The Grumpy Old Blog

So the purple capped and topped Olympic Brand Marketing Police (fondly referred to as “Knob Heads” - by me, at least) are monitoring the UK to ensure that businesses during London 2012 who advertise should not include a list of banned words, including "gold", "silver" and "bronze", "summer", "sponsors" and "London". Under specially introduced legislation for the London Games, they have the right to enter shops and offices and bring court action with fines of up to £20,000. This is appalling and unacceptable. I was unaware it could be possible to ban the use of "gold", "silver" and "bronze", "summer", "sponsors" and "London". They are common dictionary words available to anyone who can write English. And a kebeb shop in Stratford that has been there over 20 years having to blot out its name because it is called “Olympic Kebabs” is a national disgrace. Someon...

A few stories seemed to have grabbed some media headline attention in connection with the Olympics. The first is that some people are getting quite lathered about having to pay £7 a pint for beer during the Olympics. Well, a simple, three-word piece of advice is, don't buy any . Just let the vendors from  rip-off Britain plc not sell any, and let them stew in their over-expensive liquid for many weeks after the event. Then maybe they'll think twice using their brains instead of their corporate bank accounts  for a change. You, the consumer, have only yourselves to blame if you pay that sort of money. Just, for a change (which you'll not get much out of a tenner for a pint of beer), vote with your feet. Although if you do vote with your feet, make sure the logos on your nasty trainers made by some poor, half-blind child in the Far East for $2, you know, the ones you bought at £80 last week, is the correct one. Locog ankle cameras have been installed at all the Olympic ...