Actually it is the Elizabeth Tower not Big Ben - renamed in hour of QE2's Golden Jubilee. But no matter - all church bells in the land and including such as door bells and bicycle bells (remember those?) are to be rung at the same time. Its for a new world record you know.

But the Big Shen is going to be adversely affected by:

Thomas Cook and other authorised ticket issuers apparently losing thousands of online ticket applications mainly from overseas, visitors are now queuing for up to four hours only to be told that there is no record of their booking(s). In Little Britain parlance "computer says no" at its best.

Then there are strikes - perhaps what the country excels at.

Not content with letting in thousands of illegals - some of whom have found jobs at Olympic venues - the Border Agency staff are striking on Friday - the day of the start of the Games. Their places will be taken by managers and back-end office staff. Queues for Immigration at Heathrow is rumoured to be even worse than at New York's JFK - that is four hours minimum.

Then South West Trains drivers are working to rule for the ENTIRE Olympics. They have a 500 pound per day bonus - yet still they're striking. SWT has issued public warnings NOT to try and travel by train to Wareham for the sailing events. BTW even after seven years warning the stations on the line to Wareham cannot cope with long trains - three cars maximum. So what trains there will be will be PACKED. SWT advised driving there - but the car parks will not be able to cope. Collapsable chairs are to be banned from the viewing site(s). And only authorised - aka sponsors' branded - food and drink will be available - at grossly inflated prices.

Then there is the fiasco of the heat. Yesterday mainline traincos instructed drivers NOT to call at Stratford - the main Olympic venue - due to the 50-year-old overhead traction wires sagging in the heat. Again they've had 7 years to sort this out - yet have FAILED.

And the Tube continues to break down - the Central Line and Jubilee Line both having outages this last week due to faulty equipment. Yes - they too have had 7 years to sort this out.

The Army, Navy and Airforce have now drafted in 18,000 troops to take the place of G4S's fiasco. That's three times what G4S (ex-Group 4 Security) are reportedly employing, if the latter all turn up anyway. G4S got kicked out of St James Stadium in Newcastle due to the quality of security guards not being up to the standard required.

The Army recruits are fresh out of Afghanistan and were looking forwards to time off with their families. Instead they're having to pat people down, search bags for 'illegal' food and drink - to protect the branding of sponsors, and check tickets. They're not best pleased - and are roughing it out in a disused warehouse on the Thames. The last straw came when LOCOG demanded that the forces wear tracksuits. The Army refused because in a security situation they said that it was important that soldiers can recognise each other. And that wearing the uniform was part of the pride that the soldiers had in their job.

Finally Westfield is a HUGE shopping mall near Stratford. It started to display 'Welcome' posters in different languages. One was in Arabic. The printers got the font wrong and the massage was 'gibberish.' One wonders why they didn't proof read it first - using a native speaker.

And the Shen. goes on and on....