Olympics - not very British!

SusieWinwood

I was watching BBC news this am and it had an article about a printers that had been forced to move to make way for the Olympic site. Basically, the chap interviewed said he's got work for 2 months but then after that nothing and could close.

It then said that all the tickets for the Olympics has been printed in America???? :mad: Do we not have a printers in this country that could have done to job? Also most of the merchandise was made in China! :mad: Don't we import enough stuff already from this country without giving them Olympic business as well? Considering their track record on people and animal welfare I'd have thought they would have been the last people to do business with!

Lord Coe et al seem to be s**t hot on not allowing the Olympic logo to be 'misused', ie. forbidding a baker to hang 5 bagels in the logo shape in his bakery window, or a woman banned from making an Olympic cake, yet will willingly give much needed GB business to foreign countries! :eek:

And don't get me started on the freeloading MP's with their noses in the trough getting VIP tickets to all the best events!

Rant over

Susie

Gordon_Hose

I always though the Olympics was a world wide thing? Silly me...

Maybe if British industry was competitive they wouldn't have to send work oversees.

bap98189

All of the major purchasing will have been put put to tender. The reality is that labour and manufacturing costs are far lower in places like China than they are in the UK. if Chinese companies put in a tender response that is say 50% lower than any that are received from this country, which would you go with?

newfoundglory

A rather strange state of affairs, a government which is trying to promote British business, yet will put the Olympics out to tender for business outside of the UK?

What were they saying about it helping the UK economy?

Very strange indeed :rotfl:

Looksguywalker

newfoundglory wrote: »

A rather strange stage of affairs, a government which is trying to promote British business, yet will put the Olympics out to tender for business outside of the UK?

What were they saying about it helping the UK economy?

Very strange indeed :rotfl:

We have joined the EU and have to abide by the EU agreed tendering process.

redpete

newfoundglory wrote: »

A rather strange state of affairs, a government which is trying to promote British business, yet will put the Olympics out to tender for business outside of the UK?

The government are not running the Olympics. If it turned out that they went way over budget and needed more money from London council tax payers or UK income tax payers because they selected higher-priced UK suppliers would that be OK?

Ionkontrol

redpete wrote: »

If it turned out that they went way over budget

They did – massively, were you not listening from the beginning...?

transient

. ,

dickydonkin

Gordon_Hose wrote: »

Maybe if British industry was competitive they wouldn't have to send work oversees.

Maybe if we all had a level playing field (excuse the pun) i.e. a living wage for workers, a safe working environment, reasonable hours, then maybe we could compete.

China and many other Far East companies are 'competitive' by virtue of not giving a toss for their workers.

Perhaps Mr Coe should have looked at ethical procurement as opposed to supplying the cheapest - then many of us would not mind paying a little extra.

kingfisherblue

Some of the stuff needed for the Olympics are British - I live in St. Helens, and two local companies are featured in the local paper for their contributions. Ena Shaw's made the curtains and soft furnishings for the Olympic Village, and Vinyline have made signs.