Pledge “Sportclubpatrons”
"I will become the patron of a London community sports club. I will work with the club over the years as the Olympics approaches in 2012 to support their development and raise their profile but only if 100 other public figures in London will join me in supporting other clubs."
— Tony Blair (contact)
Deadline to sign up by: 25th July 2006
109 people signed up (9 over target)
Country: United Kingdom
Place: London (view map)
This pledge has now closed; it was successful! You might be interested in these other pledges:
- give £36 to a fund to hire the services of an ex-cabinet minister
- pay £5 towards the campaign to put an atheist advert on the side of a London bus
- Start a West Finchley community newspaper
- start a book club in Hampstead London
See more pledges, and all about how PledgeBank works.
Things to do with this pledge
Comments on this pledge
Because there are so many comments, only the most recent 50 are shown on this page.
Current signatories (
= they've done it)
Tony Blair, the Pledge Creator, joined by:
- Ken Livingstone
- Tessa Jowell MP
- Lee Stafford
- Charlie Whitaker
- Georgina Lansbury
- Tim Ireland
- Robin Grant
- Dave Lambert
- Justin McKeating
- carl dawson
- Jo Valentine
- Gordon Taylor Chief Executive of The PFA
- Ben Hunt-Davis MBE
- Giles Long MBE
- martin offiah M.B.E
- WINSTON McKENZIE
- David Hart
- Sally Morgan (Baroness Morgan)
- Dr Stephen Duckworth OBE
- Cllr Clyde Loakes
- Kevin Sugrue Chief Executive Renaisi - the Regeneration Company
- Mayor Steve Bullock
- Roger Draper
- Robin Wales, Mayor of Newham
- Mark Camley (Chief Executive of The Royal Parks)
- Patrick Carter (Lord Carter of Coles)
- George Meehan
- Richard Gooding
- Dermot O'Brien
- Richard Lewis
- Jules Pipe, Mayor of Hackney
- Kevin McGrath
- Owais Rajput
- Jeff Burnige, Millwall FC
- Caroline Flint MP
- Cllr. Denise Jones, Leader of Tower Hamlets Council
- Dame Denise Platt
- Jim Fitzpatrick
- Francis Baron
- David Lammy MP
- David Triesman (Lord Triesman)
- Robert Lee
- Lord Young of Norwood Green
- David Collier
- Angus Deayton
- Jamie Redknapp
- Nigel Redman
- Kevin Bowring
- Clare Balding
- Andy Robinson
- Meg Hillier
- Jack Ashley
- Nic Coward
- Rodney Brooke
- Lawrence Dallaglio
- Trevor Phillips
- Alastair Campbell
- Claude Moraes MEP
- Joanne McCartney AM
- Monica Tyler, Chair of Orient Regeneration Trust (O-Regen)
- Rowley Douglas
- Andrew Mawson OBE
- Baroness Young of Hornsey
- Stephen Dunmore
- David Taylor
- Stephen Baddeley
- Sarah Ebanja
- Paul Owen
- Philip Gould
- Brian Burgess
- Alan Pascoe
- derek wyatt mp
- Lyn Brown MP
- Ian Tompkins
- Cllr Steve Reed, Leader of Lambeth Council
- Sue Rimmer
- Stephen Timms MP
- Sarah Price
- Dorothy Jones
- Jane Ashworth
- Jo Williams
- chris robbins
- Martin Tolhurst
- Paul Kenny
- Nicky Gavron
- John Biggs AM
- Brian Barwick
- Baroness Howarth of Breckland
- Mike Reid
- Valerie Shawcross AM
- Jennette Arnold. London Assembly Member
- Tim Payton
- Gladstone Small
- Chris Roberts
- Cllr Terry Wheeler
- Murad Qureshi AM
- Jason Leoanrd
- Stephen Arnold
- Mike Lee
- East Thames Group
- Len Duvall
- Zoe Salmon
- Rosemary Mayes
- Harry Cohen MP
- Ash McGregor
- Eric Brown
- 3 people who did not want to give their names
Suggested pledges
Some of the people who signed this pledge also signed these pledges...
If I'm worried about anything, it's the functionality of your shift key, because shouting out the same phrase so many times means you're either incredibly obnoxious or have a faulty keyboard; I'd get it fixed if'n I were you.
As for Blair's Govt? They worry me enough the rest of the time. Happy Easter? I've had a nice weekend, but I've very little interest in a pagan festival of spring.
Although the chocolate is nice...
This pledge is a publicity stunt. That's all. If it was meant as anything else, it would have been done properly. It hasn't been, ergo it's nought but a stunt.
Shame, because the idea is a good one.
I thought you were just another whinging whining anti Tony Blair,who wants to attack this pledge for your own selfish reasons, with little concern for the benefits to the young athletes.However your last sentence gives me hope.God bless.
If you want to have a go at someone for attacking things for selfish reasons, have a look at your beloved Mr Blair. I'm sure the real reason he went into Iraq with Bush was to depose Saddam, and not to keep his mate happy and get in on the oil grab while he was at it.
If not shut up and stop having a go at people for expressing honest opinions. I have no "selfish" reasons for "attacking" this pledge. I only want to express my opinions on it. My opinions are as valid as the next person even if that person happens to be you.
If you call us whingers or whiners one more time, I'm going to make an official complaint to pledgebank about you and ask that they prevent you from posting further. I find it offensive that you consider your opinion to be the only one of any worth, and that anyone who disagrees is automatically just selfish, whining, or whinging. Do you have children? Do you know what whinging and whining sound like? I do, and the arguments I've read here against this pledge are neither, so get your facts straight or stop posting.
Why cant you just stay with the pledge?
I will become the patron of a London
community sports club.
Nothing to do with Democracy in Iraq.
Posting of Tom Steinberg,pledgebank staff,Monday 10th April
"weve started deleting comments that are off topic".
Si quoted the genocide in Iraq you told him "he was off topic".
Now Natasha.This is Pledgebank.
You make a pledge and you ask people to
support it.You do not expect to be hung drawn and quartered for making a worthwhile pledge.
I think this is a fantastic pledge.
This is the start of a tidal wave of
Olympic support.
I know many more pledges will follow,
if we are positive,with worthwhile constuctive critism.
On the 22nd March 2006 the government announced in the budget, this investment in sport.£2.5 has already been allocated to revitalise cricket in our state schools.
Give it up Ben?its only just started.
You cant stop a tidal wave of enthusiasm sweeping the nation.
Sport will bring this country together
under one banner,the Olympic banner.
Nothing you say will stop this happening.Why you are trying to kill this pledge is to do with own hate of this government,not for the benefit of the athletes,sport centres or the spirit of the Olympic games.
I live in London, and I haven't seen a tidal wave of enthusiasm. In fact, most of the people I've spoken to about the Olympics think it was a waste of money bringing it here and never wanted it here in the first place.
"Sport will bring this country together under one banner." - Have you seen the FIFA World Cup? That's what brings the nation together, not the Olympics. The Olympics are what most people watch if there's nothing much better on TV at the time. Even when sport brings the nation together, it doesn't last any longer than the tournament. Why do you think this time will be any different?
I am not trying to kill this pledge. As I have already pointed out, I am merely expressing my opinions on the true reasons behind it and my expectations for its outcome. If you don't like it, stop posting and reading. Otherwise, as I said before, get your bloody facts straight.
Oh, and why haven't you answered Ben's question about school playing fields? I made that same point myself a while back, but you didn't address it then either. You're so good at not answering questions that I'm beginning to think you're a politician.
There is no city like London.
It is a wonderfully diverse and open city providing home to hundreds of different nationalities from all over the world.I cant think of a better place than London to hold an event that unites the world.
Nelson Mandela.
As an Olympian,a parent and a member of the general public,hosting the games
is fantastic news.It gives us the opportunity to support our Olympians as never before.The atmosphere of a home Olympics will be unbeatable. Nick Gillingham
London, my Olympic London
How proud we are of you.
Vision for our youth today
United we with you.
Mr PATEL my newsagent.
The PM's pledge is an opportunity to put aside the traditional cynicism that pervades both British public life and the public's view of our politicians and other "public" figures.
Local communities can achieve great things given the opportunity to do so and a constructive approach by the powers that be The PM's pledge is symbolic of this.
An example of this is our SCORE Project in Leyton, on the periphery of the Olympic Zone. In pulling together 11 different funders from the Regenration, Sports, Health and Community Sectors, we have been able to provide a high quality sports and copmmunity facility in the heart of east London directed primarily at the local community.
Because of this we are able to offer to all members of the local community the opportunity to participate in sports activities, obtain professional coaching and expertise at whatever level they play, or aspire to play, at.
We would welcome the PM's support of our sports club to show what can be achieved by working together, and to demonstrate, by example, that the Olympics, like sport generally, is for everyone.
I'm not so sure about their commitment to the sporting side of things either. The way the government seem determined to stamp out academic (let alone sporting) excellence, competition and selection in schools I doubt that whatever sports club is unlucky enough to be selected by that motley trio for being patronised is actually going to be able to get involved in anything so "last century" as competition anyway for fear of telling some kids they're no good.
As a Londoner all my life I recall the GLC being in control (sorry, charge would be more apt from what I remember) and Ken hasn't changed much. Like the other two, he's a politician at heart and all he cares about is doing what he wants and telling us it's what we want. Did any of you actively want them to spend £12 million of YOUR money to bid for the games? I know I didn't and I don't know more than half a dozen people who did. I don't know anyone who still wanted the olympics once they learned that Vancouver is STILL PAYING for the games held there in the 1970's, none of the subsequent venues made a profit either. All of them have left local taxpayers carrying a mountain of debt whilst the IOC and the governments concerned carry on regardless of what the people affected by their decisions want.
Having read the last 50 posts, I don't think killing the pledge 'cos the government, especially the three of them represented here, suck elephant-wang is the objective. I think more people are surprised that, having had 9 years in charge of the country and therefore nearly 3,500 days when he could've made this pledge (and in his official capacity rather than just as Tony from Sedgefield - ha ha ha), he only makes this pledge when he's on his way out and unlikely to lose any votes by this falling flat on its' face than he'd make if it came off. Plus the fact that he's so convinced of the worthiness of the cause he's only going to try if 99 other people agree to as well.
Can you still not understand people's cynicism about this pledge, Eddie, old chap?
The city of Sydney is still spending $100,000,000 every year to maintain the stadia built for their olympics (they haven't finished paying the cost of building the things either, but that's another debt, Greece spent $12Bn on the Olympics. Considering the state of the world now, can you seriously see our security bill being less than the Greeks? What about construction costs? Did you know Montreal smokers still pay 17c on a pack of fags to pay for the 1976 olympics? 1976!!!! Greece, Canada, the US, Spain and Australia are all countries where there's more emphasis on sports than here. They all have fantastically expensive Olympic stadiums that serve no useful purpose whatsoever once the games are over.
The real problem with this pledge is not the idea, sports clubs need more patrons who can promote them. The real problem, I think, is who made it, when it was made, the pledger's expected likelihood of actually having to put his money where his mouth is and his total lack of commitment to sport for the last 9 years he's been running the country. It just doesn't wash.
Phew!
It obviously couldn't be England; there must not be any overt support for the country we're actually in for fear of upsetting people who, by and large, chose for themselves to come to, err England. See how many Crosses of St George you find displayed or flown publicly this Sunday. I wouldn't consider supporting anywhere else.
What would be on this banner, exactly? Would you recommend it's written in every one of the 6,000-odd live languages in the world to show we're all united now? This is going to be a very big banner.
Or is the truth that really the Olympics don't unite anyone (except greedy businesspeople, eager to get their hands in the our pockets again) and cynical crap like this pledge do nothing AT ALL to further unity or committment to sport?
640 British Fighter aircraft are up against 2,600 Luftwaffe bombers and fighters.
Give it up, Gerard cried out,we dont stand a chance we are outnumbered four to one.Churchill would have none of it.Sit back down in your armchair Gerard and let the Battle of Britain begin.This is Great Britain Gerard we have faced far greater challenges than running the Olympic games.We have the fourth largest G.D.P.in the world and more millionairs per square inch than any other country.Now why dont you get up out of that armchair,visit the Olympic bid website and volunteer to do something positive instead of taking pot shots at our role models.
Oh by the way old bean you say you read the post about the £34.5 MILLION THE GOVERNMENT has allocated in the March budget 2006 but then say the government should put their money where their mouth is...
The goverment, as a whole spends £500Billion per year. 17.25mill is 0.00345% of 500billion, in case you are wondering.
The government certainly talks big, but I don't call 0.00345% putting your money where your mouth is.
There were 271 British athletes at the 2004 games, there will be a lot more at Beijing and a lot lot more in London.
How will the 17.25 million per year (assuming the additional funding is continued at the same rate) fund all these extra athletes, not to mention all the thousands who will fail to make the grade, but who will still need funding over the next 6 years (and beyond), how many will the 17.25 per year give us?
Well, on a modest amount of 15k a year, that would fund 115 extra athletes, (or 43 coaches on 40k a year), not to mention money for specialist equipment that may be needed. Basically that extra money will do diddly squat, it was put in the budget to quell the growing number of complaints from athletes, and so people like Edmund and labour activists can go 'look! the government is really brilliant and cares for all our athletes, they're not incompetent at all'
The gymnast, who featured in back the bid adverts on the gherkin, recently had to give up training due to lack of funding, and is only back in training because of a private sponsor, we only know about that because he was in the ads and able to generate the publicity. How many other promising young athletes is this happening to? Because if its one, its too many, and more money is needed from a government that loves to talk.
Leaving aside (as the Olympic Bid Committee obviously did) the dozens of schools, football, and other sports- and youth-clubs and local people walking dogs, out with their kids etc, that were actually enjoying using Hackney Marshes for free, can you really see the Hackney Regatta stealing punters away from Henley? Do you really think people will flock to the Horse of the Year show at the Leytonstone Equestrian centre like they do when it's held in Windsor? The legacy maintenance and security charges for the councils in whose areas these stadia are to be left dumped once the games are over will, as ALL recent Olympic hosts have found, be crippling. They can hardly manage what they've got as it is without half a dozen more white elephants being dropped in over the next few years. More Domes, anyone? Really?
If you pose the question: Who will win from London holding the Olympics? and come to the answer "UK Sports" ask yourself, once the games have been and gone, how likely is it that interest in sport will drop through the floor again? If public interest in sport is sufficiently great to justify this vast amount of taxpayers money being spent, why has sport been allowed to become such a low priority, in schools and in the country as a whole? Why are most, if not all, of our athletes having to get by on corporate sponsorship (somewhat defeating the Olympic amateur ideal) or pay for their own training out of their own wages from their day jobs? How do other countries' athletes manage? Where do they, with their inferior economies, get the money that we don't seem to be able to?
Who will have made vast amounts of money out of it? The construction companies and land developers flattening the houses, concreting over the marshes, building the stadia and putting in the infrastructure will do pretty well at the expense of the taxpayer, again. Hey, looking at how the building industry's gone the last few years, once again the Poles'll be helping us in our hour of need. For another quick skirmish with Edmund's WWII theme, and to misquote Churchill: How many more times, must so much, be owed by so many, to so few, for so little?
Sadly, I know I'm standing here with the stable door in hand, watching the horse's arse disappear. The only motive for this pledge I can see at the moment is, considering the relative obscurity of this site (no disrespect), one that can be quietly forgotten if nothing comes of it and if, by any chance another 80-odd "public" figures see fit to sign up and something good does come of it he can milk it 'til it's tits squeak, even though from day 1 he makes it clear he's prepared to do less than 1% of the work. Is this even less VFM than usual from a Blair?
to be directly involved in the sport.
David Beckham. Olympic website
I Tony Robinson spent my childhood around the Lea valley.The idea of completely transforming it with the Olympic venue is fantastic.This will be the biggest and best thing to happen to our area in a lifetime.We in east London are overjoyed at the legacy this will leave in the area.
Now Sam,it has taken 4 days for me to check your figures.You are spot on.You are also wrong.The investment in sport in the following 4 years will be a great deal more.
on the point of pride of Londoners, the only Londoners i know couldnt care less about the olympics, they are more concerned about Arsenal moving away from Highbury. Give the games to a different city which has character and people who have pride in where they come from, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds would all have been suitable candidates.
The only good that has come from the olympic bid is that the extra publicity for sport has highlighted the funding problems, helping to improve the system rather than helping one small sports club would be a much more worthwhile project for any of the individuals who have signed the pledge!
Edmund,
'The investment in sport in the following 4 years will be a great deal more.'
Yes, it probably will. In two years time, it will probably be too late for all those youngsters you keep talking about, they will either be in sport or not.
The reality is most of the money to fund the olympics and the development of young athletes will come from the lottery, this is no bad thing in itself.
The major problem is the PM in 2012 (probs Gordon) will almost certainly tak e as much credit as possible for the success of the games (whats the betting that all the British medal winners visit Downing Street for a photo op), this will happen even though Brown has done next to nothing to get those athletes to the games.
I want to see a great games in London, it maybe my only chance to go to a great event like that, I want to be in a great stadium, built on schedule and within budget, and I want to be there cheering on British medal winners.
My problem that instead of trying to achieve all this, people like Blair are already using this for political capital, rather than putting in what is needed to make sure the British athletes are good enough.
I hate the politicization of things like this, why can't it just be a good thing for the country (debatable) as a whole and not have any spin surrounding it.
The thinking from Team Blair is pretty clear.
Objective: make Blair look good at a time when it is very difficult for him and elections are on the way.
Fact: most people think the olympics is a good thing
Solution: associate Blair with the olympics, in any way possible.
I bet that if there is a big problem and scandal in the next couple of years about olympics funding, Blair will be the last person to trumpet about this great sports club he's the patron of.
That is the major problem with having a politician doing something like this, they will only be involved while it is politically favourable for them to do so.
Olympic and paralympic sport in the U.K. received a massive boost in funding leading up to the Beijing 2008 games.The announcement is a result of the government decision to allocate up to £300 MILLION to athletes preparations for London 2012.
Gareth,do you know what you will be doing after 2012? I dont.Dont you think 6 years helping a sports club is enough?
Wellington ordered his troops to lie down on the ground to avoid the balls.
I am ,gentlemen lying down to avoid the balls you are fireing at me.
What if Gordon Brown? will Tony Blair in 2012? what if my tea gets cold?
so what.Lets get to 2012 and inspire the young along the way and stop worrying...Goodnight and Good luck.
I don't care a hoot what Tony or anybody else's agenda is for doing a pledge on this site - I did a pledge and some very good things happened as a result which have changed my view on the world.
This is not the place for political debates and it is a big shame if it turns into that.
This site is a great vehicle for helping people do new and good things which hopefully have an impact on the lives of those involved.
It really is that simple for me.
These days a Celebrity name is the most powerful tool there is for getting people's attention so it would be great to get Mr Blair on board to help us get more Leytonites to make full use of these superb new facilities.
So let's hope plenty of other celebrities will join in this scheme so that London's youngsters and sportspeople will get a good head-start towards winning England some medals when the time comes.
When I heard that the Olympics would be here I cried...
Camilla Cavendish summed up the financial reasons for NOT holding the Olympics here:
In financial terms, isn’t this a gamble of Olympic proportions? £3.8 billion is a lot of money to spend on feeling good for a fortnight. That’s more about 2p on income tax, and it’s only the initial estimate. The bill for the Athens Olympics is likely to come in at about £6 billion, more than double the original budget, even though the Greeks got the EU to foot most of the security bill. The 2000 Sydney Games went over budget and Australians are paying £18 million a year to prop up the Sydney venues. The good people of Montreal are still paying for the stadium built in 1976...
So come on Mr. Blair, there are more important things for the public's money to spent on isn't there?
Tim Ireland please remove your name from this pledge now instead of 1 hour before the deadline.
Dave Lambert please remove your name from this pledge now instead of 1 hour before the deadline.
I've never met either of them, Tim is very well known in many circles, a quick Google for his name should reveal many links, including references on the BBC news on a number of occasions.
Mr Lambert is also a name I'm aware of as well; both appear to be "public figures" to me, unless you'd care to give a definition other than that given by Mr Blair above?
Love,
B xxx
where have you been?
havnt seen you since the last heat wave. has someone disturbed your rock again?
Now Ben,I know you dont give a toss about sport so why bother posting?
Why? maybe your fed up and its too hot for rubber dolls.Ben, give up the names.
Pledgebank will suffer when something this big goes wrong.This is your chance to join the human race.So wipe the sauce off your cardy,put some cream on your hair and go to the Olympic web site and sign up as the one way long distance runner..but before you go names please..
Subject: Naming names
Message: You first. I think some transparency on your part will be required before you're accepted in your new role as self-appointed moderator.
Grow up Edmund, or maybe you're working undercover for this dreadful Primeminister we have?
You see, we can all do condescending insults mate. Some of us are just better at them than others.
Call me even more cynical than before, but since, as Mr Blair rather vainly specified, only "other PUBLIC figures" need apply, why the nonentity business and council types putting THEIR names (and job titles, aah bless) up? If you need to tell us who you are, you're not really a public figure are you?
Doesn't including a few of his remaining cronies further devalue what already seems a pretty worthless pledge? (I am presuming, of course, that it's not the Ali Campbell of UB40 fame's name up there, I note that the Baroness Morgan became director of political and government relations for No.10 in 2001 at the PM's instruction, Milords Triesman and Carter are labour peers enobled by Bliar in 2004 and are not known for their independence of thought or refusal to follow the party line.)
Can't say anything about the celebs (assuming the pledgers are who they claim to be), other than politics and sport aren't meant to mix. Be careful!
By the way, well done Mr Blair. Even padding the thing out with your mates you've still only just about reached halfway after nearly three months. Good to see you're giving this as much care and attention as everything else you tarnish. Roll on 26th July (so we can all get a life).
I bet you really miss being the head prefect, no? 'Go away, dear chap, but, um, do tell me who on here isn't supposed to be...' Pa-the-tic. Hardly the grilling I'd have expected from the self-appointed Pledgebank police...
'Give up the names...'? Why don't you bother doing a little research? Why should I make it easy for you?
Your thinly disguised desperation is loathsome. Really.
Look forward to your next round of sputtering bile.
Ben x
Ben why not have a good scratch it will make you feel better.It will also benefit the young Olympians.
The cards are out today.
Now you guys and dolls are out of order...
This is your pledgebank dont let it be used as a political platform for the anti Blair lot.All the guy wants is to support a sports club.
Have I ever said this is one of the greatest Prime ministers this country
has ever had?
Have I ever said the country is better off than ever before.Have I made any political statement of any kind?
I never informed pledgebank of this sabotage for they would maybe just take two names off the list.I know there are many more..My silly alerts have drawn attention to the problem.
10 oclock news 26th July 2006.
Tony Blair today failed to complete a pledge to support local sports centres
with 100 other high profilers as five supporters pulled out in the last hour.....
Edmund has been warned that he should stop posting unhelpful and provocative posts, but the rest of you should know better than to feed a forum troll.
Edmund, please don't post anything more on this thread or it will be deleted, and if you try again despite this polite request you'll be banned. As for the rest of you, you're more than entitled to discuss this interesting pledge as much as you like, so long as you keep the tone civil.
(Nods politely. Moves on. Goes about his business.)
B xxx
The bid was awarded to London in the hope of creating even more multiculti,PC,drivel.
The EU will have its way in everything, regardless of which way the votes go on anything.
Awards like this are part and parcel of the corruption that flows openly throughout the now compulsory EU we are drowning in.
We will pay for this Olympics for 30 years because they will be used for ever as an excuse for more taxes to top up the EU COFFERS THAT THEY ALL SHARE IN REGULARLY.
You what?
Can someone translate Tom Hart's comment from ranting incoherence into English for me? Long day at work, I'm obviously missing something.
Tom? who are "they", and exactly what has the IOC to do with the EU?
Bloody Guardian reader - I should be shot. And I'm only saying that because I know it'll annoy Edmund.
Love to you all.
B xxx
No doubt you'll be expecting Mr Moorcroft to take his pledge off at the last moment, too, once he reads the pledge again and thinks: "D'oh! I signed teh wrong pledge" (i.e. one that has no intention of spreading the love (and the public-purse trough) as far as "every region".
Don't people in the regions realise this is the London olympics and only London business will benefit?
Sorry, athletes.
And businesses, mainly the businesses.
You lost.So did Blair.10 names in all will not be there...
Why will 10 names not be there?
Half the land still isn't bought, some of what has been bought now appears to include a nuclear waste dump and there are the inevitable fears about leakage of that stuff, Tony's mate Gordon's decided he wants an extra 17.5% of the pie (and no-one connected with the bid thought to ask him when they were costing it up? Scandalous), an extra couple of billion's got to be spent on construction (let alone security). See why we didn't want this, Edmund? Come to London an see if you can feel the enthusiasm of a nation united under the flag of sports...