Sorry to have a slightly alternative point of view and not to join in with the immediate celebrations....
But I do have a few concerns about London. Firstly it means that for regular commuters in the city who are already squeezed like cattle into packed tube trains, for the summer of 2012, our transport system will be even more congested.
(I know there may be some extra investment into the tube system over the next 7 years - but I doubt it will be enough to reverse over 50 years of underinvestment.)
I used to like athletics a lot in the 1980's when we had Cram, Ovett and Coe competing against each other - but I've since become a bit disillusioned with the sport and the number of drug-taking cheats.
Coe of course has been the figurehead for the London bid and will be receiving a lot of the plaudits now - It probably won't be long before he gets a knighthood....
But I'm afraid to go back to London's transport conditions, I've had too many horrendous journeys over the years in London where there's been barely enough room to stand let alone sit down on the tube. If that can be reversed by 2012, it will be a miracle.
Frankly, unless there is
massive new investment into the tube over the next 7 years, I'll be slightly ashamed at the prospect of more tourists coming into London and having to experience our truly horrendous third world transport system - which is a disgrace to a country like Britain (the 4th richest country in the world.)
Tourists over for the 2012 Olymypics can expect to get squashed up against some rather unpleasant British types. (Some of whom tend to perspire a lot and don't like using deodorant or changing their clothes that often!)
For too many years, public transport (all over the country not just in London) has been starved of proper investement. Another big problem is that Britain is a small congested island - the 2nd most densely populated country in Europe (after Holland) - and if you take the South East of England alone, it's one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
Given the density of our population and our severely congested transport system, we must be mad to have allowed a situation where there are potentially (according to a recent Gov't estimate) 500,000 illegal immigrants in the UK.
If some of these people can be removed over the next 7 years, to allow a bit more room for the many tourists who'll be here in 2012, then perhaps the Olympics won't be a bad thing for London....
I'm afraid that living and working in the London area, there are many aspects of London - slum housing, horrendously congested transport conditions, dirty litter infested streets, massive long queues to wait in casualty for treatment in hospitals etc - that make me ashamed of our capital city now.
There certainly needs to be a massive clean-up operation before 2012!
The good news is that despite what President Chirac says, British food is not that bad - 20 of the top 100 rated restaurants in the world are based in Britain.
Perhaps President Jacques just didn't like the haggis he had in Scotland....
