Like millions of my compatriots I shall be spending August and September in front of the television screen cheering on Team GB athletes as they compete in the Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is a time of national pride for athletes and spectators alike. For athletes their years of dedicated training may result in the raising…
With the final whistle minutes away, Scotland were within touching distance of the Rugby Union World Cup semi-final, the only northern hemisphere team still in contention. But in those last two agnonising minutes Australia scored a controversial penalty to take the semifinal place. Scotland played like heroes and silenced those that had…
In recent weeks images and stories of the Christmas truce in 1914 have offered us a reassuring flicker of humanity in a time of collective insanity. The Queen used her to Christmas message to the Commonwealth to speak movingly about truce referring to the Olympics and the wider potential of sport to bring about reconciliation. The truce…
Lord Harris of Haringey is currently conducting an inquiry into the Olympic legacy (The Committee on Olympic and Paralympic legacy). I suspect we all have very different ideas of what a good legacy would look like. The Government of course has come out one year on with some (difficult to substantiate or disprove) statistics proving…
The Paralympic Games were a triumph for Great Britain – not only in terms of sporting ability, but in opening the public’s eyes to the talent, skills and capability of disabled people. The challenge now is to build on the progress made Streamers, fireworks, balloons and parading athletes have gone. Vanished from view, the Olympic…
