Politics has been cancelled

IT is now official, politics has been cancelled due to lack of interest. With Norn Iron Olympians standing higher in the medal table than those in many larger regions, collective euphoria and wall-to-wall coverage, there is no point in pretending that there is the slightest chance of intelligent political discourse. Then again in Norn Iron intelligent political discourse is an oxymoron.

The economy may be going to hell in an Olympic-sized handbasket, Syria may be disintegrating into ever more bloody civil war, and mankind has landed a rover on Mars but it all matters not a bit as long as we have boxers and rowers on the medal rostrum.

However, should rioting, and anti-riot policing ever become an Olympic sport we are in with a good shout of a medal, so long as it doesn't go to the (CC)TV camera footage to decide the winners and losers...

But when the medals are in the trophy cabinets and the civic receptions all concluded, will there be an Olympic legacy for Norn Iron.

With austerity still wrestling like a competitor struggling back into their tracksuit, and threats of cuts, cuts and more cuts, will there be any spare change left for community sports facilities, coaching and will our leisure centres, home to so many grass-roots Olympians, be saved from the local council axes?

There has already been a commitment from sports minister Caral Ní Chúliann that boxing will be given more support. However, the real legacy will be a generation inspired to get off their fat rear ends and actually do something rather than stare at vacuous rantings on computer screens (editor's note: we're going for a brisk walk as soon as we've finished this vacuous rant...).

We can only hope that our politicians and the civil servants who stalk their every move can also get off their bloated egos and over-sized rear ends and actually do something: the 100metre dash to the division hall, the 800m race to pass some legislation and the triathlon of imagination at solving whatever crisis there is this week.