To many, the XXth Commonwealth Games, held in Glasgow from the end of July to the beginning of August 2014, were the 'best ever'. Sebastian Coe called them 'outstanding', 1 adding 'the sport has been top class, the organisation has been flawless and the atmosphere has been electric'. 2 Mike Hooper, the long-serving Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), described them as 'the standout games in the history of the movement'. 3 Even The Daily Telegraph was moved to commend Alex Salmond's government 'for hosting such a successful Commonwealth Games. They were on time and on budget and did Scotland proud'. 4 Nearly 5,000 athletes, from 71 countries and territories, took part in what was certainly the largest Commonwealth Games ever. There were 261 medal events in 18 sports, and a record 22 para-sport events, in five different sports. Coming towards the end of the Scottish referendum campaign, the Games avoided politics but allowed both the 'Yes' camp and the 'Better Together' campaign to draw comfort. Supporters of independence will have revelled in an outstanding performance by the host's 310 athletes, garnering 53 medals and a remarkable fourth place for Scotland in the medal table. In terms of images, facilities, hospitality and organisation, Scotland emerged strong, capable, confident and open to the world. Supporters of the Union will have aggregated the separate contributions of the seven home nations into an overwhelming superiority for 'Team GB'. The warm and affectionate welcome for the Queen at Celtic Park, and the mood of friendship and unity throughout, will have reinforced the view of many that the nations of the UK are 'better together'. But there was an unwitting reminder of a different time. While Glasgow proved to be England's best-ever performance in the history of the Games, some commentators referred back to the Edinburgh Games of 1986 for the time when England last topped the medal table. The comparison is misplaced-but also sobering and salutary. Haunted by the twin spectres of Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher, and would-be philanthropist and newspaper baron Bob Maxwell, the 1986 Edinburgh Games were a

When compulsory purchase for urban regeneration is combined with a sporting mega-event, we have an archetypal example of what Giorgio Agamben called the "state of exception". Through a study of compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) on the site of the Athletes' Village for Glasgow's 2014 Commonwealth Games, we expose CPOs as a classed tool mobilised to violently displace working class neighbourhoods. In doing so, we show how a fictionalised mantra of "necessity" combines neoliberal growth logics with their obscene underside-a stigmatisation logic that demonises poor urban neighbourhoods. CPOs can be used progressively, for example to abrogate the power of slum landlords for social democratic ends, yet with the increasing urbanisation of capital they more often target marginalised neighbourhoods in the pursuit of land and property valorisation. The growing use of CPOs as an exceptional measure in urbanisation, we argue, requires urgent attention in urban political struggles and policy practice.

While embracing their role model status, it is worth considering the weighty expectations and costs that accompany this visibility. On top of the pressures of representing Australia at the elite level, First Nations sportspeople also have to contend with the politicisation that still surrounds their very identity. Donnell Wallam during her time with the Firebirds. Jason O'Brien/AAP

Sport mega-events have the capacity to transform host cities both
materially and symbolically. This article explores the urban
reimaging potentials of mega-event legacies through a case
study of the 2018 Commonwealth Games held on the Gold Coast,
Australia. For the Gold Coast, one of the desired outcomes of the
Commonwealth Games and its legacies was to aid in reorienting
the city’s identity from a beachside resort to a mature,
sophisticated, world-class city. Drawing on observational
fieldwork and literature research, the article considers a particular
legacy project – the Commonwealth Walkway, a self-guided
heritage walk – to analyze how heritage initiatives factor into
strategies for urban reimaging. The article finds that although the
Commonwealth Walkway may enhance a sense of continuity in a
city usually marked by impermanence, its sanitized, celebratory
approach to the city’s colonial past and present undermines both
claims of sophistication and intended legacies for social justice.

The aim of the article is to investigate the issue of positive sports diplomacy directed at bringing countries closer and deepening cooperation between them. Generally, sports diplomacy is a broader term and may include various ways of utilizing sport, both negative and positive, even for the sake of nation-branding. Positive sports diplomacy most commonly refers to bringing hostile states closer together, but it may also be used to deepen political alliances or foster friendship and cooperation between states that are not mutually hostile. The research focuses on the latter form of positive sports diplomacy. The investigation is a case study concerning the Commonwealth Games, a sports event that is held once every four years and gathers countries and territories that used to belong to the former British Empire. The research therefore aims to determine whether this event, the second largest multisport event in the world, is significant from political and diplomatic perspectives. A s...

The potential legacy of mega-sport events to increase physical activity and sports participation among the host community has been recognized. As part of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014, a longitudinal dataset was collected, focusing on the 'Active' legacy domain, which aimed to help the Scottish population become active and lead healthier lifestyles. The study investigated if the event changed behaviours and attitudes towards sport and physical activity among the host community through two theorized legacy pathways: (1) demonstration; and/or (2) festival effect. Results showed that the demonstration and festival effects were relevant to the community but they were largely ineffective in changing attitudes or behaviours, suggesting that, the mechanisms were operative but not effective. It is essential that future mega-sport events implement effective promotional campaigns to engage the host city and implement initiatives alongside the event to increase physical activity and sports participation in the longer term.

This article critically examines the predominant narratives which emanate from political discourse in relation to two significant events in Scotland in 2014 – the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the independence referendum. This article uses an analysis of the political discourse from the two largest parties in the Scottish Parliament at the time of the Games, the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) and the pro-union Scottish Labour Party, to highlight the contrasting discursive strategies of each party within their manifestos, policy documents, press releases and parliamentary speeches. This analysis demonstrates that each party portrayed nuanced positions on the Games, with the SNP illustrating the constraining nature of the constitutional status quo in relation to the potential economic and social benefits of the Games, and Labour using the event to illustrate the effectiveness of their stewardship of the Glasgow City Council despite the council funding cuts imposed by ...

This article critically considers the extent to which sporting issues were harnessed by pro-independence political campaigners during the Scottish independence referendum campaign. Developments such as the inclusion of sport within the Scottish Government's White Paper on Scottish independence, the establishment of the 'Working Group on Scottish Sport' and the establishment of the 'Sport for Yes' campaign group demonstrate the harnessing of sporting issues as an additional, if somewhat peripheral, debate point in the referendum campaigns (Lafferty 2014, Scottish Government 2013, Working Group on Scottish Sport and Scottish Government 2013, 2014). The latter of these developments, the establishment of the 'Sport for Yes' campaign group, is of particular interest, offering evidence of the explicit political mobilisation of past and present athletes in support of the 'Yes Scotland' pro-independence campaign. The use of sport within pro-independence political discourse is therefore scrutinised, drawing upon the principles of critical discourse analysis to explore the ideological assumptions underpinning the discursive representation of sport in relation to Scottish independence.

Objective To assess the effects of major multi-sport events on health and socioeconomic determinants of health in the population of the city hosting the event. Design Systematic review. Data sources We searched the following sources without language restrictions for papers published between 1978 and 2008: Applied Social Science Index and Abstracts (ASSIA), British Humanities Index (BHI), Cochrane database of systematic reviews, Econlit database, Embase, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) database, Health Management Information Consortium (HMIC) database, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), Medline, PreMedline, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, Sportdiscus, Web of Knowledge, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, and the grey literature. Review methods Studies of any design that assessed the health and socioeconomic impacts of major multi-sport events on the host population were included. We excluded studies that used exclusively estimated data rather than actual data, that investigated host population support for an event or media portrayals of host cities, or that described new physical infrastructure. Studies were selected and critically appraised by two independent reviewers. Results Fifty four studies were included. Study quality was poor, with 69% of studies using a repeat cross-sectional design and 85% of quantitative studies assessed as being below 2+ on the Health Development Agency appraisal scale, often because of a lack of comparison group. Five studies, each with a high risk of bias, reported health related outcomes, which were suicide, paediatric health service demand, presentations for asthma in children (two studies), and problems related to illicit drug use. Overall, the data did not indicate clear negative or positive health impacts of major multi-sport events on host populations. The most frequently reported outcomes were economic outcomes (18 studies). The outcomes used were similar enough to allow us to perform a narrative synthesis, but the overall impact of major multisport events on economic growth and employment was unclear. Two thirds of the economic studies reported increased economic growth or employment immediately after the event, but all these studies used some estimated data in their models, failed to account for opportunity costs, or examined only short term effects. Outcomes for transport were also similar enough to allow synthesis of six of the eight studies, which showed that event related interventions-including restricted car use and public transport promotion-were associated with significant short term reductions in traffic volume, congestion, or pollution in four out of five cities. Conclusions The available evidence is not sufficient to confirm or refute expectations about the health or socioeconomic benefits for the host population of previous major multi-sport events. Future events such as the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, or the 2014 Commonwealth Games, cannot be expected to automatically provide benefits. Until decision makers include robust, long term evaluations as part of their design and implementation of events, it is unclear how the costs of major multi-sport events can be justified in terms of benefits to the host population.

Large-scale sporting events are a major part of urban policy and regeneration strategies in the UK and globally. These events court as much controversy and criticism from academics and community groups as they are coveted by local and national governments. While they claim to have lasting long-term benefits for the host cities, neighbourhoods and ergo residents, evidence shows that effects are often scant, oblique or, conversely, negative. This has new significance in the context of austerity. This paper offers original empirical evidence of the experiences surrounding the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014. A series of diaries and focus groups with those living and working in the East End of Glasgow revealed hope of a positive impact on the East End, but this coincided with anxiety and feelings of exclusion around the Commonwealth Games 2014. It explores the current form that urban social policy takes in the post-crash, post-welfare context, as exemplified by the Commonwealth Games. T...

wealth Games (the Games) and multisporting event ever held in the UK and required the recruitment and training of the largest volunteer workforce in the UK in recent decades. While much has been written about volunteering within different contextual backgrounds, and in relation to large-scale events, little research has addressed the issue of expectations of volunteers and their attitude towards functional management during the run up to a major international event. Using a qualitative research approach with focus groups this study addresses these issues. In terms of expectations, a number of key factors were identified in relation to the recruitment, training, and other management dimensions of the Games that have implications for volunteer motivation, responses to the psychological contract, and the long-term impact of a major event.

Purpose-Relatively little is known about marketing communications within the context of special communications. The aim of this paper is to begin to address this gap in knowledge by analysing managerial practice, consumer perceptions and preferences in relation to marketing communications for this market offering. Design/methodology/approach-A case study analysis of Festival Melbourne 2006, was undertaken using marketing communications collateral, ethnographic (participant observations) and interview (in-depth and focus group) data. Findings-A centralised approach to marketing communications was adopted for this event, but was difficult to implement. In addition, we found that the marketing communications in situ did not assist attendees to make the most of their event experiences. We also found that research participants prefer to receive information about special events passively. Practical implications-With the increasing levels of globalisation and standardisation in the event sector there is a need to attain a balance between centralisation and adaptation in relation to marketing communications strategies and their implementation. Furthermore, it is imperative that marketing communications are integrated across all stages of consumption. Originality/value-This study adds to the body of knowledge about marketing communications, and more generally within events. It also adds to the debate surrounding the integration of marketing communications.

This article considers the complex relationship between civility and gender in Scottish politics. It addresses two themes that have dominated discussion of Scotland's political tone. The first has been the seeming rise in intemperate political discourse, amplified by social media and the divisiveness of Scottish independence. The second has been those developments in the representation of gender in Scottish politics, both in the composition of the Scottish Parliament and in discourses around First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. We also focus in on discourses surrounding a recent breach of civility by male Liberal Democrat MSP, Alex Cole-Hamilton, in which Cole-Hamilton is recorded mouthing an expletive towards a female Scottish government minister during a Zoom meeting of the Scottish Parliament's Equalities and Human Rights Committee on 11 February 2021. Analysis of this includes political responses to the 'outburst' and its subsequent media coverage, and examines, in particular, associations with masculinity and the relevance of the mitigating pleas of exasperated spontaneity. The article makes broader associations between the representation of this example of political incivility and those asymmetrical gender power relations given prominence by the #MeToo movement. Drawing on literature about angry populism, the article draws lessons about how mainstream politicians weaponise the language of incivility.

We use the concept of ‘imagined communities’, and related work on socio-technical imaginaries and expectations, to reflect on how Scotland is represented simultaneously as ‘sick and unhealthy’ and a ‘living lab’ due to its innovative medical research. Together, we suggest these narratives have driven a broader health and wealth agenda in post-devolution Scotland, which became salient during the 2014 independence referendum. We draw on research conducted during the independence referendum to consider how key stakeholders enacted imagined communities/identities (sick but also innovative) as they considered the historical impact of devolution on health and research systems and envisioned future independence. The referendum provided an opportunity to consider how Scottish health and research systems have been imagined over time. Our findings further the understanding of the impact of devolution on healthcare and medical research, revealing the role played by policy narratives rooted in ...

This article critically reflects upon media coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, scrutinising the emergent discursive constructions of ‘Britishness’ and ‘Scottishness’ through an examination of both London-based (English) and Scotland-based publications. Drawing upon Dayan and Katz’s portrayal of ‘media events’, the article explores how both events presented competing sites of symbolic struggle during a period of constitutional and political turmoil. Consideration is given to the existence of a ‘hegemonic Britishness’ in print media narratives of these events, as evident in the emergent connotations associated with ‘British nationalism’ and ‘Scottish separatism’.

This article critically examines the predominant narratives which emanate from political discourse in relation to two significant events in Scotland in 2014 – the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the independence referendum. This article uses an analysis of the political discourse from the two largest parties in the Scottish Parliament at the time of the Games, the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) and the pro-union Scottish Labour Party, to highlight the contrasting discursive strategies of each party within their manifestos, policy documents, press releases and parliamentary speeches. This analysis demonstrates that each party portrayed nuanced positions on the Games, with the SNP illustrating the constraining nature of the constitutional status quo in relation to the potential economic and social benefits of the Games, and Labour using the event to illustrate the effectiveness of their stewardship of the Glasgow City Council despite the council funding cuts imposed by ...

This article critically reflects upon media coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, scrutinising the emergent discursive constructions of ‘Britishness’ and ‘Scottishness’ through an examination of both London-based (English) and Scotland-based publications. Drawing upon Dayan and Katz’s portrayal of ‘media events’, the article explores how both events presented competing sites of symbolic struggle during a period of constitutional and political turmoil. Consideration is given to the existence of a ‘hegemonic Britishness’ in print media narratives of these events, as evident in the emergent connotations associated with ‘British nationalism’ and ‘Scottish separatism’.

There is no grand narrative underpinning the most important constitutional process of our times. Devolution was nobody’s dream, but a pragmatic compromise driven by electoral expedience and the need to appear to do something. For this reason the meaning of devolution is unsettled and up for grabs.  This podcast explores the difficulty of making a cohesive story out of Scottish devolution, and the competing narratives and perspectives brought to the question by writers, historians, parliamentarians and constitutional experts. It emerges from a research workshop held at the University of Stirling to examine the idea of ‘cultural devolution’ – the notion that writers and artists made Holyrood possible – and revisits a side of the story which is less about taxation powers than the management of national feeling.

Featured in the Guardian's Scotland blog, 26 February 2016: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/scotland-blog/2016/feb/26/nobodys-dream-stories-of-scottish-devolution

With thanks to BBC Scotland, the Scottish Political Archive, Billy Kay and Stuart Platt for use of archival audio. Other recordings from ‘Narrating Scottish Devolution’ research workshops held at the University of Stirling, supported by the British Academy. Recording, editing and production assistance from Peter Geoghegan, with support from the Stirling Centre for Scottish Studies.

A nadie se le escapa que en el mundo del deporte interviene un amplio número de factores de una importancia fundamental que van más allá del estricto rendimiento deportivo. La organización y celebración de eventos deportivos de carácter internacional es el máximo exponente de ello, se trate de mundiales de fútbol, de finales de la superbowl o de Juegos Olímpicos. Este es el tema de fondo que Stefan Huebner ha tomado para su libro: el estudio de los grandes eventos deportivos pan-asiáticos y su relevancia en la cristalización de un discurso sobre la modernización en los diferentes países que los organizaron entre 1913, cuando se celebran en Manila los primeros Juegos del Lejano Oriente (The Far Eastern Championship Games), y 1974, año en que Teherán albergó los Séptimos Juegos Asiáticos (Asian Games). Ello le permite trazar un recorrido desde la instrumentalización del deporte como herramienta de consolidación colonial hasta su papel en la formación de una narrativa nacional, pasando por cómo el deporte ha intervenido en la generación de discursos antioccidentales o la definición de la identidad de Asia como sujeto post-colonial.

In "The Conversation":
One of the most prominent images of the Commonwealth Games host city is of the bank of high-rise apartment buildings and hotels that loom over the beach of Surfers Paradise. Although the Games are taking place across the city, from its dense edge, past sprawling suburbs to its quasi-rural hinterland, one can be forgiven for conflating Surfers with the entire Gold Coast. More than anywhere else in Australia the Gold Coast hovers between being a traditional city and an urbanised territory — with all the stuff of a city but its density. [...]

Trabajo de evaluación para el I Diplomado en Estudios sobre Asia, UNAM, 2015. El ensayo reflexiona sobre las causas del fracaso organizativo y su debacle moral de los Juegos de la Mancomunidad Británica de 2010, llevados a cabo en la Delhi, India.

The aim of the article is to investigate the issue of positive sports diplomacy directed
at bringing countries closer and deepening cooperation between them. Generally,
sports diplomacy is a broader term and may include various ways of utilizing sport,
both negative and positive, even for the sake of nation-branding. Positive sports
diplomacy most commonly refers to bringing hostile states closer together, but it may
also be used to deepen political alliances or foster friendship and cooperation
between states that are not mutually hostile. The research focuses on the latter form
of positive sports diplomacy. The investigation is a case study concerning the
Commonwealth Games, a sports event that is held once every four years and gathers
countries and territories that used to belong to the former British Empire. The
research therefore aims to determine whether this event, the second largest multisport
event in the world, is significant from political and diplomatic perspectives. A
second research question concerns whether the Commonwealth Games should be
seen as an attempt by Great Britain to maintain influence in its former colonies. The
research attempts to test the hypothesis that the Commonwealth Games are an
important contributor to sustaining ties between states of the former British Empire.

This article critically reflects upon media coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, scrutinising the emergent discursive constructions of ‘Britishness’ and ‘Scottishness’ through an examination of both London-based (English) and Scotland-based publications. Drawing upon Dayan and Katz’s (1992) portrayal of ‘media events’, the article explores how both events presented competing sites of symbolic struggle during a period of constitutional and political turmoil. Consideration is given to the existence of a ‘hegemonic Britishness’ in print media narratives of these events, as evident in the emergent connotations associated with ‘British nationalism’ and ‘Scottish separatism’.

: This article aims to describe the possible variants of the course of events after Brexit, from a Scottish perspective. Three dimensions are taken into the account: future model of UK-EU relations, symmetry of Brexit inside the UK and possibility of the second independence referendum in the near future (less than five years). These dimension have allowed to distinguish three main variants of further development, that are in short named by the author as: passive variant, Scottish exception and another referendum. It seems at this point that the Scottish Government is bound to carry out the second referendum, especially if the British government chooses a variant of the so-called hard Brexit. The European argument, which is so often used by Sturgeon in political debate does not necessarily lead to an increase in support for the independence, especially when eventual membership in the European Union of an independent Scotland is burdened with so many question marks.

In September 2014, a historic referendum on the issue of Scottish independence was held, with the potential to dissolve the political union between Scotland and the other constituent nations of the United Kingdom which had survived intact since the 1707 Act of Union.  On a significantly high electoral turnout of 84.6%, the Scottish electorate opted to reject the proposals of the governing party in the devolved Scottish Parliament, the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), to create an independent Scottish state, with 55.3% of the electorate voting ‘No’ to Scottish independence against a 44.7% ‘Yes’ vote.  In the grand scheme of the Scottish independence referendum campaigns, sports policy remained a somewhat peripheral issue within the arguments forwarded by the Yes Scotland and Better Together campaigns.  Nonetheless, developments such as the formation of the 'Sport for Yes' campaign sub-group, the inclusion of sport within the Scottish Government’s White Paper on Scottish independence and the establishment of the Working Group on Scottish Sport demonstrated that the potential implications of independence were still deemed significant enough to merit a degree of policy planning by the Scottish Government (Lafferty, 2014; Scottish Government, 2013; Working Group on Scottish Sport, 2013, 2014).  This paper will critically consider the implications of the 'No' vote in the Scottish independence referendum for the latter of these developments, the policy proposals of the Working Group for Scottish Sport.  Drawing upon the principles of critical discourse analysis, specifically the analytical framework proposed by Fairclough and Fairclough (2012), the content of this group's proposal will be examined in order to critically explore the policy for Scottish sport it envisaged for an independent Scottish state.  The paper will then conclude by reflecting upon the extent to which elements of this political 'imaginary' (Fairclough and Fairclough, 2012) of Scottish sport remain a possibility for future sports policy in Scotland following the eventual 'No' vote in the referendum.
References:
Fairclough, I. and Fairclough, N. (2012) Political Discourse Analysis: A Method for Advanced Students.  London: Routledge.

Lafferty, S. (2014) ‘Stars of sport say Yes to an independent Scotland’, Yes Scotland.  Available at: http://www.yesscotland.net/news/stars-sport-say-yes-independent-scotland.  Accessed on 14/7/2014.

Scottish Government (2013) Scotland’s Future: Your Guide to an Independent Scotland.  Edinburgh: Scottish Government.  Available at: http://www.scotland.
gov.uk/Publications/2013/11/9348/downloads.  Accessed on 14/7/2014.

Working Group on Scottish Sport (2013) Working Group on Scottish Sport Interim Statement.  Edinburgh: Scottish Government.  Available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0043/00437896.pdf.  Accessed on 14/7/2014.

Working Group on Scottish Sport (2014) Working Group on Scottish Sport: The continuing development of Scottish sport – including the impact of independence.  Edinburgh: Scottish Government.  Available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/
Resource/0044/00449792.pdf.  Accessed on 14/7/2014.

This paper aims to reflect upon the potential analytical utility of the political discourse analysis framework proposed by Isabela Fairclough and Norman Fairclough (2012). This framework represents the most recent substantive development upon Norman Fairclough's past work situated within the wider school of Critical Discourse Analysis, building upon his influential position this methodological tradition. Central to this development is the additional emphasis placed upon the necessity to conceptualise all political discourse as 'argumentative' in nature, given that political actors are ultimately proposing or refuting particular courses of concrete future action. This paper will therefore apply Fairclough and Fairclough's model to provisional data derived from an ongoing doctoral thesis which considers the nature of political discourse relating to sport, the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and Scottish independence, with an ultimate aim of critically considering the benefits and limitations of applying this analytical framework as a methodological tool within this ongoing study.

This paper explores the political reaction to Lord McConnell’s appeal for a political ‘truce’ in the form of a temporary halt to campaigning by all political parties and organisations involved in the debate regarding the Scottish independence referendum during the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games (BBC, 2014; McConnell, 2014).  Urging both sides of the debate to cease campaigning for the two-week period of the Glasgow 2014 games, the current Labour peer and past First Minister of the Scottish Parliament cited concerns that there are “genuine concerns that the Games, and the image of Scotland, could be damaged by attempts by either side – for and against – to use the Games to promote their cause, or to use the venues for campaigning” (McConnell, 2014).  Drawing upon the principles of both a critical discourse and a narrative analysis methodological approach, this paper will scrutinise the nature of the political reactions to McConnell’s proposal from a variety of perspectives on both sides of the independence referendum debate.  In particular, the emphasis in the responses from both sides of the debate regarding the apolitical nature of the 2014 Games will be critiqued, drawing upon the arguments of past analyses of sporting mega-events which highlight the potential for political exploitation of such events by the host nations (e.g. Horne, 2007; Grix, 2012; Houlihan and Giulianotti, 2012; Roche, 2006).  Furthermore, the findings of academic research on the political implications of hosting the Commonwealth Games will be considered (e.g. Majumdar and Mehta, 2010; Van Der Westhuizen, 2004; Macintosh and Greenhorn, 1992; Majumdar, 2011; Lockstone and Baum, 2010; Macfarlane and Herd, 1986), highlighting a number of precedents which demonstrate the numerous challenges faced in any attempts to the keep the 2014 Games free from political influence.

The lobbying industry has been enjoying significant expansion with the establishment of the Scottish parliament, say Dinan and Miller. For all the early hopes of a more inclusive 'new politics', lobbyists have acted in their own commercial self-interest to make sure the system works in their favour. The lobbying industry has campaigned successfully against efforts by the parliament to regulate it effectively.

En nuestro estudio de 2009 observamos que todo el comercio aumenta; las importaciones aumentan en la misma medida que las exportaciones. Los resultados se sometieron también a una serie de análisis de sensibilidad. El “efecto olímpico” en el comercio es siempre positivo y considerable. Seguidamente, estudiamos otros espectáculos de gran magnitud como la Copa Mundial y las ferias internacionales, y comprobamos que también tienen un fuerte efecto positivo en el comercio.