David Cameron has outlined his ideas for a conservative sports policy, they can be found here
I'd like to see what people think about this, please comment on any good points or points where Cameron could possibly do with a dose of LTP002N.
Cheers
Paul
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Sport: putting Lottery funding back where it belongs
Sport: putting Lottery funding back where it belongs
David Cameron has promised that the next Conservative government will restore the full flow of National Lottery funding to sport.
He pledged to end the scandal which has allowed millions of pounds meant for sport being siphoned off elsewhere, and said: "Conservative policy is about putting Lottery money back where it is belongs."
Delivering the Sports Industry Lecture in London, the Party Leader accused Labour of delivering a "raw deal" to UK sport, by undermining the original four original pillars policy of Lottery funding, which directed that the cash flow would be directed towards sport, arts, heritage and charities.
He said: "In 1998, sport got £397 million. But then Labour decided to use the Lottery as a piggy bank for all its schemes. As a result, sport has been clobbered. Last year funding was down to £264 million - a shortfall of £133 million."
Mr Cameron went on: "Think of all the rugby pitches, cricket pavilions, and tennis courts that haven't been built. That's exactly what the Lottery was supposed to be about. Making a difference in every community, providing new facilities, and helping attract more people to take up sporting activities.
"So let me be crystal clear. Conservative policy is about putting Lottery money back where it is belongs. Of course, we'll honour existing contracts and projects, but let no one be in any doubt about what we'll do. We'll return to the four pillars."
He also promised to reform the structure of sport, turning government and non departmental public bodies into funders and enablers, and not micro managers of sport.
And the Conservative Leader promoted the idea of a Whitehall one-stop-shop for sports organisation to deal with, removing the confusing array of different government bodies currently involved. "It's time to consider setting up a British equivalent of the Australian Sports Commission to co-ordinate sports policy across different departments and act as a champion for sport in government," he said.
Conservatives will also examine ways of extending the school day in a bid to promote sport among young people and help build a healthier nation. "We must ensure that children get their recommended four hours of exercise a week. And in particular I want to see a greater emphasis on team sport and competitive sport.
"The trend away from competition in schools for fear of damaging pupils' self-esteem is one of the most crackpot notions to have come out the whole ideology of political correctness. Kids have to learn to win and lose with good grace. They need to learn to cope with adversity and setbacks. Because if they don't learn it as children, they won't be very resilient as adults."
Cameron is very good at agreeing with New Lbaour but really saying that they can't actually deliver what they promise - there is little evidence of govt micro-management, and little direct eveidence that money siphoned off sport may in gfact be more an evidence of a lack of new projects than deliberate withdrawal of funds. Howeber i think his attraction lies in the fact that he seems to be a plausible person arguing for a better delivery. A single body for sport funding would be a most radical idea but it is unclear how a coalition could be put together to overcome the emergent dominance of elite sport via UK Sport, and in fact cameron may be thinking wrongly of what effect the Oz example has on grass roots rather than elite performance - maybe someone can enlighten me here but I thought Oz was even more driven by elite sport than the UK, and the grass roots funding was basically talent spotting and management? One atavistic drive of all politicianms is to centralise evrything in the mistaken belief this creates control. It may be that sports requires more centralisation for elite development and a lot more decentralisation and micro initiatives for grass roots - trying to combine theses in a singel policy seems to me to be problematic within sport policy ideology. Schools canb play a part but without incentives and funding that is unlikely to happen - perhaps waht we do need is the equivalent tax relief for business sponsorship of grass roots sport that is available in Europe for donations to the arts and culture - ie 60% tax relief - tat might inspire business to use sport to capture social conscience and 'good citizenship'?
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