Some of our legislators have been talking rubbish again about the Olympics. They seem to think the ancient Olympics were all about peace! Lord Bates opined: 'My Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend for that positive response, but is she aware that the entire purpose of the ancient Olympic Games was peace?' He then compounded his error by saying: 'The core of the Olympic Truce was to promote the Olympic ideals, to use sport to help promote dialogue and reconciliation, especially between nations in conflict.'

So the £2billion plus figure which emerged from Sky's rather garbled account of the security costs of the Olympics may not be so far off the mark. The Telegraph reports that 'Baroness Neville Jones conceded to parliament that "much" of the £1.131 billion for the two years of the government's 2011-2013 counter-terrorism budgets would be devoted to the Olympics in 2012.'

So, the security budget is being slashed by £125M. Plus the security budget is being increased by £280M. Perhaps the underlying logic is a smaller state combined with greater opportunities outsourced to private corporations? Oh, and of course there are tax concessions too!

Britain is already planning on parking a missile destroyer in the Thames over the 2012 Games. Now the United States has offered to send reinforcements in the form of an aircraft carrier. The offer has been declined as it suggests we Brits can't manage on our own. Despite this the Americans still seem to be determined to put in an appearance. A Penatagon spokesman is reported as saying it's ‘very possible that there will be a U.S. naval presence’ at the London Games, even it was only to ‘fly the flag', whatever that may mean.

Lots in the blogosphere on Coe&Co having chosen to re-route the marathon away from East London.

This comment on Diamond Geezer is really quite touching:

Dave Lee's The Olympic Borough has an exclusive one day in advance of the next Save Wanstead Flats public meeting. His FoI request reveals that t

Andrew Jennings replies in English to a panel of Brazilian journalists asking him about corruption in FIFA, the World Cup, Olympic Games and the International Olympic Committee.

A third of customer services managers surveyed by the Institute of Customer Services say they expect London's public services to fail during the 2012 Games. I am not sure if they have taken into account the possibility that the Games will not attract the expected number of tourists and that many small businesses may take a holiday to avoid the Olympic fallout, thereby reducing the numbers moving around London.

Looking at some recent stories in the Indian news media about the construction of the Commonwealth Games facilities it is apparent that the 'same old same old' influences of privatisation, poor institutional oversight, greed, corruption and the brutal exploitation of the vulnerable poor labouring on the project have been clearly highlighted for some time.

The Olympics has its uses. Now the Metropolitan Police hope the 2012 Olympics will protect them from the cuts.