Let's Hear It For The Games!

It seems 27,000 people have signed an online petition to stop Scottish athletes wearing this gear at the Commonwealth Games. I think the combination of red, brown and blue in a tartan is bad enough to require sunglasses but still I've decided if this is the only bad thing about the Games, I'll shut my eyes when the athletes march past next week.

If you're out and about in Glasgow at the moment, you'll notice a massive effort going in to the city's final spruce-up before the opening. Of course, you can argue that Glasgow should have been kept 'spruce' all along and not had to wait for a big event but hey, these are difficult times.

Streets have been swept for possibly the first time in decades. We have road markings - even on the southside, most of which isn't even going to see an athlete. We have hanging baskets and windae boaxes everywhere - on lamp posts and traffic barriers and along the Clyde - and guys watering them every day. Potholes that have got deeper and deeper since the bad winters of the late 1990s have been filled in. The air is full of the reek of fresh tarmac. Paintwork has been redone, including the front doors of Ibrox Stadium - and I've a feeling the Rangers board didn't cough up for that. We also have street signs reading: 'permit holders only' and 'extra car parking.' The parking is admittedly at a price (5 quid for the day), but this is Glasgow City Council's opportunity to make a bit of cash to supplement the council tax.

It all adds to the gaiety of the nation and I hope the competitors and visitors to Glasgow have a great time. Anybody got any idea what we can do in about ten years from now when we'll need another injection of cash to keep the city looking good?