Incoming...

I think next summer, if it’s all the same to you, I will take the entirety of my leave in one big, luxurious block and avoid London altogether.

Once the initial euphoria of London winning the right to host the 2012 Olympics wore off back in 2005 or so – and yes, I went to Trafalgar Square with the rest and celebrated (even though I missed the announcement by about 5 minutes), I started feeling a little more ambivalent. Over the years that ambivalence moved through doubt to outright hostility to the idea. Largely, I have to say, because of its impact upon my council tax bill, but more recently because of the increasingly woolly-headed pronouncements on such matters as working from home because the infrastructure won’t cope.

I’m as happy as anyone that the East End of London has had money thrown at it and the regeneration around the Olympic village is magnificent, as are the various venues and the stadium in particular. Newham is one of the two most deprived areas in the UK, let alone in London and it doesn’t hurt that it is getting this much needed boost. Except that it looks as though the locals aren’t benefiting as much as it was suggested they would. They just have nice new facilities they can’t afford to spend money in. Few if any, of the economic benefits seem to be filtering down to them.

And now it seems that the Ministry of Defence is seriously contemplating mooring a Type 45 Destroyer in Docklands so that the games will benefit from the protection of ground to air missiles.

It’s not as if the city hasn’t got a bloody great target painted on it at the best of times, but blimey…