Tagged with Olympics

Three Reasons why the Olympics are Rubbish

The opening ceremony might have been a triumph (liked by most, though of course not all), but the Economist, in a leader article, noted that many Britons now resent having to pay for it since it has started.

Though to look at the cost alone is only one aspect of why the Olympic grand project went pear-shaped. I suggest there are three further reasons to think the games have been a grave mess:

1) It is doing nothing for East End communities

When Horace Cutler, the Tory leader of the Greater London Council, speculated that the 1988 Olympic games should be entered through from Lower Lea, Ken Livingstone called it a “gimmick” and a “fantasy”. A right-wing fantasy at that. Continue reading →

On the roads of Surrey, another Olympics

MARK PERRYMAN, the author of a new book on the Olympics, sees the potential for a different Games at Wednesday’s Cycling Time Trial.

No expensive and hard-to-come-by ticket required. A front row seat guaranteed. Precious little commercialisation, bring your own barbecue. And a Gold Medal performance. Wednesday’s Cycling Time Trial had all the components of the better Olympics I have made the case for in my book Why The Olympics Aren’t Good For Us And How They Can Be.

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Join The Atos Games!

On your marks, get set… for a week of Paralympic fun and games against Atos! From Monday 27 to Friday 31 August, join Disabled People Against Cuts for The Atos Games – five days of action against a company that’s sponsoring the Paralympics but wrecking disabled people’s lives.

We are calling on disabled people, disabled activists, families, colleagues, friends and supporters to come together and fight back against Atos’s attacks. Atos represents as dangerous an opponent as any government, law or barrier the disability movement has faced in its long history. It’s not just welfare, but our very identity and our place within society that is under attack. Continue reading →

A day at the olympics, pluses and minuses

The author of a new book on the Olympics, MARK PERRYMAN, spends a day at the Games

Over the past few days I’ve lost count of the number of politicians decrying critics of the Olympics. Labour’s newly appointed ‘Olympic Legacy Adviser’ Tony Blair has returned to one of his favourite themes, declaring war on cynicism. Boris Johnson joins the chorus of boasts that the Games proves London to be the world’s greatest city. And in the press Jonathan Freedland has been amongst those demanding that enthusiasm for the Games must trump any tendency towards critique.

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