2012 Olympic Games threatened by Boris Johnson

I was much amused in an exasperated sort of way, to hear Boris Johnson blathering on last week about ‘sex workers’ and the alleged threat they pose to the London Olympic Games in 2012 claiming that

“Major sporting events are often linked to an upsurge in demand for prostitution”.

Naturally he declined to provide any evidence to support this ridiculous claim which ranks him alongside Labour MP Dennis MacShane and the ArchSelfPublicist of York, Dr John Sentamu, who also declined to provide any evidence for their claims that the 2012 games would attract large numbers of prostitutes and thus the attention of human traffickers.

While I applaud their efforts to raise public awareness of human trafficking, I’m inclined to suspect that in this particular case it is simply wishful thinking on their part as all the available evidence suggests quite the opposite.

Criminals like easy profits, the bigger the better, and with the Olympic Games being pretty much a family affair, they are unlikely to attract the sort of clientèle which would enable the traffickers to recoup their ‘investment’.

As for the other major sporting events, the overwhelming quantity of evidence available clearly shows that the only time football fans have any kind of interpersonal contact - intimate or otherwise - with other people who are not football fans is when there is no football to watch.

No. These are not extremists, most of whom starved to death within weeks of the advent of 24hour football television channels - although there are rumours that some may have held out for nearly a month. They are simply ‘ordinary’ football fans who are unfortunately, still living and breeding in our towns and cities.

I realise that might give some people the impression that I dislike football which is not the case. Of course I like football. I’m English aren’t I?

The problem is that the majority of football fans take it far too seriously. Anyone who was around in the 70s and early 80s doesn’t need me to remind them just how bad it was. It’s certainly no co-incidence that I and many other ‘casual’ fans stopped going to football matches at that time.

But even then, we went to watch football not find prostitutes.