London Welsh to appeal against promotion snub - The Guardian
London 2012: Games security staff '40% local' - BBC News
A total of 40% of Olympics security workers are from boroughs close to the Games site, a report has said.
Security provider G4S said 10,500 candidates from the six host boroughs are currently undergoing security screening and training.
More than 100,000 people have been interviewed for Olympic-related jobs, with 3,000 already deployed.
Olympic organisers Locog committed to recruiting locally for jobs in retail, catering, cleaning and security.
'On target'At least 40% of G4S's Olympic workforce is set to come from the local boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.
Mark Hamilton, managing director of G4S London 2012, said: "It was always our intention to mobilise a large part of our workforce from the six boroughs around the Olympic Park in east London.
"I am delighted that we are on target to secure the services of thousands of local people who will help make the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games safe and secure.
"I am also thrilled that so many have come forward to seek work. They have a very responsible, and I hope rewarding, part to play in the sporting extravaganza and they are helping to add to the buzz of excitement that is building around London 2012."
Most of the 23,700 security jobs will end after the Paralympics in September, but G4S said they will have gained valuable qualifications and work experience to help find more employment.
London house prices could be halved by Euro crisis - The economic choice
The recent rush of money seeking a safe haven has pushed the price of luxury London homes up during the recent financial crisis, but this could quickly be reversed if the Eurozone breaks up leaving many with homes worth 50% of what they paid for them.
The research by the property firm Development Securities (Prime Central London: In a Class of its own?) covers seven postcode areas where the average house price is a cool £1.2 million.
The inflow of money into the capital by safe haven investors has pushed the price of PCL property up by 75% says the report, with 60% of them going to foreign buyers. But this could all change should the Euro fail. “A break up of the single currency is perhaps the single greatest threat to PCL” says the report.
Now, if a particular PCL house was worth say £1 million a few years ago and it went up in value by 75% it would now be worth £1.75 million. If it then drops in value by 50% it will be worth just £875,000. That is it will be worth less than the buyer paid for it! The later 50% drop is greater than the earlier 75% gain. Food for thought?
The report argues that the PCL property market is different from the rest of the country for several reasons.
It says that PCL property attracts investors from around the world, including the UK, who would never consider buying in any other part of the country. Because of this 90% of their price movement is caused by “…a combination of: changes in global equity prices; changes in the sterling exchange rate; and changes in those factors to do with risk and uncertainty that underpin the relative attractiveness of sterling assets more widely.”
This means that a Euro collapse, which would bring with it strengthened sterling and a collapse in global equity prices, would ‘undermine’ the wealth of those that would normally buy PCL property. But the report does say that after a time this trend would begin to reverse as the markets began to settle after the turmoil.
Michael Marx, Chief Executive of Development Securities, said “Safe-haven flows associated with fears about a messy end to the euro debt crisis have boosted PCL property prices over the past two years. And yet we end this report by arguing that a break-up of the single currency area is perhaps the single greatest risk to PCL prices. In the worst-case scenario, we estimate that PCL prices could fall by 50% following a break-up of the single currency area.”
Then we could see house prices across the country eventually following suit, despite PCL prices being ‘different’.
Queen's Grove, St John's Wood - by Stephen McKay
Image by Stephen McKay [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
------ Other articles of interest ------
Tags: House Prices, london, News, property
Amy Winehouse London home put up for sale - Reuters UK
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Test Tube: Virgin trials London Underground Wi-Fi internet access - Metro.co.uk
Members of the public will be able to browse the web and check e-mails using their smartphones from more than 80 Underground station platforms from July.
BBC Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones was given a sneak peak at one station in central London on Thursday, where the internet equipment is currently being tested.
He tweeted from an unnamed station platform: 'Historic first tweet from deep under London using @TFLofficial @virginmedia new tube wifi service - testing, testing.'
While commuters will not be able to access the internet when travelling on the tube itself, TfL hope it will help passengers keep up-to-date with all the latest travel information.
Mayor Boris Johnson said earlier this year: 'Millions of passengers will now be able to connect to their work, friends or access the latest news and travel information while on the move.
'This is a fabulous new and free resource which will be in place from this summer when London is being showcased on a global stage and playing host to millions.'
An estimated 800,000 additional passengers are expected to use London's public transport during the Olympics at peak times, raising question marks over TfL's ability to cope with the extra burden.
Royal London protection head Ainslie steps down - Citywire.co.uk
Ross Ainslie is to step down as managing director of the Royal London Groups’ protection businesses, Bright Grey and Scottish Provident.
Ainslie is leaving the insurance giant to pursue a master’s degree, starting in September. Royal London said a successor will be appointed from within the group.
John Deane, chief executive of Royal London’s intermediary division, said: ‘Of course we’re sad to see Ross leave, but he goes with our best wishes and grateful thanks for helping to shape two very strong brands in the protection space.
‘Ross has made a significant contribution, and under his leadership Bright Grey and Scottish Provident have recently announced an excellent set of results in a very competitive market.’
‘Ross will be leaving a strong and successful business which is well placed to go from strength to strength.’
Ainslie joined Royal London in 2002.
London Underground | Digging the Serpentine Pavilion - New York Times Blogs
The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion has, over the last 13 years, established itself as a must-see architectural event of the London summer season, not only for its experimental structures — which have allowed A-list architects like Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel to realize their first built projects in this city — but also for the glitzy parties and intellectually rigorous event marathons that accompany the structures.
The latest pavilion, which opens to the public tomorrow, responds to the history of previous pavilions on the site (a lawn adjacent to the gallery, in Kensington Gardens) and imagines an archaeological dig through the remnants of structures past to reach groundwater, celebrating the unseen natural water level below the city. Humble but daring, this romantic approach is the result of a collaboration between the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who are known for their design of the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games. (While this is not, in fact, Herzog & de Meuron’s first completed work in London — their Tate Modern opened in 2000 — it is Ai’s first building project there.)
The landscape created by the dig — the interior of the pavilion, which contains seating for visitors and events — is lined in cork to create a soft, surreal environment shaped by the “ghosts” of pavilions past. Eleven columns, each of which represents a previous pavilion (there was no pavilion in 2004), and one that represents the new structure, support the roof, a floating platform with a circular pool of water that reflects the sky (and which can be drained for special events). As in past years, the pavilion will be the site of Park Nights, the gallery’s public events program, as well as its annual Serpentine Marathon, a series conceived by the gallery’s co-director Hans-Ulrich Obrist. A new twist, however, is that the gallery, which has sold past pavilions to recoup the costs of their construction but has never publicly identified the buyers, announced that this year’s pavilion has been purchased by the billionaire Indian steel magnate Lakshmi N. Mittal and his wife, Usha.
The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012 will be on view through Oct. 14.
Made In London: the capital’s boom in entrepreneurship - Daily Telegraph
Natasha Faith, the founder of La Diosa. Image: Philip Hollis
Despite the demands of running your own business, it seems to be an increasingly appealing option for many. The rise in university fees means larger numbers of young people are considering alternatives to a traditional third-level education and setting up their own businesses instead.
The internet has provided both the inspiration and the means for many young entrepreneurs to prosper. In London, a frenzied media storm has been whirling around Old Street in Shoreditch. Nicknamed the Silicon Roundabout, the area is home to numerous new tech start-ups, including Moshi Monsters (an online children’s game), Last.fm (an online music platform) and TweetDeck (a social-media profile manager).
Jon Penn is the 32-year-old co-founder of Spinning Hat, a quirky gift company, and is based there. For him, the attention the locality is receiving is well-deserved: “It’s very much the place to be for creative minds. A lot of new businesses are moving over from Soho to the Shoreditch area now, so it’s a buzzing place at the moment. There are lots of bars as well!”
Yuvraj Jatania is the 25-year-old co-founder of Pockit, a prepaid card that provides discounts and cashback on household essentials, and shares Jon’s enthusiasm for the area’s nightlife: “For a young entrepreneur interested in making it in the tech business, I’d say get involved in the meet-ups around Silicon Roundabout. There are lots of young entrepreneurs who meet up for informal drinks in various bars and pubs around the area. I went to a similar networking event myself and I met so many people who are doing tech businesses; you learn so much from them.”
Virraj and Yuvraj Jatania. Image: Philip Hollis
The term “networking” frequently crops up during our discussion and is considered crucial, despite the word’s “elitist” connotations being acknowledged by all present. Venues throughout London such as the Adam Street Club, Soho House and Shoreditch House are popular venues for industry get-togethers and should be visited by any would-be London entrepreneurs eager to make contacts.
Despite the internet providing new opportunities for business development and ample opportunities to meet like-minded people, emerging entrepreneurs will inevitably flounder. Faith doesn’t think this should dissuade anyone from pursuing their goals: “Failure is a good option. I think we have a notion, especially in British culture, that it’s terrible to fail, which stunts a lot of growth and a lot of potential in young people.”
So have any of them actually failed?
The other half of Pockit, 23-year-old Virraj Jatania admits his business didn’t get everything right: “One thing we did – we’re a tech business, with a big online platform – was to use an outsourced company for all our technology. I think doing it in-house is very important, and it’s actually cheaper.”
Smruti also recalls schools dropping out of her award scheme. A “fickle” demographic, school students that participated in the schemes were prone to apathy if they didn’t see quick results and needed “quick wins” to remain involved. She canvassed students for feedback and made changes to the structure of her programme. Now she has 400 schools across the country participating in Wings of Hope, and has had the support of PWC, Saatchi & Saatchi and the House of Lords.
Shalini Khemka, CEO of the London Entrepreneurial Exchange, suggests that the boom in entrepreneurship also owes much to the economic downturn: “What we’re finding is that the lack of jobs is shifting people into the private sector; unemployment is actually encouraging people to go off and do their own thing so a lot of individuals are setting up their own businesses.”
Faith decided to set up her company as a result of the recession: “It pushed me to start my own business. I felt an urge to start my own thing because money just wasn’t coming in. So I didn’t go to university and had the impetus to really push harder than I probably would have if the recession hadn’t hit.” Instead of pursuing a degree as her peers did, Faith decided to travel the world for a year and learned how to make jewellery in Mexico. That skill provided the foundation for her business.
Alexander Amosu, 36, is another entrepreneur who decided against completing a university course. After learning how to compose Jay Z’s song Big Pimpin’ on a rudimentary composer programme on his mobile phone when he was 21, he set up the company R&B Ringtones and sold ringtones to others. He was a millionaire by the time he was 25. He then founded Amosu Luxury Ltd, which sells high-end bespoke products; it’s famous for selling the world’s most expensive suit, yours for £70,000.
Faith and Amosu’s rejection of a third-level education is something that Khemka frequently encounters: “The majority of entrepreneurs I’ve come across haven’t had that education – they’ve had a bit of a tough life and learned how to make themselves focused.”
With the recession continuing, Khemka and the entrepreneurs are confident some of the country’s young people will tackle the threats of unemployment and debt with creative solutions. The Apprentice and Dragons' Den have made businessmen Lord Alan Sugar and Duncan Bannatyne household names; the increasing number of entrepreneurs looking to emulate their achievements means there should be plenty more British success stories to come.
Read Anoosh Chakelian's profiles of the entrepreneurs here.
tell London its 2012 someone,why are they only doing to platforms? Pop over to Hong Kong if you want to see how its done. You will fine a full GSM (GSM-900 and GSM-1800), CDMA and TDMA mobile phone network is in place throughout the MTR Tube system of stations and tunnels allowing passengers to stay connected underground.