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I enjoy the odd bit of sport. My personal achievement highlights include: coming twelfth in the UK at springboard diving, appearing on Blue Peter as part of my school's skipping team and winning the year six sports day sack race. Let it be said - I won't be bothering the Team GB Olympics squad anytime soon.
Not that I'll be losing any sleep, however, since it appears the 2012 Games are increasingly being revealed as a sick, corrupt feeding-frenzy for the 1% to line their coffers at the expense of the already struggling general populace. The private traffic lanes, the wealth flaunting, the taxpayer-footed VIP tickets - it's an athletic orgy of entitlement for a select minority.
Sure the sporting spectacle and its grandiose ceremonies are enjoyable, but peel away the Lycra, steroids and weepy national-pride and you'll reveal an ultimately rotten event which serves only its politicos, VIPs and corporate, earth-screwing, behemoth sponsors - Coca Cola, MacDonalds, Visa, Nike et al, you know who you are.
Len McCluskey, leader of Unite has got both parliamentarians and Olympocrats' panties in a bunch. On Tuesday McCluskey vocalised a proposed strike over their rejected pay deal for London Underground staff. His stance was that the continued attacks on public sector workers were, "So deep and ideological" that targeting the games would be justified.
"Our very way of life is being attacked. By then this crazy Health and Social Care Bill may have been passed, so we are looking at the privatisation of our National Health Service. I believe the unions, and the general community, have got every right to be out protesting." He added.
Earlier this week Cameron tried to convince us McCluskey's strike was, "Unacceptable and unpatriotic" while Clegg bleated, "At a time when we can showcase to the world that we are positively and optimistically putting on this fantastic event, he wants to bring people out on the streets."
Unpatriotic you say, Cameron? Just a shade hypocritical from the man behind the rather unpatriotically shafting of the working and middle classes, the vulnerable, students, the NHS, pensions - hell, just about any of the 99%. Clegg could also do well to note it's hard for said disenfranchised 99% to feel buoyantly 'positive and optimistic' when their very way of life is being dismantled by yourselves and the banking cabal you serve.
Forget the jingoistic bluster, hype and propaganda. People are angry and are no longer the blind, flag-waving serfs we are expected to be by the governing elite. Contrary to Cameron, Unite's proposal to co-opt the games is patriotism personified and whether or not the strike will be executed, its proposition is is something most should be getting behind. Given that sick and vulnerable patients will lie stranded in ambulances whilst a cavalcade of sponsors, dignitaries (perhaps even the odd athlete) speed by in their Mercs along one of the VIP lanes, London's transport system is already pretty screwed, strike or no strike.
Dow Chemical's £7m Olympic Stadium wrap sponsorship now hangs over the games like a noxious cloud of macabre gloom. Despite India's threat to boycott the games over Dow's liabilities with the 1984 Bophal disaster - causing the deaths of up to 15,000 - the lobbying to LOCOG to drop it fell on deaf ears. Last month's resignation-in-protest of Olympics sustainability body commissioner, Meredith Alexander underscores everything: "I believe people should be free to enjoy London 2012 without this toxic legacy on their conscience." She claimed.
Officially the biggest volunteer programme since WW2 (now there's a clue) like some neo-sporting Stasi, an army of 70,000 unpaid 'Games Makers' (codeword: 'Games Slaves') will spend a minimum(!) of 10 days toiling away - gratis, of course - to assist the farcical festival in running smoothly. Fortunately Seb Coe and his trough-swilling Olympic bureaucrat chums won't be working gratis: Coe and Paul Deighton, LOCOG CEO, earned a total of £365,507 and £777,964 respectively in the financial year 2009-10.
Lucky for some, eh?
Officials totally overlooked these games slaves - I mean, makers, accommodation needs and now many face the prospect of nowhere to reside in the capital for the event. Oversight? Or Indifference? Either way, sadly many of the willing apparatchiks will remain oblivious to their exploitation. In times where youth unemployment is at an all time low this is a vulgar, disgusting scheme, but fundamentally unsurprising given jobseekers are being forced into unpaid labour for globalist corporations like Tesco and Sainsburys.
Even if the games go ahead strike free, the police state level of security will render it closer to Hilter's 1936 Berlin Olympics than the high-spirited, fun-spirited athletic celebration they'd have us believe. The obscene, absurd security (SAS riverside bases, 12,000 police, 20,000 security guards, 300 MI5 agents) will not be deployed to protect us from 'terrorism' (unless false-flag, of course) it is there to combat the uprising masses. Security spending - which has rocketed from £213 million to £553 million - has been paid for by us to be used against us. This seemingly illustrates the games are indeed an exercise of authoritarian elitism.
As Martin Luther King once said, "The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."
Should the unions strike it will cause some inevitable sabre-rattling from disgruntled commuters and games-goers, but that's a small price to pay for an internationally humiliated government and a significant vindication by the silenced 'good people'.
Should they not, I say, to those manning buses and ambulances: #OccupytheVIPlanes
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I would like to see a full cost analysis, including, but especially, of the athletes.
I am really irritated by the constant platitude that this is showcase for Britain as a place to do business. So foreign investment is contingent on a four-year cycle of olympic games? Perhaps specifically, the number of medals awarded to the host country?
Do you not think it just a LITTLE contemptible, downright sick and insanely unjust that a ludicrous, unnecessary sum of £553 million (rocketing from £213 million) can be spent on Police State style security yet not one penny of that astronomical (over)budget could be used to pay hardworking, passionate staff even a paltry minimum wage for the duration of their efforts?
Please, wake up and smell the exploitation.
They wanted to become Game Makers. They were not somehow rounded up from the towns and cities of Great Britain, placed on ships, and then sold to some Caricature, fat walleted "Olympocrats" to wait on their every wants and needs. Nor will they face the wrong end of a stick if they manage to disappoint, hence my objection to comparing it to slavery.
Although I realise that there is big money involved, how it is spent depends on your priorities. Many people would be happy to see millions of pounds spent on security if it ensured spectators and athletes were safe and prevented London from being then on seen as synonymous with terrorism.
Your priority is that all labour should be remunerated financially, regardless of the context. If that were the case, are the men and women across the country who staff charity shops and volunteer in their local schools and churches also being exploited by these comparable big organisations?
The fact is, there are some people who would despite opposing the cost of the Olympics on the grounds that it won’t benefit the masses, also oppose solutions that would allow the Olympics to touch thousands of lives, because it doesn’t fit into their views of which causes are worthy.
Why is it always the common people needs to suffer and pay even though as you said it is a small price for any social phenomenon, through out history it is always the common people paying the price, even the terrorist targeting common people by planting their bombs in a common public places where common people are. The common people are always being used to humiliate the government and to advance the interest of the few such as the unacceptable deal of pay among the members of the union. Why is it the common people needs to pay the ‘small price’ for the battle between the few as in this case the members of the Union versus the 2012 Games and the Government.
We asked a benefit advisor what we could claim if we were both made unemployed and she advised us that we would be better off splitting up if we did and sharing care of our child equally over the week. Ellen, I challenge you to say this is acceptable!
Years ago, I represented my country in a sport at World, European and UK national level and came back with medals, those live in my memory as some of the best times in my life even though I never received any funding whatsoever. Why would anyone want to spoil the achievement of representing their country in sports (at the highest possible level) by acts of civil disobedience?
Have you ever encountered civil disobedience of the type Len McCluskey is advocating? Have you ever listened to a riot outside your front door and been petrified for yourself and your family? Have a thought for people like me before you write articles supporting incitement.
I don't think anyone who strikes in the public sector takes it lightly and is probably at loathe to the fact it is innocent parties bear the brunt, but as I highlight in my comment below, look above the parapet, beyond the immediate 'obvious' target and see who's really to blame. I understand how hard that can be given the emotive nature of it.
Well done on your sporting achievements, you are clearly very proud and should be. What I find strange that so many seem to forget is that OK, if the strike goes ahead, transport will be affected. Even if it doesn't transport is STILL ALREADY affected: the VIP lanes and residents who can't park in their normal spaces.
In people's rush to condemn a strike, seeing what will directly impact them, they're overlooking what will also impact them at the hand of the suits.
Yes, I have had rioting outside my door, I live in East London and was witness to last years rioting. To link violent rioting to an organised protest, I'm afraid is moot.
The Conservatives have NOTHING to offer me or my wife or anyone else who chooses to work hard creating wealth and the Lib Dems are politically impotent. There is a tipping point for this country and when it is reached, I fear the far right will instigate major civil unrest which may tear this once great nation apart!
"Why would anyone want to spoil the achievement of representing their country in sports? Why? Could it be that the cost is going into a black hole with no economic or social benefit but to feed some vainglorious vanity?
Do you not see the paradox/contradiction of your position? Working class Tories; what a joke.
Will the protests also be aimed at the paralympics?
Pretty tawdry to try to pull the disability card too.
The 'paranoid planet' I'm on is the harsh planet swept by the cruel winds of market forces, called The Private Sector - inhabited by strange, reticent creatures with modest pensions who don't try to blackmail a democratically elected Government.
Yes we're in an ultra economically sensitive time, it's easy to keep hating on each other but this hate is fundamentally misplaced. The mainstream media are good at steering public opinion in the wrong direction. Disdain should not be thrown at, 'the greedy public sector', 'feckless benefit scroungers' 'those awful immigrants' - whilst there are no doubt issues with these hot-topics that require addressing (that's a whole new article) our fury should be solely, collectively aimed at our corrupt government and banking cronies.
THEY are the ones ruthlessly, cold-bloodedly stripping the vulnerable and honest whilst simultaneously, obscenely haemorrhaging taxes into illegal, costly wars we've no place entering, show-pony Jubilee celebrations, this Olympic farce, crooked banker bailouts - need I go on?
We're broke but are spending in all the wrong areas like it's going out of fashion. Is it surprising people are uprising? Strikes, protests and occupations: a temporary 'nuisance' to some but the inevitable reaction when people's livelihoods are being threatened.
To those commenting who resent the public sector and others you deem a societal drain, you're right to be inflamed, but please, look at the bigger picture and channel that resentment at those who are truly deserving of it.
The people who brought the games to London won't suffer, the people who won't agree to the union demands won't suffer, the union organisers won't suffer but just about everyone else will suffer - even more than necessary. If you have a grievance - negotiate until there is no alterntaive, then strike properly - not these namby pamby strikes that are timed to inconvenience the public not the striker.
Your commute to work is already going to be compromised during the Olympics, due to the travel chaos there will be, so the VIP's and their entourage plus a few sports people do not get caught up in the queue's.
As for negotiations, the government made it clear there are no negotiations.
Wake me up when the last advertisment and corporate logo fades into the ether.
I am a paramedic the only thing we contribute is trying to help the general public? Is that not enough for you ?
Supermarket check out assistants "try to help the general public"
Or should the right to withdraw labour be the next thing the government decide to take away from the common working man/woman.
The reduction of my pension makes me feel physically sick, I thought I worked for a honourable employer, who would stand by the agreement made between them and their workforce in good faith. But alas no, they will change pension rights at a drop of a hat. The government started this fight and if it comes back and bites them, it is purely their own fault.
As usual the left stay silent when the left are crapping everywhere.