This (Sponsored) Sporting Life: Olympic Ringpieces

London 2012. It's been great, really it has. From the opening ceremony onwards, this Summer has been a showcase of London at its best (and no, the tourist board didn't pay me to say that).  

But if there was an aspect of the London games that vexed me, it would have to be some of the ill-judged choices in the area of corporate sponsorship.

Now I'm as pragmatic as the next cynical hack and I have precious little time for sanctimonious political correctness. Consequently, because I live in the real world, I accept that a certain amount of shameless plugging and product placement is bound to go on at a global bunfight of the Olympics' magnitude.

However, I would love to hear the conversation and the thought process that Lord Coe and his flunkeys employed when they convinced themselves that McDonalds was the embodiment of healthy living and athletic prowess.

(OK, so Usain Bolt famously consumes large quantities of chicken nuggets but I'd have thought he was very much the exception that proves the rule.)

And while we're on the subject, when did Cadbury's chocolate become such an integral part of an Olympian's dietary needs?

And let's not forget our friends at Dow. As an occasional member of the construction workforce (I even worked on some of the 2012 venues), the navvy Croppy is familiar with Dow Chemicals; their specialist materials are used in the construction of many of the city's major buildings.

But for those of you with longer memories, Dow Chemicals has what might euphemistically be described by turd-polishing PR firms like Bell Pottinger as a 'challenging reputation'. By which of course I mean that they are famously responsible for Napalm and Agent Orange as well as a host of other environmental blasphemies.

Now, as I said, I'm a realist. McDonalds might not always be the healthiest dietary option but nobody can say that they don't spend money sponsoring events and sporting sides in local communities where they are based.

Cadbury's is a respected British brand and Dow's insulations and membranes are probably installed in most of the buildings and structures that made up the vast Olympic infrastructure built for the games in east London. So with a little finessing, one can at least reconcile oneself (if not get on board) with their branding being given the five-ringed benediction.

But in a move that seems about as appropriate as Catholic Church-sponsored childminding, a company which is earning huge fees for a government contract to conduct fitness-to-work interviews was one of the main sponsors of the Paralympic Games. Atos is a French IT outsourcing specialist and it is reported that, including its 'kick-sick-people-off-benefits' gig, it has UK government contracts worth more than £3bn.

I have in the past written about Atos, having had first-hand experience of their truly shabby treatment of ill and vulnerable people. To see their name emblazoned on Olympic and Paralympic branding was a slap in the face to an able bodied person like myself; I could only imagine how someone fighting to keep their disability allowance must have felt.

Protests outside the French company's London headquarters and the Department for Work and Pensions by disability campaigners at the end of August received little mainstream media coverage. This, of course, is hardly surprising. Here is a search for recent news on Atos if you'd like to see for yourself what a bunch of thoroughly bad eggs they are.