OLYMPIC CHAOS ON DAY ONE

The Olympics got off to a ...erm ... start today as the woeful incompetence of the organisers showed that what they said they could do in theory was a little less spectacular when it was put into practice.

First a bus carrying Australian and American athletes from Heathrow took four hours to get to London, because the driver got lost, and could use his sat nav. The they discovered that noone had added the Olympic village to the sat nav. Kerron Clement (US Gold Medal Hurdler), not surprisingly, tweeted: 'Um, so we've been lost on the road for 4 hrs. Not a good first impression London.'


Then they started charging people today to use the M4 and chaos ensued as drivers weren't sure whether the new VIP lanes were or were not in operation. Playing it safe (as the fines for straying into a lane above your station is £130 a time) cars tried to filter into the other lanes, and at one point the traffic jams were over 30 miles long.


At other places in London there was chaos because drivers were avoiding roads which were not restricted until next week, as apparently the signposting was not clear.

Then there was anger from an Australian married couple, Lauryn and Russell Mark, who have been told that they may not share a room in the Olympic village while they are competing as male and female accommodation is separate. This means that same sex couples may share facilities but heterosexuals cannot...unless they wish to book an hotel room (at god knows what profiteering price). They say that they have shared accommodation all over the world, but it appears that matron checks to make sure that there isn't any naughtiness in London. In a further blow to Australia, the Heathrow staff managed to lose the sailing team's sails... less than handy!

Bad news too for fans of Beach volleyball (why is that an Olympic sport). Girls who normally play the game in bikinis have been given special permission to wear shorts and t shirts because of the cold miserable weather. I'm guessing that many middle aged men with tickets for that event won't now bother turning up.


And of course, it wouldn't be an Olympic story without good old G4S making an appearance. Police and royal marines have been called in to take over from the company as large numbers of their new staff failed to show for work today. Probably doubtful of ever getting paid; possibly not informed of their start dates; who knows the reasons for the mess, but nine police forces have had to supply security for venues and marines are taking over at the centres in Weymouth and Portsmouth because fewer than 40% of Group Four staff turned up for duty.


In Manchester only 17 of the required 56 security guards turned up to guard the athletes' hotel.


And to cap it all, whilst heads may well roll at G4S, it's the kind of punishment for incompetence that I'd favour should I ever manage ever to be so cack-handed... It has been suggested that the chief executive, Nick Buckles, may leave with a golden goodbye of around £21 million. Not bad for making a fool of London, disrupting the armed forces and losing around £50 million for his company on the contract.

Some preliminary football matches from groups D and G are to be played in Glasgow, but demand for tickets has been so low that tens of thousands have had to be given away to children so that the stadium doesn't look empty.


I would hope that the ministers responsible for this mess lose their jobs in the re-shuffle, but frankly I doubt they will. 

THE REAL COSTS OF THE ROYALS TO BE CUT

We are often told that the cost of the royal family is a Civil List of around £45 million a year, and the royalist loyalist press work out that that is 67p per person per year, and gushingly implore us to rejoice at the value for money that we get.

But of course they never take into consideration the far larger added costs like the Duchy of Cornwall’s £16 million+ which could be used in Kernow for the benefits of the people, not the personal living expenses of Charles and Mrs Parker Bowles in addition to the grant in aid money that Charles and his “wife” get to perform their duties.

There is the expense of running and maintaining the Queen’s Flight, covered by the Ministry of War, ditto the royal train, charged to the Department of Transport, and the mother of them all, security.

For some reason, no one will tell us what the security costs are. Apparently it’s secret for reasons of security, as if terrorists could circumvent security if only they knew how much it cost.

The costs for this fall on the Home Office, the Metropolitan Police, the Foreign office and, of course, the local police forces all over the UK which have to mount massive security operations on every occasion when a member of the family is in their area.

I remember a few years ago that the Queen and Philip came to open a park in Dundee. I had never seen so many police in my life. I had no idea that there were so many. All over the park, everywhere as far as the eye could see, were uniformed police, and heaven only knows how many plain clothes officers were hidden in the crowd. The cost must have been enormous.

I remember too that many years ago, Alex Salmond criticised Charles and his then “partner”, Mrs Parker Bowles, for announcing that they were going to be at Crathie church on the Sunday of a weekend visit to Balmoral, only to change their minds at the last minute, meaning that a massive security operation, costing the Aberdeenshire police tens of thousands of pounds, had been mounted for nothing.

The overall cost of this must (spread across the country) be hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

There are massive costs of providing security for the Andrew sisters who contribute nothing to the life of the country. Fortunately this security has been a casualty of the policing cuts in England, and now it has been announced that Edward is to lose security on his 80+-roomed, £30 million mansion. He’s not happy about it, of course. His family will continue to enjoy security when they are in their royal apartments in London and elsewhere, and when on royal duties but not on their private home.

What always amazes about these people is that they seem to think that it is out of the question for them to pay for anything like this from their own pockets instead of sponging from the “hard pressed, hard working British Family”.

They are inordinately rich. Although they do now pay tax on their private incomes from farms on their estates and other enterprises, they do not pay inheritance tax and as such the fortunes that they have amassed over the years are left untouched. If they are so desperately afraid that someone will get in to their mansions, they should do what other people do and install a security system.

At their own expense.

Pics: DIY royal security. "Does one want some?"; Eddy and the snippy bitch will have to learn some self defence, or maybe just fork out for security themselves?

BRING BACK JACK.... OR ANYONE ELSE.... PLEASE.......

I read the excellent reports and observations from both Subrosa and Dean the Tory on First Minister’s Questions this week. Both made it clear that Iain Gray had been particularly pathetic this week, plumbing new depths for even him. So, ever eager for a laugh, I popped over to the BBC iplayer and watched the performance. All I can say is: you can always trust Subrosa and Dean to get it right.

Just because this is an independence and republican leaning blog, it does not mean that it does not take a serious view of the security of Scotland’s head of state. The question for debate today was mapping of footpaths close to the Queen’s private Scottish residence at Balmoral. It is reasonable that this question be investigated in the light of security issues; it is not right, of course, that the matter should simply be accepted without question.

Mr Gray, however, seems to have found that royal security is either close to his heart, or he imagines that it may do him some good electorally. And so, he wasted all his time at First Minister’s Questions on this subject. Just like nothing else of importance was happening in the country.

Mr Salmond, clearly forewarned that Mr Gray was likely to tackle the matter (having been on Radio this very morning talking about it), came to the chamber armed with all the facts of the matter and paperwork to support it. Rosanna Cunningham, the minister responsible, had done everything correctly. She had investigated the security concerns (not simply accepted them) and had ordered that offending footpaths not be mapped. Mr Salmond had the letters to prove it. It was an open and shut case. Most people would have retreated at this point, but Mr Gray went on and on asking the same question over and over again, and being humiliated more and more on each occasion.

Was he successful?

One way of judging a leader’s performance is the cheers and waving of paper, banging of desks and clapping of their supporters.... There was none for Gray. No one said a word, no one clapped, and no one banged on his desk. Faces were long. Gray was stuttering. On the other hand Mr Salmond was clapped and cheered. So, Salmond 5, Gray 0. Again!

Dean mentions the fact on his blog that the Government of Scotland deserves a decent opposition, and I would agree with that. But i would go further. The people of Scotland deserve a better opposition. This weekly display of amateur incompetence may make life easy for Alex, but it is an embarrassment for the people of Scotland. Gray should stand down and let a proper leader form a proper opposition.

.............