Morrissey: Olympic Spirit 'Like Nazi Germany'

Singer Morrissey has slammed the coverage of the London 2012 Olympics for its "blustering jingoism" - and likened the "foul patriotism" to the Germany of the Nazis.

In a statement posted on True To You - an online Morrissey fanzine - the former frontman of The Smiths outlined his distaste for the media attention given to the royal family and the sense of British spirit.

He goes on to say that the "spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain", as a result of the Olympics coverage.

The statement reads: "I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism?

"The 'dazzling royals' have, quite naturally, hijacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press. It is lethal to witness.

"As London is suddenly promoted as a super-wealth brand, the England outside London shivers beneath cutbacks, tight circumstances and economic disasters.

"Meanwhile, the British media present 24-hour coverage of the 'dazzling royals', laughing as they lavishly spend, as if such coverage is certain to make British society feel fully whole."

He added: "s I recently drove through Greece I noticed repeated graffiti seemingly everywhere on every available wall. In large blue letters it said: 'WAKE UP WAKE UP'.

"It could almost have been written with the British public in mind, because although the spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain, the 2013 grotesque inevitability of Lord and Lady Beckham (with Sir Jamie Horrible close at heel) is, believe me, a fate worse than life."

Morrissey was also heavily critical of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in June, comparing her reign to a dictatorship and describing the celebrations as "a new lesson in the force of tyranny".