Capital's roads will be paved with gold, says Livingstone

For someone who just a couple of years ago was telling us that he knew naff-all about sport, London's mayor Ken Livingstone seems to have become a remarkably quick learner. He now confi-dently predicts Britain will come "fourth or fifth" in the 2012 table, thus virtually endorsing the much-challenged aspirations of the British Olympic Association.

"After China, America and Russia we should be able to try and fight Australia for the next place," he says. "Whenever I say that to Australians they all laugh - but we shall see," he adds. We shall indeed. We shall also see if our Ken, the latter-day Nostradamus of City Hall, is right when he says that the Games "will not cost anything like" the near [pound]10 billion now budgeted by the Government. "If it comes in at more than half of that I will feel defeated." He reasons: "We are using constructors who are used to bringing in projects like Heathrow's Terminal Five on time and under budget. And we are keeping the civil servants at arms length." Pity you can't keep the politicians away too, Ken.

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