Thanks John
John Major famously told colleagues that when people looked back on his time as Prime Minister he wanted them to see his legacy, he wanted to leave a tangible reminder of his part in the history of our great country. Until the past fortnight or so his only real tangible legacy was the cock-up he made by separating the management and maintenance of our railways between more than one company, Ian Jack wrote an essay a few years ago on the Railtrack debacle that showed a direct link between the Paddington disaster and a cabinet meeting chaired by Major in 1992.
Anyway one of the more tangible legacies of John Major's time in charge was the instigation, in 1994, of the National Lottery. The idea being that, after paying the directors of Camelot an extortionate amount of money to run a state lottery, people would give to good causes in return for a 14 million to 1 chance of changing their lives forever. Those good causes include funding for sports. It's interesting to note that Major actually managed to get everybody in the country to take part in what is fundamentally an idea at the core of Conservative values, that being that central Government reigns in its funding and let's the people takeover - David Cameron as said that this will be part of his big idea should he get into power in 2010, he's actually said he is following Mrs Thatcher's ideals which is being slightly disingenuous to the grey man pictured above.
You, or rather I, can't help thinking that the initial carrot back in 1994 had little to do with the 2008 Olympics and more to do with winning 18 million pounds - anybody remember the man from Blackburn who won that amount of money during the first few weeks? Over the past fourteen years numerous lotteries have sprung up, the National Lottery itself has three televised draws a week and dozens of scratchcards scream at you for their cash when you buy your daily newspaper. The money for good causes has helped fund our Olympic hopefuls in almost Soviet style preparation, the best coaches, the best facilities etc - we may have finally realised that in sport you sometimes have to start with the best and work down, not at the bottom.
I'd like to think that, in amongst all the celebrating and awarding of Knighthoods and OBE's for our medal winners, somewhere beside a village green in deepest Surrey, a pint of warm beer in his hand, a district nurse cycling by down at third man, a man in grey flannel trousers wearing a MCC tie is quietly smiling to himself - his legacy has found him.
1 comment:
Hi Paul,
We are not a communist country or have the kind of system as seen in some countries around the world but when it comes to ideas on how to train up our possible future sportsmen and women and their importance, are we really much different?
I don't know if it's fair to criticise and this wastekn out of context but during a stopover to see the British troops by our PM a speech he gave likened them to the "heroes" we have winnning and try for medals in the Olympics and someone said to compare what the soldiers and Sports community are doing and vice versa is a bad example.
One is very dangerous and has resulted in loss of life.
And it is parr for the course that after the Olympics the Government will milk the publicity as much as they can.
But I cannot take away from the success we have had and I hope without any help from any substance that's dodgy...
As for no extra money for the UK's Olympics in 2012 and many people being worried that it will look cheap and nasty...We are a much smaller country than China, America
and Australia etc...and we cannot/should not expect that we can throw loads of money at the event as others do often at the expense of other important social and cultural concerns.
The important part of the event is the games and not necessrily the opening and closing ceremonies but I do believe that what is said by the time 2012 arrives, we will see the cost rise quite a bit more.
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