Twenty-Twelve

The early edition of London’s Evening Standard newspaper led with a 2012 article. At first I thought it was the latest number of complaints to Ofcom about Channel 4 now that they’ve added to their woe with another reality show, Shipwrecked. Never heard of it until today, but apparently one of the desert island contestants called for the return of slavery and declared that “black people” should not be brought into Britain. I mean, what the fuck?

Amazingly after all this Channel 4 chairman Luke Johnson still has his job. If I was on the board I’d have him striped naked, slathered in A1 barbecue sauce, made to wear a pair of stilettos and then given a five-minute head start before the dogs were set loose. Actually, if they filmed that I’d tune in and watch.

2012 is news because there are now only 2012 days left before the start of the Olympics in... 2012. See what they did there? Clever, eh?! (shakes head, sighs deeply) Which means the country has that long to pull its finger out and get the stadium and everything else relating to the games sorted out and built so the bloke with the torch came come trotting in. Like that’s going to happen.

With all the MPs involved being criticized by a cross-party committee for the spiraling costs of the project – already up £900 million to £3.3 billion (and expected to finally reach £6 billion) – and the Treasury and the Culture Department at each other’s throats over the spending, 2012 quid is probably what every resident in the UK will end up having to fork out for these silly games.