G4S are ........................

So how did the last x number of Olympics manage it ?

(perhaps with the caveat that we should ignore Beijing here due to their.....'ways of working' )

Surely Barcelona, Atlanta, Athens and Sydney had similar problems ?

...great at recruitment - apparently

.....crap at planning

Dave The Ex- Spartan wrote (see)

You do need a CRB check and an SC check though

Really? SC level clearance to be a security guard? Sounds a bit extreme

Dicky M wrote (see)

So how did the last x number of Olympics manage it ?

(perhaps with the caveat that we should ignore Beijing here due to their.....'ways of working' )

Surely Barcelona, Atlanta, Athens and Sydney had similar problems ?

 

All pre 9/11, so different ball game, in the eyes of most people from the US terrorism did not exist before that.

How about Athens?  That was 2004.

Not in the yank's pocket like we are/were...not a target

sorry meant to say not as much a target as this country is, look how far things have gone in 8 years since 04

Surely though, since Munich every Olympics has been highly protected?

And wasn't there an attempt to blow something up at the Atlanta games?

G4S will be providing staff to numerous police forces across the country if Theresa May has her way, privatisation is cheaper according to her. The police and Army are too costy !!! yet when the chips are down who do they run to. If the police and Army cuts continue then eventually they will not be able to deal with future riots and large scale disorder. We will have to call for G4S to help out, looking at some of the guards they will not turn up for work !!!

bos1 wrote (see)

JF50 wrote (see)

bos1 wrote (see)

Privatisation doesnt always work, expecially if you debilitate the state's ability to act as a back up.

Bunch of companies are making money hand over fist from outsourcing. Olympics security is more visible as a cock up than many of the other cock ups that we will pay for (eg PFI)

Not sure I can see the logic, G4S under any name they have used have never been anything other than a private company

Privatisation is not simply about a govt owned company becoming a private company. There is a question about what things it is appropriate for a government to do and what can be done in the private sector. Supporters of privatisation start with the assumption that government does things less well than than the private sector. That is an assumption that might need tobe reassessed.
G4S do a lot of things that were prevously done by the state. In the area of law enforcement and security I would suggest we are all concerned that what should be deliverd, is delivred. Be that by the private sector or by the state.

You're confusing privatisation with outsourcing. Outsourcing makes sense for a lot of non-core activities for any business or government department, including things such as security and facilities management.

In the case of the Olympics I think the issue is really that recruiting a workforce of 10000 people for a short term contract is actually quite a big challenge whether you are public or private sector and has been royally f--ked up by G4S who haven't managed the situation well.  

....are about as good as we expect

...perpetrators of a humiliating shambles, as one MP was insistent the CEO repeat after him yesterday. 'Was it a humiliating shambles, yes or no?'

Quite why MPs at these enquiries (and BBC interviewers) get such a thrill out of getting their victims to use an exact form of words I cannot fathom. Looks like showboating to me. I'm not defending the CEO, but he knows their performance was cr*p, we know it was cr*p - what does it matter what words are used?

It's just a power thing, Doug.  Makes them look like plonkers.

Politicians are all on power trips anyway!

I agree with you Wilkie. Theres also the feeding frenzy which they can join in, and them being thankful that it isnt them who are being eaten... bit of playground bullying.

I don't understand why they haven't got this right. Prestige project, surely they'd give it 110% to ensure it was got perfect? Seemingly not.

They're silly to have made such a mess of it.