³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Many papers reported on how the Olympic venues are being transformed in preparation for the Games. The Guardian : "Thousands of flags and banners in dozens of venues will be changed, hundreds of buses will be converted, new volunteer recruits will be put through their paces and thousands of journalists will start trying to comprehend the intricacies of goalball and the Paralympic classification system."

Also this week, we saw two examples of popular public Paralympic pressure (PPPP?) Which brought about interesting responses.

1) The Royal Mail decided that they will produce stamps for every ParalympicGB gold medal winning athlete, as they did with Olympic gold medalists, despite previously saying that they would release just six group stamps. This had upset people who felt that disabled sports men and women weren't being taken as seriously.

2) An online petition by a wheelchair-using mother, distressed when told that she would be , gained over 30 thousand signatures and brought some .

2.1 million tickets have already been sold, making London 2012 the most popular Paralympics ever. Thousands of further tickets for the Games have just been released.

Elsewhere in the news

Watchdog finds 'weaknesses' in sickness benefit system (³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News, Friday 17 August)

Tony Nicklinson loses High Court right-to-die case (³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News, Thursday 16 August)

Paralympic cyclist Jody Cundy's union jack-inspired leg (³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News, Thursday 16 August)

(The Telegraph, Thursday 16 August)

Eddie Marsan on playing Paralympics founder Ludwig Guttmann (³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News, Wednesday 15 August)

One-handed pianist Nicholas McCarthy 'an inspiration' (³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News, Wednesday 15 August)

Disabled rights pioneer Lord Morris dies aged 84 (³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News, Tuesday 14 August)

Olympic Stadium transformed ahead of Paralympics (³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News, Monday 13 August)

(The Daily Mail, Monday 13