No matter your opinion on bidding and winning the Olympics, or the
cost to taxpayers, the real concern is what we'll be left with once the
party leaves town. It is certainly a great start to see the coalition
delivering on its pledge to get competition back in and between schools via the Schools Olympics. The mind-boggling work at Stratford, meanwhile, is on budget and on time (at the moment). But then so was the Dome.
Buildings will help East London’s regeneration, but will not deliver 2012’s promised inspiration for society in general. That can only be achieved by engaging people throughout the UK and NI in something more than just buying a ticket, contributing time as a volunteer or just watching from the sofa, McDonalds in one hand, Coca-Cola in the other.
Britain promised to use these Games as a magical means of engaging communities through sport. Doing so would, after all, complete a circle that started in the
community games of Much Wenlock, providing a certain M. De Coubertin with his own inspiration.
This public policy area, mass participation sports legacy, was rightly flagged up in opposition by both coalition parties as one where Labour's approach of targets and micro-management failed miserably. Labour's broken policies created a situation where, five years after winning the bid, more people in Britain are sedentary than ever before.
The Times last week trailed an apparent and laudable end to the arbitrary targets.
Hugh Robertson, meanwhile, has already proved adept in implementing the common sense principle of value for money. Gone is the wasteful subsidy for across-the-board Free Swimming for certain age groups, regardless of the ability to pay.
What is to be the new approach? When cutting Free Swimming, the Minister said he would provide the answer by the end of July. And is Sport England, a quango with
an established record of misspending and
failure even fit to deliver? To make the challenge harder still, despite mitigation from an increased share of the lottery, as per the coalition agreement, grassroots sports funding will still have to be reined in.
There is some scope for optimism, however. The area seems ripe for the application of Big Society principles. The delivery of local sports is already a perfect exemple: clubs are usually social enterprises, run by volunteers to serve their communities, delivering health and social benefits for all at relatively low cost. Sport may yet inspire a better way for us to live. And the Olympic Games may yet prove to be the platform by which that lesson becomes evident.
And just as an afterthought it seems that things are coming together so that the Olympic Stadium will have a proper use after the Olympics. Negotiations between the Olympic authorities and West Ham United are now progressing apace and hopefully a deal will be done which is acceptable to all parties.