So much for the Olympic spirit..

IS Baron de Coubertin birling in his grave? The founder of the modern Olympic Games, he was a high-minded man, dedicated to instilling a sense of nobility of purpose into young people. The baron saw athletic competition as a means of encouraging participants to become the best they could be – not by winning at any cost, but from taking part.

What a pity de Coubertin's honesty and sportsmanship didn't infuse the team of politicians, former gold medallists, and marketing professionals who put together London's Olympics bid. The father of the modern Olympics was ambitious and honest in his intentions. The London bid was fraudulent.

Ever since the first PR foray into the Scottish Parliament was led by Lord Seb Coe, some of us, whilst wishing Seb's group no harm, have been deeply troubled by the effects of the London Olympics on Scotland, not all of which are directly related to sport. For example, MSPs were promised that Scottish companies would benefit from the wide range of contracts, service and manufacturing, that would be up for grabs.

More than a few politicians were taken in by the slick sales pitch of the army of PR and marketing executives, backed up by starry-eyed athletes like yachting gold medallist Shirley Robertson, who appeared quite shocked that anybody would question the proposition that the London Olympics will be good for Scotland. Much was made of the notion that these would be all-British games, not just London's.

Is she, and the other athletes roped in to sell the London bid, a bit shame-faced when they read that 97 per cent of the 600 contracts awarded so far have gone to English companies? Let's hope the one per cent of contracts won by companies tendering from north of the Border makes MSPs re-examine their attitude.

De Coubertin's idea of the satisfaction to be had from taking part rather than winning refers to long jumpers etc – it doesn't apply to businesses being given the runaround.

Neither the last Holyrood government, nor this one, have firmly called foul, even though Scottish companies were handicapped by distance from the project, leading to higher costs and/or consequently lower profits.

Also, being located 400 miles from the Olympic venues will necessitate rock- bottom rates being offered by the 28 Scottish facilities named by the 2012 Organising Committee as suitable pre-games training camps.

Committee Chairman Seb Coe says "towns throughout the UK have a great opportunity to get involved in our plans".

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, who is beginning to sound a bit more realistic than when she was first given the job, warns "there will be fierce competition to host foreign teams" and that "every nation, region and venue will have to sell itself internationally".

We know already that these London Olympics are depriving Scotland's sporting development of funding that would have come from the Lottery to fund to community-level activities, coaching and facilities.

Now the Westminster sports minister has rubbed salt in the wound by reminding authorities here that they'll have to spend some of their reduced budgets in touting for teams to base themselves here pre-games.

To add insult to injury, we now learn that even as the bid team was schmoozing MSPs about how great it would be for Britain it was known, for example, that the £73 million aquatic centre was way over budget. It now stands at an estimated cost of £242m.

Unfortunately, the Scottish Government took its eye off the ball and became embroiled in an argument about whether Scotland's athletes should compete under a Saltire or Union Jack. It's time to play the game in hand and demand the return of the millions of pounds this vainglorious Olympics has cost Scottish sport.


Too high a price to pay
AS well as opportunistic scanning of telephone calls, the security services now want to create a database of every telephone call and e-mail originating in the UK. Nobody can reasonably argue that the people responsible for countering and preventing terrorist outrages like the London bombs or the foiled attack at Glasgow airport have an increasingly difficult job, partly because of the much simpler means of communication and command thanks to the world wide web.

Quite apart from issues of civil liberty and the poor record of these same services in safeguarding personal data, how much would it cost to monitor such a record?

And if the cost unbalances our security budget so that some other service has to be cut, isn't that handing victory to our enemies?

Thanks mum
I'LL bet Princess Beatrice wishes her mother wasn't so supportive.

By claiming that her daughter is a perfect size ten, Sarah Ferguson has opened the door to snatched photos and features in down-market newspapers discussing the most personal and sensitive aspects of Beatrice's appearance and personality.