At last - someone who challenges the pie in the sky Socialistic 'if only it was so, and if it isn't we are going to force you to make it so' view of so many commentators / politicians of the left concerning so many socio/human habits / aspirations. The cretinism of a policy to spend untold ££££quintillions on the glorification of straining and sweaty muscles, when our only redeeming quality as human beings is 'potentially' our brain and abilty to 'think', - and therefore our ability to discover and add to the joys of higher spiritual and mental treasures and creativity - is beyond belief. Hooray for table tennis ! - about the only 'sport' I ever felt able to indulge in with any chance of winning the odd goal (or was it 'run' - or maybe 'rubber' - or perhaps 'set') - who cares ! On the other hand the Romans had to have their Coliseum, and Marie Antoinette ordered cake all round. So I bow to the majority (democracy I believe it's called)

john cornford, Arundel, UK

This article overlooks the possibility that without this expenditure participation might have fallen sharply. That's more than a slight possibility I should have thought, as the generation that attended school during and after immediately after the collapse of state school sport, was working its way through early adulthood in these years.

Oliver Chettle, Bedford,

The Olympics is an event that glorifies the state. Britain has representatives at every imaginable sport and a mass that would watch cockroaches racing on TV, but the spectacle is one thing and the enjoyment or the participation an entirely different matter. To see adults screaming abuse at their off-spring on the Sunday football pitch or to think on the junior school where there is no full time sports leader, or the school that has no playing field or the school where there is no compulsion to participate in sporting activity, is the sadness of sport Britain. Where Government should be taking an active part it does not, its only interest appears to be in some sort of ISO standard where it complies with international norms for providing increasingly meaningless spectacle. For amateurs to have their day in front of a mass crowd is laudable, but for professional athletes to do it, why? The London Olympics is a glorification of the state and has no bearing on our fitness, period.

Malcolm Turner, Alsager, England

The damage was done when sport lost its place on the school timetable. When school sport flourished, considerable work was done by sports teachers to link school to the community and thus interest in long term sports participation was well and truly fostered.
What has happened since? The do-gooders have derided rivalry and competition and sports facilities at school community level have been grossly underfunded. So the legs have been cut off but the body of quangos remains alive and posturing!

trevorjd, Torbay, Devon

Len Almond's point is a very good one. If National Governing bodies were to receive more money they would serve the narrow interests of their particular sport, and not necessarily very well. I personally would divert money away from them, away from Sport England, and invest it in an infrastructure for community participation by building accessible and welcoming sports centres, making the landscape more integrated for activity with cycling/walking routes, outdoor/covered fitness stations etc. Mass participation is largely going to be non-competitive so people need to be encouraged that they can just go somewhere locally and join in with a session or just do some exercise on their own.

Mark Middlemiss, Leeds,

Ah, waste in the public sector. Just the thing to get me all upset as I sit enjoying my afternoon cup of tea. Why are things like this left to the state to sort out. Surely it's up to parents to get their kids off their well-rounded backsides. If young parents nowadays took their kids for a walk in the country or simply played badminton or catch in the garden, we would have a nation of young adults who were healthy and outdoor-loving, rather than the pasty bunch of playstation/big brother addicts we're churning out now.

DD, London, UK

Almost hidden in the middle of this piece is the pernicious suggestion that we might well save money in the long run (is that actually the right phrase?) by encouraging couch potatoes to die younger.

The two-pronged Thatcherite attack on sport in schools (by destroying the morale and goodwill of the teaching profession and selling off the sports fields) will take longer than a decade and a half to put right.

Phil Williams, Shrewsbury, UK

God idea, but politicians are too adicted to the grandstanding and favours they can give out., so no hope for sanity.

Ian, Exeter, UK

Cannot agree more! As a hard pushed chairman of a local swimming club I am bothered by the way Sport England fritters its (our) money away on writing endless strategy after strategy without ever seeming to do anything. For every £1 thrown in the air hardly anything hits the floor. The major problem for sports like swimming is access to facilities that are run by local authorities who have utterly different agendas to Sport England. Many authorities are still mired in the politically correct 80s and 90s where minorities are catered for instead of the masses. As for 2012 success - forget it, it's too late already! It'll be another 10-15 years before the current state of play is corrected - and only if we get the actions right now.

Frustrated, West Midlands,

Sport England issued a joint initiative with the RYA to
give priority the larger and more powerful Ribs (inflatable
boats ) which could be used to introduce young people
to power boating as a sport , and could also be used for
rescue which is exactly what our teenage www.venturers
search and rescue.org.uk has done since August 1961.
Our application failed with a letter stating " does not meet
our target group. A earlier application for just £3000 towards
lifejackets and dry suites to start a junior cadet section was
refused with the words " insufficient sporting gain in
relation to the amount of lottery investment. we no longer waste time and effort in applying for grants from any of the
various Lottery Funding sources

Philip Pearce-Smith, Holbury , Hampshire

I totally concur with the sentiments expressed in relation to the lack of accountability and transparency in the various quangos that purport to distribute money in a considered and coherent fashion to the organisations that have a pressing need for it. However, I must acknowledge that I was rather overwhelmed by the cynical nature of Matthew's fulmination against the potential drawbacks of widespread participation. A seemingly eloquent argument was made to the effect that mass involvement in sports will not necessarily bolster the coffers of the Treasury as a result of pension schemes and sports injuries. May be so. But it is not all about financial gain, but more about the capacity to lead a life that is, insofar as is possible, immune to purgatory and difficulties. But probably Matthew was attempting to debunk the argument put forward by the Treasury as to why participation is essential.

Shahib Ali, London,

Participation in adult competitive sport is about 9%. Which is very low compared with other physical activities like walking. swimming, dance and non-competitive lifestyle sports. If money was diverted to governing bodies this would go directly to fund competitive sport which is fine and very worthwhile. However, governing bodies do not have a brief to promote physical activity which has major health and well-being benefits. Sport has a collective voice but there is nothing to represent all the different forms of physical activity who get no funding from government.

Let one organisation represent sport and let Sport England be responsible for promoting community physical activity. The problem is that sport is used as a term to cover all forms of physical activity when in reality it means competitive sport only. Ministers need to be quite clear what they are promoting. Do they want participation levels to rise if so sport is only one route - there are many other routes.

Len Almond, Loughborough, England

A modern, fuel-efficient small car puts out 100 to 150 grams of CO2 per kilometer. Plus about 30 to 50 grams/km breathed out by the sedentary driver.

A cyclist on the same kilometer puts out about 200 to 250 grams CO2 per kilometer.

A runner puts out over 250 grams CO2 per kilometer.

Which is 'Green' ?

Brian Vallance, LEFKIMMI, Greece

These are questions that have to be answered. However you are fundamentally flawed in your core suggestion. The real question to be be asked is how many people play sport that would not have without the government's initiatives- not whether overall numbewrs have changed. Other social pressures and trends may be driving activity down. Sport England might just be keeping it up.

Craig, Ireland,

Why should I subsidise people, who are generally from the higher spectrum of society, so they can watch opera and ballet? As far as sport goes it is hard to get more people involved when councils for years, under the Tories and Labour have been allowed to sell off playing fields and sports facilities making it hard to find somewehere to play sport. There are over 20 Olympic iszed swimming pools in Paris and Munich - a total of 16 in the whole of the UK. There are more ice skating rinks in Paris than the UK. How many tennis courts are available for a reasonable price compared to most european countries. Anyone who goes to Holland will see football pitches, with floodlights and changing facilities, in virtually every village they pass through. We decide to spend money on other things and then start professing to be surprised when other countries with smaller populations turn out morepeople who are accomplished at a number of sports.

Dave Proctor, Leeds, UK

Show me a pile of money and I will show you a bunch of con-men. What has exercise to do with sport? Never mind pumping money into sport - make exercise fun. Who wants to languish in a gym, even if it is free. Treadmills aren't necessary, just open countryside and beaches and we have plenty of both on these islands, despite our overcrowding in places. All we have to add is properly maintained parks in towns, and most councils are improving their record on that score.

Of course exercise of that kind doesn't give the government an excuse to increase taxation and hire more civil servants. If central government really wants to make a difference, pass a law that all new road schemes have to make provision for proper cycle lanes (not just painted marks that omit the double yellow bits and disappear just when they are needed most). That would help more than anything.

KR, Stockport,

Just offer the money as prizes to anyone who can run fast enough or jump high enough (calibrated according to age, height and any disabilities) to win it.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Good article. However anyone who believes that the cost of the Olympic games Games will be only 9 billions will have a rude shock when the bills come in. My guess would be at least twice as much, possibly three times.

Simple Simon, London, UK

The current obsession with wasting public money and resources on massive sporting events is ridiculous. London in particular seems to be at the beck and call of anyone claiming to represent sports. Recently the entire city has ground to a halt for the London Marathon and the Tour de France. Homes and businesses have been seized in the name of the olympics and the general feeling is that a sporting spectacle takes precidence over the quiet runing of day-too-day life in the capital. It is time that the government (including Ken Livingstone) accepted that their role is to improve the quality of life for the voting public, not to paper over the cracks with yet more expenisve public displays of self-glorification - a tactic that did not serve the USSR all that well, and for which they are reviled.

RW, London, England

I don't think the money that has gone into sport has made access any cheaper for those already "familiar with the concept of exercise". It has gone on creating more and more well paid jobs within the National Governing Bodies (NGB) to cope with the ever increasing amounts of red tape placed in their way by Sport England. These positions are necessary because Sport England policies discourage the myriad of volunteers, that have kept the grass roots of sports going over the years, from continuing to do so because of all the red tape they have to complete to volunteer.

For example, if your club runs kids coaching, because of Sport England enforced policy, the First team cannot come along to inspire the kids unless they have been CRB checked by the NGB before they come down to the training session. The NGB has to hire someone to cope with all the additional CRB checks.

George Brink, Hinckley, UK

Absolutely right! Too much 'public money' (mine and other taxpayers) is wasted. The London Olympics is a perfect example of how enormous sums that could have been better spent - leaving much of it in our own pockets for example - have been committed and even more taken in the future which would have been better allocated.
Like many others in the I found ample opportunity to take part in a good deal of sporting activity in my youth. Schools promoted sports and had their own facilities and after that people organised things for themselves. The increasing professionalism in sport has not been the best thing.

Dr J.Findlater, Carnforth,

It is not true that "the 2012 Games, which are likely to cost £9.3 billion, will do nothing for participation". In fact they are set to make a big difference to public participation in sport.

All over the country local sporting facilities are being mothballed or permanently closed because all the funding has been diverted to the Olympics. Swimmers in east London, for example, will find it impossible to find Olympic-class swimming pools to practise their sport unless they travel halfway across the country.

This is the biggest difference that any government/quango initiative has ever been able to make to sport. Let us not sweep this achievement under the carpet.

Joseph Bruno, London,