How much is Adam getting paid for his Olympic job ?

Quote ="FoxyRhino"Rhinos blame YCC for the farce yesterday. Today YCC blame the Torch Relay officials www.therhinos.co.uk/news/19642.php It seems there's a buck passing relay going on as well'" Frankly, What a load of bollards .... - So the Olympic Officials told YCCC to not bother with the PA ? - So LOGOC turned down the opportunity to promote the games at perhaps the second biggest venue on the route that day (it was at Old Trafford, complete with Bobby Charlton on that Sunday morning) ... Yeah, right ! - Of course the officials ordered Yorkshire not to bother with the screen too If an 'Official' (Who ? How about name & shame ?) changed the order, I presume at the last moment, then why not announce to the crowd via the PA about the change ... Oh no, hang on. Interestingly, the YCCC website (which seems to have far more information than we were ever privy to) suggests the torch is only staying for a couple of moments. Likewise, the official torch route website shows more or less a straight line, so should we smell a whiff of cover up ? All the stewards were apparently briefed for a lap and given the 'short notice' change, how come there was a row of kids in place for at least 10 mins before it arrived ? It times like yesterday that you wished the 'lodgers' had gone off to Durkar when they had the chance ....

Quote ="FoxyRhino"Rhinos blame YCC for the farce yesterday. Today YCC blame the Torch Relay officials www.therhinos.co.uk/news/19642.php It seems there's a buck passing relay going on as well'" Frankly, What a load of bollards .... - So the Olympic Officials told YCCC to not bother with the PA ? - So LOGOC turned down the opportunity to promote the games at perhaps the second biggest venue on the route that day (it was at Old Trafford, complete with Bobby Charlton on that Sunday morning) ... Yeah, right ! - Of course the officials ordered Yorkshire not to bother with the screen too If an 'Official' (Who ? How about name & shame ?) changed the order, I presume at the last moment, then why not announce to the crowd via the PA about the change ... Oh no, hang on. Interestingly, the YCCC website (which seems to have far more information than we were ever privy to) suggests the torch is only staying for a couple of moments. Likewise, the official torch route website shows more or less a straight line, so should we smell a whiff of cover up ? All the stewards were apparently briefed for a lap and given the 'short notice' change, how come there was a row of kids in place for at least 10 mins before it arrived ? It times like yesterday that you wished the 'lodgers' had gone off to Durkar when they had the chance ....

I sent an e-mail on the LOCOG website asking them why the change was made? If I don't receive the standard non-answer that I expect to get, I will post it here

He's volunteering but his emplyers are one of the sponsors and he's getting paid leave.

Yep, and thousands like him are volunteering their time and effort for no remuneration, and good for him and them, seriously, they should be proud of themselves.

Good these Olympic jobs aren't they ?

If you're on Job Seekers Allowance will they stop you for 17 days because you're not available for work, doing your Olympic job and all ?

He is being remunerated. His emplyers are subsidising it.

I've no idea about Job Seekers Allowance, thankfully I've never had to claim benefits having always worked. I'm sure my taxes contribute a fair bit to said benefits so it's nice to see them being spent on a bit of sport for a change.

My employer has been kind enough to cover the cost of two return train tickets to London - 1 for training and 1 for the Games themselves (standard class of course). They have also provided 5 days additional paid leave. LOCOG have provided uniforms for all Games Makers, travelcards for when we are on shift and also meals during shifts.

Personally, I will be responsible for all accommodation in London and any other costs (food, travel on non-shift days). I will receive no remuneration for my time, nor would I expect to, as I knew it was a volunteering role when I applied. I will be working 11 days out of 15 at the Aquatics Centre and did it because I wanted to be part of the Games, simple as that.

There are 70,000 Games Makers volunteering during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, all doing it for nothing because they want to. During my training, I met volunteers from all over the UK in addition to some from France and Germany. There are also a significant number of people working for LOCOG and the other partners who are getting full remuneration.

As an aside, I hung around at Headingley for the Torch Tour with my eldest son who wanted to see it. Yes, it was a waste of time and a crappy apology from Yorkshire CC won't make up for such a disappointment. We did, however, head out to Morley today to see it and it was a great experience.

My Dad applied and hasn't heard either away about being a volunteer. Not even a courtesy e-mail saying he hasn't been accepted.

Wasn't that particular employer bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of £21,000,000,000 and now it's sponsoring the Olympics courtesy of it's taxpayers bailout obviously?

You couldn't make this up.

Well Bradford Bulls could do with £10 Billion and they would still make a loss.

Well done you, I noticed that you'd volunteered from your Facebook posts.

Gareth - these 70,000 jobs, are these the "real jobs" that you were talking about ?

Cheers McF. I'll let Gareth continue his debate with you on the 'real' jobs !

I am surprised that a man with your wealth of knowledge would be so misinformed with respect to this. The Olympic partner you would be referring to is Lloyds TSB and the employer bailed out was Lloyds Banking Group, the latter included the 'toxic' HBoS brand. Lloyds TSB was a partner to the Games well before the banking crisis. Just thought I'd clarify that for you Jeff

I suspect some of those "real jobs" may involve the forced transportation of many on JSA (under threat of losing their benefits if they don't) from all parts of the country to work as stewards at the Olympics for absolutely nothing.

Well, not quite for absolutely nothing... they'll get some work experience, a free plastic poncho just in case it rains, a pair of boots and they get to sleep outdoors under London Bridge for 17 nights. And if they are really fortunate, they'll gain an apprenticeship afterwards and be paid £2.80 an hour.

Well, I'm pleased that the Lloyds Banking Group bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of £21,000,000,000 sees fit to continue sponsoring the £10,000,000,000 (conservative estimate of real cost BTW) Olympics at the taxpayers expense.

Shame about the torch relay problems though. I'm sure Goebbels, Diem and Riefenstahl would be very disappointed that their very own Olympia torch relay legacy has been so shambolically organised this time around

The former (still current for ourselves) School Sport Partnerships and School Games areas, do not at all begrudge the Olympics and it's budget rather we have been using the Games as the back drop to most of our projects in the years leading up to the event. We went through the uncertainty of funding, devastation of cuts then rebuilding for 18 months and on the back of lobbying to save from 100% funding cessation, we are now honestly stronger than before, certainly from a point of view of what we can and are delivering. Funding gets drip fed nationally as areas with specific skills are asked to take the lead on county and national projects. As much as our initial upset with the decision all those months ago is remembered, we can now be more productive as we are allowed to be more independent not chasing national targets that were often irrelevant.

The fight from the SSPs and everyone associated has helped develop the School Games, a schools Olympic programme spanning education projects and competition at all levels accross all sports from football to fencing and wheelchair basketball. It does frustrate me when people say it will have no affect on people outside London, go have a look in your schools, I see it everyday!

You know, there is a really interesting statistic that places everything into context...

In 1948 London held its second Olympic Games and has entered folklore as "The Austerity Games", the government of the day accepting the invitation to host the games on the proviso that, in a country ravaged by war debt and with a huge infrastructure rebuilding plan to finance, no additional money would be provided for sporting facilities or indeed the hosting of the athletes - British athletes were even sent the cloth and told to make their own shorts and shirts.

In 1948 the NHS came into being and in its first year it had running costs of £248million, a figure which if adjusted for inflation [url=http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1633409/Historic-inflation-calculator-value-money-changed-1900.htmlnumber crunching provided here[/url is equivalent to £7.63billion in todays money.

So,

Lasting legacies then...

£7.6billion on a National Health Service for the next 64 years

£9.6billion on seventeen days of (sometimes) obscure sports

The lasting legacy for my part is the continuation of the School Games for many years to come, and the hundreds of thousands of children of all ages being inspired by the Games and being more active, also beneficial to the NHS in the long term.

Do we not see enough of football, rugby and cricket, so what there's obscure sports, people with a passion for sport have an interest in other games, how they're played and their athletes. And not only that but not everyone wants to watch or play the 'mainstream' sports mentioned, children and adults are being encouraged to be sporty and active though a growing variety in schools and clubs, again beneficial to the NHS.

This week is National School Sport Week, as a Partnership we will have over 1200 year 4s at 1 venue accross the week take part in sports including Athletics, handball, goal ball, hockey, volleyball amongst many others. Go and see what's actually going on, don't make flat judgments with less than half the figures.

Yeah, but one nice aspect is that they must be spinning in their graves with Seb Coe (Jewish) and people from many and varied ethnic groups carrying the torch nowadays.
Must admit I quite like that bit.

All well and good Seth,

But we already had such a provision in schools and can already make such a provision in schools without the need for a £10billion showcase - can't we ?

With universities churning out record numbers of degree level sports science graduates (in my day it was Leeds or Loughborough and thats your lot) then surely it doesn't take much imagination to put a sports teacher into each school dedicated to the principles that you describe - are we really saying that in order to do that we need to first host the Olympics, is that really why we are hosting the Olympics, to light some interest in sports among our schoolchildren, christ it would be cheaper to buy them all one-to-one tuition with David Beckham if thats the case.

The main objective according to that PWC report highlighted earlier seemed to be tourism.

I honestly cannot really comment on the 10bn cost, my budgeting decisions stop at £800 for a district event and the costs to run 2 global events for 205 nations and 300+ events, is not my strong point. What I do know is that the Beijing Games cost twice that and Sydney around 7bn. The cost per household per year is relatively very small for what will be an amazing occasion, could there have been a Bn or 2 shaved off the cost?..i don't know, probably, but if households are moaning about the budget, cut down on a couple of takeaways a year, a few beers or burgers that way the NHS will be happy too!!

For an event of such magnitude and importance watched by 4bn people around the world I'd say it's a pretty massive opportunity that needs to be done to perfection.

For those discussing it earlier there will be 200,000+ workers and 70,000 of these will be volunteers, and that's just at the games themselves.

Quit moaning, put your takeaway down,( yes the organisers could have saved us the equivalent of about 5 quid each!) and get involved with it!!!

Sporty and active is all very good, but you really need to be competitive and have some measure of skill in your chosen sport to get the best out of it. Being humped 7 nil out on the football pitch on a regular basis, is hardly the way forward if you want to keep a youngster interested.

It's a shame that a combination of Politically Correct headteachers who banned the end of term school games, and that short sighted policy of selling off school playing fields has denied so many kids of that great simple feeling of being winners.

And all without the subterfuge,obscene costs, political chicanery and outright cheating that passes for The Olympics nowadays.....

A very outdated view that doesn't any longer hold truth. The School Games has 4 levels from local school competion all the way to the national finals known as the Uk School Games, competitive school sport is thriving!

I'd be very interested to know what is the cost, per tax payer, for the games?

What's the issue, Jeff, with able bodied claimants of JSA being asked to earn that allowance during the games?

I wasn't talking about them. I didn''t introduce the term, I asked the poster who did to clarify it.

Do you take issue with the figures Seth has quoted with 200,000 jobs for the games itself compared to 70,000 volunteers?