Fanning the Flames of Harmony

I have to say, I'm enjoying this. The sight of Gordon Brown and Tessa Jowell cowering behind the gates of Downing Street while a phalanx of Chinese heavies barge in with the Flame of Harmony tickles me no end. Of course, Gordon never actually touched the torch - thus keeping a quarantined distance from it as he did from the Lisbon Treaty by showing up late for the signing. And for Jowell, the whole farce was "a good thing", because as she puts it, "Within the values of the Olympic Games of internationalism, of tolerance, friendship and excellence, all that is incompatible with circumstances where the right of free expression is repressed in any way" whatever that means.

What's so appealing and attractive about stunts that go so haywire as this one inevitably would, is that everyone knows how cringeworthy they truly are and we get to see paid hypocrites like those two having to come up with words that we know, they know and we-know-they-know-we-know are a complete political sham. The round-the-world torch parade, remember, is not being sponsored by the Olympic Movement, but by the Chinese Government itself as a promo for its hype-over-substance vision of its new enlightenment. And that's what the Olympics has become. Amidst the undoubted (leaving aside the drugs cheats) quest for sporting excellence, it's an excuse for nationalistic tub-thumping and a political prize. Thats why the Games were wrested from the French and are coming here in 2012 to the tune of £9.3 billion, thanks to Jowell's sketchy grasp of arithmetic.

I see that in Paris, protesters extinguished the Flame four times before the rest of the event was cancelled in a hail of tear gas canisters. Predictable; no change there then. I happened to be among the celebrations in Place de la Bastille when France won the European Cup a few years ago. On the stroke of midnight, the Gendarmes got fed up with the thousands of us blocking the roads and teargassed us out to get us moving. Nobody seemed to mind, all went happily home. It's the French way.

Diplomatic Bag

Whilst looking for a pic of our Olympics Minister, I found this one.

What is it about her that makes her look so chic and a la mode, I hear you cry. Well apparently it's her handbag. It's a Chloe and they run out at £500 a time. Yesterday she turned up in a 70s style parka, rabbit-fur collar and all.