The London 2012 logo. Photo credit: Ben Sutherland, http://flic.kr/p/9wtYrg
The background
After the fuss and rain and triumphs of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, Britain now awaits the Olympics. Film director Danny Boyle is in charge of the Olympic ceremonies – and he’s now got to come up with something to equal and surpass the 1,000 boat flotilla, the Queen’s concert, and the carriage ride from St Pauls Cathedral. How can you beat Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney? Not to mention a hula-hooping Grace Jones. Here commentators look at what the Olympics can learn from the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, and wonder whether the Games have become too commercial.
Read about the Jubilee on Periscope Post
The Olympics should learn from the Jubilee’s organization
Danny Boyle must be “chewing his fingernails,” said Rowan Pelling in The Telegraph. Still, he could hardly do worse than our contribution to the Beijing Olympics, which “starred a TV talent show winner and a clutch of umbrellas.” For some reason, the Olympic bureacrats have chosen Duran Duran as the headline act – hardly a band in the nation’s heart. The organiser won’t “show the brilliance of the flotilla’s masterminds,” either. “If I were Boyle, I’d call in the Army and the Navy now.”
The Olympics should provide more portaloos
The Jubilee was a perfect mixture of “spectacle and security,” said The Times’ leader. The Olympics has a lot to learn – for a start, it should give the Queen a part. And if she’s not available – then try Grace Jones. They should also “encourage fancy dress” – if enough people are “wearing wigs and face paint,” then “nothing untoward will happen.” And they should also employ Trunk Animation Limited, who turned Buckingham Palace into “a row of terraced houses.” Also – they need more portaloos.
The Olympics should not be so commercial
The motto of the Olympic Games, said Harry Mount in The Daily Mail, is “Citius, altius, fortius” – “faster, higher, stronger.” He said you could throw in another – “greedier.” Amaterusism and endeavour are being “blotted out” by grotesqueness of the Games’ sponsors. Some of the torchbearers – instead of being local heroes – it turns out are actually employees of the sponsors: Lakshmi Mittal, the steel magnate behind the Orbit structure; also there will be Patrick de Maeseneire, the head of Adecco, the Games’ official recruitment provider. And Jedward – Jedward! – the twins who didn’t even win The X Factor, carried the torch through Dublin. And Coca-Cola, the Games’ main sponsors, are hardly appropriate. Did you think that one torch was being carried around the country? You’d be wrong – you can even shell out £200 for one. “The truth is that the Olympic spirit is diminished each time it comes up against those depressing, mighty, modern forces of corporate commercialism and greed.”
