Minggu, 06 April 2008

Olympic torch relay = farce

The BBC has footage of a protestor grabbing the Olympic torch as it was being carried by former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the torch relay - and I've blogged my views before - what a farce the whole thing is. Somebody has obviously taken the decision that this ought to be a low key sort of event. So there are no roads closed and little in the way of barriers for crowds to stand behind.

So the torch is carried by a D-List celeb who in turn is surrounded by blue track-suited Chinese security guards. Around them are yellow vested police on bikes. Most hilariously, between all this and the crowds are uniformed police skipping sideways with their arms linked to form a makeshift barrier.

And all this in the midst of typical London traffic jams on a snowy day with lots of rival protestors on the pavements.

Whichever police officer or Government official thought up this event ought to be given a kick up the backside. If this thing were to happen at all then it should have been realised that there would be lots of demonstrations and proper security measures would need to be taken with road closures, full security, the lot.

That is what Mayor Ken and Tessa Jowell are not telling us. They are trying to kid everybody that the Olympics can be run in 2012 as it was in 1948 - street parties, spam fritters and plucky British amateurs. Well today's relay is showing the strictly amateur way of organising a parade. They have flunked their first real test.

I have no doubt that there would have been lots of annoyance if the torch parade had meant road closures. But that is the price to be paid for this event and Ken et al refuse to face up to it.

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