Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

London 2012 - IOC visit

- - | 16.02.2005 11:45

The International Olympic Committee arrived in London yesterday for an inspection of government plans to host the 2012 games. Delegates have been met by Lord Coe, chairman of London 2012 and Richard Caborn, the Sports Minister.

The bid has been in preparation for months and over the next 4 days a host of politicians and professional campaigners will try to persuade the IOC that London, and not Paris or New York, is the best venue. The 13 member evaluation committee will visit Blair and the Queen during their stay but will begin today by hearing 17 presentations on the bid from, amongst others, Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, Jonathan Porritt, the environmentalist, and Sir Martin Sorrell, an advertising executive. Tomorrow there are visits to the various Olympic venues such as Stratford and Greenwich.

The government, in conjunction with its friends in the right wing press, are keen to sell the idea of a London olympiad to the British public. This is not the view of many Londoners, or indeed, many other people throughout the UK who oppose the London bid. The ‘Say No to London 2012’ campaign, for example, has produced the following petition which you can sign online:

“We, the undersigned, urge the GLA and the Mayor of London to withdraw London's bid to host the Olympic Games in 2012, on the grounds that:

1) the construction work associated with Olympic sites in the Lea Valley will destroy, or make unavailable for several years, a large number of existing quality football pitches which local people use intensively, and there is no guarantee that the new or "improved" sports facilities developed for the Olympics will be later available to local people free or at a reasonable cost

2) the Games will result in a cost to London council tax payers of £875 million, money which Londoners need for other pressing priorities like schools, transport, housing, health and other public services

3) the Olympic sites will destroy several valued wildlife sites such as Bow Back Rivers and Bulley Point, which the public have supported by conservation work over many years

4) the predicted 7000 "new jobs" are unlikely to be filled by existing Londoners, amongst whom construction skills are in scarce supply, resulting in a need for housing for incoming workers which needs to be addressed before non-housing construction projects are started. Moreover, several thousand jobs will be displaced from the southern Lea Valley, currently an important home for much-needed "bad-neighbour" businesses which cannot easily find alternative sites

5) the Olympic bid has been imposed from above without adequate public consultation about its cost, environmental and other impacts for the city as whole. It is an expression of sport as big business, which does not meet Londoners' needs. Moreover the ban on political demonstrations and related activities during the Games will be used as an excuse for oppressive restrictions on freedom of association and of movement.”

 http://www.nolondon2012.org/



It has been shown that the Athens Olympics of 2004 will continue to be a great financial burden for the people of Greece for many years to come. In just the same way, it is predicted that Londoners will be expected to pay £1.5 billion for a special 'Olympic lottery' and up to £550 million in extra council tax. New stadiums will eventually be privatised with local tenants being forced to pay increased rents as greedy landlords make a killing. Community sport will also suffer as funds are diverted to a few elite athletes in the search for medals. No doubt costs will also be met by the rest of the UK.

For some great articles and features describing how the olympics were bad for Athens and will be bad for the UK, go here:

 http://www1.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/westcountry/2004/08/296274.html
 https://www1.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/01/304448.html
 http://www.scotland.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/580
 http://athens.indymedia.org/features.php3?id=309

- -

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech