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?

Very reasonable view, I think

^ we wish - but it'll still cost us taxpayers millions if not billions

I think it's costing tax payers north of £10 billion.

Couldn't agree with you more, op. and as for this so-called 'cultural' Olympics, oh please, we went to hear dd sing in some concert to do with that las week, (is doing the real thing in a few weeks). The performers were all capable but it was the absolute shit they had to sing. Anyone would think this country hadn't any great musicians to boast of, the likes of Mick Jagger, The Beatles, Benjamin Britten, John Gardner et al, had never existed.

Shite the lot of it. All commissioned especially for the Olympics to show off British culture, at vast expense and to the detriment of worthwhile charities which actually help people.

I was disgusted the games went to China; everyone said it would make a vast difference to their attitude to human rights - that didn't happen, did it.

I remember when they were in the US, the announcer said how wonderful that they had returned to their birthplace.

The Olympics are a bloody travesty.

Just skimmed but has anyone mentioned this yet?

sponsored by Bhopal

Great thread title OP

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

Cogito, the first modern Olympics to be sponsored were Los Angeles in 1984 during the tax cuts espoused by what we call Reaganomics. It's only since then that the Olympic movement has whored itself out. To coin a phrase.

This makes me really sad :(.

I love sport and have always been really enthusiastic about the Olympics. That footage of that child being bundled off his bike is really shocking

YANBU.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/steve-davies/the-great-olympic-con-trick_b_1662065.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

this is a good article

Personally Im totally turned off by the whole corporate sponsor shite.

Your first link of the boy on the bike being thrown to the ground in front of the olympic official's car is truly disgusting.

I hope the boy's parents are suing the 'security' man and the Olympics for all their worth.

I so often feel revolted by the decisions of the UK governments- 'not in my name'.

I thought a sporting event sponsored by mcdonalds and coco coke was a joke. Today events have just totally finished me off over £200 million on security and now the military are having to bale them out, with no mention of how much the company is give back. Thanks to this all military leave is now cancelled so we can't even get away from it. And if another person compares the threat level of the olympics to Afghanistan I am going to scream.

What pisses me off the most about the Olympics is rent prices in East London. It's taken us months to secure somewhere decent, long term and reasonably priced. In fact it's taken so long I'm 40+ weeks pregnant and we don't get the keys until Monday.

My sister runs reading groups in East London for people with learning difficulties, blind people, and pensioners.

They have all had to be cancelled over the Olympic period as nobody can get to them.

But hey, people with credit cards will get to watch some other people running around a track or throwing something, so it's all fine. I mean, it's not like these reading group participants will kick up any kind of fuss. After all, if they had any power they wouldn't be so dependant on their reading groups for a social life.

I think it's costing tax payers north of £10 billion.

It was supposed to cost 2 billion and is coming in at 12 billion

10 billion over budget and sports in the Uk will suffer for the next 12 years

Right bunch of misery guts on this thread.

Even a month ago I would have agreed with you Novack. However, these revelations about security, corporate tickets, and sponsorship have got me thinking.

I love sport, as I said. But these Olympics have ceased to be about sport.

Hooray for NovackNSense Backing up arguments with no facts whatsoever since, well, forever actually.

All the ground-to-air missiles & troops in the world won't defend the Olympics against the unstoppable terrorist threat known as 'the Great British Weather'... :(

The only being able to buy tickets with a visa thing is my particular dislike - no attempt at fairness at all there.
DH is taking the boys to a day at the paralympics, which was reasonably priced by comparison and sounded much more fun.

The video of the boy being pushed off his bike to the ground is horrid. It has put me off going to see the torch relay.
The stories of the volunteers not being able to eat proper english chips in this cold and rainy weather are horrid.
The security firm not delivering is worrying.
The ticket fiasco was really disappointing.
It feels like yet another party for the rich and famous.

I was a fan of the Olympic ideal but now I am disenchanted and disillusioned and have lost one of the great inspirations of my childhood.

The whole thing is an absolute sham, and if I was still in the UK, I would be absolutely fuming.

That vanity fair article suggested that the total cost (including areas outside London such as Portland and the football locations) of the 2012 Olympics would be over 19.4 billion pounds.

How many hospitals, schools, subsidised public transport links and "worthy" causes could that have paid for?

Makes me feel sick tbh.

Sponsored by the major fast food players McDonalds, Coca Cola and Cadbury says it all for me. I hate the way the Olympics are sold to us if they are inspiring us all to get up and move and get healthy - its more likely they are encourage
Ing more people to sit on their fat arses eating big macs, drinking coke and eating large bars of chocolate. Say what you will about it but it is not about improving the health of the nation.

agree OP!!!!

I hate the way corporations get to play big brother for a few weeks, hate hate hate it.

I am boycotting McD's because of this. Normally I might go, say, once a month, but I will never set foot there again.

It is a tiny thing, but the only thing I can do (I never bought into the whole Nestle paranoia, but am finally waking up to the power of big corporations....aged 40)

What a bunch of whingers.

I am truly astounded by the incredible effort, hard work, dedication that world class athletes (including paralympic athletes) put into their sports they put the achievements of you average joe in the shade and it is a truly global success, not just rich people win.

Stop bleating and show some thanks for this opportunity for them to gain some recognition.

I don't see anyone on this thread having a go at the atheletes...this thread has nothing to do with the hard work they put in.