You underestimate the threat to the minor royals and celebrities who take an interest in sailing. Plus there'll be the corporates from Henri Lloyd, Musto, Gil, Gull etc, all on their Sunseeker gin-palaces, flocking to get a bird's-eye (maybe gannet's-eye) view of the excitement. I think the fact that most sailing events tend to take place in the bloody sea, miles away from land, has escaped many who got all caught up in the excitment. I reckon the biggest winners will be Bausch & Lomb and any other manufacturers of binoculars. I still reckon I've got the best view of all - a 50" Panasonic HD plasma about 8' from my sofa

Last year, I was prevented from delivering a RIB to the Royal Naval Yard at Pompey because I had my dog with me in the van. The security guard (note: not an proper copper, or an MP or even a stoker with a gun but a security guard employed by the same people contracted to safeguard the Olympics - G4S), told me it was because terrorists had been known to pack dogs with Semtex and then explode them remotely. The fact that I was hardly likely to blow up my best mate cut no ice with this fella. So I reversed out of the gate, drove to a local transport cafe and asked the woman behind the counter if I could leave him there for 20 minutes or so.

I drove back in, the guard checked that I didn't have a dog and waved me through. At no time did he check the RIB or the two pallets of spares I had in the back of the van. In fact after that incident, I used to stop a couple of hundred yards before the gate, tell the dog to get off the seat and into the footwell and then throw a blanket over him - no problem.

In some ways, I can understand the Yanks' concerns

I remember it being reported somewhere in the recent past that the US navy had offered assistance to protect the Olympics.
The Royal Navy where apparently none too amused. It would not however surprise me if we see a "friendly" visit from an American carrier just before the Olympics starts. On a goodwill mission of course, nothing to do with the yanks ensuring they have assets in the area, because they dont trust they limeys to play ball.

I have read elsewhere that the Anti aircraft defences are likely to provided by at least one of the new Type 45 Destroyers.
These have the capability to pretty much track anything over the UK and engage something like 8 aircraft at a time.

A type 45 parked in the Thames Estuary would be able to pretty much cover the whole of London.

Combine that with RAF fighters on standby and any air major air threat could be dealt with.

Personally think the biggest risk to security will be the thousands of foreign agents mulling round London under the guise of being there as security personnel to protect their nationals from untoward behaviour.
Just imagine 1000 CIA/FBI agents milling round London armed to the teeth, a 100 or so Mossad agents, 300 russian GRU/Spetsnatz, 100 German GSG9, etc, all of whom will need watching by mi5, special branch and the normal police.

It wasn't my link, In turn I'd suggest you read the posts properly.

And to some extent yes, they are 'locked down'. Not in the defcon 4 approach I'm sure you're imagining though, in terms of vastly increased security and limited or altered flight paths.

If MI5, special branch and the normal police are watching them then who's going to be watching the Islamic terrorists or anarchists?

You see, thats where having a German Shepherd dog comes in useful, all you need to do is explain that he is your security back up, ever alert and highly trained with razor sharp senses and keen eyes, ears and nose for anything at all dodgy or terrorist related...



I'll rent you ours if you like ?

Take a look at most sniffer dogs mate, they're not unlike this one of mine:



And he's not afraid to put his hand up if needs be

I wonder what sort of weirdo came up with the idea of using a dog to sniff peoples s to see if they've shoved sachets of coke up there?

Very suspicious looking that dog

, just out of interest , did the security guard explain how they get the Semtex into the dogs , not much chance with my old Lurcher/Collie cross , I took him to the vets and didn't hear the vet when he said he was going to take his temperature , he nearly took the vets hand off

Well they're unlikely to find any humans to do it ?

Gareth Hock?