The Worst Possible Thing To Happen

The worst possible thing has happened for opponents of New York’s bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics — France’s trade unions have gone on a one-day strike during the IOC’s visit there:

A widespread strike in France today brought chaos to public transport and ports, with the one-day action coming as members of the International Olympic Committee assessed the Parisian bid for the 2012 summer games.

The action saw the capital’s commuter trains and metro badly hit, while across France, 55 cities suffered varying degrees of disruption and air traffic was also affected. Calais was closed to ferries.

Railway and energy workers, teachers and post office staff were all taking action against job cuts and government plans to make the 35-hour working week more flexible.

The flamboyant French businessman PY Gerbeau, formerly in charge of London’s Millennium Dome, said the action threatened to ruin Paris’s bid to stage the 2012 games, although he remained optimistic that the city would win the race.

“Officially, the politically correct answer they are giving is it is fine, we are a democracy,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “Unofficially, all my French friends are losing sleep over it. It is very typical of France, actually. In some ways, they were too arrogant to the IOC, and this time the unions can ruin the whole affair.”