Olympics Fever at Newham Live: photo: Simon Shaw

by Kevin Blowe

This is a piece I wrote for Peace News - an edited version appears in its next issue.

With weeks to go before the start of this summer's London Olympics, a sense of foreboding has descended on many of the people who, like me, live and work in Newham in east London, one of the poorest and most ethnically diverse parts of the capital. This anxiety, shared even by those who are enthusiastic about the spectacle of the Games, has been raised by the stories over the last six months about snipers in helicopters, missile launchers on tower blocks and RAF fighters in the skies during the Olympics and repeated predictions that it may be almost impossible to leave the borough during peak periods. People speak of feeling trapped by the arrival of an event that seems more like an invading army of occupation than a welcome visitor.

This video arrives via Paul Norman's Olympic blog. On September 28 2011 he chaired a debate at the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation's annual meeting. He says:

CARP, the Carpenters campaign against demolition of the estate, was holding a film show outside the Carpenters Arms. I had wandered off and found a blocked off road with a sign which said 'Welcome to the Olympic Park'. It was so ridiculous that I decided to take a photo. Just as I was doing this a police car pulled up and a policeman leaned out and asked:

By Mike Wells, posted 16th February 2012, edited 17th Feb 2012

For security reasons there will be no commercial flights within 18 miles of the Olympic stadium for the duration of the Games. This will mean that VIPs and heads of state will not be able to use their preferred mode of transport - the helicopter - they will have to slum it with the rest of us on the roads.

One block on the Carpenters Estate

UCL and the London Borough of Newham have today announced plans to explore the establishment of a new campus for UCL in the Olympic borough of Newham