The front page of the London paper for
April 28 (London has only one paper, the Evening
Standard; the rest are national papers) had a huge headline saying that
Occupy, the group that formerly targeted St Paul’s, has moved on to the
Olympics. (Oddly enough, the only other stories I’ve seen about this were a
follow-up the next day in the Standard,
and one story in the Independent. I
don’t know whether the news is being actively suppressed, or whether our free
press and broadcasters are just too gung-ho Olympics to print or broadcast this
news. But what wonderful news it
is.
At last those good souls plus their
fellow-travelling agitators, troublemakers and those just looking to make
mischief, have a worthy goal. Disrupting the 2012 London Olympics before it
cripples the national economy, brings London traffic to a stand-still and makes
the entire place (even my broom-cupboard-sized flatlet in green and pleasant
Hampstead) unbearable for three weeks, plus some more for the disgustingly
patronizing Paralympics, is very worth doing. I wish I were young enough or
brave enough to do it myself.
It
is the wretched Games that are siphoning off money that should be directed to
the arts, and that are making good arts administrators prostitute themselves
and pretend they are making a contribution to culture, when all they are really
doing is providing a smokescreen for the unparalleled rape of public resources
by the corrupt, sometimes depraved members of the IOC and the various bodies
charged with “delivery” of Olympics projects. The opening and closing
ceremonies have a budget of £41million!
What
do we get in exchange for this wodge of cash? Save for Barcelona, no country
has ever had any “legacy” from hosting the Olympic Games. And we will be no
exception. We already know, for example, that the housing being built for
competitors will have no kitchens. Can they be converted into flats after the Games,
for housing-poor London? An acquaintance tells me that they are all 3-bedroom
apartments, and that, after the Games, one of the bedrooms will receive a
slot-in kitchen, making them into useful 2-bedroom flats (that is, if any middle-class person who
can afford one of them wants to live in that dreary part of London). I wonder,
especially as I’ve heard rumours that the builders have failed to provide mains
services necessary for kitchens. I hope the rumours are false, but no degree of
incompetence would come as a surprise to me.
We
have already been warned that it will be impossible to travel around London
during the Games – we’re told to avoid hotspots, such as Tower Bridge tube
station. But as the imbeciles who run London transport are closing the Mall to
traffic, and as special lanes, exclusively for Olympics bosses and cadres, are
being instituted on many main roads, we already know that London will be one
big traffic jam. I’ve asked each of the London cabbies who have driven me for
the past few months whether he’s going to work during the Olympics? We’re
talking dozens and dozens, but only one, a single enthusiast, said he was
certain he’d be on the job come July. The authorities are encouraging Londoners
to stay at home during the Games – it will be like the War: “Is Your Journey
Really Necessary?” In fact, you’ll
have no choice, unless you can walk everywhere you need to go.
I
suppose that means Londoners will be more fit as a result of bolding the Games.
But with the prospect of theatres and concert halls going dark because the
audiences can’t get to them, and restaurants either empty because of the
absence of their regular patrons – or else full up with foreign plutocrats,
who’d choose to be a Londoner this summer?
Leave a Reply