Mascots not home-grown

Published: 11 June, 2010

• WHAT irony that a Chinese design firm was allowed to create Britain’s Olympic mascots (Made-in-China animates MP – and Soho, May 28). 

The Beijing mascots were manga-inspired and culturally relevant creatures; Wenlock and Mandeville (pictured above) are child-terrifying, television-faced, hammer-headed, fish-pawed, cyclops-eyed monstrosities which bear absolutely no relation to British culture. 

British jobs for British workers eh? Taking this contract away from struggling UK design firms is further confirmation that the 2012 Olympics, which have so far cost more than the Falklands war and threaten over 1,000 or the East End’s most vulnerable residents with displacement, are a narcissistic economic-blister that will bring nothing but earache for the capital’s residents. 

JAMES TUCKER, SW2