Secrets of the crystal dome

ONE of the shorter lived mysteries about our enigmatic Minister without Portfolio may have been solved. Last
week, Peter Mandelson told the Commons that his Dome
would feature the virtual reality game Surfball. More than
its name he could not reveal, however, since British
computer geniuses were still perfecting "the 21st Century
sport".

We now learn, from The Independent, that Surfball
already exists. Kentaro Toyama of Yale University
invented it and stuck it on the Internet.

Somehow, and with a virtual reality headset, a camera
linked to a computer and a squash ball (a blue squash ball
with a red dot . . . an amusing metaphor, perhaps, for
New Labour?), Internet users can "navigate through
space".

Nasty minds will wonder whether naughty old Mandy
nicked the idea, but I put it down to another spooky
instance of Jungian Synchronicity.

Surfball apart, the rest of the Dome proceeds wonderfully.
Mandy says that it will be split into "zones", one of which
will be "futuristic", and the whole "experience" will be "an
adventure story based on the theme of time".

Time zones... futuristic... interactive games... finally, it
begins to make sense. The secret masterplan is to model
the Dome directly on the high camp Channel 4 game
show, The Crystal Maze! Taxi to Greenwich, Mr Richard
O'Brien, taxi to Greenwich...