Olympics

[jonb]

Sorry Jonb but isn't that simply re-stating your original assertion that people were sacked to make way for Olympic stewards (whether they were volunteers or not).

Please post some evidence for this because if it is true I may right to my MP about it - but I need a bit more than "someone on an internet forum said so".

Regards

Grimesy

No I am not saying anyone was sacked, but the stewards who would normally work at, for instance lords, which I know about, but there might have been others were not just taken on by the companies which ran the Olympic stewards. Which; and this is my opinion seems an odd decision because these are trained staff used to those venues and would seem ideal to use.
The next part of this is that the companies treated all applicants the same, so people who had no experience of stewarding had to work for free at the Jubilee which I suppose is arguable as to being fare, but if you were already a steward your experience was not assessed and you would also be expected to work for free at the jubilee. From the point of view of a person who works through every summer at lords this means that just to do their normal job at lords, they would have to work for free to do what they normally do while the Olympics was on. So my daughter who works at lords among others felt her job was taken away unless she did free work.

What I have asked my MP is why we are paying management fees to a firm which did not do the obvious thing and directly take on staff who were already working at those venues which were already in use, because these people would have the right experience to run the events well as and also knowledge of the particular venue, and it may have meant the army would not have to have been called in.

(I think there might be enough in the reports above that substantiates that question and it might be a good one for you to ask your MP if you are so inclined.)

Supposition, I want to say this, but I am not going to run round the web trying to validate it, but I think it is a point well worth thinking about. As far as I know I heard on the radio that G4S were still going to take their full management fee, but I have not heard anything spoken about it, since before the Olympics. It seems the media know the general mood is one of seeing the Olympics as being a success means that reporting the parts which failed would tarnish that general view, and these reports would not be welcomed. Similarly I haven't heard Anyone standing up and congratulating the army for the brilliant job they did stepping in at the last minute and saving the day. True I could have missed the reports, but it seems the shambles G4S left the Olympics in is and old story and now not worth reporting.

I am sorry I know I am told I should only state solid verifiable facts, but I think sometimes knowing other peoples superpositions, and eye witness reports as being useful. I would not like to see others treated the same as I have been by T and B, Just because a person has personal experience only does not make them a liar. True I will take what those witnesses say with a pinch of salt, but I also know sometimes witnesses are not far of a truth.