As a sports-mad MP (could you guess from the pic below?) I have taken more than a close interest in the Olympic and Paralympic Games.



As the MP for Loughborough, the sporting capital of the UK, it may be expected that I am only interested in elite athletes and putting athletes on the podium in 2012.

Clearly, I have been closely involved in the changes being made to deliver our 4th place aspiration, including my work within the Treasury, but, as a passionate supporter of grassroots/community sport, my ambition for the 2012 Games will be to deliver a lasting change in participation.

I have been worried over the last few months that not enough is being done to make sure this aspect of the Games is realised. I chair my County Sports Partnership and get the feeling that tourism, culture and business are gearing themselves up for getting the most out of the Games.

We have to work to ensure that the Games are a catalyst for a sustained increase in sports participation and activity levels in our communities.

Whilst I think the targets for driving up participation for Sport England are already pretty ambitious, I want to make sure there is a clear strategy and clear lines of responsibility for using the Games to drive up this ambition even further.

I backed the Games from the start (and a bit before when I lobbied the Government to back the bid) on the understanding that this gave us the ideal opportunity to put sport top of the agenda.

So yesterday I was happy to be given the opportunity to put across my views to the Sports Minister Richard Caborn in a half-hour adjournment debate in the House of Commons.

I wanted to make it clear that this was not about the delivery of London 2012 - I have every confidence in the team delivering the Games. I also have great confidence in the teams at UK Sport and the National Governing Bodies (NGBs) delivering potential medallists.

I am equally supportive of the continued drive to increase sport and physical activity at school. But where I worry is in the middle. We need to do even more and faster at the community level to ensure millions of people benefit from the nations renewed interest in sport.



Not only will London 2012 allow us to galvanise support for sport but, I hope too, in my role as Chair of the Strategic partnership for Sports Volunteers, that we will use it to increase the number of volunteers and the quality of their experience.

The Minister responded kindly to my words, but stated he did not want another strategy – but action. I could not agree more. Indeed at County level I have asked my Board to ignore doing a Strategy and get on with Action!

However, I think at national level a simple strategic overview of who is doing what and how we are going to use the branding we are allowed needs to be established quickly and the message spread across the country.

By raising this issue now I hope that we will now get the whole package right – from podium to grassroots and taking in tourism along the way. The Games has that potential so let’s not miss out on using 2012 for delivering a sporting nation for the rest of the century – not just 2012.