by Jeff Davis, a librarian living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

In the lead-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics, the RCMP stepped up its surveillance of the radical left in Vancouver. After all, they knew a bunch of activists and anti-capitalists were organizing to oppose the Games, and when you’re throwing a multi-billion-dollar party, it looks bad when people start drawing attention to inconvenient truths like the criminalization of poverty, the erosion of civil liberties, corporate profiteering, and massive public debt.

The circus goes on! Having elicited the information from Greenwich Council's Senior Planning Solicitor that the ODA had requested that the LDA purchase Blackheath Circus Field on its behalf, NOGOE's Rachel Mawhood was surprised by the response from the ODA to a Freedom of Information request submitted on 20th December 2011 in which she had written:

'I understand, LOCOG intends to use the Olympics Act 2006 somehow to circumvent the 1866 and 1871 legislation to empower themselves to enclose Circus Field in 2012.

Which part of the Olympics Act says that it can be used to over-ride the Metropolitan Commons Act 1866 and Supplemental Act 1871?'

Following the revelation that the Blackheath Circus Field had been purchased by the ODA NOGOE2012 has pressed on to uncover more details about the transaction. It turns out that the purchase was actually made by the LDA.

Mrs Mawhood of NOGOE pointed out to the Greenwich Senior Planning Solicitor that the Olympics Act required that purchases of land for the purposes of the Olympics have to be made by a Regional Development Agency, which the ODA is not. The Solicitor has responded that the ODA has got around this problem by requesting the LDA buy the land on its behalf, so the LDA has taken out a short lease from the Crown Estate Commissioners and the Queen.

Dear Mrs Mawhood

The London Development Agency (LDA) is a regional development agency for
the purposes of the London 2012 Act. The LDA was designated as a
development agency for the Greater London Area under Schedule 1 of the
Regional Development Agencies Act 1998. The LDA is acting at the request
of the ODA as set out in s.36(1) in acquiring a short lease of Circus
Field from the Crown Estates owner of this part of the registered common.

The lease is made between Her Majesty the Queen, the Crown Estate
Commissioners and the London Development Agency, and an under lease of
the Circus Field has been made between the LDA and LOCOG by licence to
underlet from the Crown Estate Commissioners.

Regards

Suan White
Senior Planning Solicitor
Greenwich Council

The Olympic Delivery Authority, ODA, has bought the Circus Field at Blackheath to overcome the provision in Section 4 of the Metropolitan Commons Supplemental Act 1871 which bars the Management Board for the heath, now Greenwich Council, from enclosing any part of the Circus Field. This purchase enables the ODA to use Section 36 of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Act 2006 to achieve exactly that result!

Back on 13th August 2009, a Thursday not a Friday so unsure if this was the cause of the mishap, Anthony, London 2012 likes to keep things informal, the External Relations Executive, a kind of 2012 Foreign Office person, in a fit of poorly considered enthusiasm asked a question: 'Who should get the chance to perform? Morris dancers for the traditionalists? Street dancers for the modern?'

The Olympics continues to spread out into neighbouring areas. In addition to the police takeover of Wanstead Flats a campsite for 5000 is planned at Low Hall Sports Ground in Walthamstow and a Basketball training centre is to be built at Leyton Marsh.

(Of course the Olympics aren't political.) That 'Olympic Truce' that was only re-invented in 1996 for the Athens Olympics, errm, for the Olympic Flame Relay actually.

So, ever so slowly, slowly, slowly it's beginning to hit the public consciousness that certain of our civil liberties will be p*ssed upon from the great on high during the Olympics. And whether it's Collapsonomics-wrought inflation, or perhaps that the Summer Games attracts a higher premium than the Winter Games in any event, but those penalties have gone up markedly!