with Tom Smith

THE erection of the largest Ferris Wheel in the world has been long in becoming a reality. It will dominate London's skyline for five years, dwarfing other structures like Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

Looking like a huge bicycle wheel, London Eye towers four hundred and fifty feet above the River Thames.

Anyone who wants to take a thirty-minute ride on the twenty million pound wheel, which opens for business in January, will have to fork out £7.45 (children £4.95).

For me, the thought of riding on the contraption is anathema and fulfils no inner urge whatsoever. The very idea is abhorrent to me: irrelevant, inappropriate and unseemly. Irrelevant because it addresses none of the concerns of ordinary people in that area of London.

It is inappropriate to the Millennium which has caused its genesis. It outrages the dignity of the seat of Government with which it, in a quite unseemly fashion, rubs shoulders.

Having said all this, the wheel is in a way a little bit like life in the late twentieth century.

The hub of this great waste of space, like central Government, moves only a very little distance in response to the frantic speed of the majority of us on the rim that is society and industry. The spokes of the wheel remind me of the omnipotent tendrils that emanate from Government and tend to influence almost every aspect of society. And, maybe worst of all, when its passengers get into the (French) capsules and start on their circular journey (at great speed, no doubt) they will undoubtedly end up where they began.

The problem with the inertia that affects all Government is that the whole system is, as my old mum used to say "arse about face".

It is not we who should respond to Government edict, it is those we elect who should react to the needs of our society.

It is to no purpose their saying that the people of this country must keep up with the rest of the world: don't these people realise that this is exactly what the rest of the world is saying.

In the end we will all end up suffering the force of incredible acceleration and ultimately disappearing up our own gross domestic product.

Each one of us, if we're not careful, will end up like a mouse in an exercise wheel who has to run faster and faster simply to keep in control.

Call me xenophobic if you like, but when it comes to the choice between (the American) Mickey Mouse and (the English) Squirrel Nutkin there's no contest.

Just let me store enough nuts away for the winter and I'll be content.

Like the giant London Ferris wheel this country has had problems in standing tall. But life does not have to be a treadmill, an uncontrolled circus: forever frantically increasing speed simply to maintain the status quo.

Life is a linear progression not a circular journey, it contains landmarks that mark its passage and give it meaning, joy and purpose.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.