Quote:

---

British lawmakers tore into the chief executive of the security contractor that will be unable to deliver enough guards for the Olympic Games, forcing Nick Buckles to agree Tuesday that the fiasco is "a humiliating shambles."

Buckles, the chief executive of G4S, said the company should not have agreed to provide 10,400 guards for the Olympics, six days after the security giant admitted it could not do so.

"We regret signing the contract," Buckles said under pressure from lawmakers.

The company's failure forced the government to call in 3,500 military personnel to help, and will also require extra police to be deployed.

G4S has a £284 million ($444 million) government contract to provide security staff for the Olympic Games, but only 4,000 guards are trained and ready.

Buckles said there was a company "expectation" that 7,000 will be ready by the time the Games begin on July 27, although he called the exact number "a moving target."

Lawmakers appeared incredulous at the chief executive's assertion that G4S should still claim a £57 million ($89 million) management fee as part of the contract.

"Why?" demanded Keith Vaz, the chairman of Parliament's Home Affairs Committee. "You haven't managed." More at http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/17/sport/olympics-security/index.html?hpt=h
p_t1

---

Quote:

---

Police numbers at lowest for a decade

Number of police officers in England and Wales falls by 6,000 in a year as chief constable warns of 'cliff edge'

The total number of sworn police officers in the 43 forces in England and Wales has fallen by 4% from 142,363 in September 2010 to 136,261 in September 2011. Home Office statisticians say this is the lowest level recorded since 2002.Lots more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/26/police-numbers-lowest-for-dec
ade think, given the fact that Britain has had far more terrorist attacks than we have, reducing the police in other places would leave them even more vulnerable, dontcha think? I could be wrong...

And I don't know what they ARE going to do, since training people for that job in, what, two weeks or less?, is going to be damned tough, not to mention FINDING them! It's a major kerfuffle, and I'm worried for both Olympians and spectators.

Quote:

---

The British government will deploy an extra 1,200 troops for Olympics security, Sports Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced Tuesday.

The 1,200 military personnel come on top of 3,500 already called up specially this month after security contractor G4S said it would not be able to supply the number of guards it promised.

The new deployments bring the number of troops guarding the Olympics to 18,200, the government says.

---