Olympics and Paralympics 2012 (and now the legacy-part one)

IT IS BEING SAID THAT BETTING SYNDICATES INTEND TO BRIDE OLYMPIC PARTIPICANTS(SP?) SO THOSE SYNDICATES(ESPECICALLY INDIA) CAN WIN MONEY.

Many Sports these days are tainted with corruption so it wouldn"t surprise me Badboy. Seb Coe was being interviewed yesterday on T.V. and it
appears that another £41 million is to be spent on "showcasing". He said a meeting last year with Business raised £700 million in sponsorship and that
visitors will increase revenue and even if it turns out to be a loss, the publicity for Britain is priceless.

I am waiting for the February 'swop shop' window to see if any more tickets can be got,but i have no intention of selling my 'Beach VolleyBall' tickets which are going to be worth Gold dust in a couple of months time when i may be open to offers !

Just on the News and a special unit has been set up to monitor and investigate. Apparently they are aware of huge bets being placed in India and other
Asian Countries and the entire competition could be jeopardised for the future as well if any Athlete suspects a rival in his particular Sport is not doing
his best.

Wev"e had Cricket, Snooker already tainted .....isn"t it a shame .

Apparently India, with more than half the population living in shacks below the poverty line, there are some very wealthy Indians who have stashed
2, trillion in various currencies in Swiss Banks.

Panda wrote:Just on the News and a special unit has been set up to monitor and investigate. Apparently they are aware of huge bets being placed in India and other
Asian Countries and the entire competition could be jeopardised for the future as well if any Athlete suspects a rival in his particular Sport is not doing
his best.

Wev"e had Cricket, Snooker already tainted .....isn"t it a shame .

Apparently India, with more than half the population living in shacks below the poverty line, there are some very wealthy Indians who have stashed
2, trillion in various currencies in Swiss Banks.

Mumbai is an Indian city with a very large population of beggars. There are people living on the streets, begging for food.

And there is a very wealthy man who has built a house in Mumbai costing £630 million!



Mukesh Ambani, has moved into his new home in Mumbai which is 27 storeys high and worth £630m Photo: CORBIS/AP


Ambani, his wife and three children have moved into the building which is named Antilia, after a mythical Island. It contains a health club with a gym and dance studio, at least one studio, a ballroom, guestrooms and a range of lounges and a 50 seater cinema.

There is even an elevated garden with ceiling space to accommodate small trees.

The roof has three helicopter pads and there is also underground parking for 160 cars, which will come in handy for guests at Ambani's forthcoming housewarming party.

From the top floors of the 173m high property are spectacular views of Mumbai and of the Arabian Sea.

The 53 year-old tycoon is not only the richest man in India but the fourth richest man in the world. In total there is reported to be 37,000 square metres of space, which is more than the Palace of Versailles.

Well he may be the richest man in India but he has no taste......that building looks like a pile of wooden crates stacked on top of each other.

Panda wrote:Well he may be the richest man in India but he has no taste......that building looks like a pile of wooden crates stacked on top of each other.

Or a stack of scrap metal and old freight containers. Planning laws must be very lax there to allow that blight on the landscape.

1:29am UK, Monday January 02, 2012



Rhiannon Mills, Sky News reporter






David Cameron has pledged to use the "global drama" of the
Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee to help get Britain back on
track.



In his New Year message the Prime Minister says: "This will be the year Britain sees the world and the world sees Britain.


"It must be the year we go for it - the year the Coalition government
I lead does everything it takes to get our country up to strength.


"The coming months will bring the global drama of the Olympics and
the glory of the Diamond Jubilee. Cameras and TV channels around the
planet will be recording these magnificent events.

I know that if we lift our eyes to the other side we have it in our power to come through this stronger.

David Cameron in New Year message









"It gives us an extraordinary incentive to look outward, look onwards
and to look our best: to feel pride in who we are and what - even in
these trying times - we can achieve."


But Mr Cameron also admits 2012 will be difficult and not everyone
will have reason to be cheerful. "Of course I know that there will be
many people... who are worried about what else the year might bring," he
says.


"There are fears about jobs and paying the bills. The search for work
has become difficult, particularly for young people. And rising prices
have hit household budgets. I get that.










Mr Cameron believes the Olympics will give Britain a huge lift



"We are taking action on both fronts. I know how difficult it will be to get through this. But I also know that we will."


As well as stressing the Government has "clear and strong plans" to
bring down the deficit, the Prime Minister also hints at a need to
curtail the excesses of the City and reform the welfare system.


He goes on: "I profoundly believe that we can turn these things
around. That's what I mean by the Big Society. The British people have
got what it takes - and the Government has got the ideas and policies we
need.


"As we welcome the world to the best Olympics ever - and as in the
60th year of her reign we honour our Queen as the finest and most famous
example of British dedication, British duty, British steadiness,
British tradition - let's use these things as a mirror of ourselves too,
a mirror of the nation.


"I know that if we lift our eyes to the other side we have it in our
power to come through this stronger, better balanced, focused on what
this fantastic country does best."







Recommended Stories
Family

The ticket resale site has come under criticism from people trying to get tickets




4:07pm UK, Friday January 06, 2012



Lia Hervey, Olympics producer






Olympic organisers have been forced to shut down the website
temporarily after tens of thousands logged on to get their hands on the
elusive tickets.


The Olympic ticket website opened for the public at 9am to sell back to the organisers tickets that they didn't want.


The one million people who were left disappointed by the ticket
ballot in spring this year saw it as their chance to get their hands on
tickets.


However, by 10am people were complaining that the system was not updating and that they were having problems.









Olympics Section

Venue Guide

Olympics History

Medal Guide









Tickets were sold so fast that they were unavailable before people had even got to the checkout stage.


At 1pm, the Games organisers were forced to admit that the computer
system was having problems and they would need to shut it down following
complaints from people trying to sell their tickets.


"We have had feedback that people selling tickets have had problems," a Locogspokesperson said.


"So we have decide to update and refresh the system. While we do this we will stop people selling their tickets."


Joe Pearce of Greenwich attempted to buy tickets.


"The purchase process is nearly as farcical as the original bidding one," he said.

Questions and answers on how to buy or resell unwanted Olympics tickets

"This time it says tickets are available, you add them to the basket
and check out - at which point it states none are available. Another
search then shows them as available.


"The going round in circles goes on and on, and this is for all the
tickets I tried. The support function is non-existent as is a simple FAQ
section."


Another man frustrated by the process, Greg Chrysthall from London
said: "I have been trying for an hour to get tickets and the experience
is terrible.


"I was searching and adding things to my shopping list thinking it
was like any other experience on the web where, once they are there, all
I need to do is checkout and it's done. This is not the case.


"You don't actually have the tickets reserved once they are in your shopping list.


"You then click checkout and, regardless of what tickets you choose
in any category, it makes you wait for three minutes and then tells you
there is no availability. Thus the whole process is extremely
frustrating."

I HEARD ABOUT THIS ON SKY NEWS?,ALL A MUDDLE TO ME,DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING ETC

Just like everything else in this country, the odds of obtaining a ticket of your choice is stacked against the ordinary man. The most despotic dictator of a third world terrorist state is more likely to get ringside seats of the final of his choice with drinks and dancing girls thrown in, than the average man in the street get a back row seat in one of the the camel strangling heats.

We must learn to face it... these games are not simply 'The Olympic Games' where one nation's athletes compete with others for medals and are cheered on by their fellow countrymen. These are venues where international big business consortium's are paid huge amounts of public money to erect structures which are of little or no value to the economy and fleece the spectators at high priced hotels and shopping malls. The tickets, despite Seb Coe's obvious enthusiasm and dedication, I think the 2012 Olympiad will be just another scam.

GB suffer Olympic agony


Agony for Great Britain's rhythmic gymnasts as they miss out on Olympics


Last Updated: January 17, 2012 6:26pm

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Great Britain: Narrowily missed out on Olympic spot





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Great Britain's rhythmic gymnasts fell
agonisingly short of their target score at the test event in London
meaning they missed out on grabbing a place at the Olympics.


The team of Jade Faulkner, Francesca Fox, Lynne Hutchison, Louisa
Pouli, Rachel Smith and Georgina Cassar needed a score of 45.223 but
missed out by just 0.273.

The benchmark was set for them to get a host nation place at London
2012, but that was totally dependent on them achieving that score at the
North Greenwich arena.

British Gymnastics will now not be submitting a nomination to the
British Olympic Association for the rhythmic gymnastics team to be given
a place at London 2012.

Early errors with the hoop and a knot in a ribbon caused problems in
the routine but Cassar tried to fight back her disappointment to insist
they would be back.

Gutted

"We're definitely gutted," Cassar said. "This isn't
going to be the end of us. We've worked so hard for this. We can be so
much better. We were 0.2 off the mark we needed.

"We're going to fight for it because we know it's far from our best routine and for us this isn't the end."

An emotional British gymnastics Olympic performance director Tim
Jones confirmed the news that they would now not be achieving their
London 2012 dream.

"We've gone through a long process with the British Olympic
Association which started in May last year," Jones said. "We were hoping
to use a host nation place and we agreed at that point in time that we
would set a standard benchmark score.

"That score had to be achieved in qualification competition so our
situation is that we will not be nominating a group to the BOA to be in
the Olympic team for summer this year. We've got a very clear process
and policy in place and there's no recourse on that.

Benchmark

"The benchmark was designed to do two things - to
show they would have a level of credible performance and the second
thing was that we would have a legacy for the future to push the sport
forward.

"I think the girls have done a terrific job of raising their game and
I think we're starting to show we can begin to compete in the group
event but unfortunately this time they didn't achieve the benchmark we'd
hoped for."

The disappointment comes after an otherwise impressive performance by
Britain at the test event, after the men's artistic team of Louis
Smith, Daniel Keatings, Daniel Purvis, Max Whitlock, Kristian Thomas and
Ruslan Panteleymonov sealed the first full berth for GB at an Olympic
Games last week.

The women's artistic team had already qualified a full quota for
London 2012 at the World Championships in Tokyo last October and British
champion Kat Driscoll has secured a place for GB's women in the
trampoline competition.

Britain's only representative in the individual all-around rhythmic
competition was Francesca Jones, the highest-ranked Briton at last
year's world championships in Montpellier, whose host nation place at
the Games still needs to be ratified by the BOA.

The five-time British champion finished in 25th and last place with
Russia's Daria Kondakova leading the way and qualifying for the final in
first place with a combined score of 109.475.

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Related

Inquiry Into Olympic Toy Factory Conditions

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Replicas of mascots Wenlock and Mandeville are being made
at a factory in China


5:28am UK, Sunday January 22, 2012


An investigation is under way into claims that some Olympic mascot toys are
being made by workers suffering poor conditions in a Chinese factory.


Cuddly replicas of Wenlock and Mandeville - the official mascots of the
Olympics and Paralympics - are being made by a firm called Golden Bear,
headquartered in Telford, Shropshire.

But there have been allegations that workers in China, where some of the
bears are manufactured, are being paid as little as 26p an hour - a breach of
workers' rights.

A London 2012 spokesman said it placed a high priority on "environmental,
social and ethical issues" when securing goods and services and was taking the
allegations "extremely seriously".





He said: "We have asked our independent monitor to carry out a comprehensive
investigation and review of these allegations."

Golden Bear said it was also conducting an immediate investigation, but said
the factory in question had passed inspections by the International Council of
Toy Industries (Icti).

The company said: "Golden Bear is extremely concerned about recent reports
that a factory involved in a small amount of the production of the company's
Olympic product could be in breach of workers' rights.

"We are a family-run business that takes these issues very seriously indeed
and has in place certificates of compliance at all factories used to produce our
products."

Heaven forbid that anyone or any company should profit from the efforts of the worlds amateur sportsmen and women........

malena stool wrote:Heaven forbid that anyone or any company should profit from the efforts of the worlds amateur sportsmen and women........

You ARE joking of course malena.....isn"t that why every Country in the World relies on production from China, , I posted on World thread about China
being producer for other Countries and Exporter , all at the expense of slave labour.

Well i was waiting for the big 'Swop Shop' Resale to start so i could try again for Athletics events but as you know the 'Ticketbastard' site collapsed in an avalanche of incompetence (not for the first time has Ticketmaster fck'd up).
So now they think all that will be sorted by April when any 'resale' and about a million tickets held aside will go on sale,but only to those who have no tickets yet,which means i shall be excluded as i got two tickets for the Beach Volley ball,which i am looking forward to especially if i got the Brazilian girls match,but i really wanted Athletics tickets which now looks unlikely.

The whole ticket sales business has been a shambles i have to say.

When i wanted tickets for the 2004 cup final i just had to go queue up for ages in a ten mile long queue,but at least you knew thats what you had to do,so you make the effort and get what you want.That was an event which was well oversubscribed as well but what is wrong with first come first served ?

Lioned wrote:Well i was waiting for the big 'Swop Shop' Resale to start so i could try again for Athletics events but as you know the 'Ticketbastard' site collapsed in an avalanche of incompetence (not for the first time has Ticketmaster fck'd up).
So now they think all that will be sorted by April when any 'resale' and about a million tickets held aside will go on sale,but only to those who have no tickets yet,which means i shall be excluded as i got two tickets for the Beach Volley ball,which i am looking forward to especially if i got the Brazilian girls match,but i really wanted Athletics tickets which now looks unlikely.

The whole ticket sales business has been a shambles i have to say.

When i wanted tickets for the 2004 cup final i just had to go queue up for ages in a ten mile long queue,but at least you knew thats what you had to do,so you make the effort and get what you want.That was an event which was well oversubscribed as well but what is wrong with first come first served ?

Lioned I read somewhere that 730,000 tickets had been set aside for "Dignitaries.', how many do you think were set aside for ticket touts who would pay over the face value knowing they would make a huge profit.

THERE IS A ROW ABOUT CHEAP LABOUR BEING USED TO PRODUCE OLYMPIC MASCOTS,MIGHT HAVE ALREADY BEEN MENTIONED.

Badboy wrote:THERE IS A ROW ABOUT CHEAP LABOUR BEING USED TO PRODUCE OLYMPIC MASCOTS,MIGHT HAVE ALREADY BEEN MENTIONED.

It"s on the previous page Badboy

Panda wrote:Inquiry Into Olympic Toy Factory Conditions

• 0 Comments
  
• 
  
• 
  

Replicas of mascots Wenlock and Mandeville are being made
at a factory in China
5:28am UK, Sunday January 22, 2012


An investigation is under way into claims that some Olympic mascot toys are
being made by workers suffering poor conditions in a Chinese factory.


Cuddly replicas of Wenlock and Mandeville - the official mascots of the
Olympics and Paralympics - are being made by a firm called Golden Bear,
headquartered in Telford, Shropshire.

But there have been allegations that workers in China, where some of the
bears are manufactured, are being paid as little as 26p an hour - a breach of
workers' rights.

A London 2012 spokesman said it placed a high priority on "environmental,
social and ethical issues" when securing goods and services and was taking the
allegations "extremely seriously".





He said: "We have asked our independent monitor to carry out a comprehensive
investigation and review of these allegations."

Golden Bear said it was also conducting an immediate investigation, but said
the factory in question had passed inspections by the International Council of
Toy Industries (Icti).

The company said: "Golden Bear is extremely concerned about recent reports
that a factory involved in a small amount of the production of the company's
Olympic product could be in breach of workers' rights.

"We are a family-run business that takes these issues very seriously indeed
and has in place certificates of compliance at all factories used to produce our
products."

WORKERS PAID 26P PER DAY,WHO COULD HAVE IMAGINED THAT!

Panda wrote:

Badboy wrote:THERE IS A ROW ABOUT CHEAP LABOUR BEING USED TO PRODUCE OLYMPIC MASCOTS,MIGHT HAVE ALREADY BEEN MENTIONED.

It"s on the previous page Badboy

FOUND IT

Olympic Finance Investigations - A New Olympic Sport?

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Today we've announced our findings into the true cost of the Olympic Games.
To
say this has been like drowning in mud is an understatement. For three
months the two of us have been asking questions, submitting freedom of
information requests, reading through lengthy reports, asking questions,
meeting sources and generally mashing our brains with figures.
This
figure today is only a start. There are numerous other Olympic spends
that have not yet been discovered or counted by us. These figures are
not always being offered up and requests are being evaded. Some figures
have been left out of our total as we continue to dispute with the
relevant body whether it's in or outside the current £9.3bn public
sector funding package.
The Taxpayers Alliance told us they'd tried to do the same investigation and had given up as it was just too difficult.
The
amount of "coffee and a chat" we've been offered instead of an answer
to our question would keep us in caffeine until way after the Olympic's
in Rio in 2016 (and so energetic it would help us find new stories - so
be warned).
The other option is a one way conversation - someone
talking at you for around 45 minutes without once answering the question
put to them.
There is the complaint that we haven't given them
enough notice to get these figures together. Well we managed to find the
information and we don't have access to the information so why is it so
hard for a public body to find it? Also they've had seven years to
collate this information ready for questions like these.
Or my
personal favourite and most common - a straight forward denial that it's
anything to do with the Olympics and that the money would be spent
money anyway whilst trying to tell you it's really quite negative to be
doing stories like this.
In fact we've had so much phone
jockeying, dragging out the facts and arguing with public bodies that it
feels like a new Olympic sport (maybe we'll get some extra funding).
We haven't looked into these figures to take a view about the Olympics or to be negative as some may believe.
When
a question stares a journalist in the face, it's our role and desire to
find the answer despite the seemingly impossible obstacles. When we
questioned our knowledge, the most glaring question of all and it one
was one that nobody had yet answered: What was the true cost of London
hosting the 2012 Games and is it value for money?
Our figures
today don't and can't make that assessment. What it can do is make sure
the information is in the public domain, in an accessible form so that
the taxpayer can judge it for themselves.
And that's a judgement that can't be made just yet. We just don't know what the rewards will be.

[email=olympics@bskyb.com][/email]

What Are We Getting Back For The Big Olympic Spend?

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Lia Hervey

January 26, 2012 6:43 AM

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What are we getting back for the big Olympic spend?
* ECONOMY: In a speech Boris Johnson made on December 12th 2011 (London Policy Conference) Visa estimates an Olympic consumer boost of $1.2 billion in 2012, and $18 billion up to 2018 across the UK
* JOBS: 46,000 people have worked on the Park and Village since work started in 2006.
The
Legacy Communities Scheme planning application outlines the creation of
around 8,000 jobs on the Park over the next 20 years with a further
2,000 construction jobs.
* SPORT: More people are
running, boxing and playing table tennis. But swimming and tennis
dropped dramatically despite increase in funding.
* TAXES: Business taxes from new business coming into the area
* LEGACY:
We won the bid to host the 2012 World Athletics Championships in the
Olympic Stadium which will provide an athletics legacy and a boost to
the economy
* NATIONAL PRIDE: We have a target of becoming fourth of the medal table at the Olympics.
* TOURISM: The
European Tour Operators Assoc said they expected a 95% downturn during
the Games which seems to have happened at previous Olympic Games.
Non-Olympic visitors stay away for the entire year as they fear a city
to be crowded and expensive. As yet we don't know what the impact on
tourism will be. There's a 60% reduction in bookings for July and August
and a 20% decline for the rest of 2012. (source: European Tour
Operators Association)
* But the governments says their "GREAT"
tourism campaign is expected to generate £2bn in additional tourist
spend, over £1bn in trade and investment and creating 50,000 jobs
*
Domestic tourism campaign offering 20.12% discount to encourage
'staycations' is expected to generate £500m of visitor spend and create
12,500 new jobs.
* Opening and Closing ceremonies are expected to deliver equivalent advertising value of up £5billion.
* TRANSPORT: Upgrades
and improvements within Westminster will make it a nicer place to live
for Londoners and for tourists visiting the city, which could create
economic benefits.
There have also been significant improvements
to the area's transport infrastructure including: £125m upgrade to
Stratford Regional Station, £107m contribution to the North London Line
project and over £80m on DLR projects such as the line extension and new
railcars.
* HOMES: 8000 new homes to be built on
the Olympic Park. The athletes village in the Olympic Park will be
turned into 2,800 homes after the Games.
* FACILITIES:
Five world class sporting venues including eg the velodrome, the
stadium and the aquatics centre including open spaces and parks.
COMMUNITY: Three
new schools, nine nurseries, three health centres, 12 multipurpose
community spaces and 29 playgrounds. (This is in addition to Chobham
Academy school)
The Press and Broadcast Centre will be the main commercial hub of the Park.
* BUSINESSES: 1,500
UK businesses won more the £6bn worth of contracts. Thousands of other
businesses have won contracts through the supply chains. Locog procuring
£750m worth of contracts
SHOPPING: £1.6bn investment in phase 1 of Westfield with a further £600m to come.











2012

olympics

I doubt that we, the general population will see anything Panda. Any returns on an investor's money will most likely go to off shore bank accounts.

THEY WERE SAYING ON CH4 NEWS,OLYMPIC COSTS ARE £12BILLION