Britain: why can we not organise a piss up in a brewery?

[DaDaDa]

Heathrow Terminal 5. Wembley. We're sure to bugger up the Olympics.

Are we really more pathetically inept than other nations or do our media just revel more gleefully in minor failure?

The railways are worse

It seems to worse when you are there! Once you leave the UK and experience less organised countries, you do look back with nostalgia at that sort of thing

A bit of both I think. look how parts of the country come to a standstill at half a millimetre of snow. Then the media come along and say "oh huge enormous snow storms in the Midlands". When it's not a snow storm. Having said that I do think the whole T5 fiasco - my opinion based on what I've seen on the news - is just awful. people being told to go to hotels, and that BA wouldn't book hotels for them. Then the hotels putting their room prices up

Oh god yes. I was so embarrassed when this fiasco was broadcast all over my local Australian radio station this morning.

Note to self: do not employ British Project Managers/Baggage Handling System experts.

Having said that I did have to chuckle at the sheer incompetence - staff couldn't get into the car park, couldn't login to state of the art computer system, system too sophisticated for 'umble baggage handlers.

I smell panic to be ready by the T5 launch date, everybody who knew what they doing screaming "no!no!no!" and head honchos huffing and saying that they'd booked the media, arranged the champagne and canapes with major shareholders and had handed out swanky fliers and that it was going ahead regardless of what the idiots in IT were saying.

Why did I know this was gonna be about the new BA terminal

It was pointed out on R4 this morning that both the Millennium Bridge (wobbling - had to be closed) and Stephenson's Rocket (ran over an MP on its first trip hahahahaha) got off to rocky starts.
Like saltire I think our media are pretty scathing and Terminal 5 is an embarrassment, but it will unkink itself in due course I daresay

Terminal 5 was actually built on time, a hugh project that came in under budget and on time.

So the media have just been laying in wait for something tiny to go wrong and blow it up out of all proportion.....

Perhaps BAA should take some staff down from Glasgow Airport to sort it out after all Glasgow Airport open 24 hours after a terrorist attack on their busiest day of the year, last summer (1st day of the suumer school holidays). T5 can't open after weeks of practice and something as trumatic as a ribbon cutting ceromony.

Well, it is 'In the News' pestomonster.

I'm quite interested in why we're so collectively cynical, and seem to get our jollies from failure/incompetence. We do have great outbursts of optimistic energy every once in a while (Blair being elected in '97, winning the Olympics, every time England reach a World Cup) but we all seem to enjoy the subsequent disappointment and search for a scapegoat more. We're a nation of weirdos.

FFS it was day 1, yes it should have gone smoothly but there is no need for the annihilation that is going on in the press.
If it is still not fixed in a week or two, then that is a news story, this is just petty histrionics.

I agree Wellies, I am a lot less critical of the UK now that I no longer live there. I suppose part of it is just not constantly hearing about all the cock-ups.

Last time I was in the UK it was all over the news (again) about how bad our education system is and it really annoyed me because since moving abroad I have come to realise that there is a lot that is really very good about UK schools.

I've spent some time living abroad in various places and it's made me seriously appreciate the UK.

Canada - well-organised, but kind of deadening (sorry canadians, but that's how I felt about it) and lacking in imagination, sarcasm and quirk. At least in the UK we f*ck up and we have a good old laugh and a cynical rant about it and everyone's happy!

Costa Rica - my god. beautiful place, lovely lovely friendly people but they make any UK govt department look like a tightly run NASA mission. Half-finished bridges everywhere, everyone stops to chat and mimble about for, literally, about 95% of their working day, and nothing gets done on time or to spec, ever.

Iceland - OK i was impressed. I think if anyone can run a tight ship it's the scandiwegians. But that's perhaps something to do with having tiny populations and wads of cash.

Different places have their different cultures... going abroad has made me realise UK has its advantages.

I have just come back from a another EU country and it took 45 mins on a regular basis to get served at the post office - this was with a que of 5 people and three serving (I think serving is the correct word?)

Not everywhere is perfect, but the uk isn't really that bad at doing things, really we are quite good at a lot of stuff.

hee!

lol LLPJ

BTW, my local Brewery CAN organise a piss up, so I am relieved that it can be done.

But then they are a small company with fewer things to go wrong...

Have ignored the news about Terminal 5 as I don't need any more rises in BP this week

what dh and i found funny was there was a programme on on Tuesday i think, called Strong stronger strongest, basically saying how fantastic the new baggage system would be, best in the world etc etc

they tested it with 12,000 bags in a 3 hour period, and it was all fine...

i doubt the programme will be repeated!

but i agree, that the extensive news coverage was ott, though probably not for those caught up in the chaos