London to host Olympics in 2012

London has won the contest to host the 2012 Olympics, which is great news for all of us who live in East London and have been waiting for some infrastructure investment to give the area a lift for years.

Victory is particularly good given that it was the French that lost, of course, given Chirac’s recent behaviour over food and EU subsidies. This BBC article particularly rubs it in.

Some of my favourite quotes from news articles include:

But raindrops began falling on disapointed Parisians outside the Hotel de Ville in the French capital shortly after the result.

Chirac spoke passionately to the IOC, saying, “The heart of Paris and the heart of France are beating in unison in the hope of becoming Olympic host in 2012,” The Associated Press reported. “You can put your trust and faith in France, you can trust the French, you can trust us.”

To those who see the French president as out of step with the pace of modern Europe, Jacques Chirac’s jibe about British food is perhaps a case in point.

They’ve got a slick rail network, a home-grown car industry and magnificent stretches of Napoleonic architecture that escaped the German Luftwaffe’s mighty payloads.

We, on the other-hand, have half their unemployment, a global language and, for the next six months at least, the EU presidency. Oh, and the 2012 Olympics.

Appropriately, the celebration party is being held in Trafalgar Square, a week after celebrations marking Nelson’s famous victory over the joint French / Spanish fleet 200 years ago.

This decision will exacerbate that general sense of malaise, especially as the winner is Paris’ greatest rival, London. President Jacques Chirac had wanted to arrive for the G8 summit a winner. Instead he comes as a three-time loser whose nation was pipped at the post by a victorious Britain.

My heart bleeds.

The Olympic bid voting results

London beats Paris to 2012 Games

More disappointed French comments