Beijing Paralympics Medals

Back from a break – so let’s kick off with more great news from Beijing!

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	45	47	33	125
2	Great Britain	37	21	19	77
3	United States	24	18	21	63
4	Ukraine	16	12	21	49
5	Australia	15	19	21	55
6	Russia	15	16	14	45

The table speaks for itself! Well done Team GB! Pity that when I searched on Google for Beijing Paralympics BBC it came up with the 2004 Paralympics page! Come on BBC pull your socks up – give it the coverage it deserves on the main News page and not just hidden away on the Sports pages.

These disabled athletes are an inspiration for everyone, unlike whinging Labour MPs who seem to think leaking news to BBC journalists about how unhappy they are with their leader is somehow professional; do they think it is going to win them, or their party, votes or promotion?! Well done to whoever sacked the Assistant whip Siobhain McDonagh, if she did the same while working for a company she would have deserved the same for jeopardising the shareholders investment.

Gordon, you might want to consider the future of Janet Anderson, Karen Buck, Patricia Hewitt, George Howarth, Eric Joyce, Sally Keeble, Stephen Ladyman, Martin Linton, Shona McIsaac, Margaret Moran, Tom Levitt, and Paddy Tipping, over their article for New Labour magazine Progress stating, as the BBC are quick to extract, that Labour has “no explanation yet” as to how it will “steer the economy through the troubled waters ahead”. Frankly, if these MPs think the public wants a meaningless strategy dressed up in Blairite spin from you, then they are truly out of touch; but more importantly, just like Siobhain McDonagh, they are truly naive if they can’t foresee that certain journalist, like those at the BBC, looking for an anti-Labour story will take their statements out of context and use it to damage your reputation. I for one trust a man that is honest enough to say that there are no quick fixes, keep on in there Gordon.

Strike “Down the Tube”

A 72-hour strike on London Undergound was called off last night by the RMT Union after an improved pay offer was made. It was due to start at midday on Wednesday 20th August.

1,000 track, signal and train maintenance staff working for Tube Lines were due to walk out. Tube Lines is responsible for running the Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee lines.

Drat, there goes that “working from home” stint to watch the Olympics on TV…

Olympics Day Seven

Good start to the day… the British men’s cycling team have set a new world record in the team sprint qualifying round at the Velodrome, and Ben Ainslie looks set to get at least a Silver medal tomorrow in the sailing.

Must get some work done… but keeping an eye on it here – BBC Sport Olympics

The Good Ol’ Days 2 – or 1968 and all that

President Bush says he is sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to express “America’s unwavering support” for the Georgia government.

Condoleezza Rice said Russia cannot act like its Soviet forebears – “This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten its neighbors, occupy a capital and get away with it”

Aah “The Good Ol’ Days of ‘68″ when the US was so tolerant it let the Russians get away with it…

Coincidently there was an Olympics on that year too – 1968 Olympics Black Power salute – how times have changed for Black Americans.

Georgia beats Russia

Among the Olympic results today was the Georgian team beating the Russian team at beach volleyball. But the ‘Georgian team’ of Cristine Santanna and Andrezza Martins, are both native Brazilians. Seems they took up an invitation to represent Georgia after missing out on Olympic qualification for their native Brazil. Is anything coming out of Georgia what it seems to be?

Olympic Breakfast

How great to see our Olympic cyclist Nicole Cooke win a Gold at the week-end, and not a mask in sight. Brits 1, USA 0

Not usually a swimming fan, but to see Rebecca Adlington winning a Gold and Joanne Jackson a Bronze in the women’s 400m free-style was pretty cool. Well done! First women’s swimming gold for Britain in 48 years apparently, but who cares about such statistics? Pour moi, seeing two Union Jacks, albeit alongside the Stars and Stripes, waving there on the Olympic flag poles was a great start to the day!

ba, ba, ba

ba, ba, ba (or 08/08/08 if you prefer)

Worked from home yesterday to see the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony; of course most Londoners were working hard as usual in the office, including the London Olympics 2012 office staff…

With 8 being a much prized number in China, the Opening ceremony on the 8th August 2008 appears not only very fortunate for the Chinese but it will make remembering when it happened a darn site easier for all of us.

Which brings me to ask, am I the only Londoner that gets totally wound up every time I hear a BBC commentator referring glibly to ‘the events of 9/11′, as if I am supposed to remember that ‘of course’ it means 11th September 2001, and not as ’silly old English me’ would think refers to 9th November? Since when has the UK used the American month, date, year date format?

In the West the number 7 is often considered lucky, perhaps the ‘events of 7/7′ might change some people’s views on that…