Controversy Reigns

After all the worries about the cost of events during the cuts and fears of republican protests, the Jubilee events went off (pretty much) without a hitch... Oh no, hang on. There was this:

'A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant.

Up to 30 jobseekers and another 50 people on apprentice wages were taken to London by coach from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth as part of the government's Work Programme.

Two jobseekers, who did not want to be identified in case they lost their benefits, said they had to camp under London Bridge the night before the pageant. They told the Guardian they had to change into security gear in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday.'           -Shiv Malik, 4 June 2012.

Apologies have been made. And while it's all well and good for Close Protection UK to suggest that they were 'not in the business of exploiting free labour' - and that it was all a simple matter of errors made - reports suggest that exploitation of free labour was exactly what happened.

So calls for serious inquiries are entirely justified (Malik & Mulholland, 2012). Former Deputy PM Mr John Prescott is whirling up a storm - and so he should - because we need to how a democracy just allowed a huge festival celebrating the 60 year reign of a monarch to be staffed by indentured labourers.

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References:
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+ Shiv Malik 'Unemployed bussed in to steward river pageant'; in The Guardian; 4 June 2012.

+ Shiv Malik & Helene Mulholland's 'Unpaid jubilee stewards: Prescott accuses government of exploitation'; in The Guardian; 6 June 2012.