November 19, 2012
Olympics - Inspire A Generation Fail
BBC News - Olympics has not boosted school sport, survey suggests
80% of parents say the amount of PE and games in UK schools has not increased.
A message on the youth legacy section of the London 2012 website says: "Since it won the bid to host the Games, London 2012 has worked closely with partners and stakeholders on activation programmes to promote sports participation in the run-up to, during and after the Games.
General secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Christine Blower, said the Olympic Legacy was alive and well and being nurtured by our PE teachers.
Leaving the Olympic legacy in the hands of the knuckle-dragging mouth breathers who are only kept from roaming the streets in brown shirts by being employed as PE teachers was always going to be a glorious failure. Thank goodness.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:25 AM
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October 29, 2012
Thanks Cherie!
Lord Coe reveals how Cherie Blair won us the Olympics | The Times
Cheers, Cherie | The Times
Mrs Blair’s role in securing the Olympics may improve her battered public image.
It seems that Cherie Blair’s name should be added to the list of those who can claim some credit for the triumph of the London 2012 Olympics. According to Lord Coe, whose autobiography is serialised in The Times today, the then Prime Minister’s wife played a key role in London winning the contest to stage the Games.
It says something about the generosity of Lord Coe — and the secret of his success and the success of the Olympics — that he has found reason to give credit for the London Games to so many people, even some unlikely ones.
There are so many people to thank for securing the Games and making it such an unforgettable summer. .....
My normally neatly ironed copy of The Times has been screwed up and chucked of the Breakfast Room table to be trampled on by the dogs. For the first time I miss the incontinent cat who died last week.
The cover alone featuring Lord Sebum in his tight shorts was enough to turn the bacon to dust in my mouth but on opening the paper to see this leader illustrated with large photo of Her Ladyship it was all too much. At least I know my pharyngeal reflex still works.
Posted by The Englishman at 8:05 AM
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August 20, 2012
Windfall Tax Not Medals For Olympic Heroes
Olympians whose winning ways will see them going for more gold - Telegraph
Sponsors, advertisers and management teams are now swarming around the stars of Team GB. A month ago, many of them were nobodies; now they are the faces of the most successful sporting event in British history. So who will the biggest earners be?
Gold medal-winners will make the most money, predicts Nigel Currie, director of sports marketing agency brandRapport. “Ennis could probably earn £3.5 million a year from sponsorship and media appearances; and Farah could get up towards £2.5 million,” he says. “Rutherford will do well, as will Sir Chris Hoy....
So the taxpayer has stumped up millions to enable these athletes achieve their best, to become an elite, and they get to keep the loot. "Privatizing profits and socialising losses" - if they were bankers I think there would be outrage.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:34 AM
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August 17, 2012
Olympic Decimation Of UK Tourism
....a national survey of UKinbound members which was carried out over the weekend across all sectors of the membership to establish the impact of the 2012 Games on inbound tourism businesses.
The research, conducted by Qa Research in conjunction with UKinbound, showed that for the period of 23 July - 12 August, 66% of members surveyed stated that year on year inbound tourism bookings or inbound tourism visitors numbers were significantly lower and a further 22% stated they were slightly lower.
Furthermore, 59% of those who believed numbers were considerably lower stated they had seen decreases in excess of 10%.
For the post Olympic period 13 August – 9 September, 82% stated that bookings or visitor numbers were lower or significantly lower year on year.
72% of members agreed with the statement that ‘lack of accommodation for advanced booked groups in London had adversely affected destinations around the UK’ during the Olympics.
Rita Beckwith CEO City Cruises commented: “As an industry we knew the Games would have a negative impact on international visitor numbers to London but the impact on the rest of the UK, combined with domestic visitors staying away, has been deeply disappointing.
After a party always a hang-over. This disaster won't make the UK papers.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:30 AM
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August 14, 2012
St George's Cross Banned From Olympics
Olympic Madness – Lee Thompson flys his kilt at the closing ceremony
What an honour to see Lee Thompson, the saxophonist from Madness, in his St George Cross kilt at the Olympic closing ceremony last night. Looks like the Englishness may have been an issue though as a couple of small Union Flags had been stitched onto the front.
True. He was not allowed to show the England flag in the Olympics as it was against the rules. Did I mention how much I loved the Olympics?
(He also let his "crown jewels" fall out of the kilt which is what is hanging below him.
Posted by The Englishman at 9:09 AM
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August 12, 2012
Thank God That's Over
Thank God That’s Over | Orphans of Liberty
Longrider has channelled my thoughts exactly - I wouldn't change a word and I can't better it.
Posted by The Englishman at 11:02 AM
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July 30, 2012
Lord Shambolic Coe
London 2012 Olympics: Call to ‘name and shame’ no-shows - News - Scotsman.com
Lord Coe dismissed the growing concern over on-going issue of empty seats and denied that calling in the military appeared “shambolic”...“I don’t think there is a single person out there would thinks it is shambolic",...
Ah hem, over here Sir, there is a man raising his hand...
Posted by The Englishman at 9:25 PM
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July 27, 2012
Olympic Prison Camp
Click for largerJust in time for the Olympics - a Prison Camp has been built on Salisbury Plain. Who can it be for?
UPDATE - Silly me - of course it is just a "civilian population compound" - probably.
http://www.landmarcfm.com/news_20101160.asp
Posted by The Englishman at 8:21 PM
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I Think I Am An Academic Lesbian
Give sport a chance. You might even enjoy it | The Times
Simon Barnes
You’ve probably noticed that there’s a lot of sport about this summer and you’re probably aware that there’s going to be an awful lot more over the course of the next 16 days. And perhaps you dislike sport. Perhaps you rather despise sport and the people who enjoy it. Perhaps sport simply overwhelms you with a baffled indifference. Perhaps you believe, along with Miss Jean Brodie, that for those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like.
This could be the moment to realign. This could be the moment to give sport a chance. So now, as the Olympic Games are about to get into their ineffable stride, I present my cut-out-and-keep guide to sport. Let’s call it “How to enjoy sport even if you’re a woman, an intellectual, gay or any combination of the above”.
Thanks Simon - I prefer to consider myself as just not stupid, gullible and ovine.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:53 AM
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Olympic Opening Ceremony Video
Our farcical Olympic Games are nothing to be proud of
Posted by The Englishman at 6:58 AM
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July 24, 2012
Olympic Opening Ceremony Pictures
Olympics opening ceremony: 'Surreal and crazy' – but secrets kept safe | Sport | The Guardian
Audience for technical rehearsal told by director Danny Boyle not to tweet pictures...
Too late - it looks as though everyone will have to wear a Danny Boy ginger wig...
Posted by The Englishman at 8:45 PM
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July 23, 2012
London 2012 Summer Stasi
Britain flooded with 'brand police' to protect sponsors - Home News - UK - The Independent
Hundreds of uniformed Olympics officers will begin touring the country today enforcing sponsors' multimillion-pound marketing deals, in a highly organised mission that contrasts with the scramble to find enough staff to secure Olympic sites.
Almost 300 enforcement officers will be seen across the country checking firms to ensure they are not staging "ambush marketing" or illegally associating themselves with the Games at the expense of official sponsors such as Adidas, McDonald's, Coca-Cola and BP. The clampdown goes on while 3,500 soldiers on leave are brought in to bail out the security firm G4S which admitted it could not supply the numbers of security staff it had promised.
Wearing purple caps and tops, the experts in trading and advertising working for the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) are heading the biggest brand protection operation staged in the UK. Under legislation specially introduced for the London Games, they have the right to enter shops and offices and bring court action with fines of up to £20,000.
Olympics organisers have warned businesses that during London 2012 their advertising should not include a list of banned words, including "gold", "silver" and "bronze", "summer", "sponsors" and "London"....
Just when my gut loathing of the Olympics starts to weaken a little another little nugget, like a floating turd, pops to the surface to remind me that it really is all shit.
UPDATE - Picture from Anoneumouse - remember, parody needs to mimic the original, at least to the extent the audience can perceive the original expression. Therefore, if one has to make the original expression unperceivable in order to avoid infringement, there is no way to create parody as a logical consequence.
Posted by The Englishman at 3:21 PM
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July 19, 2012
Oy-limpics Tat
Olympic torch bearers hail from Tulsa | Tulsa World
Jerri Peterson screamed so loud, her whole floor rushed to her desk. Until it happened, she did not know she wanted to carry the Olympic torch, but once the possibility of it happening arrived, she was elated.
"It makes a dream I didn't even know I had come true," Peterson said.
Peterson, who is from Tulsa and now works in Atlanta, was nominated by her coworkers at InterContinental Hotels Group to be an Olympic torchbearer for the 2012 London Olympics. Holiday Inn, part of IHG, is the official hotel of the Olympic games, and 72 IHG employees from 17 countries have the opportunity to carry the torch.
She said:
"I always wanted to have a tattoo but I never quite felt passionate about any one thing to have it put on my body permanently.
"So when I was selected for this wonderful honour, I thought 'that's it - I'm ready to have my tattoo'."
She booked a session with a "really good" tattoo artist in her home state of Georgia, and took a friend along for moral support.
Initially she was delighted with how it looked and it was only when she sent a photo of the tattoo to a friend that the spelling mistake was pointed out.
She said: "I looked at it and I was so disappointed. I called my husband and he giggled a little bit.
"Then I started laughing about it and I've laughed ever since."
Posted by The Englishman at 6:46 AM
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July 18, 2012
Olympics Punked
Yes! The new DOGSHITE EP!!! OLYMPIC SHAME! ON 'YOUR FACE MY ARSE' RECORDS!!!
These guys Punking it right in the face of the Olympic Bullshit. based right in the thick of it and pretty fucked off with it already!
From some real London folk, they bring you this message from the capital!
enjoy
Dog Shite's new 10" e.p out this week ...
Posted by The Englishman at 9:46 PM
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July 16, 2012
And A Big Welcome To Our Olympic Guests - Fuck Off Home Please
Whatever you do, don’t mention the Olympics! – Mic Wright – The Kernel
Olympic shooter, wife, separated by Olympic bureaucracy
London 2012 Olympics travel chaos: live - Telegraph
Posted by The Englishman at 6:07 PM
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July 14, 2012
Top Gun Olympics
Rogue aircraft will be shot down to protect Olympics - UK - Scotsman.com
RAF Typhoon fast jets and Puma helicopters with snipers will be among the military aircraft patrolling the zone in central London, which comes into force from today.
As well as Typhoon jets based at Northolt, and Puma helicopters with sniper teams, at Ilford in east London, the MoD’s contingency plans include Army Rapier and Starstreak ground-based air defence systems at six London sites; Royal Navy Sea King helicopters at Northolt; and helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, the Navy’s largest ship, on the River Thames in London as a base for helicopter operations
as well as accommodation for personnel.
Flares and lasers could be fired by the military aircraft then, as a last resort, if an aircraft fails to comply with the directions of the military aircraft, it may be considered a threat to security, which may result in the use of lethal force.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said:“I believe this will provide reassurance to residents of, and visitors to, London, and a powerful deterrent."
Have they gone completely mad?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:36 AM
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July 13, 2012
Olympic Five Ring Special - Awaiting The Reply
Harry
You never got back to me when I phoned so I thought I would double check by email that we are all good to go.
As you know we are publishing a special Five Rings edition of Anal Lovers Weekly. Our make up artist is really pleased how well the five model’s “rings” have turned out in the different colours. A full diversity of buttholes ready for pleasure! I’m sure many of our Olympic visitors will enjoy the spread! I would love the opportunity of presenting a framed photo to Seb Coe, I could probably get some of the models to turn up as well, and stay on afterwards…
Thanks for your help, do you want a credit in the mag and on the website?
Yours ever
Tim
________________________________________From: Harry Graham [mailto:Harry.Graham@london2012.com]
Sent: 21 March 2012 11:11
Subject: [work] LookBook AccessFrom: #LOCOG LookBook Team
Sent: 21 March 2012 11:09
Subject: LookBook AccessHello,
Thank you for your request to view the London 2012 Look Book. Unfortunately your e-mail address does not match our approved list. If you are a Local Authority, Business Improvement District or Port of Entry please reapply using your official e-mail address.
If you do not fit into one of these categories please reply to this message letting us know your reasons for requesting access to the LookBook.
Regards,
Harry Graham
Look Intern
Brand and MarketingLondon Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Ltd
One Churchill Place
Canary Wharf
London E14 5LN
Direct Line +44 (0)20 3 2012 856
Switchboard: +44 (0)20 3 2012 000
Fax: +44 (0) 203 2012 001
london2012.com
________________________________________
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Limited
A company registered in England and Wales with its registered office at One Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London E14 5LN and registered number 05267819
This E-mail is confidential. If you are not the addressee you may not copy, forward, disclose or use any part of it. If you have received this message in error, please delete it and all copies from your system and notify the sender immediately by return E-mail.
Nothing in this message or its attachments is intended to create legal relations between us unless there is an express statement creating such relations or this message contains an authorised purchase order.
Internet communications cannot be guaranteed to be timely secure, error or virus-free. The sender does not accept liability for any errors or omissions.
http://www.london2012.com
(It wasn't addressed to me so I'm free to copy etc it.)
Posted by The Englishman at 7:46 AM
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July 12, 2012
Dellers Spot On Olympics
I hate the Olympics – Telegraph Blogs
Posted by The Englishman at 3:44 PM
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Cavity Search For Sebum Coe
MoD fury as soldiers forced to carry out menial security tasks for Olympic Games - Telegraph
Many of the troops assigned to the Games are Afghan veterans. They will be ordered to carry out rudimentary security work including bag searches at venue entrances.
Commanders are particularly angry about the conditions in which Service personnel are being required to work.
Troops who arrived at Olympic sites this week for security duty were said to have been left without basic facilities including toilets.
One senior military officer said the Olympic work was “demeaning” to Service personnel.
"It is very demeaning that highly professional soldiers and Marines who have served two or three tours of duty in Afghanistan now find themselves doing bog-standard security checks because the Olympic organisers can't get their act together,” he said.
Locog, the organising body for the Games, said: Locog said: "We would be surprised if there are concern being raised about the involvement of military personnel as all parties have signed up to the security plan. The allocation of military personnel was based on clear agreement of their roles and responsibilities."
"all parties have signed up..." apart from the poor bloody grunts who actually have to do the work.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:21 AM
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July 9, 2012
Olympic Scum at Work
Posted by The Englishman at 5:17 PM
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July 2, 2012
Nazi Flames In Coventry
Video: London 2012 Olympic Torch snatched by children Coventry - Telegraph
Parading a flaming fascist symbol through the firebombed streets was probably asking for trouble.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:40 PM
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June 28, 2012
Deep Joy
Raedwald: The pricking of officious narcissism
Sometimes stories make me very happy.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:22 AM
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June 26, 2012
Olympics Summary Justice
Fast-track justice scheme for London 2012 offenders | The Times
People who commit offences linked to the Olympics will face “instant justice” under plans to deal with troublemakers and bring them to court within 24 hours, The Times can reveal....Prosecutors will be on call 24 hours a day to assist with charging and virtual courts, already at Camberwell and Bromley, will be used heavily, with up to 22 planned hearings a day, to cut the movement of prisoners across the capital.
“Offenders will be ‘beamed’ into a hearing to avoid dealing with traffic disruption,”...
A few of the offences that will get right up Sir Sebum Coe's nose are outlined here. Basically anything that mentions London or 2012 or anything at all that the sponsors don't like will have you in chokey quicker than a IOC Committee member chases a chambermaid down the corridor.
The Olympics, doncha love 'em!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:21 AM
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June 24, 2012
We Pay £50k per Tourist.
London 2012 Olympics: hotel prices fall as visitor rush fails to materialise - Telegraph
Studies have shown that an estimated 294,000 tourists were likely to visit London from overseas during the Games period.
Is that right? If we believe that the Games will only cost us £9billion, a naive charming belief on par with that of the tooth fairy, then that is over £30,000 a visitor. And they are displacing more tourists who would have come anyway.
Is it really as mad as that?
Posted by The Englishman at 2:45 PM
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June 15, 2012
Fascist, Higher, Stupider
Faster, higher, stronger go the corporate forces throttling our freedom | The Times (£)
Richard Morrison
If I were a drama queen I would say that this is how fascism starts. One of our top choreographers, David Bintley, has been forced to change the title of his new work for Birmingham Royal Ballet — because Olympic organisers said so. No, it wasn’t called Sod the Olympics. Oddly enough, that would probably be legally OK. Perhaps he should consider it as an alternative.
No, he titled it Faster, Higher, Stronger — a witty and (one would have thought) harmless allusion to the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius. But so desperate are the London Games organisers not to upset the International Olympic Committee that they are employing an army of lawyers to stop “unauthorised” use of phrases with an Olympic ring (as it were). For instance, I wouldn’t be allowed to use the phrase “London 2012” in a commercial context, even though I live in London and it’s 2012. Thank God we are six months away from London 2013.
And Lord Coe’s henchmen have certainly made a Mad Lawyer’s Tea Party out of protecting the phrases they “own”. Even a little greasy spoon called “Café Olympic” had to change its name. Birmingham Royal Ballet is only the latest victim of this linguistic purge. Bintley, who describes the crackdown as “quite nonsensical”, will now call his new piece simply Faster.
But if Coe’s apparatchiks are worried about upsetting the IOC, they are utterly paranoid about offending their commercial sponsors. The catalogue of inanities gets bigger by the day...... So why are our freedoms as British citizens — freedoms of trade, choice, speech, artistic expression and even movement — being so restricted to appease commercial interests?...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:46 AM
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June 12, 2012
Olympic Opening Ceremony To Feature Fly-tipping, Incest and Badge Baiting
BBC News - London 2012: Olympics opening ceremony details revealed
The Olympic Stadium will be transformed into the "British countryside" for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Games on 27 July.
The set will feature meadows, fields and rivers, with families taking picnics, people playing sports on the village green and farmers tilling the soil.
Real farmyard animals will be grazing in the "countryside", with a menagerie of 30 sheep, 12 horses, three cows, two goats, 10 chickens, 10 ducks, nine geese and three sheepdogs.
I'm waiting for my invite to show the world the real British Countryside..
Posted by The Englishman at 6:07 PM
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June 3, 2012
Reason 54 to Celebrate the Jubilee Weekend
- we are being given a break from hearing about the Olyawnpics. Bet Queen Sebastian Coe is stamping his little feet because he isn't on the front pages..
UPDATE - She still has it.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:22 AM
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May 18, 2012
The Olympic Torch Arrival Video
How proud we all are!
Posted by The Englishman at 6:21 AM
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May 15, 2012
Olympics Shut Down Whitehall
Whitehall gets seven weeks off for Olympics | The Times
Civil servants have been told they can work from home for seven weeks during the Olympics, prompting incredulity from ministers, MPs and business leaders.
Tens of thousands of civil servants based in Central London will be allowed to work from home from July 21 — six days before the opening ceremony. Flexible working arrangements will remain for the 15 days between the Olympic Games and the Paralympics, ending on September 9 after the second closing ceremony.
On one hand having the bureaucrats lounging in their gardens with a laptop might prevent them interfering with the country's recovery on the other wtf?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:33 AM
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May 10, 2012
Olympics Fail From The Start
Whoops! I bet the original Olympic Flame wasn't allowed to be blown out...
The Nazi Origins of the Olympic Flame Relay - Max Fisher - International - The Atlantic
Though dressed up as an ancient Greek tradition, the torch relay ceremony was originally designed to further Hitler's nationalist propaganda.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:32 PM
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May 9, 2012
Green Olympic Art Project - What's Not To Like?
Just what was the Arts Council thinking when it agreed back in 2009 to hand over £500,000 to the artist Alex Hartley in order for him and 18 volunteers to create Nowhereisland?
The creative idea itself is actually rather captivating: find an Arctic island that has recently been exposed by melting ice and then break off some rocks to form a new "island nation" which can then be transported to the waters off the UK in time for the 2012 Olympics.
During its conception, Hartley billed it as a "travelling embassy" intended to highlight issues such as climate change and land ownership....
So bad even Leo is against it!
http://nowhereisland.org/ should be on the National Health as it is such an effective emetic... and there is more...
I feel purged now.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:25 PM
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April 30, 2012
The O2 Olympic Venue Welcome Video
O2 Olympic venue in row over security against legal photography | Sport | The Guardian
As an experiment, the Guardian attempted to shoot video footage of the O2 arena from a public road on its southern edge, only a few minutes' walk from the main entrance.
Very quickly the reporter was challenged by O2 security guards, who made a series of demands with no basis in law. They ordered that the filming stop â "We've requested you to not do it because we don't like it" â and that they be shown any existing footage. Asked on what basis they could demand this, one replied: "It's under the terrorist law. We are an Olympic venue." Another added: "You have, for want of a better word, breached our security by videoing it [the O2]."
At one point they refused to allow the reporter to leave. One said: "It's gone too far for that."
Guards are entitled to challenge suspicious behaviour and call the police. However, they have no additional legal powers on public land. While such overreach is not uncommon it is often followed by a management apology.
An O2 spokesman defended the guards' approach. He said: "On the basis that [the reporter was] filming areas of the O2 that are not usually of interest to the public, our security staff's approach and handling of the situation was entirely appropriate."
It was routine policy to intercept anyone filming the arena from public land, he added: "We work with the media and others to accommodate requests to film in and around the O2, which is situated on private property, but when we observe filming of the O2's infrastructure and access points it is our policy to approach individuals so we can take the appropriate course of action." The same policy was in force with people taking still photographs from public vantage points, he said.
The civil rights campaign group Liberty said it was alarmed. Its legal officer Corinna Ferguson, said: "There's no power stopping a person taking photographs on public land, let alone to arrest them or seize property, without reasonable suspicion they've committed an offence. Police officers or security guards who get this wrong could well find themselves in trouble with the law.
"With all eyes on London during the Olympics what a terrible message it would send if Londoners and tourists face harassment from the authorities merely for snapping the capital's landmarks."
Posted by The Englishman at 8:18 AM
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April 18, 2012
The Olympics - A Suitable Symbol The £5000 Castle Built On Sand
The giant sandcastle built in Weymouth to mark 100 days until the Olympics has been taken down already over of safety fears.
It took four days to build and cost the London Games Organising Committee £5,000.
They tell us though they were only going to keep it there for a short time so they could take photos.
"This extensive coverage , linked to the London 2012 Games, helps to promote Weymouth & Portland and Dorset around the world in print media, online and on TV. Paid for by LOCOG, the image has secured tourism coverage valued way in excess of the cost of building the sandcastle and staging the photo shoot."
Wasting £5000 on a photo-op - how very suitable a symbol for the Perspire A Generation Olympics.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:30 PM
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April 2, 2012
Olympic Tarts Ban Competition
No vice please, it’s the Olympics | The Times
Prostitutes are being “cleaned off the streets” to make the Olympic boroughs in London more presentable, it is claimed.
Young people in skimpy clothes using their bodies to make money - can't have that at the Olympics. And as for the shady gangs of older people, usually men, pimping off their young workers no punishment is harsh enough.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:45 AM
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March 29, 2012
Olympics - A Rich Person's Games
Public still slow to warm to this summer's Olympics - UK Politics - UK - The Independent
More than half the public thinks the London Olympics will not be worth the taxpayers' money that has been spent on them, according to a survey for The Independent. The ComRes poll found that 51 per cent of people disagree with the statement that the Games will be worth the ｣9.3bn cost to the public purse; 40 per cent agree with the statement and 9 per cent replied "don't know." ...
More people in the top AB group (49 per cent) think the cost is justified than do not (42 per cent). But the opposite is the case among other social classes, suggesting that the Olympics could be seen as a "rich person's event"...
David Cameron ...insisted that the cost of the Olympics could be justified because they could inspire Britain's young people and "have the power to change people's lives". He added: "Every government has to be very careful with public money. We have been with this budget. I am proud of the fact that we are coming in on time and on budget."
"on budget"?
London bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics -
As of the time of the bid ..the organising committee laid out the following figures:
£560 million for new venues, including £250 million for the Olympic Stadium.
£650 million for the Olympic village.
£1.5 billion to run the Games.
£200 million on security..
Under £3 Billion - not the £9 billion now reported...
Posted by The Englishman at 6:47 AM
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March 22, 2012
Games Overspend
Commonwealth Games 2014: Glasgow games face "real risk" of overspend - News - Scotsman.com
THE Commonwealth Games face "real risks" of an overspend in the £524 million budget set aside to pay for their delivery, Scotlandâs public spending watchdog has warned.
Say it ain't so! A real risk of some Games overspending!
Posted by The Englishman at 7:26 AM
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March 21, 2012
The Secret London 2012 Look Book
This website is designed to give you ideas and guidance about how you can celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 in your area and to purchase Look items.
You must agree to ...an obligation to follow the London 2012 Look: Brand Protection Guidelines which include rules about where and when Look items can be displayed. Note that special rules apply if you are hosting any events in the places you propose to display Look. You should read the guidelines before selecting items to purchase to ensure the manner in which you are planning to use them will comply with the guidelines. This site also provides information about planting or mowing any London 2012 themed displays and includes some relevant guidelines and terms and conditions which you will be deemed to accept by using any of the planting and mowing templates provided on the site. Please also ensure you have read these before undertaking any London 2012 themed planting or mowing.
I tried to find out about the London 2012 Look so we could all celebrate the Olympics but no luck...
Hello,Thank you for your request to view the London 2012 Look Book. Unfortunately your e-mail address does not match our approved list. If you are a Local Authority, Business Improvement District or Port of Entry please reapply using your official e-mail address.
If you do not fit into one of these categories please reply to this message letting us know your reasons for requesting access to the LookBook.
Regards,
Harry Graham
Look Intern
Brand and MarketingLondon Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Ltd
One Churchill Place
Canary Wharf
London E14 5LN
Direct Line +44 (0)20 3 2012 856
Switchboard: +44 (0)20 3 2012 000
Fax: +44 (0) 203 2012 001
london2012.com
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Limited A company registered in England and Wales with its registered office at One Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London E14 5LN and registered number 05267819 This E-mail is confidential. If you are not the addressee you may not copy, forward, disclose or use any part of it. If you have received this message in error, please delete it and all copies from your system and notify the sender immediately by return E-mail.
(Luckily I'm the addressee so I'm allowed to copy, forward, discloe and use any part of this email...)
Harry, I wonder if you are an unpaid intern Yah!, Please give me a clue as to what the appropriate London Olympic Look is? Does it involve Brown Shirts and leather shorts?
Posted by The Englishman at 8:37 PM
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March 19, 2012
Olympic Flame Advisory
Where is the Olympic Flame going? | London 2012
The Olympic Flame will come within 10 miles of 95% of people in the UK, Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey...
Remember the flame is powered by a butane/propane mix so it is a Class C fire. Only a Dry Powder extinguisher should be used on such fires. The extinguishers can be identified by the French Blue band on them.
Better safe than sorry is our motto here.
Posted by The Englishman at 5:59 PM
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March 9, 2012
Olympics To Come In Under Budget
MPs have expressed concern the London Olympics will go way over its £9.3bn budget - and said it was "staggering" the initial estimates about security costs were so wrong.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has also raised doubts about the Games' legacy and warned the Olympic Stadium in Stratford must not become a white elephant.
The Government says it is confident London 2012 will come in under budget.
..."The cost of purchasing the Olympic Park land will ultimately come back to the public purse through the resale of the land after the Games and was therefore not included.
"Funding for the legacy programmes, that the PAC refer to, comes from existing business-as-usual budgets and we have been clear about this. These are for projects designed to capitalise on hosting London 2012 but are not an additional Olympic cost."
I understand now - "under budget" means not putting all that boring stuff like buying the land and building stuff that will last more that two weeks into it. So does that mean the whole £9.3 billion is being blown in the fortnight?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:45 AM
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February 29, 2012
Get The Olympic Look
This website is designed to give you ideas and guidance about how you can celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 in your area and to purchase Look items.
You have been given access to this site as a named contact for your organisation. To purchase any products shown on this site you, on behalf of your organisation, must agree to Icon's Terms and Conditions of purchase. These include an obligation to follow the London 2012 Look: Brand Protection Guidelines which include rules about where and when Look items can be displayed. Note that special rules apply if you are hosting any events in the places you propose to display Look. You should read the guidelines before selecting items to purchase to ensure the manner in which you are planning to use them will comply with the guidelines. This site also provides information about planting or mowing any London 2012 themed displays and includes some relevant guidelines and terms and conditions which you will be deemed to accept by using any of the planting and mowing templates provided on the site. Please also ensure you have read these before undertaking any London 2012 themed planting or mowing.
Golly, I must register to then be given the style book before I'm allowed to mow my grass if I want it to have the Olympic Look, and I expect I will have wear special clothes in a special way before I'm allowed to approach the mighty Olympic Organisers.
As they haven't yet sent me my password I am having to guess what the Olympic Look will look like - something like this?
Posted by The Englishman at 4:52 PM
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Potemkin Olympics
Pink, purple: London Olympics seek a distinct look
Mole Valley, a community of 80,000 near London that is hosting the Olympic cycling road race. It has asked residents to plant dahlias, petunias and sunflowers in Olympic-approved shades so when the riders swish past on July 28-29, television viewers will be left seeing swishes of pink, purple and orange.
"What will people be reminded of when they pull out the T-shirt, the pin?" asked Greenwich University marketing department professor Peter Vlachos. "Will they remember London or the Olympics?"...
Mole Valley is beside itself with excitement, planning British street parties, contests for kids, welcome centers for tourists.
"The games will put Surrey on the map," said Denise Saliagopoulos of the Surrey County Council....
Olympic organizers also are working to keep out any advertisers trying to sneak in a publicity stunt. Organizers have imposed strict advertising regulations along the route to protect Olympic sponsors from unwanted competition.
The marathon route originally was supposed to go through gritty areas in east London where the Olympic Park is located. But _ mindful of television images _ organizers rerouted the race so it now passes classic London landmarks.
Civic leaders in east London, however, were outraged. After six years of living next to one of Europe's biggest construction projects, they were hoping to reap the benefits of being on the world stage.
"It just makes you feel as if they were completely ashamed of that part of London," said Andrew Boff, a Conservative politician. "It didn't fit with TV angles."
I wish I had a garden in Mole Vally - I know what I would plant, and it wouldn't be Seb Coe's approved colours....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:56 AM
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February 24, 2012
Artless Olympics
Gawp at the shaming defeat of struggling taste | The Times
Stephen Bayley
When, in late summer, the Olympic tide at last retreats, what will be left besides an echoingly empty Velodrome and an Anish Kapoor doodle, as vapid as it is huge?
One of several answers is mountains of brainless, heartless, dispiriting junk. Amateurs of consumer tragedy can get a dramatic preview now at the online London 2012 shop. Never mind triumph in competition, here you can gawp at the shaming defeat of struggling taste. Who, looking upon this desultory collection of rubbish, would believe that London is the spiritual home of the great reforming movements in art education of the 19th century?....
Even to know that a Wenlock-branded “magnet set” exists is to feel a sense of national shame. Who approved such dross? His name should be pre-emptively forwarded to the Honours Forfeiture Committee. It is as if the assumptions of William Morris, Frank Pick and even Terence Conran that the consumer is not a drooling moron count for nothing.
The website is as artless as the terrible logo, long since a “signal passed at danger” for anyone with a sense that London has credibility as a global creative capital.
Lacking even honest vulgarity or cheerful camp, “Olympic Tat Online” looks like a poundstore in a post-industrial hell. Never mind faster, higher, stronger, here you have a dim insult. It’s a disgrace.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:52 AM
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February 1, 2012
Boris Backs Down On Olympic Zil Lanes
Olympic road lanes will be open to public | The Times
The public will be able to drive along a 31-mile road network that was to be reserved for Olympic traffic in the capital this summer.
The “Games Lanes” were expected to be blocked off for exclusive use by athletes, officials, sponsors and others involved with the event. But Transport for London and Olympic Games organisers have decided to turn the traffic restrictions on and off depending on demand.
At off-peak times any car, including London taxis, will be able to use the lanes. The move will please those concerned about the congestion that the lanes would cause in the capital during the Olympics and Paralympics.
“London will ensure that athletes, officials and others can move around the city as they need to during these Games,” said Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. “But I’m also determined to ensure that the Olympic route network does not cause any more disruption than is absolutely necessary.
“It is vital that small businesses can operate effectively and that the people of London can get on with their lives. We will not block the traffic on any junction or at any point in time other than when that is unavoidable for the success of the Games,” he said.
How very kind of him, I hope no one will think that caltrops are still justified.
Posted by The Englishman at 7:17 AM
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January 27, 2012
Olympics Cost £24 Billion And Rising
Olympics over budget | Latest News | London 2012 | Sky Sports Olympics
The true cost of the London 2012 Games for the UK taxpayer comes in at over £12 billion, £2.7 bn more than the 9.3bn budget, a Sky investigation has revealed......
The additional money calculated by Sky does not include extra counter terrorism funding of £1.131bn being allocated to the police despite a ministerial statement saying "much of this capacity will be devoted to the Olympics in 2012". Nor does it include the £4.4bn budgets of the security and intelligence services.
It also doesn't take into account the opportunity cost of having the majority of the UK police force working on the Games instead of fighting crime elsewhere. On peak days 12,000 police officers will be policing the Games.
In addition Sky's total misses out the £6.5bn spent on transport upgrades which have been brought forward due to the Olympic Games and could have been cancelled as part of the Conservative government's spending cuts if it wasn't for the Olympics.
If we had counted these figures, the Olympic spend would have totalled well over £24 billion, more than double the current Olympic budget and ten times the original calculation....
Following previous Olympic Games, nobody has ever been able to accurately predict the final cost and it won't be until 2013 when we can predict whether any increased tourism, economic benefits and the returns from the tenancy or sale of the Olympic venues and Olympic village will be a worthwhile investment.
I think I can safely predict now whether it will be a worthwhile investment, the answer is a big fucking NO.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:45 AM
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January 18, 2012
Olympic Corruption
Tom Miers: Olympic fail on every level - Scotsman.com
The Games have been corrupted by government money, lack of talent and little public interest in the events
Much is written about the hubris of world sporting bodies such as the International Olympic Committee, with its pompous officials taking over the streets, hotels and even advertising hoardings of London. But the real story is the moral bankruptcy of the tournament itself.
Olympic participation has become little more than a government vanity project. Not just for the hosts, with their bribes and their billion-pound structures. But for all the big competing nations, with their costly pursuit of meaningless medals.....
money, voluntarily given, reflects society’s judgment of the merit of sport. Games like football, tennis, cricket and rugby are wealthy because they are popular.
In the Olympic Games, this dynamic is turned on its head. The reward for success is medals, and governments have come to the conclusion that Olympic medals bestow national prestige. The irony is that the easiest way to obtain medals is to target sports that are uncompetitive, either because they have little popular following (and so few participants), or are difficult and expensive to organise conventionally. Another way of putting it is that Olympic reward goes to sports that have little value in the estimation of the public.
Shamefully, Britain is particularly guilty of this tendency....
Britain has simply targeted Olympic events which attract little interest in an effort to boost its medal tally.
The Olympic Games are becoming increasingly dominated by such sports. There are ten different sailing events, in various types of boat, and you can win cycling medals on a BMX, on a mountain bike, in a velodrome or on the road. Some of these sports are beyond the reach of most of people in Britain, let alone the developing world.
....
For the sports that people ascribe real value to – football, boxing, golf, rugby, tennis, basketball – Olympic success is held to be unimportant. So with the exception of a handful of athletic events which demonstrate pure physical prowess, the rest of Olympic competition is corrupt in sporting terms because it reflects neither talent nor public enthusiasm.
What is worse, the games are corrupt in moral terms because they rely on the coercive deployment of resources by government. Whether or not we like watching people hop, skip and jump, we are forced, on pain of going to jail, to subsidise the participants and organisation that surrounds them.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:41 AM
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Indy Channels Her Maj On The Olympics
The Queen....might also have said that it would be quite hard for her jubilee celebrations not to be "overshadowed" by a party that was meant to cost £3bn, and was now costing £9bn, and looked set to cost even more. And that she understood that the bid to host the Olympics was made at a time when the financial climate looked quite different, but that £9bn seemed like quite a lot of money to spend when there didn't seem to be much of it around.
She might have added that the extra £30m that David Cameron had recently promised for the opening ceremony was also quite a lot, and so was the extra £39m he had promised to "boost tourism", which she'd understood that the Olympics were meant to do on their own. And that while she too liked the idea that the Olympics would, as Cameron suggested, "lift Britain out of recession", the evidence showed that they wouldn't. That the Olympics had, for example, damaged tourism in Australia, and in China, and that whatever they'd done to the Greek economy, it didn't seem to have been all that good.
She might have said that she wasn't that much of an expert on public transport, and that it was no skin off her nose because she never had to sit in traffic jams anyway, but that the plans for getting an awful lot of people from one part of the city to another, which included special lanes for VIPs, which might well piss quite a lot of people off, seemed to be largely based on keeping fingers crossed. And that that double-decker bus we'd had at the opening ceremony in Beijing, with that girl from that TV talent show, didn't suggest that opening ceremonies were things we always did all that well.
But she might also have wanted to remind her Government that what the Olympics was meant to be about wasn't traffic, or security, or property prices, or shopping centres, or even making money, but human beings who had worked very, very hard to show that there was something they could do very, very well. .....
Posted by The Englishman at 6:09 AM
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January 8, 2012
Olympic Park "Huge Drain On The Taxpayer"
Londoners could shoulder £231million Olympic Park debt | The Times
Ashling O'Connor Olympics Correspondent
Last updated January 6 2012 12:16AM
London taxpayers will bear the burden of a £231 million debt on the Olympic Park for years after the 2012 Games under a new land transfer deal agreed with the Government.....
The revised agreement will mean that the GLA is entitled to the first £223 million of any future receipts from land sales in order to repay the debt, which stands at £349 million. The Government will pay it down to £231 million by March 31, 2014 but it had originally been envisaged that it would cover it in full.
Any further upside from sales will be split 25:75 with the Lottery, which was raided for £675 million in 2007 to help fund the £9.3bn Olympic project, and then 50:50 with the Exchequer.
City Hall officials claimed the deal, to be confirmed this month in the GLA’s grant settlement, was a good outcome for Londoners who will own an asset with an indicative market value of about £1bn. Under the previous deal, the GLA was to receive just £97.5 million of the first £650 million from land sales.
Londonâs Olympic Park loses 75% of its value | The Sunday Times08 January 2012
The Olympic Park, intended to be sold after the games for up to £2 billion to repay the lottery and the Treasury, is worth less than £160m, according to an official valuation.
More than £750m of public money was spent buying the land in east London for the Olympics. Ken Livingstone, then the London mayor, said during the acquisition that the park would be worth between £1 billion and £2 billion after the games.
The valuation of the 500-acre site — including the stadium, aquatic centre, press centre and development land — values it at £138m if it was sold to one developer. It would be worth £157m if sold in lots.
One developer warned this weekend the park may require hundreds of millions of pounds for any regeneration scheme to work. “People don’t seem to have yet realised that this park isn’t actually worth that much and is potentially a huge drain on the taxpayer,” he said.
Some of us realised a while ago....
Posted by The Englishman at 3:55 PM
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January 1, 2012
The Olympics Opening Ceremony
Something to look forward to in 2012...
Posted by The Englishman at 7:35 AM
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December 31, 2011
Olympics To Allow State Sanctioned Demonstrations
Jeremy Hunt: London 2012 Olympics will not be 'austerity Olympics' - Telegraph
Jeremy Hunt believes that hosting the Games is an “incredible stroke of luck” during the global economic crisis as it will provide a “huge plus sign” for the struggling British economy. He also says demonstrators will be tolerated as long as their protests are legitimate and lawful.
Oh that is jolly decent of him to tolerate demonstrators, but seeing how they have introduced new laws that prevent anyone being rude about the games if he so decides it isn't exactly that reassuring.
The regulations may apply in respect of advertising of any kind including, in particular—(a) advertising of a non-commercial nature, and
(b) announcements or notices of any kind.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:49 AM
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December 28, 2011
Olympic Fraud - Seb Watch Your Back!
Websites targeting Olympics visitors closed down by police | Technology | The Guardian
Detectives say many websites intended for use to commit fraud are using imagery of Olympics to lure customers..."We think there is some evidence to suggest they are waiting to commit fraud," Janet Williams, the deputy assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan police, said. "These websites have been set up and are in a holding position, and we will monitor them to see if they are used for criminal purposes."
Let me public spirited and point out the biggest fraudsters to Her Majesty's Plod - These bastards have stolen billions of pounds by misrepresentation - go get 'em.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:48 AM
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December 15, 2011
Olympic Badger Shooting
Badger cull gets go-ahead with Olympic-sized police operation - Telegraph
The shooting of thousands of badgers will go ahead next year but not until after the Olympics to prevent police resources being overstretched by the £4 million security operation required for the cull.
Can't they combine the two? It would be the first useful thing to come out of the competition.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:58 AM
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December 6, 2011
Olympic Sized Waste
Taxpayers could face hefty bill for Olympic overspend - UK - Scotsman.com
The 2012 London Olympics is in danger of overshooting its £9.3 billion budget unless "rigorous action" is taken to curb costs, a spending watchdog has warned.
Do you remember when the budget was a firm £2.4 billion, not a penny more...
London 2012 Olympics: budget for ceremonies doubled to over £80m - Telegraph
Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered that more money be spent on London's Olympic ceremonies after deciding that existing plans risked missing a unique opportunity to promote the UK.
Promote the UK or promote David Cameron?
Posted by The Englishman at 6:23 AM
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November 21, 2011
The Olympic Legacy - The State Owns Your Children's Bodies
BBC News - Call for mandatory PE tests alongside maths and reading
Sports medicine specialists say governments across the UK have squandered the chance to create an Olympic legacy of fitness.
Their conference in London is calling for mandatory "physical literacy" tests in schools, alongside reading and maths.
Posted by The Englishman at 6:56 AM
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