Let’s have a campaign to revive YES

Aug 8 2008 by Nicholas Craig, The Journal

THE long-awaited opening of the Beijing Olympics takes place today. It will be an astonishing, jaw-dropping event. The Chinese are determined that it will outshine all previous opening ceremonies.

My visits to China over the past four years have witnessed the ruthless re-invention of Beijing. Many of the city’s older districts have been torn down and replaced with new Olympic buildings. During one stay, I arrived at a hotel opposite a row of shops.

By the time I left, five days later, all signs of those busy retail units had disappeared.

The transformation from traditional Chinese trading centre to gleaming cosmopolitan city has been relentless.

China is spending £20bn on the Games, including the stadiums, a subway system, a new airport, road network and even a new sewage system.

In four years time, London will be at the centre of a similar frenzy. The North East seems not to have been as active or assertive as it could have been in staking a claim for benefits rippling from the capital. We need to be lighter on our feet. A passive presence at a national committee is not enough.

The 2012 Olympics gives a focus to promote sport for all. The drive has to begin with schools, increasing accessibility to sport for everyone, not just for the few.

YES, Newcastle City Council’s admirable Year of Exercise and Sport in 2006 should be revived in the run-up to 2012.

What I liked best about YES was that it encouraged exercise in local people who have never considered themselves sporty. There were activities to appeal to most people, from dancing to diving.

About half the population do little or no sport. Even though £1.6bn has been invested in sports centres in the last 10 years, the number of people taking part in sport has hardly risen – a measly 0.3% more than before.

The least active are inner city teenagers – and there are many of those in Newcastle, nurturing a precocious potbelly. In computer-controlled lives, sport has to fit in with daily routine.

It is rare that a citywide campaign can alter the outlook and health of its citizens. YES set out to do just that, and in many hundreds of cases, it succeeded.

Instead of bemoaning the lack of training camps and tourists that could have been attracted here by the authorities, let’s campaign to bring back YES, so that many more of us enjoy sport as part of our lives.

Nicholas Craig is a partner at Watson Burton law firm