By Kate Hoey

(Filed: 16/11/2004 The Telegraph Newspaper)

So the 600-page Olympic and Paralympics candidate file for London 2012 is now with the International Olympic Committee and Sebastian Coe has told us we must `Make Britain Proud and Back the Bid.' Between now and next July millions will be spent on propaganda, publicity and jetting abroad to sell the benefits of London to the IOC members. All of us will be expected to constantly sing the praises of the bid and to refrain from questions or criticism, no matter how sensible.

Last week Mike Lee, the 2012 bid communications director, told sports editors how he expected them to behave during the IOC evaluation team inspection in February. "We totally respect newspapers' independence but we need their support," he pronounced. In other words any negative reporting, even if it is the truth, will be frowned on severely by Mr Lee who said rather chillingly that he would be `calling in favours' during the visit.

Well he won't be getting any favours from me. This is the same Mike Lee who in 1995, when employed to spin for the Premier League, came to my office at the House of Commons to implore me to stop speaking out about football corruption and bungs in brown envelopes. He said it "would be in the interest of football" if I shut up. The Premier League are "sorting it out", he said earnestly as he asked me not to call for an independent regulator for football. I politely declined. A few years later, when Sports Minister, I experienced his ability to spin and his negative briefings when I had again refused to kowtow to those powerful men running football.

Now his job is to sell the London bid to a still sceptical public and all the spinning in the world won't change that. To be credible, Mike Lee and those around him must stop exaggerating and deal with the realities.

Listening to those promoting the bid it would seem as if the only barrier standing between a glorious victory and an ignominious defeat next year is the media. Forgive me for being cynical, but I have heard this before.

Remember the World Cup 2006 bid. It was a certainty for England, according to the FA team. After every meeting with members of FIFA, the team would say how much support they were getting and most of the press would dutifully report it as fact.

One or two journalists got it right and wrote that England had no chance of winning. They were treated as pariahs, as was anyone who questioned the �10 million wasted chasing the World Cup. I watched with dismay as the hype extended throughout the Government machinery. Requests for use of the Queen's Flight to take FIFA delegates around England and demands for MOD helicopters so that Sep Blatter could avoid the traffic jams were common. The `lines to take' briefings from Downing Street were clear: a rosy picture must be painted of how well the campaign was going.

So when England ended up with two votes, the number predicted by the Telegraph's own Mihir Bose, the public was flabbergasted.

The reality is that Paris is way ahead in the race. Not only have they already shown their capability when hosting major championships in football, rugby and athletics in the Stade de France stadium but more importantly they have an admired sporting infrastructure throughout their country with the state spending five times more per person than the UK. Swimming pools and tennis courts are taken for granted everywhere in France. The Paris team don't need spin to win public support because the French see it as natural to aspire to host the Olympics. It would be the icing on the cake for the French sports system, whereas here we don't have even the base.

Londoners are particularly wary. Who can blame them when they see that the London Development Agency have cut by �8 million the investment plan for some of the poorest boroughs like Lambeth and Southwark? It has been siphoned off for the Olympic bid despite the fact that some of that money would have been spent on sporting facilities.

No sports lottery grants have been given out in the last year in London. Only �2 million is available for community sport for the whole of the capital this year - again because of the `London bid' - and we all know that an Olympic lottery will reduce the money going to the rest of the UK.

It is just not honest to say that all parts of the UK will benefit. Nobody truly consults those at the grass roots of sport about their priorities. It is just assumed that the mention of the `London bid' will placate everyone and keep them quiet. If they do complain then they can be denounced as unpatriotic. Even the London Youth Games is threatened as BAA's sponsorship ends. Meanwhile swimming pools continue to be shut down and playing fields sold off.

Proclaiming the regeneration of part of the East End of London as the reason for a bid is not good enough. Of course it needs regenerating but why should that depend on the votes of 123 IOC members.

At best a 2012 bid is premature. If only the energy, commitment and money being spent on pursuing this false panacea was directed at improving facilities and increasing investment then we could all wave the flag with pride.