Failure to find thousands of critical staff for an event you have known about for years and have been paid huge amounts of money for is clearly unacceptable, but it is hard not to question the UK government’s role. Did no one at the Home Office or Olympics working committee think to check on those 10,400 security staff we asked you to hire?
Whether he can survive a grilling by lawmakers on Tuesday remains to be seen, but when added to reports that inexperienced customs staff at Heathrow airport allowed five passengers through who should have been stopped given they were on the UK Home Office terror watch lists, security is clearly a major concern.
There are also great concerns over travel chaos. A number of key roads including the M4 which links London with Heathrow airport have had lanes closed to anyone other than Olympic staff, competitors and of course, sponsors. Bus drivers are threatening industrial action and every taxi driver I have spoken to over the last six months claims they will be in Spain and not working their way through terrible traffic.
Following on from the Beijing Olympics, which blew away previous events with its fireworks and state planning, it must be said that Britain and its capital have done an amazing job of lowering expectations.
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