Browse content similar to 04/12/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
It is tough on High Street this Christmas, with many support | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
businesses struggling to get help they need. As the Chancellor | :00:51. | :00:56. | |
brought them festive cheer? Could council cutbacks undermine the | :00:56. | :01:06. | |
:01:06. | :01:06. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2018 seconds | :01:06. | :34:44. | |
Hello, and welcome to your local part of the show for Cumbria and | :34:44. | :34:49. | |
the North East. Coming up: Is there much festive cheer on a high street, | :34:49. | :34:53. | |
or indeed among our small businesses? | :34:53. | :34:58. | |
A I am on Teesside club finding out why, if the Olympics is supposed to | :34:58. | :35:02. | |
make us a sportier nation, facilities like this face an | :35:02. | :35:06. | |
uncertain future. The government has taken steps this | :35:06. | :35:10. | |
week to address the scale of the region's economic problems. But is | :35:10. | :35:16. | |
it enough? The Chancellor announced a new �1 billion a regional growth | :35:16. | :35:23. | |
fund plus tax incentives for those investing in a North East's two new | :35:23. | :35:26. | |
regional enterprise zones. I will be asking what the politicians make | :35:26. | :35:30. | |
of it all, but first, the big question - will it help business | :35:31. | :35:37. | |
create jobs in the North? At a time when many businesses are | :35:37. | :35:42. | |
cutting back, this County Durham firm is keen to expand. It is | :35:42. | :35:45. | |
invested in new equipment and become the first in Britain to | :35:45. | :35:49. | |
produce this type of flooring. But it now needs more money to run pub | :35:49. | :35:52. | |
production and take on new staff. After eight months of talking to | :35:52. | :35:57. | |
banks, the firm has not been offered a single penny. All of the | :35:57. | :36:05. | |
banks are keen to talk to us, but none of them have said yes. So we | :36:05. | :36:09. | |
are in between a rock and a hard place. This week, the Chancellor | :36:09. | :36:14. | |
did promise more help for firms like this who want a grave. But to | :36:14. | :36:21. | |
Terry, those words sounded pretty hollow. -- want to grow. It sounds | :36:21. | :36:25. | |
great but we have heard it all before and it is just not happening. | :36:25. | :36:29. | |
I have been in business 32 years and I am more concerned now than I | :36:29. | :36:33. | |
have ever been. We just cannot get the finance we require to do the | :36:33. | :36:38. | |
work we need to do. There is little growth in the High Street, either. | :36:38. | :36:44. | |
South Shields, like many towns, has its share of empty shops. This | :36:44. | :36:49. | |
locally owned store has managed to stay profitable -- stay profitable, | :36:49. | :36:52. | |
but the owner says that when they looked for short-term help they | :36:52. | :36:57. | |
found out they were on their own. If you look in the papers, | :36:57. | :37:00. | |
apparently there is a lot of support, but we have found out | :37:00. | :37:04. | |
there is very little support. We just found out there we have not | :37:04. | :37:07. | |
been able to get any more support from the bank we have been with for | :37:07. | :37:11. | |
five years. We were told that Allah ratable value for a new store that | :37:12. | :37:15. | |
has been open for two months around the corner, we asked for a rent | :37:15. | :37:18. | |
rebate all for it to be looked at, and we told there was no rebate | :37:18. | :37:25. | |
available. That is �18,000 on top of the rent. Whereas the help | :37:25. | :37:31. | |
there? There is none whatsoever. these are tough times for retailers | :37:31. | :37:34. | |
and for manufacturers. The challenge for George Osborne this | :37:34. | :37:38. | |
week was to offer hope both to the businesses and workers, but it | :37:38. | :37:42. | |
doesn't seem he has offered much festive cheer to either. We wanted | :37:42. | :37:45. | |
to see more support for exporters and we did not really see anything | :37:45. | :37:49. | |
there. We wanted more support for infrastructure and the projects we | :37:49. | :37:54. | |
got were ones that we were already committed to, and only two out of | :37:54. | :38:00. | |
500 for this region. On the other hand, encouraged by what was on | :38:00. | :38:04. | |
offer in terms of energy for businesses. But there are firms | :38:04. | :38:09. | |
that have got help. Jarrow cat brewery has also managed to get | :38:09. | :38:16. | |
help. It is just got a grant from the Government's regional growth | :38:16. | :38:23. | |
bond. It plans to grow jobs and move into bigger premises. We have | :38:23. | :38:26. | |
been a capacity and we have had to stop sending be a right across the | :38:26. | :38:31. | |
country. This grant will fast track the brewery and allow us to push on | :38:31. | :38:37. | |
with quadrupling the size of our plant in a regeneration area of | :38:37. | :38:40. | |
South Tyneside. If this grand had not come along, we would not have | :38:40. | :38:46. | |
been able to progress. So, cause for a celebratory drink. But | :38:46. | :38:49. | |
putting the fizz back in the rest of the North East economy will be | :38:49. | :38:53. | |
more of a challenge. The Chancellor is convinced there is room for | :38:53. | :38:58. | |
autism -- optimism, but for many the economic class still looks a | :38:58. | :39:01. | |
half-empty. With bitterness both bat is the Labour MP for | :39:01. | :39:07. | |
Middlesbrough, Sir Stuart Bell, but Conservative Euro-MP, Martin | :39:08. | :39:15. | |
Callanan, and Keith Burge, a business experts based in the North | :39:15. | :39:21. | |
East. Do you think George Osborne has done anything to help this we? | :39:21. | :39:27. | |
I hope he has. It is a real issue, where businesses are going to banks | :39:27. | :39:30. | |
and banks are being encouraged to lend them the money they need, and | :39:30. | :39:34. | |
if it has not been forthcoming. Measures have been introduced to | :39:34. | :39:39. | |
facilitate bank lending and to keep them lending, which will benefit | :39:39. | :39:44. | |
local businesses. Is the support there for local businesses? The | :39:44. | :39:51. | |
government says it is there to help with jobs. I think, more broadly, | :39:51. | :39:54. | |
it is not. There was a welcome announcement that came through in | :39:54. | :40:00. | |
the Autumn Statement, in terms of businesses that want to invest in | :40:00. | :40:03. | |
research and development, assisting it heavy energy users and | :40:03. | :40:07. | |
encouraging firms to take on young people will stop but if you take on | :40:07. | :40:11. | |
what was being spent in terms of encouraging young people three or | :40:11. | :40:17. | |
four years ago, it does pale into insignificance. If the region gets | :40:17. | :40:21. | |
its share of the regional growth fund, that will be worth about �50 | :40:21. | :40:26. | |
million a year. One North East alone was spending �32 million a | :40:26. | :40:32. | |
year, so that gives you some idea of the scale. Martin Callanan, | :40:32. | :40:35. | |
George Osborne is just trying to come up with inadequate substitutes | :40:35. | :40:45. | |
:40:45. | :40:45. | ||
for what he and your government took away, isn't he? Overshadowing | :40:45. | :40:50. | |
this is the massive debt legacy that we have. We have got to get | :40:50. | :40:55. | |
rid of this. But we are not getting rid of it. We are but it is taking | :40:55. | :40:58. | |
longer than we thought because of the recession. We would all like to | :40:58. | :41:00. | |
see more investment in infrastructure projects but the | :41:00. | :41:05. | |
money is not there. Why isn't the Autumn Statement rowing back a | :41:05. | :41:09. | |
little bit? Admission that what had been done in Italy had actually | :41:09. | :41:16. | |
damaged the economy, and these are attempts which are inadequate. -- | :41:16. | :41:26. | |
:41:26. | :41:26. | ||
done it initially. If you look at the situation of some of our | :41:26. | :41:30. | |
European partners, look what is happening in Greece, Italy, | :41:30. | :41:35. | |
Portugal. These are countries that fail to deal with their debt legacy | :41:35. | :41:38. | |
and now they have caretaker government, they are seeing massive | :41:38. | :41:42. | |
austerity imposed, cutbacks in wages, cutbacks are prices. They | :41:43. | :41:47. | |
are going through a deflationary cycle. These are serious turbulent | :41:47. | :41:50. | |
economic times of the important thing is to get the economy on an | :41:50. | :41:53. | |
even keel. We would like to see more investment and infrastructure | :41:53. | :41:59. | |
projects but the money is simply not buyer. It is borrowed cash. -- | :41:59. | :42:06. | |
simply not there. There isn't an easy solution to hear, is there? | :42:06. | :42:10. | |
we get back to the banks, the point that Keith made - and there was a | :42:10. | :42:13. | |
small statement made by the Chancellor, where he taught of bond | :42:13. | :42:23. | |
:42:23. | :42:25. | ||
issues. They package the layers together and Securitas them. There | :42:25. | :42:30. | |
was also the loan guarantee scheme, in order to have the banks have the | :42:30. | :42:37. | |
comfort of a guarantee. It is a serious matter, and I was very | :42:37. | :42:41. | |
upset when the Governor of the Bank of England came out at the end of | :42:41. | :42:46. | |
the week, telling banks took but even more money aside, rather than | :42:46. | :42:51. | |
lend it. This is a critical issue. There was some good news for the | :42:51. | :42:54. | |
two enterprise zones, one of which is in your constituency, which will | :42:54. | :42:58. | |
get power to offer the tax incentives. That is something | :42:59. | :43:02. | |
innovator that Labour never did. stood up and thanked the Chancellor | :43:02. | :43:07. | |
of the Exchequer for giving us 100% capital allowance, which means we | :43:07. | :43:12. | |
can buy plant and machinery without tax. The fact that the blind | :43:12. | :43:18. | |
support is now a part of the enterprise zone. We have got 50 | :43:18. | :43:21. | |
enterprise zones working out of Teesside. I am not criticising the | :43:21. | :43:24. | |
government for those aspects, because we now have to work with | :43:24. | :43:32. | |
what we have. If Michelangelo would with clay rather than marble, no | :43:32. | :43:36. | |
one would remember him. You say you would love to have more | :43:37. | :43:40. | |
infrastructure projects, but only two of those the Chancellor | :43:40. | :43:44. | |
announced when the North East. The Chamber of Commerce is concerned | :43:44. | :43:50. | |
about that. Are they right? Yes, they are. There were some | :43:50. | :43:54. | |
announcements being remade, rather than new announcements. But it is | :43:54. | :43:57. | |
not necessarily the case that infrastructure must be in the | :43:57. | :44:04. | |
region to benefit businesses in the region, an example being the Aone | :44:04. | :44:10. | |
in North Yorkshire. We need to wait for the detailed to come through | :44:10. | :44:20. | |
:44:20. | :44:20. | ||
before we make a considered assessment. -- the A 1. | :44:21. | :44:25. | |
announced the Tarin won, which was first announced in 2000 delayed, | :44:25. | :44:28. | |
and a rail service that goes from Leeds to Manchester, which has not | :44:28. | :44:38. | |
:44:38. | :44:40. | ||
even in the region. -- of the Tyne and Wear Metro. There is an | :44:40. | :44:42. | |
infrastructure investments going on. The high-speed rail link when it | :44:42. | :44:48. | |
gets to the region will benefit us. It will get through eventually. The | :44:48. | :44:52. | |
improvements on the road in Yorkshire or will help us because | :44:53. | :44:55. | |
you have to drive through Yorkshire to get to the south of England. | :44:55. | :44:59. | |
There are more schemes we would like to see but we look at the | :44:59. | :45:04. | |
crisis across Europe. Our economy is on an even keel and is growing | :45:04. | :45:09. | |
slightly. The problem is that what we saw from those businesses there | :45:09. | :45:15. | |
is that they hear the rhetoric about things being done to get | :45:15. | :45:19. | |
banks lending, but the reality is that one may bring the banks they | :45:19. | :45:27. | |
don't get anything. I agree with Sir Stuart's comments on the banks. | :45:27. | :45:31. | |
There are countries where banks are going bankrupt and relaxing. Our | :45:31. | :45:38. | |
money is lent to those banks so that if God thing to do is to -- | :45:38. | :45:44. | |
the difficult thing to do is keep resources. There are limited things | :45:44. | :45:50. | |
we can do about it but we face of a very difficult economic times. I | :45:50. | :45:54. | |
would love to say there was a magic wand we could wait and invest loads | :45:54. | :45:58. | |
of money in infrastructure and free up bank lending, but there are no | :45:58. | :46:03. | |
easy solutions. This is a long-term problem and it is going to be | :46:03. | :46:07. | |
difficult for many years and we have to stick with it. Sir Stuart | :46:07. | :46:13. | |
Bell, this is the coalition blaming this on Labour. I think we have | :46:13. | :46:16. | |
passed the stage of blaming the last government. We ought to be | :46:16. | :46:20. | |
passed the stage of playing the eurozone. We have to look at the | :46:20. | :46:25. | |
facts as they are. The timetable is something that concerns me. �20 | :46:25. | :46:29. | |
billion is going into infrastructure, but when? The banks | :46:29. | :46:36. | |
really do have to be lent on very heavily. This is the second scheme. | :46:36. | :46:40. | |
We had a scheme before which they never completed. Unless the money | :46:40. | :46:46. | |
flows through the system, it is like blood through the body. Martin | :46:46. | :46:50. | |
Callanan painted a difficult to picture bed. What is your solution? | :46:50. | :46:55. | |
The Labour Party will have to come up with its own solution in time. | :46:55. | :47:01. | |
But I say, let's hunkered down, get the investment, get the local | :47:01. | :47:04. | |
enterprise partnerships, let them get stuck in for the infrastructure | :47:04. | :47:09. | |
products. You sound like an apologist for the government here, | :47:09. | :47:12. | |
which confuses me. Looking at the end product figures, that is not | :47:12. | :47:17. | |
enough. Being an apologist for the government, you have to bear in | :47:17. | :47:21. | |
mind, we deal with what we have. Youth unemployment passed one | :47:21. | :47:25. | |
million. We have apprenticeship schemes. We have twice the number | :47:25. | :47:30. | |
of apprentices on Teesside that we had before. What I am saying it is | :47:31. | :47:33. | |
that this is the programme of the government and we have to make it | :47:33. | :47:38. | |
work. Keith Burge, is their grounds for optimism after the Autumn | :47:38. | :47:43. | |
Statement? I am not sure there is. Even more concerning is the lack of | :47:43. | :47:47. | |
a plan. What is the plan for the North East? How do these | :47:47. | :47:52. | |
initiatives come together to form a regional strategy? What are the | :47:52. | :47:56. | |
priority sectors? What is the government looking to achieve? How | :47:56. | :47:58. | |
is it going to tackle the major problem of unemployment in the | :47:58. | :48:02. | |
region, which is pushing 12%? Some welcome things have been brought | :48:02. | :48:06. | |
forward but they don't really add up to anything much and they don't | :48:06. | :48:11. | |
come together in a coherent way. Thank you very much for now. | :48:11. | :48:15. | |
A golden age for sport is what we were promised when London won the | :48:15. | :48:19. | |
2012 Olympics, but with a little over eight months to go until the | :48:19. | :48:23. | |
opening ceremony, are those ambitions being made? There is some | :48:23. | :48:27. | |
money coming from Sport England to improve as it is in the north as | :48:27. | :48:31. | |
part of the Olympic Legacy Project, but some feel that could be | :48:31. | :48:36. | |
undermined by local councils closing facilities to save money. | :48:36. | :48:42. | |
Move over, Jonny Wilkinson, here comes Pontius and's under four | :48:42. | :48:46. | |
teams. But for all their ability, these players have a problem. The | :48:46. | :48:51. | |
pitches get waterlogged and matters get cancelled. Now their club has | :48:51. | :48:54. | |
won eight �50,000 grant to improve drainage. It is all down to the | :48:54. | :48:58. | |
Olympics. Our pictures over used and we have not got enough | :48:58. | :49:07. | |
facilities and space. -- our picture is over used. A so, what | :49:07. | :49:12. | |
has London 2012 got to do with this? Well, according to a Olympics | :49:12. | :49:16. | |
organisers, the idea is not just to win medals but to make the rest of | :49:16. | :49:20. | |
us more sporty and healthier. are using some of our lottery money | :49:20. | :49:25. | |
to help produce a legacy programme to provide more opportunities for | :49:25. | :49:29. | |
people to participate in sport. It is an important scheme for us to be | :49:30. | :49:38. | |
involved with, to extend the legacy it to 2013 and beyond. We have a | :49:38. | :49:43. | |
cricket club being held in the Tees Valley, a rugby club being assisted | :49:43. | :49:46. | |
here, and I conical rowing programme at Durham University. A | :49:46. | :49:56. | |
whole range of sports. Elsewhere in our region, grassroots sport is not | :49:56. | :50:00. | |
so much charging to victory as beating a reluctant retreat. The | :50:00. | :50:06. | |
reason is a crunching squeeze on council spending battles left some | :50:06. | :50:10. | |
sporting facilities fighting for their future. This pool and gym | :50:10. | :50:14. | |
closed in October. Durham County Council says the decision was | :50:14. | :50:17. | |
forced on it by the need to make tens of millions of pounds of | :50:17. | :50:21. | |
savings, and the failure to find a viable alternative operator pulls | :50:21. | :50:25. | |
top bad news for this triathletes, reduced to do has swimming training | :50:26. | :50:32. | |
here three times a week. training has been really affected | :50:32. | :50:36. | |
by it. Some people may not be able to travel further, so they will | :50:36. | :50:40. | |
stay in the house and it will affect their health and lifestyle. | :50:40. | :50:43. | |
It is a concern shared hearing Middlesbrough, where the council is | :50:43. | :50:47. | |
consulting over a plan to sell this athletics stadium and build what it | :50:47. | :50:51. | |
says is a better track elsewhere. But some fear the replace them will | :50:51. | :50:55. | |
never materialise. The main concern is whether they will have the money | :50:55. | :51:00. | |
to complete what they have promised, a new track, having sold this will | :51:00. | :51:05. | |
stop if they can't, it will be devastating. Does the fact that the | :51:05. | :51:10. | |
Olympics are approaching make the stakes higher? I think so. Lord | :51:10. | :51:14. | |
code taught about a legacy being left following the Olympics. To | :51:14. | :51:18. | |
have lost this track will be the wrong sort of legacy. -- Sebastian | :51:19. | :51:26. | |
Coe. So will the Olympics really deliver participation as well as | :51:26. | :51:30. | |
sporting glory? A final verdict from two of our region's most | :51:31. | :51:35. | |
celebrated medal-winners. There has been so little investment in sport, | :51:35. | :51:39. | |
in the participation end, and that investment has been withdrawn and | :51:39. | :51:45. | |
the last year raw two, for reasons that everybody tends to be aware of. | :51:45. | :51:49. | |
Local authorities have a greater things to spend their money on, and | :51:49. | :51:54. | |
so has central government. There will be a big spike after the Games | :51:54. | :51:58. | |
because that is what happens. But most Danes struggle to have a long- | :51:58. | :52:03. | |
term legacy which massively increases sport. The only way of | :52:03. | :52:07. | |
guaranteeing it to happen it is to put money into local authorities | :52:07. | :52:13. | |
and local clubs, to make sure those networks are there. Let's talk | :52:13. | :52:17. | |
about all that now with our politicians. Stuart Bell, you have | :52:17. | :52:20. | |
said you are concerned about the cuts Middlesbrough council is | :52:20. | :52:27. | |
planning. Realistically, they have no choice, do they? Social services | :52:27. | :52:31. | |
care for the elderly is one of the things that past have priority. | :52:31. | :52:34. | |
decisions have been made. They will be announced next week by the mayor | :52:34. | :52:39. | |
of Middlesbrough. What we are looking at in Middlesbrough is a | :52:39. | :52:45. | |
21st century sporting village, which would have a 400 metre track, | :52:45. | :52:50. | |
five-a-side football, a tennis court, a plaza for skating and all | :52:50. | :52:53. | |
that kind of thing. So we are looking to the future but no | :52:53. | :52:57. | |
decisions have been made yet at one thing is certain - no facility will | :52:57. | :53:02. | |
ever close down without a new one being opened. Can you really | :53:02. | :53:06. | |
guarantee that? People are a bit cynical about that because they | :53:06. | :53:09. | |
have heard many cases before when you facilities are promised then | :53:09. | :53:13. | |
all of a sudden, they can't be afforded any more. This is part of | :53:14. | :53:17. | |
the plan. The plan has been announced and if there are | :53:17. | :53:23. | |
decisions made - and let me repeat, they are not made yet - the sports | :53:23. | :53:27. | |
facilities there should state, whatever happens. We are looking to | :53:28. | :53:35. | |
the 21st century. The track goes back to the 1960s and is not really | :53:35. | :53:39. | |
fit for purpose in the days we are living. We need a 21st century one. | :53:39. | :53:43. | |
It is not much a band alone big legacy if there are closed leisure | :53:43. | :53:50. | |
centres and uncertainty over sports facilities. -- much of an Olympic | :53:51. | :53:58. | |
legacy. I accept what Sir Stuart Bell says about that. I think we | :53:58. | :54:04. | |
will see a spike in participation in sports. Everyone I speak to is | :54:04. | :54:07. | |
getting excited about the Olympics. We have to make sure that it is not | :54:07. | :54:12. | |
the same as the local parks being filled with people playing tennis | :54:12. | :54:16. | |
when Wimbledon is on. Let's see how long it lasts into the future when | :54:16. | :54:21. | |
the Olympics is over, because grassroots sport - which has | :54:21. | :54:27. | |
received massive investment through things like the National Lottery - | :54:27. | :54:30. | |
has to continue in the long term. Councils are closing leisure | :54:30. | :54:34. | |
centres. That is not going to help her participation in sport. They | :54:34. | :54:40. | |
say it is down to your cuts. councils are facing cutbacks in | :54:40. | :54:43. | |
funding and they have to prioritise. Some councils are opening new | :54:43. | :54:46. | |
facilities. Mayer and authority in Gateshead have just invested a lot | :54:46. | :54:55. | |
of money in your leisure centres. - - might own authority. It is | :54:55. | :54:58. | |
different positions in different local authorities, and that his | :54:58. | :55:00. | |
local democracy. They make decisions made on the resources | :55:01. | :55:06. | |
available to them. Sir Stuart Bell, your constituency is one of the | :55:06. | :55:08. | |
most deprived parts of the North East. Do you get a sense that | :55:08. | :55:13. | |
people are engaged in a or inspired by the Olympics? They are certainly | :55:13. | :55:19. | |
interested in the stadium, because 6,000 people signed a petition to | :55:19. | :55:22. | |
keep it open. We have a wonderful event that is coming in | :55:22. | :55:25. | |
Middlesbrough. The flame that will come through Middlesbrough next May, | :55:25. | :55:30. | |
or on its way to London. I think that will matter to the people of | :55:30. | :55:34. | |
Middlesbrough - that they are on the map, and there they are. We | :55:34. | :55:40. | |
take a big interest in events. is a fitting moment, isn't it? | :55:40. | :55:44. | |
have been rows about it. One council leader has complained it is | :55:44. | :55:48. | |
not spending the night in his area and has written a formal letter to | :55:48. | :55:52. | |
complain. Every time I go into Middlesbrough, over the flyover | :55:52. | :55:57. | |
into the town, there is the stadium on the left and they are always | :55:57. | :56:01. | |
playing five-a-side football. They are always playing some sport. | :56:01. | :56:05. | |
Every time you go through, there they are. This is the biggest | :56:05. | :56:09. | |
sporting event in the world. The be anecdotal evidence is that sport | :56:10. | :56:14. | |
participation is reducing. The question is, where Labour naive to | :56:14. | :56:18. | |
set these targets? Your party said the targets in the first place - | :56:19. | :56:23. | |
typical New Labour, you might say - when there is no evidence that it | :56:23. | :56:28. | |
would make a difference. It was Tony Blair who brought the Olympics | :56:28. | :56:32. | |
to London in the first place. We should not be so pessimistic. On | :56:33. | :56:38. | |
Sunday morning, go out in Middlesbrough and juicy football | :56:38. | :56:42. | |
being played. Look at the league tables and the local newspaper. | :56:42. | :56:45. | |
Let's not say that we are not interested in the Olympics and that | :56:45. | :56:50. | |
we have no interest. We have a big interest in sport and sports | :56:50. | :56:55. | |
facilities. Labour sold off a lot of school sports fields, didn't | :56:55. | :57:01. | |
they? Perhaps we did but we are living changing societies. Go into | :57:01. | :57:04. | |
leisure centres and community centres. We want the community to | :57:04. | :57:08. | |
be involved in them. If we are facing closure, why doesn't the | :57:08. | :57:13. | |
community come forward, take them over and run them? That is the Big | :57:13. | :57:19. | |
Society, isn't it? The Big Society was a lay-by idea that came back. | :57:19. | :57:23. | |
But it There are going to be closures, either you have closures | :57:23. | :57:32. | |
or participation. -- was a Labour idea. We talk about sport not just | :57:32. | :57:35. | |
for the sake of it, because we are talking about making people | :57:35. | :57:39. | |
healthier, which will save money in the NHS will stop yes and the | :57:39. | :57:44. | |
Olympics is the biggest sporting event in the world. It is across a | :57:44. | :57:51. | |
huge range of disciplines. You will see interest in a few peripheral | :57:51. | :57:55. | |
sports particularly, and some of the minority activities, which are | :57:55. | :58:00. | |
seeing big upsurge is in investment. Figures showed participation is | :58:00. | :58:06. | |
going down. In individual sports, it is. But in others that are less | :58:06. | :58:12. | |
popular, they are seeing a huge surges. It varies, depending on how | :58:12. | :58:17. | |
active a particular sporting bodies are in promoting their interests. | :58:17. | :58:20. | |
That's it from was this week. But you can remain umbilically attached | :58:20. | :58:25. |