Even in the current climate of questionable selection policies it would have taken the keenest of imaginations to concoct a scenario where three-time Olympic silver medallist and nigh-on untouchable world No.1 Katherine Grainger could be overlooked for London 2012.
But despite her pre-eminence the Scottish rower admits it is a week which included a brush with the Olympic flame - and the much-expected rubber-stamping of her British spot for London 2012 - that has finally brought home the reality of a home Games.
If the sporting Gods - and the Edinburgh University Boat Club - hadn't intervened, Grainger could have been a fellow martial artist such as Aaron Cook, who has found himself in the middle of an almighty selection row in recent weeks.
Despite being ranked the world's best fighter at -80kg Cook, having been overlooked for selection in favour of Lutalo Muhammad, is most likely facing up to a legal battle to secure his Games participation.
In contrast Grainger's progress has been serene - indeed in the last two years, since an comparatively unsuccessful foray into the world of single sculling in 2009, she and double sculls partner Anna Watkins have barely broken sweat in going through successive seasons unbeaten.
That equilibrium was thrown slightly off course in a rare day off the water when Grainger took her turn with the Olympic flame in Glasgow last Friday.
And, while insistent she's exactly where she wants to be with London 2012 just around the corner, the 36-year-old admitted getting up close and personal with the torch brings with it a sense of trepidation.
Rowing redemption - in the shape of Olympic gold at the fourth time of asking - is Grainger's unequivocal London goal and she said: "It was an emotional moment holding the torch.
"Partly because of the chaos getting to hold it and rushing through the traffic to get there but also partly because when you hold it you think, this is it, this is the flame that's going to light the London Games in a few weeks time.
"It definitely brought the Games very close, a lot of the time when you are training you are away from the spotlight and it is in dark sweaty gyms or on windswept and rain-swept waters.
"So in a way you feel quite detached from the experience of an Olympic Games. We hear about it the whole time on the radio and TV and newspapers but when we go training day-to-day you still feel a little bit away from that.
"And then with a combination of the selection and the torch you suddenly realise that, one you're very much a part of this huge, massive ongoing building experience to what will be this greatest show on Earth and tow that we are now counting it in days.
"We have counted in years for a long time and then it was months, weeks and now it is days so it does feel like we are getting to the end now."
The end - London 2012 - for Grainger will be a career-defining moment regardless of the outcome. After three consecutive Games silvers Grainger has been vocal in her win or bust attitude towards the home Olympics.
And in carrying the torch the 36-year-old admitted she had a moment of clarity - realising just how all-encompassing the Olympics has been on her life.
"The flame and the torch is such a symbol of the Games so to actually be holding that means so much to me and my life," she added.
"London is something that I have been building to for seven years and to be honest the last 15 years of my life has been slightly defined by the Olympic Games.
"Last week was massive with both the official selection, although it wasn't a huge surprise, and carrying the torch.
"It wasn't whether or not we had been picked it's that big milestone that we are now officially part of Team GB.
"Although you know it's been coming for a long time it's the first moment when you know it's definitely going to happen and you're definitely going to be a part of it."
Source: uk.eurosport.yahoo.com
London world's most expensive city for Aussie travellers, TripAdvisor says - News.com.au
Partying in London is a pricey affair. Picture: Thinkstock Source: Supplied
Hanoi is the world's cheapest city for a night out. Picture: AAP Source: AAP
LONDON is the most expensive city for an evening out for Australian travellers, a cost comparison of the world's major cities shows.
The British capital tops the list in a cost comparison of an evening out for two people in key tourist cities around the world.
Hanoi offers the most affordable night out for travellers, with a total cost of $141.57.
At more than triple the cost of Hanoi, London topped the list as most expensive with a cost of $520.19.
Sydney ($393.61) was the ninth most expensive of the cities surveyed.
The TripAdvisor TripIndex is tracked against the Australian dollar and is based on the combined costs for two people of one night in a four-star hotel, cocktails, a two-course dinner with a bottle of wine, and taxi fares.
"TripIndex helps travellers to see where their pound goes the furthest,'' TripAdvisor spokeswoman Emma Shaw said.
"The list shows that many Asian cities, along with some European cities - like Warsaw and Sofia - are very affordable once you're on the ground.
"Some cities traditionally considered expensive - like London, Paris and New York - actually cost three times more than the cheaper cities in the list for an evening out.''
Hotel costs were the pivotal factor in determining the cheapest and most expensive cities on TripIndex.
The cheapest average hotel room goes to Bangkok at $81.35 a night, while the most expensive goes to London, at $362.68 a night.
South-East Asia featured heavily in the 10 cheapest destinations, claiming four cities in total, including Hanoi as the cheapest city. Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta ranked third, fifth and ninth.
TEN MOST EXPENSIVE CITIES
1. London
2. Oslo
3. Zurich
4. Paris
5. Stockholm
6. New York
7. Moscow
8. Copenhagen
9. Sydney
10. Singapore
TEN CHEAPEST CITIES
1. Hanoi
2. Beijing
3. Bangkok
4. Budapest
5. Kuala Lumpur
6. Warsaw
7. Taipei
8. Sofia
9. Jakarta
10. Tunis
Source: TripAdvisor
Source: www.news.com.au
London 2012 legacy: the battle begins on a Newham estate - The Guardian
Competing views about East End life after London 2012 are sharply crystalised amid the public housing architecture of the Carpenters estate in Stratford, which stands on the fringe of the Olympic Park, overlooked by the red spirals of the Orbit tower.
The vision of the planners, led by Newham council's ebullient Labour executive mayor, Sir Robin Wales, is for the Carpenters to make way for a new campus for University College London (UCL), enhancing the life prospects of the neighbourhood and enriching hard-up Newham as a whole.
An estate resident, Mary Finch, takes a bleaker line: "I think that the Olympics has lost me my home." She has lived on the Carpenters for 40 years and is disinclined to depart quietly. "I think they're gonna have to come in here and drag me out. Why should somebody be able to force you out of your home? A home that's got nothing wrong with it, that's standing solid? I do not want to go."
Slow dispersal of the estate's residents, mostly to alternative dwellings nearby, has been in progress for some time. This has been justified for Wales by the need to embrace a host of development opportunities created not only by the draw of the Games and the park but also, just as importantly, by the economic arteries formed by the improved transport hub at Stratford station. Already, the giant Westfield Stratford City shopping centre has been a hit."It's always a balance if you want to do something for an area," Wales says. "What is the wider community getting at the expense of the inconvenience caused to local residents? People in Carpenters are concerned. I would be too. I completely understand that. But with UCL we would get an amazing, top university coming to the area. Our vision is for science and hi-tech providing jobs and skills. It would be such a good offer from the point of view of our kids."
Finch is not alone in being unenthusiastic. Two younger residents, Joe Alexander and Osita Madu, are driving forces in the campaign group Carp – Carpenters Against Regeneration Plan – which has been quarrelling with Wales's pledges to treat residents properly, bombarding him with questions at public meetings. They reason that the Carpenters works well as a community, so why dismantle it? "We're not some kind of social ill or blight on the landscape that needs help," says Maduu. "Somehow Newham council thinks we're a social problem that needs to be addressed."
"We voted for a mayor and got a dictator," adds Alexander.
It is, in many ways, an archetypal urban regeneration conflict between local authorities on a mission to improve, and those on their patch who fear they only stand to lose. Strife also marked the clearance of the Olympic Park site, when a twilit labyrinth of small industrial concerns was removed from the land on which the array of sports venues now awaits the world's athletic elite.
Among them was H Forman and Son, a family salmon-smoking business founded in east London by a Jewish migrant from Odessa in 1905. The proprietor, Harry Forman's great-grandson Lance, had his premises where the Olympic stadium now is. He fought a long compensation battle and celebrated victory with an email to the Games organiser Lord Coe, a former Olympic champion whom he'd been due to cross-examine at a public inquiry. The email said: "You can run, but you can't hide."
The upshot is a handsome, salmon-pink building on a bank of the river Lea, containing not only a smokery, but also a restaurant and an art gallery in a location long called, with glorious suitability, Fish Island. Olympic dignitaries and others now congregate there. The stadium looms across the water. Forman will soon erect a pop-up corporate hospitality venue on a piece of adjoining land he owns, complete with recreational beach volleyball court. Speedo was the first big name to take space in this Fish Island Riviera, and Forman is finalising discussions with others.
"We're going to have some luxury yachts along the riverfront," he enthuses. "Sixty palm trees are being shipped in. We're going to have this beach club that turns into a nightclub."
Forman hopes to emerge a winner from the Games, but says business is still recovering from the disruption caused by compulsory purchase. He hopes to be part of long-term rejuvenation by developing the land his Riviera will briefly occupy, perhaps with a mixture of homes and boutiques, and facilities for the arts community that has flourished in recent years in former warehouses along the towpath in Hackney Wick. Forging links, he invited a graffiti artist to enhance his restaurant's toilets. In the gents, fine silver fish leap skywards above the urinals.
"I think the area was regenerating anyway," Forman says, looking across at the stadium. "But the existence of the park ought to help. I think when people come here they're amazed at how impressive it already is and how easy to get to."
London's outgoing Olympic legacy chief, Margaret Ford, also gives an upbeat assessment of the post-Games future of the 200-hectare park and its immediate surroundings, although she warns that expecting it to be "the catalyst for the regeneration of the whole of east London", has "never been entirely realistic". Citing prior experience with renewing England's coalfield communities, she stressed the need for "continued investment and belief over a long period".
Ford steps down as chair of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) this month, having led it and its predecessor, the Olympic Park Legacy Company, since May 2009. She says the park should be an example of how you "change the psychology" about an area. "You're hoping that the whole view of investing in east London changes by persuading people that it is a fabulous place to come to and do business and invest."
She accepts that a great fear with large regeneration projects is that the wealth they attract fails to benefit existing residents, many of whom are in pressing need. Canary Wharf, whose glass towers pierce the skyline a short distance away, is often condemned as the ultimate example. "The concern is that the park will become a sort of golden city on a hill surrounded by a sea of poverty," says John Biggs, a former City analyst and senior Labour member of the London Assembly, who represents three of the six Olympic boroughs – Tower Hamlets, Newham and Barking and Dagenham.
Ford, a Labour peer held in high regard across the political spectrum, says she and her board have been "utterly preoccupied from day one" with ensuring that local people derive the maximum value from the post-Games plans, and with facilitating the Olympic boroughs' goal of economic convergence with the richer west and centre of London. She is proud of creating training and schemes and close links with local schools. "The big game-changers will be jobs and changes in educational attainment and aspiration for a lot of families in east London," she says.
Ford will depart with most of the arrangements made for putting the permanent sporting venues and other attractions to post-Games community use, and with decisions in the pipeline for the three big jigsaw pieces not yet in place:
• The commercial occupants, either a fashion hub or digital "innovation city", for the two buildings the media will use during the Games.
• The long-running search for tenants for the main stadium, very likely to include a football club.
• The determination of planning applications for the future development of the park as a residential area and visitor destination.
Five neighbourhoods will form within the boundaries of the park over the next 20 years, with the first, Chobham Manor, due to be completed at the end of 2014. Ford emphasised the importance of including sufficient genuinely affordable housing. "I think we need to remember there was quite a big promise made to the communities in east London about the houses being affordable – either affordable to rent or affordable to buy. I think it's one they are not going to forget."
While pointing out that the LLDC remains committed to 35% of the up to 8,000 homes it plans to see built on the park being affordable – in addition to 3,000 that the Athletes' Village will be converted into – she felt it was a matter for regret for London as a whole that the government's new funding approach means "affordable" rent can now be up to 80% of local market rates, which even in poorer parts of London are high compared with the rest of the country.
"I think Londoners are desperately short of affordable housing. It's definitely short of good-quality social housing [which has far lower rents]. If we mean what we say about needing to house all of our key workers, we need to house lots of people in lower-paid jobs who make this city work then, yes, I would say moving to 80% of market rents will cause some of those people not to be able to afford properties."
Another Olympic borough mayor, Tower Hamlets' independent Lutfur Rahman, who, like Wales, is a member of the LLDC board, has called for more homes for social rent among the 800 housing units proposed for the Olympic Park neighbourhood to be called Sweetwater, which will fall within his boundaries.
Ford, who has 33 years' experience of delivering regeneration programmes under both Labour and Conservative governments, is to be replaced by the Conservative politician Daniel Moylan, the appointee of London's mayor, Boris Johnson, to whom the LLDC is accountable. The selection of Moylan, an experienced councillor in Royal Kensington and Chelsea whom Johnson made his deputy as chair of Transport for London two years ago, has caused some disquiet among political opponents.
Biggs says that although he likes the urbane Moylan – "he's fun to talk to" – he worries that he is not equipped to follow someone with Ford's track record. "The truth is, he doesn't know anything about regeneration." There's an ideological issue too. "The point of bodies like the development corporation is to do the things the market can't or won't, and Daniel is the sort of politician who thinks red-in-tooth-and-claw market forces will take care of everything."
Ford, though, says she's confident Johnson has made a good choice and praises him for allowing her and her chief executive, Andrew Altman, to produce a new masterplan for the park. The one she'd inherited, she says, "pretty much had the place populated by high rise buildings. Why would you stuff it full of flats when it's an obvious family housing neighbourhood, given the green space and the venues? We didn't want to create some pastiche of the Old Curiosity Shop, but a place that had squares and crescents and little pocket parks – the kinds of things that make London quite higgledy piggledy but recognisably London. Boris was hugely encouraging."
She gathered intelligence for the masterplan on "mystery shopping" excursions – chatting to people in cafes and the old Stratford shopping centre. "They wanted front gardens, back gardens for their kids to play in, really good lighting, lots of storage space, nice green spaces, somewhere they can afford and a decent school – it's not bloody rocket science."
When the park begins to reopen for the public next July, its name will change to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Ford believes the royal touch will enhance local attachment: "It's about creating a different feel about the place. It's about people having a pride in it."
Even so, while Olympic borough schools gear up for the excitement of the summer, renaming their classes Helsinki, Tokyo and Beijing, parents express a mix of views about the value of the changes underway. Martin Sadler, a resident of Hackney who works in education and lives with his wife and two daughters not far from the park, foresees a good and a bad side.
"I think this part of Hackney will start feeling a bit more like central London and less like east London," he says. "I've lived here for over 20 years, and it's always been a traditional East End sort of place – a real mixture of people, plenty of cheap accommodation. It's already becoming more affluent, partly because the schools have improved. That brings good things with it, but there are worries too. I think London could be getting more like Paris – that doughnut effect, with the poorer people having to move out of the centre."
That is not the outcome legacy idealists say they have in mind. Time will tell if they manage to avoid it.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Chicago Matrimonial Atty Jeffery Leving Supports Michigan Bills Providing Fathers’ Rights - PRLog (free press release)
Chicago Matrimonial Attorney Jeffery Leving (http://dadsrights.com)
Last week the Michigan Legislature approved Senate Bills 557 and 560, and House Bills 5328-5329 that would give biological fathers rights to their children, even if the mothers were married to other men at the time of birth.
“The legislation gives biological fathers the moral right and opportunity to be involved parents,” said Attorney Leving.
Senate Bill 557 and House Bill 5328 would pass the Revocation of Paternity Act and allow the other bills to modify various related statutes in order for biological fathers to pursue legal action, filing a claim challenging the presumption of the mother’s husband as being the father, to gain paternal rights and custody of their children. House Bill 5329 allows for courts to continue jurisdiction by reopening the case at the request of the biological father. Senate Bill 560 would amend the Estates and Protected Individuals Code and allow for children to inherit the estate of their biological fathers.
Currently the Michigan Law presumes that if a woman is married to a man that is not the biological father of her children, her husband is to be acknowledged as the father of the children, making him responsible for their support and denying parental rights to their biological father. This law is archaic and unconstitutional.
The bills currently await Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's signature.
For more information contact Jennifer Whiteside at 312-296-3666.
Source: www.prlog.org
London 2012 Olympics: former-drug cheat David Millar selected in Team GB cycling squad for Games - Daily Telegraph
As Brailsford said: “I wouldn’t presume anything about Dave Millar’s selection. There is no ‘given’ in that back-up team to Cav and Brad.”
Sir Chris Hoy welcomed Millar back into the GB Olympic fold but also took the opportunity of reiterating his implacable opposition to doping in sport. “I’m comfortable with whoever is selected for the team because they are eligible,” said Hoy, who will be competing in his fourth Olympics. It’s never been about an individual. It’s about the future and having a meaningful deterrent against people taking drugs.”
Hoy, as expected, was named in the three-man sprint squad along with Philip Hindes and Jason Kenny, but Brailsford and his coaching team will leave it much closer to competition day before making a final call between Hoy and Kenny in the individual sprint. “If you pick now you might not actually be picking the fastest guy,” Brailsford said.
Track (Sprint):
Philip Hindes (age 19: born: Krefeld, Germany)
Chris Hoy (36, Edinburgh)
Jason Kenny (24, Bolton)
Victoria Pendleton (31, Hitchin)
Jessica Varnish (21, Birmingham)
Track (Endurance):
Steven Burke (24, Burnley)
Edward Clancy (27, Barnsley)
Wendy Houvenaghel (37, Magherafelt)
Peter Kennaugh (22, Isle of Man)
Danielle King (21 born: Southampton)
Joanna Rowsell (age: 23 born: Carshalton)
Andrew Tennant (age: 25 born: Wolverhampton)
Geraint Thomas (age: 26 born: Cardiff)
Laura Trott (age: 19 born: Harlow)
BMX:
Liam Phillips (age: 23 born: Taunton)
Shanaze Reade (age: 23 born: Crewe)
Cross Country Mountain Biking:
Liam Killeen (age: 30 born: London)
Annie Last (age: 21 born: Nottingham)
Men’s Road (five to be selected):
Mark Cavendish (age: 27 born: Isle of Man)
Steve Cummings (age: 31 born: The Wirral)
Chris Froome (age: 27 born:Nairobi)
Jeremy Hunt (age: 38 born: Canada)
David Millar (age: 35 born: Malta)
Ian Stannard (age: 25 born: Chelmsford)
Ben Swift (age: 24 born: Rotherham)
Bradley Wiggins (age: 32 born: Ghent)
Women’s Road (four to be selected):
Lizzie Armitstead (age:23 born: Otley)
Nicole Cooke (age: 29 born: Wick)
Katie Colclough (age: 22 born: Grantham)
Sharon Laws (age 37 born Kenya)
Lucy Martin (age: 22 born Merseyside)
Emma Pooley (age 29 born: Wandsworth)
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
London 2012 Olympics: Australian weightlifter Daniel Koum 'held federation to ransom' over pre-Games event - Daily Telegraph
"So I personally thought, well, the best way to negate any negatives out of all this would be to, by offering, sort of, some money, whereby he could actually compete and have some incentive to do the total that we asked of him.
"But then later on, it changed from an agreement to actual demand and he said that he would not lift unless he got $5,000, before he started the warm up for his own event.
"And then it was pretty frantic - we had to find that money. And say, within about 30 minutes we handed over the $5,000."
Koum moved to Australia to compete at the 2006 Commonwealth Games for Cameroon before becoming a citizen and competing for his adopted country at the 2010 Commonwealths in Delhi.
And Koum's team-mate Damon Kelly, who won the gold in the Commonwealth Games in the 105kg+ category told the Brisbane Times: “I actually felt physically sick in the gut. It was a complete shock that somebody [apparently] wanted to do that. I've never heard of it before in weightlifting, at all.
“Everyone that was there was completed stunned. It was a double take when we heard the news. We had to hear the news a couple of times before it sunk in. It's amazing to think someone could put their own personal interests before the team.”
The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) said it had spoken to the AWF and was launching an investigation into the incident.
"The AOC is working with the Australian Weightlifting Federation (AWF) to investigate the matter," read a statement.
"The AOC investigation will be ongoing."
Koum could conceivably yet represent Australia at the London Games when the AWF nominates its single male entry to the AOC this weekend.
Keelan said he had no regrets about offering the incentive but added: "(I felt) sick in the guts. I was under duress. We had to make a call very, very quickly. And, you know, the call was that we would submit to his demand."
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Occupy London - my protest - Daily Mail
By Anna Maxted
|
Occupy London are determined to protest against the City of London Corporation, so today they set up camp on that ugly symbol of elitism and privilege, Hampstead Heath.
Sadly, in another victory for the overarching forces of international capitalism, the park's police escorted them off the premises just after teatime.
I've lived near the Heath all my life and it's one of the most serene and beautiful areas of the capital; one of the few that you don't need money to enjoy. When Karl Marx lived in London, he loved to visit with his family. Kenwood House - part of the estate bestowed to the nation by that privileged toff Lord Iveagh in 1927 - may look tatty on the outside, but if you nip inside (donations are voluntary) you can show your five-year old a Gainsborough.
A privilege to be there: When you're on Hampstead Heath, your status, your bank balance ceases to matter
I was there this morning, beaming at the exquisite views of the City, breathing in the delicious air, marvelling at the gorgeous profusion of green, along with various other capitalist pigs (an old lady on a Zimmer frame, an artist, a young photographer, an elderly man walking his dog, a young couple with a newborn...).
Eventually I spotted the Occupy London set, trudging along the sun-dappled paths, squinting at their maps - though they were hardly obvious: none of the people wandering around the Heath this morning were head-to-toe in Dior.
They set up camp in the Vale of Health (convenient for Hampstead High Street; Starbucks, Tesco Metro and The Gap). One doesn't have to eschew all trappings of commercialism to make a huffy point against capitalism - I don't expect them to scrape for nuts and berries and live on rainwater - but this exercise was little more than a hypocritical student jolly.
Trespassers in tents: Will we soon see scenes like this, outside St Paul's last year, on the Heath?
I feel aggrieved at the wretched difference between wealthy and poor - but I feel as aggrieved that these protestors were so witless as to think that they were doing the less privileged a favour by camping out - with their litter, and worse, judging from the mess they made of St Paul's - in the one place that is an oasis of peace, and serenity - and free to those who have everything and nothing alike.
When you're on Hampstead Heath, your status, your bank balance ceases to matter. You feel privileged to be there. You feel rich. Until you chance upon a massive bunch of trespassers in tents, and then the Heath loses its magic, and your carefree ramble becomes yet another irritating, slightly depressing exercise in trying to enjoy London despite it being stuffed full of sociopaths and egotists.
Truly, harassing a bunch of dog walkers is not a valid form of protest against bankers. It was facetious, brattish; bullying. If they wish to get their point across in a democratic manner, they have civilised options - from blogging to, hm, politics - but they made the laziest, most slovenly choice: to make a nuisance of themselves and inconvenience, oh, just everyone. A minority, imposing their selfish will on the majority, is nothing less than tyranny.
Exquisite views of the City: Misty view over London from Hampstead Heath
They claimed that they wanted to 'reach out to the community about shared concerns'... I can tell you what the community's main concern was today - that a bunch of pseudo-crusties had illegally pitched their luxury tents in a public beauty spot. (Hampstead Heath's by-laws forbid 'the training of whippets,' 'the beating of carpets,' and 'Persons in an Offensive, Filthy Condition.' And no camping, either.)
One of OL's excuses was that fans of the Heath ponds were 'up in arms' about the recent outrageous decision by the City of London to charge a couple of quid for a swim. My husband has swum there for years, occasionally with our 10-year old son, and says that most who use the pond have no objection - if they want a lifeguard, and basic maintenance, they see it makes sense to contribute a little.
As far as I can tell, this protest was a feeble excuse for a spot of glamping. If they are genuinely serious about protesting against capitalism, I suggest they occupy Legoland: nearly 200 on the gate, for a family of five. However, if they prefer to occupy a green space owned by the City of London, why not try West Ham Park? It has all the traditional trappings of privilege (children's playground and so on.) Or are the views not spectacular enough?
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
You wouldn't want to Occupy this! The squalid conditions of protesters' London camp are revealed - Daily Mail
By Ian Garland
|
A mountain of discarded roadsigns and shopping trolleys protects a makeshift camps of tattered tents.
Eight months after they first occupied Finsbury Square, in the heart of the City of London, the anti-capitalist protesters who have set up home there show no sign of waning.
As another eviction threat looms this week, the 20 to 30 protesters - London's last remaining Occupy outpost - have barricaded themselves into their squalid camp ready to defend themselves against the police.
Occupy protesters have barricaded themselves into their camp on Finsbury Square in the City of London
Before protesters were evicted from the neighbouring camp at St. Paul's Cathedral in February, Finsbury Square was used as an overspill.
It later became an 'eco village' where sustainable technologies were showcased.
But there was no sign of that today. The once pleasant park is now a barren, litter-strewn dump.
20-30 'protestors' remain at the Finsbury Square camp - eight months after it was first 'occupied'
Residents of the square are bracing themselves for an eviction attempt on Friday and have barricaded themselves in
Islington Borough Council moved in March to start eviction proceedings against the 'residents' of Finsbury Square.
The most recent stay of execution expires on Friday after Justice Hickinbottom ruled at the High Court last week that Islington Council has the right to repossess the public space.
Islington councillor Paul Convery insists the time has come to move the camp on - claiming many legitimate protesters have been replaced by vulnerable homeless people.
He told the Guardian: 'The council has said from the outset that we support the right to peaceful protest, and we have tolerated Occupy's presence at Finsbury Square since October.
'However, it is now apparent that the character of the protest has changed and Occupy's presence is significantly diminished. In the protesters' place, we now see a group of vulnerable and homeless people who would be better cared for elsewhere.'
At one time protesters used the square to showcase sustainable technology, but it is now a litter strewn dump
But Tom McCarthy, a resident at Finsbury Square, insists the camp serves an important purpose.
He wrote on the Occupy Finsbury Square blog: 'This camp makes a political statement about our society.
'Since Occupy opened the camp on 21 October, it has become a home and community for many homeless people, for whom the system has failed.
'In evicting this community, Islington Council – who have helped to re-home some people that have ticked certain boxes – are potentially leaving some people in a much worse position than they are already in.
'We ask Islington Council to not go down the same route at the City of London Corporation – cleansing the City of homeless people is not the way forward. Helping to find real solutions is.'
Islington Council claims the camp is now just occupied by vulnerable and homeless people
Banners erected on the camp still preach anti-capitalist slogans, despite claims by councillors the square has become a haven for the homeless
Islington Borough Council are keen to repossess the square so they can start fixing the damage caused by protesters
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
London 2012: Are green and pleasant Games a real reflection of the UK? - BBC News
Meadows, fields, rivers, farmers tilling the soil and people playing cricket on the village green. It's the British countryside the Olympics opening ceremony will beam around the world. But is this rural idyll a realistic representation of the UK?
On 27 July the Olympic Stadium is to be transformed into country scenes as part of artistic director Danny Boyle's vision of a "Green and Pleasant" land.
He says the show was inspired by Shakespeare's play The Tempest and is about a land recovering from its industrial legacy. It will be a "reflection of part of our heritage" as well as a look to the future.
It is also meant to evoke William Blake's poem Jerusalem, which is seen as an emblem of Englishness.
But at a time when large-scale infrastructure projects such as HS2 and Heathrow's third runway are high on the political landscape, along with nuclear power stations and wind farms, and a rising population, is this rural idyll really recognisable?
For the Times' leader, the image of British life that instantly springs to mind is a somewhat different one.
"No! Not queues at Heathrow passport control and opportunistic entrepreneurs hawking 50p umbrellas for a fiver outside rainy Underground stations.
"It will be a portrait that brushes aside the workaday dust of daily life to reveal a country as recognisable to Caliban [from The Tempest] as his isle 'full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not' as it is to John Major as his 'country of long shadows on cricket grounds, warm beer, invincible green suburbs, dog lovers and pools-fillers'," it says.
But it goes on to say Boyle has "rightly, interpreted his task as a celebration of what gives this country tang, a celebration that he aims to be idyllic, but not naive" - noting clouds, that can produce real rain, will hang over the stadium to bring the UK's signature summer weather to the proceedings.
The Daily Mail's Paul Harris is not so generous. He thinks people "could be forgiven for thinking it looked more like the land time forgot".
"Or for wondering, perhaps, if someone had unwittingly recreated Tinky Winky's Teletubbyland instead of Blake's Jerusalem," he goes on.
The Teletubby theme continues in the Daily Express, which thinks "the opening extravaganza is all a bit Laa-laa". "All it seems to need are Tinky Winky, Dipsy and Laa-Laa from the TV series," it says.
The Independent's Grace Dent is even less impressed. "Ducks force-fed shortbread, teens drunk on cider, petrol vigilantes... that's the real countryside, Danny Boyle," she says.
Dent also has a cautionary word about the nation's glee levels potentially dropping to "mild elation".
"You know that bit when the lights go out at the O2 and Kanye West emerges on a 50ft pink neon sugarcube? We want that. You know when Coldplay give out 40,000 LED Xylobands that pulsate right through Hurts Like Heaven when you're two drinks in? That, give us THAT," she says.
So is this vision of a green and pleasant land really the best way to show off the UK?
Rupert Uloth, the deputy editor of Country Life magazine, says it is "wonderful" that the UK is being celebrated through its countryside as it is "one of the most precious and valuable assets we have as a country".
"Lots of visitors come here to see it. For people who live in cities in Britain, it might be a bit of a dream or ideal, but people love getting out to the countryside, which is why we have national parks and a wonderful network of walkways and bridle paths.
"It is great that Danny Boyle is using it as a totem because everyone is aware of it," he says.
For Uloth, using the British countryside as a national emblem is "clever" because it is so unique.
"Because of its hedges, green grass, dairy cows and native trees, it couldn't be any other country in the world. And although cricket is played in other places, the context of a village green is very English," he says.
Uloth agrees projects such as HS2 and Heathrow's potential third runway are topical issues, but he says the fact they are so controversial only accentuates how special the countryside is, and "how worried people are about losing it".
Ellis Cashmore, professor of culture, media and sport at Staffordshire University, thinks Boyle is "a bit of a romantic" and takes an aspirational stance.
"I suppose we have to understand that this is not meant to be a graphic representation, but a satisfying vision of a perfect Britain - the place we'd all like to inhabit, not the actual place where we live out our daily lives," he says.
But he also makes the point that a more urban, or troubled, theme, might not be very picturesque.
"In fairness to Boyle, he wouldn't be expected to design a landscape where there are feral youths rioting in inner cities, or football fans spitting out racist abuse.
"His concession to youth is the moshpits. Are these still current? I thought they were very nineties," he says.
But what of Blake's "dark Satanic mills"?
"Well, it isn't quite William Blake, but it embodies many of the Chariots of Fire ideals," says Cashmore.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
- hazel, London, UK, 13/6/2012 21:24 - Go back to the Guardian website; we don't do childish, spoiled and uninformed pseudo-socialism here. The OL are a bunch of lazy, smelly spoiled brats who if it weren't for mummy and daddy would be stacking shelves!
- Horatio , London, 13/6/2012 21:49
Report abuse