It’s General Election day today across Britain and Northern Ireland with the likely outcome being a hung parliament with no single party gaining an overall majority.
Sport has not featured at the top of the agenda with questions of Europe, immigration and education grabbing many headlines behind the main media topic of who would be likely coalition partners.
Nevertheless this is an election where the incumbent Government enjoyed the halo effect of hosting the most successful Olympic and Paralympic Games in history and it is certainly the case that outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron knows the value of being seen in a sporting context.
As a possible precursor to our own election within the next 12 months though it is worth taking a look at the manifesto promises of his party in relation to sport as outlined below:
“We want our sportsmen and women to win even more medals in Rio 2016 than they did in London 2012. So we will continue to support elite sports funding as part of our Olympic and Paralympic legacy.
We will deliver the Rugby World Cup in 2015, the World Athletics Championships in 2017, IPC World Championships in 2017 and the Cricket World Cup in 2019, maximising the opportunities for tourism and jobs.
We will support new sports in the UK, in particular through greater links with the US National Football League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball, with the ultimate ambition of new franchises being based here.
We have already boosted funding for sport in primary schools and over 18,000 schools have registered to take part in our School Games. We will go further, supporting primary school sport with £150 million a year, paid directly to head-teachers, until 2020. This will make sure that all primary schoolchildren benefit from a minimum of two hours high-class sport and PE each week.
We will improve the quality of community sports facilities, working with local authorities, the Football Association and the Premier League to fund investment in artificial football pitches in more than 30 cities across England.
We will continue to invest in participation and physical activity, recognising sport’s vital benefits to health and to NHS England’s campaign to prevent Diabetes.
We will lift the number of Women on national sports governing bodies to at least 25 per cent by 2017, and seek to increase participation in sport by women and girls.”
There are some good aspirations in there and a number which could be taken on here but of course this is an election so only time will tell how genuine the promises made will prove to be.
The first past the post system means a quicker result on who wins and loses their seats. The horse trading to form a new Government may take a little longer.
