Friday, August 26, 2005
Going for gold in 2012
With my interest in George Orwell it was inevitable that my attention would be drawn to this item about the Olympic games. The idea that the Government is to legislate to prevent advertisers using the words "summer", "London", "gold", "silver" or "bronze" in conjunction with "games" or "2012" is truly bizarre. It illustrates perfectly how the original 'Olympian ideal' has long ago disappeared. More worryingly it demonstrates once more that this government's instincts are authoritarian rather than liberal.
The Bill contains an automatic presumption of guilt, the onus is on businesses to prove they did not infringe official sponsors' rights, rather than require LOCOG to prove that they did. Like the abolition of trial by jury, this again turns the British justice system on its head. If only one thing in the Bill is amended it must be this. I despair at the society that the present Government is asking us to live in and at the way they are slowly undermining and destroying the basic values and civil liberties that we have taken for granted for so long.
The Bill contains an automatic presumption of guilt, the onus is on businesses to prove they did not infringe official sponsors' rights, rather than require LOCOG to prove that they did. Like the abolition of trial by jury, this again turns the British justice system on its head. If only one thing in the Bill is amended it must be this. I despair at the society that the present Government is asking us to live in and at the way they are slowly undermining and destroying the basic values and civil liberties that we have taken for granted for so long.
