London’s Olympians at work - Financial Times
June 14, 2012 7:20 pm
London tourist's illegally parked car blown-up by police - BBC News
A London tourist had his car blown up by anti-terrorist officers after it broke down - and he was also given a parking ticket.
Nima Hosseini Razi, 32, said his Ford Mondeo had broken down in early hours of Wednesday close to the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.
He said he had left a note on the car to say: "This car is broke. Please do not fine me," before going sightseeing.
But when he returned hours later, "the boot was blown off".
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "We can confirm there was a suspect vehicle at Storey's Gate at 10.20am on Wednesday and a controlled explosion took place... the incident was subsequently deemed as non-suspicious."
Westminster Conservative Councillor Daniel Astaire said: "On this occasion the driver was parked in a very dangerous place, on yellow lines, so police instructed our parking attendant to issue the driver with a ticket."
'Extremely arrogant'Mr Razi, who is studying for an MBA at the University of Wales, said he had left a note on his car explaining: "Dear Sir or Madam, this car is broken. I am just waiting for the AA to arrive. Please do not fine! Thank you, yours sincerely."
He said he had gone off to visit some of London's sights, including Buckingham Palace, but when he returned to the car "the windows were smashed in pieces. I was completely shocked".
"Police wanted to remove the car. They covered the car with some of my stuff left in it.
"On the window, they had fined me."
He added: "The police's actions were extremely arrogant and unprofessional.
"They treated me like a terrorist. They were never interested in listening to my real story."
Scotland Yard has not responded to Mr Razi's comments.
London 2012: How Zara Phillips reached the Olympics - again - BBC News
In the latest part of our weekly #olympicthursday series on leading British hopes, BBC Olympic sports reporter Ollie Williams profiles eventer Zara Phillips.
"It's not even a conversation that will take place. Zara's on the team, the team are staying in the village, end of story."
Zara Phillips is in line for her Olympic debut at long last, representing Great Britain from a room in the Olympic village - not representing the Royal Family from exclusive lodgings.
"Zara is absolutely a team player," continues Will Connell, performance director for British equestrian sport.
"She doesn't seek the limelight - it's never Zara stirring up the media frenzy, she lets her results do the talking. There's no denying who her mother and grandmother are but she is, first and foremost, an elite equestrian athlete."
Phillips, now 31, has spent a decade proving her talent. A former world champion, she has twice been in contention for the Olympic Games and twice missed out through injury to her horse, Toytown.
This week, she earned nomination to the British Olympic Association as one of five riders in the eventing team for London 2012.
Her third Olympic nomination in succession caps a resurgent 12 months. For a time, it had looked as though carrying the Olympic torch at Cheltenham racecourse was as close to the Games as she might get.
Phillips spent her twenties enjoying remarkable success with Toytown, winning eventing's world title in 2006 and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award later that year.
But after missing Beijing 2008, Toytown's age began to show. A horse can only go on at the top level for so long and Phillips, tears in her eyes, gave Toytown a public retirement at Gatcombe last year.
"In our sport you're very lucky to find a horse of a lifetime and I found mine relatively early," she told the Daily Telegraph in 2010. "[Toytown] has done everything for me and I owe him the world. Even talking about that horse makes me well up."
With Toytown out of the picture, Phillips had to prove she was no one-horse wonder by finding another challenger and getting them to the top level in time for Olympic selection.
She managed it, in the nick of time, with a horse named High Kingdom - taking him from the most basic of introductory events in Wiltshire five years ago to third place at last week's Bramham horse trials, her last chance to prove the pair had what it takes for the Olympic Games.
"She's been with High Kingdom a long time," says Connell. "She's always been diligent in working hard when it isn't necessarily going right with a horse - she perseveres. She plugged away with him and has done a fantastic job to bring him all the way up through the grades.
"Together, they finished 10th at Burghley last autumn and perhaps that's when he really burst onto the scene. Burghley was probably the result that, to the wider audience, said Zara has a horse that could go to London.
"This is an up-and-coming horse, a horse whose star is in the ascendancy, and [in terms of Olympic selection] that's probably what tipped it over the edge."
After Bramham, Phillips told BBC Sport: "Last year was a big year. He improved massively and came up with the goods [at Burghley]. He's still improving this year and he's a great, fun horse."
Phillips still faces the formality of having the British Olympic Association rubber-stamp her selection to Team GB but, once that happens, she can expect unique challenges as an Olympic team member.
Alongside all the usual pressures athletes place on themselves, the phenomenon of a British Royal competing at a London Olympic Games will inevitably draw intense scrutiny from the media at home and abroad.
"Zara attracts a massive amount of media attention and the challenge will come around that," says Connell.
"The media could impact on Zara's medal-winning chances. It really wouldn't be fair if every time Zara trained, there were a hundred cameramen, and when [German eventing star] Michael Jung's training, there aren't. But that's something Zara's had to cope with throughout her career.
"Part of what makes her successful is her ability to ignore all that. When she won the individual world title, she had to go into an arena with over 50,000 spectators and jump after the Germans had clinched team gold. The pressure and noise were incredible, but she's very cool under pressure. She has a proven championship record."
Asked if her Royal status was a help or hindrance, Phillips once told ITV: "It's a hindrance. People think it was all given to me on a plate and it definitely wasn't.
"But everyone in the sport is good to me. Everyone gets on with it."
Phillips' parents, both Olympic eventers themselves, must know how their daughter feels. The Princess Royal competed at Montreal 1976 and Captain Mark Phillips won team gold at Munich 1972 before returning to win team silver 16 years later in Seoul.
"They very much support me," said Phillips in the same interview. "They've never pushed me but when I started they very much backed me up.
"They're both very knowledgeable, unfortunately. They give me lots of advice - and criticism. But our sport is very different now to when they were competing, which I keep telling them."
There is now an anxious wait to see if Phillips can finally follow in the family footsteps. Will injury strike a third time?
"This is a great challenge we face in equestrian sport," explains Connell. "If a human athlete wakes up one morning and say they're feeling tight in a tendon or whatever, you can tweak the training programme.
"The horse doesn't know the most important competition of its life is coming up, and that introduces a different dynamic. It can't tell you the same things.
"But if they are to win medals in London, the horses have to be very fit and competition-aware. They can't just be put away in a stable now and pulled out at the Games. They will all compete again and that brings the inevitable risk of a slight injury."
As Phillips said ahead of Beijing 2008, before Toytown's second injury nightmare: "To go with all the other sports would be a great dream, but you still have to get there. One step at a time."
London men stake their place in the fashion spending arena - fashion.telegraph.co.uk
Notable rises in male spending have been reported ahead of London's first men's fashion week, London Collections: Men.
BY Alice Newbold | 14 June 2012
Burberry men's live stream Photo: REX
The reputation of menswear has long been shackled by the image of begrudging males sitting outside female changing rooms on endless, uninspiring weekend quests to department stores. Or the stalwart socks and tie or socks and knitwear combo invariably bought for fathers and grandfathers across the British nation for birthdays and holidays, alike.
Tarnishing the notion that men remain only excited about football, Rihanna and varieties of lager are the American Express Business Insights team. Ahead of London Collections: Men, which launches today, the banking sector conducted a study assessing the aggregated spending behaviour of millions of card members. The trend that emerged was, ironically (and pun-worthy), men's fashion.
READ: London to get its own Men's Fashion Week(end)
The data analytics arm of America Express found that males born after 1982 - "Generation Y" - increased their overall spending on fashion faster than all other generations. Shopping at a heightened rate of 4% year on year, 2011 over 2010, Generation Y whipped out their plastic at twice the rate of the next fastest generation, the "Baby Boomers" (those born between 1945 and 1964).
Tagging the male mentality towards fashion as a basic "famine or feast approach", men, it appears, resist high street splurges in favour of luxury goods, spending 24% more per transaction, though less often, than their female counterparts.
Commenting on Burberry's announcement last month that they had experienced a 26% increase in menswear sales, chief executive of the British heritage brand, Angela Ahrendts said: "In this economic environment, men want to look better, they want to look sharper."
READ: Burberry's Angela Ahrendts: men want to look smart
While Burberry's tailoring and enhanced ranges drove a 26% rise in their menswear sales, the overall year-on-year spending on luxury fashion increased by 5.7% in Generation Y men and 1% in all males. British male shoppers subsequently snubbed mainstream lines decreasing their spending by 1.2%, while women lapped up the high street, spending 0.7% less on luxury goods and 5.7% more on high street fashion fixes.
"There is a reason that London is hosting its first men's fashion week: men in the city are clearly staking their place in the fashion spending arena," affirms Sujata Bhatia, vice president of International Business Insights at American Express.
London 2012 Olympics will come in under budget, government says - The Guardian
The government has promised the Olympics will come in under budget – at a cost of less than £9bn to taxpayers – but will spend extra money within that on crowd control measures in light of a bigger-than-expected turnout for the jubilee celebrations and the torch relay.
The sports and Olympics minister, Hugh Robertson, admitted that organisers had underestimated by around a third the amount that would be required to pay for signage, stewarding and crowd control measures such as crush barriers and temporary bridges that will ease congestion in Greenwich and Hyde Park.
It is expected that larger than expected crowds could throng the capital in the three days before the opening ceremony as the torch enters central London and will turn out in huge numbers for the marathon and the cycling road race, which finish on the Mall.
"There is a certain amount of this that you assess as the thing develops and these costs emerge. As a government, you're caught here. The first responsibility of a government is the safety and security of its people," he said.
"We have to do everything we can reasonably do to ensure the safety and security of the very many people, judging by the jubilee, who will attend. There is an element of managing success here."
An extra £19m will be added to the budget for crowd-control measures and managing central London, taking it to £76m. Overall, there was an increase of £29m in the money released to Locog over the most recent quarter, including £8m for putting in concessions and toilets around the Olympic venues.
That will take the total that the London organising committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) has received from the public funding package to £736m, including a security budget to cover guards within Olympic venues that almost doubled to £553m.
Robertson said that the crowds who lined the river during the jubliee river pageant despite the inclement weather, estimated at around 1.2 million, and the popularity of the torch relay showed that numbers attending might be even higher than expected.
"We knew this would be the moment when people suddenly got this. But we have been pleasantly surprised by the sheer scale of it. If you consider that the torch is coming down the Thames [on July 27] the capacity for lots and lots of people to come and see it is increased," he said.
The additional investment was an insurance policy to ensure that London could cope with the influx, he said.
"London is going to be the place this summer, if the rain holds off, to come and have a party. It is very difficult to estimate how many people will take the car, the train or the ferry and come here for a party with a rucksack on their back."
Transport for London is planning on the basis that there will be 1 million extra people in the capital, although that could be offset by a decline in non-Olympic tourists.
Critics have claimed that Locog, which has a privately raised budget of £2bn to stage the Games but has now received £736m in public money on top of that, should be subject to greater scrutiny. But the government argues that all the public money that has flowed to the organising committee is either for pre-agreed elements of the budget such as security or is for new tasks that it has taken over from the Olympic Delivery Authority.
With the project 98% complete, there is £476m of contingency funding remaining, and Robertson said he could now be confident that it would come in under £9bn.
The National Audit Office had warned there was a real risk that the budget would be bust, but the Department for Culture and Media and Sport and the Government Olympic Executive have continued to insist that they would come in below £9.3bn.
The original bid estimated the cost of the Games at £2.4bn but didn't include VAT or security costs.
The Labour government, chastened by the experience of the Millennium Dome and Wembley, built in a huge contingency fund of £2.7bn when the current funding package of £9.3bn was set in March 2007. The huge increase was justified on the back of the regeneration of east London and other claimed legacy benefits.
Robertson said that the large contingency was a wise move because it allowed the project to weather the economic downturn, bearing the cost of building the Olympic Village and the International Broadcast Centre from public funds before selling them back to the private sector.
Much of the credit for coming in on time and on budget will go to the Olympic Delivery Authority, which came in more than £500m below its baseline budget through savings made during the construction process. Delivering the venues on time, despite the ongoing debate about the future of the £428m stadium, meant that it avoided the prospect of escalating costs as contractors rushed to finish venues.
Robertson said the publicly funded budget had delivered value for money: "I have been a cheerleader for this process right from the beginning. There was a recognition right from the word go the original figure would have to change dramatically. Everybody's eyes were opened to the possibility that this gave us once we had won the bid."
Attention is now likely to turn to the use of a surplus of more than £400m. Despite lobbying from some sports organisations, Robertson said there was no chance that it would remain within sport and would instead flow back to the Treasury.
But campaigners said that would "verge on money laundering", because lottery money that was partly used to fund the Games was diverted from other causes.
"It will be an utter outrage – and verging on money laundering – if lottery revenues raided by the government to fund the Olympics go back to the Treasury," said Jay Kennedy, the head of policy at the Directory of Social Change.
"This money was taken away from supporting vulnerable people and communities across this country at a time when they needed it most. Government needs to keep its promises and do the right thing – any underspend must be used to refund the Lottery as soon as possible."
Occupied territory: Protesters evicted from their squalid camp in Finsbury Square in night-time swoop move to east London park - Daily Mail
- Evicted Occupy London protesters descended on new camp in east London just hours after being moved on from a seventh month occupation of a square in the capital
- Anti-capitalist Occupy London protesters had been evicted in a 'peaceful and low-key' during 1am police swoop
- Around ten tents were pitched this morning on new site and camp appears to be growing in size by the hour
By Tom Gardner
|
It took a great phalanx of police and bailiffs finally to evict Occupy London protesters who had doggedly clung on to their squalid camp in Findbury Square, north London.
But within hours of that major dawn raid to clear one site - which had been blighted by the around 135 tents for the past seven months - authorities were again caught on the back foot as campaigners simply descended on a new location, little more than a mile away.
Around a dozen protesters - some wearing masks - had pitched tents in Shoreditch Park, east London, by lunchtime today.
Undeterred: A masked Occupy protester surveys his new camp in Shoreditch Park, east London, which was set up hours after police and bailiffs, evicted campaigners from Finsbury Square, north London
Occupy protestors, who were last night evicted from Finsbury Square in the City of London, have now set up a new camp in Shoreditch Park
Police were on the scene within minutes but appeared powerless to act.
Now residents of the trendy east London square face the prospect of a protracted fight to clear the area of the encampment, which started off with about ten tents but seems to have at least doubled in size by this afternoon.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'We are aware of tents pitched in Shoreditch Park.
'Officers are monitoring the situation but are not present at the scene. An appropriate policing plan is in place.'
Dozens of police officers and private security guards had taken several hours to clear anti-capitalist protesters from their north London camp after launching the swoop at 1am today.
The clear out was organised by Islington Council after a successful court action by the authority to move the group which held London's last remaining Occupy outpost.
New camp: Police were soon on the scene, but not before Occupy protesters were about to erect around a dozen tents in Shoreditch Park
Green but not so pleasant: Shoreditch Park has now been taken over by the Occupy London protesters who descended on the site within hours of being evicted from Finsbury Square
The camp was set up on the public land of the square in October, as an extension of the Occupy movement’s protest in St Paul’s Churchyard - which ended in eviction in February.
Today, Metropolitan Police confirmed they were present at the scene which is being cleared by a private security company.
Two weeks ago a judge heard the protest had caused 20,000 damage to the land, cost the council 26,000 on security, and lost it 12,000 in rent plus income from the square’s restaurant which had to close.
There had been an adverse impact on local business and complaints about anti-social behaviour from the camp, which increasingly became a focus for the homeless, and which had no running water or sufficient toilet facilities.
Eviction: Overnight enforcement officers cleared the remaining Occupy protest camp in London's Finsbury Square
Battle over: Two activists comfort each other looking past bailiffs into the campsite after Islington Council won a High Court battle over the land
Decision: Two weeks ago a judge heard the protest had caused 20,000 damage to the land, cost the council 26,000 on security, and lost it 12,000 in rent plus income from the square’s restaurant which had to close
Controlled operation: Metal fencing is brought in to seal off the Square during the eviction
Councillor Paul Convery, Islington Council’s executive member for community safety, said: 'Finsbury Square is public space for the people of Islington, one of Britain’s most deprived boroughs.
'We’re returning the square to community use, and it is being cleaned and will soon be reopened to the public for the summer.
'Today’s enforcement action was peaceful and low-key, and I’d like to thank the police, our street outreach team, and other partner organisations for their help.
'A number of vulnerable and homeless people have been living in the square. We have been speaking to them and offering advice and support to those who need assistance.'
Before protesters were evicted from the neighbouring camp at St. Paul's Cathedral in February, Finsbury Square was used as an overspill.
It later became an 'eco village' where sustainable technologies were showcased.
But there was no sign of that now - the once pleasant park is now a barren, litter-strewn dump.
Occupy protesters had barricaded themselves into their camp on Finsbury Square in the City of London
Until last night 20-30 'protestors' remained at the Finsbury Square camp - eight months after it was first 'occupied'
Islington Borough Council moved in March to start eviction proceedings against the 'residents' of Finsbury Square
Islington Borough Council moved in March to start eviction proceedings against the 'residents' of Finsbury Square.
But Tom McCarthy, a resident at Finsbury Square, insists the camp serves an important purpose.
He wrote on the Occupy Finsbury Square blog: 'This camp makes a political statement about our society.
'Since Occupy opened the camp on 21 October, it has become a home and community for many homeless people, for whom the system has failed.
'In evicting this community, Islington Council – who have helped to re-home some people that have ticked certain boxes – are potentially leaving some people in a much worse position than they are already in.
'We ask Islington Council to not go down the same route at the City of London Corporation – cleansing the City of homeless people is not the way forward. Helping to find real solutions is.'
At one time protesters used the square to showcase sustainable technology, but it is now a litter strewn dump
Islington Council claims the camp is now just occupied by vulnerable and homeless people
Banners erected on the camp preached anti-capitalist slogans, despite claims by councillors the square has become a haven for the homeless
Now the square has been repossessed Islington Borough Council are keen to start fixing the damage caused by protesters
London Irish centre Joseph to make full England debut - Reading Evening Post
London Irish centre Jonathan Joseph will make his first start for England in Saturday's second Test against South Africa in Johannesburg.
The 21-year-old helped set up England's only try after coming off the bench in the final minutes of last Saturday's 22-17 defeat in Durban.
And he will now make his full debut as England look to add a cutting edge to their backline.
Joseph comes in for the injured Brad Barritt with Manu Tuilagi shuffling across to inside centre.
England boss Stuart Lancaster said: "I am delighted for JJ. He has trained very well and showed against the Barbarians and in his short time on the field in the first Test that he is ready to make the step to international rugby.
"To have two 21-year-old centres is exciting and we are looking forward to seeing this combination in action."
Prop Alex Corbisiero, Joseph's London Irish team-mate, has recovered from a knee injury and is included among the replacements, while former Reading back-row forward Tom Johnson, who now plays for Exeter Chiefs, retains his place at blindside flanker.
England: 15 Ben Foden (Northampton), 14 Chris Ashton (Northampton), 13 Jonathan Joseph (London Irish), 12 Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester), 11 David Strettle (Saracens), 10 Toby Flood (Leicester), 9 Ben Youngs (Leicester); 1 Joe Marler (Harlequins), 2 Dylan Hartley (Northampton), 3 Dan Cole (Leicester), 4 Mouritz Botha (Saracens), 5 Geoff Parling (Leicester), 6 Tom Johnson (Exeter), 7 Chris Robshaw (Harlequins), 8 Ben Morgan (Scarlets).
Replacements: 16 Lee Mears (Bath), 17 Alex Corbisiero (London Irish), 18 Tom Palmer (Stade Francais), 19 Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints), 20 Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints), 21 Owen Farrell (Saracens), 22 Alex Goode (Saracens).
Spray them with Pig,Horse ,Cow dung ...From the pic's they seem to be happy living in sh... Manure
- Just an old synic , Manchester , 14/6/2012 22:23
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