London 2012 Olympics: Four hour airport queues 'can't be ruled out' - Metro.co.uk
Brian Moore, director general of the border agency, told MPs that although he believes staffing levels would be able to deal with an anticipated surge of arrivals, he could not guarantee there would be no delays.
'I do not anticipate seeing large queues of two, three and four hours because of the work we are doing to move our resources,' he said.
'However, there will always be circumstances beyond our control.'
Mr Moore repeatedly declined to tell the Commons Home Affairs Committee what he believed to be a 'reasonable' wait at immigration but claimed travellers accepted a time of around 25 minutes.
'Most people find that 25-minute mark to be not unreasonable,' he said.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Ed Miliband has called for industrial action to be avoided during the Games, as Unite the union prepared to ballot 21,000 bus drivers over potential strike action in a row over pay.
After a visit to the Olympic Park with members of his shadow cabinet, Mr Miliband said: 'I don't want to see industrial action during the Olympics.
'The Olympics are a great thing for London and a great thing for Britain. We have the chance to inspire young people into sport.'
He added: 'There may be extra strain on public sector workers. What's really important is that there isn't industrial action.'
London 2012 Olympics Ticket Design Revealed - huffingtonpost.co.uk
The ticket design for the London 2012 Olympics has been unveiled, the multi-coloured slips a timely taster of the rapidly approaching Games.
With the Olympic Flame making its way towards the stadium and another stock of tickets released on Wednesday, Locog chief Paul Deighton declared: "I can’t remember a more exciting week on the road to London 2012."
The bright ticket design features a pictogram of the particular sport while the trademark 2012 sloped typeface has been omitted, designers favouring a clearer font.
Information seems to be the basis of the design, with the colour scheme reflecting that of the venue, in order "to help spectators reach their destination" claims Locog.
Most celebratory is the opening ceremony ticket, coloured in gold with one design featuring trumpets.
However perhaps more importantly, each ticket bears the name of the booker, a hologram, and the price paid for the ticket, in order to reduce counterfeiting (the name is featured in the same place as 'Mrs A N Other on the picture).
Detective Superintendent Nick Downing of Operation Podium, which is dedicated to crime affecting the economy of the Olympics, delivered a stark warning regarding black market tickets.
"If you buy from an unofficial site, you risk paying over the odds for a ticket that may not exist, may not be genuine and you risk not getting to see the Games. Your personal details could even be used in other crimes," he said.
London Welsh coach Jones calls for focus as club await day of destiny - Daily Mail
By Chris Foy
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London Welsh are due to discover on Wednesday whether they will be promoted to the Aviva Premiership if they win the Championship but coach Lyn Jones insists the Exiles must ignore the boardroom sideshow to focus on a daunting play-off final.
On Wednesday morning, the RFU board will consider the Richmond-based club’s application for a place in the top division, with Welsh hoping that a tenancy agreement at Oxford United FC’s Kassam Stadium will allow them to meet the ‘minimum standards criteria’.
Day of destiny: Welsh's Joe Ajuwa (right) powers through a tackle in the semi-final against Bedford Blues
Watch the Championship final
LIVE on Sky Sports 2, 7.30pm
(KO 7.45)
On Wednesday evening, by which time the union are expected to have made a firm judgement, Jones’s side will confront Cornish Pirates in the first leg of the final at the Mennaye Field, Penzance.
While the RFU’s verdict has major implications - not least for Newcastle, who finished bottom of the Premiership - the former Ospreys coach said: ‘We are ignoring the verdict and just seeing this game as a good opportunity to prove ourselves to be the best team in the league. It’s not all about going up, but if things go our way that’s something we will think about after the game.
‘These players want to play at the highest level.’
Inside justice: Thames Magistrates Court, Bow, east London - The Guardian
A few miles up the road, Lord Coe and his team are busy putting the finishing touches to the London 2012 Olympic park in the hope that it will transform east London. But at Thames magistrates court in Bow, there's no talk of the Olympics, nor much sense of optimism.
With eight courtrooms, Thames magistrates is a large building which serves four of the most deprived boroughs in the country – Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest. As in any court, the bulk of the defendants are men but every now and again a woman appears in the dock. Few of them have been blessed with much luck up until this point, but, perhaps unexpectedly, appearing at Thames magistrates may give them a chance of a better future. In 2009, the mental health charity Together placed its first forensic mental health practitioner here. Thames is currently the only court in London to provide this service, though the charity will roll out practitioners in Westminster and Camberwell Green later this year. The aim is to try to divert these women away from prison and get the help they need. Every woman who comes here on remand is screened and has her needs assessed.
Many of the women who end up in the dock have drug or alcohol problems and lead chaotic, unstable lives which have been blighted since childhood. Today the psychologist, Matina Marougka, has two women to see. Some days there are up to six.
"When I approach the women, I usually ask about them about their practical needs," she explains. "They may live with a violent partner or be homeless. They may need help finding somewhere to live or they're terrified of public transport because they have panic attacks.
"If I decide to write a report on them for the court, I give detailed alternatives to custody so the magistrates or judge know that the woman won't drop off the radar. I sometimes pick women up from their homes and take them to appointments myself."
Between 2000 and 2010, the women's prison population increased by 27% to 4,267. In 2007, a major review by Baroness Corston concluded that most female prisoners shouldn't be there. Researchers found that women in custody often have very poor psychological, physical and social health. Women account for nearly half of self-harm incidents in jail despite making up just 5% of the prison population. And for those who are mothers, research shows that their time in prison has a deeply damaging long-term effect on their children: more than 17,000 children are separated from their mothers by imprisonment.
Both the women today have been arrested and charged in the last few days in unconnected incidents, and are in the cells downstairs. The first is a 22-year-old woman who refuses to speak to Matina. This is not unusual, she says, particularly as she seems to be under the influence of drugs and so isn't in a state to engage with her.
When she is brought before District Judge Alison Rose, we hear she has been charged with theft - stealing cosmetics from Superdrug. She is also accused of breaching a conditional discharge which she was given for theft a month earlier.
Peering out from a thick fringe that almost covers her eyes, she pleads guilty to both charges. She has a history of stealing from shops and has been a drug user since she was 14, after 'getting into the wrong crowd.'
Her lawyer tells the court she refuses to undergo a drug rehabilitation programme. "She's determined to stop the drug use and feels she can do so independently," he says. "She lives with her mum. She has a supporting family and feels she has come to the point in her life where she will do that."
"Well, she's been taking drugs since she was 14 and hasn't done it yet," Judge Rose observes wryly. Giving her bail, she adjourns the case and orders that the woman is seen by the drug intervention team before she is sentenced.
The second woman, a 35-year-old single mother of four, agrees to speak to Matina. She has been charged with assaulting an ex-partner, by whom she is now six weeks pregnant, and breaking his door down. Her solicitor insists she didn't do it.
Matina's report to the magistrates says that she is a vulnerable woman who is on medication and needs to look after her children, aged 16, 13, 12 and 7. A friend has been looking after them since her arrest.
The Crown opposes bail, but her lawyer points out that she has no previous convictions for violence and has four children to care for. "Men who are alleged to have assaulted women are granted conditional bail for more serious offences. This man suffered one small cut to the elbow," he says. "She wanted to collect her belongings and went there by arrangement." He argues that the ex-boyfriend has set her up because she accused him of infidelity.
The chairman of the bench, Helen McLennon, says she has taken into account Together's mental health report and is going to grant the woman conditional bail. The woman, dressed in a deep pink duffel coat, puts her hands up to her face and wipes tears of relief from her eyes. It may be a small step, but at least this is one woman who won't be separated from her children by being remanded in custody until her trial comes to court in six weeks time. Matina can never be sure if it was her report that made the difference, but the result is one of the reasons why she loves her job.
London 2012 - Gay athletes urged to seek asylum during - Yahoo! Eurosport
Gay and lesbian athletes from dozens of countries that outlaw homosexuality should seek asylum in Britain during the Olympic Games in London to escape persecution or even death at home, a prominent human rights activist has said.
The advice came from Mark Stephens, a lawyer whose high- profile clients include Wikileaks founder Julian Assange who he has helped fight extradition proceedings brought by Sweden over allegations arising from encounters with two women.
Stephens called on the International Olympic Committee to come out publicly to support gay and lesbian athletes and to punish those countries where homosexuality is illegal.
Stephens said gay and lesbian athletes from such countries should apply for asylum in Britain when they arrive for the Games on grounds that they would be persecuted at home if they revealed their sexuality.
"I invite you to apply for asylum in this country on the grounds that you will face persecution at home if you are open about your sexual identity," Stephens said in a lecture just a few minutes from the Olympic arena in east London.
"The British government will have to hear your application and in doing so they will have to engage with the human rights abuses perpetrated against the lgbt (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) communities across the world," he said.
Same sex acts between consenting adults are illegal in 78 countries, or 40 per cent of United Nations member states, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association (ILGA), a global federation of gay rights advocacy groups.
In five countries - Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen - such acts are punishable by death, according to the group.
Stephens, who said he was heterosexual but flattered that people sometimes assumed he was gay because of his support of gay rights, said a mass asylum request during the Games would draw attention to the persecution of gays and lesbians.
"People talk about legacy in terms of the regeneration of a few acres of London, when in reality, the legacy should be a human legacy," he said.
In 2010, the UK supreme court ruled that gay and lesbian refugees at risk of persecution in their home country for their sexuality are entitled to asylum in Britain.
Vauxhall workers celebration Astra decision at Ellesmere Port - wirralnews.co.uk
May 23 2012 by Liam Murphy, Heswall News
CELEBRATION tinged with relief were the overwhelming emotions at Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant, after it was announced it will build the next-generation Astra car.
In the year the plant is due to celebrate its 50th anniversary, the decision by General Motors which makes the factory safe for the rest of the decade will secure more than 2,100 jobs and 700 new posts.
Workers spoke of their relief and joy that jobs they value will continue – and more will be created.
They voted 94% in favour of the changes to their working practices, ranging from a four-year pay deal starting in 2013 to a third shift returning to the plant, allowing production of a minimum of 160,000 vehicles a year, rising to up to 200,000.
Unite union convenor John Fetherston said: “There is no doubt Ellesmere Port was in line for closure.”
He said it was a relief for the Cheshire plant after a “drip, drip, drip of Ellesmere Port closures which has worn people down”.
Employee Paul Hannon, of Rock Ferry, said the site “deserved” to be chosen, and the decision would allow him to work there until retirement, following months of uncertainty.
Mr Hannon, who has worked at the plant for 16 years, said: “It’s also about the jobs it creates in the community.
“This decision brings more of the parts supply back to Britain as well.”
Graham Dyke, from Ellesmere Port, who has worked there 28 years, said the decision was “a relief”.
He said: “Three years back, we were in the same situation, but it was worse this time because it was going to be very close.”
Barbara Murray, of New Ferry, who has worked there for 14 years, said in recent weeks workers at Ellesmere Port had “surpassed all previous targets” despite the uncertainty.
Business secretary Vince Cable said he was delighted for the “exemplary workforce and management”.
Ellesmere Port MP Andrew Miller said: “The skill, efficiency and commitment of local workers made a real difference.”
Wirral South MP Alison McGovern added it was “a testament to the hard-working, dedicated workforce at the Ellesmere Port plant”.
Connor Stanton, from Ellesmere Port, who has worked there since he was a 16-year-old apprentice four years ago, said he will now be able to continue at Vauxhall.
He said: “People were very down in the last few weeks, but now we are ecstatic.”
Martin Cray, who took over as manager of the plant a month ago, when its future was in serious doubt, said: “Compare the atmosphere walking the production line today with my first day, it is like chalk and cheese. But the workers have kept their chins up and been positive, even though it cannot have been easy.”
Vauxhall chairman and managing director Duncan Aldred, who started his career at Ellesmere Port during his degree at the former Liverpool Polytechnic, said the decision was “right for the company, but very special for me, too”.
Please stay away from the Olympics. Not because of terrorists, but because of what our own government has planned. R.I.P. Rik Clay