THE LONDON PARALYMPICS GAMES OF 2012: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

So you all saw the disabled athletes, sportsmen and women from many countries, parade on foot or in wheelchairs into the Olympic Stadium, and you all saw their proud, happy, sometimes quiet, sometimes serious faces. We can never really know where these people have been, can barely understand where they have come from to arrive where they were. Places of pain, places of despair. Places of untold effort, of superhuman courage and determination, of failure, of rededication. Of step by step progress, of ultimate triumph to become the people they are and conquer so many odds.

I saw their bright happy faces and I saw their look. That same look from all those countries. A special look. Many helping each other and the special spirit it conveyed. Clear, clean and honest. And I was reminded of a verse that George Orwell once wrote many years ago during the Spanish Civil War describing the expression on the face of a fellow compatriot moments before he died.

“But the thing that I saw in your face,

No power can disinherit.

No bomb that ever burst,
Shatters the crystal spirit.”

 A crystal spirit that was particularly memorable when set against the background music and Channel 4 chat because when the British contingent of paralympians came into view something special had happened. Something was missing! How many of you saw it? The wretched Channel 4 commentators missed it or else preferred not to notice. A big protest was being made by the whole British squad who’d tucked the Atos branded lanyards and badges hanging round their necks into their track uniforms. The protest against Atos however was seen by many and commented on the following day in the media.

What happened was major. A mass protest by the host team not just a few individuals. So who are Atos and why should the entire British team make such a great symbolic gesture, ignored of course by the British Paralympic Committee? Well, if you’re a disabled or severely handicapped person receiving a state benefit you might very well have heard of them by now. Atos is the French company chosen by the above committee to be one of the sponsors of these Paralympic Games, a really nice touch that when it’s also the company awarded a hugely profitable contract by the former Labour Government to carry out ‘fitness to work tests’ on disabled people and handicapped people with the aim of making comprehensive cuts to the benefits they receive.

Now that really is a nice touch!  The countless anguished complaints and protests from severely disabled people who have already had their benefits taken away are already well known. The ‘fitness to work’ tests are harsh. Medical records from hospitals and doctors have been ignored or brushed aside with no appeal allowed against the decisions of these private ‘arbiters’ now the darlings of the present Tory – Lib Dem Coalition. As stated, Atos makes a huge profit on its contract but then the former Labour Government had worked it all out. The benefits being cut for disabled people would help pay for the contract. In short, it’s the disabled, the most needy people of all who are now paying to have the benefits they received taken from them.

A really nice touch that, Gordon Brown. Get the people who really need the money help a private company make a profit by taking it away from them while at the same time relaxing all the controls on the bankers. That was what the magnificent and courageous protest by the magnificent and courageous sports heroes of the British Paralympic Team was all about. IT WAS FOR THEIR FELLOW DISABLED HUMAN BEINGS IN THIS COUNTRY WHO HAVE TO FIGHT ON A DAILY BASIS AGAINST POVERTY, AGAINST PAIN AND AGAINST REJECTION.

Now I want to digress for a minute. I want you to consider the poverty, the pain, the anguish, the rejection and the distress suffered by banking executives, financial advisors and investors, futures traders and money men everywhere in the City of London who may lose millions of pounds in bonuses or may not get the two  million in cash and shares they were promised for causing the share valuations of the companies they work in to crash. Who spares a thought for their loss, their distress at losing their benefits, bonuses and free holidays in first class hotels? Who spares a thought for the loss of their executive lunches and dinners?

Well I’m happy to say that there ARE people who care. When it was in power it was Gordon Brown’s Labour Government that cared. Now it’s the Conservatives and their Liberal Democrat Coalition partners who care. No company or organisation has been given a contract to cut out or means test bankers bonuses. And no need for them to worry about medical reports or getting a letter in the post telling them they’re only getting a million quid at the end of the year instead of two. They can all rest assured. The money they’ve lost for their banks or other financial rackets on the money market casino will be made up by the hundreds of thousands of disabled people among others who are having their benefits taken away. Benefits, by the way, they themselves contributed to during the course of their working lives.

No, you’d better understand it. It’s disabled people now who have to pay for banker’s bonuses and salaries. And the people doing the taking are sponsoring an Olympic Games for the Disabled! It’s a bit like the Nazis getting the Jews who they were sending to the Death Camps to pay for their rail fares.

But fear not. All it not lost. Nick Clegg has just opened his mouth and its being heavily put about in the news. Help is on the way! The great Liberal Democrat leader has spoken, peep-peep. The really rich should pay a bit more tax to help balance things out, peep-peep. The Oracle has offered up his wisdom! Isn’t it great? We can all sleep more easily in our beds now! He’s had the great thought, as partner to the Tories in the Coalition, that the rich should pay a bit more, peep-peep. So what was it he did just a few months ago? HE AND HIS PARTY VOTED WITH THE TORIES TO REDUCE THE TAX BURDEN FOR THE VERY RICH FROM 50% to 45%. That’s what he ACTUALLY did. He gave money to the rich after he and his wretched Party had already voted for Government cuts THAT TOOK MONEY FROM THE DISABLED.

Now that’s a really nice touch! Taking money from the disabled, reducing taxes for the very rich, then piping up not long before the Lib Dem Party Conference with radical noises for public consumption about the rich paying a bit more tax! Well his good friend and partner in the Coalition, George Osborne, soon slapped that down. They couldn’t do it! It was the rich who created all the wealth. They couldn’t keep adding to their tax burdens. They’d drive them all out!

A well-deserved put down and rebuke for opportunistic peep-peeping. Yes, and thank you for telling us George that it’s the rich finance men of the City of London who create all the wealth. Well George I think not. In view of all the tricks your friends have been getting up to in the last ten years, like losing thousands of billions of pounds for their own finance houses through risky investments and hiving these losses off onto the backs of the British people INCLUDING THOSE WHO ARE DISABLED in cuts to the welfare benefits they receive if they are unemployed, poor or disabled, it is only right to ask, is it the working people of this country who create its wealth, its engineers and scientists, its car builders, its teachers and workers throughout so many areas of industry, its nurses, hospital workers and fire-fighters, or is it your stupid friends?

And there was your boss David Cameron, now head of Team GB, continuing the attack on the disabled initiated by Gordon Brown’s Labour Government, watching the parade of disabled British athletes pass by. Was he wondering, perhaps, like the company Labour had appointed to take away the benefits of the disabled, whether any of them in the parade and about to participate in sports to win a gold medal for Britain were actually claiming disability benefits? If indeed any were, expect to receive a letter through your door sometime soon from one of the Games major sponsors telling you that you’ve lost your benefit and that you’ve got to hand back the gold medal you won because you really weren’t disabled in the first place!

So sad that but never mind. There’s always Nick Clegg to say a cheery word. Peep-peep…

Look at the faces of the politicians and their rich banker friends in the City, then look at the faces of the disabled, yes, and the poor who struggle daily to make ends meet. No greed or avarice here. Each itself a land of courage, and a home of the brave.

THAT WAS THE GOOD AND THE BAD. NOW FOR THE UGLY

Late night special from Owen Gibson of the Guardian 30^th August 22.23 BST

“Paralympics GB officials have denied suggestions that the team staged a deliberate protest against the controversial London 2012 sponsor Atos at Wednesday night’s opening ceremony.”

Note that this is the TEAM OFFICIALS making the denial, NOT THE ATHLETES.

“Officials said that the lanyards had simply been tucked inside the distinctive Next designed outfits because it had been noted that they were flapping around in the wind…”

Flapping around in the wind! Joke, joke. Lord Coe and the British Paralympic team officials really need to come up with something better than that on behalf of Games sponsors Atos.

Flapping around in the wind! DID ANYONE SEE ANY OTHER TEAMS LANYARDS AND BADGES TUCKED AWAY IN THEIR OUTFITS OR DID THE WIND ONLY BLOW IN THE BRITISH TEAM’S DIRECTION?

NO, THE PROTEST TOOK PLACE AND NOW IT’S LORD COE AND HIS OFFICIALS WHO ARE FLAPPING AROUND.

The big question is… are there any serious threats against the athletes flapping around?