Buck the Bid
This week, the IOC are in town checking up on London’s plans to host the Olympic Games in 2012.
It was lucky they chose this week to come - if they’d turned up last week they’d have seen a load of street cleaners and railing painters hurrying about giving the city an early spring clean. Coincidently, if anybody can work out why there was a cleaning frenzy last week, let me know… 
As it was, the committee flew into Heathrow on Monday night and were driven into the heart of the city along roads lined with lampposts adorned with “Back the Bid” posters, proving just how committed we all are to hosting the Games.
Yesterday, they got to experience our futuristic transportation system as they took the Jubilee Line to North Greenwich to see our successful millennium legacy, the Dome. Again, they were jolly lucky to be able to visit, given the vast number of special events and exhibitions that take place in it each year.
Yes, in case you’re wondering, I’m sure they all marvelled at the Tube: always on time, always clean, never crowded. Certainly you’ll never encounter a slightly worse-for-wear dribbling drunk when you travel on the next Jubilee Line service (has been cancelled due to a shortage of train crew).
With a public so committed to our Olympic vision, a fully integrated transportation infrastructure, bleeding edge technology (take our Air Traffic Control system for example) and a Mayor who can do no wrong, who can be in any doubt that, er, Paris is the candidate to watch.
Oh well, at least the IOC committee will get a nice slap-up dinner before they head home. That is, of course, as long as they don’t mention getting hitched down the local registry office.
