The world’s largest shoplifting centre has been opened next to the Olympic stadium in Stratford. This will be the most enjoyable epic fail by the Australians since the Ashes.
I walked a few months ago along a street in nearby Leyton, off Francis Rd. Something caught my attention, and I started looking at tax discs. Of sixty two cars parked on one side of the street, twenty one had no valid tax disc. I would bet that at least that many had no valid insurance. All of these cars were within two hundred yards of Francis Rd police station.
The Olympics have cost £20 billion we don’t have, and in three years time the site will be a mouldering white elephant. The flats of the Olympic village, hopefully destined for yuppie accommodation, are less attractive than the nastier flats of Moscow or, still worse, the ones they have just demolished in Dundee. Moving West Ham just up the road from Upton Park to the new Olympic Stadium will have no net economic effect I can see.
I would be willing to bet, from talking to locals, that the thousands of people it is being announced are to be employed in the new shopping centre include the highest percentage of security staff and store detectives in the world. It is still not going to work.
More shopping malls is not the answer to our economic problems. This is madness.
Depends what you mean by “work”, Craig. I’m sure it will generate lots of money for private security firms, and plenty of employment for those who trawl through reports of “suspicious behaviour” to “protect us from terrorism”:
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http://americaswarwithin.org/articles/2011/09/07/mall-america-visitors-unknowingly-end-counterterrorism-reports
Educational toy just unveiled to catch the Christmas market:
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http://bit.ly/nUJYnz
An interesting look at the place of dynasties in Australian commerce:
http://flashesandflames.com/2011/09/12/will-westfield-win-olympic-gold-or-will-dads-boys-drop-the-baton/
…perhaps, it is really all about wondering just how this generation baton-change will go. Betting on whether this will be “clogs to clogs in two/three generations” is a pastime not confined to Australia. But this generation of Australian business legends provides some especially fascinating sport.
‘More shopping malls is not the answer to our economic problems’.
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This is true indeed. However; whether we like it or not thousands more are now employed (and most of them cannot even fill an application form without spelling errors). But on the other hand this is another huge promotion of buy now pay later culture, that is effectively bringing down to its knees world’s major economies. Go figure.
If you’re ever in the area again, go up the road to Leytonstone, and have a walk on the common around Hollow Pond, just across Whipps Cross Road. I’ve had many quasi-political conversations there; the locals have the most encouragingly sound good sense. They also have the friendliest bunch of anarchist dogs you could ever hope to meet, nearly all off their leashes with no trouble at all.
Clark,
Once had my shoulder reset in Whips Cross hospital. Am scared of dogs though.
Marvel at the sandy foundations upon which Stratford East’s monument to debt financing rests:
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http://bit.ly/p3LvWS
Well Craig, Hollow Pond could be just the place to change your mind about dogs. They’re much like humans. If they’re not socialised, and instead constantly restricted, tethered and given meaningless orders, they get irritable, aggressive and unpredictable. If instead they are taught the basic boundaries and then permitted plenty of freedom and the company of other dogs, they are playful and sociable.
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Another thing about the dogs of Leytonstone; there’s a high proportion of mongrels. CanSpeccy probably wouldn’t approve.
Interesting article on the riots. From the style of writing this is clearly not the Ian Bell who writes for the Glasgow Herald (and who I can’t stand).
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http://www.scottishleftreview.org/article/an-unequal-share-of-life/
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Scottish Left Review has some of the best political writing around just now, imho.
Westfield own the shopping mall in Guildford and have allowed it to become more squalid than ever. It adjoins the bus station which is fourth world. It was built on the site of Friary Meux brewery and hence the name, the Friary centre. The recession/collapse has seen off the likes of Disney World retail, stores selling phones, shoes, sports clothing and the like and most of the shopfronts are whited out and have To Let signs up. BHS have gone to be replaced by Primark. Says it all. What a dump. Westfield promised a revamp but they shelved the plan and a large area of the town which was going to be redeveloped is now blighted. I think their Aussie dollars have gone to Shepherds Bush and Stratford.
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Westfield was founded by this Australian-Israeli Frank Lowy (another dual passpost owner) who fought in Palestine in the Haganah against us. Wonderful. He will be very much at home in Zionist supporting Australia. See ‘Australians for Palestine’ website.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lowy
WILD WESTFIELD:
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This from a Tweeting Stratfordian who styles himself diamondgeezer:
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‘Before your bus enters Westfield Stratford City a security guard nips aboard to check there are no bombs inside (honest).’
Wonder why my post is awaiting moderation. It is about Westfield and the founder.
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Westfield own the shopping mall in Guildford and have allowed it to become more squalid than ever. It adjoins the bus station which is fourth world. It was built on the site of Friary Meux brewery and hence the name, the Friary centre. The recession/collapse has seen off the likes of Disney World retail, stores selling phones, shoes, sports clothing and the like and most of the shopfronts are whited out and have To Let signs up. BHS have gone to be replaced by Primark. Says it all. What a dump. Westfield promised a revamp but they shelved the plan and a large area of the town which was going to be redeveloped is now blighted. I think their Aussie dollars have gone to Shepherds Bush and Stratford.
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Westfield was founded by this Australian-Israeli Frank Lowy (another dual passpost owner) who fought in Palestine in the Haganah against us. Wonderful. He will be very much at home in Zionist supporting Australia. See ‘Australians for Palestine’ website.
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{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lowy}
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Mr Murray,
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Apologies for slightly off topic.
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How else do you think David Cameron’s recent visit to Moscow can be called if not ‘the visit out of desperation’. It seems that London is now openly advertise itself as world’s major money laundering centre. It is well known that majority of capital in Russia is generated by Mafia/state protected oligarchs whose main aim is to transfer money to where more money can be made.
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Although not, but it was very funny to watch how Cameron was avoiding to answer questions related to Litvinenko assassination and FSB/Putin’s relation to this case. Also it was deliberate that on ITV and BBC Litvinenko was only called Russian dissident whereas as far as I remember he was also British Citizen.
Here is for you Craig. God plays guitar. http://bit.ly/p2S5XW
Usbek in the UK. Litvinenko was one of Berezovsky’s mafia. Though it was a terrible death he suffered I would not be too sure the Russian state was involved in it.
Jonangus, please tell me that looting game picture is a spoof.
John,
I have no doubt it was the Russian state. I do hope you are not falling in to the “Putin’s against NATO so he must be a good guy” fallacy or the “Berezovsky’s a bad guy so Putin must be a good guy” fallacy.
An amazing number of commenters on this site elevate Putin, Gadaffi, ahmadinejad because of their enemies. That is justr as stupid as the West’s embrace of Karimov.
John,
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The truth ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ does not always work. It did not work in 1930th in Germany, it did not work in 1980th in Afghanistan and so on.
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Litvinenko for sure was not an angel (if you recall before he became Berezovsky’s man he was also KGB/FSB officer) but he was also British Citizen brutally assassinated by radioactive poison (which itself at a very least should rise certain degree of suspicious over FSB involvement) on British soil. The main suspect over this case is now a member of the main Legislative Institution in Russia and despite all of this British PM visited Russia and not only tried to avoid answering Litvinenko related questions but was more interested in how to get more of Russian Mafia/FSB capital to London so that London based Hedge Funds can make some profit and share some of it with Osborne.
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This all demonstrates cold blooded Realpolitik.
Rather Putin who speaks fairly straight than Medvedev who, like Obama and that monkey William Hague, openly calls for foreign heads of state to resign (and, IIRC, he did it right after a meeting with Obama, suggesting that he takes orders).
Of course there are problems under Putin; of course Gadaffi was a very unpleasant man to cross, but given a choice between a weak, compliant, oppressive leader and a tough, principled oppressive leader I think it’s reasonable to prefer the latter. If no-one in power can stand up to the (true) Evil Empire then humanity is doomed.
Putin’s determination to preserve Russian independence, and Gadaffi’s work for African independence deserve recognition. If they bump off their opponents, at least they only bump them off in small quantities.
You don’t have to think someone is a pussycat or Jesus returned to admire them or prefer them to the alternative.
Ahmadinejad, I haven’t really seen much to praise.
What is the alternative to Putin? Who would keep Russia’s place in the balance of power? AFAICS there is no such thing as a totally benign great power, but there are those which keep their evil to themselves and those which export it. I have less time for the blanket notion of democracy as the be-all and end-all of political development these days. It’s too easy for democracy to be subverted and states (perhaps states in transition) to come under the domination of others.
It seems that visitors to the Olympics only have access through the centre.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14022954
‘Of sixty two cars parked on one side of the street, twenty one had no valid tax disc. I would bet that at least that many had no valid insurance. All of these cars were within two hundred yards of Francis Rd police station.’
I would also bet, given the locality, that probably half the cars you spotted without tax discs are driven by owners who are visa overstayers and other illegal immigrants. And that helps explain why the police take no action against the drivers; it is more bother than it is worth.
To rewrite my last, which has not appeared, much more concisely, it’s not “Putin’s against NATO so he must be a good guy”, it’s “Putin’s against NATO and so he is needed, perhaps even indispensable”.
We only have a consumer culture, the god of materialism must be worshipped and for that you needs its cathedrals. I do not think it is a white elephant but a Golden Calf. I live near the millennium dome a massive land swindle on the tax payer. lots of empty flats and empty land. I wonder how many property speculators are funding the Tory party.
Hi Mary,
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I would have been very much surprised if Olympics visitors have been given any other way that prevents them going through the Westfield shopping centre. After all it costs over 1.5 billion quid to build it and how else all these investments need to be recovered?
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On the other hand, does it really matter much whether the main investor is Israeli? Would he have been one of mafia related Russian oligarchs or one of the rich oil spoiled Arab Royal family member would it have been clearer investment?
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My point is that if dirty money are involved then it does not matter whether this money come from Israeli or any other investors. Such cases should be brought to light and investigated without stressing Israeli/Zionist connections that in some cases make such claims to sound stupid.
Craig, after 17 years of winning the Ashes we felt we should maybe let you win a couple, or you might just give up =P
I hope Westfield fails spectacularly, I hate those soulless shopping centres.
Quelcrime,
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Great piece on Putin’s admiration. Sadly some Russians I know would disagree with you to some major extend. Putin was very lucky that when he received a leadership over Russia (which itself followed by very suspicious events in Dagestan and Chechnya) 9/11 has happened and some stupid heads in Washington decided to go crusade on the Middle East and oil pumped to over 100$. However; if one looks carefully on where all these extra revenues are being spent in Russia one realises that not much is being done for Russians (those of course who live outside of Kremlin walls). If one looks at the state of healthcare in Russia one can see that it has worsen since 1990th the same can be said about the state of education. The number of people dependent on narcotics have trebled and the number of HIV cases have at least doubled since Putin is heading Russia from either Kremlin or Russian White House. All these contradicts with the picture of great nation building which is portrayed by Putin and FSB.
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As for the preserving Russian independence here one can also argue with you. Preserving independence and contradicting western policies is not the same thing. Preserving independence by developing national economy and increasing living standards of citizens is one way, unleashing war on Georgia, terrosiring population in Chechnya, bullying dictators in Central Asia and relying on China as your major foreign policy muscle is another matter.
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Following ‘preserving independence’ methods suggested by you one can conclude that Kim Jon II of North Korea is also a good guy.
Excellent stuff Craig.
Just to let people know of the utter depravity and hypocrisy of the Paralympic Games, and the fact many British chronically sick and disabled people and groups are calling for it to be boycotted.
The French IT company Atos has been contracted to cover the games and its founder, Bernard Bourigeaud, has just recently been elected to the International Paralympics Committee governing board
Atos is the same company contracted by the British Government, and the Department of Work and Pensions, to carry out “functional” assessments on long-term chronically sick and disabled patients. These “functional assessments”, called Work Capability Assessments, are a monstrous abuse of medicine and medical ethics,which have been designed to ignore the NHS and medical science, and ignore physical pain and suffering.
There are widespread allegations by chronically sick and disabled patients that Atos medical staff are deliberately falsifying their “functional” assessments. Patients have died after Atos and the DWP found them fit for work. Many have committed suicide.
40% of appeals against Atos-DWP decisions are overturned on appeal which rises to 70% if the sick and disabled are represented. Such scale of miscarriage of justice would not be tolerated in the criminal justice system. Yet such widespread human rights abuses are tolerated against the most vulnerable members of our community, with the taxpayer picking up the tab for such gross inefficiencies.
Atos is allowed to hold onto its taxpayer-subsidised profits despite the fact its contract costs taxpayers £100 million a year, but appeal costs because of its medical inefficiencies and utter callous disregard for medical ethics, costs the taxpayer an extra £50 million on top of that.
Just to say, Atos corporate lawyers recently tried to close down the websites, blogs and Facebooks of the sick and disabled who dared criticise its medical abuses.
For more info and more links, try –
Black Triangle – Anti-Defamation Campaign in Defence of Disablity Rights
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/
Atos Register of Shame
http://victimsofatoscorruption.wordpress.com/
Uzbek in the UK, Craig. It’s good to have a bit of conjecture, even off-topic. I’ve never elevated Putin or any world leaders (with perhaps the exception of Mahatma Gandhi, who I’m sure also had his faults). The thing that really disturbs me is that we offer sanctuary to rich people from Russia and elsewhere, and give them UK passports, when there are much more deserving cases who just happen to be poor being sent back to their own countries, to face, who knows what kind of an existence – and, as recently exposed, torture. If there was an uprising in the Russian Federation tomorrow, people like Berezovsky, would help form the New Transitional Council. Lugovoi might have been responsible. I have no evidence. But not everybody brought to the UK to face trial is guilty. I don’t, for example, believe al Megrahi was responsible for the Lockerbie bombing.
John,
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I very much agree with most things you said in your last comment. It is indeed shameful when rich and somewhat powerful are able to hire world’s most expensive legal teams and prove their right to stay in the UK while others being sent back to their home countries to face prosecution and torture. One thing that particularly wonders me over Berezovsky is that he was actually the one who supported Putin while the latter was Prime Minister and acting President. But at some point when Putin was elected as President (following very suspicious events in Dagestan and Chechnya) he decided that Berezovsky was his enemy and acted promptly to expel the latter from power circles. It is no secret that Putin did to Russian power what failed coup tried to do in 1991 – handing over power to the KGB/FSB linked officials and oligarchs.
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Whatever sins British Governmental institutions have but British Courts are still much more independent comparing to those around the world and particularly to the criminal court in Russia. Trying Lugovoy here would have been much more interesting in the truth finding prospective but as we are witnessing those who are in power in Russia today strongly object to this (one could only wonder why).
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I also agree with you over al Megrahi as it all seem to be very simplistically idiotic that one man was behind this horrible action.
Uzbek,
I’m sure you’re right. In fact I have always had some pride in our legal system (though I know it’s not perfect). In fact I have always had pride in the UK in general. There are much worse countries to live in than this, even now, and not many better. In recent years I have seen profit and greed impinge on health services and educational provision, and what saddens me most is that our human rights’ record is deteriorating. There might be a trail of lithium, uranium, or whatever killed Litvinenko, leading right to Lugovoi’s electronic gates, but I have been lied to so often I’m beginning to question everything. There is talk of extraditing a suspect from Libya who formerly worked at the Libyan embassy in London for the shooting of PC Yvonne Fletcher, yet a Panaroma programme concluded that because of the angle the bullet entered her body it could not have come from the Libyan embassy. This extradition is on the word of one ‘witness’. What do we believe?
I obviously hit a raw nerve of Uzbek in the UK by referring to the Israeli antecedents of Frank Lowy. He/she doesn’t get it.