I don't agree with you on the issue of funding! The National Lottery has been putting in huge amounts of investment in British Sport since it started in 1994. Cycling for example has benefited hugely from the National Lottery and the results speak for themselves. This type of funding has been secured for year on year investment through Sport England and it can only get better now after a sensational olympics showing. The huge numbers of youngsters that have been talent spotted over the last few years in Cycling and Rowing already makes success more likely in future games. For Sir Chris Hoy read Jason Kenny, for Victoria Pendleton read Laura Trott and the list is endless! The Government has also ring fenced sports funding including the abolishing of selling off school playing fields. The one thing in this country that we have to accept is that competitive sport is healthy and we shouldn't be afraid of being the best we can be! We always seem to view success with suspicion and that is where are problems lay!
I agree with your point although that is not exactly what I was arguing. You are right with all that you in that paragraph except "it can only get better" because the focus of funding will shift away from this, I'm not saying it's going to be completely taking away but it will be less, maybe not in the next couple of years but certainly after that. There's no doubt the Lottery have done wonders for competitive sport since 1994 and that has certainly increased through Sport England in the past few years but I'm pretty sure from what I can decifer that from now on the focus on this funding will shift in focus to Health promotion and grass routes, which is good although it seems a shame that focusing on either competitive elite sport or grass routes/health promotion means the other one looses funding (which it does) as they both help one another. What I am saying is the funding from Sports England has been focused on elite and competitive sport in the past few years mainly due to us hosting the Olympics and once they are over they will move their attention more to health promotion and grass roots level. Unfortunately due to hosting the Olympic games and the government ring fencing the NHS, Health promotion has taken a big hit and has been seriously scaled back accross the country and including schools sports programmes, free swimming, school health community trainers etc. This is unfortunate because at the time of the olympics people seem to really want to get into sport and those who need to get into sport most (aka inactive/fat people) will find it much harder to get into sport/exercise.
Personally I think the whole legacy thing as a load of crap. It will take 4 or 5 years to prove one way or another but I cant see that this or any other event will convince lardy kids who enjoy sitting on their arses playing computer games and eating junk food to change their habits. It may well make active kids try a new direction but not alot more. For me it is as much a cash cow/ show of self endulgence as the premier league, the NBA or anything else and just because the likes of the bbc are giving full coverage to the so called legacy claims it doesnt mean that other sports outside the god like LOGOC do any less. Most football clubs also have charitable community and encourage sport and community togetherness. The only real difference I can see between the 'brilliant olympians' and the 'devil incarnate footballers' picture that seems to be painted is the fact that we follow footballers every day of the year and so have some background knowledge of a) what they do outside of the football arena and b) what they are meant to do on it. I bet more people as a percentage are kicked out of track and field type events for illegal substances than footballers. I also bet for every clean living current olympian hero there are a percentage who do everything that is currently fashionable to hate about footballers. Those that miss training after a heavy party, those that are involved in pub fracas' and those that made themselves look like arseholes by being showoffs/ loud/ obnoxious/ cheats or anything else. Its just they are not famous so its not likely to hit the headlines. Is there any different from missing a penalty to falling off a high beam etc in the olympic finals? Both competitors train hard and will repeat the routine time after time. I bet 99% of us would swear about the footballer yet next to nobody would have a go at the gymnast. There are good and bad in all and in no way would I want to paint footballers are brilliant people, I share the same views on them as most but it seems that because 95% of the country has olympic euphoria currently then its fine to paint totally false pictures of everything and everybody.
It is because we are so sick to death and appalled by some footballers that we have suddenly realised that there are a whole array of different sports out there! I'm not saying that they are all angels that participate but I am damn sure from what I have seen so far that they won't be appearing in court charged with racially abusing their opponents or raping young women in their hotel rooms!
On the contrary. We have a health minister with an interest in Pepsi and Mars sales and a food industry who wallops 'five a day' labels on sausage and mash ready meals, runs endless promotions on sweets and fizzy drinks and puts the healthier, less profitable options on the bottom shelves. The government interferes whenever it will benefit their own personal interests and keep the old boys clubs going. The food companies are allowed to control what we consume and somehow putting a stop to that would be nanny-statism. If you have a government who are not going to act for the benefit of the people of the country, what is the point of having a government at all Warky?
Totally agree with the nanny state that surrounds young kids is bad for the future, Little Jonny isn't going to be inspired to try his hardest if he knows at half time the scores will be put back to 0-0. we need to concertrate on improving the skills whilst also keeping the competiton aspect. after all we play sports to win!
As for the lottery, so much of that money is pissed away. It's great to see that a small percentage of it is being used productively.
Depends how you approach it!! I'm against the nanny state, unfortunately successive governments including this one continouisly take the wrong approach, they never get to the route of the problem!! For me it's not about nannying people it's about nudging people in the right direction by giving them choice and the opportunity, you have to educate people into making the right choices and make it easier for people to exercise and eat healthy food (do i sound like a polititian?). Something major will have to happen eventually though and if health promotion isn't taken seriously that will in the end mean private health care, which i geuss you are for if you are against anything nanny-statism? I agree in a way tractorbhoy, I think it will make those who were previously active or active take up more sport but not really those who we need to be taking up exercise etc but hopefully it will inspire those kids before the 'drop out' age to take up sport and hopefully not drop out of it. As for the rest of your paragraph I agree with your point perhaps not quite so vermently though and that was what I was implying when I said people have got a little bit carried away with it all but you can't really complain about this, for years of people being negative about it, it's great to see people embracing it and there do actually appear to be some good role models who can really 'inspire the next generation'.
rape -http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/7378710/Former-Olympian-convicted-of-rape-assault and at this olympics - drunken behaviour, vandalism and racism - http://www.rt.com/sport/booth-rowing-expelled-australia-london2012-olympics-scandal-853/ and yes I know that one of the racists was a footballer.
I couldn't care less what kind of healthcare is delivered so long as people get the right treatment and are treated quickly! I really don't get this idea that private healthcare must always be bad! If people can afford to go private then thats great and it free's up valuable NHS resources for those that don't have that luxury. As far as nannyism is concerned people should be encouraged to have healthier lifestyles but we shouldn't castigate people for not doing so! I have even heard of health professionals actively campaigning for smokers not to be treated on the NHS! To my mind that is a slippery slope to a stalinist state and those who advocate healthcare rationing in any form should be disbarred! People should be free to chose their lifestyle choices so long as they do not interfere with anyone else and are legal!
It seems in all you're arguments JWM you go for the extremes of a situation, there's really no middle ground with you is there? I was not saying private health care was always bad, I am saying we don't want it to be the norm, we don't want to be like the US where people can't afford the treatment or have to worry about being able to pay for treatment. If people can afford private health care they should be able to use it, that is not what i was saying though. People should have the choice of what health care they want to use. The problem is an absolutely massive proportion of diseases in this country are lifestyle related or could be managed by a better lifestyle and in the end the NHS will crumble under the financial burden. Physical inactivity costs the NHS around £6 billion a year and rising, and that is a conservative estimate on just inactivity, not even those who are not inactive but could be more active. So in the end this would leave the worse off not being able to afford health care or having to worry about affording it and if you are ill you have the added burden of worrying about organising to pay for it etc, it would be a nightmare. I'm far from saying we should not give treatment for those who choose to smoke or lead an unhealthy lifestyle, they need to take more responsibility but refusing treatment is ridiculous!! There are some treatments however that are all to easily given out, like this gastric band thing. The health service also needs to step up to the mark itself and engage with the health promotion sector, too many doctors are just willing to give out pills willy nilly when trying to change the patients lifestyle would be far more effective for both the patient and the health service!! People should have free choice but this choice needs to be an informed choice, unfortunately many people aren't at the moment!!
the problem is Warky that people can be, and frequently are manipulated by corporations who spend huge sums of money on research into pushing the buttons in human brains in order to maximise their profits. So this concept of choice you speak of doesn't really exist.
It's really difficult to lead a healthy lifestyle when everything that's good for you costs more than the unhealthy option. Living here in the US I see so many overweight/obese people it's unreal. People who are so big that they have to use a motorized scooter when they get to the superstore, stores even have them to borrow, just so you can get about. The price of good stuff like fruit and veg is stupidly high but you can buy hotpockets or poptarts for cheap. Until governments force a change in the pricing of food, people who have low incomes will buy lots of crap 'cos it's cheaper. Fast food and unhealthy stuff should be made more expensive than it is to put customers off buying it. Sadly this will never happen so the poor family of four will go to McDonalds 'cos it's cheaper than buying a healthy meal from the store.
Very true and I can see things evenually getting better in this country but I can't in America, it's too ingrained into the culture!! This is unfortunately usually the case and especially in this country in poor neighbourhoods there are just fast food restuarants everywhere and little access to fresh food. Alot of the time however it is actually cheaper to buy fresh food and cook yourself, plus fortunately for myself I do not really like fast food. Fresh food needs to be readily available and kids need to be able to when they leave school to be able to cook to a sufficient level that they are confident to cook by themselves. They also need to be educated on what is a good balanced diet. A major problem in this country is people often now go from one extreme to the other and go from eating fast food and snacking all the time to eating hardly anything and being really fussy about what they can and can't eat!! Certain diets aren't good for you and what happens when you stop dieting, you put the weight back on!! The message needs to be got out there that it's everything in moderation, not going from one extreme to the other, it's actually good for you to have a little chocolate and alcohol from time to time.
Just going back to the OP as we seem to have gone off on tangents, I would like to wish all of our athletes from East Anglia all the best! Who knows we might be seeing a Gold painted letterbox in Lowestoft sometime soon!
