Limp Picks

[millionreasons]

From the Guardian:

"Last Thursday, the venerable Rupert Murdoch took to Twitter to issue his early verdict on the Olympics....."No wonder China leading in medals while US and UK mainly teach competitive sport a bad thing," he said. "How many champions state school background?" "

In my experience, state schools have competitive sports to give the non-academic kids something to achieve whereas it's your progressive private schools where the kids call the teachers by their first name and choose the lessons that have non-competitive games.

Glad for Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis, and all winners whether black, white, "of mixed heritage" etc, but I don't think the BNP and their armed* wing, the EDL will suddenly wake up all pro-immigration. Daley Thompson, Fatima Whitbread, Tessa Sanderson didn't stop the Brixton riots happening. Jesse Owens didn't bring in civil riots in the US. Sport is not a salve.

Finally, I suggested on that twitter that since our national anthem is so awful that someone should write some words to the Chariots of Fire theme. Danny Boyle got in touch and suggested this, based on his opening ceremony:

The suffragettes won votes
The nurses are great,
British music is cool,
The Tories I hate.

Oh, the industrial rev-ol-ution,
it cleared all the fields,
The industrial rev-ol-ution,
increased all our yields.

Finally #2, if Spandau Ballet aren't re-releasing Gold, then their accountant needs a strong word with them.

* with bricks and dog-shit

Comments

[23doves.livejournal.com]

I totally disagree with Murdoch on this one (what a surprise). As I approach my forties, the vast majority of unfit and unhealthy friends I have are actually slightly bookish, introverted types who were poisoned against sport due to the competitive element of it being over-emphasised. Being ridiculed and picked last for games led to a steady hardening against the idea of physical fitness. If children are taught that you can enjoy fitness and outdoors activity for the sake of it - or were given the option of doing so - there might be a few changes.

Friends of mine actually wear the fact that they never engage in hard physical exercise at all as a badge of honour, as if actually doing so makes you a less cerebral or interesting person. It's really interesting how the idea that physical exercise is for the slightly stupid people and desk-bound creativity is for the sophisticated types gets engrained, and I'd suggest it probably starts as early as Primary School.

And I bet I can beat his useless son James Murdoch in a 10K race. Not that I'll ever be called on to do this, of course.

[millionreasons.livejournal.com]

Me too, I was useless at team sports, but enjoy doing not too strenuous things like walking, swimming, cycling, but have come far too late to it, I didn't do any exercise in my 20s.

[23doves.livejournal.com]

Yep, I only really started doing long-distance running two years ago after being subjected to some peer pressure to put me into a fund-raising event. I discovered I actually wasn't bad at it, but when I think about how good I might have been in my early twenties, I do sometimes feel like kicking myself.