Gold!* Ceremony**

(*inspiration provided by Kerry McCarthy, MP for Bristol East, and her judicious use of song titles for blogpost titles; this one irresistably references New Order's 1981 Spandau Ballet's 1983 hit, yes, that's right Pop Pickers, Ceremony Gold!, which is wayyy better.)

(**Just seen this and it conjures up images of David Cameron running into a conference bathed in a halo of light to Tony Hadley singing "You are gold!")

Investment in sporting facilities and athletes is paying off in the great golden medal haul currently shining a ray of sunlight through the economic gloom.

And what d'y'know the entire cycling team, including triple gold medallist Chris Hoy, all honed their talent at the Manchester Velodrome right here in the North West.

What's the Manchester Velodrome? Well, it was transformed from an old power station as part of the regeneration of Manchester into the National Cycling Centre, Britain's primary indoor Olympic cycle track and widely regarded as one of the World's finest and fastest board tracks.

Today Christine Ohuruogu added a 16th to Britain's gold medal tally by running very fast.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson's efforts to win a gold medal, for putting his foot very heavily in the wrong place, did not go unnoticed when he said that the spirit of the British Olympic gold medal winners showed that any politician-talk of a 'broken society' was 'piffle', broken society being his own Dear Leader, David Cameron's key slogan. A world best in Gaffeletics!