The boxing promoter Frank Warren has an MC who, prohibited from employing the renowned Michael Buffer's iconic but copyrighted "Let's get Ready To Rumble" big fight exhortation, bellows this demand as a prelude to the main event: "London: Are You Ready?"

I suggest Lord Coe might hire him to pose then same question to the citizens of the capital as the main event of 2012 approaches with increasing rapidity. The answer, I fear is a resounding No.

Oh yes, LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) are ready, the venues are ready and the participants are ready for what, unquestionably, will be a truly great Olympic Games.

But are Londoners ready? Ready that is, for what is about to hit them once the massed bandwagons of the Olympic circus start rolling in earnest when the Flame arrives next month.

I seriously doubt it.

London – indeed, the whole of the United Kingdom – really has no idea of the magnitude of the jamboree that will dominate our lives this summer.

On the Richter scale of extravaganzas this is a Coronation, a Royal Wedding and Queen's Jubilee rolled into one, a hundred times over, lasting not for just a day, but for around three weeks. Not to mention the three months leading up to it.

Two impending milestones are about to project the 30th Olympiad to the forefront of our consciousness.

The first is next Wednesday (April 18), which will mark the 100 days countdown to the Opening Ceremony. The second is the arrival of the Flame from Olympia on May 18, and the start of a nationwide Torch Relay (May 19) designed to ignite the passion of even Olympic agnostics.

If you think Olympic fever is catching, believe me, you ain't seen nuthin' yet.


The last time the Games were here, in austerity-gripped 1948, it was by necessity a relatively low key production. This time it truly will be the greatest show on earth. With knobs on.

A life changing experience, even? Well it will be for those living in London who can have little conception of the baggage the Olympics are about to bring with them.

Let's start with security.

Welcome to Lockdown London.

We can anticipate an unprecedented ring of steel around the capital, not just to protect 17,000 athletes for 17 days and the following Paralympics but for several weeks before and after.

London 2012 will see the biggest mobilisation of militia, police and security forces since the Second World War and it is certain to impact on all our lives.

More troops – around 13,500 – will be deployed, more than are currently in Afghanistan. The burgeoning security force being assembled by G4S, the world's largest security company, is expected to total almost 50,000. During the Games an aircraft carrier will dock on the Thames and surface to air missile systems will scan the skies.

Unmanned drones will loiter above the stadia and Typhoon Eurofighters will be supplied by the RAF. Additionally, 1,000 armed diplomatic and FBI agents will patrol an Olympic zone partitioned off from the wider city by an 11 mile electric fence.


With security checkpoints across the city, stop and search will be the order of the day – or rather many days. This is just the tip of the security iceberg, which will be heading your way soon.

Any protests or demos that might disrupt or disfigure the Games are likely to be proscribed by law.

Even so, as British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman Lord Moynihan pointed out after a looney lone protester put his oar into the Varsity boat race at the weekend, it only takes one idiot...

And you can bet there will be one.

Getting around London by anything other than public transport will be a nightmare because of congestion and road closures.

So much so that the Olympic mascot Wenlock could be renamed Gridlock.

As an example, did you know that the Mall will be closed for weeks prior to the Games – except to Her Maj of course?

I have friend living in Kent who is concerned she won't be able to drive her daughter to school for three days because the roads around her home will be closed for three days because of the Paralympics!

Similarly a cul-de-sac where my son lives in Surrey will be cordoned off as a no-go area for the the duration of the Olympic cycling road race.

Inevitably a "Them and Us" divide will be created by the controversial Olympic lanes, a city-wide system which will allow 4,000 VIPs from the Olympic family – and the media and sponsors – to be shuttled to and from the Olympic Park. For ordinary Londoners, the aggravation will be immense. But it will have to be tolerated.


And as for visitors? Heathrow staff are already warning that as the theme tune for the wonderful BBC2 mockumentary TwentyTwelve goes, There will be Trouble Ahead.

Yes, of course, there will be special provision for speedy passage for the "Olympic Family" but a colleague, travelling on an American passport took two hours to get through Terminal 5 recently. She was told: "If you think this is bad, wait until the Olympics".

Shopkeepers now have Prliamentary permission to open all day if they so wish, though in certain areas they will only be able to receive deliveries at night.

Then there's the hotels and taxis shamelessly hiking their prices.

And we are warned that the Olympics could spark a feeding frenzy of organised crime.

That's the downside. So will it all be worth it?

Absolutely. One hundred per cent Yes.

Once the rain holds off for Danny Boyle's Opening Ceremony to leave the watching world open-mouthed in awe, and the British gold rush starts – hopefully, immediately with cyclist Mark Cavendish – then all the hassles, the hold-ups and assorted other inconveniences will be forgiven if not forgotten. Even if there's a bit of an overspend.

And when Jacques Rogge proclaims London the Greatest Ever Games, and for once means it, the plaudits will be piled as high as the Shard.

Meantime, Let's Get Ready to Grumble.

We'll happily save the cheering until later.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title from Atlanta to Zaire.