2012 Olympics

Gorse Fox is one of the world's optimists.

Today we see that the 2012 Olympics have been awarded to London. GF suspects that within minutes, some members of the press, and the blogosphere will be tut-tut-ing into their keyboards, and listing 1001 reasons why this is bad. Gf feels immensley sorry for people that cannot see the positive side of an opportunity such as this.

Why does GF think it's so good?

• It'll be the first time in GF's lifetime (assuming he survives 7 more years) that Olympics will be held in the England. The last time was 1948...
• It's an opportunity (and reason) to do something drastic to improve London's transport.
• It's an ooportunity to pour some significant investment into a deprived quarter of London. (Yes, GF knows that fat cats will benefit... but so will the local people).
• It will inspire kids to get involved in sport. In turn that will improve their health, and in the future give them an outlet for stress.
• We beat the French

But what about...

• The Cost?
  Get real!!! The average stealth tax we get year on year is far less.
• The disruption?
  Any improvement to a City of London's age and magnitude will cause disruption. The fire on the M25 yesterday caused disruption. Any road improvement causes disruption before it comes to fruition.
• Multinationals profiting from the building programme?
  Errr, who would you expect to bid for large scale projects? This is meant to be a showcase for English sport, do you want something second rate?
• The organisation, we couldn't even get the Millennium Dome right?
  There you may have a point, but with the Olympics we have some passionate, involved leaders like Lord Coe. This is not being driven by self-serving sycophants politicians (unlike the Dome).
• What about the Minister?
  Do you realy think she will be driving this? Do you think Lord Coe would allow that to happen?
• Offending the French?
  Do you really think....

[File under: Olympics]