Baroness Billingham
Main Page: Baroness Billingham (Labour - Life peer)
Baroness Billingham
My Lords, today’s debate has been truly outstanding, with so many experts sharing their expertise with us. It has been a privilege to be in the Chamber today.
We are on our way. The torch bearers carrying the Olympic flame are the Pied Pipers who will ignite the enthusiasm for everyone around them. Travelling 8,000 miles to more than 1,000 communities, the torch relay will link up the whole nation in preparation for the Olympic Games, the greatest show on earth.
The Games will be a showcase for Britain, a chance to shine in a gloomy world, proving to the world that we can plan and produce the Games and ensure that they will be exciting, successful and, above all, peaceful. The mantra that the Games are on time and on budget is in itself cause for celebration. It is a huge achievement and those involved with the outcome are to be warmly applauded. It is a model for teamwork and dedication.
There are many reasons to welcome the successful bid for the Games, not least the magnificent injection today of additional funds from the legacy budget and Sport England into disabled sport. The Paralympics have achieved unparalleled enthusiasm with our Games; ticket sales, media coverage and sport in the community all reflect that. The Paralympics go from strength to strength and make sport for all the reality that it ought to be.
Regeneration of one of the poorest boroughs in the UK comes high on the list of successes: 75% of every £1 spent on the park has gone into the regeneration project. Without the Games, none of that would have happened. It is a huge boost for the area and will benefit people for generations to come. After the Games, there will be five world-class sporting venues, which are much welcomed and indeed needed. Up to 8,000 new homes will be built and the accommodation of the Olympic village will become part of the housing legacy. Again, none of this would have happened or been possible without the Games.
At the very heart of the Olympic project has been the emphasis, highlighted during the successful bid, on the creation of a genuine sporting legacy. A cornerstone of the bid was to inspire a generation of young people through sport. During the latter years of the Labour Government, investment in school and community sport, which laid the foundation for the sporting legacy, was remarkable. The commitment to make available at least five hours of sport for almost every child was a huge breakthrough. Those of us involved in sport, whether in schools or the community, knew that this was the key to a fitter, happier sporting nation. There appeared to be a political consensus; indeed, we had as tremendous role models political leaders who not only paid lip service to the place of sport in their lives but realised that others could benefit. I know to my personal advantage the enthusiasm with which our Prime Minister plays tennis. We have an excellent record playing together for the Lords and Commons tennis club. His fiery enthusiasm and commitment are a joy to behold. Both being left-handers, we argued only over who should take the left court for the return of serve and, needless to say, he gave way very gracefully.
All appeared positive, with new sporting opportunities and help for schools to provide them. That is why I say today that the greatest threat to the hoped-for sporting legacy has come from Michael Gove’s disastrous plan to demolish the school sport programme in his reorganisation of curricula in state schools. Those schools may become sport-free areas. Heads who are driven by school league tables may decide to transfer funds from sport to their academic programme. It is sporting vandalism. Yet the 7% of students attending fee-paying schools still enjoy two afternoons a week of sport and still achieve good academic results, all within the same school week and with extracurricular activities thrown in for good measure.
Many weasel words have been uttered to justify the scrapping of the school sport programme. “It did not always work” is just one feeble excuse. The reality is that it was a stunning success. Michael Gove has dealt a devastating blow to the fundamental way in the majority of young people get started in sport. Of course, parents, clubs and national governing bodies can and do play an important part, but for the vast majority of young people it is the physical education programme in schools which gives them their first taste and love of sport in many guises.
Everyone who signed up to the sporting legacy notion has a duty to return to the Gove decision. It must be reversed, or all our aspirations as to a sporting legacy for all will come to nothing. Will the Minister undertake today to deliver this message to the Secretary of State for Education and to the Minister for Sport? They bear full responsibility for the future.
Already, Sport England’s Active People survey is producing disappointing results, showing that, of the 30 sports measured, only four have seen an increase and 19 have shown a decrease. The implication that the destruction of sport in state schools will have no impact on the Olympic legacy aspiration seems extraordinary to me and others. Does the right hand of the Government have no idea what the left hand is doing? It will undoubtedly negate all the good work that has been done.
As the Games move nearer, practical problems emerge. People see that they may be affected personally, sometimes negatively. Every day, we see new issues highlighted in the media, creating questions and some unease which have to have to be addressed. In this, I echo some of the points made earlier by my noble friend Lord Davies.
I put to the Minister a series of those issues in the hope that, in her usual highly competent way, she can give us reassurances to allay those fears. Security has become even more high profile; the years between the bid and today make it even more so. Against the background of deep cuts to police funding, can she reassure us that there will be no relaxation of security, to ensure the safety of everyone attending the Games? Allied to that, with the potentially damaging cuts, can she reassure us that access to Britain via our airports will not become a nightmare, with visitors standing in line for hours on end? The world will be watching and making judgments. That experience could deeply damage our tourism trade. Again, can the Minister reassure us that adequate measures are being taken?
What about ticketing, which has already been mentioned? It has been a thorny issue from the outset. Are too many tickets being ring-fenced for sponsors and dignitaries? Is the balance towards the favoured group outweighing the competitors and the general public? More transparency is needed. It appears that large sums of money can still secure tickets on the internet. Is that fair?
Travel around London is a difficult issue. Those who have to travel to work, such as nurses, cleaners, public workers, et cetera, face chaos during the Games. Is the balance between sponsors’ limousines and ordinary people’s lives right? Not everyone can be given the luxury, recently given to civil servants, of staying at home. That does not work for care workers attending patients in a care home, does it?
Much has been made of sustainability. At the time of the bid, it was a huge and important issue, but following economic pressure, the Government have taken a less green approach. Can it be right to weaken our commitment to sustainability, ditched by cuts in expenditure? The very notion of a physical legacy—the stadia, the sporting facilities of all kinds—has been at the heart of the project. Bear in mind that the public purse has provided about 98% of the Olympic budget, but almost all the infrastructure will fall into private hands after the Games. Is that the outcome that the Minister envisaged? It appears that the deal on the major stadium has yet to be clinched. Does that fill the Minister with as much foreboding as it does me? Has the process been botched? Has the eye been taken off the proverbial ball?
Those are just some of the questions swirling around today. Then there are the views being discussed in the Slug and Lettuce, to say nothing of the Cumberland tennis club. I know that the Minister will do her best to answer those questions. She always responds so sensibly and knowledgeably, but I fear that her bat may have been broken by her captain even before she got to the wicket. Where have we heard that before?
Finally, there can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the outstanding contributions to today’s debate have emphasised that we are all united in our hopes and aspirations for all the British teams’ success. We will celebrate all their successes and look to them to be the role models for the future.