It was an amazing opening ceremony. Danny Boyle and his team had the opportunity at the outset, to challenge some of the more dominant, ugly trends that have taken over the Olympics. Acknowledgement of the injustice of colonisation would have gone a long way to set the right tone for the games. Th
Spanning an area of 500 acres and endowed with over 900 surveillance cameras, the Olympic security fence is an aggressive demarcation of a 'post-political non-place'. Born from a conscious manipulation of UK planning legislation, what does this ‘exceptional example’ tell us about historical and fu
Intimate 'boutique' festivals are mushrooming across the English countryside. Their biggest selling point: a sense of belonging. Is this a rejection of individualistic hedonism? Or the return of the pastoral, manufactured by the urban elite? One thing is certain - they are a sign of things to come
David Renton, steward at Saturday's Counter Olympics Network demonstration, explains the problems he has with the way the London 2012 organisers have constructed this year's Games - from the forced seizure of land, to the morality of the sponsors.
The last night of the Proms is one of the UK's most flagrant displays of imperialist nationalism, steeped as it is in red-faced nostalgic veneration of Britannia. But this vulgar finale stands in stark contrast to the Proms programme itself: a nuanced and daring selection of music sensitive to his
As the London Olympics welcome more women competitors than ever before in a wider range of events, Sue Tibballs of the UK’s Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, asks why feminists allowed sport to become a safe male haven for chauvinists of every class and nation?
Should the BBC's mission to inform, educate and entertain incorporate hosting free music festivals for 100,000 people? Last month's Hackney Weekend was generally deemed a big success, but why aren't we allowed to know how much it cost, when we paid for it?
With his book offering a blueprint for a better Olympics, published this week, author Mark Perryman explains his Five New Rings.
