From this mornings statement by Phil Hammond
Wonder how much leave has been cancelled, how many will have just got back from operations, how many are just about to deploy and how many of those will be being made redundant?
The contract with G4S was for security staff who, lets face it, will have been payed as little as possible. If the Government witholds payment will it in any way cover the cost of deploying highly trained military personnel, compensation payments for holidays, training course disruption and the myriad of other costs incured by the MoD across three services as a result of this?
Wonder what is in the contract with G4S, expect the lawyers are sharpening their pencils as we speak.
We have been planning for this for 7 years!
Shit, shower for the use of.
BOOM first example of the Army being used as insurance for poor bastard planning. I swear they are making a rod for their own backs getting into resilience. The precedent has now been set.
@ TD
‘Wonder how much leave has been cancelled?’
I had a quick look on ARRSE seems quite a few units have been affected. We’ve really streched this thing has sucked up a lot more manpower than most people thought. Some things are still up in the air for the Paralympics so some are open ended deployements. Plus those that have been made redundant are exempt.
@ Phil
Have many of the London based TA been called up?
My favourite thread on Arrse about the Olympics is to do with shooting. Some ex-pistols shooters none too happy. Can’t blame ‘em really. I was in the middle of buying a GP100 when the ban was brought in.
i like the way they said they would based in school halls , with camp beds, like it was a good thing!! “oh yes we are looking after them”
about as much use as a handbrake on a canoe
@ plus fours
Compared to the average patrol base in Helmand Tom might complain about being mollycoddled.
The Blair Legacy lives on. Stupid thing is if he stood for Parliament again the idiots would vote him in.
It is disgusting.
Yours,
x
‘The contract with G4S was for security staff who, lets face it, will have been payed as little as possible.’
Not true, I know someone who’s doing it. He’s had a training course worth £300 paid for by G4S which means he’s now a qualified doorman and gets a decent wage…
Think they’re throwing money at it.
9,000 G4S supplied personnel still to complete training and vetting.
The government can rely on the military to plug the holes in olympic security; but in the near future, after all the redundancies, the government will be reliant on similar private service providers to deliver trained and vetted manpower to carry out many of the operational support tasks currently done by the military.
It might well be cheaper to farm out military roles to contractors in the planned future force, but military manpower guarantees service delivery to an extent that private contractors cannot.
“means he’s now a qualified doorman and gets a decent wage”
I’ve seen the wages they’re offering for the Olympics. They’re not what I would call decent wages considering it’s a very short term contract plus all the travel etc. Most of those licensed staff could make just as much elsewhere without the bollock ache of travelling to and from the games and having their current work interrupted in order to be checked and vetted (if you already have a license, why do you need to be checked again? What’s the point of the license?)
Re; the army,
2nd Mercians only just came back from Afghanistan on Herrick 15 in April, and now instead of a nice summer at home they’re being shuttled off to London. Then they have a package of redundancies to look forward to after that.
Normally I try and avoid the sort of Daily Mail ‘Outraged from Essex’ type thing, but this really is a ridiculous piss poor treatment of a battalion and the whole security cock up is unbloody believable.
Just in case anyone believes the media, it’s also RN and RAF personnel. Lots of unhappy people in the Portsmouth area right now – the impact will be fairly severe.
That said though, from the BBC – ‘The company has agreed to pay for the deployment of 3,500 extra military personnel, to plug the gap in security staff.’. Good.
Let me throw this one in to the pot as devils advocate…
Far from being reluctant, have the seniors in all three services eagerly accepted the Olympic challenge as a way of garnering sympathy for the cuts, exposing the government for the lightweighst they are and staked their claim for the #Homeland Resilience# budget?
It also puts a serious doubt in the mind about the stated intention of contractorising more of the armed forces
We will see a stream of stories over the next few weeks about cancelled leave, familiy time gone and lots of contrasts with between the plucky soldier, airman or sailor and thos fat cats at G4S
Any takers?
Oh I have no doubt that the armed forces want to embrace the resilience theme because they see it as a way of interacting with society and drumming up recruits and securing their future by making society more appreciative of them in the absence of an existential threat. In a way it is a good idea and takes into account the long term and I am always arguing that organisations need to plan long term.
But, they’re making a rod for their own backs. Civilians somehow manage to be more inefficient than the armed forces which can be quite an achievement. And within weeks we have them filling piss poor planning by private and public organisations.
The quicker it is over the better.
I just hope nothing happens.
@ Phil
Drumming up recruits? Where north of the border or north of India?
Fiji of course.
Yes I suppose the Army has to think about their rugby team.
Vaguely on-topic, Ocean is now at Greenwich for the duration and will be receiving visitors 10-3 tomorrow.
And whilst I was on the RN site, this caught my eye. I can’t imagine why the RN thought that particular rescue was worthy of a press release!!!
TD, there’s probably a substantial amount of RN ‘of course we can’ attitude, for fear of being seen as a ‘can’t do’ service. An attitude that is steadily pummelling what’s left of the Service into the ground. Can’t speak for the others two though.