Sunday 31 August 2008

Cut the red tape

The Wrecclesham Parish Magazine popped through the door this afternoon, and I found the most engaging page to be (as I often do), "And Finally...". My mother-in-law would especially like it (I must show her next weekend), being particularly interested in the calling of attention to ridiculous societal and legal red tape, and the proferring of alternative ideas to the juggernaut of central government.

This issue we had both. And the one paragraph of three that I've not stopped thinking about is a different approach to the Olympics. I quote:

Wouldn't it be wonderful if if the ... London Olypmic Games ... scrapped all the current plans, upgraded ... existing sports facilities, ... opened the Games with a simple ceremony involving the Queen cutting a ribbon, ... reallocated the medal count to favour sports in which anyone could participate regardless of wealth ... and spent some of the ten thousand million pounds ... in sports facilities for schools and local communities?

Now, I don't agree with everything here, but it's great to read of somebody thinking more broadly about how we could do the Olympics. By not spending so much money on what can be seen as a marketing exercise for the UK, rather than anything at all to do with sport, we would be putting our money where our mouth is, and actually spending it on our communities, and indeed making a far more powerful and longlasting political statement than any hollywood-quality, oscar-directed, cultural-navel-gazing, money-down-the-drain, corporate-ticket-nirvana opening ceremony.

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