Only a year to go...

Yesterday we celebrated that fact that there is exactly one year to go before the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games. We had a little shindig in Trafalgar Square, and Princess Ugly unveiled the medals. Doesn't it just make you swell with national pride?

Well, no actually!

If one more person refers to 'Team GB' then I swear I will scream. Which pimply faced adolescent puerile marketing twat came up with such a bloody silly name anyway? But I digress...

Much was said in the papers yesterday about the targets that have been set for the Great Britain Olympic Team and how we will be judged a failure if we do not achieve them. Apparently, the team will be letting the taxpayers down if they fail to achieve this target. Talk about setting ourselves up for a fall! I suspect that the nearest most of your team members will get to a medal was in Trafalgar Square yesterday.

We're great at it, aren't we? Set 'em up and knock 'em down! There's a year to go and we've got the medals hanging around their necks already. Why don't we just scrap the games and give everyone in the team a medal? I would be a bloody site cheaper! The names of Henman and Murray come to mind...

And then there's the row over catering. Apparently building a bloody great MacDonald's in the middle of the site is going to spark a child obesity epidemic. A bit late for that isn't it? They're in every high street in the country and have been for years. And they're not the sort of people we should be associating with for the Olympics - although we seem to be forgetting that they have forked out several million for the priviledge.

Which bring me nicely on to the subject of all the corporations who promised to be sponsoring this great fiasco and have now failed to produce the money, blaming this u-turn on the financial recession. Yesterday, the head of the Olympic Delivery Authority (is it just me that thinks that ODA is something that stinks?) announced that without the sponsorship funds he had expected that he would have to dip into his contingency fund.

Or to put it another way, the taxpayer will have to stump up even more cash - because it's not his money is it? It's ours!

Did it never occur to the Labour government to get these defaulting sponsors to sign a legally binding contract when they agree to come forward? Silly question...

As far as I can see, the only good thing about yesterdays milestone date is that it means there's only 13 months to go until its all over.

And then we will be left to count the real cost - in money and ego...