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.
Hi Duncan, you are now breaking into homilies and ignoring the facts on the ground. with respect to the figure of sixty percent that you maintain vote in UK general elections, where you get this data from is mystery? This may be the case in the marginal seats which the elections are fought that is to say, the elections are fought in those places that the respective parties find the population are open and can be swayed one way or another as oppose to the traditional constituencies that the votes of the constituents are based on tribalism and traditions.
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Further so far as the independent candidacy goes, don’t even go there, the only time any independents have had any success has been George Galloway, and the surgeon who stood to stop his hospital’s closure, and not forgetting Martin Bell. Furthermore given the skewed role of the Lords and then the Royal Ascent the whole case for elections then becomes a moot point.
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However, going back to Syria, you expect for a one party system to evolve into a multi party democracy overnight after a couple of talks , given that our own multi party system that has been in operation for more than a century and still has failed miserably.
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Discounting Assad as a dictator, and trying to stop the arms supplies to the Syrian army whilst fully in the knowledge of the plans of attack by Nato ala Libya redux is a disingenuous attempt in trying to disqualify the nation of the Syria from any means of defending herself. Fact is, this is a none flyer petition, due to Russia making its feelings pretty obvious to the EU, and US, and in the UN, t those interested in disarming Syria, prior to attacking her. Although this petition goes some way in further isolation of Syria given that it ignores the trojan revolutionaries that have been trained by Blackwater, and funded by the dictators in KSA and Qatar, and are helped by the various specialised forces of the Nato to soften up the Syrian army prior to a full on invasion as per Libya.
Hi Fedup,
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Firstly, don’t worry, I don’t think you’ve said anything that would reignite previous tensions!
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I don’t personally see a connection between an artificially stoked Islamophobia and Zionism (though if by “zionists” you meant the capitalist ruling class, then yes). I think that the Muslim community is an officially designated enemy is a result of subconsciously introjected values into the news media by Establishment intellectuals, right across the mainstream Left-Right spectrum. The same has happened to the Irish, black Africans, Gypsies – and of course to the Jews to a very great extent – this is very politically useful, and currently it is useful in foreign policy. The media absorbs the need for an appointed enemy, and switches very carefully when it is required – all without the journalists involved actually noticing.
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Yes, racism is often a useful mechanism in divide-and-rule – and the frustration on either side of the racial divide does reduce the unity and power of the working class.
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I agree that Pakistan (and many other countries) needs more education and security, and certainly the US drone attacks are not only disgraceful, but they are storing up more terrorism for the future. I’m split as to whether this is done knowingly. On the one hand it is an obvious conclusion for us as internationalists, but equally if we look at how the “world’s policeman” doctrine has influenced substantial swathes of American thinking, it is possible that the constitutional ideology of a “chosen people” and a “shining city” really does have otherwise intelligent people thinking that “bad people” can be bombed into submission.
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> Finally the only way to reduce immigration is not to cause migration in the first
> place.
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I agree in terms of economic opportunity. I think that’s why people come to Britain – it is seen as a provider of the fair exchange of hard work for decent pay*. Equally the reputation Britain is afforded – as a current military power, and perversely as an old colonial power, even in India – makes us an attractive destination. Without wishing to tread on toes here, I am not of the view that people come for the benefits – since leaving their country always means leaving someone behind. I think economic migration is a huge emotional wrench, and I wish people did not have to do it.
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* Not universally true of course, but more so in the UK than many other countries.
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I have been tempted in the past by the anarchist position, posited by groups like No Borders, to dismantle border controls entirely. This is borne not of multiculturalism but anti-capitalism. My view is that opening all borders would force the elites to level off some of the economic disparity in the world – perhaps via meaningful aid & development in Africa, say – thus reducing the amount and necessity for mass economic migration. However in practice such a policy isn’t practicable, since it would cause security issues and insurmountable racial tensions in the short term.
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The alternative to such drastic action is to persuade ordinary working Brits to support increased aid abroad, and to encourage mass political action directed at reducing economic disparity between countries. This would improve the lot of India and Pakistan (etc) to the extent that demand for immigration would drop, and it would cease to be as much of a political hot potato. (With luck, border controls would be less onerous and the benefits of multicultural experiences for all could be more easily enjoyed). However, this is nigh-on impossible: the working person is highly pressured as it is, without more political demands upon him or her; efforts to generate “working class consciousness” for liberal or socialist political action in Britain have failed; even progressive goals such as PR, Lords Reform and Scottish Independence are defeated by elite propaganda or the political indifference of the common man.
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As you can see, I am in the grasp of some political cynicism at the moment, which probably explains why I don’t post as often as I used to!
First sorry for the double post – one of my posts didn’t seem to show up for ages earlier and i thought it hadn’t worked.
Hi Chris – i think you’re right there – my mistake, sorry – even the BBC seems to have reported that the constitutional amendments included removing the Ba’ath party’s claim to be the only party that could govern.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17980342
That doesn’t mean Assad’s people haven’t continued to jail, torture and kill his critics – as Amnesty and MSF and others have reported.
I think Neil Clarke has a point, but exaggerates it. The main problem with western democracies is that billionaires and big banks and firms have been allowed to capture government because private donations to political parties and election campaigns are allowed – and because there is no ban on people going back and forth between employment in government or big parties and in big firms those governments regulate and give contracts to. Fix that by making private political donations a criminal offence and giving limited equal public funding to all candidates in elections and you’d fix that problem (though we could do with PR in the UK too – FPTP is backwards)
There is still a big difference between a country where you have freedom of speech and one like Syria where criticising the government or the head of it can get you jailed without trial, tortured or killed. We do have much more democracy than Syrians.
And we don’t only have the choice of two or three parties in elections – we have the choice of voting for dozens of different parties or independents or standing ourselves, but 40% of people don’t bother their arses voting at all or standing themselves, while most of the 60% go for the self-fulfilling prophecy that only the big parties can win. In fact anyone can win, if enough people turn out to vote for them.
Duncan, your comments were queued because they contained more then one link. Sorry, I’m feeling too despondent to read through comments, removing the duplications whilst making sure that there isn’t some unique piece in one of them, so I just approved one, and deleted another that looked much the same.
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I think humanity is fucked. We’re just too keen on fighting.
Fedup – no mystery. The Electoral Commission gives the turnout for the last four General Elections on its website
Turnout at recent UK general elections was:
1 May 1997 general election: 71.4%
7 June 2001 general election: 59.54%
5 May 2005 general election: 61.4%
6 May 2010 general election: 65.1%
So in fact if anything I was underestimating turnout, which has averaged over 64% at the last four general elections.
It’s true that few independents have been elected. I blame the 40% of people who don’t bother their arses voting at elections, combined with those among the 60% who do vote but fall for the self-fulfilling prophecy that only big party candidates can win – plus the BBC’s refusal to cover any candidate who hasn’t already won an election.
No, I don’t expect Syria to go to multi-party democracy over-night, but Assad’s forces need to stop killing unarmed protesters, using heavy artillery, tanks and helicopters to attack insurgents in cities (which they know will kill lots of civilians, just as the Coalition knew it in their offensives in Iraqi cities) and stop jailing, torturing and killing people who criticise Assad.
The rebels need to stop using car bombings that kill civilians and stop torturing and killing civilians known to or just suspected of supporting Assad.
The petition calls not only for Russia to stop arming Assad, but also for the US and its allies (Saudi , Qatar and Turkey) to stop arming the rebels – and for both major powers to instead put pressure on their allies in Syria to negotiate instead. So it is not calling for Syria to be left disarmed while the rebels are armed at all. How in hell is that ignoring CIA and US involvement in supporting the rebels?
I mean, what’s the point? Commenter A thinks racism is bad, so seeing a comment that by B that could be racist, goes to a lot of trouble to make A look more racist that A’s comments actually indicate. Then C, D, E, F, and G all pile in and take sides, the whole thing turns into a huge slanging match. And that’s just a discussion on a blog, there’s nothing to be gained or lost, no money, water or productive land involved.
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Fucked. Give up.
hi Clark – no problem, you do a good job. I’ll avoid putting more than one link in my posts from now on
Jon wrote “The alternative to such drastic action is to persuade ordinary working Brits to support increased aid abroad, and to encourage mass political action directed at reducing economic disparity between countries. This would improve the lot of India and Pakistan (etc) to the extent that demand for immigration would drop, and it would cease to be as much of a political hot potato.”
Yep, definitely. The trouble is that the majority of the population seems to have swallowed all the bullshit from politicians and newspaper columnists about how we spend too much on foreign aid already and can’t afford it – and how it all gets lost to corruption (as if none gets lost to corruption in the UK between PFIs , dodgy contracts for BAE and the rest)
Just using one link doesn’t guarantee publication. Something in the software objects to “-online”, and a host of other random keywords I don’t know. Oh, and sometimes it just chooses a random contributor, and queues everything from them, making them think they’re being picked on by me.
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Everything we make is shit. Give up.
nothing’s perfect – doesn’t make it all worthless though – perfect things (and people) only exist as ideas
Have we still got enough nukes to wipe out humanity? I bet they’re shit and don’t work.
Clark, I agree, the software is quite random. I’ll try to fix that this week, when I do some software upgrades. And I agree that the capacity of the broad Left to squabble appears limitless, but to make myself feel better, I always say that this is because the scope of What Is To Be Done is huge – whereas capitalism need only lift a finger to maintain the status quo. So, the friction on the progressive side is always going to be larger, and we need to create strategies to persist when it happens.
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As to political despondency – or any kind really – don’t give up. You’re doing a corking job looking after this board, and your efforts elsewhere – especially the even-handed approach you took to the climate change skeptics – is superhuman. Get yourself some well earned rest and relaxation.
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Me, I’ve just worked out how to download music onto my new mobile phone, so I’m set for the evening. They gave me “unlimited internet”, so I’m going to test it :-p
Thanks for that link Donny Darko http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/03/drone-probe-sellafield-silos-hexacopter?newsfeed=true
the last three paragraphs of which convey pure bloody evil.
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Drone research is even using sophisticated biotechnology. Darpa has implanted gold-plated electrodes into the pupae of tobacco hawkmoths with the intention of learning how to control animals remotely.
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There is also interest in such work in the UK. The Ministry of Defence’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), which works out of Porton Down in Wiltshire and at other locations, this summer produced a briefing on current research “to stimulate new lines of thought”. The review references a US patent on an ‘animal sensor network”. The US study, it said, aimed to develop a “method for the remote guidance and training of free-roaming animal sensor networks”.
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It continued: “Electrodes implanted into the nervous systems of animals are used to provide clues and rewards by stimulating specific regions of the the brain to induce desired behaviours such as the direction and speed of movement. Each animal carries a backpack containing wireless networking equipment, sensors, and data storage and processing equipment.” Animals, it suggests, could be trained in odour detection.
Since we’re well out of the “on-topic” zone, I’ve got the following snaking their way to me. Emilie Simon (French electronica), Bon Iver (great American folk), several records from Boards Of Canada (intelligent dance music). Yep, that’s a real genre, and yep, from Scotland!
I think humanity is fucked. We’re just too keen on fighting.
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Wrong, we are left with no other alternative than fighting! Don’t be so misanthropic, I know you have had a tough day, no need to call of the human beings bastards to man.
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Jon- I started to write:
As we debate the waves of refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Burma, are on the move, the reason for their migration: security, food, and shelter. Unfortunately too often the misanthropic view of the lazy bastards wanting a free ride, and a free meal, is an all to pervasive mindset. that is held by the ill informed and mendacious alike
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As you have mentioned, the wrenching experience of immigration is a traumatic affair, the immigrant leaving behind the circle of family, friends, and traditions, cultural imperatives and their way of life to embark on an uncertain path in a new foreign and often hostile environment. Further the benefits that are no longer paid to anyone, are the stuff of the urban legends.
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I know of a Columbian lawyers wife living in absolute degradation, because she cannot go back to Columbia due to her husbands murder in front of her making her a material witness. Seldom in any debate the negative facets of immigration are of any concern.
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Then I thought I am preaching to the converted, so let us try and address the more pressing issues.
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As you can see Clark is in the doldrums too, so your cynicism is by no means an isolated case. However these problems at their route stem from the lack of any credible alternatives. Fact is, the plutocrats are only used to running monopolies and oligopolies. Further these plutocrats ensure that they write the rules of engagement in a manner that they remain from without the jurisdiction of the rules they have laid down, unless it concerns their monopolistic and oligopolistic concerns.
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Therefore the lack of alternatives are not due to any lack of imagination and or bankruptcy of thought and paucity of human invention. Alas the none existence of the alternatives is only proof of the degrees of the success of the plutocrats in discounting any probable alternative and disqualifying any credible competition.
Your cynicism is stemming from the left and right appearing to have reached the same dead-end through differing paths. Clark seems to have come to conclude that the chimp genes in us all is still dominant and we derive some kind of a pleasure from violence. This is only reflective of the degrees of the success of the same plutocrats that have turned his hippy mindset of live and let live into I want let them live, but do they want to let me live?
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To counter these bastards we need to think out of box, and extend our fields of study beyond the current remits of debate and transcend the current arrangements regarding governance, finance, and social engineering. I know it is a tall order but we all have to become cynical first and then reject the current arrangements and search for alternatives that have been discounted and buried, that is in the fields of history, and the revision of the conventional narratives, as well as the role of money and the money makers, in addition to the social engineering that sets rules of incorporation, dreams, aspirations, and expectations.
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I remember the very first time I commented on this board, one cantankerous lizard having read and understood and felt the depths of my despair advised me to fight on. Evidently it is my turn to appeal to the disappointed lizard, you and Clark, and remind you all, of the great speech of archbishop Jenkins the former bishop of Durham in Stockton: “nil carborundum illegitemi” he then went on and translated it too: don’t let the bastards ground you down (he was delivering this speech in the darkened days of Thatcherism)
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We must start looking for new lines of thought, and we must remain aware and remember; we are legion, and we have learnt to make do with very little and our expectations are not much so we can achieve far more than any of the bloated, unfit, morally, emotionally, and intellectually bankrupt plutocrats and their sycophants.
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A real big bear hug to you all.
Duncan wrote “a ban on people going back and forth between employment in government or big parties and in big firms those governments regulate and give contracts to. Fix that by making private political donations a criminal offence and giving limited equal public funding to all candidates in elections and you’d fix that problem (though we could do with PR in the UK too – FPTP is backwards)”
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Good ideas – i agree
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Clark – can i just re state that you have been nothing but logical and even keeled in moderating. I’m sure there has been a general consenus of sorts
Fedup, thanks. I am not particularly unhappy at present – but my cynicism is shallow and long. Maybe it will find a more active expression in due course – I always think these things have a mind of their own!
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Certainly Left vs Right as delivered by mainstream media does not offer traditional solutions – but then that’s because all workable solutions are off the agenda, and marked as Extreme or Radical, and thus are politically untouchable. Me, I am what I call a Reluctant Socialist – I think capitalism would work if it was operated honestly, but since it has never operated honestly (and is demonstrably getting worse) I don’t think it can now be made to operate fairly. This is a shame, since it +should+ be easier to get a decent version of capitalism working than switch everyone to socialism – we have no idea even what the latter looks like!
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Even Romney/Bush/Osborne/Sarkozy/Berlesconi etc are all in favour of capitalism for the poor, socialism for the rich. If we applied free markets to the casino banking sector, we’d be much better off – I am especially in favour of free markets where the nonproductive areas of the economy are concerned. Where bailouts have been useful – say in the US automotive sector – I’d say those payments should be paid back to the taxpayer if affected firms ever turn a profit again. Duncan also offers some great ways in which corporate control of government can be reversed, such as ending the revolving door of employment.
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I’d therefore disagree we don’t have the vision or ideas already to describe a fairer world, or how to get there – this has been done many times before. But those voices are shut out of the debate, partly down to the power of the traditional media, and also the effectiveness of elite propaganda. Although I sympathise with the archetype of the “indifferent common man” I mentioned earlier, I am also frustrated with him for his inability to see his chains of financial and intellectual slavery. I sometimes see this as wilful stupidity, but then I remember that our current system is self-perpetuating, and is using human psychological limitations to ensure no real change comes about, and I feel charitable towards him again.
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This process does cause cynicism, but strangely I experience optimism from time to time. I have a sort of faith that the cycle can be broken, just not sure how at the moment :).
Duncan, if you believe those figures then I have a hardly ever used second user bridge to sell to you at a very competitive price too.
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Those figures do not mention the postal ballots that came to be such a vote rigging tool that even a high court judge went on record to call out: “these practices would put to shame a banana republic”. Less said about the convenient electoral boundary changes, as well as cheating on the electoral expenses, and a whole plethora of other shenanigans, included dead people voting and multiple occupancy houses voting in blocks, etc.
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Your humanity does not allow you to see the slight of hand in the so called petition.
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Firstly the so called “rebels” are taking residence in among the civilians and effectively using these civilians as human shields to stop the Syrian Army to attack them. Now would you believe that these “rebels” then proceed to place snipers around kill civilians blaming the Syrian Army, as well as going on a wholesale destruction spree of the neighbourhoods all the while taking pot shots and killing Syrian army personnel? However upon retaliation of the Syrian regular army, which has no choice but to counter these attacks, then the world is informed of the atrocities of the Assad storm troopers.
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Your emotions are clouding your judgement, we know that our government has already frozen one hundred million dollars of the Syrian monies, as was the case with the billion of the Libyan monies, hence to find the negative propaganda against Assad ought not come as a surprise. After all the crack addict preying on little old ladies coming out of the bingo hall will blame his victims for not staying at home and out of harms way!
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So to blame Assad as an unhinged mad man on a rampage killing his people is only to soften up the public, in the way of forcing these to accept the probable and impending aerial bombardment of the Syrian soil, as was done in Libya, that resulted in far higher numbers of dead and wounded Lybians that never counted anyway.
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Not forgetting that because Syrians have some means of defending themselves and bombarding Syria will not be the cake walk in Libya with the aid of FOF (friend or foe) systems locking up Qaddaffi forces weapons systems. Furthermore the string probability of Russia supplying more advanced systems to knock the crap out of the air assets sent to bomb the Syrians into democracy. These being taken into account then there is a need for a petition to stop arms supplies to both sides. A noble proposition indeed!
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However since when any of the agreements that US, and toadies have ever entered into which they have honoured, and not breached? The last time it was Negroponte in the UN who got the chapter seven resolution against Iraq, promising there was no automacity for war clause in it, and come the hour Anthony Linton Emily Blair declared French will veto, so we go to war anyway, because we have the chapter seven mandate already. In fact his attorney general ruled it was legal for him to war on Saddam! No Hague trials for Emily then, and the current government has kept the papers regarding the decision of going to war as secret too.
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Hence the petition is not an innocent declaration, it is a tool to isolate the Syrians further, and to compel the Russians to stop supplying arms to Syrians and then once Syrians are left vulnerable and defenceless then attack and bomb the shit out of the place teaching those Arabians who is the boss!
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The so called “rebels” are getting tooled up through clandestine means, ie there are no inspectors in the Turkish, Jordanian, Iraqi (in fact the Kurdish autonomous regional chief was threatening war on Iraq if they sent any inspectors to the Iraqi boarders with Syria) and isreali borders. In other words if you cannot inspect and intercept the “rebels” weapons supplies how can you stop it? Although we all know that not so long ago a Russian ship carrying helicopter parts to Syria was stopped in it tracks in the North Sea, because its insurance cover was removed!
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Now do you understand?
http://reason.com/blog/2012/07/30/do-3d-printers-make-prohibitions-impossi
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Humanity’s fucked. Five years, and there will be guns everywhere, just like Syria. We love arguing, we can’t agree, we’ll just all shoot each other to bits.
Ta for the link Clark; interesting and worrying in equal measure. However, whilst the free availability of guns might be a necessary condition for increased violence in any given country, it is not sufficient. It requires widespread injustice and economic inequality – Syria’s one example. So is America, sadly, even though it is not at war and has a stable government.
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But, this makes the task of change more urgent. Whilst I don’t want any increase in suffering, I suspect there will be a point – linked to possible environmental collapse – in which we get our act together, and the corporatists will give way to a substantial degree. That will be a crucial point where the balance of power between people and money +could+ be re-decided. It will be just like the context in which modern welfare states were built – humanity had survived yet another disaster, and the controlling class became relatively, though temporarily, selfless.
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We’ll have several deciding moments, so there is cause for hope. In the meantime, read The Trajectory Of Change, by Michael Albert. I’ll send it to you, if you like 🙂
Fedup, thanks for trying to help. Sorry I’m so shit.
Clark, no, you are not, just a bit fed up like me, believe me it is hard going, and a thankless, soul destroying task to stay human.
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But between you and me, I would rather stay as I am rather than change and start to behave like the rest of the hairless monkeys.
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Frankly coming across other human beings, like you, Craig, Mary, Komodo, and others too many to mention, is the only reason I have remained sane, keeping ones sanity in an asylum full of mutters is a huge undertaking in itself.
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Don’t feel down, and remember the guns made by three D printers are still plastic and they will jam and probably explode in the hands of the would be assailants, hoodlums and crack addicts. (there is an upside to everything.)
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You are just too tired with all the hassle you have been getting, look at it from a martial arts point of view; these fights are ways of cleansing the souls of the participants, even if they don’t know it, and cannot feel it, but they are cleansed all the same.
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Good night for now and talk to you tomorrow.
Speaking to an ex-navy colleague today whose friend still in Navy is on HMS Ocean on the Thames. Apparently its helipads are being used by corporate Olympic sponsors and the like.
Clark is saying humanity is fucked, saturated with an urge to fight. Undeniably we are approaching the end of an era, the age of ‘controlled demolition’ by terrorists is slowly but inexorably faltering. The thought of ‘dropping the ball’ by the global elite is the reason why ‘humanity is fucked’ into fighting using proxy wars, fake revolutions even invoking al-Qaeda, the CIA boogeyman with promises of an Islamic State for all Muslims. That is the reality and we know it.
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The use of religion and discipline are tactics that keep the men in line and ready to kill or be killed for the cause of the US/UK/Israel world government/alliance. For the rest of us fear and control is meant to become psychologically entangled in our minds so that we lay down, either emotionally exhausted or detached from reality. Others will just become sheeple content to go with the flow.
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The ‘flow’ is the issue. It is an abundance, many minds thinking the same. That is the secret of the new epoch where ‘controlled demolitions’ are the building blocks of peace.
Clark,
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FFS! Give over with the helpless and despondent schtick.You’re a great moderator and commentator here and God knows that’s no easy task.
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Thanks for all the great work you do here,with Jon too,its much appreciated.
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Now go away,dust yersel’down laddie,and come back to what you’re great at as soon as you’re ready!
@Duncan,
You might find this report from Channel 4’s Alex Thomson interesting, especially these bits:
“There is no discernible sign in any of the big cities – Homs, Aleppo and Damascus for example,that the people even wish to rise up against the regime.” + “The safe bet is that regime support remains considerable across many urban areas.”
http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/syria/2469
I’ve not followed the immigration debate here, but will do when I make the time, but from experience I know that military or ex-military people who espouse what can be termed as anti-immigration views, do not take it too well when confronted by the reality that the armed aggressions against another Countries, in which they are directly complicit, is the major factor that drives refugees & asylum seekers to come to the West, and Britain in particular. It’s exactly the same reaction with those nostalgic Empire reminiscing Brits, who complain about previous generations of immigrants, when they are confronted with the fact of “They are here, because we were there”.
Clanger. That says it all for the militarization and the corporatism.
Perhaps one of the sponsors using HMS Ocean as a landing pad is EDF.
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This morning one of the golds, Victoria Pendleton, cyclist, was on Sky News in an EDF advert…… EDF powering the games….. She will be the first of many. Coe is on the sports legacy bandwagon too although there is an irony in that sports funding is shortly to be cut.
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I also noticed that Mo Farah the 10,000m winner is ‘an ambassador for BUPA, Lucozade and Nike’. (Wikipedia) Wonderful. The latter two especially. The first is a Glaxo Smith Kline operation and the second as we know has used sweatshop labour. See Nike Sweatshops wikipedia. GSK is running the anti doping laboratory for the games and Cameron has just announced that afterwards it will become a research centre into ‘personalised medicine’ with £10m grants from the MRC and NIHR, ie public money. {http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=420740&c=1}
GSK’s profits last year were $9billion on sales of $44billion.
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I have also noticed Tim Franks’ flowery reporting from these games. He has moved seamlessly, as the expression goes, from reporting Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians within the belly of the beast, using the familiar words and phrases such as ‘Israel says’, Israel’s soldiers, Palestinian militants, etc etc) to sport. This morning he was talking about Andy Murray and how he wept when beaten earlier by Federer but who has now burst free of his inhibitions when he meets Federer in the Olympic final.
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An earlier example of his output. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18764073
‘Clark,
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FFS! Give over with the helpless and despondent schtick.You’re a great moderator and commentator here and God knows that’s no easy task.
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Thanks for all the great work you do here,with Jon too,its much appreciated.’
Seconded in spades (dodgy turn of phrase I know but WTF, some commenters here are convinced I’m racist anyway)
‘But I find it very interesting that nobody on the anti-immigration (or limited immigration) side has mentioned the huge migration of the Irish into Britain.
Dare I suggest that it might be because they’re 1) white, 2) English-speaking, and 3) at least nominally-Christian?’
The pro immigrationists play down the Irish component as well, Nuid. During the fifties Irish immigration to the UK averaged 50,000 per annum. West Indian immigration didn’t reach this annual figure until 1960. The number of Caribbean immigrants settling in the UK in the 5 years after the legendary ‘Windrush’ docked here in 1948 was negligible.
The contribution this wave of Irish immigrants made to UK popular music (namecheck-John Lydon, Elvis Costello, Kevin Rowland, the Gallagher brothers, even Kate Bush; Irish on her mothers side) arguably exceeds that of the black Caribbeans, whose contribution is more loudly trumpeted by the multiculturalists.
The point Nuid made also made me think again about CheebaCow’s reference to 25% of present day Australians being born abroad.
Cheeba- if you break down that 25% how many were born in these English speaking, nominally Christian countries-
> the UK
> Ireland
> New Zealand
> South Africa
> the US ?
We are all human beans, all 57 varieties.
Mary – thanks for the précis of the games, it’s sponsorship and reporting – it was a very good informative post.