"We've got to compete more consistently as a team. We've got to produce quality athletes."...
Why? Does it matter one jot whether a Brit can run in circles faster than a Ukrainian? It's "sport" FFS! It's not as if they're doing anything important like medicine or research - it's little more than a branch of the entertainment industry, and it's not very entertaining at that. If HMG is willing to chuck 3/4 billion quid at a bunch of athletes, how long before Bernie Ecclestone tips up with cap in hand to get government finance for British F1 teams?
jeff
Unfortunately, it isn't "sport", it's "votes". If the government didn't believe this waste of money on self-regarding athletes and politicians could be spun into a positive view of the government they wouldn't do it. For the same reason, the Arts Council splurges our money on "culture" which is neither popular (nor, in the vast majority of cases, very good) at the behest of an unrepresentative, self-regarding (again) set of metropolitan chatterati who only speak to - and finance - each other. Thus "art" declines as does "sport" and for very much the same reasons.
Commenting by HaloScan
