English Kev

Aim higher than BMX bikes with inflatable kangaroos !

To all of you !

You're negating to acknowledge the roars of the crowd as Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page emerged with that world famous guitar riff or the screams of the crowd as Beckham appeared. So effectively that was Athens and Beijing already "topped" because neither produced such idolised global icons. Add to that the fact that Beijing actually chose Sarah Brightman ( British ) and it clear that us Brits have nothing to fear.

The unfolding bus was a great idea ,unfortunately those awful dancers were not. They were barely actually dancing and they were representing tired old cliches.Most of them looked like they'd been dragged out of an East End pub.Totally uninspired. At least we didn't have grown men on bicycles dressed as kangeroos like the aussies did. Now that WAS shameful. In regard to Beijing - the only parts I remember are the runner going around the roof which was awesome and computer-generated firework footprints in the sky. Oh yes,then there was the the little girl doing the miming to the song because the little girl that actually did sing wasn't considered pretty enough to be seen on television .Apart from those sometimes questionable exceptions there wasn't anything about the Beijing ceremony that wasn't entirely predictable.If anything is predictable about the chinese as a nation, or indeed the olympic ceremonies,it is thousands of synchronised robots. We can all do scale. You can only fit so many people into a stadium. China has very few global icons. We have too many to choose from and I don't just mean buildings.

Well one mustn't ignore the global impact of some other european cultures or the americans, but it terms of scale coupled with history I'd say the British are unique. I should've said ENVIABLE not envious . Now I have to flail myself......in my black learher hotpants.

We remember that Britain has nothing to prove like China as we have been open to the world for centuries. We remind ourselves that the public won't tolerate obscene amounts of money being spent on ceremonies. We think of the UK's global creative and cultural impact. The British are almost unique in terms of global impact in these areas as we have both an historical and modern legacy which includes popular culture only rivalled by the USA. The British flag itself is a global icon recognised across the earth by most . The richness of our history and the icons associated with us gives us an envious wealth of ideas to draw upon.

That fact would certainly not be recognised around the globe. It would however be universally recognised by ordinary members of the public worldwide as imagery that denotes the instrument that is commonly referred to as the French horn. A horn is not merely just a horn. You have already distinguished two different examples. The English horn is a woodwind instrument.There is your third. As a long-standing active campaingner against hunting with hounds I find the very idea of using English hunting horns offensive.Without getting into a drawn out debate on the effectiveness and principles of the hunt ban,to use symbols of such a controversial ,and now illegal activity, is and should be a non-starter. The 'calling' idea is essentially a good one but there are many alternatives. Herald trumpets and bugles for example. A Herald Trumpet is a much more suitable and apt idea.There are infinite ways to form the five rings without using the 'calling' device.

FRENCH horns calling everyone around the globe to London 2012 ? Thinking about Anglo-Franco history,the fact these are supposedly British olympics, the fact that London beat Paris to win after Paris bid three times , Chirac's comments etc.etc. This idea is utterly hilarious !

London's olympic stadium will be scaled down to a 20,000 seater athletics stadium post olympics . That's what the London 2012 website says anyway .