Bollywood Dancing, Team GB

Note to self, concentrate on the facts, do not take facts out of context, do not distort the facts – I’ll try

The Prime Minister of the UK on the crest of the stack of Olympic Gold, Silver and Bronze medals decreed he wants tot scrap the two hours of Sport played in UK schools. He cites, and with a point, that much of this team is not taken up by sport and there is an increasing use of this time for ‘Bollywood Dancing’.

Let me separate the issues for the Conservatives that find complex concepts difficult. Two hours of sport is really not a lot and getting kids into the habit of doing sport is a good thing, the problem is that under the previous Conservative Government School Playing Fields were sold off. The number of playing fields was about 10,000 of them, true Labour sold Playing Fields but not reaching triple, let alone quadruple figures.

Owen Jones points out in an article for The Independent that:

Brown mocked David Cameron for dreaming up his inheritance tax cuts policy “on the playing fields of Eton”, it was unclear which field he meant. Perhaps he meant the Mesopotamia field, where Etonians can play cricket; or Agar’s Plough, for a spot of football; or the five grass pitches for hockey on the Master’s Field; or indeed the Dutchman’s field, where rugby balls are kicked about.

It is just another case where ‘the Prime Minister just doesn’t get it’. His background does not incorporate the reality of every day life, and neither do most of his Front Bench, they are just out of touch.

To suggest that access to sport is reduced during one of the most successful Olympics for the UK is political suicide, isn’t it?

Moving away from where kids can play sport, to the actual activity. There is, apparently, an increase in the popularity in school teaching ‘Bollywood Dancing’, as a sport I guess it is a little limited, but it as has all the hallmarks of what makes good sports people – dexterity, stamina, coordination, general fitness and working as a team.
Of course David Cameron’s ideas will not affect those going to Eton, Harrow, Stowe or any other of the private schools, it will just affect those going to State Schools.

David Cameron’s ideas are another part of creating a Downton Abbey culture where the wealthiest enjoy access to amenaties as a right, whilst those not so fortunate cannot access those facilities.

9 out 12,000 Olympiads are Gay

Does it matter that 9 of the 12,000 2012 Olympiads are openly Gay?

In one sense it doesn’t make one iota of difference is someone is gay or not, it is a meritocracy and the medals will be decided on who is the fastest, strongest, most agile and well trained. It should not be even be worthy of mention, why do we need to know about someones private life or who they want to date.

Looking at the list o who is ‘out’ is interesting; only one of the nine are from Europe, with Germany providing two along with one from Australia. The numbers seem strange, even if we accept that only 1% of the population is gay then we would expect about 120 gay Olympiads, and even taking into account political repression it would be feasible assume that more than one person on the American team is gay.

The obvious culprit is homophobia, but I recall a story of a friend of mine who was in the Royal Navy; he was Chief Petty Officer and the entire crew knew he was gay, at the time it was a dischargeable cause, when the officials found out he was discharged; it was not homophobia within his team – it was ‘officialdom’ that created the problem.

I think the problem is not within the athletes teams but society’s problem in accepting that gay people are just as capable as everyone – as I have argued before we should not be a special group.

To answer the initial question of is it important to be openly gay and an Olympiad, yes I think it is,, to show that we are everywhere doing all sort of jobs. It is by ‘coming out’ that we make it easier for the next person. I really do hope that one day it will not necessary to discuss our sexuality, and when we bring our ‘significant other’ to an event there will not be noticed.

Another important issue that of providing role models, my role models when I was coming out where not the best – with respect – being fed a diet of very camp Comedians, Politicians being blackmailed and Actors dying of mysterious diseases.

We still need positive role models, and a variety of them of every shape and size, until we have true equality.

I long for the day when I am invisible.

Celebrating the 2012 Olympics

The OIympic Ideal

There is a callousness about our society which is pervading every walk of life – our politics, our social life and our sport.

In the UK 2012 was going to be a year of celebration - perhaps the final gasp of the old Britain which would leave us exhausted, rather like the final mating of the salmon.  The year 2012 is auspicious it is the anniversary of 60 years on the throne of Queen Elizabeth II, 50 years since the formation of the Beatles, the 30th anniversary of the Falklands Conflict, 175 years of P & O Cruises, 100 years since the sinking of the Titanic, the 200th Birthday of Charles Dickens, 100 years since the formation of the Royal Flying Corps, and even 75 years since the introduction of the 999 Emergency Call System – the list is almost endless.

2012 was the year we could seemingly celebrate anything – and the crowning glory was The 2012 Olympic Games. Is there nothing we could find an excuse to celebrate?  This was the year we could celebrate the Great in Great Britain.  Sadly the truth is more tawdry, like the stories we tell ourselves, than we let on.

The most disgusting aspects of the games is the highlighted case of the Olympic Cleaners,an unseen, but necessary, part of the games.

It is reported that the Olympic Cleaners will be housed on a camp site, forced to sleep 10 to a room, share a toilet with 25 other people and a  Shower with 75; and pay £18 a day for their accommodation, such as it is.  This is the totally unacceptable face of these games that will go unreported as the Queen open the games, as the athletes strive for their medals and Cameron derive reflected glory from their achievements. The 2012 Olympics appear much on the Roman model, of inequality and exploitation, I do not know much about advertising in Ancient Rome or Greece, but we have that – exploiting the power of money to its maximum.

Before the issue of the cleaners arose it was common knowledge that only sponsors could advertise on the route into the Olympics, that anything vaguely referencing Olympics was subject to copyright, and to run with the Torch you must have had roughly £200 to pay for it.  The commercialism of the games is proceeding apace, and reflects perfectly Cameron’s vision of the UK of ‘anything for a price’ and the exploitation of the Labour Market.

Is this the kind of games I want to see, no it is not – and it is a kind of games that should never happen.

When you cheer your team onto glory, remember the Cleaners and ask yourself ‘does this detract from the Olympic ideal’.

Olympic Nightmare

I have never been a sporty person, and when the UK was awarded the 2012 Olympics I was less than enthusiastic, the resultant blunders in cost left me even less jubilant – the cost of security was estimated without the additional of VAT, a careless political blunder.

With the ensuing Banking Crisis the £8 Billion or so it was due to cost looked even less likely money well spent, but the benefits were going to be huge in tourism, and also 2012 was going to become an auspicious year with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations along with a cart full of other celebrations going on.  The benefits have started to look less good.

A recent report showed that the Landlords – as capitalists are want to do – have begun evicting tenants near the games, or if not evicting them putting the rents up so high that they were unaffordable, simply to cash in on the games – as usual this gain is going to short-term.

The effect on the working families, and families, is huge.  A report showed that the further you live from the centre of London the less life chances you had - in fact for every tube stop from Westminster decreases your life expectancy.  The Math is pretty simple, you earn less, you spend more time commuting and for the really poor having to hold down two part-time jobs to make ends meet it disproportionately increases commute time, less time with the kids, less time sleeping equals poorer health.

Another factor is that re-locating families not induces strain, it also wreaks communities – moving to strange neighbourhood breaks the ties that hold society together, the entire idea of the Olympics goes against the normal processes of society.

Of course during the Olympics the transport system of the UK will be stretched to almost breaking point, taking London for example – the Tube is near, or sometimes, past capacity.  Having lived in London you got used to a Tube Station being closed due to the sheer volume of people, now we are going to magnify this effect. At least I don’t live in London anymore, so I guess I can just look at the chaos and carp.

Olympics 2012 – Bread and Circuses

I know I have to take security seriously, but I really do want to laugh everytime I hear about the Surface to Air Missiles that are being proposed, it really does sound like whoever dreamt this idea was coming from a particularly bad ‘trip’ or the Cabinet has been out on a ‘bender’ and someone had ‘one too many’ and thought about the missile idea – it’s very rarely even I invoke McEnroes ‘you cannot be serious’.

Of course the story gets better, this is so British, instead of floating the idea and asking people – and I am not making this up - they posted leaflets through the doors of the flats in Bow, in London, to tell people there would be missiles placed on the roof, as the story has unfolded it now transpires there will be several sites for these missiles.  Assuming that in the event of some atrocious attack on the 2012 Olympic Games and the missiles are fired – what comes next?

I wonder have the government thought about the consequences?

Exhaust from the missiles would probably damage the ‘silo’ on the roof, I am sure looking through the insurance clauses  missiles launches will not covered for when the Ming Vase bounces along the floor in several pieces, then the missile – hopefully – locks onto the correct target, hits it and …. debris, lots of debris, and fuel and chunks of burning metal falls down on one of most densely populated cities in Europe … what could possibly go wrong.

Of course we are making another assumption that people are actually here to watch the Olympics, Heathrow Airport ground to a halt over the weekend with a lack of staff of the UK Border Agency creating backlogs of up to two hours, remember this is not summer traffic, and it is definitely not Olympic traffic level.  Having sacked 1,500 Officers the Government – and I am not making this up either – flew Officers from Manchester to Heathrow to do their shift, they did all of four hours.

I cannot help Britain having a notorious reputation for ineptitude and ‘own goals’ but I am beginning to object of celebrating the fac the fact by encouraging people to come here, be held up at Airports for hours, and then watch British Democracy explode in a £80 Million firework display – and this is from a Government that is taking free school meals from 350,000 of the poorest children in this country, like the Royal Wedding in 2011 and the Diamond Jubilee Cameron is hoping to distract us, as in Rome we are to be given a diet of Bread & Circuses to distract out attention from the crippling effects of the Tories mismanagement of the economy and wilful destruction of the NHS.

This Government is mishandling the Olympics, the Economy and Democracy