395 replies to this topic

[John Drake]

Post all your moans and groans about the Olympic Games here.

If you want to talk about the sport, though, please use this thread instead.
http://www.totalrl.c...s-sport-thread/

[Severus]

Why have you used a zero instead of an O in the title of this thread. Webmasters aren't as good as they used to be.

[John Drake]

Which of the two new Olympic threads will be the longest by the end of the Games, the moany one or the sporty one?

[Wolford6]

Which of the two new Olympic threads will be the longest by the end of the Games, the moany one or the sporty one?

If it's the sporty one, I'll be having a right old moan about it.

[MikeW]

Which of the two new Olympic threads will be the longest by the end of the Games, the moany one or the sporty one?

That depends. If you think the 100m final was rubbish which thread do you write on?

[John Drake]

If it's the sporty one, I'll be having a right old moan about it.

[Steve May]

Why have you used a zero instead of an O in the title of this thread. Webmasters aren't as good as they used to be.

Because moaning about the Olympics is illegal if you link to the official website (http://www.london2012.com/) so he reckons that using 0lympics will be less fuss.

This entire thread is now putting the whole site in peril. Lock it now.

[Griff9of13]

To add fuel to SMs Fire http://www.fleetstre...tashambles.html

[gingerjon]

people whose idea of achievement is writing a press release about it
Magnificen as ever from FSF

The politician who signed the contract with G4S is John Reid.

Baron Reid of Cardowan now sits on the board of a private security contractor.

[Steve May]

To add fuel to SMs Fire http://www.fleetstre...tashambles.html

Good article.

Doing some back of the envelope maths..

G4S have been paid £284million for 13,000 guards. That's £22k per guard. Presumably these guards are only working for the duration of the Olympics, plus a bit of training time. Let's say 4 weeks. 35 hours per week is 140 hours in total. At a rough tenner an hour the guard takes home £1,400.

Let's double that to cover NI, recruitment, training and other management costs. That guard costs £2,800 to hire for the duration.

So. G4S get £22k for the guard, the guard gets £2.8k.

WHERE THE F U C K IS THE MONEY GOING?

Is my maths wrong?

Ce message a été modifié par Steve May - 17 juillet 2012 - 03:14 .

[Shaggy]

This whole thing is indicative of what's wrong with modern Britain. The ridiculous logo. The stupid bright colours. The Stella McCartney-designed GB kit. The zig-zag design of the seats in the stadium. The opening ceremony which will surely show the world metropolitan London's idea of the rest of the country. The fact that my daughter will be paying for that opening ceremony when she becomes a tax payer. The sponsors taking us for fools. Schools in Doncaster putting up signs saying they follow the Olympic Values - dear Lord, we're all in trouble if the next generation is being taught this nonsense.

Look, it's easy. Get the Queen in a flashy carriage, some soldiers in red coats on horses, the band of the Royal Marines and parade into the stadium followed by the athletes. Wave. Queen says: I now pronounce the Games of the 30th Olympiad - open! Get on with the sport. In which GB athletes will wear a white vest with a red and blue band. Total cost: Thruppence ha'penny and a bag of straw for the horses.

[Shadow]

This whole thing is indicative of what's wrong with modern Britain. The ridiculous logo. The stupid bright colours. The Stella McCartney-designed GB kit. The zig-zag design of the seats in the stadium. The opening ceremony which will surely show the world metropolitan London's idea of the rest of the country. The fact that my daughter will be paying for that opening ceremony when she becomes a tax payer. The sponsors taking us for fools. Schools in Doncaster putting up signs saying they follow the Olympic Values - dear Lord, we're all in trouble if the next generation is being taught this nonsense.

Look, it's easy. Get the Queen in a flashy carriage, some soldiers in red coats on horses, the band of the Royal Marines and parade into the stadium followed by the athletes. Wave. Queen says: I now pronounce the Games of the 30th Olympiad - open! Get on with the sport. In which GB athletes will wear a white vest with a red and blue band. Total cost: Thruppence ha'penny and a bag of straw for the horses.

And another thing...

....Catering by McDonalds and Beer from Heineken?

It should be 1970s British Rail Sandwiches, Ham, Cheese or Egg, and Tea or Watneys Red Barrel.
The Closing ceremony could be massed ranks of Norah Batty lookalikes all leaning on a mop smoking a roll up and saying "told yer it would be rubbish"

Danny Boyle? not needed here thank you.

[Shaggy]

I think you may be joking but that sounds reet good.

[bionic barrel]

the biggest winners from this debacle will be the private companys given overpriced lucrative contracts by their fat cat mates in govt, 10 million for this 7 million for that, our kids will be be paying for the spanish villas of the rich yet again.

[SHewson]

I want to moan about having a thread for moaners. We aren't moaners, we are reasonable people with too much intelligence and common sense to be carried along with all this highly expensive nationalistic jingoism that we have been forced to pay for, and which will be broadcast by a television company we are forced to pay for.

The Olympics is a corporate con job pulled off by a corrupt unaccountable organisation in cahoots with other global corporate giants seeking to dominate our lives.

And it was a Labour government that signed us up to this. Thought they weren't friends of capitalists and big business?

[Dessie O'Hare]

Good article.

Doing some back of the envelope maths..

G4S have been paid £284million for 13,000 guards. That's £22k per guard. Presumably these guards are only working for the duration of the Olympics, plus a bit of training time. Let's say 4 weeks. 35 hours per week is 140 hours in total.
Is my maths wrong?

60 hours a week is the industry standard, making full use of the Working Time Directive.

[Wolford6]

Presumably, many of the the thousands of people to be employed by G4S at the Olympics will have been targetted to be both:
- sourced from the dole queue
- employed for no more than 6 weeks

If that is the case, it's no wonder they couldn't get the claimants to turn up for work because such employment could compromise their post-deployment benefit income ... it could trigger problems with: -
- reappraisal after a period of employment
- delays in recommencement of state payments
- increased DWP workload causing administrative delays etc.

Seeing as the government has squandered millions of pounds on this disasterfest, it wouldn't have cost a right lot more to let the dolie volunteers continue to claim benefits whilst earning less per hour working with (rather than for) G4S.

[Steve May]

60 hours a week is the industry standard, making full use of the Working Time Directive.

Okay. Redo the maths. There's still about fifteen grand missing for each security dude.

[Griff9of13]

Presumably, many of the the thousands of people to be employed by G4S at the Olympics will have been targetted to be both:
- sourced from the dole queue
- employed for no more than 6 weeks

If that is the case, it's no wonder they couldn't get the claimants to turn up for work because such employment could compromise their post-deployment benefit income ... it could trigger problems with: -
- reappraisal after a period of employment
- delays in recommencement of state payments
- increased DWP workload causing administrative delays etc.

Seeing as the government has squandered millions of pounds on this disasterfest, it wouldn't have cost a right lot more to let the dolie volunteers continue to claim benefits whilst earning less per hour working with (rather than for) G4S.

Not just that, but they went through the recruiting and training process months ago. G4S expected them to sit about on their ###### waiting for a call to start work (which, apparently for many never came). In that time anyone with any sense and commitment will have carried on looking for, and in many cases, obtained other work. The people the BBC had tracked down all said that they had heard nothing from G4S for months about where they were supposed to go and when.

G4S's organisational skills make the RFL look like a smoothly run, well oiled machine.

The G4S chief exec yesterday had the brass neck to tell the parliamentary committee he was up in front of that they still expected full payment!

[John Drake]

Not just that, but they went through the recruiting and training process months ago. G4S expected them to sit about on their ###### waiting for a call to start work (which, apparently for many never came). In that time anyone with any sense and commitment will have carried on looking for, and in many cases, obtained other work. The people the BBC had tracked down all said that they had heard nothing from G4S for months about where they were supposed to go and when.

G4S's organisational skills make the RFL look like a smoothly run, well oiled machine.

The G4S chief exec yesterday had the brass neck to tell the parliamentary committee he was up in front of that they still expected full payment!

This is very much a disaster of G4S's own making, rather than the Olympic organisers. G4S committed to a contract they couldn't fulfil. Now the state (in the form of the police and the armed forces) are having to step in to rescue the situation, while G4S expect to still claim a £50 million 'management fee'. That's the way it usually works these days, isn't it?

In happier contrast, the Olympic organisers have recruited, trained and kitted out 80,000 volunteers (of which a very proud friend of mine is one) to help make the day to day running of the events go smoothly. This piece of positive news doesn't really belong in the moany thread, but is useful for context.