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.
A friends son who is unemployed but has a sports coaching qualification tried to volunteer but was turned down for an unspecified failure to pass the security screening.
He’d needed to gain experience to get a job and thought given he wanted to become a sports coach, assisting at Olympic venue might be a plus on his CV.
The recruitment people refused to give a reason when pressed, and he had no knowledge of why he might be.
He contacted his local MP, who happened to be an ex-foreign secretary of your acquaintance. As the said MP had also been home secretary, he pulled some strings at the home office and he was allowed to volunteer (although no reason was given for the original black-listing).
Chris
Thanks. it is yet another horrible example of unemployed young people working for nothing for those who exploit them, in despair of getting something on their c.v.. If only it more often led to finding a real job.
Theresa May is a dangerous woman anb a walking disaster. And a liar. Note she passed the buck to LOCOG. Today she said she nothing was amiss with the G4S until yesterday.
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On Monday 9 July she answered these questions.
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Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East, Labour)
What progress she has made on Olympic security preparations; and if she will make a statement.
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Theresa May (Home Secretary; Maidenhead, Conservative)
The Government and everyone involved are focused on delivering a safe, secure and successful games. We are confident in our planning and are leaving nothing to chance in our aim to deliver games that London, the UK and the whole world can enjoy.
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Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East, Labour)
The Olympics are only 18 days away, but we learned over the weekend that G4S still needs to fill 9,000 security positions. Without those staff, security will surely be compromised. Will the Home Secretary therefore confirm that she has signed off G4S’s recruitment schedule? Will she also give a personal assurance to the House that those 9,000 security staff can be recruited, vetted and trained in the next 18 days?
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Theresa May (Home Secretary; Maidenhead, Conservative)
As the hon. Gentleman may be aware, venue security is being delivered by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, G4S and the military. It is a huge operation to protect more than 100 different venues, and delivering it is a big challenge. The Home Office has put in place a number of assurance processes to ensure that we have effective and robust scrutiny of venue security planning. We have been testing our plans thoroughly and are confident that our partners will deliver a safe and secure games, but we are not complacent and will leave nothing to chance, so we will stay on the case.
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Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North, Labour)
The Home Secretary has not answered the question asked by my hon. Friend Gregg McClymont. First, will she confirm that she personally signed off the G4S recruitment schedule? Secondly, will these 9,000 people be recruited, trained and in place, and will they have gone through the proper security vetting, by the opening of the Olympic games?
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Theresa May (Home Secretary; Maidenhead, Conservative)
The hon. Lady has missed one crucial point: the G4S contract is with LOCOG. The Home Office has a responsibility to test those plans and to provide assurance on them, which is exactly what it has been doing.
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http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2012-07-09a.9.2
You are right as the Advert used to say: “a bit of over there over here”.
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Indeed we have made giant leaps towards servitude and serfdom all thanks to war on terror. St Tresa of May rightly identifies the valuable international experience of G4S, how truthful do you want her to be?
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G4S have learned to treat the none chosen and Palestinians alike, all of whom are equally worthless, hence the volunteer force of slaves who will turn up dutifully having to buy their own sandwiches for dinner and enjoy Marshalling the other serfs, oh, the power trip. Mind these will be given a treat the red flags from their relevant job club files will be removed.
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The VIP lanes, the missile shield, and the friendly howitzers with their virile muzzles are all a dick swinging exercise, that conveys one message; “we take no shit, and go ahead punk make my day”, doctrine so abundantly clear. A lesson to those mamby pamby dictators in how to dictate with style.
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PS. the red flags of Job clubs are serious matters, anyone of the “Job Seekers” attaining two of the said red flags will have their benefit suspended from six to twelve months. The red flag can be attained if the “job seeker” has pawned his/her phone to buy gas/electric/food. Also other red flag offenses include not setting up an email without being tutored for or trained, ie if someone who is not computer savvy or does not know how to set up an email account does not count, as the illness and disabilities do not count as per the raft of new legislations targeting the waste of money spent on the “lazy” unemployed and the poor and the disabled.
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PPS. don’t ask silly questions where are the jobs at? There is plenty free vacancies going, all you need to do is work for free, that is all.
I am a “carer” to use modern day terminology,I am not fond of labels but it helps understand my foundations.The systematic destruction of Britain is appalling in the rapid rate at which it is happening.
I am seeing many forced to work or have benefits removed when seriously ill,losing that benefit whilst sick,dying or disabled, mental break down from short term contracts in the “caring” sector.Workers and volunteers alike are all being engulfed by this tsunami of profit and power led wave.
Workfare is unbelievably corrupt and many local charity shops willingly participate,dictating hours and I would imagine terrifying some young adults with their work hours demands.
The last two olitical parties consider profit and power their God.Whilst there is no interactive care for our fellow human by small gestures and little steps we will be that dioctatorship. you so aptly describe.
A note from a friend this morning –
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A SUNDAY SCHOOL PICNIC
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I have just watched the Leni Riefenstahl film of the 1936 Olympics. I know it was a propaganda film but it made those Olympics look like a civilized Sunday School picnic compared to the Blair/Cameron Games. It lasted but three days. The police/soldiers were suprisinging few and far between (about one every hundred feet). Hitler and his mob of nasties were on a rostrum in the middle of the thousands of spectators each day with no glass screens or military in sight. They were obviously enjoying the whole thing except when black athletes beat the Germans. Incidentally rumour has it that it was FDR who refused to shake Jesse Owens’ hand when he returned to USA.
The access and design of the 1936 Stadia were impeccable compared to the shambles of Stratford. (which I think could turn into a tragedy if there was a stampede). They have confessed they are worried about access at the Westfield shopping centre. Their excuse is that four different rail companies had a hand in building Stratford station (and it looks like it.)
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Yours …..
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PS An outcome of the meeting last night at Lincolns Inn about security crackdowns in UK organised by CAMPACC is that I have at last got confirmation from leading Lawyers about who represents the UK State re the Geneva Conventions. It’s The Director of Public Prosecutions (they changed the law last year)
Someone’s sussed G4S, anyway. Libya has banned it from guarding EU officials in Tripoli…despite G4S having hired the former UK Ambassador to Libya as an advisor: “Richard (Northern) will be instrumental in guiding us as we establish our Libyan business and support the country’s redevelopment” (Private Eye, today)
That gets a rofl from me.
Some of the unpaid volunteers will have been forced to do it.
Have a look here Craig
http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/
Call me a curmudgeon but I’m adamant the olympics should never have gone ahead. What a staggering waste of public money they are. The sports arenas left behind will rust and a few wealthy people will be able to afford to move into the olympic “village”. London grinds to a halt for 4 weeks and we’re left to suffer the consequences.
Neil
Even the Olympic village is a fail. No way the yuppies will buy the flats. They look like the Whtifield flats in Dundee before they were demolished, or one of the nastier Soviet estates in Moscow.
There’s no way anyone will buy most of them. The deal was to hand the Qataris some lucrative tenancies on a plate…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/aug/12/olympic-village-qatari-ruling-family
Good post Craig.
These Olympics are just an excuse for corporate whores,politicians and military psychopaths to profiteer and ramp up the fear and loathing.
Nothing else-certainly nothing to do with sport and fostering goodwill and understanding between nations,
A sad state of affairs really.
Zeitgeist indeed.
Some more British citizens who are f****d – these who rely on three South London hospitals for their medical care. I never thought I would hear that an NHS trust was being put into administration. Some crappy retail chain maybe but not OUR NHS hospitals. The poor people and the staff too.
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12 July 2012 Last updated at 13:04
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South London Healthcare NHS Trust put into administration
The trust was created by merging three hospitals
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South London Healthcare NHS Trust is to be put into administration after it ran into financial trouble, the government has announced.
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Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has appointed a trust special administrator to go into the trust.
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Mr Lansley said: “Past efforts have not succeeded in putting the South London Healthcare Trust on a sustainable path.”
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The trust has run up deficits of more than £150m since being created in 2009.
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It is the first time an NHS trust has been put into administration.
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/…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18812193
Oh never spent much time in Dundee. Use to drive though Sighthill and Wester Hailes every work day however!
The knock-on effect of the olympics has been to push up house prices and rents in east London by incredible multiples. The stories of landlords simply booting out tenants in search of olympic gold has made the headlines a few times now. (England has the worst private tenancy protection in the developed world and a majority of the third world …)
I recall vivdly how excited we young people used to be about the Olympics of 1956, 1960, 1964. All the sports were strictly amateur, and there was very little money to be made by anyone. (The austere London Olympics of 1948 were still fresh in most people’s memory – anyone who doesn’t know what the Olympic movement used to be about should read one of the excellent books about 1948).
This year, I wouldn’t go to any of the Olympic venues unless I was paid quite a lot of money to do so. I shall tune in to a few of the athletics events on TV, maybe a spot of swimming, and some tennis. I very much wish the Olympics were being held somewhere – anywhere – else. It has becoming a hideously cynical exercise in money-making.
Isn’t the real point of all the missiles and other military activity to show them off to the visiting heads of state in order to boost the profits of BAE etc.?
Hitting the proverbial nail on the head once more and as always, Craig. Thank you. This elite S*** Fest was always going to be a problem in all sorts of ways and so it will prove. It gives the lie to all the bosh we hear from our politicians about democracy. “Demagogracy” would be more accurate. ‘Twill be interesting to see when or if the troops leave the streets once the Rituals are over.
Tom Welsh: “All the sports were strictly amateur…”
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Yes, I thought so! I’ve stated this to a number of people, and they’ve just looked at me blankly.
Agree Neil. Stratford will be just like this a a few years’ time. This is the Athens stadium last February.
http://www.newbrandtribalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AthensStadium.jpg
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I see the Greek people were shafted for $9nbn eight years ago just as we have been for £9bn and counting.
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I found the photo on this link which we should send on to Bliar in his new role as ‘adviser on the Olympic legacy’. It would be funny if it was not so serious.
{http://www.newbrandtribalism.com/2012/03/02/the-role-of-brands-in-a-post-olympic-world/}
There were 4,000 signatures on this petition yesterday afternoon when I signed. Today there are over 73,000. Enough said.
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The petition text:
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To the CEOs of companies sponsoring the Olympics,
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Please do the right thing and pay your fair share of tax on your huge profits from the London Olympics
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give up your Olympic tax break
publish full financial details to prove you’ve done it
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https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/olympic-tax-dodging-petition
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I would have left out the word ‘please’.
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The UK’s winning Olympic bid included huge tax breaks for corporate sponsors. As a result, massive multi-nationals stand to make a tax-free fortune all at our expense.
If enough of us complain, then it might scare these image-conscious companies into backing down and refusing their Olympic tax-dodge.
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Please add your name to the petition and shame these Olympic corporate sponsors into doing the right thing, sign the petition now.
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UPDATE McDonalds have said they will not take theirs.
“I see the Greek people were shafted for $9nbn eight years ago just as we have been for £9bn and counting.”
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18073793
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{http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/04/32-die-a-week-after-failing-in.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter}
I laughed when the M4 got closed this weekend. Of all the roads in London to be fucked just before the Olympics, it had to be the main route in to London from the main port of entry… If they can’t fix it, honestly, it will be quicker to fly to most destinations than to get a ride into London. Even the VIPs. Until they get the tanks out to clear a path through Hounslow, which I suppose they will seriously consider doing.
Whilst I have no time for Cameron’s Tories, I have a little sympathy in terms the Olympics – which is of course another Blair inheritance.
And it really is typical Blair – a grand, Utopian plan cooked up with zero attention to detail, minimal public support, an intentionally lowballed budget, with no idea what success will look like, and always destined to become someone else’s problem.
Theresa May is a Zionist supporter. She attended the Herzliya conference in February this year.
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Craig said ‘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.’
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Yonatan said this on a previous post.http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/01/ios-on-werrittys-case/
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‘8 Jan, 2012 – 3:26 pm
Re: Herzliya – it seems to have two tracks, an open part and a closed ‘invitation only’ round table. Fox is listed as a speaker in 2009, 2010 and 2011, but there is no sign of any contribution in the open sections. Presumably the talks were delivered in the ‘invitation only’ sessions. Given he was there officially, it would be interesting to know what he saying.
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In 2009 and 2010, Sir Michael Pakenham, Former Chairman of the UK Joint Intelligence Committee played a part in several panels. In 2011 Michael Dugher (UK Shadow Defence Minister) was on the panel “Is Israel Losing Europe”, John Spellar (UK Shadow Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs) was on a panel “Addressing the Assault on Israel’s Legitimacy in Europe” and Lorna Fitzsimmons took part in “On Criticism and Prejudice: The Arab-Israeli Conflict and the Assault on Israel’s Legitimacy”. Ms Fitzsimmons will be there again in 2012 rubbing shoulders with such pillars of the great and good as Theresa May’
~~~
This was May’s contribution
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MAKING A DIFFERENCE: WOMEN IN INTERNATIONAL
SECURITY
Hon. Dr. Marta Lucia Ramirez de Rincon, Fmr. Minister of Defense of
Colombia
Hon. Elisabeth Rehn, Fmr. Minister of Defense of Finland
Amb. Jill Sinclair, Assistant Deputy Minister (Policy), Department of
National Defence of Canada*
Rt. Hon. Theresa May, Home Secretary and Minister for Women and
Equality, UK Home Office*
Lt. Gen. (ret.) Orit Adato, Fmr. Commissioner of the Israeli Prison
Service
Moderator: Ms. Lea Landman, Research Fellow, Institute for Policy
and Strategy, IDC Herzliya; Acting Executive Director, WIIS Israel
—————
Hon. Janet Napolitano, US Secretary of Homeland Security*
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{http://www.herzliyaconference.org/eng/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/ProgramE(5).pdf}
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Vile. She must have swopped notes with the Israeli prison service woman. Torture, detention without trial and locking up children their specialty.
Good ole Blakey. Just had to change one letter to bring it up to date:
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And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountain green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark satanic tills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.
“I see the Greek people were shafted for $9nbn eight years ago just as we have been for £9bn and counting.” (mary)
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If we learn anything from history it is that we learn nothing from history. In eight years’ time we too will be largely unemployed, rioting, with no social services, and run by unelected fatcats. Or, at any rate, even more than we are already.
As Del Boy would say, ‘What a plonker’.
The Bottom Line Nick Boles CEO G4S
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18366018
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I should think that like the Diamond geezer, he’s now toast.
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Something good has come out of this debacle though. Surrey Police will not consider G4S in their privatisation discussions. Go the whole hog Surrey Police, and cancel the discussions. You know outsourcing will not give reliability however cheaply the companies offer their services.
Question remains why is blair back, pre announced pre olympics pre iran and syria .
how much has “G4S” given in party “donations” — i wonder?
“Theresa May is a Zionist supporter”
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I could be wrong, but I doubt that she’s any more a supporter of Israel or Zionism than anyone here.
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People like her support the power of the moment and that’s all. That’s why they’re incapable of articulating any argument for their cause. It’s staggering the extent to which “support” for Zionism has grown in Britain over the past 20 or so years. Prior to that official support was for the Arab regimes and public support of the Palestinians was encouraged. That’s why Jenny Tonge has gone from goodie to baddie over the same period.
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Anyway, there are grounds for optimism in this “support” whilst seeming miles wide being but millimetres deep.
Whitfield ma airse. See Oban? A this an no a peh in sight.
http://www.obantimes.co.uk//wp-content/gallery/february-2012/soroba-roughcast-outsidewall-15_t05sorobargh4.jpg