London's mayor defended his relaxed attitude to the Beijing Olympics closing ceremony on Thursday, revealing he had ignored requests by Chinese officials to button up his jacket for the big event. Boris Johnson received the Olympic flag from Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong during the closing ceremony on Sunday because London is hosting the next Games in 2012. Shortly beforehand, he had been pestered by Chinese officials to do up the buttons of his jacket, he said. “I became aware of a chap beaming and pointing at his midriff,” he wrote in the Spectator magazine. “Then another chap was pointing at me, jabbing his finger in the direction of my stomach. Was I too fat? Was I insufficiently Olympian? ‘Button,' said the chap. Do up button.'” Noting that all those around him had done up their jacket buttons, including his “charming” counterpart Guo, he wrote: “I reached instinctively for my middle button and then thought, sod it.” Echoing the language of human rights groups which criticized China over the Olympics, he added that he had wanted to follow “a policy of openness, transparency and individual freedom. “I am sad to see that some Chinese bloggers are now attacking me for my ‘lack of respect', since there was no disrespect intended,” he added. “It's just that there are times when you have to take a stand.” He went on to describe China as “a vast and withering rebuke to those who thought ... that the triumph of capitalism must be accompanied by democratic pluralism.” Johnson, a former Conservative MP who was elected London mayor in May, has been prone to gaffes and has in the past been forced to offer apologies to the city of Liverpool and Papua New Guinea for controversial comments. London venues at risk The future of three controversial London 2012 Olympic venues hangs in the balance after the British government ordered a review into their viability and value for money. Olympics minister Tessa Jowell has called in accountants KPMG to carry out a viability test on the proposed equestrian venue at Greenwich Park, the shooting facilities at the Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich and the basketball venue on the main Olympic Park. The three have been criticized by local groups and sporting bodies over their cost, impact and legacy. “We have commissioned KPMG to do a report on the equestrian, shooting and basketball venues, looking at whether the Olympic experience and the legacy they will provide represents value for money,” Jowell said. “When you take the costs for these venues, it seems like a lot of money to a lot of people. It is a sort of testing-to-destruction to see whether that spending can be justified.” Jowell said it was “possible but unlikely” the venues could be scrapped after the review, which is expected to take several months.
