U.K News
Olympic Ticket Sales For Paris Games Gets Off To Rocky Start 2023
PARIS, France The online system for buying tickets to the upcoming Olympics in Paris was made to change the way people buy tickets and bring huge crowds to stadiums and arenas for as little as $26. The event’s organizers promised this to ensure “egalitarian” event access.
Many of the “lucky” winners who were able to buy the first 3 million tickets (out of 10 million total) during the first month of sales are now feeling frustrated, angry, and cheated because the only remaining events cost at least 200 euros ($212) each and sold out within 48 hours of the sale’s opening. Additionally, many customers spent thousands of dollars because the ticketing system requires purchasing packages for multiple sports.
When English teacher Amélie Beney and her 9-year-old son won the lottery last week to access the Olympic ticket office, most events had sold out, and tickets were prohibitively expensive.
Beney would need to purchase at least two tickets to two separate events in addition to the soccer game tickets, which were priced at 50 euros ($53). Tickets ranged in price from €150 ($160) for basketball or handball to €230 ($244) for swimming and a whopping €690 ($732) for a qualifying event in track and field.
At that price, who can go? Inquired Beney. “I can’t.”
Beney was dismayed because she and her son planned to spend their tenth birthday purchasing in honor of his interest in attending the home Olympics.
The organizers of the upcoming Paris Olympics say they are well aware of the high demand for tickets.
I was hoping desperately to get Olympic tickets. And I wanted him to have that experience here in our city,” Beney explained. I lost faith in the system and the prices after a while. Ridiculous.
You had to have your name picked from a hat to get tickets for the first round. Winners have been notified via email since February 13 that they have 48 hours to purchase three to thirty tickets to at least three of the 32 events for which tickets are being offered. First-round ticket sales end on March 15.
The organizers of the upcoming Paris Olympics say they are well aware of the high demand for tickets and realize that only some people who want to attend will be able to do so, especially at a reasonable price.
“We know that people are going to be disappointed, and we know that we don’t have tickets for everybody,” Michael Aloisio, the deputy general manager of the Paris Olympics; on the other hand, we anticipate the upcoming release of additional selling phases, each of which will feature a larger number of available tickets.
According to Aloisio, ticket sales make up one-third of the revenue Paris organizers need to pay for the Olympics.
“The challenge for us was to not have this target compromise our goal to make these Games accessible,” Aloisio said.
An announcement last year that 1 million tickets would be available for 24 euros ($26) and over 4 million for less than 50 euros ($53) was met with excitement by fans in France and around the world. They sold out quickly in the first few days of the lottery, leaving the “lucky” people drawn later with high prices and a limited selection of events.
Aloisio estimates that only one million of the ten million tickets sold were priced at more than 200 euros ($212).
“These tickets make other tickets more affordable and balance the scales,” he explained.
American “Olympics super fan” Robin Allison Davis, 38, said she wasn’t expecting to find a good deal when it came time to look for tickets to the events she was most interested in watching (gymnastics, swimming, and track and field).
To watch a two-hour gymnastics qualifying event, she was prepared to pay 260 euros paris($276) per ticket, but she became frustrated when the online ticketing office appeared to have transformed into a virtual casino.
“I knew it would be expensive, but why is the system that promised to give me freedom and choice to form my Olympic package tricking me into buying expensive tickets for sports? I don’t want to see if I want to get expensive tickets for an event I want to see,” Davis said. “This whole ticket bundle business is a sham.”
Davis has been a freelance journalist based in Paris for the past six and a half years. She did not purchase any tickets for the first round but plans to splurge on individual tickets for the second draw in May.
Committee member Aloisio defended the ticket package system, saying the Paris organizers wanted to spark interest in other sports.
Water polo, hockey, and 7-a-side rugby are all sports for which there may have been less demand, but Aloisio believes offering them ticket packages will help increase ticket sales.
Altogether, 10 million Olympic tickets and 3.4 million Paralympic tickets will be made available through the website. On May 11, there will be a second round of ticket sales where individuals can purchase tickets. The deadline to enter the draw is March 15.
The final phase, during which all remaining tickets will be sold, will begin by the year’s end.
SOURCE – (AP)
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U.K News
Keir Starmer Rejects Meeting With WW2 Veteran Over Her Frozen Pension
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has rejected a request from a 99-year-old WW2 for a meeting to discuss the frozen state pension policy for citizens living abroad. Starmer declined the meeting but offered an alternative meeting with Pensions Minister Emma Reynolds.
Anne Puckridge, who turns 100 this month, went from her home in Canada to agitate Keir Starmer’s Labour government over the state pension freeze.
The World War II veteran told the BBC that she is “angry” and “heartbroken” following a meeting with the pensions minister, who led her to believe that the government will not reconsider its policy of freezing the state pensions of some British people living abroad.
Anne Puckridge is one of approximately 453,000 British retirees living overseas who do not receive an annual increase in their state pension.
Pensions Minister Emma Reynolds agreed to a meeting after Sir Keir Starmer’s request to meet was denied owing to purported “pressures on his diary.”
Ms. Puckridge stated that the meeting in Parliament left her feeling “bitterly disappointed” and “disgusted”.
She stated that she had the idea Reynolds had been “polite enough and kind enough to come in and spend her time with her,” but that her mind had already been made up before the meeting began.
Ms Puckridge stated that she and her other campaigners would have to think carefully about what they could do from now on, but she assured them that they would take action.
State Pension Minister Reynolds thanked Ms Puckridge for the meeting and for sharing her insights.
A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) representative stated that the government recognizes that “people move abroad for various reasons, and we provide clear information on how this can affect their pensions.”
The policy of increasing the UK state pension for recipients living abroad has existed for many years.
Since she relocated to Canada in 2001 at the age of 76 to live closer to her daughter, Ms Puckridge has received £72.50 (C$129.00) per week.
Her state pension is now less than half the £169.50 (C$302.00) paid to seniors still residing in the United Kingdom. She told the BBC that frozen pensions touch all aspects of life.
“You’ve got to be careful about entertainment,” she told me. “You must realize that you cannot be as kind to your grandkids as you would like.
“You feel you’ve lost all sense of dignity, the government has thrown you away, you know, out of sight out of mind.”
Ms. Puckridge stated that when she alerted the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that she was moving to Canada, “they never said a word about [my] pension being frozen”.
“The first I knew about it was when my first rise was due,” she recalled.
“I didn’t understand it. So I wrote and enquired about it, and I was told no… you will not receive any additional pension rises when you leave the UK.” She said, “It’s the injustice of it that is so unfair, the fact that we were never warned.”
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U.K News
Air Force Drones Spotted Over UK Military Bases
British military expertise has been brought in to assist in identifying persons responsible for flying Air Force drones near US military locations. According to the BBC, 60 RAF troops have been dispatched to assist the US Air Force with its probe.
The Air Force drones were not deemed hostile, according to the USAF, who added that the sightings “fluctuated and varied between the bases” and “ranged in sizes and configurations”.
According to the Ministry of Defence, “We are supporting the US Air Force response.”
The announcement follows several recent reports of unmanned aerial vehicles sighted near RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk and RAF Feltwell in adjacent Norfolk.
There have been other reports of drone activity overnight. According to the USAF, the vehicles were few in number and modest in size.
A representative for the US Air Forces in Europe stated, “We can confirm that there were sightings yesterday during nighttime hours, but the number fluctuated and varied between the bases throughout the night.”
The official stated that since the first sightings on November 20th, there has been “no impact on residents or infrastructure, and they have not been identified as hostile.”
However, the Air Force drones remained under surveillance “to ensure the safety and security of the installations.”
They said, “We request individuals in the area to contact either local police or security forces if they see anything suspicious.”
‘Treat threats seriously’
Officials in the United States and the United Kingdom have not said who is responsible for the recent drone activity.
However, the BBC understands there were worries that a state actor could be involved.
In recent months, intelligence officials have warned of increasing Russian sabotage operations against Western countries supporting Ukraine.
RAF Mildenhall is primarily home to the USAF’s 100th Air Refuelling Wing; RAF Lakenheath is home to USAF F-35A and F-15E fighter jets; and RAF Feltwell is mainly concerned with logistics and provides housing for military personnel.
A spokesman for the MoD, which owns the bases, said: “We take threats seriously and maintain robust measures at defence sites.
“We are supporting the US Air Force response.”
The USAF has not said who it believed to be behind the incidents.
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U.K News
General Election Petition in UK Hits 2 Million Signatures
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has ruled out holding an early general election after a petition calling for a second vote garnered two million signatures.
Over the weekend, a petition calling for another general election was started on the UK Parliament website. It cited Starmer’s failure to keep all his pledges made in the run-up to the previous election. By Monday mid-morning, it had surpassed two million signatures.
When asked about the petition, Starmer said he was “not surprised” that some individuals who did not vote for Labour in the previous election want a “re-run” of the poll.
He claimed that he had “inherited a lot of problems” from the previous administration and had resolved to “take the hard decisions first.”
Starmer ruled out an early general election, stating that only the Prime Minister can request that the King call a general election; it simply will not happen, he said.
This petition, started last week and sponsored by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, calls on the government to schedule a new general election.
To sign a petition, you must verify that you are a British citizen or resident and provide a postcode.
The petition states, “I would prefer there to be another general election. I believe the present Labour government has broken the pledges they made before the last election.”
The petition comes only five months after Labour won the July general election with 9.7 million votes and 412 seats in the House of Commons.
However, the Labour Party garnered only 35% of the vote, the lowest percentage gained by a single-party administration since the conclusion of WWII.
Some of the policies implemented by Starmer and his Labour government have received significant criticism, including an inheritance tax on farms, a reduction in winter heating payments, an increase in employers’ national insurance, and applying VAT to private school fees.
According to the most recent Ipsos political pulse poll, the Labour Party is unpopular, with 28% of the public favoring it and 49% opposing it.
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