Serving an ace
Sunday, 28 June 2009
It's been very exciting watching Andy Murray in Wimbledon as we watch to see if we can make it all the way to the final and take the title.
We always see the short term surge in demand for Tennis before people gradually lose interest in the sport but the challenge isn't how we renew the excitement that people are currently feeling with Murray's success but rather if they are able to do so.
Yet there isn't the facilities in Scotland for youngsters to play tennis.
Utterly shamefully 10 Councils do not have any tennis facilities at all for youngsters. A further 4 have only 1 tennis facility across their entire local authority and a whopping 87.5% of Councils do not offer free access to under-16's.
And let's not be under any illusions, the Scottish Government's record on Sport is appalling. Their record includes:
- Breaking their promise to give every child 2 hour of PE a week.
- Not having a single national outcome on Sport from their Scotland Performs site
- Breaking their promise to give youngsters free access to swimming. Only 2 councils out of 32 provide this.
- Nicola Sturgeon being Health and Sports minister but having never to my knowledge made a single statement on sport.
- Trying to stop SportsScotland moving from Edinburgh to the heart of the Commonwealth Games
- Lowering the proportion of funding in grassroots sports when compared with funding elite athletes.
- Not backing Labour's campaign for free access for youngsters at SPL games with any action
- And now the lack of tennis facilities.
This is a golden decade for sport in Scotland. We have the Ryder cup and Commonwealth games and the Olympics in London. We have an opportunity to not only provide world class facilities for those who wish to represent our country at the highest level but also to really change the unhealthy culture in Scotland and increase sports participation like we see in Scandinavia.
The Scottish Government claim to be fully behind the 2014 Commonwealth games and the opportunities it will provide. They need to prove it.
Posts
17 comments:
Do you want to review your post before I take it apart?
You either have a very short memory, are being selective or simply lying....
'utterly shameful' ???
Are you sure?
Does it mean that there are no tennis facilities in the region at all or does it mean that the councils don't provide free tennis courts?
I don't recall ever seeing or hearing of anyone complaining about the lack of Tennis facilities anywhere, ever... but maybe it's such an utterly shameful situation that people are too black affronted to have other folk know that they live somewhere so impoverished... my god! why am I posting... I haven't checked if there's free tennis near me...
Haud on! There is a court in Queens park, but there's no Hawkeye! Wait till I get a hold of my councillor... What a disgrace!
Wait a mo. The BBC article lists the councils with no tennis courts. They are:
Angus: LibDem/Lab/Con/Ind
East Lothian: SNP/LibDem
Falkirk: Lab/Con/Ind
Inverclyde: Lab minority
North Lanarkshire: Lab
Perth & Kinross: SNP/LibDem
Borders: Con/LibDem/Ind
South Ayrshire: Con minority
That's 4 councils where Labour are in full or partial control, 4 for the Tories, 4 LibDem, 3 Ind and 2 SNP.
So really this is broadly the fault of Unionism, according to your logic.
Shona Robison is the minister responsible for sport. I can't be bothered correcting the other mistakes, tbh.
Well yes Jim it does matter and in 10 areas it isn't that they don't provide free courts. They don't provide ANY courts at all.
Oh and Sport, like public health and housing, is part of the Health brief which Sturgeon is in charge of. The Deputy FM has made statements on Housing and Public Health in the past, just not Sport.
Decent post, Yousuf. All Scottish governments are guilty of massively under investing in sport but the current one has been worse than those which came before it.
Other than Homecoming Scotland sponsoring the Scottish Cup, i'm struggling to think of a single initiative that it has undertakne.
Investment in sport is such a no-brainer in terms of improving health and self esteem and keeping people occupied and out of bother.
If we spent a tiny fraction of the cash the UK government intends wasting on nuclear weapons that will never be used, we could do so much more to support sports throughout the whole of the UK.
It would appear from this post that anyone who is a Labour party member has had their memory wiped clean, and have no recollection of anything that happened before 2007.
Where have all the thousands of tennis courts that the Labour/Lib Dem gave free tennis on disappear between 2007 and now?
How many courts were available for free tennis in Scotland in 2006 Yousuf? Note 2006 that will give a year.
Yousuf
I'm afraid on this topic you're talking utter balls.
You've (maybe) read Frank McAveety's report or maybe the Herald's bites) and because the council don't provide free tennis concluded that there can't be any tennis - typical muddled Labour thinking!
Apparently in your head this amounts to an 'utterly shameful' situation?
How about applying some sense of perspective?
Jim
Jim:
He works for McAveety. Yousuf probably did the report in the first place, i.e. phoning round 32 councils and asking "Do you have a tennis court?"
are you still going on about the free football thing?
the scottish govt cant afford it, nor can we ask clubs (many of whom are going out of business already) to stump up the millions required to fund it.
Al bundy,
it would supremely aid the Inverclyde SNP if you would refer to Inverclyde council in its true form A New Labour/Tory Alliance,
many thanks
also mi have just realised that tennis isnt even a sport at 2014, so your mention of that is a wee bit strange
Jim, do yo really think that a situation when in a 3rd of Councils only a few private clubs is appropriate?
It depends what you believe in terms of access for sports. Labour is after increasing access, does you partisan nature really mean that you will be against access because it hurts the Scottish Government?
HP - The key point in increasing sport participation is not just about breeding new winners but about changing the culture of unhealthy living Scotland.
This is why the proportion of sports spending on elite athletes increasing is not appropriate and why the fact that tennis is not in 2014 does not mean that we should not use the games to change a culture for all sports.
Yousuf
Even by your own limited standards that's a pish reply.
Let's just leave it that you think that because not every council provides free tennis for everyone means that tennis isn't available and that is 'utterly shameful'.
Now on the Yousuf scale, where does the renewal of the Trident abomination, the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or even the behaviour of your parliamentary Labour party in relation to expenses sit?
Jim
Cashback for Communities is providing money for various sports as well as other activities.
http://www.cashbackscotland.com
Why should absolutely everything be free by the way?
Yousuf, I agree with the thrust of this post but Jim's final point's a decent one.
WOuld you care to respond to it?
Post a Comment