by | Jul 26, 2024 | The Guardian
Brian Cookson says support for organised sport in the UK needs a radical rethink and a substantial boost
It was fascinating to read about the support available for grassroots sport in France and to compare it with the situation in this country (
). Here, elite level Olympic sport is well funded but, in many sports, club level sport is dying on its feet.
As a nation we have commodified sport and made it something that is too expensive to organise and thus too expensive for many people to participate in. We have to change that before it’s too late. Current initiatives that focus on active lifestyles are right and proper, but support for organised sport needs a radical rethink and a substantial boost. I hope that Lisa Nandy, the secretary of state for culture, media and sport, will address this issue as a matter of urgency.
Brian Cookson
Chair, Active Lancashire
by | Jul 26, 2024 | The Guardian
Tory MPs opposed to this human right have been swept away. On Friday in the Lords, a path towards choice will finally be set
Every Labour government forges ahead with life-changing liberal reforms, and this one will be no exception. Expect the right to die to be one of this government’s landmarks, removing one of the last barriers to freedom over our own bodies. Everyone must die, but the greatest dread is exiting the world through a torture chamber. Once assured that we need never bear the unbearable, death would lose much of its sting.
While other countries allow the mortally ill to be released from the last stages of life if they wish, the British have been denied that choice, mainly by the power of religious lobbies. Only God can decide how long we should suffer before death comes at a time of his pitiless whim, they say. Humanists UK has tussled with them for years on this. Yet faith campaigners have defeated a change in the law time and again, despite religion being a fading preoccupation.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
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