CNJ COMMENT - A harsh lesson in politics for our schoolchildren

Published: 5 May, 2011

CABINET ministers deal in statistics. The Treasury, under the Chancellor, draws up a nation’s balance sheet. What all this means in human terms usually escapes our desiccated politicians.

But yesterday (Wednesday) we witnessed what George Osborne’s austerity programme comes down to in real life – and it reveals an ugly side of the government’s policies.

George Osborne is dead keen to play deficit politics – an approach to our economy that many eminent economists fear will cause a catastrophe – but to the parents, teachers and schoolchildren who protested outside the Talacre Sports Centre politics took on a human face.

We have always believed that it would take several months, if not longer, before the government’s retrenchment policies would filter through the various local authority committees and translate into something that can be seen and felt.

We are now at that stage.

It is not clear whether the decision to reduce the specialist sports coaches from seven to four was taken by councillors, with a rider as to who would have to go, or whether they simply decided to make a lump sum saving and 

left it to officials to draw a red line through three names on the list of employees.

But none of this mattered to the protesters who value the dedication and commitment of the three sports coaches – and realise how irreplaceable they are.

Who will feel their absence? Schoolchildren. And all this, so ironically, when London is gearing up for the Olympics.

Athletes in their thousands will descend on the capital next summer but here in Camden so little is thought of sports education apparently that experienced coaches, who could light a beam of hope in youngsters, are being shown the door.

Of the three coaches the case of Mike Jackson, who has inspired school children, year after year, for 30 years, highlights what is, in effect, the tragic outcome of the council’s decision.

Tragic isn’t an overblown word to describe Mr Jackson’s situation.

He is not going to end his days retiring at 60 or above but will be forced to depart, suddenly as it were, into the night, leaving behind scores of school children baffled and hurt by the cold decisions of politicians and accountants.

Politics has a nasty habit of affecting people’s lives. Let us hope the protesting schoolchildren will see this as a lesson in politics they have had to learn the hard way.