kevo
Well-known member
- Mar 8, 2008
- 9,801
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Olympics off to good start then...
- Thread starter kevo
- Start date
dadams2k11
ID10T Error
Its all a shambles. The stadium ain't even finished yet and they are reporting it is.
- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,630
Couldn't make it up? Probably wouldn't bother, more like, as it's such a non-story. So a couple of coaches are late, big deal. What about the other hundred or so that were fine?
Can't help feeling the newspapers are desperate to find something to pick holes in.
Can't help feeling the newspapers are desperate to find something to pick holes in.
You have it in a nutshell, Edna.
I was looking at the Telegraph website, which had devoted a page to "Olympic travel chaos" that was updating through the day. They seemed to be desperate to find failure and had people at Heathrow looking for it. I'm working at Heathrow right now (OK, I'm on a break) and I can report that as of 5 minutes ago the line in the immigration hall was ...er ...well there wasn't a line at all and it's been that way most of the day.
The press smell blood but they are going to have try a little harder to find any today. It's early days though.
Ninja Elephant
Doctor Elephant
- Feb 16, 2009
- 18,855
Precisely. We're supposed to slag everything off and be generally miserable about it.
Westdene Wonder
New member
Edna, I hope you are taking the security shambles with more concern.
- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,630
Not massively, to be honest. G4S have clearly screwed up big time, but then again the army are probably better trained and more up for it than a bunch of short-term contract security guards would have been anyway, so I suspect in the long run, the Games will be better off.
The Mail today ran a story about how cleaners at the Games are being housed in "slum conditions, ten to a room" (and also uses the same article to have a typical dig about how many cleaning jobs have gone to foreign workers, conveniently ignoring the fact that I doubt many Brits applied for a £6 per hour cleaning job). If you actually look at the photos, they look no worse than your average youth hostel dormitory accommodation, with bunk beds set up around the room. Admittedly, they are in portakabins, but presumably that was planned, and it's hardly a slum. Nobody was forced to stay there- presumably they opted to in the face of other, more expensive choices.
Vegas Seagull
New member
- Jul 10, 2009
- 7,782
As it's the busiest day in Heathrow's history & there are no queues why is it a regular immigration shambles when less busy?
grummitts gloves
New member
Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Police to sleep in 'boxes' during Olympic Games
Hmm.. Nice. Teresa May really hates the Police.
Hmm.. Nice. Teresa May really hates the Police.
This. The papers love the 'Stadium unready' stories. I can remember back to the seventies games and it was just the same then.
Now India and the Commonwealths did leave it a bit tight.
- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,630
Indeed. In fact, it seems to be a bit of a British media competition to slag off the preparations for every single major sporting event in history. Euro 2012? Bound to be full of overpriced stadiums, rip-off shysters, muggers and racists. Commonwealth Games in Delhi? Infrastructure falling apart. Athens Olympics? Won't be finished! They can't afford it! It'll be too hot! Beijing Olympics? The weather will be dreadful! The Chinese will be rude to everyone! It's style over substance! The food will be terrible and you'll all be spied on! South Africa World Cup? Everyone's going to get shot and hijacked!
Funny how all of these seemed, in the end, to go off without too many people getting mugged, murdered, raped, poisoned, spied on, queuing for weeks or falling through massive holes in the back of the stadiums. Amazing. I hate our press sometimes.
KZNSeagull
Well-known member
Yup! Same with every major sporting event - they have to report the negative and ignore the positive.
As has just been stated on Sky by the assistant editor of the Spectator, Brits are gold medal winners at moaning.
- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,630
Your statement re May might not be all that inaccurate, but equally, all that article shows is the outside of a few portakabins. We have no idea what they're like inside.
- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,630
Yep. With two years to go, I've already seen articles suggesting Rio is nowhere near finished for the 2014 World Cup and predicting catastrophe.
Perhaps we need a separate UK Media Olympic Doom-Watch thread, just so people know where to go for their daily dose of disaster.
The news channels almost sounded disappointed when the section of the M4 heading into London was re opened at the weekend. They were hoping it would still be closed today to add to the 'chaos' headlines.
The bus drivers not knowing the route or how to use their Sat Navs is pretty funny though. Such a shame it was the Aussies and Yanks too...
The bus drivers not knowing the route or how to use their Sat Navs is pretty funny though. Such a shame it was the Aussies and Yanks too...
- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,630
I could explain but I'd be sacked. Sorry.
KZNSeagull
Well-known member
What is sad though is that all the doom and gloom they report puts some people off from going. I know it had an effect on SA 2010. The good thing though is that tourism has gone up here now recently, possibly as nothing disastrous happened during the World Cup.