I can’t let an occasion like the 30th Olympiad pass without some comment and the one that most compels me to write, but doesn’t surprise me, is that the Director General of the BBC has reportedly issued a memo ordering staff covering the Olympics to tone down their ‘patriotic reporting’ and instead focus more on other country’s achievements, (just like the French, Australians and Americans do for us – I don’t think).
Needless to say, once the memo became public the BBC claimed the Director General’s directive had been ‘misinterpreted’, well they would wouldn’t they?
This attitude does no more than reinforce the view of many that the BBC is ashamed of Britain and all things British, epitomised by David Bland talking over the National Anthem during the Olympics.
I’m proud to be British and consider that I have indeed ‘won first prize in the lottery of life’, to miss-quote Cecil Rhodes, and I’m proud of all that our English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish athletes have achieved, in whatever discipline, and of the planners, Architects, designers and builders who have translated Lord (Seb) Coe’s vision into reality.
When it was first announced that London had been selected to host the 2012 Games there was an avalanche of nay-sayers, mostly in the media, the BBC included, who were only too ready to do Britain down and forecast a disaster in the making: that it wouldn’t be ready in time, that the organisation would be chronic, that London would be grid-locked and that we wouldn’t win a thing – and they’ve been wrong on every point.
The Games have been an outstanding success from every viewpoint, even the Olympic chiefs proclaiming it ‘the best Games ever’ and the 2016 hosts, Rio, asking London for advice - and that’s without a record toll of medals for Team GB!
How it must eat out the hearts of those doom-mongers at the BBC and elsewhere.
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