Monday 8 August 2011

The ugly side

It’s bad news about the Tottenham riots this morning – particularly as there’s only one year to go until the Olympics. Will this put people off visiting our great city? Well, every city has its seedy side, and times are tough. What concerns me more is whether the government will be able to stop the costly impact of illegal immigration that comes with staging an Olympics.

In Sydney 2000 and again after the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne 2006, several athletes went missing after the games, and chose not to go back to their countries; some Tunisians went missing simply because they liked Australia so much. I know the feeling. And one Ugandan swimmer was actually charged with raping a teenage girl just over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

So there’s always an ugly side to everything, but today I just pray London 2012 will come out looking more radiant than the ugly ducking who turned into a beautiful swan.

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