cod'ead wrote:No doubt at the conclusion we'll have Cameron claiming it's the tories' investment in sports that was responsible for TeamGB's success and to further incentivise young athletes for Rio 2016, Gove will announce a further round of cuts to schools sports funding. Oh and Gideon will blame the triple-dip on the Olympics Colin Berkeley Moynihan, 4th Baron Moynihan, Tory politician, Olympian, former Chair of the British Olympic Committee, Member of the European Olympic Committee and Chair of LOCOG, is now urging the Government to seize this opportunity to back British sports and invest in the next generation of state schools, asserting that the balance of public school educated medal winners is too high. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/9446407/Team-GB-chief-dominance-of-public-schools-is-unacceptable.html Being as he was a Member of Parliament in Thatchers government, nay, Sports Minister in Thatchers government - you remember, the government who gave permission for schools to sell off their playing fields - then thats where my irony meter exploded and I'm now trying to find somewhere to get it repaired. PS - This 2km long rowing lake at Eton Dorney that we've all paid for - remind me again which school will be using it as their very own private facility after the Olympians have left ? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/8709978.stm

cod'ead wrote:No doubt at the conclusion we'll have Cameron claiming it's the tories' investment in sports that was responsible for TeamGB's success and to further incentivise young athletes for Rio 2016, Gove will announce a further round of cuts to schools sports funding. Oh and Gideon will blame the triple-dip on the Olympics Colin Berkeley Moynihan, 4th Baron Moynihan, Tory politician, Olympian, former Chair of the British Olympic Committee, Member of the European Olympic Committee and Chair of LOCOG, is now urging the Government to seize this opportunity to back British sports and invest in the next generation of state schools, asserting that the balance of public school educated medal winners is too high. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/9446407/Team-GB-chief-dominance-of-public-schools-is-unacceptable.html Being as he was a Member of Parliament in Thatchers government, nay, Sports Minister in Thatchers government - you remember, the government who gave permission for schools to sell off their playing fields - then thats where my irony meter exploded and I'm now trying to find somewhere to get it repaired. PS - This 2km long rowing lake at Eton Dorney that we've all paid for - remind me again which school will be using it as their very own private facility after the Olympians have left ? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/8709978.stm

To balance that out, though - albeit to a very small margin I suppose - it was after our solitary gold at the Olympics in Georgia that John Major decided to first redirect some Lottery money into funding sports. That began the snowball effect as we have subsequently improved our medal haul and performance in certain fields as well as gradually increased financial support of sports (including corporate sponsorship).

Has Cameron yet taken credit for the Gold medals Team GB has won yet ?

The sport has, by and large, been magnificent.

And yes, last night was superb – but let's not forget others, including the women's team pursuit, who won gold in the sixth world record they've set in six successive races.

Which reminds me: Laura Trott – Turnford Secondary School
Danielle King – Hamble Community Sports College
Joanna Rowsell – Nonsuch High School

Stuff that in your pipe, former Miniature for Sport.

I would add, however, that however fantastic this is, it does not detract from the attacks on local businesses, civil liberties and goodness knows what else, and the obscene groveling to the corporate elite.

JerryChicken wrote:... PS - This 2km long rowing lake at Eton Dorney that we've all paid for - remind me again which school will be using it as their very own private facility after the Olympians have left ? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/8709978.stm Some local comp?

JerryChicken wrote:... PS - This 2km long rowing lake at Eton Dorney that we've all paid for - remind me again which school will be using it as their very own private facility after the Olympians have left ? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/8709978.stm Some local comp?

The 'Miniature for Sport', if one remembers correctly.

JerryChicken wrote:PS - This 2km long rowing lake at Eton Dorney that we've all paid for - remind me again which school will be using it as their very own private facility after the Olympians have left ? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/8709978.stm We didn't pay for any of it, Eton own it and paid for it, they have given it to LOCOG for the duration of the games FoC, they did however gain quick planning permission for it.

JerryChicken wrote:PS - This 2km long rowing lake at Eton Dorney that we've all paid for - remind me again which school will be using it as their very own private facility after the Olympians have left ? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/8709978.stm We didn't pay for any of it, Eton own it and paid for it, they have given it to LOCOG for the duration of the games FoC, they did however gain quick planning permission for it.

Why would they need planning permission for something that already existed ?

They have had substantial building work done to improve access including a 50m long bridge, and I don't doubt for one minute that other "tweaks" and "adjustments" haven't taken place to facilitate hundreds of rowers and 30,000 spectators rather than a handful at any given time.

What Lord Moynihan is complaining about is the large proportion of medal winners (to date) who have come from a public school background and we all sit here open mouthed and wonder if he's noticed that there aren't too many state schools out here in the real world with their own 2km long rowing lake so that they can produce Olympic rowers - when his government invest in, lets say, a 2km long rowing lake for each region of the country (we're not asking for one for each state sports-foundation school, that would be greedy), then maybe the balance of medalists would shift.

As it is we do bloody well with state school athletes purely on the back of individual athletics clubs using state funded facilities, the likes of Jess Ennis coming from the Sheffield Council inspired Don Valley Club for instance, infrastructure funded entirely by the ratepayers of Sheffield.

As another example I worked on the main stand at the Gateshead Stadium in the late 1970s, a project funded by the Tyne & Wear County Council for public use on the back of Brendan Fosters enthusiasm and success - unfortunately the Tyne & Wear County Council was abolished as one of the Thatcher governments first cuts to public spending - a "Quango" I believe she called them, a public authority that dared to spend public money on public facilities for the public to enjoy, outrageous.

What has the London Olympic council tax surcharge, paid for some time now, paid for specifically, then?

(That's without getting into other tax funding)

No idea, it didn't pay for Eton Dorney though.



For the access roads and to make it bigger I understand, It is in quite a nice part of the country so even though they owned the land and had an existing lake they would still need PP.