Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

We're entering the final lap. Summer pretty much over; less than 11 months to go; athletes' qualification well under way - and everything is now geared to the big finish. So it's worth another check on how the nation is feeling about London 2012.

The headline is: positive but not yet excited. And I'm basing this on recent surveys by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, and interpretation of them by our audience research team.

To start with the good news for the organisers - most people do think the Olympics will have a favourable effect on the country. The figures are 65% expecting the impact to be positive and 9% believing it will be negative.

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I was surprised to read newspaper stories a couple of weeks ago that a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ executive was "admitting" Olympic coverage would dominate every service next summer. I was even more surprised to see that the person alleged to have said this was me.

That's because I've always tried to be clear that we want to do two things. Yes, we want to do justice to the biggest sporting event on the planet and to the story of 2012 as a truly exceptional year.

But we also want to make sure that we don't remove other people's favourite programmes and that there are sanctuaries for people who don't want to go Olympic-crazy.

It's the usual point about balance in all things.

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In life it's better to be neither an optimist or a pessimist but a realist. London's path to the Olympic Games was never going to be an untroubled one. But the shock of the lawlessness and criminality of the past few days means the hurdles that have to be overcome are even greater.

I've sat through enough business continuity sessions to know that nothing is risk-free.

And it's worth a little perspective here. Of the cities bidding for these Games against London, all have sadly had either terrorism or civil disturbances in recent years. All of them are teeming with millions of individuals in the sometimes chaotic urban life of the 21st century.

London never underestimated that in its bid.

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