London Mayor Boris Johnson: Stop whining about Olympics
The background
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has called on people worrying about the Olympics to, well, stop worrying. We should all get behind Team GB for the Games, he says, in an article in The Sun. His comments come after the security concerns that have been highlighted by the contractor G4S’s failure to provide enough security guards for the games, which has led to soldiers being called in to make up the shortfall.
It’s also possible that staff at the UK Border agency will strike next week, in a move that could potentially bring airports to a standstill in the week that the Olympics start. Bosses of the Public and Commercial Services Union insisted it would go ahead – despite one in ten voting in favour for it. Theresa May wrote to Border Agency staff and said that the bosses should “hang their heads in shame” for trying to disrupt the Games, reported The Daily Mail.
In other news, the Middleton family – those relatives of our future queen, the Duchess of Cambridge – are being investigated by the organisers of the Olympics for potential breaching the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act, for selling items on their website in the colours of the Olympic rings, reported The Herald Sun.
Commentators are largely blasé about the Olympics; but shouldn’t we all be revving up our collective psyches for the Greatest Show on Earth?
Is it too late to give the Games to France?
Mark Steel in The Independent was whining about the Olympics – he didn’t like the armed soldiers, the surface-to-air-missiles; or the fact that we’re being told to stay at home during a global festial, and we’re not allowed to “even use the word Olympic unless we’re an official sponsor.” Most people don’t even care. When you look close, “you can see the greed and sinister snobbery.” We’re cynical about the Games, mnot because we “hate sport,” but beause we “love it.” Let’s give them to “France or Argentina.”
Olympic spirit submerged in corporate greed
Paul Routledge in The Mirror threw his moaning hat into the ring, and said that we were about to enter a “great Olympic balls-up.” The people in charge “couldn’t run a booze-up in a brewery.” It’s an “Olyshambles.” The sponsors have become “paramilitary bullies”, and the “Olympic spirit” is now “submerged under a tidal wave of corporate greed.” However, “the cabaret of chaos we’re enjoying now makes it all worth while.”
Come on, chaps, let’s get optimistic!
In familiarly jolly tones, Boris admonished Sun readers to “come off it” and stop “whimpering.” The Olympic Games are, after all, “the greatest show on earth.” We have “got an advanced case of Olympo-funk.” Actually, everything’s fine. A bit of rain “never hurt anyone,” as well. Think about all the great free cultural stuff that we’ll be getting, too. The Olympics have created employment, and the surge for our transport infrastructure is positively “neo-Victorian.” The only thing BoJo was worried about was whether we could do as well as we did last time.
Actually, it’s kind of our job to whine for a bit – at least until the Games start
Paul Hayward in The Telegraph said that the reason the Olympics were “still in the shade” was that there’s too much other sport on – there’s the Test match, the Tour de France, Manchester City in the Premier League; we’re still digesting the Andy Murray / Roger Federer match at Wimbledon, too. We don’t have a “political mission” in throwing the Olympics, unlike, say, “Australia, Greece and China”; this is an “alliance of corporate sponsors, homeland security, anxious ministers and private contracts.” The fact is, there “are too many other good things going on to start thinking about the handball and the modern pentathlon.” At least we can “understand both the seriousness and ridiculousness of Olympic sport.” The fact is, panicking is “the pre-Olympic sport. Pleasure soon takes over.”
