Brown's not going to the Olympics opening ceremony - he's going to the Closing ceremony to accept the torch from Beijing for London.

To be honest I can't believe he's not going - he reckons it's not a boycott (not, my arse) - at least Bush said last I heard that he considers the oOlympics to be about sport, not politics - for once, I couldn't actually agree with him more.

With all these "protests" politics is going to tarnish this Olympics and Olympics to come by not being separate from sport - if politics continues to be involved, it could well end up like the voting at Eurovision - another big name fixture down the khazi. !

I have zero faith in Brown or Cameron come to that.

As for the games themselves: It's not without precedent. The Russian olympics were boycotted by many countries and the Ruskies in turn boycotted the LA Olympics. The one I was most impressed with was Johann Cruyff who refused to play in the 78 world cup because of the Argies human rights record.

A man of principles. But I wonder how many Dutch fans think that they could have won the final, if only he had been there. I have many happy memories of the World Cup Finals of 78, which I can't go into on here. Apart from to say that I was 4 months into my 30 year relationship with PC.

A trophy kind of pales into significance when compared to 30'000 state murders.

Is the Argentinian economy still fucked?

Not sure but this suggests its not great. The Peso was supposed to be tracking the US Dollar.
1 British pound = 6.23459988 Argentine pesos

I was there in 2003 just after the last time it fell apart and it was party time for me and my GBP's. Essentially the whole country was having an 80% off sale. I bought a couple of pairs of hand made shoes for £15 a pair, dinner was less than a tenner at a good restaurant and jewellery was almost for nowt.

An incredible country though and well worth a visit.

My brother went and said how unnervingly European it felt. Loads of our style of architecture, friendly people and good food. He hated Brazil, said it actually felt pretty safe in Argentina.

I know a couple of lads working out in Brazil right now, and they say you must not wander out and about on your own in the big cities. Even the police are violent and corrupt. One lad who worked out there for years couldn't wait to jack it in. It's a place I would like to visit, but the chances of being shot dead or kidnapped, or at the very least robbed and beaten up make it a no-go area for me.Ditto Venezuela, Colombia, practically all of Central America etc
I wonder if that continent would have been different today if it had been colonised by Dutch/British/German/Scandinavian types instead of Spanish and Portuguese????

Walking through the streets of BA is much the same as Madrid or Barcelona. Very European as you say. This is made more so because most of the people are of European decent. It is a truly great city to visit.

Yes a bit dangerous in parts but no more so than Paris or London. That said someone did try to mug me, he staggered out from a doorway completely pissed told me he wanted my money and promptly fell over.