Having just handed them, £54million (???) in management fees to, erm, manage, then I'd expect something a bit more tangible from them, especially as they left it until the very last minute to declare that they weren't up to the job, and in fact had one of their directors boasting the day before they admitted that they couldn't do the job, that in fact they could probably do the job twice over.



Having just spent the thick end of £10bn and built a whole new council estate with part of that money then yes, I'd expect the service workers to be provided with accomodation if they require it, presumably they are working unsocial hours and its fairly commonplace for service providers in the hospitality business to be offered accomodation in unsocial circumstances - on the otherhand they are "only cleaners" and should be happy with their lot sleeping under Westminster Bridge.




Yes, I am surprised after seven years of politicians of all colours reminding us at every opportunity that these Games will offer a massive economic boost, then again I believed NatWest when they said that their ISA's would reward me three times over, they were effing liars too.

I assume you'll be boycotting the Olympics in their entirety then? You'll be protesting outside the cleaners' portacabins instead?



Because if you enjoy any moment of the Olympics, visit an event, buy some food or drink on site - you're a sell-out. A cheap hypocritical sell-out.

Time you grew up and moved past the rebellious-without-a-cause stage - big events like these move in corporate circles and depend almost entirely on corporate billions, like it or not.

Forking out those billions gives those corporates rights associated with the event, like it or not. And by having sold the right for corporates to associate themselves with their event, the IOC have a duty to protect their sponsors' investment by protecting their brand. Like it or not.

I for one am looking forward to the games, and I'll be doing my best to ignore the banal negativity such as "coach a bit lost on way to olympic village" making headline news.

Phew.......... I thought it was going to say "Oylmpic Torch Beaver"

No argument from me. Like I said, throw the book at them and kick them in the financials. And move on.


That's right, spending tens of millions more building nice shiny accommodation blocks to put up cleaners for a few weeks would make more sense,

And yes, they have been provided with accommodation and adequate facilities. They're just not up to the standards some demand. For some reason people expect similar accommodation as the athletes.


You're not daft. You know how politicians operate and you know to take their 'promises' with a pinch of salt. And not many (most?) previous modern-day Olympics have delivered a massive and long-lasting economic boost to their host countries, have they?

Odd how half of the threads on the sin-bin exist solely to tear apart political promises and statements, yet when it comes to the Olympic effect suddenly everyone believed every word that was said?

Congratulations, I earlier accused Locog of being eager to fellate a mile-long corporate cock, you've outdone them.

WTF should anyone have to endure cramped, unsanitary and degrading living conditions, simply to clean for a sporting event? They're minimum-waged, they are also being charged for this accommodation. Why should all the rules regarding safe habitation be suspended, just so someone can make more money?

If Adidas want to ensure that their trainers are the only ones seen on the feet of the local kids involved in the opening ceremony, why didn't they GIVE the kids Adidas trainers? They get kids to make them for pennies, so it's not like they'd be in danger of bankrupting themselves is it?

Go back to sucking big-business cocks

That is the same pi[is[/is-stupid comment that Louise Mensch tried to make about the Occupy protests. Apparently, if you drink coffee, you can't be anti-capitalism. Not that Occupy have stated that they are anti-capitalist.

Complete and total bollox:

From that well known left-wing rag [url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/9402487/London-2012-Olympics-Games-cleaners-forced-to-share-shower-with-75-others-in-prison-camp-conditions.htmlThe Torygraph[/url

Indeed the site has been flooded and stagnant water lies on the ground, meaning the workers have had to resort to using old crates as makeshift ‘stepping stones’ to navigate through the camp site, it has been claimed.

Additionally the workers will apparentlyl bed down in dormitories for 10 and share lavatories with 25 people – and a shower with a staggering 75 others.

The Daily Mail article reports that when the workers arrived they were horrified to be told that there would be no work for them in the first fortnight, and that they were forced to pay the cleaning company £18 every day – £550 a month – for the accommodation in the crowded cabins.

If you consider the above to be "adequate facilities" then you're away with the fairies. Those facilities would fail almost any reasonable measure of adequate, apart from a Somali refugee camp.

Because, in the harsh realities of life, those working at the lower end of the scale don't enjoy the benefits of those at the top. They're in menial jobs paying probably minimum wage and I'm sorry, but it's a short-term temporary job - if you can't cope with sharing a room for a week or two, don't do it. The great cleaning staff crisis would slip nicely alongside the G4S drama.

I assume you have evidence health & safety rules have been ignored? Because whilst the accommodation is 'cramped', according to the contractor there are more than enough basins & toilets to adhere to H&S rules, and plenty of other facilities on-site such as internet, medical and entertainment.

As for the kids - they're not being told they MUST wear Adidas - they have the option of non-branded trainers. You can get them for about £2 from plenty of large high street outlets and well-known supermarkets. Not that I expect many kids today don't already own a pair of Adidas, so this is just another storm in a teacup.

I assume you will also be boycotting the game then? Sticking to your morals and having nothing to do with those nasty corporate monsters treading wantonly upon the poor and unassuming? Frankly, you're embarrassing in your naivety if you think the games don't need corporate sponsors. Go back to sucking post-op cocks.

Having a wife and a daughter who work in the hotel industry and are more than used to working unsocial hours then strangely enough I do expect them to be shown some consideration when it comes to the demands made of them in their jobs.

In fact its commonplace in the hotel/hospitality industry to be offered transport and accomodation, in the case of my daughter many of her shifts are something like "6pm to finish" which literally means when the last guest has left the bar and as they cater for between 2 and 4 weddings every weekend then that is often right through the night - in those circumstances she is entitled to claim one of the hotel rooms rather than try and arrange transport home, believe me, that is commonplace in that industry.

The athletes accomodation is no more than adequate, its of a Travel Lodge style and I would expect that ancillary and service staff would be offered similar if their duties required them to work late and be available early the next morning, as many will be.

What? Standing water following weeks of torrential rain? Who'da thunk it eh? What an outrage. You wouldn't find that anywhere else in the country, of course.

How many is acceptable, in your opinion, to be sharing a dorm? Eight? Six? Or is it two in a nice en-suite room at the Premier Inn or nothing?

But yes, you're correct. Queues of 25 people outside each toilet and 75 people squeezing under the shower each evening is unacceptable. But hang on - what about shifts? What about the fact demand will be spread throughout the day? Nor would the press exaggerate the numbers, of course. Suddenly the Daily Mail is a reputable and trusted publication it seems!

"SOME" workers arrived to no work and paid for a bed for a week or two until they were needed. Stop the fecking press, that's a national outrage.

Deary me today.

You don't need to tell me what's commonplace in the hotel industry, I've been there.

But that's a world apart from cleaners working 24-hour shift rotas on a very short-term contract and staying in temporary accommodation for a major sporting event. It's a basic temporary workers' camp, nothing more. It won't be glamorous and it won't be of the highest standard. People will share facilities. It's might not be up to our inflated standards but it serves purpose.

Right, so it's ok to participate and enjoy the Olympics as long as YOU know, in your own mind, that the whole thing is a corporate disgrace and the poor saps that constitute the majority of the viewing public are just gullible.

Half-hearted silent protests, that's the way.

The disgrace, as has already been pointed out, is the gulag-type conditions that these menials (whose welfare obviously means absolutely nothing to you0 have been presented with. Newham Council's own measure of overcrowding is more than two to a room. They have overlooked it on this occasion, just as they ignored the advice of their own environmental health officers that the accommodation and facilities would not be sufficient. This becomes even more pertinent when these people are being charged £18 a night for their "accommodation".

You are just the sort of self-ed, uncaring fool that this government aims their rhetoric at and you seem to swallow it all wholesale. I hope you remember your words of compassion when you, or your wife, come to fall back on the state because it probably won't exist when you need it most.

Good to read that LOCOG continues to carefully review it's contracts - they were reported as saying that had been assured by the cleaning company that all was fine (or words to that effect). Maybe the Committee members in the "Olypmic family" could share with the cleaners? After all family is family.

Nah, I'm just not a drama queen and your use of over-dramatic emotive terms such as 'gulag' or 'Somali refugee camp' is frankly laughable.

What you actually mean is the the council's definition of "households with over 1 person per room as overcrowded and those with over 1.5 per room as severely overcrowded". Workers in short-term contracts staying in a temporary workers' camp are a different matter. A couple of weeks bunking down and it's all over. Oh it'd be lovely to have private twin-bed en-suite accommodation for every cleaner but unfortunately we're not living in la-la land.

So let's recap. The rain has caused some problems, but that is passing. There are plenty of beds in shared dorms. There are enough facilities, certainly when bearing in mind the 24-hour shift patterns. Spotless International Services have already said the number of toilets and showers per person exceed requirements for temporary accommodation and that there are internet, medical and entertainment facilities on-site. Yes, it's crowded and as with shared facilities not everything will be perfect all of the time, but it's functional and from the pictures appears clean.

Yet despite all this, all of a sudden the Daily Mail is a respected and factual publication when it suits your agenda and their dramatic exaggerations based on interviews with a few disgruntled workers are suddenly to be taken as gospel.

I've already mentioned the £18 a night. "SOME" workers arrived before required and paid for a bed for a week or two. That's it. Not "all", but "some". No, not nice for those concerned. But don't let a good rant get in the way of facts.

And as a matter of fact my wife has a couple of chronic medical conditions and can't work so you don't need to preach. In fact we could both teach you a thing or two.

There's absolutely nothing I could learn from you

Same here: I have nothing to learn from Thatcher's children.

Don't worry, they're only below stairs workers and they're only there for a few weeks.

Do you think the deduction for accommodation will be pre or post tax ?

You don't? They have taught me the wrong way to run the country that is for certain.

Precisely the response I expected, and therein lies the problem - you think you know everything. No, you KNOW you know everything.

But I forgot. You used to drive wagons. You are the font of all knowledge. Get a lot of time to think behind the wheel, I guess.

Anyway, if you're so bothered by the plight of the poor cleaning staff sleeping in shared dorms (gasp) and sharing showers and toilets (shock) for a bit, what will you be doing about it? Bugger all, that's what.

Thatcher's children? If by that you mean I don't suffer fools or moaning lefties, call it what you like.

No-one is made to work at this sporting event, save as to those in uniformed public service.

Although there is some dispute as to the exact nature of the conditions, people could vote with their feet and look elsewhere for work. No civilian has to be there.

I am not a massive fan of the Olympics, but I think that some of the negativity surrounding it is quite simply laughable. Yes, there are huge moral issues what with sponsors blah blah blah, but Olympic bashing seems to be a whole sport of its own at the moment.

Thanks for that, whenever anyone points to those ten years of my working life, as if that's all I've ever done, then I know I'm dealing with an intellectual dwarf.

Possibly because its been one of the biggest public spending projects of at least the last decade, has spanned two shades of government and each has promoted it heavily and reminded us at every opportunity what a great event it will be and how its a chance to promote everything thats good about this country to the rest of the world.

I'm looking forward to the competitions (well some of them anyway), I'm really gald that the construction industry pulled out all the stops and delivered their projects on time as promised, but the bits where the current incumbents have tried to force their "private is best" dogma onto the scene has frankly been an outstanding failure for them - who seriously thinks that further privatisation of the police force is now still on the menu ?

And you were a car salesman. Forgot about that.

Whatever, it's spewed you out as a right little drama queen, desperately histrionic, frantically scouring the web for "scandals" and gleefully scurrying to break the news to the RL world, as if that makes a difference.

Sad, really. All bile & no bite.

Meanwhile, the majority are weary of the negative press and the constant sniping at anyone & everyone involved with the Olympics. The rest of the world us laughing at our petty press coverage. It's absolutely no surprise that such a massive event will have issues, but for feck's sake, just deal with what needs dealing with, get on with it and enjoy it. The positives far outweight the bickering.