Chris Holmes: Why we should all be excited by the 2012 Olympic Games

Chris Holmes is a solicitor working for an international law firm in the City who is on the list of approved Conservative parliamentary candidates. He is a former Disability Rights Commissioner, is Britain's most successful paralympic swimmer ever and was awarded the MBE for services to sport at the age of 20.

A little over four years ago I stood in the front row of the crowd amassed in Trafalgar Square when we heard those enormous words:

“The Games of the 30th Olympiad are awarded to the city of London”

Cue mass celebration, strangers hugging, dancing in the streets and an afternoon of joy. Perhaps it is the very diversity of that crowd which best makes the case for why we should all be excited about the London Olympic and Paralympic Games which will open in just over three years: the crowd was not invited dignitaries, the great and the good - it was ordinary folk from across our city celebrating a phenomenal achievement not just for London but for our entire country.

Having competed at four previous Games, I was perhaps in a privileged position to know just what a fantastic achievement this was and just what a difference it could make.  When I went to my first Paralympic Games in Seoul in 1988 there was much talk as to the Koreans attitudes to disability and the position of disabled people in their society, or not as the case all too often appeared to be.  And yet, when we arrived, the welcome was huge, the Games were a tremendous success and, perhaps most significantly, the lives of disabled people were transformed forever more, not least in the crucial areas of education and employment.

In Barcelona, in 1992, we saw a Games which took a city from being seen largely as a laughing stock, (no coincidence it being where the Fawlty Towers' immortal Manuel hailed from) to becoming one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations.

Chris Holmes is a solicitor working for an international law firm in the City who is on the list of approved Conservative parliamentary candidates. He is a former Disability Rights Commissioner, is Britain's most successful paralympic swimmer ever and was awarded the MBE for services to sport at the age of 20.

Chris Holmes: Who will save the savers?

Chris Holmes is a solicitor working for an international law firm in the City who is on the list of approved Conservative parliamentary candidates. He is a former Disability Rights Commissioner, is Britain's most successful paralympic swimmer ever and was awarded the MBE for services to sport at the age of 20.

It's a curious thing that, while Gordon is off "saving the world" he appears to have utter disinterest in those who have been saving themselves.

We're in a bit of a global economic situation, there's no doubting that. But when the problem is largely the availability of money, rather than its price, what benefit are the recent cuts in interest rates likely to have? Base rates certainly have a part in any strategy and the Bank of England is independent in any event, but what real benefit is there in 1% rates, particularly in light of LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate)?

However, if everything needs to be thrown at the crisis, what harm in slashing the base rate?

Well, ask anyone who is reliant upon their savings to provide them with a decent standard of living - particularly in retirement - which they have been working towards for most of their active lives. All of this Government's (often muddled) efforts on the economic crisis have done everything to discourage individual responsibility, planning ahead and, yes, saving. The riposte of any person on the street may be: "Gordon didn't save for the downturn, so why should we?" - but those who did may well be wondering why they bothered.