torch

today was the day the olympic torch came to town.
not a good day. we had snow and the london streets were wet and cold. the weather meant that the turn out along the route would be sparse, and as i went past whitechapel that seemed to be the case, only a few straggling policemen on the high street.
when i returned a little later there was a fair sized crowd. a nice buzz of anticipation.
there didn’t seem to be too much of a protest.
on come the joggers with the torch (have to say i couldn’t see the torch).
as they approached there was a mix of cheers and boos.
then a certain amount of surprise and disbelief as we all registered that the torch runners in their blue and white tracksuits were flanked by a troop of police. some dressed in yellow tops, some decked out in action man boiler suits, all of them looking pretty much shagged from having run along with the torch.
just as the procession exited the whitechapel high street to go into the mile end road it came to a stop. double backed and hopped onto a bus to continue on.
fantastic the protest for a free tibet forced the torch to continue the journey on a bus.

there is a part of me that believes that sport and politics should not mix.
i find myself in agreement with steve redgrave who argues that sport is an easy target because you don’t see the protesters outside the offices of companies or government departments who deal with china. nor do we see the protesters outside of stores who sell chinese goods.
the olympic torch is an easy target, which allows people to make their point and get maximum publicity.

where i disagree with redgrave and the like is that in the main the competitors we send to the beijing olympics will have been funded by state money so there is validity in the protest. it is our money and perhaps we should have a say in where we send our national squads.
the problem is the demonstrations against the torch are no more than feel good actions. tomorrow nothing much will have changed, other than the organisers will be accused of not planning and preparing the route much better and tightening the security.
the business of dealing with china will continue, at some point during the week some of us will buy something that is “made in china”. come the summer we will try to avoid it but somehow or another we will watch some of the games.
but right now we can feel good for making a bit of a show to embarrass china.