Mick Hartley

Obviously no one is going to have a good word to say for it; that's pretty much understood in Britain with a major piece of public artwork like this. The most important thing though is to agree on a disparaging nickname as quickly as possible. Foster's Swiss Re Building, a City landmark, became The Gherkin. It looks nothing like a gherkin, but that's not the point: it's all about cutting it down to size; being embarrassed at its claim to architectural merit. The Angel of the North, according to a letter to the Times, is known locally as the Rusty Flasher (yes, that is quite funny). So with this:

The Hubble-Bubble Pipe, the Helter-Skelter, the Giant Treble Clef?….a giant Mr Messy? The Squiggle seems the best bet to me, but we'll see. The Big Red Squiggle?

I like it. Or at least I like what I see of it, and the idea of it, and I'm looking forward to seeing it up and, um, squiggling. Why not? The whole Olympics is a bread-and-circuses government funded splurge: why not go for a big bold pointless cherry on top of the cake? How dull to be penny-pinching and utilitarian about it. Though I think Antonia Senior has a point:

Personally, I love 84 per cent of it — the bit that was paid for by ArcelorMittal, the company owned by the steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, which is spending up to £16 million on it. I am substantially less enamoured of the £3.1 million bit that we are paying for. Could it just be a few feet shorter with the company picking up all the bill?

But really, £3.1 million in the context of the Olympics is not a lot. And isn't that what mayors are for? – big brash controversial booster projects. Good for Boris. If we're lucky the ArcelorMittal bit will get forgotten and it'll just be the Orbit. The London Orbit. The Big Red London Orbit. The Big Red Squiggly London Orbit. Or something.