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