It's really very simple...

British Olympian Mo Farah was detained by US customs under suspicion of being a terrorist. All it took for the Sun to offer its solidarity was him winning two gold medals. There's a lesson in that for all of us. If only all Somali refugees could win gold medals we'd all be set and the Sun would be the pillar of civil liberties and anti-racism.

Olympics games bring everyone together... 55% of everyone.

Still a depressing figure :

The warm glow of Team GB's best performance in 104 years and pride in an Olympic Games well received at home and abroad have led a clear majority of the British public to conclude the £9bn they cost is good value for money. 

Clearly, very few of the respondants to the poll come from East London, where rents have more or less doubled in a year. But it's interesting given the relentless, noisy and often illogical promotion this event has been given. Not everyone loves Seb Coe. The Olympics is a brute festival of corporations and states. Despite the soft-left wishing really wishing hard, you just can't square that with any kind of progressive agenda, and it shows:

Despite the success of minority ethnic Britons such as the Somali-born 10,000m champion, Mo Farah, voters remain inclined to doubt that most newcomers do anything positive for Britain.

By a narrow 53%-47% margin, the survey finds agreement for the suggestion that "More often than not immigrants … do not bring anything positive, and the likes of the Olympic-winning athletes are an exception".

Faith in the contribution of immigrants is much stronger in London, where 62% disagree with this statement, and a majority of respondents aged under 45 likewise disagree, but among pensioners there are particularly marked doubts about newcomers – with 64% of the over-65s describing the Olympians as "exceptions".

Attitudes harden further when the question switches to immigration in general. Only 32% of respondents say the Olympic successes make them "more positive (or less worried)" about it, against just 68% who disagree.

This is just one example, albeit the most pointed. This is where nationalistic tubthumping gets you, regardless of your intentions. Everyone in the mainstream wants to graft their own political outlook onto the Olympics, but some philosophies will do better than others. For David Cameron the British team's success at the Olympics proves that there is scandalous lack of competitive sport in schools (as opposed to "Indian dancing or whatever"). By that logic Britain's schools need more inclusive activities, not fewer. This is also something which he has only just noticed as, clearly, his mind was on something else when he got rid of the two-hour a week target, set by the previous Labour government.

The entire political class thinks though whimsy and daydreams (Boris Johnson wants state school sports to be just like it was when he was inb Eton - oh how jolly). We have to live with the nightmare.

Pie chart...

Endless Brainless

It's hard not to get sucked into the Olympic fervour. It's relentless and all pervasive. Londoners have been advised to get ahead of the games. It's difficult to see how, they're everywhere. The actual sport is great, well, mostly great; gymnastics, swimming, canoeing, road-racing etc, though I'm not sure of the spectator value of sailing or pistol shooting. The silly, silly nationalism is unbearable. It feels like the death of any radical alternative in Britain for goodness knows how long. Large swathes of people are being made to feel happy despite having no objective basis for feeling so.

I can just see the Tories using Team GB as an all purpose metaphor. Boris Johnson upfront going on about years of hard work and sacrifice etc. If Team GB can do it then public sector workers can work for half-wages/unemployed people beg for scraps/disabled people can die in a ditch. It's all about pulling together to make Boris and co very, very, very... rich.

We will have to see how things look in two weeks when we have literally nothing to talk about anymore.

About Friday's Critical Mass

The point about the Critical Mass arrested (drawn from an excellent article in the Bike section of the Guardian online). The Metropolitan Police tried to limit the ride under Section 12 of the Public Order Act 1986, which allows police to impose limits on such an event when "it may result in serious public disorder, serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community". The Critical Mass ride has been happening monthly in London for 18 years without even a hint of “public disorder”.

The Metropolitan Police tried to limit the ride to a certain ‘agreed’ route. The route was not agreed. It never is. The direction of Critical Mass is decided by consensus on the day. Critical Mass is intended to promote cycle use and cycle users rights on public highways. It operates within the law and is therefore entitled to the road, and in 2008 the High Courts agreed with this.

The significance is this:

1. The police are an unelected body.
2. The police assume the right to practically define the meaning of the law. In this case that a demonstration that has never resulted in “serious public disorder” suddenly might and that a procession that doesn’t have to define its route beforehand suddenly does.
3. If you want to live in any kind of democracy you have to challenge this assumption by the police.

Today in London

You may not have known but today in London was the monthly Critical Mass bike ride, and overwhelmingly peaceful protest that has gone on for years. If you support the Olympics you support this: the police pepper spraying and assaulting a disabled man on a tricycle.

Oopsie! That nazi moment...

Or: laughing at nazis when they fuck up. Voula Papachristou, racist Greek triple-jumper is “very bitter and upset” about her exclusion from the Olympics for her Nile Fever ‘joke’ on Twitter, subsequently deleted. Check this quote out, a perfect example of modern racism expressed. It’s less white-supremacism more arch victimhood:

"I have not slept at all and to be honest I am still trying to come to terms with what has happened. I am trying to stay calm otherwise I would lose control. I am thankful to my coach and family and so many other people who have stuck by me.

"After so many years of hurt and sacrifices to try and get to my first Olympics I am very bitter and upset. But what has upset me the most is the excessive reaction and speed of the disciplinary decision”.

Boo-fucking-hoo! She says she has never got involved in politics but has been involved enough to retweet posts from the woman-beating nazi, Illias Kasidiaris. At one stage she even wished him (via Twitter) all the best on his saints' day. This was also later deleted: it’s almost like she knew there was something wrong, you know? Question: who on Earth could Kasidiaris patron saint be? Some awful cross between Joseph Goebbels and Jackie Gleason. One of these days, Alice…!

Papachristou’s bitterness extends to the Greek government’s sport programme (or lack of it):

“We have zero support from the state," she said. "There are a lot of things that people do not know about, such as the unacceptable conditions in which we have to train.

"For example, there is no heating and no hot water even to take a shower in winter, no air conditioning in the summer and squalid training facilities and equipment in a state of disrepair.

"These are just the tip of the iceberg without mentioning the financial side and how we have been affected by massive cuts in state-funding for sport."

Now, for all this to make some logical sense you’d have to assume Papachristou thinks Africans run the country. But this is racism we’re dealing with, and racism and logic were always ships in the night.

From the mouth of Sauron...

"Hello, I'm Wenlock! Don't I look smart in my police officer’s uniform? I have the important job of protecting you on your journey to the London 2012 Games. Take this figurine on a journey to the London 2012 Olympic Games – we can have lots of fun together!"

Fun together...? Ye, gods it's frightening (I don't want the Olympic Police on my back, go to this link, I promise you it is... well you'll see), and brought to you by the same people who thought that 13,000 soldiers padding you down and pointing a gun in your face, surface-to-air missiles on your roof and a warship prowling the Thames would be 'reassuring'.

But we have the internet, and where there's the internet there are smart-arses. Please enjoy the product reviews before the site is shut down and everyone is arrested. A few samples:

Scared of Stratford said:

I bought one of these for my nephew but before I could give it to him, Wenlock's 'All Seeing Eye' had spotted the leaflet on my kitchen table for an anti-Olympics protest on the day after the opening ceremony. Before I knew it, the building where I live was surrounded by a special armed Olympics police unit and now I'm banned from central Stratford's "Dispersal Zone" until late September.

Olympiad Spectacle said:

I bought this toy to take on my Olympic Journey as suggested by the technical details. Imagine my surprise when I woke up the next morning to find that it had left its case, called in reinforcements and kettled me in my bed. 

I'm just glad I didn't buy the water cannon or Long Range Acoustic Device accessories.

Extremely Worried:

... Bought this toy last week and although it arrived quickly and it seems to be well made, I have some concerns. Every fifteen minute since I've opened it out of the packaging, it will shout phrases such as 'I AM THE EYE OF PROVIDENCE', 'PAX ROMANA' and 'THE SECRET IS WITHIN THE GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZA'.

One more. The Red Menace:

Since buying this toy, my neighbours collection of Gollies have all been unduly harassed or locked away in a cupboard for no reason.

Olympics update

We have to remember these things because, sooner or later, they'll change the name of Tower Hamlets to Strategic Hamlets.

Britain is being flooded not just with water but 'brand police'. See here the lengths the organising committee and the British state is going to protect their sponsors. "Summer" is a branded word. That's right, not a season, a brand. Gold is an element, but it too is being protected by the brand police. Welcome to McBritain.

Olympic cleaners sleep ten to a room, live seventy five to a toilet. At least it's not London Bridge.

And finally: musicians play for free at the Olympics. How nice of them to do that at an event costing £24 billion! Wouldn't it be a shame for David Cameron and Danny Boyle if the opening ceremony turned out like this? I mean, I'd laugh my socks off, but that's just me...

More Olympic news...

Residents in East London have lost their legal battle to prevent missiles being stuck on top of their block. The military (who knew about this for many years and did not bother to tell the residents) reasoned thus: we want to put them there and we don't want to put them anywhere else, and not a hint as to WHY they want to put them anywhere. Does Al Qaeda have an air force? Sure, they might (in a million years) hijack a plane, but where's the sense in shooting a plane down over a city of seven million people? 


With this in mind - what rights do we have left? London is an occupied city.

Stupid, stupid, stupid

One of the cruellest, most unbearable things about the modern ruling class, at least in Britain is how stupid they are. Sure, they know how to rule, or at least, how to get away with it. When it comes to listing their attributes, our bourgey overlords, like to list things like refinement and education; nothing could be further from the truth.

Take Bozo Johnson, yesterday launching a multi-million pound display of the Olympic rings (a small example, I know). What do the rings symbolise? According to Johnson they symbolise the Olympic virtues of, um, chastity, poverty and other things. This was all, apparently, a joke. Aren’t you glad he’s taking all in his stride? You would have thought he might be under some kind of pressure, as the Mayor of London.

Bozo might have just half-remembered Olympic motto, Citius, Altius, Fortius. But then he also might have remembered the rings are nothing to do with the motto, or any other virtues. They are symbolic of the peaceful union of humankind across the five continents... which is nice.

But these are piffling details for the mayor of the Olympic host city…

In other news, according to Murdoch’s man in government (aren’t they all?) Jeremy Hunt, the Olympics are under budget. Yup, that’s £476 million under the £9.3 billion budget. OK, that’s almost double the original budget but what're you going to do? It makes you wonder what goes on in these people’s heads. Do they think ‘budget’ means ‘guess’?

Either way, there’s now ample money to pay the London bus drivers their Olympic bonus. It’s only right and fair.

Bus strike

On the very same day bus drivers in London struck a mighty blow against their bosses, standing up to the high-and-mighty judiciary and the bloated austerity-pimps in government, the very same day men and women from every racial and religious background took to picket line to fight for their rights, Ed Milliband (son of a refugee) crept onto the news to justify the racist vilification of immigrants. Sure, people have 'legitimate concerns', well, actually, they're concerns that have been promoted and legitimised by over a decade of concentrated campaigning by the national press, often involving stories like the Swan Bake legend, which gets recycled every few years. But if you want the answer to how we get everyone in this society to live together, thrive and survive (community cohesion, the New Labour elision used to avoid talking about racism), this strike is the perfect example.

It's a wonder Unite, the bus drivers union, still pays the Labour Party so much money, when it undermines its members interests like this, lets them down, so badly... But that's another story. Meanwhile, well done the bus drivers. Don't let the courts get in your way. Don't stop until you win.

Blog of interest...

I don't know what it's like where you are but London is currently decked out like a Louise Mensch reboot of Triumph of the Will. We are being bombarded with relentless festivities that are part of a political campaign to take us back to the 1930s and make us be pleased about it. There's the jubilee, the football, the tennis and then six weeks of Olympics; wall to wall flags, cops, soldiers, missiles, tourists, tories and traffic jams.

If for some bizarre reason you to the upcoming summer-long reactionary gang-bang, full-on naked toryism in our streets, may I reccommend to you the Official (sorry OFFICIAL) Anti-Olympics Blog. You will like it. For example:

“Poppycock!” they cry. “This is a time to rejoice, not to whinge and whine and moan and talk of democracy. Let’s put up the bunting, wave our flags, cheer for all that is good about being British!” Well, I hate to disagree… No, wait, scrub that. I love to disagree!

Damn right!

Geography lesson with the International Olympic Committee

Yes, you're reading it right. Israel is in Europe, Palestine is in Asia. The mind boggles and yet it makes an eerie kind of sense. Palestinians of count for less than Israelis in ruling class ideology. Even though they live in the same place, they may as well be from another continent.

In other news...

The Queen's something-or-other jubilee is coming. Oh, it's going to be bad, annoying and bad... and come then the Olympics; men with guns, helicopters, social cleansing, wall to wall advertising and bloody flags everywhere.

Alert!

Well, the first part you already know; London is being turned into a giant barracks:

Security officials are exploiting the Olympics as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to multiply and militarise their weapons stocks, laminating another layer on to the surveillance state. The Games justify a security architecture to prevent terrorism, but that architecture can double to suppress or intimidate acts of political dissent. The Olympic Charter actually prohibits political activism, stating, "no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas". What "other areas" means is open to broad interpretation. So despite Olympics human-rights rhetoric, the charter dictates – if indirectly – that local authorities squelch political activism. On cue, London police recently vowed to scour social media to sniff out any organised protests or disruptions.

The Olympics will militarise London, with surface-to-air missiles at the ready, a Royal Navy battleship moored offshore, and soldiers on patrol. After initially estimating 10,000 security guards would suffice, the London organising committee determined more than double that number would be required. The ministry of defence is filling the gap with about 13,500 military personnel, 4,000 more than are currently based in Afghanistan. Not placated, the US declared it will send its own security to London, including 500 FBI agents.

Enjoy the Olympics, OR ELSE! Do you reckon these provisions will be removed after the games are over? It'll be interesting because the word on the grapevine is the EDL are planning another close encounter of the third reich in East London this August, Walthamstow, apparently, which is an Olympic borough. What're the odds the state will make an exception, again, for the fascists?

If you want to head off that threat you can start by letting everyone know about it. London was, is and always should be a nazi free zone. The next thing you can do is make Luton a nazi free zone, May 5th, national counter-demonstration against the EDL. The last time the master race went there their friends in the police turned the centre of Luton into a ghost town. Lets try to keep it open this time, open to all, except the fascists.