So after the controversy of the Olympics in China you would think it's safe to say that the London 2012 Olympics would show how the West does freedom.

Well it seems that London has more military personnel on the streets than Beijing. It's a known fact that the UK has more CCTV cameras per head than any other country in the world. But it seems that our free market capitalism is also not as permitting for individual freedom as people might have thought.

London 2012: Outrage over artist banned from Olympics from the BBC

Police arrested actors for spilling custard, say Olympic protesters from the Guardian

If you find any stories that show democracy in action over the Olympics then post them here. UK residents might have to refrain as they might be arrested without charge under suspicion of terrorism which may cause them to miss the Olympics altogether. 

To be honest the Haters Guide to the Olympics might have been readable if the author was able to cut out the crap about the "British" being jerks. Particularly as some pikey gave him shit about the revolution and a friend of mine was given crap about being English by Americans at a baseball game who thought they were Irish.

The Rutherford link was pretty accurate. I live in Germany but am amazed every time I go back to the UK. The games certainly showed the very modern London but that's a double edged sword as the almost futuristic convenience that you get there compared to Germany means you can be tracked and traced and found for any crime. And only this week a man has been found guilty under a law set up by the last government banning "extreme" pornography. Had he lived in Germany it wouldn't have been an issue.

Children of Men (the film) sums it up really well just how easily this technology can be used by a nasty government.

The below link offers a good summary of the extreme actions taken by UK (and US) security forces. Key summary:

"Welcome to the 2012 Summer Olympics, the staging ground for the coming police state."

https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/london_2012_olympics_the_staging_ground_for_the_coming_police_state

As an aside, here's another one: "The Hater's Guide to the 2012 Summer Olympics"

http://deadspin.com/5928972/the-haters-guide-to-the-2012-london-summer-olympics

Interesting that during the (overly long) opening ceremonies, when it got to the 70s you could hear a snippet of Sex Pistols music before NBC, the U.S. network, cut to a commercial.

LONDON 2012 (TM ©) are a farce. On one hand they've installed missiles on the roofs of peoples flats without residents' permissions, while with the other hand they've given a security contract to a private company that has done nothing but screw up at every level, resulting in the need for the dipshit politicians to draft in the Army. Those in power refuse to admit that their system is fucked up. There's a corporate ring around the main stadium where no one is allowed to enter bearing or carrying the logo of a brand that is not an official sponser. It even goes so far as to exclude people who don't have the right credit card from attending what is supposed to be the greatest sporting competition of all time. Cue police officers being told to empty their crisps into paper bags. Cue mindless dumb fuck security guards wrestling kids to the groundwhen they stray into the invisible torch barrier. The whole thing is a national disgrace...but here's hoping we snatch a few golds!

It was only an innocent double entendre about rings of fire. But even multi-award-winning comics can fall foul of Olympic censors funny article from the Guardian