Looking through todays papers, there is a good article in the telegraph from Ben Brogan, about the 2012 Olympics - the key paragraphs are below:
The London 2012 top brass are still laughing about it. A few weeks ago, a nervous Tory peer expressed doubts about the reliability of the builders' hoist that was about to take the Queen and others to the top of the Olympic stadium, only to be silenced by a look of disbelief from the royal visitor. A rattling lift was hardly likely to trouble a woman whose house was bombed by the Nazis.
God willing, Her Majesty will celebrate her diamond jubilee in 2012, and at 86 will provide a link to the past when she opens the games on the spot where the Blitz did its worst, in the East End of the city her parents refused to leave at its moment of greatest danger. No wonder the organisers speak in awe of her steely unflappability.
That calm under pressure is what all those involved in delivering the games will need between now and July 27, 2012, when the XXX Olympiad gets underway. With less than 1,000 days to go, construction is on time and on budget (admittedly, after it had to be dramatically enlarged to £9.3 billion). Already there is talk of the Olympics turning into a transformational national success story that could serve as a catalyst for rebuilding a country laid low by an unparalleled fiscal crisis. Expectations are rising..........
.......That year may mark another milestone of sorts. If the Conservatives are in government, David Cameron is likely to find himself at his mid-term nadir, reviled for the pain he has had to inflict, and waiting for signs of the good times he promised would follow. No wonder he is talking privately of the Olympics as the "turning point" that could restore national morale and get him off the hook in time for a general election.
Anyone who visits the Olympic park in Stratford, as I did last week, cannot help but be struck both by the scale of the project and the achievement of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). Members of the International Olympic Committee, who are in London today for a check-up, must be beside themselves with delight at London's progress after the horrors of Athens and the stresses of Beijing. They aren't even bothering to visit the site.
Some of the statistics are irresistible: a "soil hospital" cleans tons of contaminated dirt so that 90 per cent of the spoil from what was largely a wasteland can be reused in the construction; the stadium uses just a quarter of the steel needed for the mammoth Bird's Nest in Beijing; up to six lorries a minute enter the site, having been marshalled somewhere on the M11; 2,000 newts are in temporary housing, waiting to be returned to the River Lea, which runs through what will eventually be Queen Elizabeth Park (or Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – it's still being argued about).
Only once in the 20th century has a government that won the games survived to deliver them. A change of administration in the run-up to the Olympics might be expected to herald political trouble. Thankfully, David Cameron does not share Gordon Brown's loathing of what he refers to as "Tony's f------ Olympics". He is committed to ensuring stability by protecting London 2012's status as the Switzerland of politics, immune from partisan attacks.
What remains undecided will be the role of the two politicians who have nurtured this cross-party consensus. Hugh Robertson has handled the Olympics portfolio in opposition, and by rights should continue to do so in government if the Tories are returned. Certainly, the Olympic family want to see him in the job, and the ODA is quietly lobbying for his appointment as Olympics minister. Mr Cameron is a fan. "He has been in that job for a long time for a reason," I'm assured.
He would replace the irrepressible Tessa Jowell. Like Mr Robertson, she was embedded in the project before the bid was won in Singapore, back in 2005. Everyone is agreed that her enthusiasm and knowledge make her a compelling ambassador for the games. Mr Cameron is minded to find her a role, but much will depend on her behaviour during the election campaign: if she appears on television attacking the leader or his party, she could scupper her chances.
The Olympics will stay off our radar until after next summer's football World Cup. But by this time next year, we may be experiencing a dawning realisation not only that this once in a lifetime event is coming to town, but that we might be about to do it quite well. I'm with the optimists, who see in those five rings a potent motor for the job of national reconstruction that must now preoccupy us.
I am glad to see an upbeat Olympic article for a change - 2012 is going to be fantastic for this country - I cannot Wait!
