Jobless Worked Unpaid At Diamond Jubilee, Slept Under London Bridge

The long-term unemployed represent an immense untapped resource in the U.S. But the U.K. really knows how to tap that resource: Bus them to London to work unpaid at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee; tell them to sleep under London Bridge the night before; make them change into their uniforms in public; force them to work a 14-hour shift in pouring rain; deprive them of bathroom access for 24 hours; and then dump them at a swampy, pitch-black campsite to sleep it all off.

After The Guardianbroke the story that a contractor for the event, Close Protection UK, brought as many as 80 job seekers to work the jubilee in miserable conditions and without fair compensation, there was an outcry. The former deputy prime minister, Lord Prescott, even wrote to the home secretary, reports The Guardian, saying that he was "deeply concerned," and that the situation should be investigated and Close Protection UK's upcoming Olympics contract reviewed.