To think that the Olympics is a disgusting spectacle of thuggery and corporate whoredom

[MonkeysNuts]

The last one was in China where no-one would be surprised to hear about abuses done in the name of the spectacle.

It seems however we've imported this totalitarian state to the UK.

To wit, boy riding his bike assaulted by the Torch Guardians:

All the food vendors at the Olympics banned from selling chips, because McDonalds sell them:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2172168/London-Olympics-2012-McDonalds-force-Olympics-bosses-ban-restaurants-selling-chips-unless-FISH.html

Ground-to-air missiles sited on blocks of flats

stoptheolympicmissiles.org/

13,500 troops deployed, more than in Afghanistan, thousands more, many unpaid, private security staff, attack dogs, sound torture device
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18042528

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/10/london-olympics-lockdown-2012-games

All cashpoints shut down at Olympics sites if they take cards other than Visa, non-Visa cards banned for payment
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153008/Visa-branded-cynical-bans-rival-cards-Olympics.html

Advertising exclusion zones around all the Olympic sites

www.london2012.com/business/advertising-and-trading-regulations/

£675m taken from charities to pay for it

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9366935/London-2012-Olympics-Charities-who-lost-funding-to-pay-for-the-Games-wont-see-their-money-for-another-decade.html

Total fuck-up for central London for transport/living for weeks.

Tourist numbers massively down

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/9311869/Third-of-London-hotel-rooms-empty-for-Olympics-as-normal-tourists-stay-away.html

Olympics sponsored by shit: McDonalds - shit foreign food; Heineken - shit foreign beer (all other beers banned, arrests likely for anyone trying to promote/sell them); Coca Cola - shit foreign drink.

The Olympic ideal was supposed to be pure athleticism, competing for nothing more than honour, instead basically we give our country over to a bunch of plutocrats who get their own Zil lanes to whisk them from Mayfair (they couldn't possibly demean themselves to stay in Stratford) to Stratford and around the country to other venues and to a few big corporations who, in return for putting up a tiny fraction of the cost of the Olympics, get to dictate what we can and can't do in our own country. Did we really want this? A militarised city, where the armed forces are there essentially at the behest of a foreign force, namely the IOC?

You're preaching to the converted here, Monkeys.

£24billion and counting to fund New Libor & Seb Coe's ego trip.

Thank fuck I'm getting out of London for the duration of this spectacle of pigs with their noses in the trough.

This photo to me sums up the games:

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4331796/Voice-judge-William-in-Olympic-Torch-procession-fury.html

Some American autotuned corporate pop star, tweeting while carrying the supposedly sacred Olympic flame. And he's not the only one, here's French sell-out chef Raymond Blanc: i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/10/article-2171655-14003897000005DC-901_470x709.jpg Not sure what makes him a sporting hero.

They should leave the Olympics to tinpot despotic countries and keep it out of the UK.

"The Olympic ideal was supposed to be pure athleticism"

YABU.... Maybe when all the contenders were bollock naked and speaking Greek the ideal was pure athleticism. A modern olympics is a commercial operation that has to get as much out of sponsors as possible because we, the taxpayers, demand it. Security has had to be bar-tight since because everyone remembers the 1972 massacre in Munich and there are plenty of people in the world that have a grudge against the UK. That does not make it a 'militarised city'. And you can't argue 'tourist numbers massively down' in the same breath as 'fuck up for central London for transport'.... if you're claiming that no-one will come to see it, why would central London be any different than normal?

Agree completely OP.

Still - it does temporarily solve the unemployment problem among crypto-fascists in possession of high-vis jackets.

I don't know what McDonalds has to do with chips anyway. I understand that their "fries" contain no potato - just maize.

It would be bearable if we could be sure the whole circus would be over on a few weeks. However I suspect that a lot of ideas for state control and suppression of ordinary people are being trialled here and at least some will be retained.

Have you seen what the BBC mentioned on Breakfast telly today? Drop in centres for the elderly in east London to be closed for three weeks. Grrrr.

"Still - it does temporarily solve the unemployment problem among crypto-fascists in possession of high-vis jackets"

Sadly, not even this. G4S has been unable to recruit sufficient staff, and a further 3,500 military personnel are being drafted in instead.

That's getting on for one fifth UK military strength in total.

In fact why not reinstate Greece as the permanent hosts?

Instead of continually bailing them out we could all contribute to a permanent facility, and let them drop out of the Euro. It would help their economy and help them get on their feet through creation of jobs, tourism etc.

And the Olympic sponsors are getting tax breaks!!

From 38 Degrees email I got this morning....
"The UK's winning Olympic bid included huge tax breaks for sponsors. As a result, massive multi-nationals like Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Adidas stand to make a tax-free fortune. [1] Experts think the UK could be losing tens of millions. [2]
NOTES
[1] Ethical Consumer: The Great Olympic Tax Swindle www.ethicalconsumer.org/commentanalysis/corporatewatch/thegreatolympictaxswindle.aspx
[2] False Economy blog: The Great Olympic tax swindle falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/the-great-olympic-tax-swindle

It's a disgrace

Add your name to the petition here

secure.38degrees.org.uk/olympic-tax-dodging

The Olympic ideal was supposed to be pure athleticism

The Olympic ideal is pure commercialism, ideally with a large taxpayer subsidy to privatise the profits.

Sorry the links didn't work in my first post..

NOTES
[1] Ethical Consumer: The Great Olympic Tax Swindle www.ethicalconsumer.org/commentanalysis/corporatewatch/thegreatolympictaxswindle.aspx
[2] False Economy blog: The Great Olympic tax swindle falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/the-great-olympic-tax-swindle

secure.38degrees.org.uk/olympic-tax-dodging

somebloke completely agree, Athens should be the permanent home for the Olympics. They've already indebted themselves to build stadii? and infrastructure, let them make use of it all and help their economy along at the same time.
I hate all the corporate crap around at the moment, what has someone's hair, P&G advert, got to do with her ability to cycle? Likewise nappies, razors, washing up liquid and McDonalds

The moment they announced the ticketing arrangements ie you're only able to buy them if you have a credit card, I decided that the London Olympics Weren't For The Likes of Us - ordinary people who do not wish to indebt themselves for an unspecified period.

Everything they've come out with since, the corporate wankery surrounding the torch relay and everything else, just provokes wry laughter in this household.

"Spectacle of thuggery and corporate whoredom"

Love that. Love your anti-foreign rant a little less.

Other than your unneccessary dig at China, YANBU. I'm boycotting the whole bloody thing.

(I like the Paralympics better anyway; far more interesting)

In Oxford they staged a big do in South Park to 'celebrate'. Local food businesses could pay ~£1500 for a stall BUT per LOCOG's rules, they couldn't sell any drink not produced by Coca-Cola and any packaging had to be unbranded - so the businesses weren't allowed to advertise. So much for it being good for local economy, huh?

At least Henley had a streaker, which seems far more in keeping with sporting tradition...

You are DEFINITELY not being unreasonable. I have signed the petition. I agree with tinkeritonk about the anti-foreign rant but if I interpret it charitably, the problem is with major multinationals getting a lot of power and money (not 'foreigners' per se), at the cost of 'the rest of us'. I hate it.

I read in Good Food magazine that local food producers have been encouraged to sell their products at the Games - but they aren't allowed to display their brand names! The whole thing presented a marvellous opportunity for small businesses to promote themselves and inject money back into our local economies, yet the only ones who will really profit are the big multinationals

YADNU!

All this draconian corporate sponsorship is bollocks. I couldn't even buy tickets because I don't have a Barclaycard. Not being allowed to even take a drink of water into the stadium is is also, er bollocks (running out of perjoratives here).

Threats to prosecute small cafes which have traded as "Olympic Cafe" for decades do indeed smack of thuggery. It's all about big corporations, and nothing for small businesses at all.

I don't see why we bid for it, nor what we taxpayers get back from it, and I guess we'll never know.

I didn't make any anti-foreign rant? Just think that a UK Olympics should sell UK food and drink, of which we have much which is great, rather than the stuff they are selling, which is junk with no connection with this country.

YADDDDDDDNBU!!

You did make an anti-foreign rant; it's what kept me from responding earlier.

YANBU about the excessive corporate greed, however, from the one of your post, you'd be a-okay with the corporate greed as long as it were British companies being greedy.

Nothing constructive to add, except to tell Somebloke123 that Mcdonalds chips are of course made from potatoes. The maize thing is just like the urban myth that their milkshakes are made from pork fat, believed by numpties everywhere. I dislike Mcdonalds for all sorts of reasons, but can't allow this nonsense to go unchallenged.

And to everyone criticising the sponsorship - I am pretty sure that these 'olympic partners' have to be multinationals and are chosen by the International Olympic Committee. So Team GB wouldn't have been able to say 'no' to McDonalds, Coke etc as they sponsor every Olympic games through their partnership with the IOC.

Fair enough adeucalione and thank you for that. Maybe one should check up on these much quoted factoids before passing them on. I try to but evidently not always. Incidentally I don't particularly dislike McDonalds. When the children were small it they did provide a cheap and cheerful lunchtime out and they do satisfy a public demand. No one is forced to go there.

Another story (non-McDonalds related) about children born on 20 Dec (20/12) 2004 who apparently were promised a significant role in the Olympics, a promise that seems to be evaporating:

www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/wfnews/9810296.WALTHAMSTOW__Olympic_organisers__break_children_s_promise_/#commentsList

YANBU OP - I was sick of it years ago! It feels like the longest build-up moanfest in history. Much as I love London and would love to feel proud about the whole thing, the McDonalds/Visa/Coca-Cola stuff just makes me hurl. My neighbours are sodding off out of it for 3 weeks and I'm so jealous, I'm considering hiding in their suitcase!

I feel the whole thing is an ego-trip for Boris Johnson, Seb Coe and their corporate cronies. They just want the plebs to stay out of the way and shut up, as evidence by their shocking treatment of the bus drivers who only wanted a slice of what other transport workers were getting.

What's confused me about the chip issue is that McDonalds fries are nothing at all like British chips. I can't imagine someone selling chips somewhere would really be cutting into the sale of fries.

(full disclosure: I do like McDonalds fries :) though the last time I had them was 4 years ago, when I was pregnant and in need of a salt fix)