The starting pistol has sounded and the very long countdown to the 2012 Olympics is on. 'Exactly three years to the day' blathered the excited Olympic committee member at the site of where the equestrian arena will one day stand.
Everyone outside of London sighed, mumbled something about not giving a monkeys and switched the television over.
The truth is, it is the London Olympics and outside of the capital you won't find many people wetting themselves in excitement and crossing off the days as the London based media are.
In a subtle change of tact, they are now calling it the British Olympics to try and drum up some enthusiasm and to stop the growing rumblings as the money dried up and our taxes and lottery funding is diverted away from projects in other cities and handed over to London.
The absolute guarantee that we could do it for £2bn has become £9bn but i'm sure that the youth club that had to close down through lack of funding in Grimsby can be proud to know that instead they will be building a posh new weight lifting arena in Stratford.
The Government have said that they want the London Olympics to be a totally inclusive experience for the people of Britain. Particularly when it comes to paying for it.
Maybe my enthusiasm will grow as the time draws nearer but as i don't live in London and my city is not going to benefit from the 2012 Olympics, i don't really care at the moment.
1 comment:
I think the modern Olympics are still in many ways a relic of the Imperial age that spawned them. The quest for national glory aspect hasn't gone away.
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