In praise of… the Glasgow Commonwealth Games

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/22/in-praise-glasgow-commonwealth-games

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Glasgow will have a ball. Sceptics learned the hard way at London 2012 that public enthusiasm for major sports festivals is overwhelming. With Scotland's weather set fair, it will take more than the ritual cursing about VIP lanes on the Clydeside expressway or the fuss about the Scottish team's lurid turquoise and fuchsia uniform to stop the Commonwealth Games party that starts on Monday. More too, it can be confidently predicted, than the overdone #indyref descant to which the next 10 days are doomed to be subjected.

Dismissing the Commonwealth Games is lazy. They always exceed expectations. Glasgow will be the same. And where else would you get teams like the 26 athletes from Niue (10 of them in the lawn bowls in Kelvingrove Park)? They account for one in 54 of the Pacific island's 1,400 inhabitants. On that basis, Scotland would have 99,000 competitors at the Games and India would be sending a team of 23 million.