The London Olympics are already achieving the number one aim of the politicians who brought them here, which is making our politicians feel very important indeed.
The media is quite frenetic in its efforts to make us all believe we should be terrifically proud of the fact we are hosting the Olympics, as though there were something unique in this achievement. If we can’t competently do something that Greece, Spain and China have done in recent years, that would be remarkable. Of course the Games will be on the whole well delivered, sufficient for the media and politicians to declare it an ecstatic success. Some of the sporting moments will be sublime, as ever.
But did it have to be in London? We won’t know the total cost of the Games for months, but it will cost the taxpayer at least £9 billion and I suspect a lot more. I also suspect the GDP figures will, in the event, show that the massive net fall in visitor numbers has hurt the already shrinking economy further.
But to take the most optimistic figure, holding the Olympics in London has cost every person in the country an average of £150 per head in extra taxes. That is £600 for a family of four. Actually it is in the end going to be well over £2,000, as of course the money has been borrowed on the never never, and taxpayers are going to be paying it off their whole lives, along with the sum ten times higher they are already paying direct into the pockets of the bankers through their taxes.
The very rich, of course, don’t pay much tax, so they are not worried.
But to take just the figure of £600 extra taxes for a family of four, the lowest possible amount, and not including the interest. Is having the Olympics here really worth paying out £600 for? If Tony Blair had approached the head of the family and said “We are going to have the Olympics in London, but it’s going to cost you £600, would the answer have been from most ordinary people: “Yes, great idea, this is that important to us”?
People are not disconcerted because they don’t see that they have to pay. There is no special Olympics tax, and they pay their taxes in a variety of ways, and individuals are not the sole source of taxation. But this is nonetheless real money taken from the people in pursuit of the hubris of politicians.
I love sport. I hate the corruption of the International Olympic Committee, Fifa and the rest; I hate the vicious corporatism and militarisation of our capital and absurd elitism of the transport lanes; the sport itself I love. But with the economy contracting, and the NHS being farmed out for profit, is it really worth £600 for a family – and many families are really struggling in a heartbreaking way – is it worth the money to have the Olympics here rather than in Paris?
Of course it isn’t. I think many of us will feel an extra pleasure watching the Opening ceremony because it is British. Patriotic pride will surge. It is not wrong to enjoy the spectacle tonight on TV. The corporate well connected and ruling classes will enjoy it in the stadium.
But after you have watched it on TV, ask yourself this question. How much more did you enjoy it than enjoy watching the Beijing ceremony, and was that margin of extra enjoyment something that everybody in the room would have paid out £150 for?
Because they just did.
Donny, well, yes, I know. I already made the point about ‘WMD’ (Weapons of Mass Distraction’) and posed the question as to what this – stuff about ‘foreigners in our midst’ – had to do with the Olympics (apart from the obvious). Nonetheleless, issues like the use of language (eg. propaganda, disinformation, etc.) and the ramifications of structural racism, the ongoing generation of scapegoats, enemies and so on are central to our understanding of the projection of power, both domestically and internationally.
Nuid, I don’t see Komodo as being like CanSpeccy. CanSpeccy diverted thread after thread onto immigration, and was very inflammatory with use of words like “genocide”. I don’t remember Komodo ever raising the subject; it was only a remark in passing that raised it on this thread. If you read through in a neutral manner, you’ll see that most of the escalation and provocation occurred through misrepresentation and fact-twisting by “No, I love a good fight, me” Technicolour, and Giles, who got considerably more severe treatment from me.
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DonnyDarko, quite. I’d like to get off the subject, myself, but since defending those who question the (older, higher) immigration rate against charges of racism, I’ve been constantly extinguishing fires on my own deck.
Suhayl Saadi: “…the education system would do well to be teaching kids 2-3 languages minimum as a compulsory part of their education, from primary school onwards…” Hear! Hear! I wish they hadn’t waited until secondary school before they started my foreign language education.
Does anyone happen to know how many Russian intelligence officials (non embassy)are currently in the United Kingdom? I just need the number, I’ll know where they are from that.
Ishmael, Ishmael Bond…?
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:))
@Suhayl Saadi – You’re not helping.
I just need the number, I’ll know where they are from that.
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Then perhaps you ought to recursively count back and you then work out the numbers too!
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What kind of bollocksy question is this?
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The last time anyone was caught with the pants around the ankle situation: were our SIS and their bollocksy rock with a blue tooth connection, FFS blue tooth. With someone dropping the spyrock and then coming back and taking it away for a walkie and its constitutionals.
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What is the agenda?
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A- Oh Roosskies have spied on us and we now can Attack Syria?
B- The lass was beat for the Judo gold, now we Attack Syria?
C- Thank fuck it is Friday, we now Attack Syria?
D- Putin was not too friendly and now we start the usual bitching and whining about how bad the Rooskies are? Then we Attack Syria?
Calm Dowm
As with evolution, the notion of the human mind as “blank slate” is attractive (or repulsive) to some individuals, and therefore tends to correlate with political views. On the one hand, the theory of a “blank slate” is attractive to some since it implies that innate mental differences cannot exist. On the other hand, the theory also implies that there is no limit to the ways in which society can shape human psychology. The opposing view is that human nature is innate at birth and that differences arise from genetics. To conclude that the mind does or does not have component mechanisms based on such political or philosophical implications (rather than empirical evidence) would be a form of the Moralistic fallacy.
Nurture and Culture.
Its all by Design
We are all symptoms of our own Sanity
“Does anyone happen to know how many Russian intelligence officials (non embassy) are currently in the United Kingdom?”
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354,778, roughly speaking. I haven’t checked since lunchtime.
Nuid, yes, I would agree with that educated estimate. However, may I point out that you forgot the Reds-Under-The-Beds. Even though Russia now is ruled by White Russians, the Reds are still around, you know – and they’re all in Britain. They live everywhere except Durness and the Isle of Wight. You can tell them by their goatie beards and small, round spectacles.
Technicolour, I wish to apologise.
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I’m sorry that I was sarcastic to you. There is more that I wish to write about this, but I have another two pressing matters to deal with now. I’ll write the rest later.
“You can tell them by their goatie beards and small, round spectacles.”
OMG, Suhayl. I saw a couple of them in the restaurant in Felinheli in July. I should have known. Stuck out like a sore thumb they did, but I couldn’t put my finger on why.
Mary,
you might look at those cute mallards a bit differently if you look at this
How annoying! The link doesn’t work. It is Stewart Lee On YouTube talking about the March of the Penguins.
‘Al Qaeda trio’ arrested in Spain with enough explosives to blow up a bus
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2182728/Al-Qaeda-trio-arrested-Spain-explosives-blow-bus.html#ixzz22QfpuGBe
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Three guys in Spain get on a bus to travel to London!!!! The alkaidy franchisees are; A Russian (the bastards whom have stopped the Attack on Syria), Another Russian with a Chechen connection (his great grandfather eight times removed once travelled through Grozny, and back up to the first lot of bastards, with a Muslim bent too) and one item of a Turk (Muslim credential holder status). DM and the Spanish governments both looking for headlines, one to distract from the total economic fuckup with twenty five percent unemployment rates, and the other trying to keep up the boga boga amid the oyl impics, just in case.
Another classic example of non verified non substanciated reporting by Sky news about Syrian soldiers apparently,seemingly opening fire on a crowd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfHL0wo51TI&feature=related
The report includes the tell tell signs designed to legally protect these lying mainstream media cowards. The images are ‘alleged’, ‘seemingly’ ‘apparently’ ‘reportedly’, ‘said to be’, ‘meant to have happened’ and totally non verified. We are being lied to on a humongous and criminal scale
Chris Jones,
Turn off the sound and re-watch the clip, it has got psyop written all over it.
“World might lose patience with Israel within 10 years, says U.K. Ambassador”
British ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould says anyone who cares about Israel, should be concerned about the erosion of international support.
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“Support for Israel is starting to erode and that’s not about these people on the fringe who are shouting loudly and calling for boycotts and all the rest of it. The interesting category are those members of parliament in the middle, and in that group I see a shift.”
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“The problem is not hasbara. The center ground, the majority, the British public may not be expert but they are not stupid and they see a stream of announcement about new building in settlements, they read stories about what’s going on in the West Bank, they read about restrictions in Gaza. The substance of what’s going wrong is really what’s driving this,” he said.
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He also said that there is “growing concern” in the U.K. over the lack of progress towards peace with the Palestinians.
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Asked about the BBC Olympics website naming Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine on its Olympics website, he said it was not his place to comment on the actions of the organization.
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“It would be wrong for me to try and either explain their actions, for that you should speak to the BBC. But what I would say is this, that Israel is now seen as the Goliath and it’s the Palestinians who are seen as the David,” he said.
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http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/world-might-lose-patience-with-israel-within-10-years-says-u-k-ambassador-1.455626
10 years? He’s a bit slow, is Matthew.
Ishmael,
Ты толжен научиться русскому чтобы найти русских агентов, а то будешь каждого подозревать как это делали при Сталине.
Why does the media consistently state that Rebekah Brooks has been “charged over phone hacking”? She has been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, a very serious crime indeed which carries a maximum life sentence.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/02/rebekah-brooks-charged-phone-hacking
/ignoring the red spies..
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Woaw, that is amazing, very good for Gould! lets hope our army can protect the games, ehe?
Ishmael.
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What kind of idiot question is that??
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Obviously most of them are presesntly gymansts or javelin throwers.
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Does that narrow the field for you?
@ Chris Jones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmyZoFChDOQ V droll. 🙂
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I have never observed the ‘homosexual necrophilia’ described! but I have noticed that when the clutches mature, there are usually twice as many males as females in the population of surviving mallards on this river. The males’ plumage on their heads and wings is so beautiful with its iridescence.
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This page is very interesting {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallard}
As you say Lemonhead. This is the BBC version yesterday with the headline
Phone hacking: Rebekah Brooks formally charged
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Rebekah Brooks is one of seven former News of the World staff who face phone-hacking charges
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Former News International boss Rebekah Brooks has been formally charged over phone hacking, Scotland Yard has said.
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Mrs Brooks answered bail at Lewisham police station and will appear before Westminster magistrates on 3 September.
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[…]
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Last week it was announced that Mrs Brooks and six other former News of the World journalists would be charged with conspiring to intercept communications
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The charge of conspiring to intercept communications without lawful authority carries a sentence of up to two years in prison or a fine.
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Mrs Brooks already faces three counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, linked to the investigation into phone hacking.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19105197
I bet in the Rebekah Brooks case charges will be dropped. They don’t normally defecate on their own people and I bet she’s got lots to give in return for all the backhanders the police and judiciary have taken from News International.
Quite John. Can almost hear the sound of the strings being pulled.
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Nature notes concluded. Another mallard on the river this morning with eleven ducklings. Hope they don’t fall foul of the Bill and Melinda Gates population control initiative.
Technicolour,
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I went back and read through the thread, and then thought about how the argument had developed.
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I’m sorry that I was sarcastic. Komodo was more provocative than I thought, though that was much earlier in the thread and that comment doesn’t seem to be where the argument started. But I think I should have argued with CheebaCow and Suhayl Saadi as well, rather than directing all my criticism at you.
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I do not apologise for accusing you of misrepresenting facts and Komodo’s arguments. The thread shows clearly where you did this. However, I feel I was wrong to leave the matter so late, and then to single you out with criticism and sarcasm that was much too strong.
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Giles,
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I owe you an apology too. Not for deleting your personal insults; that is the rule I have chosen and I would do the same again. But I should have countered Suhayl Saadi’s unfair arguments. Had I done that you might not have resorted to a personal attack upon him.
I don’t think that the charges against Rebekah Brooks will be dropped. Do you remember that early on, Brooks made statements that there was much more to be revealed, and many people were going to have to answer for it?
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Rebekah Brooks may well be handed all the blame, ie. sacrificed. The important thing for the system is that the corporate media can continue to serve the power structure. Brooks is replaceable. She may well be made an example of, so that the public can relax and believe that the system has worked and the same thing can’t happen again.
There may also be plea-bargaining going on. There must be all sorts of things that the power structure would rather not be mentioned in a public trial. Things about Coulson, possibly.