May 2005 Archives

The Queen's Speech includes an Olympic Bill, should London be unlucky enough to be afflicted with hosting the Olympic Games in 2012.

Astonishingly, the few details about this Bill seem to be entirely for the benefit of the corporate monopoly sponsors of the event.

"Olympics Bill

KEY MEASURES


  • Set up the Olympic Delivery Authority and give it a specific remit and powers;

  • Meet the requirements of the International Olympic Committee to effectively reduce ambush marketing, eliminate street vending and control advertising during Games time."

If, for example, Coca Cola cannot compete fairly with Pepsi, (or vice versa), or Nike with Adidas (or vice versa), then none of them should be allowed to pollute our public spaces with their advertising.

There must be absolutely no harassment of members of the public for drinking the "wrong" drink or wearing the "wrong" tshirt or footwear.

There is enough control of the official advertising slots, and entry into the venues is by ticket.

So called "guerrilla advertising" should be perfectly legal, provided that there is no criminal damage or trespass.

Remember that the "Olympic venues" include not just the proposed stadium site in East London, but also public spaces such as Trafalgar Square, Horseguards Parade etc. not to mention the 26 miles of streets for the Marathon course, and the miles of countryside and seaside for the equestrian and sailing events.

There is absolutely no reason to allow the "official sponsors" or the International Olympic Committee, to have a monopoly or any special treatment when it comes to normal planning applications for advertising hoardings or posters.

"TERRITORIAL EXTENT

UK-wide"

Why should this Bill affect anywhere except the wretched Olympic Games venues themselves ?

"COMMENTS

If you have any comments on the proposals you can email them to:

john.evans@culture.gsi.gov.uk "


Please email this civil servant and make it clear that there must be no infringement of the liberties and freedoms of those members of the public who are not directly involved with the Olympic Games, should they be inflicted on London.

"ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

On 6 July, the International Olympic Committee will vote to decide the host city for the 2012 Summer Games. London is one of the candidate cities. If London wins, the Olympics Bill would be introduced to meet the commitments given in its bid."

What any Olympics Bill should do is impose criminal penalties on any "athletes" or officials involved with performance enhancing drugs.

Surely that would be "in the spirit of the Olympic ideal" ?

The reports of the record annual profits of £537 million for the Post Office, and the reported £3 million bonus for chief executive Adam Crozier (is he really worth as much as the boss of Tesco ?) are an insult to those of us who have suffered reduced deliveries, an increase in mis-directed mail and, above all, the closure of so many Local Sub Post Offices.

Our three nearest Post Offices here in London have been closed in the last few months !

The PostComm "Regulator" has proved to be particularly useless in preventing such closures, or in imposing any penalties on the Post Office for their shoddy service.

The PostWatch the alleged "voice of the consumer in all postal matters" has also failed in this matter.

Hands up who thinks that ex-postal worker trades union leader Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State for the Department for Trade and Industry (or was it the Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry ?) will sort the mess in this State Monopoly ?

The Sunday Telegraph reports that:

Minister for tourism: London Olympics bid is a waste of £5bn

By Patrick Hennessy and Robert Watts
(Filed: 15/05/2005)

James Purnell, the newly appointed minister for tourism, is the author of an outspoken article which attacked the proposed London bid for the 2012 Olympic Games as a waste of £5 billion and the "wrong priority" for Britain.

Mr Purnell's attack on the Games bid was made just ahead of the Cabinet's decision - in 2003 - on whether to support the attempt to bring the event to Britain for the first time in more than 60 years. Urged on by Tony Blair, the Cabinet gave the bid its full endorsement - despite Mr Purnell's article, written in his capacity as an MP and a former Downing Street adviser on sport."

A correspondent writes:

"Students are being required to leave the Park Village estate at Clays Lane, Stratford, the site of the proposed Olympic Village, by June 19th so that the LDA can take vacant possession at the end of July 2005.

The University of East London says it intends to change the locks on the houses on that date even though the Union's legal adviser says this is illegal.

The LDA says it intends to demolish the estate in the autumn of 2005 if London wins the bid.

However, the rest of the site will not be available for construction for another two years.

The University does not have enough accommodation for its students
so in the autumn many will be forced onto the private market. A perfectly good housing estate will be levelled while an existing population of students needs it.

If London does not win the bid then the LDA will seek to lease the
estate to an agent to manage it, possibly the University! So the University could be back managing the estate in a few weeks having evicted its students..

The decision on the Olympics will be taken on July 6th. At present there are no discussions going on between the LDA and the University about the future of the estate should London not win the bid. Some students will be in the middle of exams when the notice to quit expires and others, particularly foreign postgraduates, will be completing courses. They call this education!"

The University of East London already seems to have a track record of dubious bulding programmes.

Who exactly is making money out of this speculative property deal ? How much will the taxpayer be stung for ?

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