AFP/London
The government was forced to make more last-minute changes to the London Olympics yesterday, putting 2,000 extra troops on standby and shortening the opening ceremony to avoid transport problems.But with nine days to go until the Games begin there was at least one bright spot as forecasters said the sun was set to shine on the Games after Britain’s wettest summer in 100 years. The run-up to the Games, which open on July 27, has been marred by a security fiasco sparked when private contractor G4S said it could not fulfill its contract to supply 10,500 security guards.The government has already announced that it will deploy 3,500 extra troops to plug the gap, taking the total military personnel at the Games to 17,000 but yesterday it announced that it had even more on standby.“Contingency plans are being drawn up for 2,000 more soldiers,” Sports Minister Hugh Robertson told a press conference.He said the government would “not pay a penny” more and that G4S would foot the bill for any further deployment.Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking during a trip to Afghanistan to visit British troops battling the Taliban, hailed the military for stepping in.“I salute and applaud what the military have done to step in and I think they’re doing an excellent job. If there are further steps we have to take of course we will take them,” he told ITN television.G4S’s embattled boss Nick Buckles admitted during a grilling by lawmakers on Tuesday that the affair was a “humiliating shambles” and that he could not now guarantee the number of guards that the company could provide.Britain currently has 17,000 military personnel lined up to perform security duties at the Games - almost double the 9,500 troops that it has in Afghanistan.Transport in congested London has been another worry ahead of the Olympics. The organisers of the Games said yesterday they had scrapped part of the £27mn opening ceremony to ensure it finishes in time for people to catch subways and buses home. “We need to make sure the show comes in on time to make sure spectators can get home on public transport, so we have taken the tough decision to cut a small stunt bike sequence of the show,” a Locog spokesman said.The show is designed to transform the stadium into a rural British idyll, complete with cows, sheep and synthetic clouds to provide traditional British rain - in the unlikely event that the weather does not provide it. One billion people around the globe are expected to watch the ceremony, directed by Slumdogmillionaire filmmaker Danny Boyle, while an audience of around 62,000 will see the show in the stadium. With the eyes of the world on the Games, a government official said the London Olympics were the country’s best chance to sell itself for more than 150 years. Alan Collins, the managing director for Olympic Legacy at UK Trade and Investment, said he was confident they would help Britain attract £6bn in investment by 2016. “This is the best opportunity since the Great Exhibition of 1851 to show off Britain,” Collins told a press conference.
G4S may lose Olympic management feeThe government will activate penalty clauses in G4S’s contract to cut the bill for the public purse in light of chaotic security arrangements, Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said. Robertson also signalled that the multinational security firm’s £57mn management fee would be targeted. His comments were echoed by Cameron who vowed to “go after” G4S for the costs to the public purse it has racked up by failing to deliver on its Olympics security contract. Cameron said: “Let’s be clear, if G4S don’t fulfill their contract we will go after them for the money to make sure that they help pay for the military personnel that have been brought in.” When it was suggested London 2012 had become the “soggy Olympics”, Cameron launched an impassioned defence of what had been achieved, including delivering the park on time and on budget. “Let’s not call this the wet and soggy Olympics, it is a great moment for our country,” he added.