Why I will not be appearing at the London 2012 Olympics

It is with regret that I have to announce that I will not be appearing at the London 2012 Olympics. The closing date for entries was in October and, sadly I took the difficult decision not to put myself forward for the Games. I am gutted to write this, as appearance at my home Olympics could have been the pinnacle of my career, for which I have trained assiduously over many years. However, at the end of the day, so be it Mr Coe, I am simply not willing to offer my services as a volunteer Games Maker and linguist for the miserly reward of a gaudy London 2012 suit. Contrast this with the vast commercial sponorship monies to which the Games has access and you may begin to understand my decision. But there is more to it!

First and foremost, it is about protecting my profession and ensuring that appropriate commercial rates are paid to reflect the investment in education, qualifications and training that is a sine qua non for the skilled linguist. Respect! And , indeed, while I am on the subject, this same argument goes over more generally here to the notion of the Big Society, so dear to our present UK Government. There is an air of devil take the hindmost here, when companies are encouraged to charge a market price for even the most minor services, while individuals are expected to volunteer their time and skills to a notional greater good of the community at whatever level. We can no longer afford public libraries, so we fire qualified librarians and replace the public library with a community-run book repository.... The list goes on....

And second, if I am going to volunteer, then let the cause be noble and not altruistic! The chances are a Games Maker position would not provide a free ticket to see the Games anyway! Let the 2012 Olympics machine roll on inexorably, I am afraid I will not be part of it.