Some people you see on the telly or hear on the radio and you think “what an interesting person. That’s someone I’d like to know in real life.” Jimmy McNulty and Omar from the Wire or Deanna Troy from Star Trek come to mind. Other times you hear someone and you think “what festering sewer of scumbaggery did you spawn in?”

BBC Radio carried a short feature (about 40 minutes in) on the market that’s developing for rental properties in east London in run-up to the 2012 Olympics, a part of the world with a pretty chronic housing shortage. They interviewed someone called Angelique who lives in Dubai but has a flat to rent in Limehouse, not too far from the Olympic venues. It’s got great views and she rents it out for about £400 a week at the moment. Her hope is that during the games she can make £1500 or more per week. That’s quite a difference.

Asked what she would do with the current tenants she was blunt. “They will have to go.” Adding “I think we’re going to find in London that there will be a lot of apartments where tenants are going to be served eviction”.  Before you jump to conclusions she did qualify her remarks by saying that if her tenants at the time were able to pay the same sort of rent as the press entourage for the United States swimming team they’d be allowed to stay. She’s all heart.

In whole swathes of London what used to be council properties have been bought up by nasty, exploitative buy to let landlords whose business model is destroying working class communities. The Olympics is going to be a bonanza for them.