Tessa Jowell was the woman who publicly ditched her husband David Mills as he became embroiled in a Silvio Berlusconi corruption scandal. Mills was exiled to my father's village of Shipston where the socialist millionaires kept a country farm as a compliment to their North London mansion. Jowell got to stay with the urban sophisticates. Out here in the boonies folks did not buy the seperation story as la Jowell kept on making appearances up here and, lo and behold, after Tessa's political career came to an end there was a miraculous reconciliation with Mills. The political elite actuallythink that we are so stupid that we buy this sort of horseshit don't they? Now Tessa makes the most bonkers of claims regarding TeamGB and its Olympics success.
With a record medal haul in Rio it is going to be hard for TeamGB to do better in Toyko in four years time. But if we do see a slip back, Tessa knows why. Brexit. Natch. The following passage appears in today's Independent.
Privately, UK Sport, the body that chooses where to spend the roughly £450m per four-year cycle that is available for elite sport, are (sic) fearful of the consequences of a general economic downturn or even recession even before the next games.
According to Labour’s former Olympics Minister Dame Tessa Jowell: “If, in 2020, we’re looking back at a team GB that has not performed at the level that it did in Rio or in London then it will be fair to say that Brexit was one of the reasons.
While spending on elite sport has been maintained in the wake of the UK’s hugely successful home Olympics four years ago, with the consequences clear to see in Rio 2016, local facilities have faced severe cuts ever since 2008, a course of action that eventually, inevitably affects the top end.
Ends.
Starting at the bottom. Local and school sporting facilities have seen cuts since 2008. But even in 2008 there were far fewer playing fields and school fields than in, say, the 1970s. And of course that was in the middle of the 1960-1996 medals drought era. There is no evidence that worse local facilities and TeamGB's medals haul is in any way linked.
Indeed as I noted earlier when comparing TeamGB 2016 with East Germany in 1974, what determines medals success is the amount chucked at elite sport by the State.
So for Tessa to be correct she would need a) there to be a recession and b) the Government to respond to weaker finances by cutting spending on elite sport and c) Brexit to be to blame for that recession There is at this stage absolutely no evidence that Brexit has slowed the economy. In fact the weaker pound has seen the economy race ahead since Brexit while other countries see greater slowdown. Moreover the Government has not said that it will cut the amount it chucks at the "circuses" and for reasons explained in that podcast, I bet socialist Tessa a glass of champagne at the White Bear, that this is the last sort of spending that the Wicked Tories will slash.
The logic of EU remainer Tessa Jowell is truly pitiful. That the Independent prints this piffle without challenge perhaps explains the problems that it has in retaining any readers at all.