Jul
5
“On the other hand, we now appear to be actively styling our Games to resemble a futuristic dystopia.
I know what you’re thinking: this lunacy won’t last. And I concede I thought the same, assuming the military would be in situ just for the build-up, only to withdraw before the public started arriving, replaced by Adidas-kitted operatives whose previous tours have been in places like the All England Club as opposed to Basra.
Staggeringly, though, Locog confirms that the army will remain for the duration of the Games, meaning that all visitors’ first experience of the Olympic Park will be passing through military checkpoints. Furthermore, the organisers state that many unspecified people are “reassured” by the massive military presence. This seems the most questionable of claims.
The British people have historically recoiled from the use of the army in civilian situations, which is why it happens with such studied rarity. Standout instances would include Churchill sending in the troops during the Tonypandy riots – an incident best summarised as This Was Not His Finest Hour – and David Blunkett deploying tanks to Heathrow, an irrational piece of theatre that failed to rally support for the then imminent attack on Iraq.
And now this. Quite an achievement, considering that even the masterminds of the Beijing Olympics resisted the PR triumph of stationing the People’s Liberation Army at the gateway to their Games. But then, which of us wants to come across as being as laissez-faire as the Chinese?”
I know what you’re thinking: this lunacy won’t last. And I concede I thought the same, assuming the military would be in situ just for the build-up, only to withdraw before the public started arriving, replaced by Adidas-kitted operatives whose previous tours have been in places like the All England Club as opposed to Basra.
Staggeringly, though, Locog confirms that the army will remain for the duration of the Games, meaning that all visitors’ first experience of the Olympic Park will be passing through military checkpoints. Furthermore, the organisers state that many unspecified people are “reassured” by the massive military presence. This seems the most questionable of claims.
The British people have historically recoiled from the use of the army in civilian situations, which is why it happens with such studied rarity. Standout instances would include Churchill sending in the troops during the Tonypandy riots – an incident best summarised as This Was Not His Finest Hour – and David Blunkett deploying tanks to Heathrow, an irrational piece of theatre that failed to rally support for the then imminent attack on Iraq.
And now this. Quite an achievement, considering that even the masterminds of the Beijing Olympics resisted the PR triumph of stationing the People’s Liberation Army at the gateway to their Games. But then, which of us wants to come across as being as laissez-faire as the Chinese?”
London 2012: even Beijing didn’t put an army on the gates
…and that Muse Olympics song with its “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” vibe seems even more appropriate.
