Downing Street Says » Olympic Singapore

The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said a few words about the UK bid for the 2012 Olympics. He said that we had to recognise that this had been a highly competitive bid. On the other hand it had been a great honour to compete and Seb Coe had led a very very good bid. That had been recognised by the evaluation report on the 6 June. We still believed there was all to play for, we were going flat out at Singapore for the final pitch at putting our case and that was what we would do. In Singapore there were two different elements. There was what you could set up in advance and what you could do, to use a technical term, on the hoof. In terms of what we had set up in advance the Prime Minister would, over the course of Monday and Tuesday be meeting between 20 and 30 IOC members for one-to-one meetings. He would also, as would Mrs. Blair, be meeting as many others as possible, at various receptions and so on. In terms of the case we would be putting, we would obviously be pointing to the very strong technical nature of our bid, the legacy that it would leave to sport here, stressing the multi-cultural nature of London and the welcome that athletes would receive in London, but also that this bid was not just restricted to London. Finally we would point to the fact that there was real strong substantial support, as Tessa Jowell said at Cabinet yesterday, for the bid. 80% of people in London and 75% in the UK as a whole, 2.5 million people had gone to the bother of registering their support at the 2012 website and text message service. We were going flat out and by the end of the week we might well be flat out, with exhaustion, but we were going for it.

Asked about the role Mrs. Blair would play in the bid, the PMOS said that Mrs. Blair had been doing events for 2012 this year, doing a serious of meetings and other events. She would continue that role in Singapore. She would be meeting as may people as she could individually, but also at receptions and so on. Asked if she would be meeting people on her own or with the Prime Minister, the PMOS said she would meet some people on her own but whatever 2012 advised would be the most effective way to use her time and the Prime Minister’s time he would do. We would be working hand in glove with 2012 throughout this. Obviously Tessa Jowell would be playing a very important role as well. Asked what sort of people Mrs. Blair would be meeting, the PMOS said that the key constituency was the 100 or so IOC members. The key goal was working toward 12.46 next Wednesday. That was the constituency that we had to do everything we could to try and persuade of the value of London as a venue.

Asked if, looking at what the Government was saying, it was fair to say that we saw our bid as slightly behind that of Paris, the PMOS said no. We were saying it was competitive because that was a statement of fact and the Olympic people themselves would say that this has been probably the most competitive bid ever, with very strong contenders. We were saying it was an honour because it was an honour, but equally everybody recognised that London had put together a very competitive bid. We were not in this to do anything other than to go flat out to try and get it. The question was legitimate but no one should read anything into his words other than that we believed we had a very competitive bid and we were going flat out to win. Asked if we recognised that Paris was the favourite, the PMOS said that anybody that thought that they knew what the result would be on Wednesday did not recognise the complexity of the way in which the vote would take place. Like any sporting event you did not focus your attention on your competitor. You might be aware of their strengths and weaknesses but you focused on your own bid and that’s what we would do.

Asked if there were any events where the Prime Minister and President Chirac might be together, the PMOS said it was an idea, but unlikely to be born out in reality. He was not aware of any events of that nature. Photographers everywhere could relax. We would be concentrating on making our case. Asked if Mrs. Chirac might be there the PMOS said that he was not a spokesman for the French government.

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» Friday, July 1, 2005

Olympic Singapore

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