London 2012, ambush marketing and civil liberties

A recent article in the Guardian, Special Powers for 2012 Olympics alarm critics details some of the potential implications of the legislation ostensibly dealing with ambush marketing, but potentially impacting upon broader public order issues, particularly the right to protest. The use of protest in sport is well chronicled, and I have previously written on protest in the context of cricket and the anti-apartheid movement with Steve Greenfield in Sociological Focus. Peter Hain has also written on this area extensively from a personal perspective. Outside of the protest aspect, this provides a further reminder of the difficulty of trying to marry the Olympic ideal with commercial exploitation.