Orders of the Day — Sports and Recreational Facilities

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 8:36 pm on 8 May 1985.

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Photo of Mr Tam Dalyell Mr Tam Dalyell , Linlithgow 8:36, 8 May 1985

The subject on the Order Paper is the loss of sports and recreational facilities. I am talking about the loss of a velodrome, which is definitely a sports and recrational facility. Because of a whole series of circumstances and because of an unwillingness to pay the money to cover the velodrome last time around, we now have an unsatisfactory velodrome. Are we to turn to our Commonwealth partners and say, "Sorry, we cannot afford to do anything about it."? At the end of the day, the reputation of the British people and the Government are at stake. If we say sorry to the cyclists at this stage, questions will be raised about our fitness to provide facilities. I emphasise that it is no good bidding for the Olympic games if we have a smudge on our copy book because we have not provided the promised facilities for the Commonwealth games.

I do not want to go into the problems of facilities for boxing and various other sports, unless the Minister would like to say something about that. The problems are real, but the subject may be out of order. However, it is legitimate to raise a matter that worries the organising committee of the Commonwealth games. What happens if, at the last moment, Commonwealth countries decide to pull out of the games because of the New Zealand rugby tour? It is high time—and the sooner the better—that the Government made it clear to the New Zealand Government that we disapprove of the rugby tour of South Africa——