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Subscribe to RSSOriginally published June 5: A group of unemployed people were brought to London to do unpaid work at the queen’s jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under a city bridge, a British newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The Guardian newspaper reported that long-term jobless from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth in western England were taken by bus to the capital city for “work experience” as crowd-control staff lining the route of the river pageant and other events, and the chance to get paid employment at the London Olympics.
The security company that ran the security operation said while the unemployed people were not paid, they did receive boots and clothing worth more than $180 and a security industry license costing about $390. It added that the bridge incident "should never have happened."
'Raining and freezing'
One of the group told The Guardian that they arrived in London at 3 a.m. local time Sunday after a four-hour bus drive from Bristol.
The excitement over Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee festivities were tempered by news that her husband, Prince Philip, was hospitalized with a bladder infection. NBC's Duncan Golestani reports on the Prince's condition.
“We all got off the coach and we were stranded on the side of the road for 20 minutes until they came back and told us all to follow them,” the woman told The Guardian. “We followed them under London Bridge and that’s where they told us to camp out for the night … it was raining and freezing.”
After the family dramas of the '80s and '90s, Queen Elizabeth II appears to have embraced Prince Charles' wife, Camilla, as well as Duchess Catherine, the new wife of Prince William. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports on the trio of women who have been seen enjoying one another's company throughout the Jubilee festivities.
She and another jobless person -- the paper said both did not want to be named for fear they would lose their welfare payments -- said they had to change into security clothes in public and had no access to toilets for 24 hours. After a 14-hour shift Sunday, they went to sleep in a tent on the outskirts of the city.
Jubilee celebrations: Queen cuts a lonely figure at church service
They claimed they had initially been told they would be paid and only learned they would not as they got onto the bus Saturday night.
Queen Elizabeth II attended a service St. Paul's Cathedral in honor of her Diamond Jubilee and was later treated to a concert by music legends Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney. TODAY's Matt Lauer reports and reviews the festivities with royal expert Camilla Tominey, historian Andrew Roberts, and Christopher Dickey of Newsweek and The Daily Beast.
The jobless group was working for Close Protection UK, a private firm that won a contract to provide stewards to help control the crowds during the jubilee celebrations and will also provide stewards for the Olympics.
“The London Bridge incident should never have happened but was to some extent outside our control,” Molly Prince, managing director of Close Protection UK, said in an emailed statement.
'Not for the faint hearted'
“The nature of Festival & Event work is such that we often travel sleeping on coaches through the night with an early morning pre-event start,” she added. “It is the nature of the business and there is no misconception about this, it’s hard work and not for the faint hearted.”
However she said the bus drivers had “insisted on leaving” after they arrived in London at 3 a.m. Sunday.
“For this we sincerely apologize,” the statement added. “… The Drivers said their work was done even though they were there 2 hours ahead of schedule.”
A gloomy, gray - and great - day for the UK
She said the firm would not be using the bus company again.
Prince wrote that most of the people who worked at the pageant were “happy, fed and looked after as best [as] possible under the circumstances."
“We are not in the business of exploiting anyone,” she added.
Diamond Jubilee: From ska to pop, stars rock Buckingham Palace
Prince said in another email to msnbc.com that the Guardian article and media spin "could jeopardize my entire business."
She added the "20 or so volunteers" had been taken "off the job" Tuesday.
The jobless people were placed with Close Protection UK by a charity, called Tomorrow’s People.
Abi Levitt, the charity’s director of development services, told msnbc.com that the drivers' departure was a “very unfortunate incident."
She stressed taking the unpaid work was “absolutely voluntary for a day at the jubilee.”
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UK is a society of haves, toffs and celebs enriching and glorifying themselves at the expense of low-paid, struggling working class families. It is disgusting that the poor are suffering while the well-to-do have a party! Whatever happened to the ideal of equality, fairness and dignity for all. No wonder Scotland wants to become independent!
I say "Off with their heads" and give back the money to the people they stole it from.
What makes you think things are any different elsewhere in the world? There will always be those who have more than they really need and those who can barely sustain themselves. It might not be morally correct, but that's the way it is.
The stench of poverty will eventually reach the Aristocrat's doors........ much like the Oligarchy in America will be faced with!!!!
Pretty shameful. No one really cared enough to anticipate the needs of these people they were employing. Bottom line.
Dats the filthy rich and famous rich brits fer ya! And their xcuse 2 say the peeps were voluntary! Geez, wat a bunch of uncouthed this company must be!
Sounds like a society run by the likes of Romney or Cheney.
Or the little Bush, if he were bright enough.
Welcome to the capitalist society that takes advantage of the misfortune that falls on the weak. Unemployment is a man made problem! We have the capacity to make this planet a heaven for all of us! But we don't have the money!?? What a lame excuse is that!?? Go back and read your own history and understand why the American revolution happened.
Unemployment is a function of money supply. When the money supply deflates, there is not enough money to pay everyone even if there is work to be done. But the question is: Why does the money supply deflate??? Why is there always shortage of money??
Answer: Banks create money when we borrow. Entire money supply is created this way and it is interest bearing debt. In other words, money supply is X and debt is X+I. That is why there is shortage of money. It did not have to be this way. Debt based monetary system is the cause of the problem. Within this system, there is no fix.
God told you interest is forbidden, but did you listen?
Google for "WEB OF DEBT KONDRATIEFF WAVE" to learn about debt free monetary system.
Why do the British care about the filthy Windsors? The Windsor family couldn't give a rat's ass about the bloody, sweaty common man. It's too bad the Germans weren't just a wee bit more successful in Britain before they lost the war.
I was about to cite similar complaints and lawsuits in California where Walmart unloads the cheap crap we buy, but then I though, "why bother, we're all pretty blind."
The ole Queeny should be hanging her head in shame, and I cannot believe that American people think this old had is deserving of the people's money.
She needs to get of her damn azz and get a real effen job and support her own flabby azz for a change.
You all need to wake up and smell the rotting roses...... this is your future! You all refused to pay any attention to what has gone on in the past: what things were like prior to organized labor! After all the unions are gone, so will things like any and all benefits, except of course for the execs and the CEOs. NO health insurance, no vacation days, no sick days, no maternity leaves....nothing, nada, zero. AND of course workers will be cut back, their pay will be cut back........ you will find yourselves scrambling to get any job.
Our country and Europe are close to becoming just like the "third world" countries.....(no jobs, no rights) unless we stand up and tell our politicians we demand a change for the better........our lives are going to get so much worse.
British are yet to come to the real world. They are still in their own hell holes imagining that they rule two third of the world.
Bush, Blair and others invented Saddam's WMDs, Saddam's killing of children and women and Iraqi wars.
Since 2003, future traders, rating agencies, Wall Street and oil companies and their lobbyists transferred five trillion dollars from oil importing countries to oil exporting nations. It gave us PIIGS.
Just as in Iraq, oil rich Sunni seventh century bigoted Saudi barbaric and beastly rulers and their Sunni pals (Kuwait, UAE and others), oil companies, lobbyists and Jewish mad people (Netanyahos and co), bankers, Wall Street are repeating their seventh century desert dances through their cheap US puppets on Iran and Syria.
Earlier Tony Blair danced and now David Cameron is dancing.
We have sanctions on Iranian oil and oil price hikes oil prices manipulations higher and higher by Saudis & co and oil companies.
Wait for the oil prices to shoot up to $200 a barrel this time.
We are headed in the same direction.
Disgusting. Paul and Sir Elton should be damned ashamed of themselves also. It's a celebration of exploitation and income inequality. Bruce would never perform at such a charade. I'm a fan of both of them, but they've lost their way.
Yes :)
Doug,
It's a Brit thing so why wouldn't Sir Paul & Sir Elton attend. Heck, she knighted the both. Despite coming from working class backgrounds, neither has cloaked themselves in the mantle of a working class savior.
Do you think Bruce would ditch on Obama if he was invited to perform at a brithday party for the Pres?
Bruce spouting out at concerts about how banks suck, etc rings a little hollow considering he's about as close to the working man these days as the Queen. You certainly don't hear him railing about how much the working slob has to pay for tickets to one of his shows do you? You don't see him heading up workers / union rights rallies in places like Wisconsin, where the Repubs are doing their damdest to shove the working class back into sweatshops.
"A group of unemployed people were brought to London to do unpaid work at the queen’s jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under a city bridge"
This is 21st century Britain.
They will have full scale dramas and dances on Olympics. Dow Chemicals, which bought Union Carbide, is the sponsor!
So kill by gassing, play, enjoy and give full blown publicity on Olympics!
Look on the bright side...compared to Dicken's time, England is making progress...compared to Debtors Prison, having a bridge to sleep under is a step up!
I'm also wondering why the idea of granting unvetted people security indusrty licenses based on a jacked up situation like this doesn't appear to concern folks. If I were an Olympic athlete in London this summer, I'd sure as hell be sleeping with one eye open and a gun under my pillow if this is how Britain is conducting security.
So what has changed in 236 yrs.? Queen still gets money from her subjects for doing nothing while the poor suffer. America is now an empire like england was 236 yrs ago. The president and all his men, congress, the senate are the new lords that get money for nothing and we get the bill. They have a TAX for every goddamn thing they can think of. They will steal your property because they decided they can(we the people my ass), they can lock you up because they can. You are proven guilty first then fight to prove your innocence. If you happen to be a lord and steal from the subjects you are presumed innocent and it could take years before they will build a case against one of their own. (john Corizine) If you happen to be a lord and steal from other lords then they put you on Jail. (bernie madoff) Or the king will decree you are a terrorist and have you whacked.
Why did we fight the REVOLUTION again?
What have we accomplished in 236 yrs.? We have more lords ruling over us, not for us.
WTF?
when are the british going to grow up and be done with this mooching royal bs
toner12
The leeching old hag and her royal leeching family members have nothing better to do with the cost of this joke of a parade. They should have given all the money wasted on this event back to the people they stole the money from, and to pay off their goddamn debts.
British monarchy and democracy have been reduced to smiles for a few and tears for huge numbers!
Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Something tells me they were probably fed as well; just a hunch.
yeah, they were probably fed and given water, but no bathrooms. Pretty good deal? Go for it.
And we were led to believe that England no longer had slaves. It is outrageous to treat anyone this way - and then not get paid doing it.
They were compensated very nicely, considering they were volunteers. No one forced them; it was of their own free will. That's a far cry from slavery.
It remains a "mystery" how ANY single British person could give a damn about any member of the "royal family", the ones who slaughtered so many hundreds of thousands over centuries of upon the ancestors of all those "commoners".
In the History of Civilization, the British Monarchy represents one of the most Barbaric ruling families ever.
The royal family deserves NOTHING... and ZERO notoriety from their British "subjects".
The fact that ANY "British commoner" pays ANY attention to the Queen speaks volumes to the staggering ignorance and pure stupidity of ANY single individual "British commoner" who does so much as "wave" at the Queen.
It is a sad statement to know that ANY group could be "trained like dogs to sit up" whenever the Queen strolls by. Seeing pictures of the "throngs of British commoners" turning out for this "dog and pony show" should cause EVERY American... and ANY "self-respecting individual" to shake their heads in disbelief.
In other words,
"Look at us! WE have all this because WE brutalized, victimized and murdered SO MANY of YOUR ancestors...
THANKS SUCKERS!!!
I wish that the American television networks felt this way. They've been showing this nonsense for days now. We are not British and couldn't care less about some old hag and her ugly family of social parasites.
Chris:
They are still thinking in many ways as they did 3-400 years. Tax the old biddy and her entire royal (?) famiily and give the money to the poor. Or are we still connected to the brits by an unseen umbilibal cord; after all we fought them 2x and they still think they rule the world.
They should be ashamed. Having a parade and jubilee about the queen's diamonds while these people haven't eaten and sleep under a bridge freezing cold. Way to go queenie. You should sell some of those rocks and feed the poor and hungry.
It was a Diamond Jubilee celebrating 60 years on the throne. They weren't celebrating how many jewels the Royal family has. Sad for her subjects in the article.
England may have a royal family, but I believe tradition can be a good thing. The reason the western countries ONLY have figurehead royalty IS because of actions like this. The PROBLEM is our elected and appointed officials ACT like royalty. They THINK they are better and deserve more than the rest of us EVEN THOUGH al they are IS elected to represent us. I'm glad this story is out. Like the Vatican, one scandal after another.
I believe it all funny....tragically funny and it is the same the world over. Common people being exploited by those with power and tragically ....rejoicing in it.
But, in reality, the common Man must be governed . I only wish it was in a much more truthful and benevolent manner.
The last time here in America that existed was at the end of the Truman presidency....since then...the office has become less and less ...for the people and more and more ...an Imperial Presidency.
If you do not believe it, investigate the cost to the country of the presidency over the years.
The need for Kings and Queeens, Popes Dukes, Duchesses and all of the other nonsense ...is just that ...nonsense...but the Brits exault in it.
I guess we could take their huddled masses. We wouldn't notice a couple of hundred more illegal immigrants and it would so please the president. We have some pretty good bridges they could live under. This so rounds out my perspective on wealth and royalty.
I'm not surprised...Britain has been the ultimate colonialist of the planet! These people were no more than peons for the royal entourage!!
hey dont forget, the USA still have sum countries( like Puerto Rico and Guam) who are colonized too(for instance, PR had been under US rule over centuries).
Puerto Rico has been a territory of the US since the end of the Spanish-American War....1898....that's 114 years. Not centuries, as you put it.
I been trying to come up with a mission statement for a new political party. I think "If we can't have what rights and property we deserve then you wealthy folks arn't going to have any either." The Royals are supposed to tie the country together but the effort is getting to be all one sided. Myself, here in the U. S. I'm tired of being drafted, shot at, spit on, overtaxed, now displaced by illegal aliens, and my retirement stolen. Time for Wall Street to give back, not a little but a lot. As for the Royals, quit cluttering up the TV and get a job, deadbeats.
That was just a few people affected by that incident, and in another country, WHAT you should be concerned with is the "BARBARIC" treatment you will begin to be faced with on Januray 1, 2013 when the Obamacare has more of an affect or your freedoms and rights as well as all of your personal information , and how the health care package gives the administration power to put you in prison without Due Process if they feel you are a threat with out your day in court,or legal cocunsel or contact with your family, and all the new Fees, hwich by Obama's own wods are not 'TAXES", but fall under the words of user's fees, nice paly on words right.
Or do you really believe that your party line, from any political party will put you above these "Change" in the way their business will now be conducted will save, I think not, your are in the same boat along with all the other litlle people who don't count in their new world, and yet you will only be tolerated as long as you can perform you give slave duty as have all the slaves who have preceeded you in history.
Now this is what "BARBARIC" really is, and it is nearer that you think,(JAN. 1, 2013), is the commencement date!
Is history really going to repeat it's self or will you all wake up and come together as one nation, and not as seperate party members,butt memebers of one American family, and reclaim what our forefathers claimed for us as a Republic, and not as a Fifedom to be subjected to a small group's whims as was the case in an era of so called Royals and Nobels, who contribute nothing to the people but pain and misery.
Your Choice............
Obama 2012!
This is a shame!! No matter where you live, the ppl who have more money than most have to boast about it, but there's this thing called "Karma" and it does work.
"Occupy Buckingham Palace"
WOW....help us with the Jubilee and then when you're no longer needed go sleep under a bridge in the freezing cold rain. Have we really come that far from the dark ages ????
REALLY SHAMEFUL !
Sad thing is, give it a bit more time and we are more than heading down the same route. You shouldn't need to be a sad excuse for a human and/or be "nobility" in America to get ahead.--Sorry for the off-topic crabbing.
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Here is a nation that helped birth the abolitionist movement and allegedly outlawed slavery in both Great Britain and the Commonwealth. It seems that slavery is making a mighty come back in Great Britain. Here the Queen celebrates her Diamond Jubilee while her subjects suffer in the cold under London Bridge. I would think she has enough coin to pay her help! Poorly done, Your Majesty, Poorly done!
It's like a dystopian parody
Would anybody care to speculate about the party affiliation of the people who own the security company and run the charity that recruited the people? Bet they're Tories...Looks like the Brits have learned about the glories of privatization from their former colony!
Stupid Brits and their royalty, what good are they, they serve no purpose other than to spend the people's money!!
I can't imagine how much they must have spent on that bash, it could have gone to feed the poor and hungry!!
No wonder it was so easy to kick butt on the English in 1776. No wonder the US had to save Europe in WW I and WW II. Now that the EU is about to collapse financially, the US should buy Greece, Spain, France, and Italy and auction off the people as slaves for Germany and England. The heavily socialized countries are about to totally collapse and their people will join the third world. It might be better to be slaves of a capitalist world.
What do you mean unpaid. They get welfare,In her own words I won,t give my name, I might lose my welfare. Let them do a little for the folks that pay there welfare.