Pete Wishart: I’m supporting Team GB … for the time being

WHAT a year of sport there is in store for us in 2012 and as events go they don’t come any bigger than the Olympics. Already the excitement is growing and the Olympics will be the defining and biggest single event of the year.

Where I would naturally like to see a Scottish team march round that impressive new Olympic stadium under the St Andrew’s cross as an independent nation, I will be enthusiastically cheering on team GB and hoping that athletes from across the UK secure gold for Great Britain.

That is because as a proud Scottish nationalist, as it stands, team GB is as much my team as the most enthusiastic unionist’s from the deepest shires of southern England.

I recognise the immense pride of Scottish athletes in representing their country and they should be able to stand under their current national flag and take great satisfaction in being a member of the Team GB squad.

As an independent nation we would be represented by a Team Scotland in any future Olympics. That is what normal independent countries do in international sporting events. But for now we are part of the UK, team GB is our team and our Scottish athletes have to know that all of us are cheering them on regardless of what colours and flags they compete under.

There are many appropriate places to have the constitutional debate about the future of our country, but the current sporting arrangements in advance of a home-based Olympics is not one of these places. In fact, events like competing together in the Olympics could even be said to demonstrate the keen social union we enjoy through these isles.

Following independence I hope that there will be occasions where we will come together as a “British” team just like we do in international rugby as the British Lions or even as Europe as, for example, in the Ryder Cup.

I also welcome the Olympic world family to London. London will be an incredible venue for the XXX Olympiad and it is great for Scotland that this is all on our doorstep. It will offer an inspiring example to our aspiring athletes and will hopefully give an encouragement to Scots of all ages to get involved in sporting activity.

But this does not mean that I have been entirely happy or satisfied with all the arrangements for the London Olympics. The financial issues have on occasion teetered on the disastrous and it is unacceptable the way the Olympics budget ballooned.

I was also the only speaker in the first debate in the House of Commons who spoke out against the use of lottery money to fund these games. I still believe that it is fundamentally wrong that money will be siphoned off from lottery- supported good causes and grassroots sports organisations to pay for these games.

I also have tried as much as possible to hold the Westminster Government to account for the pledge they made to ensure that the whole of the UK benefits from the construction of these games. The fact that only tiny proportion of construction contracts were awarded to Scottish firms shows how miserable a failure that pledge was.

But probably the most disappointing issue is the way that Olympic chiefs have tried to bully and cajole a reluctant Scottish Football Association into going along with a Team GB football team. The SFA is, of course, right to have absolutely nothing to do with this idea and I’m sure football fans across Scotland recognise we must never give any excuse to a chaotic and dysfunctional Uefa that may compromise our footballing independence. But these issues have now come and gone. It is unfortunate Scotland has lost out both in lottery spending and Olympic contracts but now is the time to ensure we can get what we can while enjoying this fantastic spectacle on our doorstep.

Tourism is the obvious way that Scotland can benefit. We must ensure that we do all we can to encourage people to think about Scotland when they arrive in London. Golf packages and heritage tourism seem to be the obvious opportunities and we must take advantage of the occasion.

Scotland will be over-whelmingly positive about the games and the potential for opportunities and spin-offs it offers us as a nation. It also helps us shape up for Glasgow in 2014.

Mostly, though, it should be about our athletes representing Scotland within team GB. They will want our support and our enthusiasm, and I offer that to them unconditionally as a keen and passionate supporter of our “current” national team.

• Pete Wishart is the SNP member of parliament for Perth and North Perthshire