UK Sport
In 2002 I wrote a couple of letters to the Yorkshire Post arguing that sport at the grass roots was dying a slow death, strangled by lack of opportunities in our state schools and a woeful waste of funds on vanity projects such as the Olympics.
David Walsh’s piece a few weeks ago, criticising UK Sport’s obsession with chasing medals as it allocates hundreds of millions of public money, certainly seems to have ruffled a few publicly funded feathers.
He returned to the subject this week – covered ages ago in the critically acclaimed “A Critics’ Corner” (by me) – and a paragraph is worth repeating.
“…sporting policy should reflect a sense of fair play. In this country’s two-tiered education system, children who attend fee-paying schools (around 7%) enjoy a superior sporting experience; better facilities, much better coaching (i.e. better than none in most cases) and much more competition (competition…we cant have that!).
“It so happens that many of the sports favoured at our elite schools are also sports at which it is easier to win Olympic medals.”
UK Sport’s rebuff to Walsh via its CEO, in effect, stated that the grass roots is not their responsibility introducing another bloated quango in Sport England.
UK Sports’ ugly sister will invest over £1 billion of National Lottery and Exchequer funding between 2012 and 2017; CEO Jennie Price blurts in their 2013 Annual Report:
“In December 2012 we published results showing that 15.5 million people play sport, once a week, every week. This is the highest ever figure, over 1.5 million more than in 2005 when London won the bid to host the Games and 750,000 up on the previous six months.”
How convenient, back-slaps and G&Ts all round then! And where do they get these numbers from?
Anybody who is involved with youth sport will know that this is spin a la Alastair Campbell proportions. Put bluntly it’s rubbish.
Sport England’s claimed focus is “to increase the percentage of 14-25 year-olds playing sport…and reduce the proportion of young people dropping out of sport” where they admit “the rate of participation has declined from 57 per cent in October 2008 to 54 per cent in 2012.”
Again, those of us not glued to our statistics know that unless you engage kids early their chances of developing skills necessary for them to enjoy, compete and persevere at sport are limited to say the least.
By the age of 14, one third or more will be chronically overweight, probably addicted to some form of electrical device and hormones will be raging. As a former colleague of mine, involved with sport all his life puts it.
“Could you explain it to Sport England so that they stop wasting millions trying to get teenagers and adults back into the sports they have never ever taken up?”
Well I could but you see it might mess up the pie chart.
The chronic failure of school sport in the state sector has created the headline seeking, numbers spurting quangos we now suffer and pay for, in tow to their political masters of all sides, desperate to keep the “good news” flowing.
Their annual reports are designed to induce a slumber in the enquiring mind, deluged as the reader is by fluff-speak; only when you get to the details of the remuneration packages do you perk up again.
Here are some numbers. There are roughly 17,000 state primary schools in England and £1bn would equate to about £12k per annum for each primary school over the next five years to spend on PE.
Who needs a quango apart from those that cling to it’s gravy train?
More Westfield Junk
T’Council were boasting that KFC, Burger King and Hey Potato (who?) will take space in the £260m Bradford Broadway shopping centre.
Good news for the City’s healthy living campaign then and more work still for the quangos…well at least when the fatties get to age 14!
Throstle Nest
Campaigners from Throstle Nest Riding School, Fagley, threatened with eviction from their popular base took to their horses to Bradford’s City Hall, where they handed in hundreds of written objections.
Local councillors rejected these on the basis that they were far too logical and did not have copies in Polish, Roma and Urdu.
Perhaps the horses summed up this crap plan the only way horses can.
Ney!!!!!
The “Expert”
Twenty-four hour news takes a lot of filling. Hence, the rise of the “expert” designed to fill precious minutes of airtime with utter bullshit.
God knows where they find these people but the level of insight granted rarely rises above that of any local up and down the country.
The other day there was a money-saving “expert” spouting off; not that irritating whiny Martin Lewis but a clone who barely looked old enough to possess a piggy bank yet there he was, on Sky News, shamelessly talking bollocks.
We now have “experts” for the “blindingly obvious”, the “should have seen it coming”, “Vladimir Putin might not be so nice” and “what to do when your house is eight feet under water”.
Bring back the test card unless she’s been hauled in by Operation Yewtree as well.
Bully Bully
Whilst not being a rugby league supporter, I understand the importance of Bradford Bulls to the thousands of people, young and old, who support them; the sorry saga of the last few years is sad to say the least.
What is reasonable to state though is that this is another example of a professional sports outfit that has lurched into a financial mess simply through bad management – perhaps greed – but certainly living way beyond any sense of realistic means.
Maybe, now it’s time for a bit of old fashioned realism.
The Bulls don’t own Odsal Stadium anymore and probably cannot afford to remain based there. Curiously, the Rugby Football League own the second biggest hole in Bradford and, as a shopping centre rises from the biggest, what to do with Odsal will be a challenge.
Putting pride to one side, a move across town to Bradford City’s Valley Parade seems the only option. Whether the Bulls can then avoid relegation from the Not So Super League would be down to a real “backs to the wall” effort.
From past evidence, run well and within their means, the Bulls won’t lack support.
Men!
“Cooling down” after Pensioners’ Pilates the other morning with one of the trainers, we were joined at the coffee bar by a rather comely young thing about half my age and, doubtless, twice my energy.
Soon she had engaged us – not involuntarily I might add – in a discussion about her pending boob job as she patted each rather distractingly.
As a responsible adult (sorry?…Ed) I naturally counselled her on the health issues although in reality they looked pretty fine and dandy as they were.
A debate ensued and I thought we had progress until she said “I’ll show you them when they’re done”.
And in flash we were unanimous that this was, indeed, a grand idea; crack on love and get them out for the lads!
London Calling
Mind The Gap, presented by Evan Davis, is a two-parter from the BBC designed to tell us why we should all be grateful to the economic miracle that is London; some might consider this more patronising, self-congratulatory rubbish from a London-centric media.
With rather too many uses of the phrase “bottom-up growth” one might be tempted to rearrange the words and get a better meaning all together.
With fancy BBC graphics, Davis showed the country waking up region by region; the Scots barely twitching, the North only to roll over and fart, whilst London awoke with an enormous, pulsing stiffy.
In fairness to Davis he did point out that London does little different to what it did 100 years ago whereas up North we don’t mine, make steel, build ships or weave cloth for the rest of the world anymore. Tough luck then!
But is a nation where more people work in the media than in manufacturing a good long term bet? Similarly, although we lecture the Arabs, Chinese and Russians on human rights from afar, we still seem happy to sell them half of London.
In a city where £300k gets you a shoebox and the trip to work everyday is spent imitating a sardine, maybe it’s not that grim ‘oop North after all.
The Pundit
The more sport you get on television the more pundits you need to describe the blindingly obvious and the trend these days to install ex-players behind a mike has led to a woeful standard.
So may I recommend the incisive observations of Big Al from the cosy studios of The Scruffy.
Commenting on Bradford City’s new striker – yet to actually strike – Big Al summed up with an accuracy and pointedness that may not yet get him that plum BBC job.
“He would not score in a brothel with £50 notes hanging from his knob!” said Big Al with a satisfied slurp of his ale.
And now back to you in the studio Gary!
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