Those coming from Central Asia, Bahrain, Qatar or Saudi Arabia to the Olympics, interested to see what life in a democracy feels like, will find it seems exactly like life at home in their dictatorship. 17,000 soldiers will be glowering over the venues, checking identity documents, stopping and searching. The mlitary will occupy residential buildings, be buzzing overhead, rolling down the streets and patrolling the river. There will be missiles on land, sea and air, though nobody knows what the threat is that this is supposed to counter.
What will make our dictatorship resident visitors feel especially at home is the contempt for the ordinary citizen. Not only will they have the military all over them and be subject to frequent stopping and questioning, they will be expected continually to get out of the way of their betters. Special VIP lanes on the road will allow officials to sweep by, while normal citizens will simply have to sit in gridlock and stew. Who cares? The military will stick missiles on your roof if they wish. What they are going to shoot down, and which bit of London it will land on, is not to be questioned.
Here in Ramsgate we are losing our regular train service to London completely for the duration. All the HS1 trains are being commandeered to run a shuttle service between Ebbsfleet and Stratford. 22 trains a day from Ramsgate are simply cancelled. Slow trains are available, but a journey normally 70 minutes will become – at the fastest possible – 2 hours and 35 minutes. A large number of commuters will simply be unable to get to work anything like on time, and have to spend door to door over seven hours a day in travelling as well as their working day. Nobody was consulted. Quite a few don’t yet know – there has been no determined effort to tell people. Leaflets are available in the ticket office if you ask for one.
But the leaflets might as well just say, “You are fucked, and we don’t care”.
The extra 3,500 military personnel it was today announced will be used at the games cover a shortfall in Group Four personnel. Group Four were providing 4,000 paid staff and 6,000 unpaid volunteers. It is the unpaid volunteer numbers which are short by 3,500.
Most people are not stupid. They may volunteer happily for sport or for charity, but to work for nothing to make tens of millions of pounds of profit for Group Four as it exploits them, plainly does not have universal appeal. Those 2,500 who have volunteered to work for nothing for G4S are the idiots in this story. How gullible can you be?
Bob Russell, MP for Colchester, today in parliament made the excellent point to Teresa May that Group Four (or G4S as they now call themselves) should not be employed because of their role in aiding and abetting Israel’s illegal activities in the West Bank and human rights abuse there. With breathtaking chutzpah Teresa May replied that it was this kind of valuable international experience that made Group Four the right company to provide security for the games.
Which brings me back to my point at the start. Those visiting from oppressive regimes will feel absolutely at home. That is the one and only thing you can trust Teresa May to ensure with grim efficiency.
FYI
URGENT BULLETIN 23 July 2012
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HOT NEWS: TONY BLAIR BREAKS COVER
JOIN THE PROTEST: STOP THE BLAIR COMEBACK
TUESDAY 24 JULY 4pm-5.30pm
Central Hall Westminster, London SW1H 9NH
Nearest tube Westminster or St James’s Park
For full details and updates, see: bit.ly/MxHhIs
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The announcement of the venue for the latest stage in the Tony Blair Comeback campaign has been kept secret till just one day before the event, so fearful is the man who would be prime minister again of anti-war protesters and people attempting to make a citizen’s arrest (see bit.ly/LoamA8).
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Blair will be in conversation with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who opposed the war on Iraq. They will be talking about religion in society, so there will be no shortage of sanctimony and hypocrisy on Blair’s part.
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Stop the War is committed to call a protest whenever the war criminal comes out of the shadows to speak as if one million Iraqis didn’t die as a result of the illegal war he waged with George W. Bush.
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If you live in London please join the protest if you can. And publicise it as widely as possible. Bring your personalised placard too, as these always make an impact with the media.
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A poll published a few days ago showed that only 28% of people think a Blair comeback would benefit the country, with 61% adamant — it wouldn’t. For any one who hasn’t got the message as to the reasons Tony Blair is loathed by so many people in Britain, they should read Sanum Ghafoor’s excellent new article: Never let them bury the truth about Tony Blair. See: bit.ly/LJhdsq
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I cannot believe 28% of those in the poll believed his comeback would benefit the country. Who are they? Where are they?
“So is the demonisation of disabled people by the right wing mainstream media”
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So is the demonisation of the elderly. Who had the unmitigated nerve to pay off their mortgages and be thrifty and save their money. And now have the nerve to expect anyone to look after them in their old age. The cult of youth (just look at TV programmes, + the ads they carry) has gone far too far. There are various cultures in the world where they look after their elderly automatically and with great care, and treat them with a lot more respect than in ours.
Bagel bakers of the world, Unite!
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Bake bagels, six, Olympic bright
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Stick ’em in your window
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For the cops to see
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Take back the Olympics… and your city!
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Heretic, Ancient Greece, circa 200BC
Yayy for Suhayl Saadi.. LOL
Do feel free to spread ‘The Bagel Revolution’ virally. It is an anonymous poem from a very long time ago, so if the corporate cops come hunting, tell them they’ll need a time machine.
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Nuid, wrt ageism, you are right. Well said! Truth is, capitalism screws up family relationships, big-time.
Nuid
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Yes, you are spot on. I see so many similarities to what is going on now and 1930’s Germany.
Trying to bail out the Titanic.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18950896
at an all time low.
http://dwpexamination.org/forum/horror-stories/at-an-all-time-low/#p47978
“We must not start thinking that society will be better off “if we hang 20 bankers at the end of the street”, Mr Blair says.
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s/be
“We must start thinking that society will be better off if we hang an ex-prime minister who is a war criminal at the end of the street”, we all say.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/9422096/Tony-Blair-hanging-bankers-wont-help.html
Re: Ageism:
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Nuid it’s very true what your wrote, and very sad. One of the things I love about Thai culture is great respect they show for their elders. When addressing a stranger, you can call them ‘Pi’ (older) or ‘Nong’ (younger), if you were to call someone older than you ‘Nong’ it would be a big insult, even calling someone around the same age as you ‘Nong’ would be placing yourself above them. It’s much safer to refer to someone as being old rather than young, the complete opposite to the west! It’s also completely acceptable to call any old person you meet grandma or grandpa, even if you barely know them. In recent years police have really cracked down on people riding motorbikes without a helmet, and there are frequent checkpoints setup to fine people with no helmets. I always see the police wave through grandmas and grandpas without stopping them when they have no helmet. Safety aside, it’s quite sweet really.
CheebaCow, that’s lovely.
Jerusalem? Tel-Aviv, surely?
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Good question, Clark. But a vexed one. Signals an ever greater willingness to please Tel Aviv (the financial centre) by endorsing the Judaisation of Jerusalem:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070110073429AAJ8FZv
CheebaCow, yes that’s lovely. And just the kind of thing I meant, although I’ve never been to Thailand.
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Suhayl, I’ll be passing your ‘Bagel Revolution’ on today, to a couple of people I know will appreciate it.
Clever mister Blair, misdirecting with an irrelevant truth. Summarily hanging bankers will not help. So let’s not discuss regulating banking.
“The torch visited the fictional London borough of Walford when it appeared in a special live section of BBC soap EastEnders later.” What is surreal and what is not?
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The video of the Canadian here is damming.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18951304
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Note that the mantra ‘safe and secure’ is repeated for the nth time. Smoothie face says it too but COBRA is meeting daily re ‘games’. A big false flag with brown ‘culprits’ is not unlikely. This happens in spite of HMS Ocean*, 20,000 troops and hundreds or even thousands of trans-Atlantic goons.
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* D Mail headline 5 May 2012
Now THAT is a show of strength: HMS Ocean arrives in the Thames to protect London during the Olympics (and if she doesn’t put off the terrorists, what will?)
HMS Ocean sails up the Thames as preparations for Olympic security continues
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Phil Hammond reveals he has been trained on terror decisions such as shooting down a hijacked jet
Jerusalem? Tel-Aviv, surely?”
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According to the article’s header, Phoebe Greenwood was in Tel Aviv when she wrote that! Did she not feel that she was near the centre of things there?
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/23/israel-eu
Thanks, please read this, for the harrowing accounts of ATOS victims everywhere. Tory policies are hitting the oldest, poorest, most disabled and those who they know won’t be able to oppose their fascism coherently.
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More and more people contemplating taking their own life’s, I suppose that must be something the Tory’s considered at one point in time whilst discussing these draconian harassment measures behind closed doors.
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The saga of Cllr. Murphy destroying the Norfolk Conservative Party continues, a report into his conduct is being kept secret and we are waiting for it to be leaked….
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/investigator_s_report_into_controversial_email_will_remain_unseen_says_norfolk_county_council_1_1456625
PS: good to have you back Cheebacow, been away 😉
I’m putting this here as I don’t want to post O/T on the Blair thread:
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Newest Israeli vacation fad: Watching Syrians fight
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“Dozens of Israelis are gathering daily at vantage points on the Golan from where they can hear, and occasionally see, the raging battles between the Syrian army and rebel forces, Maariv reported on Tuesday.
“Tour group operators have even reported that they now add the Syrian unrest to the agenda of tours that visit the area …”
Continues
http://www.timesofisrael.com/war-watching-catches-on-in-israel/
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And this:
Israeli journalist convicted for revealing Palestinian assassinations – Al Akhbar English
{http://t.co/3ufHjcev}
Mary,
The ol impics have tanked and the population have rejected it hence the bums rush to fill the soaps with the adverts for ol impics. The absolutely fabulous episode of pushing the ol impics was an unashamed and in your face promotion of the ol impics, and unfunny to boot.
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This flogging of the dead horse is so telling of the singular failure of the powers be in judging the population’s mood. The Mary Antoinette moments all around, include the tax dodging cash in hand trades, when the banks will bounce the drawn cheques, and the courts are not much help in solving the problems, and basically cheques are not worth the paper they are written on and the extortionate rates of the credit cards have pushed even some of the big outfits to insist on cash only transactions.
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However just to divert the attention of the proletariat from the tax dodging bastards now every effort is made to get the guy digging ditches to pay more of taxes than before, or risk losing his money (cheques) or compel him to take a credit card machine that will be using the mobile connections and erode away the miserable living he may have managed to earn.
You sound as despairing as me Passerby.
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The situation at the Limp Ics gets worse by the day. Jeremy *unt seems to be i/c of the militarisation. I bet the conversation at COBRA today wandered off to the Brooks Coulson charges.
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24 July 2012 Last updated at 14:24
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London 2012: More troops deployed for Olympics
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt: “Nothing should be left to chance”
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London’s three Olympic Games compared
Celebrating and hating graffiti in London
Life with the troops at Olympic site Listen
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More than 1,000 troops who had been on standby to bolster security at the Olympic Games have been deployed.
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Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the 1,200 troops were to be used because ministers were clear that “we don’t want to leave anything to chance”.
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Earlier this month 3,500 personnel were drafted in after security provider G4S admitted it was short of staff.
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The new deployment decision was taken at a meeting of the cabinet’s Olympics committee, chaired by David Cameron.
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/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18966360
An excellent suggestion here from a young journalist. I think anyway that the forthcoming economic crash will overtake plans for further Olympics beyond say Rio de Janeiro.
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Instead of disrupting a different city every four years, the Olympics should always be held in Athens
By Miles Goslett
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2177650/Instead-disrupting-different-city-years-Olympics-held-Athens.html
Limp Ics contd. At the start of the women’s football match between Columbia and North Korea at Hampden Park, the video display package supplied from LOCOG showed the South Korean flag. A good start to the proceedings.
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12 minutes ago
Kick off postponed to 8:50pm
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Kick-off in the North Korea vs Colombia Olympic football match has been moved back to 8:50pm after the delay caused by the wrong flag being shown on a televisions screen.
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The match was due to start at 7:45pm.
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Olympics: N Korea flag mix-up
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The North Korean women’s football team has refused to start their Olympics match against Colombia because the South Korean flag was accidentally shown on the big screen at Hampden Park in Glasgow.
Olympics
North Korea
I remember being struck, when I visited Greece still under the colonels’ rule in the spring of 1973, seeing soldiers with guns all over the place in Athens.
Lysias At least you weren’t stuck in Boris’s little wheeze, the cable car across the Thames from nowhere to nowhere, yesterday afternoon which was the hottest day of the year.
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Also yesterday –
RAF fighter jet scrambled after air traffic controllers lose contact with Thomas Cook airliner carrying hundreds of tourists
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The Typhoon (pictured) roared into the skies from RAF Northolt in north west London after air traffic controllers lost contact with a commercial airliner carrying hundreds of holidaymakers.
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Olympic cable cars break down for nearly 40 minutes leaving tourists and children in sweltering conditions.
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The £44m Emirates Cable Car, which transports visitors across the River Thames in east London, suffered a fault this lunchtime, leaving families and children suspended 300ft in the air for over 30 minutes.
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Mail Online
Eat this, spambots –
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/var/news/storage/images/cartoons/martin-rowson/five-arsed-pig/2488067-1-eng-GB/Five-arsed-pig_cartoon.jpg
Caution – unsuitable for children and adults.
Were passengers charged extra for the extra time?