Recently in London Olympics Category

One of the things about being a quasi-journalist is that I get all sorts of strange and diverting press releases coming across my screen each day. It can be a lot of fun. I was sent a rather entertaining thing this morning from an organisation called "Property Property Property" run by an outfit known as Juice PR.

They say they conduct a "monthly analysis of the most popular searched for borough". And in this morning's "study" they are claiming that Hackney has proven to be one of the most popular searched for boroughs among home seekers between 28 and 35 years.

We have prolonged the feel-good factor for as long as we could, and London still feels like a happy place, but in a few days the Paralympics will stage its own closing ceremony (almost certainly another gloriously bonkers display) and then it is, finally and irrevocably, curtains for London 2012. The lovely Paula Hirst, head of regeneration for Mazars, won't know where to put herself and may need intensive psychotherapy, and she is but one of a breed, of course. 

And the Olympics Park, itself arguably the greatest star of 2012 (a star in a veritable galaxy of stars), closes for the best part of a year as the focus shifts to this golden concept of "legacy".  The "Appointments" section of yesterday's Sunday Times (so slender these days, "Appointments" now seldom warrants a separate section, and was merely two pages this week) carries a (rather modest) advert for the chief executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation. An "inspirational leader" is required, at £175,000 per annum, working to Daniel Moylan. The Best of British to all concerned here: indubitably this marks the beginning of a stressful and painful process, it may take many months, and many will be watching and criticising. And when the result is announced it will be shown to be impossible to please all of the people all of the time.    
 

I was slightly diverted to read of the deal reached to "unlock the Ebbsfleet project" in the press on Wednesday morning.

Forgive the wry smile, but regular readers of this blog may recall that I was chief executive at Kent Thameside in 2004 and 2005, before I decided that I simply had to leave, frankly in a state of mental exhaustion, with a level of frustration that was seriously injurious to my health.

I must apologise for the radio silence these past few days. I haven't been on holiday or ill or anything. I am just, I guess like so many of our countrymen and women, so... well.... so very distracted by it all.
 
It isn't just the actual games (of which I have the most hazy understanding) or the spectacle of the Olympics, although these are compelling enough: the heroics of Ennis, Murray and Bolt, the surprise results, Super Saturday, the medal tables, and so forth; it is also what it has done for the national morale, the commentary on the Twitter feed (these are the first "Twitter Olympics" I guess), the display of national pride normally so alien to the British psyche; the nuances of what it says about Britain and our culture.

Well! What a weekend we have had!  In my last blog I posed three questions about the Olympics; the first was "Are we up to it?"  
 
And what a huge and blessed relief for the British public to find that early indications are that... Yes. We. Are!  Indeed we are.  And in spades.

Further to last Thursday's blog I was immensely saddened, but not surprised, to receive the following message to the UK Fashion Hub team at close of business on Friday evening:
 
"The UK Fashion Hub team is very sorry to have to tell you that today we withdrew from the bidding process. The decision was not an easy one to make, but in light of the stories in the press stating that iCity had won the bid, a week before the LLDC board was scheduled to meet to make that decision, as well as other issues over the process, we felt we were left with little choice.

A feeling of profound unease descended at this morning's reports that confidence in security firm G4S is so eroded that the government is sending 3,500 troops in to bolster operations for the Olympics.  That, together with the vicissitudes at Heathrow and the closure of the M4 (signals being that it might be for the whole summer) made for a queasy start to the day.  Londoners' anxiety levels are already quite high. You might think I'm paranoid but I tell you now: they're all out to get me.  And I can prove it.  

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I started a hare running with my (admittedly somewhat intemperate) remarks about Tower Hamlets a few days ago. I have had a huge response to this, both in public and in private - mostly in private, and mostly supportive of my spluttering sense of exasperation. I am particularly grateful to the last post on this blog from Phil, who offers the voice of reason in all of this. 

It is a febrile and fraught environment east of Bishopsgate, and no mistake.  And I cannot help but observe that the City of London has enough threats on its horizon without its immediate neighbour destabilising the fringes. So I stand by my remarks, although I do concede that I could have expressed my views more professionally.

Wednesday is Nottingham day for UKR (most weeks anyway). Gill Marshall (UKR Head of Love and Laughter) and I clambered aboard the East Midlands line as usual yesterday morning for an action-packed field trip.

It started with a cup of tea and a Twix, as usual (sold to us by Beverley) and culminated in a bottle of wine with the Sheriff of Nottingham (I kid you not. I have photographic evidence, just as soon as I work out how to retrieve same from my wretched iPhone) at the Via Fosse.

It's been a busy couple of days in UKR circles, with a lot going on. We had a great outing at the first Place East London conference on Wednesday, which showed the immense opportunity that still exists in the patch, and set out some key challenges for the East London regeneration community (several hundred of the blighters) who had assembled for the event and marauding on to the wine reception after.