Olympic handover ceremony

[GTI]

Oh my great God, what a fcuking joke that was. People in wheel chairs with mohawks, brolleys, shit contempory dance and an over-exaggeration of British diversity.

If you ask me we should have gone old skool. The Olympic flag carried in by a troop of the Household cavalry, followed by an aerial acrobatic performance by Harry potter and the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Our Finale wil be the flag exiting the stadium to a 21-gun salute by the King's Troop of the Royal Artillery.

Oh well, at least we've set expectations nice and low.

[Thrush]

Hater.

[flumperino]

I liked what they did with the transforming bus...but the dancers did seem like an unco-ordinated rabble....

[russbeer]

what was the joey barton joke??

[GTI]

Furious row over Hindley portrait shown in London 2012 video

• Staff and agencies
• guardian.co.uk,
• Sunday August 24 2008 21:15 BST
• Article history

The painting of murderer Myra Hindley, which was shown on a promotional video being screened in Beijing.
The inclusion of a portrait of the murderer Myra Hindley in a promotional video shown in Beijing to promote the London 2012 Olympic Games has attracted furious criticism from senior politicians.
A spokesman for the mayor of London said Boris Johnson has described the inclusion of the painting in the video as "deeply disturbing".
The picture was shown in a film intended to highlight the Capital's rich cultural heritage ahead of the 2012 games.
A senior government source told Sky News: "It is a total disgrace. This proud night for Britain has been sullied by this grotesque representation of London.
"Clearly whoever was responsible must be found and fired immediately."
A Downing Street spokesman said: "The use of this image is in extremely poor taste and it should not have been used to promote London."
The notorious painting of Hindley by Marcus Harvey was vandalised while on display in the Royal Academy in 1997.
The video, produced by London's tourism body, Visit London, briefly displayed the image as part of footage recorded in a London art gallery.
The video was made several years ago, when the portrait was on public display at the gallery.
In a statement, Visit London said: "This is a general three minute video of London in which an artwork by Marcus Harvey very fleetingly appears.
"The video is not for general public use and has been used many times over the last few years to show to the tourism trade.
"There has never been a complaint made about the video up until this point.
"However, if any offence has been caused, we will withdraw it from use with immediate effect."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/au...pics2012/print

[flumperino]

With all of the history and culture that the country has to offer....using the picture of a prolific serial killer is indeed an odd choice...

[blacksheep]

I did like how all the dancing prats pretended to rush towards the bus only to see a young non white child and run away - then the roof of the bus blows off...

[Greyfox]

After the olympics in Beijing London dosent stand a chance in creating such brilliance.

[Freddy]

With all of the history and culture that the country has to offer....using the picture of a prolific serial killer is indeed an odd choice...

Yes strange to say the least. Fred West was the obvious choice as his organisation skill set is a shining example of what we can achieve.

[russbeer]

yeah, if fred west was alive we could've got him to build the foundations for the olympic village.

[CzarJunkie]

I'd have like to have seen a reenactment of the 2nd Opium War with ourselves and the French sacking Peking and burning down the Emperor's Summer Palace. That would have pissed all over that firework display, restored Hong Kong as British Territory and set us up nicely for 2012.

[tombott]

I didn't see this, but can only begin to imagine what a pile of over rated, over budget shite it was.

I'm with GTI here, if anything should have been simple, and pompous.

Having said that am also keen on CJ's idea.