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In Britain you are learning the lesson the hard way that projects like this don't belong in government hands! Governments are notoriously inefficient when it comes to spending OUR (not their) money! Maybe the idea was great, but it should have been handed over to someone like Disney, who would have made it a profitable venture and paid the British Government a percentage!
Charles Portiet, USA

The Millennium Dome is a total waste of money. No matter what they put in it, it will be nothing more than a theme park. Also, I think that someone should mention to Tony Blair that the millennium doesn't start until the year 2001 (hence the name of the book by Arthur C. Clarke). The year 2000 is the last year of the 20th Century!
Lucy Hill, UK The Millennium Dome has to be a success, too much is riding on it for it to fail. I think (and hope) it'll be a great success and wish luck to all involved!
Catherine Ferreday, UK

Why could they not have staged a more informative exhibition in the Dome, instead of creating just another theme park? Britain has a wealth of history to draw on.
Susan Owen, UK

A new millennium starts... and every decade has its own symbol. I think this Millennium Dome will be a great symbol for the year 2000 and the following decades.
Stephan Schuster, Germany

The dome is a great idea! It keeps up the idea of Britain being slightly different to everywhere else.
Lachlan Meldrum, UK

Two items have lately put me off more, one being the entry fee the second the fact that it should be in the centre of the country not down south, I won't be rushing down to see it.
Mr. D. E. Talbot, UK

If the Millennium Dome wasn't being built then at the turn of the century when other countries had spectacular celebrations the people of Britain would think why didn't we do something like that.
M A Hasan, UK

Put succinctly, I'd rather have the Dome than further line the pockets of the bourgeoisie, which is the only other alternative. Does anyone really believe that the funds would be used for just causes?
Derek Murdoch, UK

There have been negative reports that, according to some polls, ONLY 40% of the country would be prepared to visit the Dome. Even 30% of the population would be an unmanageable number attending the exhibition and does not even include visitors from abroad. If 40% have indeed said they would visit the Dome, it is already, before completion, a HUGE success! Now all we need to do is move the date of the Millennium celebrations to the ACTUAL New Millennium: Jan 1 2001, then all the other infrastructure projects might be finished in time.
Cormac McGettigan, UK

If Britain didn't build the dome, come the year 2000 people would ask: "The US has this, Japan has that; what have we got?" If people honestly believe that the 2000 is so important why shouldn't we spend 1/3 billion pounds on something extraordinary.
John Beacroft-Mitchell, UK

I think that the Dome is a good idea and that it will be an experience that will be talked about for many years to come.
Caroline Turner, UK

A catastrophic misuse of public and private funds.
Richard Allen, UK

It will only be up for a year, it is uneconomical. We should aim to use such money for curing the social ills that afflict our society such as homelessness and poverty.
Imran Khan, UK

Life is to be celebrated! If the Dome provides the experiences promised, it will enhance people's lives. To those who say that the money should be spent on do good programs - I say heaps of money is spent on good causes, yet the problems just get worse. Hopefully, the Dome experience will lift people out of that grey mindset that enables problems to flourish, even if only for a short while.
Tom Bowshall, Australia

Britain ought to be taking a leading role in the global celebrations of the new millennium, so the Dome is an appropriate way to spend money. In any case, if the experiences of the past are repeated the structure will more than pay for itself with the tourist money it brings into the country and the 'invisible' earnings it makes by raising the profile of Britain around the world. What's so wrong with spending our own money on something to show off our country to the world? I'm sick to death of the inferiority complex we seem to have as a nation. We should stop hiding ourselves away and begin to believe in our own worth.
Neil Tonks, UK

Something makes me a touch proud when I hear that no other country is embracing the new millennium with such grand plans and structures. But when I'm sober I find it hard to stomach the huge expense - not just on the Dome but also the majority of millennium projects throughout the country. Economically, we might have a strong economy but we still do not provide enough homes, jobs, hospital beds, school equipment etc. for our people. The best way for the British people to enter the new millennium filled with pride is to rectify the social and political failures of the previous century.
Robert Owens, Cardiff, UK

It is wonderful the UK is finally learning to make the kind of extravagant architectural gestures that enliven other great cities around the world. And it has taken great courage on the part of the present Government to stake its political reputation on the Dome. But, even knowing that anything that has £800m spent on it will inevitably be fun and MOST of the moaners will end up liking it on 31 December 1999, it does have to be said that the exhibits are at best corny and at worst extremely naff. So, the real question is: Is the definite tonic of optimism this folly will bring the country worth £800m? As it is lottery money, and we do have a party on this New Year's eve, something had to be done - but did it have to be this...
Tim Williams, UK

Here I sit on the other side of the ocean, freely spending British pounds that aren't mine to spend. But I do think this "monument" for lack of a better word, will have great significance down the road. I wonder if everyone thought the Washington Monument was a good idea or a thing of beauty in its day.
Fraffie, USA

It is true what the government says. The UK plans a great memorial to the millennium and all people do is complain. What has happened to out sense of national pride?
John Millar, UK

I believe it's admirable to invest the amount but I believe that the investment could have achieved much more used on different activities.
Povl Dalsgaard, Denmark

I think that the Dome is an essential milestone in the development of our country and Europe. In the future, it will be looked upon as the start of a new set of attitudes and ways of thinking.
Ben Browne, UK

It's about time we started a national project of this kind, reflecting what the United Kingdom stands for, and of course as a celebration of the millennium. It seems a shame that we need an "excuse" of this kind to be proud of who we are. Unfortunately, I feel the millennium project has gone astray. For starters, building it in the shadow of London is ridiculous when other parts of the country have little else in the form of amenities, and secondly, can we justify the enormous cost?
Paul Groves, UK

How can the UK justify the obscene expense of what will be no more than a vulgar eyesore? A grotesque carbuncle with all the intellectual merit of Disneyland? The definition of "fun" is a subjective matter of opinion and should not enter the argument. What should enter the argument? The NHS waiting lists, the decline in arts funding, the rise in university tuition, the financial crisis at the British Library, the appalling state of care for the mentally ill, the plight of the homeless, cancer and AIDS research--need one gob on? The UK should clean up the problems of this millennium before it starts celebrating the next with such wasteful abandon.
Matt Simon, USA

I would rather have seen the money being spent on needy causes, with plaques to inform the public that the United Kindom's response to the new millennium was to look after everyone in its society. I will not be going and as far as I can see it is a missed opportunity.
Nick Stewart, UK

Value for money depends on the project being inclusive or exclusive i.e. does it reflect a multiracial and multicultural Britain or does it, like the BBC TV coverage of the dome so far, ditch the reality of Greenwich and UK?
Husain Akhtar, UK

The Dome is a fantastic idea. As well as helping to regenerate a run-down part of the capital, the Dome will serve as a focus for learning, a symbol of the future and a place of fun. I am fed up with hearing people knock the idea: when people went to buy lottery tickets, they knew that the money was going to be spent on project like this and not on the NHS!
Simon Macklin, UK

It's a good idea in theory but I'm sure that - and I don't mean this to sound patronising - GCSE students could have undertaken the project far more efficiently. The organisation is a shambles.
Zoe Payne, UK

Third World debt will always be a problem and while it is important the people of this country shouldn't forget how to have a good time. There will always be people suggesting 'better' uses for the money but at the end of the day, the chance to create a national landmark and focal point for a whole Millennium doesn't come around every day. Some people should try and remember the definition of fun!
Ross Parker, UK

Surely we can think of better ways to celebrate the Millennium rather than spending nearly £800m building a massive tent in Greenwich. What's more nobody seems to have any clear ideas of what to put inside it. Is this the best we can do?
John Knight, London, UK

What a waste of money, space, and effort. Do we really need this thing put up, why not have something nice but simple?
Joe Dowsett

The Dome is a celebration of our of our empty-headed cruelty to the poor. I hope it sinks like a giant soufflé.
Stephen Bint, UK

I hope the Dome does come good but I just wish the politicians would stop arguing over the contents and let those responsible get on with the job of putting it up.
Carl, UK

The Prime Minister extols the Millennium Dome and tells us that Greenwich will be "the most exciting place in the world to be" on December 31, 1999.
It is therefore deeply ironic and tragic that the Royal Greenwich Observatory, which gave Greenwich its unique significance, will cease to exist on October 31, 1998, after 323 years in which it helped British sailors to navigate the globe and build an Empire, gave the world a Prime Meridian, and, in recent years, provided British astronomers with world-class telescopes to unlock the secrets of the universe. For the want of a few million pounds -- a fraction of the sum which is to be spent on the Dome -- Britain's national Observatory is to be allowed to die just fourteen months short of the year 2000.
Lynne Marie Stockman, UK

The whole Dome project is just a monument to the egos of rather sad politicians. With crumbling infrastructure, children in poverty and a poor environment how can we justify spending such sums on a pleasure dome.
Just how are people to get to see it? Greenwich isn't exactly the most connected part of London, even with the Jubilee line extension open in one form or another. It would have been far better, if the choice were dome or nothing, to have had it in the Midlands or North Western conurbations. Why should London be the focus all the time - the infrastructure is shot and the locals couldn't give a hoot where the Mandelson Mega-dome is imposed.
T Rhys-Smithe, UK

Money well spent? - don't be silly. As an aside why are 'national' centres of excellence, be they educational, sporting, or of the arts, nearly always located in the south of the country. Let the north have some exposure for once.
Richard, UK

Why not spend the money on people in NHS waiting queues, then build an exhibition composed of all the walking sticks, wheelchairs and bottles of painkillers that are no longer needed? New Labour - New Hypocrisy. But I guess the Dome as an event will be a success; might as well see the thing if we can't stop it being built.
Richard Gregory, UK

A new tube line called the Millennium line running from say Wandsworth bridge along the south side of the river up to tower bridge would surely be a more fitting and lasting useful project -- the tube needs money. We can do without a dome but London cannot do without a decent tube system.
Jim Hawthorne, UK

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