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.
Why made me say Nick Boles CEO G4S? It is Nick Buckles.
Boles is an MP. Took Thatcher’s old seat of Grantham. Bilderberger, member of Henry Jackson Society and a PPS to a Gove minister. Now where is that garlic and the stake?
G4S bung…”Lobbyists Euro RSCG Apex
Communications, which gave £11,900 (to the Tories -K)), represents A4E, G4S and Serco.
http://www.sunray22b.net/1277.htm
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I’m sure that’s just for starters.
For any interested activists that can attend;this meeting should prove informative about Israeli settlements in the West Bank and G4S
Merton PSC July meeting on G4S
JULY MEETING – G4S
Tuesday 17th July at 7.30 pm
Venue: South London Irish Centre,
140-142, Hartfield Rd. SW19 3TG
Topics: Globe, G4S,& Jubilee Diamond Protest Video Clips
Speaker:
Diana Neslen – a signatory of Jews for Justice for Palestinians
A short walk from Wimbledon Station
Please attend or send a friend (I,m a poet and don,t know it).
Craig’s Dundee Whitfield “Skarne” Blocks circa 1976 http://dundeecommunitypodcast.webs.com/photos/Old-Dundee-1950s-to-1980s/The%20Skarne%20blocks%20in%20Whitfield%201978.jpg
Herbie One doesn’t to go to or get invited to Herzliya for fun. It means she has a commitment to the little ‘state’.
And Whitfield closer up http://dundeecommunitypodcast.webs.com/photos/Old-Dundee-1950s-to-/Whitfield%20Skarne%2006.jpg
Mary wrote: “Herbie One doesn’t to go to or get invited to Herzliya for fun. It means she has a commitment to the little ‘state’.”
Quite so. Fox was also an attendee as were a couple of BP (or ex-BP?) people taking part in a game about how to handle Israel’s oil/gas reserves should the price go to $250 a barrel. Hoard or sell, tricky?
On a light note, I came across a funny comment regarding the Levy ‘occupation denial’ report in Israel. On the excellent 972mag.com site, a ‘Richard SM’ called the West Bank occupation ‘The Great Terrain Robbery’. Excellent play on words.
http://972mag.com/the-name-game-what-should-we-call-the-situation-in-the-west-bank/50708/
Whistleblower’s Olympic Security Warning.
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A whistleblower involved in training staff for security firm G4S has told Sky News he believes there is a 50-50 chance someone could carry a bomb into one of the Olympic venues….
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http://uk.news.yahoo.com/whistleblowers-olympic-security-warning-163115426.html
Thanks Yonatan even though my typo was repeated! Word play v good.
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The comment above from too long to type again – Some have been saying that there is a dirty bomb in the foundations. At the beginning of the work, security was not very full on.
I did not know that Her Maj is opening it. I do hope that the tedious ‘ceremony’ does not go on for hours and hours with speeches, displays, flag raisings, national anthems and then the bloody flame/torch which I am so sick of hearing about from inane presenters. Don’t know how they live with themselves repeating the garbage.
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http://www.royal.gov.uk/LatestNewsandDiary/Pressreleases/2012/OpeningOlympicParalympicGames2012.aspx
So, Mary and Yonatan,
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You think May went to Herzliya through personal choice.
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I see.
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And Mary, this is all a bit like your Martin McGuinness shakey hands bollocks.
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Miles wide, skin deep. Forget it at your peril.
Troops on the street? We are now officially a banana republic, without the bananas or the good weather.
I’m wondering if the 2,500 “volunteers” are really volunteers at all, or if, like the “volunteers” who worked for free for the Jubilee, they are unemployed people told that they either do unpaid work or else they can lose their benefits and starve. Even if you count the benefits as payment (which in many cases would be a liberty as some of these people will have worked and paid taxes for years) it wouldn’t justify more than part time work for the £70 odd a week.
@Herbie I do not much like the tone of your comment pr your language. You are forgetting May’s vendettas against Sheikh Raed Salah based on false information provided to her by the Community Security Trust, and other Muslims. Whose agenda do you think these actions fit?
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And why rake up that business of McGuiness shaking hands with the Queen? I see no connection. I stand by what I said then and what I say now.
How far have we strayed off the path? These days someone has to get an MP to pull strings so that their relative can be given a “Job” that does not pay, so that he/she can work. Who said it was a banana republic? No it is more like KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) et al with “wasta” thou shalt live being the motto.
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It now makes sense to see all the troops pulled out of Afghanistan coming to London to man the Olympics, the only tricky bit is when the fireworks star some of these troops not to have a flash back and get into the Afghanistan mode.
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Herbie,
Do you imply that her Madj’s Home Secretary Teresa May was compelled to go to hertzylya to kiss the chosen butts and genuflect to all things yeddish under duress and not of her own free will?
I certainly agree that we are beginning to look like a dictatorship.
Only problem with that is , who’s dictating ?
Willie Hague was always a klutz, Osborne is an incompetent idiot, and Cameron cant stick with one decision for more than a day.
May would strike terror into the bravest of us, but she’s not very savvy.
She did mention today that the security has been meticulously planned.
Getting that sinking feeling that more than the Olympic games is planned.
I seriously hope it gets rained off.
More of the news that you will not get from any of the “usual newsmongers”.
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Sheik Namer the spiritual leader of the Saudi dissidents’ kidnapping and torture by the KSA authorities, has resulted in the ultimatum of the dissidents whom have warned the KSA authorities: they have five days to release the said Sheik or face the destruction of the eastern board of the oil wells. Also the dissidents have warned of a campaign of total disruption yet to be unleashed.
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Regardless of the efforts to filter out these latest developments in KSA, the probable threat of the disruption of oil, will be pushing the price of oil higher.
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Clearly people of KSA have had enough of the repression and oppression and are now taking the matters into their own hands. Good luck and God speed to the dissidents fighting the most repressive regime on the planet.
Fedup
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Yeah, more or less. She’d be kissing Arab ass where that in vogue today. My main point is that you need to look more at the authors of the drama rather than the characters they write. There’s no point mixing your metaphors and slagging off the monkey. We already know they don’t represent us, or even themselves for that matter other than in terms of ambition.
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Mary, for example, often talks about “agent” Cameron so you’d expect she’d understand the point too, but alas she just read it somewhere and thought it cute.
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Martin McGuinness is perhaps Ireland’s foremost shaker of hands. He shook that of an ex-Israeli ambassador and a queen and even Unionists, but still his party is one of the very few in govt anywhere in Europe where Jenny Tongeism is not just tolerated but actively encouraged. Some members of his party even go on those relief boats to Palestine.
Firstly here is a video clip of the sheik Namer, he is talking about governance and politics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn23wH_risE
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Herbie,
As you will know for the last many decades none having been in vogue other than the self awarded chosen ones, then is it not an exercise in futility to allude to Arabs etc.? Further, So far as representation goes, everyone of the carpetbaggers are in it for what they can get out of it, therefore we can safely assume they represent themselves pretty good.
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However we also as human beings have what is know as the sense of discerning right from wrong, therefore the notion of taking the shekel and mingling with a bunch of parasitic supremacists whose blind allegiance to the principles of tribalism, free land (mainly others lands), and free murder and discrimination against all from without the tribe, is akin to drug peddling parasites who earn their living off the misery of their constituents and is plainly wrong by any standards personal or otherwise.
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Finally, the fact that Martin McGuinness extends his hand of friendship is a measure of his success in setting the pace of change against those whom had disenfranchised him and his kind. Hence his parties’ affinity with the disenfranchised Palestinians whom of no fault of their own have been lving at the gates of hell on Earth for the duration of the last seven decades.
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If a butterfly flapping its wing in outer Mongolia can affect the weather in the North Sea, then what kind of fucked up effect will the total disregard of the ziofuckwits to all values human would have on our rights in UK, and elsewhere?
It’s the Stingray Olympics: missiles, Typhoon jets, Our Most Powerful Naval Vessel on standby, the country sinking into the ground and, of course, a puppet government.
Mary correction to your post. FDR did not refuse to shake Jesse Owen’s hand. The story is that Owens felt snubbed because he never received a congratulatory telegram from the White House.
I’ve just got home from a bar in town where I had a conversation with a soldier. He was twenty years old, he’d joined up at sixteen. They had told him he wouldn’t be sent to Afghanistan, but he was, and members of his unit had been killed. Tonight was the start of his three month leave, after which he fully expects to be sent back there again.
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He proposed a toast to the Army. I declined, and suggested we drink to the soldiers, but not the army, because they shouldn’t be out there in the first place.
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From this point on, my skill with language is inadequate for what I wish to express. His emotions were clearly strung nearly to breaking point, he was full of anger and fear. At first he said he wanted to go back to seek revenge for his comrades who had been killed, but his aggression was overflowing in other directions too. At one point his anger became too much for him, and he went away to be alone for a few minutes.
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He also seemed alienated. He expected to be excluded from the bar by the bouncer, and didn’t expect to be permitted to enter the nearby club. They did let him in, and I wished him well. I said that I hoped that he would be assigned to the Olympics rather than sent back to Afghanistan. His attitude had changed, mellowed. Now he said that he’d rather not be sent back, but he didn’t see any hope of that. So we raised our glasses to his family and comrades, and lifted our middle fingers to the politicians who sent him there.
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Less than half my age, with an emotional burden like that to carry for the rest of his life, if he even gets the chance to live it.
“I certainly agree that we are beginning to look like a dictatorship.
Only problem with that is , who’s dictating ?” (Donnie D)
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Haven’t been following the story, have you, Donnie? 🙂
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Plot synopsis here:
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/07/09/opinion-the-finance-lobby-faces-its-biggest-challenge/
‘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?’
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I blogged on Cameron’s love of charity yesterday. To my mind there are two types of charity of which Cameron approves, charities like Atlantic Bridge, where the ultra-rich make donations in return for favours, and charities in which the poor are made to work for nothing. It is blatant.
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http://johngossip.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/big-society-camerons-love-of-charity.html
Cameron’s crowd are looking more and more like American Republicans every day of the week.
If you had no idea what Britain was really all about before, then you would have no excuse after this Olympics carve-up is over. It takes something big like this for the fascists to show their true colours. I just hope it rains and rains and rains throught-out and the roads are grid-locked and public transport fails. There will be egg on their big fat money grabbing faces and I’d like to hear what excuse Boris comes out with to jolly it along. The Govt can’t control the weather and this will be the downfall of the Games and not the supposed terrorism attacks.
Why are there so many conspiracies going around surrounding the olympics. Things like mass death, conspiracies around the illuminati doing some inside jobs on certain actions
Parky, Boris would probably claim he had found the ‘God particle’.
Chilling photos here.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2172909/Olympic-security-Londons-green-space-transformed-anti-aircraft-guns-Olympic-ring-steel.html
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I hear that Hyde Park is being considered for a camp for the army personnel and that the olympic road lanes are already open.
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FYI Herbie (still being snide I see) I read the phrase ‘Agent Cameron’ for the first time on this blog. I did not think it ‘cute’ as you say just appropriate.
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Can you spot Mrs May in this large gathering of the CFoI?
http://www2.cfoi.co.uk/Events/PastEvents/ 😉
@craig
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Brilliant, not a word out of place.
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“What they are going to shoot down, and which bit of London it will land on, is not to be questioned.” Oooof!
I liked your piece John and yes shame on the condems for the changes made to the structure of management of our canals and waterways. They are part of our true legacy.