London: Riots to Olympics.

There are a lot of people who read this blog; I am amazed by the amount of countries it goes to – well it goes to every country, of course, but I'm amazed by the amount of countries where people read it.

For some reason, within minutes of it being published the post is read in Iowa by somebody; I know the IP address and the city and I would love to hear from them - in fact I can see where every post is read.

I never know by whom, of course; I have two counters and the one where I have all the details has the blog receiving about 40,000 hits since I started and the one which comes with the package has it nearer 50,000 hits.

This is nothing compared with Matt Drudge's blog, of course, but the post I wrote about Julian Assange has had over 5,000 hits and still attracts them even though I wrote it in December 2010.

I would like to tell all those people that no matter what you may hear or read elsewhere, London is really the place to be at the moment. There were a lot of naysayers about The Olympic Games but they are here, they are successful and they are making a lot of people happy.

It's such a friendly place to be with Britons believing they could be winners at last.

This time last year, on August 8^th in London, my daughter and her boy friend/partner/esposo were out having dinner and celebrating his birthday. His name is Chris too; no not Chris 2, Chris too – so happy birthday Chris.

As they sat there the London riots, which had broken out on August 6^th, arrived at the leafy suburb of Ealing where they were eating. My daughter was four months pregnant at the time so they cut their evening short and managed to get home safely.

Nearby a 68 year old man, well known to the locals of Ealing, tried to stamp some of the fires out and was killed by one of the participants of the so called riot. I know the perpetrator probably didn't mean to kill him but the exponential affect of a growing mob when it gets out of control can lead to anything.

Four cars were set on fire, shops and buildings in a street nearby were smashed and set on fire too. These shops were small businesses; some set up by young people who had raised the money for a deposit and borrowed the rest. There were about 150 rioters, so they say, and they also looted a branch of Tesco's for alcohol and cash. I remember seeing them on TV smashing a bookies' window.

15 of them jumped on to a bus, forced the driver out and crashed it.

We were in Edinburgh at the time and the young people of that city didn't riot at all; there was too much to do with the festival and things.

Some people from other countries, likened the riots here to the Arab Spring. It's sad when people don't know the history of the place and give wrong opinions. Two years after the Conservatives were elected last time there were riots in Toxteth, Liverpool. Police had a bad reputation there with their treatment of blacks and the sus law; the sus law allowed police to pull in anybody for questioning if they 'looked' suspicious. It was bound to happen just as it happened in Tottenham last year and spread to other boroughs and other inner cities.

Last year's riots were started after the police shot someone – I'm not going to comment on that but if you want to read more just put Tottenham Riots on Google.

But there were other young people last year who were doing something else. The rioters last year were a minority of the younger generation – to use an old phrase – but there were thousands of others who were getting ready for this year – the Olympic Games.

The Olympic Games were always criticised by somebody – I remember years ago asking someone if they'd seen so and so and they said they didn't like the Olympics as they were all supposed to be amateur. Well that was okay for rich posh boys and girls who could afford to take time off to train or if you were from a country in the Communist Block who fed their athletes performance enhancing drugs and gave them time off to train.

Isn't it good to see that since there is now a real crack down on drugs and more sophisticated equipment is available to detect the cheats, that the Russians and Germans don't seem to be winning much.

And I know about the IOC and the old men who run it and take advantage of the youth the games are meant for, but those corrupt old men send people to take part in sport and not to get killed in wars.

The Opening Ceremony was wonderful and the crowds attending the games are supporting the athletes. The British are as partisan as the rest of the world, for a change, but support the rest of the world's athletes too; especially Usain Bolt; the 100 metres final was watched by one third of the total population.

The final of the 100 metres almost coincided with the 50^th Anniversary of Jamaica's Independence and plenty of Jamaican Celebrations took place in the capital.

London won the Olympics on July 6^th 2005; people celebrated it was a great day. The place was on such a high. People were actually dancing in the streets and the next day the bombers attacked.

Whether it had anything to do with the Olympic announcement I don't know. They had planned the attacks and made their pathetic videos well beforehand; got themselves out of bed that morning and could probably see the happiness and the celebrations taking place and still placed their bombs killing 52 innocent people.

Seven years later the Olympics are up and running and are successful and they are great!

And then there was Morrisey.

He says 'I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event' and he criticises the U.K. public for the outpouring of support which has been seen since the Olympics kicked off.

The former 'Smiths' singer has cited a spirit of 1939 Germany in Britain this summer. A headline on the Internet says 'Former Smiths singer Morrissey has caused controversy by citing a “spirit of 1939 Germany” in Britain this summer.'

I hate jingoism and I agree with Samuel Johnson when he said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel but these people are cheering their team on; they appreciate good sport and applaud the other teams too.

I know it takes people's minds off the troubles of the world and kind of brainwashes them (us) but people need to feel good at the moment with politicians seemingly not knowing what they are doing and the bankers steaming forward into their new world order with their single currency ambitions and the worship of greed, but Britons are, for the first time, believing they are winners and maybe this will inspire youth to go to sport instead of rioting – who knows?

Morrisey lives in Los Angeles so he should know a little bit about jingoism and patriotism and in a business where he is almost worshiped by acolytes I think it sounds a bit rich.

Poor old Morrisey.