OT: Olympic security

[Tim Watts]

Plan for the long term? This is Britain... What are you thinking, man!

[Man at B&Q]

When I first heard that I thought "WTF? Greedy b******s, get on with the job your paid to do!" but then it became clear that they were only asking for what the *managers* had already been promised.

MBQ

[stuart noble]

AIUI, if you include the "training", which they don't get paid for, it may work out to less than the minimum wage overall. And where are these people living? Certainly nowhere near the capital, so their fares are likely to be sky high. Amidst all the media hype no one has seen fit to actually explain the details

[charles]

those of you who remember "Wrestling" on ITV on Saturdays should remember that those who competed were members of the Variety Artists Federation.

[F]

I heard that they would, but only if they turn up for work assigned to them. There's also the possibility of a 'completion bonus' if they complete the whole contract. That's if the *staff* complete *their* contract.

G4$ deserve bu**er all and anyone who reads Private Eye would have had a good idea years ago that something like this would happen.

[F]

But then the newsreader said he 'wouldn't be customer facing'. So something big time happens and we've got security that can't explain clearly and quickly to *anyone* who might be in danger, just their team.

[Tim Streater]

Except the managers will have more to do. The drivers just work as normal, AIUI.

[Martin Brown]

Wall facing perhaps? It made me wonder just how inarticulate the rest were that they (G4S) put this poor sap in front of the cameras.

Not even that as their "team" if they actually turn up may understand even less English than the team leader - a possibility that cannot be discounted. It isn't much of a team either if it hasn't trained

*together* for realistic scenarios in advance of the actual event.

To put it into perspective Red Ken pointed out that the amount paid to G4S could recruit and employ >10,000 police officers for a whole year.

Looking at the Olympic signs going up now for an *international* event I was struck by how difficult it will be for people without a good working knowledge of English to navigate. The tendency of announcements to use arcane forms of English and long uncommon words is particularly dumb "due to the inclement weather ..." whatever is wrong with "wet".

[Weatherlawyer]

Last time I looked the army was pretty hot on training. And badges. And if you don't mind the first wave suffering from Churchillian improvisations, managing, etc.

They usually manage to scale things too.