Nick Buckles: man out of time. Nick Buckles: man of his times. The head of G4S, the security firm that failed to recruit enough guards in time for the Olympics, is also a man of the moment, perfectly synchronised with the way London is today. £5.3m earnings last year. Cheesy grin like David Dickinson. Central Casting for the fat cat that only knows how to cream? But Nick Buckles does not lack integrity. His operation was fully integrated with London’s current way of being. ‘They are all working through a process of interview, two or three different degrees of training, licensing, accreditation’ – Buckles describing the applicants who didn’t make it onto the company’s books in time. He went on: ‘Our review process was around the number of people applying for interviews, we had 100,000 of those, the number of people interviewed which was 50,000. So basically you work through that process of numbers….’ Process, process, process. Not only his keyword but also the key to a city – the City, which processes value for and on behalf of global capital. Accordingly, Buckles has been carrying out a ‘process of numbers’ for and on behalf of the International Olympics Committee and its London brokers, Locog. His company does not seem to have fully grasped that the outcome of this process was to be finalised before the opening ceremony. But its inability to complete is consistent with London’s everyday priorities: continuous financial processes; continuity of finance. Buckles’ manner of speaking is similarly inconclusive. (And not only about G4S and the Olympics. He once said ‘I can’t say I have ever read a book, particularly’.) Yet when circling around a topic, not quite getting there, it isn’t simply that he is being evasive. Speaking inconclusively, he is articulating a whole way of life – process, process, process – which is how London lives today. To repeat, Nick Buckles – man out of time; Nick Buckles – man of his times.