London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Amendment) Bill

The Minister is nodding, so there is no need for him to deal with that when he winds up. Let me draw to the Minister’s and the House’s attention the report by the Foreign Affairs Committee entitled ““FCO Public Diplomacy: The Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012””, which has quite a cross-over into the Bill. Unusually for a Select Committee report, it is fairly uncritical of the Government because it expresses the belief that they are on the right track in enhancing the perceptions that the rest of the world has of Britain—a responsibility of the Foreign Office. It is interesting to learn that in the world’s perception, the UK is seen as"““fair, innovative, diverse, confident and stylish””," but we are also seen as"““arrogant, stuffy, old-fashioned and cold.””" The games present us with an opportunity to change the world’s perception of this country. We want to be seen as a welcoming, diverse, tolerant and generous nation, and the games give us a huge opportunity to illustrate that we are just that. At the Barcelona and Sydney games, people were able to change the world’s perception of those countries to their benefit, whereas the Beijing games, with the surrounding human rights issues, and Athens, with the lateness of the construction programme, formed an adverse perception. Germany’s hosting of the World cup hugely enhanced the world’s perception of that country.