London and Lions bid to lift a league of nations

We are all allowed to dream a little. I still have political dreams, like the final demise of the Conservative Party. I have policy dreams, like wouldn't it be great to wake up one day and everyone went to good State schools, private education was no more and Britain was finally a classless meritocracy? asks Alastair Campbell.

I have sporting dreams, like breaking my marathon and triathlon personal bests, seeing Burnley in Europe, right now seeing the British and Irish Lions beat New Zealand 3-0 in the Test series. But bigger even than those is the dream for my 17-year-old son Rory. It is that in the year 2012 he mounts the podium in the new Olympic Stadium in London where Sebastian Coe places around his neck the 800 metre gold medal.

Contrary to the impression this dream may give, I am not one of those dads who seek through their kids to make up for their own sporting mediocrity. I'm blessed in having three children who love sport and are pretty good at it. And the great thing about my dream for Rory is he dreams it even more intensely than I do. He also works at it. He has on his wall - and has had since shortly after he took up running in primary school - a year-by-year chart of the times he thinks he needs to do to make it. It ends in 2012.

He's getting steadily faster, fitter and stronger but as I keep reminding him, a lot of things can get in the way of maintaining his progress. Injury. Others coming out of nowhere and getting faster and faster. Other interests in his life driving out his commitment to training. He knows all that, but keeps going.

In every country in the world, there are kids who feel and train like he does, and dads who feel like I do. We won't all be fulfilled, but while the dream is alive, life has an added depth, pleasure and meaning. The dream is not just about winning, but winning in London.

I'm having a great time with the Lions but there are a few sporting downsides. One is that I missed some important sporting events in my children's lives. Second is that I've been unable to do much in recent months to help the London bid, what with first the general election and now the Lions. Third is that I won't be in Singapore on July 6th to hear the verdict of the IOC.

One of the reasons I took the job with the Lions is that I like being involved in anything that makes our countries feel good about themselves. Imagine what a Lions win will do for people's moods. Also you don't have to try too hard to imagine what a sense of purpose and hope a winning Olympic bid will bring not just to London but the whole of the country.

Imagine the excitement of the build-up. Imagine the show that could be put on. I feel it so strongly that London has the better technical bid, far better than Paris which has thought it had it in the bag from the word go. I feel sure that London would put on the best Games ever, with crowds in Britain way more passionate than the French, and that the positive impact on the country would be enormous.

Seb Coe is also an important element of the dream, though I guess if Rory won, in the end he wouldn't mind who put the medal round his neck.

But Coe and Moroccan middle distance runner Hicham el Gerrouj are his heroes. When I interviewed el Gerrouj last year he said Coe was his hero too. He went almost misty eyed as he described the beauty and efficiency of Coe's running style and the ferocity of his competitiveness.

I interviewed el Gerrouj as part of a series for the Times of London on the greatest sportsmen of all time. When I was interviewing athletes, the Moroccan was not alone in having Coe right up there. In Britain, his image was perhaps tainted by a foray into politics, in particular his time as a backroom boy with former Tory leader William Hague. But in the politics of world sport, there is a much greater acceptance of a proper link between these seemingly separate worlds.

Former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch rose to that position after spending four years as Spain's ambassador to Russia. But it is Coe's sporting record that gives him an edge over his Paris and Madrid opposition. In sporting circles he was and is a legend, the only man to win successive 1,500 metre Olympic golds. It is in part his standing in sport that has seen such a revival in the London bid's fortunes since he took over from American Barbara Casani.

I took my son to the Athens Games, where we saw el Gerrouj win gold and also saw Coe put a medal round Kelly Holmes' neck. I watched Coe "operate" at political gatherings and he was good at it. He seemed to know everyone. He was good at adapting to the different kind of characters he had to deal with. But he had a headstart because of what he achieved as an athlete. If London win, there will be many people who can claim to have made a contribution, but Seb Coe has done a brilliant job. He has been strategic, and he has travelled the world and worked his butt off for the cause. He has even managed to turn parts of our notoriously difficult media.

If I can also put in a word for the overly-maligned British Prime Minister, it is also clear Tony Blair has been central to rebuilding London's chances. His attendance at Athens certainly had an impact. The fact he is going to Singapore when he should probably be in London preparing for the G8 summit at Gleneagles once more conveys to the IOC the powerful political backing for the bid. His wife, Cherie, has also been a terrific ambassador for London.

Blair may be vilified by large parts of the UK media. But he has to my certain knowledge helped persuade members of the IOC London is serious about winning, and serious about the quality of the Games and sporting legacy they would deliver. His attendance and speech in the House of Commons this week (May 24th) at an event to celebrate the centenary of the British Olympic Association will not have gone unnoticed, not least because IOC president Jacques Rogge was there.

These things can have an impact in the rather odd world of sports politics. Even the Daily Telegraph reported Blair as being seen as London's most potent weapon. In a separate article a week earlier the Telegraph reported an IOC delegate as saying "Blair could make the difference for London."

I have been involved in three winning general election campaigns with Tony Blair, one of them against Coe. Blair is one of the most formidable politicians of the modern age. Coe was one of the greatest athletes of all time. They are a good team for Singapore. When they get there, I wish with every bone in my body this time Coe is on the winning side again. He deserves it. London deserves it. And it would be just the lift Britain needs as it continues down the path of my other dreams - a meritocratic Britain without an elitist and incompetent Tory Party in power to screw it up, a Britain where the first reaction to ambition is not "why bother?" but "why not?"

Of course if Rory were to win a gold medal in Paris or Madrid, I'd be close to heaven. But his doing it in London, with Coe on podium patrol, would get me all the way.