German public service broadcaster Südwestrundfunk recently obtained this 48-page IOC media kit for Beijing 2008 (or 'One-Year-to-Go Countdown Resource'). Marked CONFIDENTIAL – FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY, it offers an intriguing insight into the way the IOC views itself and its relations with the media, governments and NGOs and protest groups.

China's government, which invests up to a third of its $1.68 trillion in currency reserves in [US] Treasuries, is "not smart'' to invest in U.S. debt and should seek higher returns, a former legislator said [June 13 2008]. "I don't think it's a smart move to invest in U.S. bonds,'' said Cheng Siwei, former vice chairman of the National People's Congress, China's legislature, at a Beijing conference.

Further to my earlier article about contamination at the former Eastway cycle track the HSE responded after nine weeks (see email below). I remain astonished that it took nine weeks for the HSE to be able to summarise the monitoring being undertaken at the Eastway site. I would have thought the information would be readily to hand but apparently not.

There is a credibility gap between what people in local voluntary bodies have been told by professionals in the Olympic industry and what local volunteers' experiences of outcomes has been. This has happened most to those local voluntary bodies which have been affected by relocations from sites within the boundaries of the Olympic Park.

Why does an MP ask a question of a Minister? A simple question you might think. Take a look at the following. First is the question asked by Andy Love, Labour MP for Edmonton.

'To ask the Minister for the Olympics how many local authority tenants will be displaced from their housing as a result of the 2012 Olympics; how their housing needs will be met; and if she will make a statement.'

Who the hell or what the hell does the LDA think is 'the community'? Below is a comment from Martin Slavin of Games Monitor, who tried to follow up an LDA 'consultation' with 'the community'. Sustaining communities was one of the buzzwords used by the LDA to justify its Olympic programme. We know what that meant for Clays Lane. Demolition. What does it mean for the Legacy? Who knows? In this case the community seems to be a few officials who, in all likelihood, do not live where the development is planned. East London is now faced with further ransacking by developers who plan to build skyscrapers fanning out from the City where, incidentally, almost no-one lives. Maybe that is the LDA's perfect community. Banks, offices, council committees and as few residents as possible.

Sportsmen and women may not be renowned for being politically outspoken. The most notorious example of pressure being applied to British sportsmen was in 1938 when the English football team was ordered by the FA and the Foreign Office to give the Nazi salute before a friendly match in Germany.