A Little Good News
 

Always nice to have a little good news. Hope this does a lot of good.

The gesture is appreciated.

Personally I feel that G4S might have shown a little more appreciation (i.e. to the tune of £5 million perhaps).

The incompetent G4S still expects to trouser its £57M 'management fee' for screwing up the security contract for the Olympics.....

A miserly £2.5M to 'British military sports and welfare organisations' is totally inadequate. There is no guarantee that any of those who had to fill in for the useless G4S will feel any benefit.

Instead, I consider that each of the 18200 service personnel who had to protect Coe's folly should receive a tax-free payment of (£57 + £2.5) x 1000000 / 18200 = £3269. G4S should not be paid its management fee and Buckles should be axed.

Absolutely spot on BEagle.

Infact, lets just round it up to a straight £3500 each, tax free and with a public guarantee from the PM that NO leave will be lost at all as a result of this jockstrapping fiasco.

Well done and huge thanks to every serviceman and woman that were involved. Thank you.

Winco

By the right, right foot forward . . .

Mind you, given the cost of a building, or the cost for equipping a gym, the money would not go very far.

Will the money go in to the infrastructure kitty or will units bid for new volley ball kit or football strip? Or will it be used to sponsor world-class athletes within the military community?

Beagle,

I do believe that G4S is going to be punished for not meeting its' contractual obligations. Whether this actually occurs we shall have to wait and see.

I agree totally that G4S should lose the £57 Million management fee. After all they did not manage. G4S will still receive payment for the security that they did provide. A rather large payment.

The money recouped/ not paid out to G4S will not be going to the MOD, despite the military incurring costs. Anyone any idea which budget the military costs for providing security will be coming from?

I am sure that having to provide security for the Olympics was an enormous ball ache for a few folk, especially if leave etc was lost. That said, once the initial gurning was over, I'll warrant that the majority of military personnel enjoyed the experience. I completely agree that a £2.5M gesture is a bit weak and that double that might go some way to acknowledging the enormity of G4S's balls up. Paying individuals directly wouldn't work and would just be divisive. I hope the MoD use the money wisely and it isn't used to patch up a hole in their budget and isn't seen as a way to make a saving somewhere else. The Olympic contract was small beans to G4S and they can most definitely afford more than £2.5M.

As an aside, having attended a couple of Olympic venues (as a civvy!) I'd just like to say that the military personnel on duty were an outstanding advert for all that's good about the UK Forces. Polite, relaxed, helpful and humorous they were the perfect antidote to the G4S "security" mongs who spent their time getting off on fluorescent-jacketed power trips. I came to the conclusion that the G4S folk were, on the whole, working at the limit of their mental capacity just scanning bags and so generally couldn't interact like normal human beings (as we see day in day out at airports). The military folk on the other hand found the whole thing a breeze and were thus able to communicate in relaxed and friendly fashion with a smile on their faces.

A ballache yes but the military personnel involved did an outstanding job and did themselves and their Services proud.

Re leave lost

Did I miss something in all the write ups on forums and the media ?

How come the service people are going to lose leave if they
were in uniform for the period of the games ?

If someone could explain, that would be good.

Anyone know if the same level of military commitment will carry on into the Paralympics starting in 2 weeks time?

500N - there quite a few whose leave was cancelled when their unit was assigned to Olympic security.

Obviously you did.

:ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh:

As posted by AA

I think 500N's point was about folks actually losing thier leave entitlement, not just being unable to take it during those two weeks or so.

500N. Two guys that work for me were pinged (no other choice) who had already booked holidays with their families that had to be cancelled (with the resulting utter faff trying to recover 'non refundable' deposits). Is it really so difficult that you couldn't imagine that sort of scenario? :ugh:

OK, clarification.

I know leave was cancelled, I know it was a balls up, family holidays cancelled
and the PITA of trying to get non refundable deposits back.


I read "especially if leave etc was lost" as a solider who had applied for leave
and had it granted, booked holidays then got called up for the Olympics
would not get his leave credited back.


Edit
Courtney Mil got it in one. "folks actually losing their leave entitlement"

Thanks Courtney.

And my point is the possibility that some of these personnel should have been on pre-deployment leave before going to the big beach.

500N, true, no loss of entitlement perhaps.

Only so much leave (RAF) can be carried forward in any one year. Units have leave plans and leave embargoes. If you lost your two weeks in the summer school holidays there is slim chance of regaining it this summer.

With leave plans thee may well be available slots later in the year and indeed the holidays may be cheaper but for those with school age children . . .

The leave year finishes at the end of March. You may just run out of time or run in to Ops or pre-Ops work-ups. Autumn is the exercise period and so on.

You can simply run out of year in which to take leave. That said, in almost 40 years I always got my full entitlement.

Given 30 working days leave each year, with up to 15 days to carry forward, and adding in the bank holidays and stn standdown days etc, this comes to around 52 days. In theory you could have a four day week for a whole year!

Pontious: The MoD announced last week that troops pulled in for Olympic duty will be allowed to carry over any amount of leave owed for the next two years. The 14 day rule doesn't apply.

In 36 years in the Army I can honestly say that I never got my full entitlement.

Pontius; as someone who hasn't managed to get his leave in for 10 years+ (along with pretty much every other member of my sqn), I'm delighted for you that you didn't struggle, but fairly astonished that you choose this forum to advertise the fact. As for the other grumpy old man with a million posts who will moan about "jockstraperry" and "Coe's folly", well done to you Sir if you've managed to be unmoved by the achievements of team GB. I, personally, have found the games to be utterly inspiring; a shining example of what we can be, rather than a constant tirade about what we used to be!