Olympics minister Tessa Jowell may be catching much of the flak being fired at the preparations for the 2012 London Games, but it'll take a lot more than that to faze her. Tessa Jowell probably won't read this interview. The Olympics minister seems to know what the press will write anyway. "There are three headlines we will see between now and the opening ceremony," she says. "One is that the budget's out of control, the second is that the venues are late and the third is that everyone involved in the project is useless. Well, it isn't, they aren't and first-class people are working on it." Strong words indeed, but sitting in her rooms in the Cabinet Office, Jowell seems more genteel than some of her colleagues. Like most senior politicians, she is well briefed, but she appears to have a genuine enthusiasm for her job, which helps combat the negativity surrounding the Olympics. "When you're involved in such a wonderful project, you put on a fire-proof jacket and get on with it," she says, breezily. "The media is free to write what it wants, but the chances are I won't read it. Why bother?"
展开▼
