London officials: Election won't affect Olympics

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Organizers of the London Olympics say preparations for the 2012 Games will continue "seamlessly" even if there is a change in government after next month's general election in Britain.
London officials assured the International Olympic Committee on Thursday that the games will not be affected by the May 6 vote, which could lead to defeat for Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Labour Party.
London organizing committee leader Sebastian Coe says the Olympics "have not tumbled from the lips of a single politician in this campaign." He says the games have not become a "political football."
London officials also unveiled their games mascot to the IOC. Details will remain secret until an official launch in London, probably next month

Mary Dejevsky: Don't believe the killjoys of London 2012

Now here's a riddle for the holiday weekend: what's on time, on budget and in Britain? The answer, improbable, but correct, is the 2012 London Olympics. Yet still the nay-sayers persist, grumbling away about how the site will never be complete in time, how the costs have already spiralled out of control, and how the city – their city – will be a nightmare for the duration.

They were on top form earlier this week when Anish Kapoor's 115m tower was presented as the winner of the Mayor's contest to find an architectural symbol for the Olympic Park. I admit that I'm not immediately entranced by the design. Like much contemporary British art, in any form, it is just that bit too complicated to be elegant. And the lattice girders may, as Kapoor says, be a tribute to the Eiffel Tower, but at the time of writing it seems on the hubristic side to equate the two.

With any luck, though, it will look much better when it is built for real than it looks as a scale model, and we will all take to it, just as we have taken to the London Eye and, after much agonising over its purpose, to the Dome. I'm also gratified that another gigantic commission has not been handed to Antony Gormley. I don't have anything particular against his work except its ubiquity. So good luck to Kapoor, and to Lakshmi Mittal who has pledged the metal. At least the Orbit – not necessarily its final name – is original and moderately entertaining.

The controversy surrounding the tower had one beneficial effect: it deflected attention from the latest group of privileged Londoners trying to keep any Olympic event as far as possible from their backyard. The good folk of St John's Wood (average property price, I would hazard, well into the new 5 per cent stamp-duty bracket) are objecting to plans to hold the week-long archery competition at Lord's.

It's not the prospect of stray arrows flying over their garden walls they fear, nor the subdued pings and thuds that will supplant the familiar sound of leather against willow. No, they are objecting to what they say are the organisers' plans for loud music to accompany the contest. Even in the unlikely event that world-class archers would happily compete against a background of loud music, you have to ask whether it's reasonable for a group of residents to try to have a highly atmospheric and history-laden venue ruled out essentially for their own convenience. This is one week out of one summer; their proximity to Lord's is for a lifetime.

Meanwhile Greenwich Park has finally been approved as a venue for equestrian events, after a stormy five-hour meeting and a long protest campaign by local residents, fearful that trees would be felled and horses' hooves would mash up the ground. Lord Coe said he made no apologies for wanting to use the park – may he continue to have the courage of his convictions. The Olympics give London an opportunity to show off, and to share, its glorious green spaces and architectural ensembles. Let the privilegentsia huff and puff with more or less gentility. They can move out for the summer if they feel that strongly, and leave the rest of us to enjoy the global party.