— sprks

A bit of grin and bear it, A bit of come and share it, You’re wel­come, we can spare it…

Business as usual or chaos? Nobody seems to have men­tioned that ‘busi­ness as usual’ in London is pre­dic­ated on chaos. A finely tuned state of per­petual dis­aster to be averted at the last moment. It has been this way forever and the 2012 Olympics will be the latest bene­fi­ciary of London’s great talent for bodging, impro­visa­tion and unex­pected moments of tran­scend­ence. I expect Londoners to spend the next six months com­plaining about col­lapsing trans­port infra­struc­ture, high-handed IOC offi­cialdom, a down­turn in trade for much of the cap­ital, and the fact that none of us got tickets.

Reasons to be Cheerful: Afterwards, they will remember the buzz, the amazing events that popped up all over the city during 2012, and the Dunkirk Spirit that accom­panied each suc­cessive cock-up. I also pre­dict a shortage of bar­becue char­coal as City traders working from home finally dis­cover that men are able to mul­ti­task, espe­cially with a nice cold Chablis.