The Sunday Telegraph reports that the Communist appeasers at the British Olympic Association are set to force British competitors to sign a contract which limits their fundamental human rights to free expression, in case they criticise the racist, repressive, brutal police state, Communist Chinese Government, when they participate in the Beijing Olympics.
Since the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, British competitors have been asked to sign contracts that include a pledge "not to comment on any politically sensitive issues".However, this year's contracts will, for the first time, explicitly refer competitors to Section 51 of the International Olympic Committee charter, which "provides for no kind of demonstration, or political, religious or racial propaganda in the Olympic sites, venues or other areas".
Any contract like this under English and / or Scottish law, must also apply to London, which is also an official Olympic venue, as well as to Beijing.
Questions and opinions about the deceit and cost overruns and the supposed "legacy" of the London 2012 Olympics are "politically sensitive issues" - because we, and many other people say they are.
If any British Olympic competitors are stupid enough to let themselves be co-opted into appearing on political platforms or in political propaganda material alongside Ken Livingstone and his cronies in the forthcoming Mayoral and Greater London Assembly Elections, or with Gordon Brown and any other Labour Party politicians in the next General Election, they should be barred from competing in the Games, if they have signed this sort of contract.
Technically that should also then apply to political activity alongside any of the Opposition parties or candidates as well.
Graham Newsom, the BOA spokesman, said: "We're not trying to gag athletes. If an athlete gets asked a direct question they will be allowed to answer that question, but there is a difference between giving an honest answer to actually going out to make a specific political point."
Such weasel words deliberately ignore the fact that the Chinese Communists will be controlling the access of journalists and human rights campaigners to prevent them from asking the competitors such questions at all.
British Olympic competitors should not be gagged politically in this way - they should refuse these gagging clauses from their contracts, which could and should be challenged under the Human Rights Act, since
the British Olympic Association are acting as an employer, and, given the amount of public subsidy they get, are also acting as a public authority.
