Olympics

Failure | Success

Success

Munira Mirza, director of arts, culture and the creative industries policy for the Mayor
‘My first Olympics memory is of drawing pictures of Linford Christie, Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis in class after their 100-metres race in Seoul, 1988. We were giddy with excitement: I hope 2012 gives schoolkids that feeling. It’s a chance to celebrate sports competition and inspire young people to take up sport.’

Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London
‘Every Olympics goes well, despite what the media write. There’s always good publicity when you win the bid and during the Games, but the rest of the coverage is crap. London will be a success: we’ve been the first to have sponsors signed up, the site has been started early. It won’t go over budget. The Beijing venues are fantastic because China is the world’s second largest economy. We can’t afford that, but an event of this kind has to showcase breathtaking design and Zaha Hadid’s Aquatic Centre will look amazing.’

Tony Benn, former Labour MP and left-wing activist
‘I’d rather money was spent on the Olympics than the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, on buying a new generation of Trident missiles (as the Government has just done), or on ID cards.’

Stanley Mathews, author of ‘From Agit Prop to Free Space: The Architecture of Cedric Price’
‘In 1962, Cedric Price and Joan Littlewood proposed building a Fun Palace on what is now the Olympic site, with facilities for dancing, music, drama and fireworks in a flexible building designed to be assembled by the citizens who would use it. That never happened but the Olympics is an opportunity for massive infrastructural improvement; the real measure of success will be how those improvements benefit the people of the East End afterwards. To me, success would serve as a small vindication of Price and Littlewood’s visionary plans.’

Cllr Lutfur Rahman, Leader of the Labour Group on Tower Hamlets Council
‘We’ll do everything we can to ensure it goes well, including giving local people the skills to take up job opportunities. Afterwards, we must continue the economic and social regeneration of the park.’
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Sir Robin Wales, Mayor of Newham
‘Put us and Hackney together, and you have one of the biggest areas of non-employment in Europe. So it’s vital to spend what’s necessary to remedy the deprivation, because that will save money in the long run. There’s a tension between “elite” venues, which the country needs, and community facilities serving Newham’s population. But look at what the Dome’s been transformed into; we want to do the same. Look at Tate Modern: crap art, but a fantastic building – why can’t we have one of those out east?’

Paul Goodwin, general manager, British Handball Association
‘Simply winning the bid has enabled us to work with the best people in British sport and provided funding to develop people, systems and structures. It’s also created interest: thousands of schoolchildren who had never even heard of handball before are now playing.’

Simon Inglis, author of ‘Sightlines: A Stadium Odyssey’
‘Without wishing to be corny, the Olympics is about bringing the world together. In 1948, athletes stayed in people’s houses; that, to me, is the essence of the Games, although I know it will never happen again. But I’d love it if London tried to capture that spirit by not being too corporate.’

Elliott Frisby, Visit Britain
‘It’s an opportunity to gain a potential £2 billion windfall for the visitor economy, draw global attention to our attractions and win new cultural, sporting and business events.’

Cassie Smith, Women’s Sport & Fitness Foundation
‘We want the same number of medals for women as men (in Beijing there are 165 gold medals for men compared to 127 for women), all sports contested by both sexes and a dramatic increase in the number of female coaches. The halo effect of a successful Games will doubtless cause an immediate increase in female participation. However, we must learn from past experience: many parts of Sydney’s and Athens’s Olympic parks are underused, and there is little evidence of sustained increased participation in those countries.’

Siôn Whellens, Calverts design and printing co-operative
‘Some of the huge tracts of improved ground should be transferred into a Community Land Trust in 2012, to create space for sustainable housing, high-quality sports facilities and a green amenity. It should include a scheme for a mix of co-operatives and other social enterprises and light industry. The Olympics will have worked well if the legacy is a shift in the balance of health, wealth and power towards the working class in east London.’

Russell Jervis, managing director, Haart estate agency
‘Thanks to Olympic investment, we are seeing a new east London emerging, which will have advantages for the entire capital. Stratford’s international rail terminal, due for completion next year, the Stratford City development of 5,000 new homes and, of course, the fact that the Olympic Village will be turned into affordable housing after the Games, will particularly benefit first-time buyers.’

Max Clifford, publicist
‘The Olympics is an opportunity to win something ourselves – something we seem to do less and less. And London becoming the centre of the world for a time gives you the opportunity to promote whatever it is you want to promote, because the whole world’s media will be here, all looking for something to write about. There will be loads of opportunities for my clients: maybe Simon Cowell’s going to come up with “Olympics Factor” where the winner gets to take part in the actual Olympics. I’m joking, but you see my point! Or maybe Kerry Katona will be asked to sing the Olympic anthem. Hardly likely but you never know.’

Sir John Tusa, former MD of Barbican Arts Centre
‘We can’t put on a crummy Games. One of the criteria on which it will be judged is the arts and cultural programme. That means to make it a success we must stop raiding the arts budget every time the Olympics budget goes into deficit. The arts have been raided enough.’

How do you think the 2012 Olympics will affect life in the capital? Tell us

Failure | Success