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Anorak News | London Rings The Changes

London Rings The Changes

by | 14th, February 2005

‘ONE group of visitors to London is likely to be impressed by the achievements of Tony Blair’s government – and that is the IOC.

A nightmarish vision of the future

The Times says dignitaries from the International Olympic Committee will this week experience London as it has never been experienced before.

Traffic will flow freely, there won’t be a roadwork in sight and lampposts will be adorned with brightly coloured flags promoting the city.

At least, that is the case along the route the IOC members will take from Heathrow to the proposed Olympic site in east London.

The rest of us, the paper says, are likely to face even worse delays than normal as traffic light sequences are altered to speed the visitors’ journey.

Not that life as an IOC member is all bread and roses. In fact, bread and roses are expressly banned.

The Guardian says that the IOC is so sensitive to accusations of junketing in the wake of the Salt Lake City scandal that its 117 members will not even be offered a sausage roll or pineapple on a stick during their visit to Downing Street.

Bidding cities are only allowed to provide one social event during the evaluation visit – and on Friday the Queen is due to host a dinner at Buckingham Palace.

London is – after Madrid – the second of the five bidding cities to receive the IOC delegation, with New York, Paris and Moscow to come.

But Lord Coe claimed yesterday that support for a British bid was growing.

“People whose judgement I really value in this…think we have narrowed the gap quite dramatically,” he said, “but it is too close to call.”

So, Paris by a landslide then…’



Posted: 14th, February 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink