Keeping an eye on the political ball

Published on Sunday 12 November 2006 01:05

AT THEIR annual conference in Oban later this month, the Scottish Labour Party will announce plans for a new sports university. Stirling is a clear favourite to be conferred with the status, and the additional backing this implies, but it is a measure of the status of sport itself that such an initiative is deemed to be headline news, as it was when it was leaked last weekend.

Most agree that Jack McConnell, the First Minister, has been a high-profile cheerleader for sport - literally, given his highly visible and vocal support of the Scottish team at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and at other big events. The sports, culture and tourism minister, Patricia Ferguson, is also an ever-present at major events and announcements, adding to the impression that there is genuine enthusiasm for sport in the corridors of power.

As far as the Executive is concerned, this enthusiasm has translated into a range of measures and initiatives - including an inaugural sports summit, the appointment of 640 active schools co-ordinators, 32 active schools managers, a promise to reintroduce competitive sport in schools, support for Glasgow's bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and a 50m national sports facilities strategy. But while some initiatives are proving a success, others are lagging. The financial support for 12 new facilities was announced over two years ago, but so far progress appears to be slow - albeit they are major projects in some cases, and dependent on local authority as well as executive funding.

But what would the other parties do for sport? What would they do differently?

Scottish National Party

THE SNP adopted a detailed and imaginative set of proposals for sport at its recent party conference in Perth. The only problem is that the paper that contained these proposals was written by Michael Matheson, who resigned as the party's shadow spokesman on sport, culture and the media in September.

Matheson, a keen mountaineer and a member of the Ochils Mountain Rescue Team, has for several years been a vocal and highly effective contributor to the sports debate. His successor, Stewart Maxwell, is new in post and has yet to demonstrate that he will be a similarly passionate and well-informed spokesman.

The SNP's proposals include establishing six regional sports academies, to act as feeders into the existing six area institutes of sport, which in turn act as feeders to the Scottish Institute of Sport. In effect these will be specialist sports schools - currently Scotland has just one, in Glasgow - and they will act as a bridge or pathway between school and elite sport. Matheson welcomes the plans to establish a sports university but argues that "there is a whole level below that, and below the area institutes of sport, that is not catered for".

A long standing SNP pledge is to scrap the executive agency sportscotland. "This is not a case of quango bashing," insists Matheson, who proposes instead that a department of sport be established. This, he says, would encourage "clear leadership from the minister for sport" and instil "a greater sense of executive responsibility".

More novel initiatives include introducing "sporting entitlements," modelled on the cultural entitlements proposed by the Cultural Commission. In principle, such entitlements would grant people a minimum weekly access to sports facilities; for schoolchildren it would give them free sporting opportunities outside the classroom and additional to the curriculum.

Matheson adds that local sports facilities would be a priority in an SNP administration. "An audit in June this year said that we need to invest 3bn in our current local facilities," says Matheson. "So far the Executive hasn't said anything in response to this." The SNP proposes the establishment of a "facilities fund", held by central government, with local authorities able to draw on it to develop and improve local facilities.

Another priority for the SNP concerns infrastructure. "We would like to develop community sports clubs and send club coaches into schools," explains Matheson. "We need to develop stronger links between schools and community sports clubs."

Scottish Liberal Democrats

DONALD Gorrie is the Lib Dems' spokesman on culture, sport and older people. He has pedigree, being a former athlete who at one time held the Scottish half-mile record. "I used to run further but slower than Menzies Campbell," says Gorrie, who set the record in 1955. Today he is honorary president of two athletics clubs, City of Edinburgh and Corstorphine.

Gorrie applauds the Executive's support for the Glasgow 2014 bid but thinks "the government hasn't taken sport as seriously as it should". He isn't convinced, however, that having a dedicated sports minister would make a difference. "That's open to question," he says.

The priority, he says, should be participation. "If it's a choice between another 10,000 kids playing football and Rangers actually winning a match somewhere, I'd go for 10,000 kids playing football."

In common with all the major political parties, Gorrie supports competitive sport in schools. "A lot of schools still don't have competitive teams or sports, but sport must be at the heart of the education system. In many places it's an add-on that people don't really seem to believe in. The idea that competitive sport is a bad thing is outdated - I think we've grown out of that rubbish.

"There also has to be greater liaison between schools and clubs. There's also the question of schools and teachers being available after hours. If schools are not closed then they can often be too expensive for clubs to use in evenings and at weekends.

"Facilities are important but we need an investment in people too: youth leaders, sports coaches. If they close a swimming pool in Glasgow they are amazed that vandalism increases. There's a clear link and sport hits so many buttons - education, health. It needs more."

The Lib Dems' pre-manifesto, published last month, includes a proposal to give every child "two weeks of outdoor activity... to learn new skills and better understand their environment". Party leader Ross Finnie also pledged to introduce a play fund to "refurbish, renovate and reinstate play areas". And instead of the current target of two hours of physical education a week, Finnie says "we must be more ambitious and set a longer term target for every child to get one hour of physical activity every day".

Scottish Conservatives

JAMIE McGrigor, the Conservatives' spokesman on tourism, culture and sport, says Scotland needs a "change in psyche" to bring about improvements from grass roots to top-level sport. "It does need something radical; it needs an explanation to young people that watching football on television is not participating in sport. We have to strive towards achieving that change in psyche."

McGrigor, a keen hillwalker, tennis player and fisherman, and formerly a footballer and cricket player, is unequivocal on the issue of competitive sport in schools. "We need to get away from the idea that elitism is wrong," says the old Etonian. "We need to pull people up rather than dumb them down. I'd like competitive sport to be taken seriously from an early age, to instil that basic ethos - the Spartan ethos of healthy body, healthy mind.

"One thing that has been very good is the Scottish Institute of Sport, though I think it should increase its core sports to include more that we're good at - cycling and shooting are good examples, given our success at the Commonwealth Games. But the institute has wonderful coaching and wonderful programmes to take athletes overseas and have them compete against people at the highest level. It instils the confidence that they can not only compete with the best but actually win."

McGrigor believes that such winners can be role models, "inspiring the youth to emulate them". He is also a supporter of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games bid. "We support that entirely - we believe it will be of benefit to Scotland and young people in particular."

One of the biggest problems in Scotland, he says, is the lack of adequate facilities. "It's one thing to have advertising campaigns, but the actual way to improve things is to encourage people to take exercise, and we need good facilities to do so.

"But we also need volunteers. I asked a question in the parliament on Thursday on that. Although the targets for 2007 are 150-160,000, the number of volunteers has already dropped to 145,000 - volunteers are vital if we're to achieve our targets."

Scottish Green Party

ROBIN Harper is the Greens' spokesman on education, young people and sport, as well as co-convenor of the party. His main concern is the "availability of green space for children. The Executive has a huge investment in organised sport, but the worry is that we're losing green spaces and children are losing opportunities to simply run around and play, or knock a football around. These spaces are steadily disappearing." If all the resources and investment is targeted at organised sport then we are, says Harper, "to use a sporting analogy - taking our eye off the ball".