On 17th July, we had the great privilege of seeing the Olympic Torch pass through Crawley. It was a wonderful and unifying experience with many people turning out to witness the occasion. With Britain having last hosted the Olympic Games 64 years ago, it was a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience.
It is particularly pleasing that we have K2 Crawley chosen as an Olympic Training Camp and it was great to welcome the High Commissioners from most of the countries making use of the facility.
Regarding the Olympic and Paralympic Games themselves, we have a fine British tradition of rightly believing that taking part is more important than winning, although we went a little over-the-top at the 1908 Games, also held in London. At that event, we won 56 Gold, 51 Silver and 39 Bronze medals to finish with more than three times the number of medals of the second-placed United States. That was a rather decisive result but I am confident that our forebears would not have fallen into the trap of appearing as “bad winners”.
We have heard about the risks to the Olympic Games. Security seems to top the list but many of us will see other traditional British risks such as the weather, transport delays and queuing. All of these points are surely outweighed by the opportunity to see the world’s greatest sporting spectacle on home ground, with many fine British athletes giving their all in pursuit of medal success.
It is sad that a fifth risk, that of strike action, seems to have become an issue. One national newspaper carried a cartoon with the headline, “Synchronised Striking”, and how true that appears to be. PCS (Public and Commercial Services) union members plan to strike for 24 hours on Thursday when many thousands of visitors are due to arrive in the country. This action is based on a 20 per cent turnout in the vote.
So visitors to Britain could be welcomed with a very different kind of spectacle to the one that they had expected. While the right to strike is fundamental, it is incredibly damaging and irresponsible to do so at this time. Whatever happened to the greater good that surely forms part of the ethos of our trade union movement?
We have to hope that other trade union leaderships will resist any temptation to use the Olympic Games as leverage for their own ends. The Games are a unique event for everyone to cherish and enjoy. It is reasonable to hope that the vast majority of trade union members will take this view and not that of their leaders.