Remember John Yates, the Met. Police officer embroiled in the phone hacking/police corruption saga, who was giving evidence to the Home Affairs select committee just before the Murdoch show rolled into the CMS select committee last summer? He's currently working as special advisor to the Bahraini Interior Ministry. He wrote to the FIA to tell them everything is cool in the country and Ecclestone's view of any trouble being down to a few extremist louts is spot on. This was shortly before the White House expressed "growing concern" over the situation. So, despite the massive protest a month ago and the mystery manager's view that the race can only be run under "a complete military lockdown," it looks like the Lotus view that it can take place under normal civilian policing and burning tyres will prevail and the race will go ahead... Meanwhile James Allen allegardly thinks the teams' biggest fear regarding Bahrain is kidnap. Funny that. I thought it was upsetting Ecclestone or not getting paid. Ecclestone will meet with teams tomorrow ahead of Todt's arrival on Saturday. Final deadline for cancellation would be Sunday morning but, if the position of the FIA and FOM is going to change, the decision will obviously be made during those meetings.
Ecclestone now says only the Bahrain sporting authorities can cancel the race. The teams say only the FIA can decide. Ecclestone says only the Bahrainis can decide. Who will Todt pass the buck to?
He could ask Georgie Thompson to decide. She seems to know what she's talking about. Ah, he's such a good ole boy, Webber, who speaks his mind and is nobody's puppet.
Is this the longest speech he's ever made? Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen said: "For teams it's a tricky situation because they need to know by a certain date whether to send equipment. For drivers, we just have to change our flight ticket."
Even the British government has refused to take responsibility for the decision now! William Hague just said on BBC News 24 that he won't start deciding whether sporting events around the world take place and that this is entirely a matter for Formula 1. Everyone, it seems, is suffering from the Wall•E effect. EDIT: JYS on now saying F1 shouldn't give in to the bully boy protestors because it'll show that the sport buckles when threatened. "Where will it end? The Olympics? The World Cup?" The Bahrain GP was cancelled last year, wasn't it?
Will we see Nicole or any of the usual celebs in Manama next week, do you think? Or anyone for that matter?! If you had a ticket, would you go to the most "lucrative" Grand Prix of the season? Oh, I forgot, it's all just a media fabrication, everything's "perfect''. "Super, we do what we can" etc...
Is it me or the more Jackie Stewart opens his mouth with regard to the rich elite the more and more I dislike him as a person. If it isn't about RBS it's now Bahrain that he sticks up for his "friends".
It's not just you and I'm glad it's not just me. He has been mouthing off all week about the Bahrain GP and I haven't liked a word I've heard. The guy lives in another world like most of those élite types. The RBS stuff really pissed me off too. In a way, I'm glad that people like him let people like me know how they think, as repulsive as it is to me personally, just to learn how it feels on the other side.
Their position is understandable: they feel it isn't their place to try to dictate whether or not F1 runs in other countries. Their current travel advice is somewhat harder to understand though. http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and...e-by-country/middle-east-north-africa/bahrain
I agree that it's not the British govt's responsibility regarding the race but it sure as hell is the FCO's responsibility to give clear and unambiguous travel advice: what a shambles, as usual.
Slightly off-topic but related to the British Government's general attitude to international crises⦠I have a friend living in Tokyo, who told me of the actions of British and French embassies in response to the tsunami disaster and the possibility of radioactive fallout from the nuclear reactors: The British gave virtually no advice, in most cases not even bothering to contact British subjects living close by in Tokyo, never mind elsewhere in Japan. On the other hand, the French immediately offered every single French national and their families living anywhere in Japan, a free flight home with all of their belongingsâ¦
