London 2012: David Cameron says UK is ready for 'greatest show on Earth' - The Guardian
David Cameron has said Britain is ready for the "greatest show on Earth" as the final countdown to the start of the 2012 Olympics began.
The prime minister said the country must show the world "the best of Britain" over the next two weeks after describing previews of Friday night's £27m opening ceremony as "spine-tingling".
Boris Johnson, the London mayor, said the Olympic excitement was spreading around Britain "like a benign sort of virus passing from individual to individual".
US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who was chief executive of the Salt Lake City winter Olympics in 2002, found few allies following his comments made on Thursday when he cast doubt upon London's readiness for the Games. As the starting gun on the third Olympic Games to be staged in London loomed near, politicians lined up to rally the public mood and dismiss the doubts.
On a morning in which Big Ben, joined by hundreds of churches across the nation, chimed non-stop for three minutes to ring in the Games, the prime minister said the London 2012 event would prove an "incredible few weeks for our country".
"It's very exciting," he told BBC News. "I think there is a huge sense of excitement and anticipation, because Britain is ready to welcome the greatest show on Earth. It's going to be an incredible few weeks for our country. I think it's a great opportunity to show the world the best of Britain, a country that's got an incredibly rich past, but actually a very exciting and vibrant future.
"Someone asked me yesterday what face of Britain do you want to put forward? Is it Blur or the Beefeaters? Frankly, it's both. We've got a great past, a very exciting future and this is a great moment for our country, so we will seize it."
Cameron's comments were backed up by the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, who insisted preparations were going "very smoothly", though he admitted there may be a few "teething problems" or "glitches" along the way. Too true.
Within seconds, he was left red-faced when he later tried to ring a handbell which flew out of his hand, narrowly missing a woman standing behind him. Hunt apologised to the woman, and joked, somewhat nervously: "Disaster averted."
Hunt played down recent concerns over security after G4S revealed earlier this month they could not deliver the full complement of staff for the Games.
He said: "The security and safety of the Games was never at risk because we always had a fantastic back-up plan with the armed forces and the police, who stepped into the breach absolutely magnificently."
As the count down continued, the Olympic flame completed its journey on the Gloriana on the final leg of its 70-day, 8,000-mile journey around the United Kingdom ahead of the opening ceremony on Friday night. David Beckham made a surprise appearance at City Hall, arriving with the London mayor, Lord Coe and the final torchbearer, Amber Charles, from Newham, east London. The flame will remain out of public view until the opening ceremony begins.
Downing Street released a list of names in receipt of tickets handed out by David Cameron for the opening ceremony. The prime minister David Cameron chose 17 people who made a contribution to their communities and have helped to build the "Big Society" that he has so long lobbied for, including six graduates of the government's "National Citizen Service" scheme for 16- and 17-year-olds.
Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, gave tickets to 14 people he had met over the past year and who have contributed to their communities and the country, including four military personnel he met on their return from service in Libya last year,
Meanwhile, four senior Labour figures offered their own tickets to the opening ceremony to be re-allocated to members of the armed forces who found themselves working during the Olympics due to the shortfall in security provision by GS4.
A Labour spokesman said: "Ed Miliband and Tessa Jowell will be formally representing the Opposition at tonight's opening ceremony. In addition, in the last few weeks, Harriet Harman, Ed Balls, Douglas Alexander and Yvette Cooper were also invited to attend tonight, to recognise the contribution the last Labour government made in securing the Games and the cross-party support for London 2012.
"While they are honoured to have been invited, the four of them have asked for their tickets to be reallocated to some of the thousands of members of the armed forces who will be helping to keep the Games safe and secure. "They are looking forward to watching the opening ceremony from home instead."
London opens with pageant for next generation - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - The Queen declared the London Olympics open after playing a cameo role in a dizzying ceremony designed to highlight the grandeur and eccentricities of the nation that invented modern sport.
Children's voices intertwining from the four corners of her United Kingdom ushered in an exuberant historical pageant of meadows, smokestacks and digital wizardry before an audience of 60,000 in the Olympic Stadium and a probable billion television viewers around the globe.
Many of them gasped at the sight of the 86-year-old queen, marking her Diamond Jubilee this year, putting aside royal reserve in a video where she stepped onto a helicopter with James Bond actor Daniel Craig to be carried aloft from Buckingham Palace.
A film clip showed doubles of her and Bond skydiving towards the stadium and, moments later, she made her entrance in person.
"In a sense, the Olympic Games are coming home tonight," IOC President Jacques Rogge told the crowd.
"This great, sports-loving country is widely recognised as the birthplace of modern sport."
To underline the point, Bradley Wiggins, crowned five days earlier as Britain's first winner of the Tour de France and hoping to add more road cycling gold in London, tolled the world's largest tuned bell to begin the ceremony.
In one moment of simple drama, the stadium fell silent as five giant, incandescent Olympic rings, symbolically forged from British steel mills, were lifted serenely out of the stadium by weather balloons, destined for the stratosphere.
And at the climax of an evening that had children centre-stage, seven teenage athletes were given the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron that will burn for the duration of the Games, in keeping with the theme of "Inspire a Generation".
ARAB SPRING
More than 10,000 athletes from 204 countries will compete in 26 sports over 17 days of competition in the only city to have staged the modern Games three times.
Most of them were there for the traditional alphabetical parade of the national teams, not least the athletes from Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen competing in their first Olympics since their peoples overthrew autocrats in Arab Spring revolutions.
Brunei and Qatar were led in by their countries' first ever female Olympians and so, along with Saudi Arabia, ended their status as the only countries to exclude women from their teams.
At a reception, the queen spelled out the role played by her family after the Olympics were revived in Athens in 1896.
"This will be the third London Olympiad. My great grandfather opened the 1908 Games at White City. My father opened the 1948 Games at Wembley Stadium. And, later this evening, I will take pleasure in declaring open the 2012 London Olympic Games at Stratford in the east of London," she said.
"Over recent months, many in these islands have watched with growing excitement the journey of the Olympic torch around the United Kingdom. As the torch has passed through villages and towns, it has drawn people together as families and communities.
"To me, this spirit of togetherness is a most important part of the Olympic ideal. And the British people can be proud of the part they have played in keeping the spirit alive."
The opening show, costing an estimated 27 million pounds ($42 million), was inspired by William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest", his late-life meditation on age and mortality.
But it was children who set the tone, starting from the moment when live pictures of junior choirs singing in the landscapes of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were beamed into the stadium's giant screens, four traditional songs woven together into a musical tapestry of Britain.
Oscar-winning film director Danny Boyle began his sweep through British history by grassing over the arena in a depiction of the pastoral idyll mythologized by the romantic poet William Blake as "England's green and pleasant land".
Idyll turned swiftly to inferno as the Industrial Revolution's "dark Satanic mills" burst from the ground, before those same mills forged the last of five giant Olympic rings that rose into the sky.
At the end of a three-hour extravaganza, David Beckham, the English football icon who had helped convince the IOC to grant London the Games, stepped off a speedboat carrying the Olympic flame at the end of a torch relay that inspired many ordinary people around Britain.
Past Olympic heroes including Muhammad Ali, who lit the cauldron at the 1996 Atlanta Games, and British rower Steve Redgrave, the only person to win gold at five successive games, welcomed the flame into the stadium.
Yet it was not a celebrity but seven teenage athletes who lit a spectacular arrangement of over 200 copper 'petals' representing the participating countries, which rose up in the centre of the stadium to converge into a single cauldron.
Moments later, a balloon-borne camera relayed live pictures of the earlier-released interlocked rings gliding through the stratosphere against the curved horizon of the planet below.
VAST VIDEO SCREEN
The performance included surreal and often witty references to British achievements, especially in social reform and the arts, and ended with former Beatle Paul McCartney singing "Hey Jude".
Many sequences turned the entire stadium into a vast video screen made up of tens of thousands of "pixels" attached to the seats. One giant message, unveiled by Tim Berners-Lee, British inventor of the world wide web, read "This is for Everyone".
Until the last few days, media coverage had been dominated by the security firm G4S's admission that it could not provide enough guards for Olympic venues. Thousands of extra soldiers had to be deployed at the last minute, despite the company's multi-million-dollar contract from the government.
Suicide attacks that killed 52 people in London in July 2005, the day after it was awarded the Games, ensured that security would remain a worry. And this year the Games mark the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Munich massacre, when 11 Israeli Olympic team members were killed by Palestinian militants.
Although no medals will be awarded until Saturday, the women's football tournament started on Wednesday, and on Friday South Korean archers set the first world records of the Games.
Im Dong-hyun, who suffers from severe myopia and just aims at "a blob of yellow colour", broke his own 72-arrow world record with a score of 699 out of a possible 720, leading his two colleagues to a record combined score as well.
The Games' first medals will be decided in the women's 10 metres air rifle final on Saturday, with the big action coming in the men's cycling road race, where world champion Mark Cavendish is favourite to become Britain's first gold medallist.
In the evening, Americans Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte are scheduled to line up for a classic confrontation in the men's 400 metres individual medley final.
Phelps, competing in seven events after winning a record eight gold medals four years ago in Beijing, is bidding to become the first swimmer to win gold in the same discipline three times in a row.
"This is going to be a special race," said Gregg Troy, head coach of the American men's team. "I can't imagine a better way to promote our sport than a race like this on the first day."
(Additional reporting by Stephen Addison, Gene Cherry, Guy Faulconbridge, Vincent Fribault, Peter Griffiths, Sara Ledworth, Mike Collett-White; writing by Kevin Liffey; editing by Ossian Shine)
London gears up for Olympics opening ceremony but first 'Javelin' train leaves late - Daily Mail
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As London prepares for tonight's Olympics opening ceremony, the streets of the capital have been swelling with millions of visitors soaking up the atmosphere.
And the capital's transport system is also bracing itself for the increase in users.
The high-speed 'Javelin' train service operating to and from the Olympic Park got off to something of an inauspicious start when the first official train departed five minutes late.
Late: Passengers wait to board the high-speed Javelin train serving the Olympic Park in Stratford
The Southeastern train company had designated the 7.04am from St Pancras station in London to the Park in Stratford as the beginning of the service. But the 140mph Japanese-built train did not leave until 7.09am.
Once under way, the train raced to Stratford International Station in east London in under seven minutes.
Eight Javelin trains an hour will run between St Pancras and Stratford and Ebbsfleet International station in North Kent during the Olympics.
Security: Police officers board the Javelin train - Southeastern expects to transport 25,000 people an hour to and from Stratford
Between 11pm and 1.59am there will be 12 trains an hour, with a half-hourly shuttle between Stratford and St Pancras between 2am and 5am.
The service will run until Sunday August 12 and will operate for the Paralympics from Wednesday August 29 to Sunday September 9.
Southeastern expects to transport 25,000 people an hour to and from the Olympic Park. Those with Games' travelcards can use them on the service.
On the roads, more work was to be carried out overnight on the M4, a key route carrying people to the Olympics.
Procession: The Olympic Flame burns in the cauldron on the royal barge Gloriana as it makes it way down the River Thames towards Richmond Bridge
The Highways Agency said that both the M4 link roads to the anti-clockwise M25 were to be closed overnight between midnight and 5am, while only one lane would be open on the anti-clockwise M25 at junction 15.
The work was set to involve replacing three faulty signals, and other routine maintenance was also to be carried out. A spokesman last night advised all road users to allow plenty of time for their journeys.
He said: 'This work is not connected to the recent repair work on the Boston Manor Viaduct which is near junction two and is also not connected to the operation of the M4 Games Lane which operates for 3.5 miles eastbound between junctions three and two.'
He added that visitors arriving at Heathrow, travelling from the airport to London, would not be affected.
Work on the viaduct recently involved closure of a stretch of the M4 for a week after cracks were found.
The latest disruption was not the only problem on the roads.
It was revealed earlier this week that the first day of Olympics-only traffic Games Lanes caused congestion for rush-hour drivers.
There were jams on a number of roads as a total of 30 miles of Games Lanes were introduced as part of the 109-mile Olympic Route Network (ORN) around London.
The lanes, in operation from 6am to midnight throughout the Olympics, run alongside existing lanes and are clearly marked.
Officials said that London's roads would be at capacity or close to it throughout the days of the Games.
In preparation for tonight's event, Westfield Stratford City will be closed to the public from 3pm and shoppers were warned not to visit the area unless they had a ticket to the ceremony.
Meanwhile, excitement about the event was palpable in the capital as bells rang out across the country as the final countdown began.
At 8:12am, Big Ben was joined by hundreds of churches across the nation as it chimed non-stop for three minutes to ring in the Games.
Prime Minister David Cameron said the country must show the world 'the best of Britain' over the next two weeks after describing previews of tonight's 27 million opening ceremony as 'spine-tingling'.
Lighting up: Olympic gold medallist rower Matthew Pinsent lights the cauldron on the Royal row barge
Mr Cameron pledged Britain was ready to welcome the 'greatest show on earth' after U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney cast doubt upon the country's readiness yesterday.
'It's very exciting, I think there is a huge sense of excitement and anticipation because Britain is ready to welcome the greatest show on earth,' Mr Cameron said. 'It's going to be an incredible few weeks for our country.'
The Olympic torch made its way down the Thames today in a procession that echoed the pomp and pageantry of the Diamond Jubilee River Pageant.
Oar-some: 16 rowers on the Gloriana took turns to power the vessel including two men who took part in the 1948 Games
The million-pound Gloriana - the boat that carried the Queen on her procession down the capital's mighty waterway - led a scaled-down flotilla of more than 50 boats.
The vessel was powered by 16 oarsmen ranging from members of London Youth Rowing to two men in their 90s who took part in the 1948 Games.
Many gold medal-winning rowers from past Games were set to take part in the procession, including James Cracknell, Jonny Searle and Martin Cross.
The torch is on the final leg of its 70-day, 8,000-mile journey around the United Kingdom ahead of tonight's ceremony, when it will be carried into the Olympic Stadium and the flame lit by a mystery VIP.
The last land-based torch bearer was four-time Olympic gold medalist Matthew Pinsent, who carried it from Hampton Court Palace to the royal barge. Pinsent held the flame aloft before lighting a ceremonial cauldron on board.
The last torchbearer of the day will be Amber Charles, 22, from Newham, east London, who delivered London's Olympic bid to members of the International Olympic Committee in 2004.
She will carry the flame to Tower Bridge, arriving at 12.45pm, before it is taken to City Hall, where it will remain out of public view until the opening ceremony begins.
LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS KICKS OFF IN STYLE - Daily Star
THE London 2012 Olympics kicked off yesterday in spectacular style with a magical opening ceremony at the showpiece stadium in Stratford.
Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins kicked off the celebrations by ringing a 23 tonnes bell to signal the start of Danny Boyle's 27million extravaganza.
Watched by around a billion people worldwide, the ceremony used dance, music and film to portray the great revolutions of British society.
The first part of the three-hour ceremony, called Pandemonium, charted Britain's movement from a green, rural land through to the the industrial revolution.
The striking performance was set to a soundtrack of 1,000 drummers performing live and William Blake's Jerusaelm.
The action then moved to Buckingham Palace in a pre-recored film where James Bond star Daniel Craig arrived at by helicopter to meet the Queen.
1,000 drummers performed during the opening of the London 2012 opening ceremony
"Good evening Mr Bond," says the Queen, before they leave together, apparently heading towards the Olympic Stadium in a helicopter.
Back in real time, to peels of laughter and delight from the crowd, "the Queen" followed by "Bond", parachuted from a helicopter towards the stadium.
Actors portraying the Queen and James Bond arrive via parachute at the London 2012 opening ceremony
Seconds later the real Queen and Prince Philip received a standing ovation as they entered the arena.
In another surprise Rowan Atkinson in his Mr Bean character created comic havoc as Sir Simon Rattle conducted the theme from Chariots of Fire.
The comedy actor fiddled with his phone while he was meant to be accompanying the London Symphony Orchestra on keyboard.
Mr Bean star Rowan Atkinson looks at his phone while performing at the London 2012 opening ceremony
The Royal Navy, Army and Air Force raised the Union Flag, as the National Anthem rang out from Kaos, a singing choir for deaf and hard of hearing children.
A vigorously upbeat tone greeted hundreds of dancing nurses and their young patients on 320 luminous hospital beds in a celebration of the National Health Service.
Staff and patients from the world-famous Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh) were given a special cheer as the hospital's name was spelt out by the beds.
Performers bring the NHS to life in a sketch during the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony
Musician Mike Oldfield played Tubular Bells as one young girl read beneath the bedsheets in a tribute to the world of children's literature.
In a rare public appearance, Harry Potter author JK Rowling started the tale of JM Barrie's Peter Pan as Boyle's "Second to the right, and straight on 'til morning" segment got under way.
Baddies from Britain's best-loved children's books, including Captain Hook, Cruella de Vil and Lord Voldemort, threatened the stage but were quickly banished by a troupe of Mary Poppins-type characters who descended from the skies.
The giant wizard deflated and the nightmare was over as a lullaby swept over the scene.
Then a giant baby, nestling safely under cover, fell asleep.
A two-up two-down house was the start of the ceremony's love story featuring Frankie and June, a teenage girl getting ready for a Saturday night out.
A lost phone led to their budding romance, which was pursued through nightclubs playing music from the 1960s to today.
Some of Britain's best-loved songs, from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody to Underworld's Born Slippy and Tinie Tempah's Pass Out, encapsulate each era.
All partygoers were invited back to the house where Tim Berners-Lee, the Briton who invented the World Wide Web, was at his keyboard.
The sentiment behind the opening ceremony appeared in giant black and white letters across the stadium audience: "This is for everyone."
A memorial wall on the stadium screens was one of the touching moments of the ceremony, showing images of spectators' loved ones who have passed away, including the late fathers of Boyle and Olympics supremo Lord Coe.
Dancers dressed in red, representing the struggle between life and death, were picked out by a spotlight in the darkness of the stadium as the clear powerful vocals of Emeli Sande pierced the air with Abide With Me.
After the spellbinding opening ceremony, which was watched by 70,000 people in the stadium, 204 nations teams entered the arena for the athletes parades.
Sir Chris Hoy holds the Union Jack as he lead the GB team into the Stadium for the London Olympic Games 2012 Opening Ceremony
Host nation Great Britain was the last to emerge to rapturous applause from the crowds.
Three-time Beijing gold medalist Sir Chris Hoy was the proud flag bearer who led the 541-strong team to the soundtrack of David Bowie's inspiring tune Heroes.
After short speeches from Lord Coe and Jacques Rogge, President of the IOC, the 30th Olympics was declared open by the Queen.
After a journey of 12,800 miles, the Olympic torch was carried into the stadium by five-time Olympic gold medalist Sir Steve Redgrave.
Five-time Olympic gold medalist Sir Steve Redgrave during the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony
The ceremony was topped off with a performance of Hey Jude by Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney and a stunning fireworks display.
A spectacular fireworks display capped off a magical evening at the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony
London 2012 Olympics: Who will light the torch at the Opening Ceremony? - Daily Telegraph
So in the interests of nothing more than provoking a debate, here Telegraph Sport takes a look at five possible people to light the Olympic flame:
An Olympic great
For weeks the identity of the cauldron lighter seems to have been a clear case of Sir Steve Redgrave v Daley Thompson. Two of Britain's greatest Olympians, the pair have been somewhat provoked into having a slanging match of sorts over who is the more worthy candidate to fulfil the role. However, recent days have seen a new candidate emerge and soar to the head of the betting – Sir Roger Bannister. The first man to run a sub-four minute mile, Bannister never actually won an Olympic medal but such is the swell of support for the 83-year-old that some bookmakers have stopped taking bets on him being given the honour.
A royal
The Queen, Prince Charles, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge ... Pippa Middleton. Britain's most popular exports are its royals and what better than to give Queen Elizabeth II the honour of lighting the Olympic flame in her Diamond Jubilee year? Well, according to a poll conducted by Riviera Radio – an English radio station in France and Monaco – Pippa Middleton would be far better. The Duchess of Cambridge's sister, who is best known for her posterior which first came to the public's attention when she wore 'that dress', came top with 39 per cent of the vote ahead of Redgrave and David Beckham. However, one suspects the result may say more about the sanity of Britain's expats than anything else.
A global icon
Why choose between incomparable Olympic greats when you can bring them all together in the same stadium? Rather than having just one person to light the flame, there have been murmurs that five athletes might be involved to symbolise the five rings of the Olympic movement. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali is in London and is expected to play a role during the ceremony while Beckham, whose Team GB football snub prompted an outcry of national disbelief, has confirmed he will take part at some point in the show. Away from the world of sport, one of the global figures mentioned as a possible person to play a role in the lighting is Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
A local youngster
When London first announced its bid to stage the Olympics back in 2004, the 600-page proposal was delivered to members of the International Olympic Committee at Lausanne by 14-year-old East Londoner Amber Charles. The message was clear – a London Olympics would ensure a lasting legacy for young people. Thousands of free tickets to Olympic events have been given to schoolchildren (which has nothing to do with poor football ticket sales in Wales and Scotland) and many local schools will be taking part in the Opening Ceremony itself. Do not be surprised if the cauldron lighting role is handed to a 3ft-tall child from Stratford who was born on the day that London won the Games.
A big surprise
When asked last week whether he thought Redgrave or Thompson should light the Olympic flame, Sir Matthew Pinsent said he expected neither to perform the role and for the emphasis to be placed on spectacle rather than personality. A bow and arrow soared high into the sky at Barcelona 1992 and a former gymnast ran horizontally along the top of the stadium at Beijing 2008. Olympic torch lightings are usually remembered for the spectacle of the event rather than the person involved. So will we see the flame lit by a giant robotic Routemaster bus? Will Keith Chegwin run up a mountain of black London taxis? Or will Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po reform the Teletubbies to perform the honour?
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