The emphasis on hyping security around the London Olympic games seems to be reaching new heights. The increasing warnings of the terrorist threat. The military are being deployed, there are to be defence installations put on a variety of buildings, private security companies abound. the police will be able to use dispersal orders to control people they don't like the look of and special police holding cells are being built. The preparations for courts to sit around the clock have been likened to those used for the London riots last August.
How incredible, a peaceful coming together of nations to watch athletes compete against each other in an international sporting festival is viewed in terms of preparing for a riot. The emphasis on security and the denial of basic liberties says a great deal about the kind of country that the world will be coming to visit - an increasingly insular one that is happy to see any liberty denied on the basis of a threat - real or imagined. A country that once boasted Magna Carta but is now happy to detain people without trial for years on end. It really does make you wonder what this Olympics is all about.
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