London 2012 bid officials Thursday called it “nonsense” that the Queen reportedly has said Paris will win the bid for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
In a private conversation during a reception for Britons who have made outstanding contributions to the country held at Buckingham Palace, the Queen is reportedly to have told a community worker she thought Paris would win because London’s bid lacked public support.
Amran Hussain, 19, who works with the deaf, was quoted in the Daily Mail as saying “I told her I was from Newham, a London borough which is backing the bid for 2012. I thought she would be really enthusiastic and go into the subject of the economic benefits, but she straight away said she thought that Paris would win. I was quite shocked because she’d previously been backing the London bid”.
According to Hussain the Queen said Paris has the best chance of winning. She said that Paris had a lot of backing from the public and “we don’t have that, unfortunately”.
Buckingham Palace refused Thursday to deny or confirm the content of the conversation. A spokesman said, “the Queen has thousands of conversations with people every year and we never confirm or deny any of them. The Queen has shown her support for the London 2012 team by hosting a reception in June last year”.
London 2012 spokesman Mike Lee said, “we believe this is a bit of nonsense that is not going to have an impact on the bid. It is not damaging. It is not verifiable that she said that.
“Those comments don’t fit with our experience of the Royal Family. They have been positive and the Queen herself has been very supportive”.
He added, “the campaign for the bid is in great shape, support is growing and recent polls say that it is between 70-75 per cent”.
Meanwhile the Telegraph reports that London 2012 is preparing for the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) evaluation commission visit February 16-19 by staging a mock visit a few days before the real event.
London 2012 has gathered together a dozen or so people who have been on previous evaluation commission visits who will be given a tour of the proposed sites and sit through 17 presentations designed to convey how London would stage the Games.
Also, Richard Sambrook, head of BBC World, has written a letter to IOC President Jacques Rogge asking him to reconsider the IOC’s decision to cancel the 2012 bid cities television debate.
