E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Luke Macgregor / Reuters
Soldiers man a security checkpoint at an entrance to the London 2012 Olympic Park at Stratford in London on July 12, 2012.
LONDON — The military has been drafted to plug a security gap, the road surface along a key arrival route is cracking up and London Heathrow International Airport is expecting long lines. Only 14 days before the Olympics, are the wheels coming off London's Games planning or are Britons just finding excuses to grumble?
It has not been an encouraging week for organizers, or for London's 7.5 million residents. A crowd control rehearsal at main stations during Tuesday's morning commute caused frayed tempers and led to predictions that the city's creaking transport infrastructure may not be able to cope.
@Shoutsatcows on Twitter
A sign in the London Olympic Park, posted to Twitter, explaining that French fries cannot be served -- except to those ordering traditional British fish and chips together.
Then NBC News broke the news on Wednesday that Britain's military will have to come up with 3,500 bodies to fill a shortfall in security personnel because private contractor G4S admitted it might not meet its agreed targets to supply workers.
Competing athletes, due to arrive from all corners of the world on Monday, were warned on Thursday that the M4 motorway link that was supposed to whisk them from Heathrow to their hotels and training bases may still be closed after cracks were discovered in a concrete viaduct. Meanwhile, delays at airport immigration recently were so bad that passengers began slow-clapping in protest.
And anyone at the Olympic site trying to cheer themselves up with a snack might also be disappointed. Under the multi-million dollar International Olympic Committee sponsorship deals, chips — as fries are known in the U.K. — are banned at the site unless they come from McDonald's, or if they are served as part of a traditional British fish and chips meal. A sign in the workers' cafeteria, posted on Twitter, struck a note of disappointment.
The military, currently undergoing a painful round of layoffs and cost-cutting, is far from pleased at mopping up the failings of a private contractor. Retired Colonel Richard Kemp, a former UK commander in Afghanistan, told the BBC on Thursday:
“Many of the soldiers that are coming — this extra 3,500 — I understand are soldiers who have just returned from Afghanistan. As always when you give any part of the armed forces a task they will do it extremely well, extremely professionally and with a smile on their face… but we shouldn't forget also that many of these soldiers are people who have been told in the last few days that they are going to be made redundant, that their regiments are being scrapped and they are under great pressure already. The wider morale in the armed forces now is very fragile and this will simply add to that fragility.”
Britain's Home Secretary, Theresa May, has offered free Olympic tickets to the extra soldiers to compensate them for having their leave canceled.
Summoned to parliament on Thursday to explain the security shortfall, May denied claims by opposition lawmakers that Games preparations were "a shambles." She also dismissed concerns that the presence of up to 11,000 soldiers at Games venues — more than the 9,500 troops Britain currently has deployed in Afghanistan — would make visitors feel uncomfortable.
London is on high military alert as the Olympics approaches, with the Navy's largest ship poised to defend the capital, helicopters, marine commandos and even surface-to-air missiles placed in six areas around the city. NBC's Tazeen Ahmad reports.
London Mayor Boris Johnson went a step farther, saying the military presence "adds to the tone of the occasion."
But the tone of the Games is precisely what is raising concern in some quarters. Early evidence from the main Olympic Park suggests the often-officious character of British event organization could be a serious irritant: Identity passes and access credentials are zealously scrutinized at every turn by guards brandishing official buttons and lanyards, but maps or signs have yet to be installed at the vast site.
Brits revel in gloom ahead of London Olympics, but don't believe the gripe
The Spectator
The cover of the July 14 issue of weekly conservative magazine, The Spectator.
Many local parks, stations and access roads have already been shut down two weeks before the Games, effectively extending the inconveniences associated with airports to the entire city. Conservative commentator Charles Moore, writing in a special issue of The Spectator magazine, took particular exception to the mantra of officialdom, 'for security reasons,' calling it "the great tyrant's excuse of our times."
Strict enforcement of Olympic branding rules and sponsorship clauses has also come under criticism. Pierre Williams, spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses, castigated LOCOG (the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) for "petty officiousness" and for having been "absurdly over-protective" of its corporate sponsors, according to a report in the Financial Times. "In its almost paranoid attempts to protect the Olympic brand and its corporate sponsors, it has largely destroyed the goodwill that was there for the taking from businesses supplying the games," he said.
Onlookers taking pictures at the 'O2' music arena have reported being hassled by security staff because the site will shortly become an Olympic venue for basketball and thus off-limits for photography. (It can't be called the 'O2' either, because it is named after a non-Olympic commercial sponsor: It will be known during the games as 'North Greenwich Arena 1'.)
However, these alone are not indications that the Olympics will be a disaster. It seems unlikely that a city that has learned to live with crush-loaded Tube trains and has spent decades under the threat of terror — first from the IRA, which used explosives and bomb warnings to disrupt London's public transport for a generation, and then from Islamic militants — could not cope with two weeks of similar inconvenience.
Just two weeks away from the Olympic Opening Ceremony, the British government has announced thousands of additional soldiers will be sent to provide security at Game venues.
Complaints are to be expected, especially in a country where moaning might be regarded as an Olympic event in its own right.
"I hope, and expect, it will be a success," said author and transport expert Christian Wolmar. "I am optimistic that the transport system will cope just fine. If anything goes wrong at the Olympics it will be overzealous and dumb security, not public transport."
There has been one small victory for the common man: McDonald's on Thursday said it had relaxed its position on French fries in a deal with LOCOG that allows workers to be served individual portions of fries at other restaurants on the main Games site.
But perhaps the most encouraging sign came on Thursday afternoon, when transit authority Transport for London asked for volunteers to rehearse waiting in line and "simulate the unloading of a crush Central line car" to test crowd control measures. "How much fun does that sound like to you?" asked David Hill of The Guardian.
You may think the last thing the British needed to practice was waiting in line or putting up with crowded trains, but it seems no detail is being left to chance at the 2012 Olympics. There was no shortage of unpaid volunteers, and the event was reportedly a success. Maybe things will run just fine after all.
More London 2012 coverage:
- Disabled visitors face high hurdles to London Olympics
- Terror suspect's eye color? Flying cameras to spy during Games
- Londoners express hopes, frustrations as Olympics come to town
- Flagship McDonalds in Olympic Park becomes super-sized
- Olympic torchbearers race to cash in
- Will world's most expensive cable car be ready for Olympics?
- Now towering over London: 'The Godzilla of public art'
- Venues for the London 2012 Olympic Games
- Bad neighbors for Team USA? Occupy camp faces ax
- VIDEO: Olympic torchbearer proposes mid-relay
- Brits revel in gloom ahead of Games, but don't believe the gripe
- Olympic housing crunch: Landlords evict tenants to gouge tourists
- At London Olympics, dogs have sniffed out key anti-terror role
- Slideshow: When the Olympics is your neighbor
- Go behind the scenes with our 'TODAY in London' blog
Leave a Comment:
Why do people go to these hideous, made up affairs? NBC loses me for at least three weeks when they broadcast, endlessly, the prattle about this amalgam of jumpers, hoppers, swimmers and rope twirlers. It's worse than the Miss America pagent.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You're right. We need more hours of programing about politicians, spoiled celebs and the sex criminal of the week for Nancy Grace to scream at the screen about. How dare they show something as uncouth as the Olympic Games, why the very nerve of some people.
Yankee Boy:
NBC has my full attention for the duration of the Olympics! (To each his own.)
On a positive note: I have cancelled my vacation to England and I am going to vacation in the USA
Although I will be cheering for America's teams and individuals, I'll be praying for a safe and successful event. Bring home the gold, hoorah!
Repeat after me:
"No one cares. This is going on in England, a country we had to tear away from in order to be free, and that has for most of this nation's history been an enemy. They incited the US into the War of 1812, they supported and supplied the cowardly rebels in the South in their vile, treasonous action with money and material. We nearly entered WWI AGAINST them. No one cares about them."
So MSNBC stop reporting about them, this Olympics and their inbred monarchy.
Hell, stop reporting about the damn Olympics too, altogether. They aren't about the world coming together, they are about who gets the biggest endorsement deals by winning the most medals while being the most photogenic.
I am not at all concerned about watching the Olympics, because the reception of the local NBC station just happens to be nil in my apartment (damned digital signal -- that "greatest of all inventions" that goes *poof* whenever a mosquito farts!).
As for you, CelticPagan, are you not aware that Britain is traditionally the land of the Celts? You are bashing the land of your chosen religious beliefs.
Yankee Boy NBC plans to seduce female Olympic viewers and quoting Dostoevsky's "The Devil",,,
"We'll reduce all to a common denominator! Complete equality!" , capturing female viewers with
complete equality. So relax and enjoy it:o) It's been a long time coming!!! THe Devil is in the
details!
Are the British conducting Olympic games or some war exercises in Syria and Iran?
British have reduced themselves to this state by admitting all sorts of Islamic radicals and terrorists from the basket case nations like Pakistan, Somalia and other places!
They did not extradite the criminals when asked by nations.
They have to pay for what they have done.
Agmon, Britain was, not England. The Celtic peoples that lived there were driven into Wales by the invading Germanic peoples, as well as the Cornwall region of South-West England. England (a mix of Germanic people from the Juttes, Angles, Saxons, and the French-speaking Germanic Normans) conquered Wales and the Irish-Picts that became the Scots of Scotland. They also invaded and crushed my Irish ancestors, continuing to do so today in the Northern part of the Isle of Erin.
The Celts who's traditions I follow came from Ireland, and before that Northern and North-Western Iberia (Spain and Portugal). Only the Scots even speak a related language. Wales and those who still speak Gaelic in SW England speak a different form, and followed a different sub-culture. Theses came from Northern/NW Gaul, and are related to the Belgae (Benelux area of the continent). Traditionally, they warred upon (more so than the common tribal rivalries) the southern Gauls who moved into Iberia too and who form the branch of the Celts my family comes from, as well as the family tradition of paganism I choose to follow (much of my family were and are Celtic Catholics, meaning they never gave up all of the old religion but disguised it as calling upon certain "Saints" the Church created from Gods and goddesses too popular to stamp out, so made them into fictitious "saints" - example St Brigid, who is really the Goddess Brirgit (pronounced Breed), a member of the Tuatha de Dannan, or "Children of the Goddess Danu").
So no bearing upon me or my religion when I say, as a Historian (BA 1989, Post-Grad 1989-1990) that England is of no interest (well little interest I am a member of the Richard III Society, and as a Crusades Era Historian, naturally I have to study the Plantagenet kings of England, but my main focus is how the Muslims, Jews and various Orthodox Christians viewed both the first Four Crusades (the first-Third into the Levant, and the Fourth conquering the Byzantine Empire from the Greeks) and the over-lapping Mongol Invasion)
Jonathan is right. The huge amount of security is to guard against the muslims who seek to cowardly attack and kill when ever there is an opportunity. The UK is now paying a heavy price for the foolish immigration policies that allowed this history and beautiful country to be in the grip of these hate filled, cruel, iliterate and cowardly muslims. Sorry UK...you brought this one upon yourselves.
Yankee Boy, Ahhh, and what's "your" discipline? You actually compare the Olympic Games to a ridiculous beauty contest? What's the analogy exactly? Duh........
Celtic Pagan sounds like a nostalgic anglo-phobic twerp.
I'm not going to tell you to watch the games, the least you could do is let those of us who want to watch them do so without your xenophobic banter.
Celtic Pagen...Great post(s). Factual. You left out Cromwell's Irish atrocities and the fact that centuries later the Brits beloved Charles Dickens was a rabid Anti-Semite. That said, that hodge podge of cultures you call Great Britain has a whole host problems brought on by their American cousins.
The Summer Olympics are hard to organize and even harder to pull off without incident. Remember, the bombing at the Atlanta Games in '96 and all the problems security had? The British are our friends, and if they are attacked, so is America attacked. I wish the athletes, the spectators and the British people an exciting but safe olympics.
Seriously? Some of the best amateur athletes in the world and inspirational stories of determination and years of hard work culminating in the Olympic experience a hideous made up affair? It is a nice break from watching overpaid, whiny professional athletes or not being able to switch the channel fast enough when it lands on some reality program.
ROFLMAO! I'm a xenophobe, someone who has spent decades studying multiple and very diverse cultures. As for being an Anglophobe, you do realize you just said I am afraid of the English, right? "Phobe" doesn't mean someone who dislikes something, it means they fear it. I no more fear the English than I do anyone else. I also do not dislike them, I merely do not like them - there is a difference. I have many friends who happen to be English, both living here in the US and "across the Pond". I simply don't seek out to be friends with people who are English. I treat them as individuals. I want my ancestral homeland free of them, yes. Most people of Irish descent do, so nothing all that surprising there.
I love how "Torpedo" thinks the US caused all of England's woes. Exactly how did the US do that?
This is what I get for answering a question posed by a Newsvine poster I suppose - I cite historical FACTS, and I am attacked personally, and with unfounded accusations at that. those guilty of such mindless behavior have been reported and blocked.
As for watching the Olympics, watch. I couldn't possibly care less; what I did was ask MSNBC to stop reporting on what has become a popularity contest for a few chosen attractive athletes, if they happen to participate in a few select popular sports. In this regard, Yankee Boy is 100% correct. If you are a photogenic athlete who wins gold, in a sport that is popular, you win lucrative endorsement deals. If you win gold in a sport few are interested in, or aren't attractive enough, you just get a medal and your name is forgotten even as they announce it (if they do - many sports don't even get that much coverage). watching two weeks of what does amount to the Miss America Pageant isn't for me, and MSNBC is showing a lack of journalistic integrity by treating it as anything more than "head shots" for Madison Ave Ad agencies.
Wow, Sounds like a lot of fun. If you don't get shot or beaten by a Security goon.
It's the kind of world people like David Cameron want for us all:
….On top of this, each country will bring its own massed ranks of intelligence agents and security personnel. Sponsors at the games such as Coca Cola will also provide their own private security firms to protect their corporate guests. They will help police the suspension of the democratic right to protest and to enforce the commercial and advertising rights of major corporations such as McDonald’s.
Corporate limousines will have exclusive use of designated roads, each fitted with technology to change traffic lights to green on approach and red after departing. Estimates say a hundred miles of public roads will be taken over for private use. The London Underground will be patrolled by police wielding machine-guns...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030918/Traffic-lights-turn-green-Olympic-chiefs-ordinary-drivers-forced-bus-lanes.html
2012 Olympics: Police-state measures for London as super-wealthy party
By Paul Stuart
7 December 2011
When London’s Conservative mayor Boris Johnson travelled to Beijing in 2008 to receive the Olympic flame from the Chinese state, the promise was that the 2012 games in Britain would be a “people’s games”. This would involve the maximum participation of the local population of East London where the main Olympic site is based.
However, with four years of austerity and the districts surrounding the Olympic site sinking into desperate hardship, and the eruption of riots this summer, the games are being approached based on the calculation that Britain is a country on the edge of mass social conflict.
Preparations have assumed the character of an orgy of luxury and ostentatious displays of wealth by the financial elite, coupled with police-state measures directed against working class districts.
The main Olympic site in Stratford East London is surrounded by 17 kilometres of electrified fencing, with up to 900 cameras 50 metres apart and patrols by attack and search dog teams. New software has integrated the entire CCTV network, enabling an individual to be followed across the whole of London. “Threat Assessment and Behavioural Analysis Software” is under development. The government is planning “exclusion zones” around key Olympic sites.
The Times reported that Section 44 of the Terrorism Act, which allows the police to stop and search without any cause or even suspicion, will be applied throughout Britain. This is combined with the Olympic Act, which gives the police the right to force their way into private property and remove protesters and banners. Limits on the powers of police have been lifted, and this has been extended to security staff contracted to the Olympic authorities.
Yesterday, it was confirmed that spending on security has almost doubled from £213 million, and is now approaching £553 million.
This was only the latest twist in the extraordinary events surrounding the Olympic preparations, which include the proposed deployment of ground-to-air missiles for the first time on the British mainland.
According to government ministers, one option will be to station one of the new missile-equipped Royal Navy Type 45 destroyers on the Thames near the games.
Despite ministers describing all operations as “police-led,” the role of the military has expanded from police support operations off the coast of Weymouth to a broad involvement in all operations. This involves a number of deployments on the British mainland, involving “civilian” protection. The Ministry of Defence initially offered the London Olympic committee 3,000 soldiers, with a further 2,000 in reserve. This has now risen to more than 6,000.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox remarked, “I can assure you that all necessary measures to ensure the security and safety of the London Olympic Games will be taken, including, if the advice of the military is that it is required, appropriate ground-to-air defences.”
A base for the elite Special Air Services (SAS) is under construction beneath the central stadium in Stratford. Locals have witnessed months of activities, from Chinook helicopters to live ammunition training as the equipment to construct the bunkers is flown in. An SAS riverside base is also under construction that will house water-borne attack vehicles. Military attack helicopters, armed with high-powered snipers, will patrol the airspace over the Olympic sites.
The Daily Mail reported with sadistic excitement that snipers are “capable of killing an attacker at a range of more than a mile using a Barrett ‘Light Fifty’ rifle, which fires a powerful .50-calibre half-inch bullet at 2,799 feet per second. Even at night, the flying snipers can kill an enemy 1,000 yards away using night sights and infra-red lasers for target-marking.… The airborne sharpshooters were deployed in Iraq, where they were described by the Ministry of Defence as a ‘special weapon’ against the insurgent threat.”
The military will be joined by 300 MI5 agents. The redeployment will close down almost half of its intelligence operations for the period of the games.
Fully 12,000 police will be joined by 20,000 security guards hired and trained by private firms such as G4 Security, twice the original estimate of 10,000.
US officials from the FBI Events Management Unit are to bring over 1,000 operatives to protect US “citizens.” It is still undecided whether they can openly carry weapons on British streets. According to numerous reports, FBI officials are demanding and influencing the entire security operation.
On top of this, each country will bring its own massed ranks of intelligence agents and security personnel. Sponsors at the games such as Coca Cola will also provide their own private security firms to protect their corporate guests. They will help police the suspension of the democratic right to protest and to enforce the commercial and advertising rights of major corporations such as McDonald’s.
Corporate limousines will have exclusive use of designated roads, each fitted with technology to change traffic lights to green on approach and red after departing. Estimates say a hundred miles of public roads will be taken over for private use. The London Underground will be patrolled by police wielding machine-guns.
State repression is designed to protect the billionaires, the political and financial elite and their hangers-on, who have snapped up the best seats and accommodation, as they drive past areas that have been devastated by their economic policies.
Evening Standard columnist Steve Jenkins was forced to declare that “the run-up to the Games suggest that the event is fast parting company with fun. For London Olympics, read war zone.… At this rate, the Stratford Olympics site will resemble Camp Bastion in Helmand. It is in danger of hosting a festival of world security, with a handful of athletes tagging behind.”
Philip Stephens of the Financial Times wrote, “Welcome to London 2012: the apparatchiks’ games.” He described the Olympics as an “exercise in authoritarian elitism,” adding, “More than one million ordinary families have failed to secure a single ticket even to the opening stages of the most obscure Olympic sports. Civil liberties are to be suspended for the duration of the games.… Advertising sponsors have been promised what is chillingly called a ‘clean city’, handing them ownership of everything within camera distance of the games.…
“The crackdown extends to what the Olympic Stasi call ‘advertising on the human body’. Freedom of expression can go hang.”
Canary Wharf and the Royal Docks are being prepared for dozens of billionaires’ super yachts to dock, with charges ranging from £2,000 to £11,000 a day. Part of the services provided will be speedboats to take the elite directly to the Olympic park along the River Thames. Mark Upton, director of the yacht advisory company MGMT, explained, “We have Michelin-starred chefs who can come and cook for you, plus personal shoppers, helicopters, tailors and jewellers on stand-by.”
Leeds Castle trustees have hired an exclusive estate agent to contact wealthy parties to see if they want to hire the former royal castle in the heart of Kent as an “Olympic playground” for the duration of the games. Whoever rents the venue, replete with banquet hall and a maze, will have a flag designed in their honour and be able to drive the local steam train. According to the Daily Telegraph, “The former royal castle, built in 1119 and remodelled by Henry VIII as a home for Catherine of Aragon, is part of an increasingly popular range of luxury accommodation designed to draw wealthy sports fans to Britain for the 2012 Games.”
As to the costs involved, a source said, “They are looking at £1 million, minimum spend, to shut the castle down for private use, but the price would be determined by what services you require. I imagine the buyer would be a Russian billionaire or perhaps interested parties from China or maybe America.”
Not to miss out, the monarchy is said to be readying Buckingham Palace to hire out rooms at £30,000 a day for parties.
Stephens’s article described measures designed “to make life comfortable for the privileged elite that goes by the name of the “Olympic family”...the “family” comprises the 40,000—yes 40,000—Olympic bigwigs, national bureaucrats, commercial sponsors, hangers-on and politicians who are preparing to slip into all the best seats at all the best events.”
These measures have been accompanied by a media campaign to demand a Red Arrow fly-over, military bands playing at the opening ceremony and a general effort to force a greater military presence. When ministers have refused to go along in a feigned nod to Olympic “tradition”, they have been accused of betraying the armed forces.
The Olympics will underscore one point in a very dramatic way: that despite all the propaganda regarding the deepening economic crisis, we are most definitely not “all in it together”.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/olym-d07.shtml
Shame on you NBC and MSNBC! Your attempt to tone down the Protest is blunted by the fact that you, NBC, are the official broadcaster in the United States of the Olympic Gams. Of Course you want to put the best face forward on your precious baby of an Olympics. Mustn't have anything happen that will take away revenue from NBC eh?
I will be waiting till long after the Military Occupation Olympics are over before watching the Opening Ceremony. I can't stand the NBC commentators who constantly talk and drown out the opening events and scripts. Also, there is an official Boycott against the Olympics because the local people in London were forced out of their apartments by Government Sponsored Land Lords who jacked up the price hoping to get instantly rich off the games. I thought the games were for Sport not Profit?
Shame on NBC, for your biased against protest (non-violent) and against allowing PBS and CSPAN from covering the games too. I really think MSNBC should allow PBS and CSPAN to cover them with-out commentary for those who are sick and tired of the commentators of NBC.
And this is my Opinion.
To britain: "quit'cher whinging".
Although you might actually lose your place as the world's top whiners, The US is gaining fast.
Come on, guys ~ Cut them some slack. Britain has been through so much more than we have historically and have braved it stoically. ( They are actually the personification of the phrase, " stiff upper lip ". ) Every culture expresses anxiety differently; Grumbling might be theirs. Americans are notorious for having little tolerance for discomfort or inconvenience - A long line at Starbucks could ruin their their whole day!
Yey ..... the sky is faling ..... the world is at an end .....
Yet again ....
Geeeez dont people ever get tired of predicting doom and gloom? The biggest show on earth always has a few issues as it gets near to the start line ..... so whats new?
Troops have plugged the gap, the M4 will be back in use next week, the glitch at Heathrow sorted by this weekend.
Next end of the world prediction ? Answers on a PostCard to: Moaning Inc, LaLaLand, and can be dropped off at local Mental Institutions
Closing date for replies: after the Olympics.
Wait a minute.
British have been lecturing too much others about democracy, freedom, human rights, fairness and so on.
Now by by having soldiers and security staff all over, what are they doing?
Have they not changed Olympic games to some war exercise games?
Before lecturing others, British should set examples and not by double standards.
No it's not a war game. It's is an illustration of what happens when your country neglects fiscal responsibility and binds itself to extravagance.
If they would have hosted the 2004 Olympics then they could just use the credit card to pay for all the workers and materials they needed.
Jonathan, After scanning your comment, images of "The Thinker" came to mind. I'll try and make this real simple for you......first, try to imagine the Olympic Games being held in New York City, or say Chicago....how about LA, Houston or Atlanta. With that big brain pan, can you speculate on security and logistics alone? Next, who again, holds the floor regarding so called "democracy, freedom, human rights, fairness, and so on" ? Nonsense. Where is the gratitude, understanding and respect our British allies deserve. This "British bashing" from you and others on this thread displays an ignorance that's disconcerting and shameful to those who do it.
XPW4: Sorry for being too blunt! You people have crossed all limits in double standards, lies and hoaxes.
Hope you remember the case of Abu Qatada, a convicted terrorist wanted in his native Jordan.
Please explain the damages he has done to Britain and others.
Do you remember the lectures from British before Iraqi wars?
In Iraq, you people had underhand dealing with Shiites Sadar group in Basra region and hiding in tents while the US forces were battling insurgents.
Iraqi govt asked you people to get out at the first opportunity.
At least, hope your memory is not short lived.
What business you people have in Syria and Iran? Who gave you people right to act the way you people have been doing in Syria and Iran?
What right do you people have to shelter to the criminals of the Syrian Human Rights Observatory and then permit them and blow their lies with trumpets?
Do likes of you imagine that you are still ruling in British empire?
There should be limits to double standards, hoaxes in the name of democracy, human rights and others nonsense only you British can invent when required.
Again, let me apologise Sir for being too blunt! Long live Her Majesty!!!!
Jonathan, lol an American complaining about double standards and lies used by another nations, oh that’s a good one, kind of reminds me of that old saying, oh how does it go? Oh yeah “a case of the Pot calling the Kettle black” lol
Jonathan, "You People"...that's choice. Are we feeling a bit hypocritical this morning.....or is it all the time? Double standards? LOL......Your banter reminds me of a ridiculous, thumb sucking, volatile, never ending, old argument ( I once heard ) between a Hebrew speaking Bedouin, two Israelis, a Christian Arab, and a Muslim Arab stuck together in a desert taxi to nowhereville. Good Luck. Where does it get you? "No you guys did this to us, no you guys did this to us....no this is ours.....no it's not, it's ours". "Our god's better than your god, our god's better than yours....our god's better 'cause he eats kennel ration.....our dog's better than....." I hope you get the rest. BTW Jonathan, I am not British, per your assumption. Regardless of what you believe, and you must know this, that the masses, regardless of their country's governing powers, have little to do with their internal workings. Salam
XPW4: Look here! I am not too religious minded. I regard religion as opium of masses.
But many followers of Islam are marching so much backwards that they have become most intolerant of non-Muslims and their own sect people.
Unfortunate part of followers of Islamic cult are that they don't oppose the intolerance and fast sliding back of Muslims being done by the Sunni (the biggest culprits) Mullahs, Islamic scholars and others.
When most don't care for religion much these days, followers of Islamic cult, especially Sunni Saudi inspired Islamic radicals and militants (al-Qaida, Taliban, Salaffi, Wahhabi, MB and other label ones), are fast marching backwards to their seventh century desert tribal days of rapings, lootings, killings and genocides of non-Muslims.
We see Muslims inventing problems in most of the non-Muslim nations.
Even in the US, we can notice these actions!
See the mess in Britain and other European nations.
When Muslims form more than five percent, downhill march starts.
Muslims are inventing problems Thailand, Philippines, India and other places.
When they form more than 30 percent then it is Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Lebanon (few decades back)
In Muslim majority nations, they kill each other!
Better wake up before it is too late on inventions of problems by followers of Islamic cult!
Jonathan, Yeah? So what would be your solution regarding these issues?
XPW4: Muslims in non-Muslim nations have become liabilities. Polls in most nations indicate them.
As a first step, kick out trouble inventing Muslims from non-Muslim nations. Start from illegal immigrants in the US, Britain, European nations and others.
At least fifty percent of problems will be solved.
Jonathan, Yeah? Well, not only does that sound ridiculous, it's also very naive fella. Hate mongering and exclusion don't bring people together, obviously.....they only create more chaos. Umm, keep fishing?
troops everywhere ???? good , let's have a littlt civility here !!!!!!!!
Queue up .... arms at your sides .... eyes straight ahead.
It's in case there's a riot if the London Silly Nannies lose.
Where are freedom and human rights if I have to be checked up for security at every stage?
Is it not insulting to law abiding citizens?
Jonathan, Have you ever flown on an airliner from the US lately? There are no explanations, it appears, that would make sense to you. How are "law abiding citizens" discerned? Anyway, there are lots of people out there working hard, at their own risk, to protect your simp butt........just as the British are doing their best to manage the Olympic Games.
XPW4: I have better business to do then visit your Britain! Who wants suspicious looks all around?
You can go to hell with your simp butt or at least gaurd the butts of those in Royal Palace!
Jonathan, Sharmoot....Habibi, LOL, I'm not British. However, I'd be proud if I was. There you are, throwing stones. And, suspicious looks? Hmmm......that sounds awfully dubious Sadiqii.......LOL. Get a grip and calm down. "Go to Hell" you tell me? Geez, I thought we were already there.
XPW4: I am not in hell.
You appear to be in your own hell hole. So you imagine too many things and post nonsense.
You are only getting back what you are giving. Some times, you will get back with compound interest.
Jonathan, Hello there. Appearances can be deceiving yeah? And, your aforementioned assumptions are just that....conjecture. My statement regarding "hell" was meant to be sarcastic Biddy Boop. LOL. Can't you see when you are being spoon fed from all directions, Mr. Monitor? Sorry that you're so upset Jon. Hey, what about those Olympics? Take it easy, really.
XPW4: I am open minded.
I can understand likes of you well. As a writer, I can read between lines very well.
You people imagine that others have IQs and meanness of your levels.
A society that spends billions to worship a royal family has issues far beyond the trivialities of the Olympic games.
Read the text of the Declaration of Independence. Most of the accusations there still apply to the British citizenry.
Idiot
ageed, a f*ckin idiot!!
Bloody fool.
Rule Britania, the Olympics will be great!!!
Yeah you're right. How much have we spent on the Obama's over the past three years.
Bloody wanker! Lol. I don't even know what that means.
And how much was spent on the Shrub -- I mean W and his family during his eight years? Hell, how much is STILL being spent on that worthless piece of ^%@$?
Spends Billions .... what a load of nonsense, usual blether and ignorance on Royal Finance.
350 years ago the Crown Estate was gifted to Parliament in perpetuity in return for an annual stipend. That Estate currently has a turnover of £8Billion a year, netting a £300million profit for the treasury after costs, donations to charity amounting to several hundred £million.
..... and the cost of (all) of the Royal Family ..... paid for from that lot? ..... £58 million.
Sounds like a good deal to me...... as returns on Investments go, many Corporations on Wall Street would love those numbers.
Anyway, back to topic. The issues are pretty well resolved, all will be well as it usually is. There will be other issues crop up - of course - its a massive undertaking. But we'll enjoy ourselves despite the professional moaners who set low standards and fail to achieve them.
Spend Billions? Over how many centuries?
Can't wait for John Cleese and the twit races.
I really want those to happen...we'll get right on it.
Maybe they could include "How not to be seen" as a new event.
Alastair -
Thanks for a well-written story, lacking in grammatical and syntactical errors!
The ministry of silly walks is bound to take a few medals and hide and seek will be a close call between the canadiens and the brit's. It will depend on the relative time of the day (beer hour in canada and the time difference between the two nations will play a big part)
All right! Stop that, stop that! This thread is entirely too silly. Now for something military.
.
I am glad Chicago lost their bid for the Olympics. At least this turmoil won't happen in my backyard...
God knows you have enough "turmoil" with just your present population and neighbors.
No kidding. I don't know why any city would want to host this gigantic pain in the butt.
Too many thugs in Chi town
I find it interesting that there are so many negative comments about the British.
You people didn't object when when Tony Blair declared the British would stand shoulder to shoulder with you after 9/11. And it is useful to note that British troops are still shoulder to shoulder with you, being maimed and killed 11 years on.
Clearly the Obama train of thought 'everything British is evil' has permeated far deeper into the American consciousness than one could have believed.
Hey, I love Shaun of the Dead, I don't think Brits are evil. Just ambitious and misunderstood.......like Germany...............I love ya man.
I'm not aware of a "Obama train of thought 'everything British is evil'
I consider the Brits to be friends and allies, but they are still whiny wankers, or if you prefer, in the tradition of warring bankers, "Pining Wussies".
And the American people on these blogs aren't whiners?
I am astounded at the British bashing on this thread. Is that how we treat our Allies? And, who are the "moaners" and "cry babies"? Ya Bloody Wankers........
XPW4
Bloody Wankers? Lol I say old bean that’s rather harsh don’t you think? Toodlepip lol
Losmuertos, Yeah it's harsh, and well deserved. And anyone who don't like it, Hmmmm.... can "kiss my grits" ! Lol......Cheerio
Just another opinion How did you manage to come up with that opinion after reading 10-13 comments and blast Obama? The comments, mine included, are that because of the threat of Muslim terriost's the expenses and security required drains a city and country of it's resources for 3 weeks of sports. Very few of the athletes are household names so do not carry wide supporters. Then we are suppose to be robots, and gush at the television screen, amazed at the events.
It seems the British are following the unfortunate American example in their over-built, glacial response to the threat of terror. They are going to find it very costly. In the U.S., the budget for Homeland Security alone has amounted to half a Trillion dollars in the past decade, and that's not including the budgets for the TSA and all the redundant intelligence gathering organizations plus the losses to commercial travel through needless delays. Without firing a shot on American soil since 11 September 2001, Islamic militants, and our own overblown responses to them, have cost the U.S. dearly.
Agreed,
But there are many more of the bad guys in the UK.
Exactly Phil. This is where $1/2 to 1 Trillion of the spending went that Republicans like to throw in his face. $2-3 Trillion is the Military ventures and bases all over the planet including the USA. Almost $1 trillion at Ft Benning, Ga and Ft Knox, Ky alone. Someone do a check just on military spending in the Pacific rim nations from 2008 to present. count the money. In the USA a three week Olympic venue would probably cost $1 trillion from start (building) to End (removing buildings not wanted).
Unarmed security guards, totally worthless. These guys are just ticket takers.
If they were French, it would be, "Let them eat cake!"
So, how many years have they had to prepare for this? Nothing like waiting 'til it's too late before starting to get organized. With this kind of publicity, they may not have a big enough crowd to justify the effort.
I am shure my Brother will whine and he lives in Cornwall.
I heard the queen (lower case, of course) has agreed to enter the 9-trillion-metre wheelchair race in the paralympics. It's a special event with no time limit, just to get the silver-spoon parasite frump out of the bloody country for a hell of a long time, sometimes known as forever. Actually, 2 million security men will be running alongside her, passing food, water, pills, and changing her waste pail, so they'll be gone for good, too. A successful olympics after all.
I see how this works now, Sponsorship and Monopoly means the same thing. So does this mean McDonald's can't take all charge cards only Visa? Athletes can't drink Gatorade because it's a Pepsi product and Coke is a sponsor? You can't use anything unless it is approved by one or more sponsors?
OK. now can anyone explain the difference between Sponsorship and Bribes? They sure sound like the same thing here!!! Or maybe it just looks like the same thing?
A bribe is what a merchant pays the IOC to have exclusive sponsorship rights to various product suppliers and services.
Larry----better PR campaigns. And written contracts.
Bringing in troops to fill security gaps. Makes since to me. Hope they kill a bunch of terrorist.
I am so glad my city (NYC) lost the games. My neighborhood was to have hosted the swimming events yet we can't even handle the crowds we have already within the city. Seems to me the summer games are a curse. Cities should focus on the winter games, smaller, more managable, less headaches for a city to deal with.
If British are whining because of long lines and strict security measures, they only need to look in the mirror and examine their immigration policies and why they feel unsafe in their own neighborhood.
So very glad that London has the Olympics and that NYC lost in their bid for this Olympics. Talk about a nightmare if the games were here in the metropolitan area of NYC/Northern NJ. I'll be happy with the normal amount of traffic and long lines that are just part of our every day.
The Olympics have become WAY too corporate and commercialized. There are too many events and they almost always lose money; too much pomp and circumstance and not enough about the athletic events themselves and the sportsmanship. Not to mention drug scandlas and payoffs for the IOC bigwigs.
Sad really, i used to enjoy the Olympics ....many years ago....
I feel sorry for the Brits. I hate sports, so to be inconvenienced by them is far worse than say a traffic jam caused by a major international arts or film festival. Sports focus on the wrong thing - brawn. Our 21st century world needs brains, not testosterone-laden morons capable of clubbing down dinosaurs.
No matter how much security you have in the olympics, there is always a way for just one person to have grenades tied to his body. the brits are going way to far in providing security.
Odd, complaining is so very un-British don't you know?
elk bull, I dislike social generalizations, especially when it comes to that of those Americans who wallow, bitch and criticise constantly.......but hey, that's a stereotype, isn't it? "Odd" how that works, yeah?
I think I'll personally boycott McDonalds now....I can't believe a multi-million dollar corporation is being such an ass about fries. Actually, as far as marketing this little incident could be pretty detrimental. We are all tired of the big guys sh*tting on the little guys and this is one of the worst I have heard about.
Whining Brits may have to settle for Silver...the OWS crowd in LA and across the nation is coming on strong!