It seems that my remarks last week about the Millennium Dome have struck a chord with many.

It seems that my remarks last week about the Millennium Dome have struck a chord with many. I have been pleasantly surprised to discover I am not a lone voice crying in a wilderness of truculent domophobes.

More people than have ever done so before have stopped me in the street to tell me that they too, having been to the Dome, were perplexed by the barrage of abuse from the media and, more tellingly, from the very people responsible for it.

If ever there were a cross-party responsibility then the Dome is it. It was initiated by the outgoing Old Tories and brought to fruition by the incoming New Labour, so you would think someone in Westminster might have a good word for it.

But they are vying with each other to vilify the project and the bandwagon of apology, excuse and Dome-knocking is in danger of collapsing under the weight of our elected representatives all pathetically desperate to prove they hate it too.

Would it be unkind to suggest that the security and travel hiccup on the first night, which kept the media and the great and frequently far from good hanging around at tube stations and outside the Dome for hours, resulted in a jaundiced reaction from the start?

Most Dome bashers haven't been, I would suggest - and if they have, why did they wait so long to knock it? And if it's not the quality they're complaining about but the attendance, how do they square that up?

Clearly the media hatchet job has reduced the attendance dramatically, but I'll bet any survey of those who have been would result in a favourable judgement. Furthermore the only comparable public theme attraction in Europe to have attracted more visitors thus far this year is Euro Disney - ironically, another slow starter in terms of media and public acceptance.

The bandwagon creaked frighteningly again this week at the Conservative Party Conference, when Michael Ancram sneered triumphantly and scored more cheap points as if his party had had no hand in the Dome.

I am suffering from Olympic Withdrawal Syndrome. Having done severe mischief to my sleep patterns by staying up to watch some of the more exciting moments live, I am mourning my loss.

Didn't they do well? I cannot recall many other sport watching experiences (perhaps Wembley 1966) to match the anticipation and joy of watching our competitors succeeding so magnificently after years of comparative gold drought. It is particularly satisfying that, in the tests of all round ability, that exemplify the true Olympian spirit, the Heptathlon and the Modern Pentathlon, Denise Lewis and Stephanie Cook earned Gold Medals (and managed to look a million dollars at the same time).

In the Decathlon, Dean Macey came honourably close. Our Rowing Eight pulled off a remarkable victory.

And what can be said about Stephen Redgrave that hasn't been said already?

His achievement is almost superhuman and a tribute to his will and relentless application. It has been suggested that his old school, Great Marlow, should be renamed after him. I have a better idea. Rename Marlow after him. Then his school would be the Great Stephen Redgrave School!