The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Tag: Sport

  • Mr Major’s Press Conference on Sport – 24 July 1996

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s press conference on sport, held in London on Wednesday 24th July 1996.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Can I firstly thank you all for being here today and say how pleased I am to see you. I must say the Downing Street lawn over the years has seen many events, but I don’t think any have been quite as enjoyable as seeing the youngsters play there this morning. And I hope when I have finished speaking for a few moments that you will go straight back to your game, because it is much better to be playing sport than listening to speeches, even in Downing Street.

    I will be quite brief. I want firstly to thank you all for being here. And also just to say a few words about sport and what is happening and what we propose to happen in the future.

    A year or so ago we launched the initiative to improve the level of sporting opportunities both at a national level, at a club level, and most crucially of all, at a school and local level. And I wanted to report to you some of the things that have been happening in that year and to illustrate the fact that that wasn’t a one-off development, that we are determined that these plans to improve sport at all levels get carried through and with the resources to make our plans, and our hopes, and our aspirations become a reality.

    Let me tell you some of what has been happening in the last year. I spoke a year or so ago of my dream of having a National Academy of Excellence, a British Academy of Sport. Let me tell you this morning that we have made a great deal of progress with that, the resources are now available for it and I anticipate that we will get tenders for a British Academy of Sport by around October, with a decision made about the site probably in January of next year.

    The purpose of this Academy, and we envisage a single central academy with perhaps up to 100 acres of land, will be to provide for the sporting elite, including the disabled sporting elite and participants in the paralympics, some of the best sporting equipment, coaching, training, scientific research, that you will find anywhere in the world. We have that at Lilleshall for football but we don’t have it for all other sports and I hope that we are going to be able to develop that.

    What I would like to see is the very best in British sport become the very best anywhere in the world, not just because we like winning, though I freely confess to you I do like to see our sports teams winning, but because I think the success of our national sporting teams, and our national sporting heroes in individual competitions like athletics, gives a lift both to the complete sport itself and to the whole country. We are a sports-loving nation and I believe that we have under-valued sport and its place in our national life for too long. That was largely done because sport has to compete for its money against social security, pensions, defence and all sorts of other areas.

    It was precisely because it would never get the resources that it needed that I decided to develop a national lottery. That will provide a continuing flow of money, in addition – in addition – to the money that comes from the government to develop sport, and the arts and other parts of our national life that are important to so many people.

    The lottery has been a stunning success and it is going to provide for as far ahead as we can see something in the region of 300 million pounds every year for sport. I just invite all those present, sports administrators and others, to contemplate what we could have done with British sport at national, club and school level, if we had had 300 million a year for each year over the last 10 years. We didn’t, but we have now, and we have to think on the grand scale of what we can achieve in the years that lie immediately ahead. The British Academy of Sport will be at the pinnacle of what is going to be there.

    But sport to me is a good deal more than just ensuring that our national teams, and our national competitors, are the best and have the best. I wish that to be so, but it is much more than that. Sport exists at club level, at village level and crucially at school level. And if we want to produce future great sporting champions either as teams or individuals, we are going to have to build from the bottom upwards, produce that love of sport and that opportunity for sport in youngsters like these here today and millions more like them in the future.

    So I would like to say a word or two about sport in schools. We set a minimum target last year of at least 2 hours sport in school and we are making progress towards that, though it is not yet universally achieved, but it will be. But that of course is still inadequate for what I wish to see available for young people and available in schools. I wish to build on that and l wish to build on that in several ways. Firstly by better links between schools and clubs. I don’t by clubs mean the Surreys, the Middlesex, the Arsenal and the Wasps, I mean smaller local clubs as well as that so that school sporting facilities and club sporting facilities are more available both to the club players, and to the school players and there is an inextricable link between the two, to begin to provide a ladder of sporting choice and opportunity from the very young years upwards. I want to see those school facilities used outside school. And the lottery is available to provide sporting facilities for schools as well. In the last year or so something like 20 million pounds has been provided for schools through the lottery to provide sports pitches, cricket nets, sport halls, football pitches, athletics equipment and all sorts of things that otherwise would not have been available to schools.

    We propose also to institute a new system that will offer a special sportsmark, a special acknowledgment for schools that actually specialise in making sure that a proper sporting provision is available for their youngsters. And in my judgment, sport is as much an important part of school life as is mathematics, the other sciences and the arts as well. We need to develop that love at a very young age.

    We propose also to seek some specialist educational institutions that specialise in sport, and a large number of the pupils going into those would be people with some sporting ability.

    We propose to have university scholarships, on which some money has already been spent and more will be spent, to provide more opportunity to make sure that university and further education sport develops. So at each level we wish to see the development of sport.

    One other area I might just briefly mention is the question of the availability of sporting pitches. For some years people have been concerned at the loss to schools and educational establishments of their sporting pitches. Well we have taken action that will effectively stop that. There may be one or two areas where there is such a surplus of sporting equipment that it is appropriate to sell it. But mostly that isn’t the case and the best way to stop that is to do what we have done, and that is to give the Sports Council a statutory right to object if educational establishments wish to sell off sporting fields. I believe that will stop it in its tracks and make sure that schools retain the open space and opportunity to have the team sports which need outside facilities as well as the inside gymnasium facilities that are available.

    I am also delighted that with the cooperation of British Coal we have managed to preserve a very large number of sporting establishments, sporting sites that otherwise might have disappeared out of sport, particularly in the north of England, some 200 sites that will, as a result of the negotiations, be protected for sport and be available for sporting endeavour for the future.

    So these are just a small sample of the developments and changes that we have seen in the last year. For those of you from the press, many more of the things that have happened are set out in the very detailed literature that is available for you this morning and I hope you look at it.

    But the message I just want to convey is this. The determination to improve sporting opportunities is not a one year determination, it is a continuing determination by government to work with the Sports Council. We now have a UK Sports Council and the Chairman is with us here today, and I am delighted to see that, so we can properly develop at all levels, from the very top, from the excellence at the top to the people who may be no good at sport but just happen to love it, right down at the bottom. That the facilities for enjoying sport, for watching sport, for taking part in sport are increasingly available in this country.

    I believe this is an initiative that is long overdue. It is, I freely confess to you, an initiative that is very close to my heart. The best days of my life at school were certainly the days where we had some form of cricket, or rugby, or soccer or athletics. And if I say to these youngsters, anyone who tells you that school-days are the best days of your life, needs their [indistinct], except of course with the sporting provision that I hope increasingly will be available.

    So I would like to express my thanks to the people here. There is a changing attitude in schools. I remember going, a couple of years ago – rather longer actually – to a school to watch their sports day. What I saw shocked me in the culture that I saw there. A teacher said to me, well of course we have sports because it is good to make the children fit, but we don’t want competition, we don’t want people coming first and people coming last because that is damaging. So this is really a sort of anti-competitive day. We would like all the children to feel they have won and had a prize. And while the teacher was saying that to me, over in the corner the kids were organising races to see who won and who lost. And that is actually what sport is about, to see if you can win, to enjoy playing, but to see if you can win, if you can improve your standard and if you can have the enormous amount of enjoyment from sport that millions of other people have had in the past either from playing it or by watching it, then you will have quite literally a love for life that will never leave you. And our plans are to instil that opportunity to learn to love and play sport in schools, in clubs, in professional sport, in amateur sport and in excellence at the top of our sporting pyramid. That ladder of opportunity is being put in place.

    I would like just finally to thank the many sports administrators and national sporting stars who are here today to indicate their love of the games, their determination to see sport play its proper part in national life and also to give me the opportunity to thank so many of them for the way in which the sports stars have so often provided a role model that other people can aim to emulate and the administrators have striven to put in place a proper series of sporting facilities for the future. That is a communal aim. Thank you for being here to enable me to reiterate it again this morning.

    We have made a lot of progress in the last year and I am very grateful to Iain Sproat and Virginia Bottomley for all they have done to help bring that about. But what we have done is still the beginning. Fasten your mind on 300 million pounds plus every year, this year, next year, the year after that and for as far ahead as we can see, and begin to contemplate what we can build in this country for sporting opportunities for those who are the best, those who are quite good and those who just love to take part in whatever sport it is that fascinates them. That is what we are building and thank you for being here this morning to be a part of that development. Thank you very much indeed.

  • Mr Major’s Comments on Sport in Schools (II) – 14 July 1996

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s comments on sport in schools, made during an interview held in London on Friday 14th July 1996.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked if he was trying to do with sport what Harold Wilson had done with education and the Open University].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Well I think the Open University was a remarkable contribution by Harold Wilson. But no, it isn’t. We are part of a nation of sports lovers. The whole of this initiative is to deal with sport right from the grass roots upwards, to put sport back in schools, to improve it in clubs, and the British Academy of Sport is to deal with excellence. I believe in this country people like to see our sporting stars succeed, they like our team to win. The British Academy of Sport will ensure that we have the best of our sporting stars given the best training and the best facilities at a young age.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked about Margaret Thatcher’s sell-off of 5,000 playing fields when she was Prime Minister].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    There were surplus fields in those days, I don’t think there are many surplus fields now, so we have changed the system. But what we are seeking to do is to create a renaissance in sport, not just, as I emphasised a moment ago, for the elite, not just for those people who are very good at it, but for everybody, youngsters upwards, whether able-bodied or disabled we want to increase the sporting facilities, increase the sporting opportunities and increase the quality and standard of sport in this country.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked if standards in British sport were currently quite low].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I wouldn’t understate the excellence of British sport, one only has to think of the record of our athletes for example over recent years, or our Rugby 15 for example. So we have a very high quality of sport and some of the greatest individual sportsmen and women in the world. But I think we need to improve that, to give more people opportunities, and in particular improve the quality of team sports.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked how he knew lottery money would be spent on sport when Government had previously pledged not to become involved with the distribution of that money].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We have been discussing this with the Sports Council. What we decided when we established the national lottery was that the individual components of it, that is to say sport, arts, heritage, millennium fund and so forth, would be going through intermediary bodies. Now the proposals we have announced this morning have been very carefully discussed with the Sports Councils who give them full backing. So we can work with the Sports Councils and that is what we are seeking to do.

  • Mr Major’s Comments on Sport in Schools (I) – 14 July 1996

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s comments on sport in schools, made during an interview held in London on Friday 14th July 1996.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked if it was a personal mission for him to get more sports played in schools].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    In a sense it would, yes. One has seen the decline in school sport for 25 maybe 30 years and I think if we are really going to reach the quality of sport at the top levels that I would like to see, it has to start at the bottom levels so you need sport back in schools, but I think we need it also if we are going to see a renaissance in sport right across the country. It isn’t only for people who are good at it, it is for people who enjoy it and I think today we have taken quite a large step towards that.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked why sport was important and whether some people thought it wasn’t necessary].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I suppose some people would, but I don’t think you have a rounded life just by having a career and a fat wallet. There are many things beyond that, sports is one, the arts are another and the underlying thought when I decided to proceed with a lottery was neither arts nor sport nor heritage, none of those things, would ever get the resources they need out of the taxpayer’s pocket, there would always be greater demands and the only way to provide those resources was the lottery and get for millions of people better sporting facilities, a better quality of sport, a better opportunity to take part in sport or indeed a better opportunity to see art; it is an important part of their lives.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked whether there were some advantages in playing sport that helped develop people].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I don’t want to be pompous about it but I think there are. I think it is character-building. Life is competitive; one thing is certain about competitive sport, you either win or you lose and you have to learn to win and you have to learn to lose, and I think if you can learn to do that in a sporting environment it is something you have gained.

    The other point that I feel very strongly about is that if you learn to love sport as I do and as you do as a youngster, it is a love you have for life, it doesn’t go away; your own special team perhaps is a great treasure to you, but beyond that you love the game. I think it adds an extra dimension to life.

  • Mr Major’s Comments on Sport – 19 December 1995

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s comments on sport, made in an interview on Tuesday 19th December 1995.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked if how his Raising the Game strategy was progressing].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It is moving forward, it is moving on quite a number of fronts. The core of it of course, the root of it, is to steadily increase the amount of sport that is available to young people both in school and of course at club level. And one of the ways of achieving that is increasing the relationship between clubs and between schools. It is part of a carefully integrated network. Raise the amount of sport in schools, raise the amount of sport in clubs, have a better inter-relationship with them, provide more funding through the lottery in order to provide better facilities, either at school, some of whom have had very successful bids for the lottery, and also in clubs.

    One of the unsung areas of the lottery so far has been the enormous number of rugby clubs, football clubs, athletic clubs, cricket clubs, who have had relatively small awards but awards that meant a proper pitch or proper facilities of some sort to enable them to continue their interest in whichever game they happen to follow and the growth of it.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked how his aim of two hours a week physical education for each child was progressing].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It is on the way to happening and it is going to happen, we are determined that it will happen. I think it is as important a part of a child’s upbringing to have proper leisure and sporting activities and choice as it is to teach them maths and English. And I think over the last 20-25 years we have lost a great deal in our education because sport, to a very large extent, in the state sector was sidelined. I believe that was wrong. I believe it was wrong because it takes away from children an opportunity of learning something they would love for life, and I think also it is extremely good for their physical and mental development to have the opportunity of playing games. So I am determined that increasingly that will come back into schools.

    QUESTION:

    [Mr Major was asked why the emphasis on team games].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think that team games are an integral part of British history. Some sports are essentially a sport for individual performance – running, jumping, for example. But the majority of traditional games in this country – cricket, rugby, soccer, netball, hockey, whatever it may be – are team games. And I think at school people learn to relate better one with the other if they learn to take part in those team games, they are central to the nature and type of country that we are, and I wish to ensure that younger continue that tradition in the future.

  • Mr Major’s Speech in Millwall – 14 July 1995

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech held in Millwall on Friday 14th July 1995.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Good Morning. Thank you for being here this morning. Some of you, I know, will have been at Downing Street earlier, but I would like to set out in slightly more detail than I did in the garden early this morning some of the plans we have for sport as a result of the document we published this morning.

    Sport, for most people in this country, is more than just a game, it is a way of life. And I think organised team sports is one of the gifts that this country has given to the world over the years. What I want to do today is outline some of the plans we have, both for the near term and the long term development of sport.

    If one looks back over really the whole of the period since the Second World War, when it has come to the big debates on policy and resources, sport has generally come out second in the race. The necessary demands of other aspects of education, of social security, of health, of defence, of welfare, have always necessarily taken a larger share of public resources.

    It was for that reason that I conceived the idea of the national lottery. The national lottery, when it is in full flow will provide something over 1.5 billion to be divided between the good causes set out in our legislation, one of which is sports. What that means, as soon as it is fully in operation, and that will be within a year or so, we can expect a continuing flow of funds of around 300 million a year for sport that will be directed through the Sports Councils for sporting facilities and sporting opportunities up and down the country.

    Against that background, we have been reviewing sports policy with the Sports Council and the result is the proposals that we have today. What I believe we are doing today is setting in train a revolution in sport, in schools, in clubs and also at the topmost level. The policy paper we published builds on a whole series of discussions with the Sports Council, with educationalists, with individual sports stars and with many other people as well. The programme is ambitious, it is a costly programme and it will use quite a few of the hundreds of millions of pounds that is going to be available to sport, year on year, as a result of the lottery.

    It is a substantial move today, but what I would like to emphasise to you is that this is but the beginning of the revolution I wish to see in sport, this is not a once and for all announcement that won’t be followed up with further changes in the future.

    Neither are our announcements today just for the favoured few, they are intended to be for everyone who loves sport, starting with children, but I don’t just [indistinct] that those who are supremely talented at sport. It is for people who are talented and less talented, able bodied and disabled. We propose to ensure that this is for everyone, adults, boys and girls, the able bodied and the disabled.

    Let me start from the grass roots upwards and say something about the plans that we have in mind, starting with sport in the schools. I believe sport is immensely important for children, it is an integral part of growing up. I think it is character building, but above all I think it is fun for children and they have a right to enjoy it.

    I also don’t accept the premise that competitive sport is bad for children. You only have to see youngsters together to realise that that frankly isn’t true. Put any group of youngsters together in any environment and they are likely to compete. So I want to redevelop skills in competitive sport.

    One of the sadnesses to me, and I think to many people in education as well, is the extent to which competitive sport has declined over the last 30 years. I know the Teacher Unions are concerned about that, some of their own surveys have indicated the depth of the problem. And it is frankly completely the wrong way round that our young people seem to spend one and a half hours on sport and beyond a full day in comparative time watching television, whether other people playing sport or other aspects of television as well. One of the aims of this White Paper is to begin to reverse that decline and to put competitive sports back where it belongs, right at the heart of weekly life in every school in the country.

    The revised curriculum that will come into schools from the autumn places a proper emphasis on traditional team and competitive sports. But I think we need to do a good deal more than that. We will be expecting all schools to offer 2 hours a week of sport, in formal lesson time. But in addition to that, we will be looking to all schools to match the practice of the best and extend sports provision at lunchtimes, evenings and weekends, and the target we will be setting is for a further 4 hours of sport available weekly to all our youngsters.

    Those schools that reach these and other standards will be eligible for a special Sportsmark Award and a special gold award for those who are most innovative. We intend to make sure that parents have information about sport in schools by ensuring that prospectuses and annual school reports include all the information on sporting provision and sporting competition between schools, and will implement that as speedily as possible.

    We intend to give schools quite a lot of help to reach the Sportsmark standards. The Chief Inspector of Schools will conduct a national survey of school sport and report annually on it so we can see how our plans are developing. The Office of Standards in Education Inspectors will focus on team games in all the schools they visit. We have plans to encourage more volunteers and coaches to come into schools and help teachers lead sport.

    Let me say at this point that the role of teachers in our plans is vitally important. I suspect that the vast majority of sportsmen can trace a large share of their interest and aptitude for sport back to the enthusiasm of a particular man or woman who taught them as a child. Teachers will still bear much of the brunt of sports leadership, schools will have powers to reward teachers who help with extra curricula sport and I hope that those powers will be used.

    But of course teachers themselves will need training to make the most of the opportunities, so we will be using some of the resources of the lottery to target extra training on schools whose sporting provision is below average.

    We also wish to take the opportunity to enhance career opportunities for teachers by giving them a great chance to win coaching qualifications. So we intend to ensure that all Physical Education Teachers are equipped to lead both major summer and winter sports, as well as their more formal PE teaching.

    And we also intend to see that every single trainee teachers is offered the opportunity to take coaching awards to enhance their own particular career prospects within education.

    The Sports Council will be looking very closely at what is done for sport in the teacher training institutions. At OFSTED we will inspect those colleges with the intention of seeing that every one of them gives students the chance to gain the qualifications in leading team games that we will need to carry

    But of course, however much you love sport, however well you may be able to teach it, you cannot teach it, and the youngsters cannot enjoy it if you haven’t the facilities. So we propose to give the Sports Councils the powers to block off the sale of school playing fields. What we will do is to keep the rules that protect school playing fields, but will monitor them to make sure they offer proper safeguards to sports like cricket which need a great deal of high quality space.

    I seek the best quality provision for every school. So we are this morning setting a target to bring every child, in every school, within reach of adequate sporting facilities by the end this decade.

    All of this would not have been possible, but is now possible as a result of the national lottery and the funds it is introducing. The Sports Council will also provide funds from its own resources, funds to deal with matters like school kit or transport to facilities for schools that lack fields of their own.

    Let me now say a little about sport beyond school. Too often what happens at the moment, youngsters in good schools have sporting facilities, they leave school, they lose their opportunity to continue their interest in sport. So sport mustn’t end with school, so the lottery will help us carry through the second feature of the strategy, and that is to ensure that fewer young people drop out of sport at 16,18 or 21.

    To do that we need far better, closer, more concise links between schools and clubs. I would like to see clubs adopting schools, and by clubs I don’t mean football clubs like Millwall, professional clubs, I mean amateur clubs as well, athletics clubs, cricket clubs, rugby clubs, sports clubs, tennis clubs, let us see them form a proper link with schools, both to help the youngsters in school and as a focus for the youngsters to go on to when they leave school. The Sports Council regional offices will have a special duty to develop those links and there will be a new challenge fund to help promote them.

    We also intend to help schools win more business sponsorships. Sports governing bodies will be asked to develop plans to develop school sport as a condition of grants from the Sports Council.

    Let me move on from immediate after-school to sport in Partner Education Colleges and universities. Some of them are superb, others frankly are not. So we will be carrying out a national audit of college and university sport, and I am delighted to say that Roger Bannister will be deeply involved in this. Those audits will be up-dated regularly. We intend to set up groups, drawn from the universities, to see how sports scholarships can be extended and obstacles to university sport removed.

    Those policies that I have described so far are going to open sport to everyone. But in addition to that we would like to see excellence in sports. Sports administrators feel the same way, they have been working towards it. The FA school at Lilleshall I think is but one example of that. But the national lottery will enable us to create something that we have never before had in this country, and that is an entirely fresh and new asset. And the asset I refer to is a new British Academy of Sport. Other countries have such centres and I believe it is time for this country to have one as well.

    The Academy of Sport will be the pinnacle of a national network of centres of excellence, some organised on a regional basis, some will be academies of individual sports. We shall be consulting on the precise form this academy will take and we have no wish to be completely prescriptive. But let me tell you broadly what it is likely to be. It is likely to be a very large greenfield site and it will involve investment of around 100 million pounds that will be financed from the lottery. The British Academy will be residential, it will offer specialist courses to our best young sportsmen and sportswomen, it will offer top-class training facilities, laboratories and expert support services in sports science and sports medicine. And I emphasise the medicine point, too often in the past some of our leading sportsmen have needed specialist treatment abroad, we propose to develop the opportunity for that treatment at the British Academy.

    Some of the athletes may just be there for days or weeks, others may be there on scholarships for 2 or 3 years, perhaps attending local schools during that period. The aim of this I think is quite straightforward. It is to help them compete with and beat the best of the rest of the world in whatever their particular discipline is. The Academy will be wholly new, it will be ambitious, it will have state of the art facilities, it will run across a whole range of our major sports, it can’t cope with every minority sport as well and we will consult to decide precisely which sports will be covered, but you may be certain all our major sports will be there. And the purpose of it is to build pride, confidence and ability right across the face of British sport.

    What I have been saying to you in the last few moments is that the beginning of the plans that we have for the future of sport, it is by no means a single one-off announcement. We now want to discuss these details further with teachers, volunteers, coaches, parents, sports administrators, sportsmen and sportswomen themselves. It is to be the start of a 10 year programme that will embrace each and every significant sport in this country.

    And to make sure that that moment is sustained, let me tell you this morning that we are starting work today on a follow-up White Paper that will be published next year. That White Paper will set out a detailed 10 year plan for the future of each and every one of our leading British sports. We will be asking the sports administrators of each main sport to set out their ideas for future development, to set out how they would enhance its place in schools, raise the level of participation, improve spectator facilities and sustain the pursuit of excellence. What I would like to do is to form an alliance between those administrators, sport generally and the government and volunteers to improve sporting provision for the future.

    So those are the outlines of what we propose. You will all have seen the press pack with further details and some initial observations from sports administrators in them.

    In essence the position is this. I believe that sport has a central place in our national heritage. I intend to cherish that central place and build it up, build it up for the fun and the enjoyment it offers, build it up for the recreational facilities that it will offer, build it up for the spectator enjoyment it will offer for those who wish to watch rather than participate, and build it up for the pride that this country has when it produces the best in sport in whatever discipline it may be.

    As a result of these plans, and as a result of the resources now released by the national lottery, I believe we can look forward to a golden future for British sport. I look forward to working together with sportsmen and women and sports administrators and schools to bring these plans forward to fruition. There are many details still to be examined with them and those discussions will continue immediately, but that is the broad outline of what we propose and I will be happy to take, with my colleagues, any questions you may have on these plans.

     

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION (Sky News):

    Everybody will obviously welcome any money going into education but do you not think most parents at the moment would rather see this money going to reducing class sizes, to getting more textbooks for their children? Rather than thinking: “I want my child to run faster!” they are thinking: “I want better classes for my children!”

    PRIME MINISTER:

    They are getting better classes and they are getting better equipment in schools and they are getting better examination results and they are getting more of their youngsters going on to university. A few years ago, one in eight of our youngsters got to university, now it is one in three as a result of the changes in education but what has happened over the years is that Central Government funding has never been able to deal with matters like this.

    The issues you raise are legitimately matters for tax-paying contributions. This would never come out of tax paying funds and I don’t think we should confuse the two. This is to add to the quality of life – I mean the lottery – whether in sport, whether in the arts, whether in the Millennium Fund, whether in charities or whether in heritage and it is designed specifically to add to areas that the national tax-paying burden wouldn’t support so there are two separate points.

    As far as the improvement of education is concerned, we are committed to that and that is a matter of Central Government policy. Here, we have developed something that can operate through the Sports Council to improve sporting facilities.

    QUESTION (Robert Hardman – The Daily Telegraph):

    Firstly, in your foreword, you say that some of the problems of sport come from misguided attitudes and mistaken policies. What policies are you specifically referring to and whose were they?

    Secondly, how long do you think it will be before we win a World Cup in rugby, cricket or football?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    As a result of these plans, it will be sooner than it otherwise would have been that we win a world cup but I am making no predictions about that.

    Regarding the mistakes in attitude and policies over the last thirty or forty years, I am not particularly in the business of picking out individual policies or individual mistakes. I just take the general view that we have undervalued the importance of sport both to the quality of life of most of our youngsters and as part of the role that it plays in our national life and what I am seeking to do is to correct that and I believe this is a giant step towards doing that.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, for this initiative to be truly effective, won’t there have to be a change to the legislation surrounding the national lottery, that is to say that money can be made available not only for capital projects but also for maintenance and administration costs?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    In due course that may be so. There is a certain degree of latitude now in the interpretation as you will see and I am grateful to lain Sproat and others who have looked at that to see how we can do it.

    For example, in the definition of capital, we would include things like school sport strips so whereas many people think of capital and may think of something costing many tens of thousands of pounds, that isn’t necessarily the case in terms of the definition of capital.

    What I do want to do is to look at the general provision of mainstream facilities. I think over time you are right and it will be possible to relax some of the definitions and look at a little more of the resources going into revenue funding but I think at the moment that lies a little way ahead but I certainly don’t exclude that.

    QUESTION (Ben Preston – The Times):

    You say you are setting a target of bringing every child in every school within reach of adequate sporting facilities by the year 2000. How many don’t have those facilities now?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I can’t give you an immediate total but there is a significant number, far more than I would wish to see. I would like to have been able to say that I could guarantee an individual sports field for every individual school by the turn of the century but I can’t guarantee that; what I think we can ensure is that by the end of this decade every school will have access to these sort of sporting facilities so they won’t be inhibited from soccer, rugby, cricket, athletics because they didn’t have access to the facilities and the Department of Education and National Heritage, with the sports councils, will audit what sporting facilities we have and where the shortfall is and then we can draw up a proper programme for correcting it.

    QUESTION (Harry Smith – ITN):

    How would you characterise your own sporting education at school and what influence do you think that has had on the development of your career?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think sport was about the only part of school that I enjoyed, to be frank. Much to my distress, we didn’t play soccer but I learned to play rugby at school, we had cricket at school, we had athletics at school and we had a great deal of enthusiasm engendered by the masters who were there. I think I loved sport when I went to school but I learned a good deal more about it, I learned to have a lifelong love of sport during my years at school and I think that is true of most people of my age. What I would like to do is to ensure that the youngsters of today and tomorrow have the same opportunities.

    QUESTION (Julia Bradbury – LIVE TV):

    Do you think that this academy is going to enhance career opportunities within sport and following on from the previous question, if you had had a career in sport what would it have been?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Well it would have been over by now, that is for sure! I would have been proud to have had a career in sport but I might have had the ambition, I might have had the will but I didn’t have the talent so, alas, not. I think it will enhance career opportunities.

    There is a second matter that we are thinking about which I might broadly float though the ideas are not yet worked up. One of the problems that many sports stars face is their careers tend to end some time between 30 or 40, in some cases even earlier and one idea we are looking at is to try and see if we can develop a scheme together with business to try and arrange for a form of sponsorship so sportsmen and women can actually join companies and learn to begin to develop a career on a part-time basis whilst they pursue their sporting career and I think then we would end the difficult cut-off suddenly for many people often in sports that aren’t terribly highly paid to which they have given a tremendous amount and suddenly find that they are no longer young enough to compete at the top level and I would like to see if we can ease them properly into better career prospects than they have had in the past. That is an idea very much in its infancy, it frankly isn’t worked up yet but it is one of the things we are looking at.

    QUESTION (June Kelly – BBC Radio):

    Won’t there be resistance from teachers because of the extra demands you are placing on their time and also resistance from some children who simply don’t like sport?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    As far as the teachers are concerned, I am delighted to say that representatives of most of the teacher unions were at Downing Street this morning and they gave very strong support and backing to this.

    As far as teachers are concerned, there will be extra resources in teacher training, there will be the opportunity of extra performance payments for taking part and of course we will be bringing in other people from outside schools to help as well but I think, if I may say so, you might perhaps underestimate the extent to which many people in education – many teachers, many head teachers, many leaders of the teacher unions – will actually enthusiastically want to see education rounded-out with a better sports contribution and better sporting facilities so the initial reaction that we have had I have to say from the teacher unions and others is very positive indeed.

    GILLIAN SHEPHARD:

    The Prime Minister obviously is quite right. There has been a good reception from the teacher associations and the teacher unions and some of them have been associated with drawing up the document. There is access of course to special responsibility allowances through excellence points to reward teachers for any extra responsibilities they take on in this area. Those things already exist and they are available to heads and governors.

    As far as children not enjoying sport is concerned, I think must say that it is part of growing up to learn that just sometimes you have to do things you don’t like very much and we all had to go through that and I think it is quite a useful lesson for young people and who knows, by being obliged to take part in compulsory team games between 14-16 which they will be, some of them might even enjoy it and find themselves fitter as a result.

    QUESTION (Christine Smith – The Groundsman):

    Your reversal of policy on the sale of playing fields by schools will be very welcome to people in the industry. Do you think it is in time or do you think they have already been destroyed?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    No, I think it is in time. What we are doing is setting minimum standards which will need to be kept and also giving the sports councils the right to be a statutory consultee if they object to the disposal of any playing fields so it isn’t an absolute blanket ban but what it does mean is that sports playing fields in effect will remain. There may be occasions where some schools have a huge excess of playing field facilities and they would still be able to dispose of them but that would only be if it was self-evidently an excess and the sports council themselves as a statutory consultee didn’t object.

    I would like to invite Iain Sproat to say a word or two. Iain has been in the engine room of this particular initiative right from the start.

    IAIN SPROAT:

    Thank you very much, Prime Minister. It is a marvellous day for sport and I would just like to say that we would not have been able to get what we are getting in this Sports Policy Paper had not been that we have a Prime Minister who is knowledgeable and dedicated to sport himself and without his drive it would never have come to pass. Also, perhaps I should say that the Secretary of State for National Heritage has been chivvying me in the past when she was Secretary of State for Health and I know she is extremely glad that health is one of the great benefits that is going to flow from this Paper.

    The only other thing I would like to say is that what pleases me particularly about this is that we are not just dealing with the champions, the gold medallists. That is very important and the British Academy of Sport and the other Centres of Excellence around the country will deal with it but I think that the benefit to schools, the benefit to young people, particularly perhaps those who are not particularly good at sport is enormous because I believe that sport teaches lessons at schools that many other aspects of schools cannot teach, aspects of character, of self-discipline, of commitment, of learning to work with others in a team, of learning to play within the law, good sportsmanship, all these socially valuable things are probably better taught by sport for most young people than almost any other aspect of school life.

    I am very pleased and proud today to be associated with the Sports Paper which goes all the way from the schools right the way through to the championships and I hope that we are going to see the benefit of that at every level in our country very quickly.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Thank you very much for being here. I know some of you were at Downing Street this morning so you probably know as much about the proposals as I do now. I hope all of you have got a full copy of the press pack; it has a lot of background detailed information in it; if any of you require any further detailed information, do have a word with lain, Robin, Virginia, Gillian or me as we go round and I hope you enjoy, as I shall, watching the youngsters getting some training. Thank you for being here!

  • Mr Major’s Speech in London on Sport – 14 July 1995

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech in Downing Street, London, on Friday 14th July 1995.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Can I firstly welcome you here. Gathered here this morning are many of the people who really matter in terms of making sure that this initiative works. We have people, not just some of the great icons of British sport, whom I’m delighted to see here, the role models that I hope our kids will follow, but we have representatives of the Teachers Unions and it is going to be vital that we can actually resurrect, provide a proper renaissance for sport in schools. We have got many people who are administrators, the Sports Council Chairmen are here, and many others.

    The first point I would like to make about this initiative is that this is not just an initiative for elite sport and for the best of our sportsmen, either male or female. It is a question of expanding sport for everyone – those who are good at it, those who are not; those who are able bodied, those who unfortunately are disabled. The intention is to spread the opportunity for sport and increase the excellence of sport and the impact of sport on our lives in many ways at all tiers of sporting endeavour.

    Let me try and just give you a little background to where we find ourselves today. What I found most depressing a few years ago was what seemed to me to be a self-evident need to improve the resourcing and funding of sport, to ensure that we provided the facilities that were necessary, and were able to compete with the best at the highest level and win. And yet, with the other demands there always were going to be on the public purse – mainstream education, pensions, social security, defence – it was always likely at the end of the day that sport would get a good deal less than sport itself could usefully use.

    And it was because that applied not just to sport, but also to arts and the heritage and other areas, that I conceived the idea of the national lottery. We needed legislation for the national lottery. I think I can tell you in the privacy and seclusion of this meeting, it did not meet with universal support across the opinion formers in Parliament or in Whitehall. But it has now come into being, the legislation has been passed and the lottery has been established.

    And what we can now see, as it comes into full flood, as it will in a couple of years or so, is that the lottery is going to provide, net of prizes and other disbursements, something in the region of 1.5 – 1.75 billion pounds every year, continually for as long as it exists so far as one can tell, to be divided amongst the various good causes that have a statutory right, now under our legislation to a share of the resources of that lottery.

    What that means for sport is that the probability is, as it comes into full flow, that in addition to existing funding, sport will probably receive from the national lottery, to be disbursed through the Sports Councils, something in excess of 300 million pounds a year for as far ahead as we can see.

    Now one only has to contemplate for a second what all of us in this garden this morning could have done with 3 billion pounds on sport over the last 10 years to see what the prospects are for the future. And it is against that background that we found it possible to begin to discuss within the Department of National Heritage, and with the Sports Council, and with a number of other individuals who are here who paid in many cases visit after visit to Downing Street to talk to me or to Nick True, or to Iain Sproat, we began to discuss the Raising the Game Sports Initiative that we are formally publishing this morning.

    Let me just try and outline bits of it, starting from the grass roots upwards. Where, in your judgement, have we lost most in terms of sporting endeavour over the last quarter of a century? I would suggest that we have lost most by the diminution of the importance of sport to our young people and its availability within schools. So the initiative starts there and I am delighted at the support that we have had from the representatives of the teachers, the Teachers Unions and many teachers also that we have spoken to to ensure that this initiative begins to take place.

    It is not a single one-off initiative. Today is the start of a whole series of changes. We will be returning to this subject again and again, and I will have more to say about that in a few moments.

    What we propose in schools at the beginning is to ensure firstly that competitive team games get a much higher profile in the national curriculum than they had previously; that there will be a minimum of 2 hours formally, but another 4 hours a week informally, outside school hours with the help of teachers who will earn performance points on pay, with the help of teachers who will have special training and extra resources for that training; with amendments to the Teacher Training Colleges and the Teacher Training syllabuses to provide many more teachers who are willing and able to have a skill in teaching a mainstream winter game and a mainstream summer game to the youngsters in their schools. I know from talking to many of the teachers that they are enthusiastic about this and we must provide them with the help and assistance to carry that enthusiasm into being.

    What will be crucial will be two other things! firstly, improving the facilities in schools and making those facilities increasingly available to the community as well; and secondly, to build up much closer, more formal links between clubs, not necessarily professional clubs but sporting clubs and institutions and schools in every part of the United Kingdom.

    We propose to join with the sports councils and try and invite clubs to adopt a school. One of the problems there often has been is youngsters have gone through school is they leave school and there is no natural avenue to go at 16, 17 or 18, to go to a club, to actually improve and enjoy, and enhance their sporting skills. I don’t have any doubts from the discussions we have had with clubs that they will be willing and eager to do so, some of the great professional clubs do so in remarkable fashion already – Manchester United, Arsenal, Newcastle, Millwall where many of us will be later on this morning. Many of the cricket country sides these days have much wider county-wide sport encouragement for young people than ever before and all this will fit into the net of plans that we propose but it will start in the schools. I will spare you the details but in essence more sport in schools, more sport outside school hours, better facilities and better training for teachers, a better link with sports clubs and of course schools also are eligible, as many of you who have seen the lottery will have noticed, to look to enhance their sporting facilities with grants from the Sports Council via the national lottery as indeed clubs are, so it starts in the schools.

    We move on to the clubs where many of the things I have had to say could be replicated. Simply let me say that already, when you look at the early disbursements from the national lottery, you see a whole range of facilities available to cricket clubs, rugby clubs, athletic clubs, soccer clubs and minority sports as well; let me make the point that this is not just for the mainstream sports, minority sports can benefit also and I hope they will continue to do so.

    We move on through the pyramid to the top level of sport. I don’t know if you feel about it as I do but although sport is primarily an enjoyment, I don’t have any doubt that it has its own impact on the national emotions when any of our great sporting icons succeed and beat the rest the world. I will spare the blushes of many who are here and speak perhaps of a minority sport and two people who are not here but it seemed to me that most of this country came to a stop when Christopher Dean and Jane Torvill were beating the world into second place in competition after competition; people who had never taken an interest in ice skating did so; you couldn’t get into the ice skating rinks that exist around the country as youngsters wanted to become the next Torvill and Dean and that icon impact, that role model impact, that delight that spreads right the way through the country when we can show sporting excellence at its best and beat the world is something without being excessively nationalistic that I would like to see. I remember the crowd chanting at White City at the great Chataway/Kuts race when they said that Kuts would win and thank God Chataway did and the whole country rejoiced, If I can embarrass someone here, I doubt there were many people who failed to enjoy Rob Andrews’ dropped goal against the Australians or Devon Malcolm whom I will never forgive for taking nine wickets while I was flying back to watch the last day of the Oval test match and missed it all! These are great sporting occasions so we want to encourage excellence in sport.

    There are some sporting academies already – Lilleshall and other regional centres of excellence – and I hope they are going to develop but what we propose is a wholly new innovation for this country. What we propose to establish and discuss, with funding, with the sports council chairmen, is the establishment as soon as possible of the first ever British Academy of Sport to deal with excellence in sport at the highest level.

    What I envisage by this is a very large new development probably costing in capital terms something in the region of £90/100 million so far as we can cost it at the moment. we are looking at the development of facilities on a large green-field site perhaps 80/100 acres.

    We are looking at the development of the best sporting facilities and coaching along a number of mainstream sports. It won’t be able to go right across the sporting agenda but it will be pretty widespread and will cover all our mainstream sports. Some of it will be residential; some people perhaps will be there for two or three years, others will be there for short courses, others will just pay brief visits, others who are residential may even attend local schools while they are there and one other addition to it which I think has long been necessary will be the development of specialist medical facilities for sporting injuries. There are a number of our great sportsmen over recent years who have had to go abroad to get the best specialist treatment for their particular injuries as a result of their sporting activities. That isn’t good enough and so those medical facilities will also be developed at this British Academy of Sport.

    What we propose to do is to invite people to tender with their own ideas but it is going to be quite the largest single development in the move towards sporting excellence that we have seen possibly at any stage in our long sporting history. I hope we are going to get plans for it by the middle of next year, I hope we will be able to proceed with it very speedily. We will learn the lessons from the Australian Academy though it won’t be a direct replica of that, we will have our own ideas and we will build on their ideas and I hope do something better but right at the top it will improve and enhance excellence in sport and it has always been my judgement that excellence in sport at the top will ripple down as people seek to emulate and improve upon the best that they have seen elsewhere right across the range of sporting interests.

    That, broadly, is a sketchy outline of what is in today’s “Raising the Game” document. I will launch it more formally with more detail at Millwall – and I know a number of you will be there – a little later on this morning and I hope those of you who haven’t yet seen the video will take the opportunity to look at it; it only lasts for a few minutes but it gives a very clear indication of what we are proposing to do.

    There are one or two other oddments that I just might add. If we are going to raise sporting endeavour in schools they need pitches and grounds. One of the initiatives that will come in the Sports White Paper this morning is to maintain the minimum standards that are necessary that schools must have but also for the first time to give the sports councils a statutory right to he consulted and block the sale where appropriate of school playing facilities. That is a change from previous policy, I think it is a change that is right. There may be occasions when it is appropriate because there is a huge excess of sporting facilities to be sold but that is not generally the case. The sports councils will have a statutory right to consult and in those circumstances the sale of the grounds would not proceed and I think that would be worthwhile.

    The second ambition that we have is to ensure that by the end of this decade every school in the land will have access to green-field sporting facilities. They may not necessarily be unique to that particular school. I can’t guarantee that; in some parts of the country that would be a reckless promise that we couldn’t necessarily keep but we can, I think, be certain that we will be able to provide green-field sporting facilities with access for every school by the end of this decade and I think that would make a great difference.

    We will be relying on help from many other people. You can’t prescribe this by diktat, you can’t write it into legislation. We will need the help and support first and foremost of teachers and volunteers who will help us with, our initiatives in and around schools; we will need the Support of the clubs and we will need the support which I have no doubt will be forthcoming of many of our leading sporting figures to set an example about what actually can be done.

    That is what we are about. I think this is an initiative that is long overdue but it isn’t an initiative that could possibly have been carried through until and unless we had access to the sort of funding that has been unleashed by the successful establishment of the national lottery. That is established, it looks secure, the resources look certain, we have started to lay the plans down.

    There is just one other thing that I wish to say. I said a moment ago that this isn’t a one-off initiative and for those here from sports governing bodies let me tell you one part of the initiative that perhaps you don’t yet know: what we will be asking you to do is to draw up a ten-year plan for the development of your sport, how you see it developing, what facilities you need, what opportunities exist, how you involve the youngsters, where there is a shortfall in different parts of the country, what are the opportunities for sporting excellence in your particular discipline and we will be bringing those together and I hope that Virginia and lain Sproat – perhaps with a little help from me – can publish round about this time next year another White Paper on sport that will set out the road to excellence over the next decade against the backcloth of the decisions that we have made in the documents that are published today.

    That is what we plan. I should offer you lain Sproat’s apologies for not being here. He has been one of the main architects of this policy and the only reason he is not here is that ill luck being what it is, Iain is actually on the floor of the House of Commons at the moment piloting through the Olympic Rings Bill and very probably listening to speeches that need not be made offering support for a policy that is undoubtedly right when I am sure in his heart he would rather have rolled up that business and be here with us. I hope he will soon be able to join us.

    Can I just finally thank you for being here. Everyone here in their own way, whether a sports administrator, a sportsman, a representative of the teacher unions, someone from the voluntary sector or our colleagues from journalism has a special role to play. I hope what we are seeking to do will get the widest possible publicity. I hope so for this reason above all: we need the help of literally thousands upon thousands of people who are out there who love sport who I believe will offer their help if they believe there is something that will come out at the other end of it. I believe we have something that will come out at the other end. We need the publicity to bring forward the help.

    Thank you for being here this morning. Please feel in no hurry to leave. You are very welcome to stay for – I was going to say for as long as you wish but there are limits – and if any of you do wish to take the opportunity of a tour through the cabinet room or the state rooms upstairs we will have guides able to take you in the next few minutes. Thank you for coming. [Applause].

  • Mr Major’s Speech at the SPARKS Children and Sport Luncheon – 5 June 1995

    Below is Mr Major’s speech at the SPARKS “Children and Sport” luncheon held on 5th June 1995.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Sir Alexander, Your Royal Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen. For many reasons, it’s a great privilege to be with you today.

    First, I greatly admire SPARKS and the work that it does.

    Secondly, as many of you may know, sport is a subject very close to my heart and – indeed, in the case of Chelsea and Surrey – close enough to break it from time to time.

    And thirdly, this luncheon enables me to set the stage for some sporting announcements the Government will make shortly.

    I have never believed that the quality of life should revolve simply around material success. That may be important, but it’s not all-important.

    Of equal importance to the quality of life for most people is the availability of sport, of all aspects of the Arts, and the maintenance of our built heritage. It is all too easy for these areas to be overlooked.

    Three years ago, as part of an attempt to redress the balance, I set up the Department of National Heritage. I did so to protect, enhance and develop those areas – because I believe they play an important part in the way of life in our country. Today, I wish to focus on sport.

    I don’t need to tell the supporters of Sparks about the value of organised sport. Your letterhead reads like a roll of honour of British sport. But sadly, I believe children play less sport than they should. I would like to change that because I believe sport is good for children and good for our Nation.

    Britain largely gave organised sport to the world. We invented many of the sports. And, even where we didn’t invent them, we codified and made them popular in every part of the world. We should be proud of that. Today, sport is as much part of the world’s heritage as of our own. But its genesis was with us.

    The pleasure of sport is open to all ages – but most open to those who learn to love sport when young. That is why – and you may feel the same way – I can’t readily accept a situation in which most 14 year olds are offered only an hour and a half a week of physical exercise in our schools – while surveys tell us they spend a day and a half a week watching television.

    This is a trend I intend to reverse. And, since I am where I am, with your help I can do something about it.

    Some people regard sport as frivolous. I don’t agree. It’s part of a rounded life for millions.

    A love of sport is also one of the gifts we can give to children. It’s good for both their physical and mental growth.

    It allows them to let off steam.

    It lets them enjoy the sense of growing strength and skills. It’s a binding force between generations.

    But all this is to be too dispassionate about sport. Above all, it produces pure enjoyment for those who play and those who watch. Frankly, for me, it needs no other recommendation than that.

    But competitive sport does teach something else very valuable as well. For every time it delivers both a winner and a loser. Sportsmen must learn to be both.

    Sport only works if both parties play by the rules, accept the result with good grace, and never shout at the referee. And those, too, are lessons which are valuable in later life, even if it doesn’t always look that way when you watch the proceedings of the House of Commons on television.

    And there is a wider social case for sport too; playing sport with others provides social skills. It opens doors. It offers the equipment for a more fulfilled life, both when taking part and when looking on.

    Many young people have always had good access to sport. But others have been less fortunate. Inadequate sporting provision takes something from young lives – and dangerously so, for it removes one of the best means of learning how to live alongside others and make a contribution as part of a team.

    I have an ambition to share with you all. And I’m going to need your help to deliver it. I want to put sport back at the heart of weekly life in every school. To re-establish sport as one of the great pillars of education alongside the academic, the vocational and the moral. It should never have been relegated by the educational theorists to be just one part of one subject in the curriculum. But it has and, over time, that must be reversed.

    If we are to bring about the sea change that I want to see, we in Government will need the help of men and women of goodwill everywhere, parents, teachers, coaches, sporting bodies themselves. I can tell you today that we will be publishing shortly a Policy Statement that will set out in the direction we wish to go, both in school and beyond.

    It will be a detailed programme. But it will also be the platform for further development beyond our immediate plans. It will sustain the place of minor sports that bring much enjoyment, but it will also ensure that our great traditional sports – cricket, hockey, swimming, athletics, football, netball, rugby, tennis and the like – are put firmly at the centre of the stage.

    Our policy plans will reassert our commitment to competitive and team sport in school and beyond school. They will encourage schools, governors and parents to match sporting provision in their school against the best – and help them to do so. But we know, also, that sports education is only the first step to a lifetime’s enjoyment of sport. We need to ensure that sporting opportunities continue after school.

    At present, too many teenagers find it difficult to transfer their sporting interests to the world outside school.

    So we will aim to improve links between school and club sport. To give improved access to high quality coaching and to promote sensible arrangements to share facilities and equipment.

    There is much in this for clubs as well as schools. If a club wants to see its sport grow, and the standard at which it is played improve, it will need to build up its pool of talent. Active links with local schools are clearly the best means of achieving this.

    More school sport, and better links between schools and clubs, will be two key themes of our policy. But there’s another aspect too.

    I take as much pride as anyone in seeing British sportsmen and women leading the world. That was why I was so keen to see the Olympics come to Britain. The Barcelona Games were a giant fillip for Spanish sport – and we must work to get high quality world sport here in the future.

    But the first ingredients we need to win are the men and women themselves. I don’t want to see them having to go abroad to learn how to exploit their talents to the full. We need fully developed programmes of talent spotting and talent support right here at home. And then we can see our sportsmen going out and showing the world how to do it – Cape Town, and Atlanta, and, please Heaven, Bridgetown, Barbados and Adelaide too.

    Sport in schools; sport in clubs; and a new deal for elite sport. These are not three separate themes – they will run together in our policy programme. We will soon set out in detail how the Government intends to deliver these objectives. But, as we do, I know one thing. The existence of resources from the National Lottery has transformed for ever the prospects of British sport.

    Indeed, when I decided to create the National Lottery that was among my aims. It was a way to provide the resources for sport – and indeed the Arts – that would be unlikely ever to come directly from the taxpayer.

    The £300 million a year that the Lottery in full flood will provide for sport will revolutionise it over the years ahead. So, too, will the huge and growing contribution of the corporate sector.

    Many businesses, such as the ones who provide SPARKS with sponsorship, already commit considerable time and money to sport and to charity. They do a fantastic job. We hear all too much today about the claims of corporate greed. I wish we could hear more about some of the amazing corporate generosity in this country and the tens of thousands of charities that British companies support.

    I wanted to take the opportunity today to underline the importance I attach to our forthcoming plans to improve sport in Britain – and by that I mean sport for all, girls and boys and those with disabilities too. Few people have brought more pride and honour to Britain than those superb disabled athletes who have won such a hatful of medals in the Olympic Games.

    Sport is fun. I hope it’s not old fashioned to say that. Fun, fun, fun. And we want as many people as possible to enjoy it. It’s fun to be the best. And so we also want to develop the skills to make us the best. These are our ambitions for the years ahead.

    The children who suffer from the illnesses which SPARKS is doing so much to combat will not all be able to participate in sport. But almost all can take pleasure from it. And, for these children, and for people of all ages, it is a relief from the hardships they face. They have a right to that pleasure. I hope we can increasingly provide it.

    So today, let me end by paying special tribute to the excellent work which SPARKS carries out. Their sort of voluntary generosity and concern for others stands foursquare in the British tradition.

    If by being here today we can further raise the profile of SPARKS and increase its capacity to carry on with its support for innovative medical research, then all will have been worth while. I, for my part, would like to thank you all for the excellent work which you do and to wish you every success for the future.

  • Mr Major’s Speech to Surrey County Cricket Club – 20 March 1995

    Below is the transcript of Mr Major’s speech on Surrey County Cricket Club’s 150th anniversary, made on Monday 20th March 1995.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Looking at the film I wonder if the members of the Montpelier Club realised what they were starting when they founded Surrey.

    That a hundred and fifty years on untold millions would have watched cricket at the Oval, and from the Oval. That the very name would be synonymous with cricket or that some of the great names of cricket and some of the great events of cricket would be played on a former market garden.

    Tonight reminds me of how lucky I was to have been born south of the Thames, a Surrey supporter. And, as a boy, to have been in the right place at the right time to see the greatest county side in the history of cricket.

    We all have our memories of the Oval. I was about 10 years old when I first visited it. Like most small boys I was a cricket nut. Having reached Cheam Common Primary School’s First Eleven, the progression to Surrey and then the Test Side merely seemed a matter of time. I looked forward to a clean and healthy life of cricket in which – even on the worst of days – I batted like Peter May and bowled like Alec Bedser.

    During school lessons I invented my own cricket games. I once scored 241 not out during biology while David Fletcher, Tom Clark, Peter May and Ken Barrington only scored 10 between them. Fortunately Eric Bedser scored 20 odd not out so we saved the game. I’m glad he’s recovered from those exertions and is here tonight. Eric, you were a real support.

    On the real cricket pitch it was different. Life being the topsy turvy enterprise it is, I discovered I couldn’t – even on the best of days – bat like Alec Bedser or bowl like Peter May.

    And as for the clean healthy life of cricket, I ended up in politics. One can hear the Devil chuckling although there are many similarities between the two. The game is uncertain. The career is chancy. But they both have their own charm. Politics often is about nightmares. Cricket mainly is about dreams.

    Tonight I have fulfilled one of them, I have batted higher in the order than Colin Cowdrey, one of cricket’s greats and one of Surrey’s past friends.

    Cricket has a great history and a great humour. Arthur Mailey, the great Australian bowler, was once staying at a famous country house in the days of country house cricket. His hostess, an aristocratic lady, invited him to play in a game one afternoon. He declined, saying that he was a little stiff from bowling. “Oh” she replied, “so that’s where you are from”.

    It is often the unexpected things you remember. I can close my eyes now and see Stuart Surridge in the slips with this enormous long arms. I used to think as a boy he could pull up his socks while standing upright. I tried the same and was told not to slouch.

    My father had a treasured heirloom – a gold stopwatch. I borrowed it and took it to the Oval to time how long it took the ball to travel from Peter May’s straight drive to the pavilion gates. Peter soon obliged.

    But pressing the stop button, I dropped the watch. It shattered. Bits came out all over. It was not in good shape. Its best days had gone. In fact, as John Cleese might say, it was a dead stop watch.

    I took it home, aged 11, to return the remains to my father, aged 75. As you can see, like Sir Jack Hobbs, my father’s best work was done after the age of 40.

    My father looked at the watch and then he looked at me. Then he said “before you dropped the watch did you find out how long the ball took?” I said, “No”. Then he gave me half a crown – and as he had very little, that was a lot – so I could watch cricket the next day. It was his way of saying it didn’t matter.

    Surrey have always attracted characters. A hundred years ago one such was Albert Craig, the Surrey poet. He used to write verses – doggerel really – and sell it to the crowds. I write it too, when I’ve time to spare. I wrote quite a lot as a Government Whip when I had to sit on the Bench for hours not listening to speeches. They were mostly about Parliamentarians and, if pressed, one day….

    Thinking of this brings clear and fresh to my mind the first poem I ever wrote, aged about 10 or 11, at the Oval:

    Bernard Constable got a duck

    Oh, he said – what rotten luck

    The Bowler’s really got a nerve

    First ball down and did it swerve

    Hit the pitch and off it nips

    Caught again – in the slips

    In my own defence, I remind you I was only 10 and I only wrote when it rained. Fortunately it was sunny most of the time

    Cricket has inspired more literature than any other game. There have been some wonderful writers. Cardus of course, and CLR James, and Jim Swanton, who must have seen more of the great moments of cricket than any man alive, and RC Robertson Glasgow. I read them all.

    Most of you will know the great poem by Coleridge, the Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner. The rest of you will have been educated after 1960. What you may not know is that Robertson Glasgow applied it to cricket:

    It is an Ancient Cricketer

    Who stops me in the street

    He holds his victims with his hands

    Their catches with his feet

    It tells the tale of a team who run into a spot of trouble with a bird on their way to a match – in this case a duck rather than an albatross:

    The duck it is a wondrous fowl

    But at crossing the road not clever

    That duck (or drake) went under the brake

    And had ceased to quack for ever.

    The outcome was, I am afraid, inevitable:

    For we had done a hellish thing

    To murder a blooming duck

    And some averred we’d killed the bird

    That brings a batsman luck.

    ‘A pity,’ said they, ‘that bird to slay

    That brings a batsman luck.’

    All sorts of disaster befall the team:

    Then a rocket went up, and the squire ran back

    And skirted around and – well –

    Where a cow had dallied, he staggered, then rallied

    The skidded, then rallied, then – fell.

    Thirteen all out, and there wasn’t a man

    But argued until was hoarse

    That the death of the duck had brought ill-luck

    Except old Matthew, of course.

    The Ancient ceased, and his mouth was dry

    So I eased it off with a tankard

    He’d talked enough, and Hops is the stuff

    For a soul which Cricket has cankered.

    What other game could have had such a poem written about it? None.

    Tonight we are here to celebrate Surrey’s first 150 years – we should enjoy it not least because if he were here the Bearded Wonder would tell us we are statistically unlikely to be here to celebrate their next 150 years.

    But we can look forward to that future and the investment we can make in the future of cricket. Some say “it’s only a game”. I don’t agree. It is a game of course and it must always remain one. But it is also part of the English character.

    It is interwoven in the warp and weft of our way of life. It’s fun and life must be about more than economics and social awareness. I want to know that future generations can look forward to the same enjoyment of the game that we have here tonight.

    That is why I want to put team sports back in schools. Why I want to develop youth cricket and club cricket. Why I have high hopes that cricket’s share of the 300 million pounds a year which will come from the National Lottery will help permanently boost the game. That’s why I left my red boxes to fester in Downing Street this evening: despatched to long off – or at any rate to later on.

    Surrey is an important part of cricket’s history. On this occasion, looking around, I hope there are ghosts present. Some of the greatest of all cricketers have been servants of this Club. Bowlers like George Lohman and Tony Richardson and batsmen like Hayward, Hobbs and Sandham. And I just wonder if Bosser Martin, the great groundsman, might also be hereabouts this evening.

    And there are some whom we would dearly loved to have been here tonight. Peter of course, and Stuart Surridge, Jim Laker, Ken Barrington and Tom Clark. Sadly they are gone. But they will never be gone from the history of cricket or of Surrey. If we close our eyes we can remember them again in their prime.

    The future is bright. The renovation of the Oval is truly remarkable. The Ken Barrington Centre now offers wonderful facilities to youngsters. Next year a second county cricket school will open in Guildford. There may be further centres, perhaps in Kingston, perhaps Croydon, perhaps both.

    Surrey will be giving cricket back to all parts of the county. The youth policy is alive and working and I hope we will find more time and more money for development women’s cricket as well. Never forget it was WG’s mother who taught him and it was our ladies team that won the World Cup at Lords.

    I would like to end by paying a special tribute to Coopers and Lybrand for their generosity in sponsoring this evening. Cricket is a natural game for accountants and Coopers and now responsible for producing ratings of players. These must be pretty accurate because they show Waqar Younis to be the best bowler in the world and Graham Thorpe to be the third best batsman.

    But never mind about third best.

    This is Surrey we’re talking about. The very best. The sight of white flannels and a chocolate cap can move me from despair to contentment.

    So, tonight I want to thank those players who’ve brought such pleasure into my life and I want to make one wish: may it always be so.

  • PMQT – 14 February 1995

    Below is the text of Prime Minister’s Question Time from 14th February 1995.

    PRIME MINISTER:

     

    Engagements

    Q1. Mrs. Ray Michie: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 February.

    The Prime Minister (Mr. John Major): This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House, I shall be having further meetings later today.

    Mrs. Michie: Last Tuesday, the Prime Minister said that a single currency was a constitutional issue. Last Thursday, the Chancellor said that it was not. Will the right hon. Gentleman now tell us who is right?

    The Prime Minister: I have told the hon. Lady, I think, directly, and many people in the House precisely what the position is as far as a single currency is concerned, and I have also told people exactly how we propose to approach it. There will be no single currency involving the United Kingdom in 1996 or 1997. When and if it arises at a later stage, whether 1999 or thereafter, we will examine both the economic implications and the other implications, and we will then make a judgement on the national interest.

    Mr. Nigel Evans: Will my right hon. Friend confirm that the Government are determined to protect the country from terrorism, drug smugglers and a tidal wave of economic refugees into this country?

    The Prime Minister: I should say to my hon. Friend that in recent years we have seen a very welcome improvement in race relations in this country and I do not wish to see that put at risk in any way. Raising fears about immigration tends to put that at risk. For that reason, I am entirely determined to maintain our fair but firm immigration policies, and that means that we shall retain our border controls.

    Mr. Blair: Following the Prime Minister’s welcome commitment last Thursday to reducing inequality, may we now put it to the test? As the national electricity grid is an absolute monopoly subject to no competition, will the right hon. Gentleman act against the excesses of the few regional electricity chiefs who stand to make £50 million out of share options on the back of it?

    The Prime Minister: I have to say to the right hon. Gentleman that I find much of his opposition to share options rather synthetic since a good deal of his leadership campaign was financed out of the proceeds of share options.

    Mr. Blair: So the right hon. Gentleman is prepared to do nothing on that. Let me now put this to him: as there still remain about 1 million long-term unemployed and the Government are proposing a £50 million cut in help to the unemployed, will he therefore act in respect of that?

    The Prime Minister: I notice that the right hon. Gentleman did not respond to the earlier point. As for his general concerns about poverty, perhaps I can help him by filling in some of the facts that he overlooks. As he will know, and as there are ample statistics to show, the vast majority of people are better off. Average income has risen by more than one third since 1979, the average income of all economic groups and family types has risen, vulnerable groups have been protected and average incomes are up by more than 10 per cent. for poorer pensioners, and up for the unemployed as well as for those in full-time work. Those are the results of the Government’s actions, and they exceed by far the results achieved by any previous Government.

    Mr. Blair: So the Prime Minister is prepared to do nothing about that either. Whatever he says about reducing inequality, he will do nothing about greed at the top and nothing about protecting the unemployed at the bottom. Are the British people not right to conclude, therefore, that his commitment to reducing inequality will be seen in time as just one more easily made, easily broken Tory promise?

    The Prime Minister: I look forward to the day when the right hon. Gentleman listens to the answer before continuing with his question. As “Social Trends” is a publication often cited by Opposition Members, perhaps they will take notice of the information available in the latest edition, which states that the income of recently retired pensioners has increased by just over a half in real terms since 1981, and the real income after tax of a lone parent on the lowest decile of female earnings and with two children rose by 50 per cent. between 1981 and 1993. Why do we never hear about the reality of what has happened rather than the accusations without base which come from the right hon. Gentleman?

    Mr. Marlow: If European institutions produce measures to dismantle our external immigration controls, and those measures are subsequently supported by the European Court, how will my right hon. Friend maintain our external controls?

    The Prime Minister: As I told my hon. Friend the Member for Ribble Valley (Mr. Evans) a moment or so ago, we believe in our right to maintain controls. My predecessor set out our determination and received a solemn declaration to that effect some time ago. Let me make it clear that we shall argue strongly for the maintenance of that position and shall take whatever steps are necessary to that end. I will tell my hon. Friend the Member for Northampton, North (Mr. Marlow) about that declaration: it was solemnly entered into by all the Heads of Government of the other European countries. They pledged their word, and I intend that they will keep it.

     

    Q2. Mr. Cousins: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 February.

    The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Cousins: Is the Prime Minister aware that, following the Government’s deal with Trafalgar House to kill off Northern Electric this morning, the resulting free-for-all in electricity companies has caused electricity shares to rise by 10 per cent. in a Valentine’s day orgy on the stock exchange, while there has been a Valentine’s day massacre of job security in the north? Does the right hon. Gentleman agree with the Confederation of British Industry that growing unfairness in society affects not only jobs but competition and business?

    The Prime Minister: As the hon. Gentleman will have observed over the last couple of years, competition in business has been creating jobs, not losing them, which is why unemployment has dropped by more than half a million.

    Mr. Foulkes: Rubbish.

    The Prime Minister: The hon. Member for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley (Mr. Foulkes) has apparently not noticed the drop of half a million in unemployment, so I will tell him that it has dropped right across Scotland, which he cares about, as well as in England, in Wales and in Northern Ireland. If the hon. Gentleman has not understood even that, I can understand why he is on the Opposition Benches–because he understands nothing.

     

    Q3. Lady Olga Maitland: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 February.

    The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Lady Olga Maitland: Has my right hon. Friend seen the report that tourism in Northern Ireland has doubled since the ceasefire was announced? Does he agree that that reflects in an important way the outcome of the peace process?

    The Prime Minister: I am aware of the remarkable increases in tourism. There have also been remarkable changes in the life styles of the people in Northern Ireland and in the success of large and small businesses in Northern Ireland. I believe that those are results of the ceasefire, which I hope we shall be able to turn into a permanent peace.

     

    Q4. Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 February.

    The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Cunningham: Does the Prime Minister recall that last Thursday in the House he gave an undertaking to commit the Government to fighting injustice and inequality? Will he now, as a first step, take the opportunity to reintroduce wages councils and, as a second step, abolish the jobseeker’s allowance?

    The Prime Minister: I will not give the hon. Gentleman that undertaking, because I do not believe that wages councils acted in the interests of people who were low paid. I believe that they kept a lot of people out of work who might otherwise have been in work. I accept that the Government have a responsibility to help the poor, and we have sought to do that. That is why extra help of more than £1 billion since 1988, over and above inflation, has been provided to help low-income families. That is the point that I invite the hon. Gentleman and his right hon. and hon. Friends to concentrate upon.

     

    Q5. Mr. Jacques Arnold: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 February.

    The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Arnold: Is my right hon. Friend aware of the decision of the parents of pupils at 88 schools in Kent who voted overwhelmingly for the schools to become grant maintained? Will he congratulate those Kentish parents on their choice? Does he welcome the fact that they had the choice in the first place–a choice exercised by the Leader of the Opposition and a number of Labour Back Benchers–or does he consider that choice to be wicked?

    The Prime Minister: I believe that every parent should have the right to choose what is best for his or her children, and I have no criticism of any parent who does so. I simply ask that all parents should have the same choice.

     

    Q6. Mr. Watson: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 February.

    The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Watson: What does the Prime Minister suggest that I could do to help my constituent, Jane Pepper, who gave up a secure job in the civil service last year to attend an access course for university? She secured three offers of places, but is now having to give them up because she loses £5,000 as a result of the Government’s penny pinching in cutting the mature students’ allowance. Leaving aside the waffle that the Prime Minister usually gives us, what advice can he give to Jane Pepper and the thousands of other people who missed out on higher education the first time around and are now having the door slammed in their faces again?

    The Prime Minister: The hon. Gentleman knows that the number of people going on to further and higher education has increased dramatically. When the hon. Gentleman’s party left office, one in eight of our children went to university. The figure is now one in three, and it is increasing.

     

    Q7. Mr. John Marshall: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 February.

    The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Marshall: Does my right hon. Friend agree that the rather disappointing performance of the English cricketers in Australia illustrates the need for more competitive sport in our schools?

    The Prime Minister: I should certainly like to see more competitive sport in our schools, and we intend to ensure that there is more. Beyond that, we must ensure that there is a much better sports environment through the clubs, so that there is a proper throughput from school to club level and to more senior levels in sport. I intend to do what I can to bring that about.

     

    Q8. Ms Jowell: To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 14 February.

    The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Ms Jowell: Is the Prime Minister aware that last week a senior manager at Guy’s hospital in London had to telephone 24 hospitals to arrange cover for patients needing acute and intensive care beds? Does he accept that patients’ lives are at risk because of the shortage of beds in London? Will he instruct the Secretary of State for Health that no further bed closures should be allowed?

    The Prime Minister: If the hon. Lady had wished me to comment on that, no doubt she would have given me earlier notice of the question. Often enough, there have been cases in which a direct answer could have been given if information had been provided, and often enough I have examined matters subsequently and found them to be a touch different from what had been suggested on the Floor of the House. I have no doubt that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health will have heard what the hon. Lady had to say.

    Mr. Michael Brown: Is not the situation with regard to the single currency quite straightforward–that if my right hon. Friend remains Prime Minister we will not have a single currency, but if the Leader of the Opposition becomes Prime Minister we will?

    The Prime Minister: As I have indicated to my hon. Friend on previous occasions, I will make a judgment on what I believe the national interest demands. If it demands no, I will say no.

  • Mr Major’s Doorstep Interview in South Africa – 21 September 1994

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech at the Alexandra Township in South Africa on Wednesday 21st September 1994.

    QUESTION:
    What did you think of the pitch at the Alexandra Oval?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    If you look over there at that township, it is absolutely appalling and what has actually happened now is that lots of the youngsters from that township have got a sanctuary, they can come here, they have got open space, they have got a cricket field where it didn’t exist, they have got sports facilities, they have got the chance to play and to grow and to learn and that means a great deal I think.

    QUESTION:

    What do you say to those who say there is still too much uncertainty and violence in South Africa for international business to invest here? What is your answer to them?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I say they are wrong. International business should invest here. I don’t have a shred of doubt about the confident future that South Africa can look forward to. Anybody who came here and saw for themselves could feel the changed atmosphere; you don’t have to read about it, you don’t have to sit back in your chair abroad and wonder what is happening – come and see, it has changed. People should come here and they should invest here, it will be good for South Africa and it will be good for them too.

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible]

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Yes they are, thank goodness, and he is a very great sportsman. If the youngsters learn to play cricket remotely as well as Brian Lara or love it remotely as well as Brian Lara, they will be very lucky youngsters.

    QUESTION:

    What do you admire about his batting?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    He is one of the best there is, isn’t he? It is his back-lift that I found fascinating, he clearly sees the ball very early in flight and hits the ball to all parts of the ground. He is a joy to watch and I fear we will be watching all too much of him when the West Indians are next playing England.