London Olympic Traffic: Another Reason Brits Are Not Happy About Hosting the Olympics

Culture

The 2012 Olympics has been causing chaos and mayhem for organizers and the actual event hasn’t even started yet.

From the slightly mundane controversies such as the Olympic logo,to the major blunders including being over budget and the recent controversies over security for the games, it comes as no surprise that the people least excited about the Games are the people living in the host country.

The chaos all started when landlords in London found out they could benefit from the Games by renting out their properties to tourists, leading to some landlords (hoping to generate a neat profit) to force current tenants out of their properties temporarily until the Games finish.

Then it was a festival of strikes that hit the city as taxi, bus and tube drivers all threatened to strike unless they were paid bonuses for working extra time during the Olympics. Very recently, black cab drivers caused the London traffic system to come to a standstill.

It didn’t end there. Concerns over security were raised a notch or two when residents in East London (near the Olympic Village) woke up one morning to find out that surface-to-air missiles will be placed on the roof of their tower block during the Games.

But the most embarrassing blunder to emerge was the news that the security company G4S, who were contracted to provide security for the Games, announced that they were under-prepared and under-staffed and couldn’t provide enough security.

Providing Olympic security has been so shambolic that police and the armed forces from Afghanistan have had to be drafted in at the last minute to make up for the shortfall caused by staff not turning up to police events and a lack of communication between the company and new recruits.

Despite being a massive embarrassment, the firm's chief executive Nick Buckles has confirmed that he will still accept his management fee of $89 million (£57 million).

To add to the Olympic woes, there were divided opinions over the Olympic logo, a few embarrassments when the Olympic torch went out during the relay and David Beckham’s omission from Team GB has caused some divided opinions.

It seems that the only thing we can do now is laugh at it and the only solace from the madness of the Games has been the award-winning TV mockumentary, Twenty-Twelve, which is about the team organizing the Olympic Games. Looks like the only thing we can do is sit it out and hope the stadium doesn’t suddenly collapse.