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London 2012: Olympic torch relay street route set out

Torchbearers young and old were at the launch event




The street-by-street route the London 2012 Olympic torch relay will take around the UK has been set out.
The names of the majority of the 8,000 people who will carry the flame on its 8,000 mile journey have also been confirmed by Games organisers Locog.
The Olympic flame arrives in the UK on 18 May and begins its 70-day journey at Land's End on the morning of 19 May.
It will visit every nation and region and stop off at landmarks such as Stonehenge and the Giant's Causeway.
It will pass through 1,018 places as well as visiting Dublin on its journey to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on 27 July.
Potential torchbearers were nominated through programmes run by Locog and sponsors Coca-Cola, Lloyds TSB and Samsung in 2011.
They aimed to recognise and reward people with a story of personal achievement and/or contribution to the local community.

London 2012 - One extraordinary year

The torch will be carried by 7,300 people who were nominated and the remaining 700 will be athletes and celebrities.
Five of the torchbearers joined gold medal-winning triple jumper Jonathan Edwards and London Mayor Boris Johnson at a primary school in east London to mark the detailed route of the torch relay being released.
Each torchbearer will carry the flame for about 300m and about 110 people will take part each day.
'Absolutely thrilled'
Rhyania Blackett-Codrington, 29, from London, is going to carry the torch through the borough of Islington, where she lives.
"I'm absolutely thrilled," she told BBC One's Breakfast, adding that she was nominated for "changing her life round".
"I was a troubled teen and I am now a teacher helping others," she said. She added that she was keen to do a rehearsal of the route holding the torch, but said she was not keen on running with it.
"I'm going to walk very slowly, I'm quite clumsy and I don't want to fall down."
Olympic chief Sebastian Coe also revealed last week that he had been nominated to carry the torch in his home town of Sheffield. He told the BBC's School Report: "For me Sheffield was where all my athletics really happened so that would be the obvious place to be involved."
Another torchbearer will be Dave Jackson, 61, a volunteer coastguard and station officer at Land's End Coastguard Rescue, from Sennen, Cornwall.
He was nominated by his bosses for more than 40 years' service. He served during the 1981 Union Star and Penlee lifeboat disaster, in which 16 people died, including eight volunteer lifeboatmen.
He is part of a team of 12 people on permanent call and also works as supervisor and groundsman at Cornwall's Minack Theatre.


He will run on the relay's first leg, from Land's End to Plymouth.
He told the BBC that when he first found out he would be running with the torch he thought "'it's a wind-up'".
"You don't expect that sort of thing, do you?
"But the first day of the relay, I know it's in Sennen. If it's hot and sunny, it'll be brilliant. Brilliant for Land's End, Sennen and for Cornwall.
"I think it'll be a case of 'don't drop it'! That'll be going through my mind quite a bit. 'Don't start any fires'.
"It's a great honour to be nominated. I'm born and bred in Cornwall and you can't beat it."
Tomlinson's son chosen
The torch will also be carried by the teenage son of fundraiser Jane Tomlinson, who died from cancer in 2007 aged 43. The NHS radiographer had raised £1.85m for charity through seven years of marathons, triathlons, the Ironman contest, a tandem cycle ride from Rome to Leeds and a bike ride across the US.
Steven Tomlinson, 14, will carry the torch in Leeds on behalf of his mother, who carried the torch before the 2004 Games in Athens.
He said: "I'm really excited. It's a great opportunity to be part of the Olympics. I will be doing it on behalf of my sisters and my mum. It should be a great experience."
Some 212 of the torchbearers will be young people aged 12 during the relay.
Lorna Linfield, from near Fort William, is due to run with the torch on 9 June, when it goes from Glasgow to Inverness.
Dave Jackson after receiving his MBE from the Queen

At Lochaber High School and in her community she takes part in a traditional Gaelic music group and helps with a charity Mary's Meals, which provides school meals to developing world countries and fills backpacks with educational materials.
She said: "Someone at school nominated me as I do lots of clubs at lunch times and I do outdoor climbing, swimming and mountain-biking.
"I think the torch might be very heavy. But I'm looking forward to carrying it, it will be really exciting."
The oldest torchbearer will be Diana Gould, 99, from London, who will turn 100 shortly before the Olympics and will carry the torch in Barnet.
She runs exercise classes in the retirement flats where she lives involving stretching, reaching and bending using foam balls and backscrubbers.
David Chaffey, 28, who lost his sight when he was seven and recently had a heart transplant, will carry the torch in Blaenavon in Wales.
He works as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in the A&E department of the Royal Liverpool Hospital and is a volunteer tackling knife crime in Liverpool by speaking to young people.
He recently raised £8,500 for Marie Curie Cancer Care by running the Marathon des Sables, a 150-mile endurance race across the Sahara Desert, and has raised funds for Guide Dogs for the Blind, Victim Support groups and St John's Ambulance.
Lorna Linfield will run with the torch on the Glasgow to Inverness leg
Unusual ways have been found for some torchbearers to complete their relay leg.
One torchbearer will carry the flame on a chair lift at the Needles on the Isle of Wight, another will skate with it at the Nottingham Ice Centre and it will be rowed at Henley-on-Thames and on the River Bann in Coleraine, Northern Ireland.
High-flying activities await some torchbearers as the flame will be abseiled down the Dock Tower at Grimsby and swooped off the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle Gateshead on a zip wire. It will also be taken on a skywalk at Dublin's Croke Park
The overall route has been designed to also take in cultural institutions such as the Turner Gallery in Margate and Cass Sculpture Park at Goodwood as well as many sporting stadia and racecourses.
Sebastian Coe, chair of London 2012, said: "Today we bring the Olympic torch relay to life, with thousands of inspirational people from all over the UK being confirmed as torchbearers.
"We hope local communities come out and line the streets to cheer on the torchbearers, and celebrate the Olympic Games coming to the UK."
Organisers aim to bring the flame within 10 miles of 95% of the population.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17379058


Anyone else looked at the people on the list? I've had a look for my town which the torch is going through, and today looked at the people carrying it, to see if I knew any of them. The nearest torch bearer though lives over 20 miles away, with one living 60 miles away, which pretty much goes against it being for the community, as I've never heard of the people and nor has anyone else in Town I've spoken too. It's not as if there aren't people suitable, we had 2 people given MBE's for their charity work recently, we have a sports centre which trains Olympic athletes just out of town as well, if they were looking for sporty type people.


http://www.london201...rers/search.php

I've got an injury to one of my shoulders at the moment which I got during a violent struggle, and which has left me with graunching noises when I move it, along with numbness and lack of feeling in my hand. My force physio did a telephone assessment of me, and reckons that it's a muscle spasm in the shoulder muscles and has given me some strength exercises to try and sort it out.
The problem is they're not nearly as hard as what I normally do training-wise anyway. I can do press-ups quite easily, the ones I've been asked to do though are press-ups, but upright and against the wall, and all the other exercises are less than what I normally do as well.

Has anyone else had to do any sort of recuperation like this, and if so did it work, at the moment I feel it's a waste of my time, and I honestly can't see it making any difference, and for what it's worth I don't think its a muscle spasm either.

As the title say, I've been directed to the 'DHL' site below after buying an item from Amazon marketplace. Initially the seller told me that it was being sent by DHL and gave me a tracking number, but no matter what I tried DHL didn't recognise it so I asked the buyer if the tracking number was correct. The replied with the site below, and if you click on it it looks like DHL, but it has several flaws in that although it's a UK based site the helpline is a US one, there's nothing if you look at the sitemap, and if you try to ship something the only collection date is in February 2011!
I've spoke to DHL and they've looked at it; the person I spoke to was of the same opinion as me in that its probably  some sort of scam site, but they couldn't be definite; it could potentially get your log in details for DHL as well as account details etc

http://www.express-s...co.uk/index.php

Greater Manchester Police 'stretched beyond capacity'


The chair of Greater Manchester Police Federation has said force officers are "working well beyond maintainable limits".

In a letter to Chief Constable Peter Fahy, Chairman Elect Ian Hanson said response teams were "stretched well beyond capacity".
Mr Hanson was responding to Mr Fahy's comments over concerns raised by an anonymous officer.
The officer said Mr Fahy was "out of touch" over proposed cuts to the force.
Greater Manchester Police is undergoing a phased shedding of 3,000 posts, which will see it lose 23% of its workforce by 2015 to help save £134m after its annual budget was cut.
Mr Hanson said that while he appreciated "the difficult position policing is in", there was a "massive strength of feeling amongst GMP officers", which had been summed up in the anonymous letter.
'Huge insecurity'
"Officers are working well beyond maintainable limits and they cannot sustain this pressure much longer," he said.
"Response teams are barely able to function on a normal day and then when an incident occurs they are stretched well beyond capacity.
"Officers are seeing their numbers depleted and, despite what some local commanders may tell force command, things are starting to come apart."
End Quote Ian Hanson Chairman Elect, Greater Manchester Police Federation
The unnamed letter writer, who signed themselves "A Very Disgruntled Greater Manchester Police Officer", claimed morale amongst officers was "certainly the lowest I have ever known", officer safety was "being neglected" and promotion opportunities had been taken away to leave "a very stagnant working environment".
They said they were "going to have to look at a second job to supplement the money lost and that is before anyone changes to my pension".
In his response, Mr Fahy said he understood "the financial pressures on all staff, the huge insecurity faced by police staff and the threat to pensions".
"There is no point in pretending that morale is good at the moment in the police service or indeed anywhere in the public service," he said.
"There is a serious assault on living standards, staff are being asked to do more and we feel that the public and politicians do not recognise the value of what we do.
"That said, every day staff do amazing things to serve and protect the public and I believe the majority of police officers are realistic about the financial situation the country and ordinary people out there are in and are grateful for having a job they love doing."
Mr Hanson said he believed 2012 could be the "most difficult year" in the history of the force.
"The Olympics and the potential for yet more disorder looms on the horizon," he said.
"The government expect a demoralised and weary police service to step to the fore.
"I am sure they will do their best, however they are only human."


http://www.bbc.co.uk...hester-16618275

It's not just GMP, we got rid of all our canteens including HQ 3 or 4 years ago, our cars are literally falling apart, and it's going to get worse.

England riots: What is the impact of a criminal record?
As the courts deal with some of the hundreds of people charged in connection with the riots, igniting a row over whether the sentences being handed out are too harsh, the BBC asks what is the real cost of a criminal conviction?

When college student Nicolas Robinson set foot in a Lidl supermarket as he walked home from his girlfriend's house, he probably didn't think his actions would land him behind bars.

But stealing a £3.50 case of bottled water during the riots in Brixton has cost the 23-year-old dearly.

Robinson, of Borough, south-east London, is now serving six months in jail.

Justice campaigners, along with some MPs, have said some of the sentences given to those involved in the riots are too harsh while others have said tough penalties show that disorder does have consequences.

But what is becoming clear is that a criminal conviction - no matter how big or small - can have massive implications on a person's ability to lead a full life.

"We are seeing a lot of low-value crimes which are going to have a major effect on the lives of the people who committed those offences," said the BBC's legal correspondent Clive Coleman.

And Mervyn Barrett, of crime reduction charity Nacro, said many of those who played a part in the riots would live to regret their actions in more ways than one.

So what are the practical implications of a criminal conviction?


Employment
The majority of employers will ask about previous convictions and four million Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks are carried out every year in England and Wales, said Mr Barrett, head of resettlement information at Nacro.


'It's not worth it'
Vicky Smith's life spiralled out of control aged 15 when she started hanging around with an older crowd and got heavily into drugs and drinking.

She racked up more than 30 convictions, including criminal damage, arson and assaulting police officers, and was also sectioned a number of times.

Now 36, and more than 11 years after she committed her last crime, she still finds she is excluded from work and volunteering opportunities to teach Taekwondo, the sport she credits with turning her life around.

She has been turned away from schools and leisure centres where she lives in Godstone, Surrey, following CRB checks, and says it made her want to "give up".

"I'm still not getting the opportunities I want because of these silly offences I did as a teenager, but at the time I didn't care," says Vicky, who has a six-month-old son.

"I can't get anything now and I feel I really can make a difference to a lot of young people but I'm not getting the chance. It's so not worth it."

Vicky, now a world bronze medallist in Taekwondo, says she hopes that one day employers can see "past the piece of paper that is stopping me from fulfilling my dream".

If a person is not asked about previous convictions by a potential employer there is no legal duty to disclose.

However, if an employer does ask about an unspent criminal conviction a potential employee must disclose the information. If that person lies it is a criminal offence and they could be prosecuted for fraud.

There are large number of professions where convictions can never be spent and must be disclosed, including doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers and police officers.

Mr Barrett said a heightened awareness of criminal pasts came about when criminal record checks were introduced in the 1980s.

"Once upon a time you could pick up a criminal conviction and it wouldn't matter because only you and a handful of other people would know about it - employers didn't think in terms of criminal records," he said.

"Now we have widespread criminal record checks and I would imagine that in a few years we might have universal record checks.

"You can't escape your past as you could previously - it is a major problem."

If a person has a job and is sent to prison it is very likely they will lose that job, said Mr Barrett, but even if they are not jailed it is possible to be dismissed for gross misconduct.


Study
The tendency is that if a student is applying for health, social care and education courses they will be refused a place if they have a criminal conviction, said Mr Barrett. And if they are already on a course they could be asked to leave.


Spent or unspent?

• The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 provides that after a period of time some convictions will become 'spent'
• For example, a fine becomes spent after five years regardless of the offence
• If a conviction is spent there is no need to disclose the information
• A basic CRB check will disclose only unspent convictions
• An intermediate level check, for example to work with children, will show all convictions

• Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974

Even a small conviction for fighting or shoplifting can have a major impact, said Mr Barrett.

"If you are a young person it's absolutely devastating," he said.

"An awful lot of young people are told by the police when they are given a reprimand or caution 'Don't worry about it, it will be off your record in two, three or five years, or when you reach 18 or 21' - none of which is true.

"Police officers say this with the best of intentions but if you pick up a reprimand or caution it will show up on your police record for life."

Most individual universities or colleges post their disciplinary policies on their websites.


Travel
There can be difficulties in getting visas or entering certain countries for those with previous convictions. It is always best to check what the situation is before travelling.

In particular, travelling to the USA can be an issue. British citizens can usually travel to the country without a visa but if a person has a criminal conviction they will need one and they must provide background about their conviction.

If a traveller wants a work or residential permit it can be harder because information about previous convictions and proof of good character is required.

"In general (when applying for a visa or permits to live or work) you have to put a criminal conviction in context," said Mr Barrett.

"I suspect that if people put their behaviour into context in relation to the recent riots then it's not going to go down too well."


Housing
As with employers, there is a duty to disclose unspent convictions in an application for a mortgage. If a potential homeowner does not there could be consequences because the mortgage agreement will have been broken.

The prime minister has backed plans for people who "loot and pillage their own community" to be evicted from council houses.

Wandsworth in London became the first council to serve an eviction notice over the riots, while Nottingham City Council, Salford City Council and Westminster, Greenwich and Hammersmith and Fulham councils in London are all considering the move.


Insurance
A person with previous convictions can find it almost impossible to get any kind of insurance.

"The reality is that if your convictions are not spent you will be expected to disclose that and having disclosed it you may well be refused insurance entirely or you may find that premiums are sky high," said Mr Barrett.


Wider implications
Mr Barrett said that aside from the practical implications there were often psychological implications - sometimes years after a person committed the crime.


About Nacro

• Criminal justice charity
• Previously known as National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders
• Runs a helpline offering advice to people convicted of crime, their family and friends, probation staff, lawyers and employers

• Nacro

"What is always evident from the calls we get is the degree of shame people feel about their past behaviour," said Mr Barrett.

"Shame and embarrassment is often a greater problem than the practical problems offenders face.

"Those people involved in the recent looting and rioting who are being processed by the courts at the moment - many of them are going to spend the rest of their lives either regretting [their behaviour] or finding that it comes back to haunt them from time to time because in a world with criminal record checks you really can't escape your past."



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14556347


I've pinned this topic, as it's quite useful as we get a lot of people asking if there past will come back to haunt them, hopefully this will answer their questions.