Sir Kenneth's 1265 Hours

30.8.99

It seems there is a lot of doom and gloom about relating to the state of British sport. We just don't seem to be the world force we were.    One might think therefore that interest is waning but it's not, people clamour to get a look at what's going on at all levels.     And yet our cricket team can't beat New Zealand and our football team's involvement in the next European Championship is hanging in the balance with us needing good results against Luxembourg and Poland.

So what is going wrong?     It's simple really.

When a tree begins to whither and die then the usual source of the problem is within the root system.

Yes ,  I can reveal to you that there has been a problem with the root system of British sport but it's cleared up now.   However we will still have to suffer several more years of limited growth and performance until the new shoots spring up and take effect.   The roots you see are the most important part of any growth system and with things not being too rosy in the garden at present we must go back a few years, about twelve years actually, to find the cause of the poor harvest we are suffering today.

I have the answer, I know the root cause.   I will explain:

The roots of British sport as with any other country lies within the educational system.   It is at school that most children first come into contact with organised sport.     Great footballers, cricketers, tennis players, hockey players and indeed any sort of athletes are inspired at school,  often by an enthusiastic teacher who works with the pupils in his or her charge.    Ask any top sports person, you can bet your life it was a teacher who first got them going, as well of course as a caring and encouraging parent.

But about twelve years ago the then Secretary of State for Education,  the now knighted (although what for I could not say) Sir Kenneth Baker decided to announce to the populace that teachers should work 1265 hours a year.   He cited lazy teachers skulking off home at 3.15 everyday and taking long languorous holidays, basking extensively in the glorious sunshine of the Mediterranean.

. Of course education being an ideal political football and teachers being a profession people 'love to hate' ,  this was great news for the tabloids and Sir Ken promised he would whip these indolent professionals into shape........and the crowds roared their approval.    Unfortunately however there was a deafening silence in the teaching profession who's members felt humiliated and aggrieved at being described like this.   So teachers said 'Right then if he wants 1265 hours, he'll get 1265 hours.

Suddenly;  gone were the Saturday morning football matches, gone were the after school gymnastics clubs, and gone were the summer evening cricket matches because the teachers wanted to make sure they did 1265 hours, which was in fact an absolute breeze.    In reality most of them could have packed in around the middle of May.

If you combine this political harassment with the 'Equal Opportunities loopy left' who said that competitive sport was a bad thing then you have a scenario where the teachers found themselves in a 'no win' situation and rightly or wrongly they went into a sulk which lasted about five years.

As new blood came into the profession and Sir Ken faded away to fiddle with something else the 'incredible sulk' began to diminish and now, I am happy to report that now some new life and enthusiasm has been breathed into the educational sporting arena, the root system is coming back to life.   So we can expect that in five years or so our top sports people will once again filter through the system in sufficient numbers to restore our place on the world stage.

You only have to look at countries like New Zealand and France, while we pressed the self destruct button, they invested and blossomed into World Cup Winners and successfully improved their international status at our expense.

So, I hope we've learned our lesson, we must cherish the talented people we have and give them the opportunity to succeed, not at the expense of others but alongside the others and once again we will have something to shout about.  I for one am sick at seeing France take us apart at Wembley or New Zealand beat us at Lords.    We need to recognise where we went wrong, the British public were duped yet again by a politician on the make and I place our present lack of success at Sir Kenneth Baker's door.  He damaged the roots and the knock on effect was catastrophic, take a look for yourself.