Post edited 10:39 pm – 26th June 10 by Me.

When I purchase a lottery ticket the reason is solely to try and win a prize, not for what any institution, government or otherwise, do with the proceeds.

Coming from Australasia, an area that is seemingly obsessed with sport, I regularly see the good that introducing youngsters to the world of competition can do. It gives them something to train for, something to strive to achieve, an opportunity to actually earn some pride in themself. I can see nothing wrong with a school Olympics, in fact I support such an initiative wholeheartedly.

As for funding, I applaud any government who will support such an move, these youngsters may well be the same boys and girls who are representing their countries tomorrow, bringing pride to all the people.

I and my wife are the elderly, we have lived our lives and made the most of what is on offer. My country treats me well, my pension is more than sufficient and my health care is wonderful. I believe when any government make decisions for the many, it is wrong to use the elderly as a seeming tyre lever. We are in the third age and should still be making the most of it. Reaching the later years when we are due to meet our maker is unavoidable, and I for one would never like to see future generations deprived of their start in life, especially in sport, to keep me in a rest home.

Care for the elderly and mental health is now a light years ahead of what it was a generation or so ago, let's give thanks for how we are treated. I have spent the last three years visiting two very old ladies who were in care, one in England and one in New Zealand: they wanted for nothing.

Sorry, Tom, I can't agree with you on this one.

Tom all I can say to your post is Hallelujah

Whoever you are, you are a man who reads between the lines who understands what is happening in your country

Money and political power .

Sport for children of all ages  not as an Olympia but for the fun of playing and that they learn to win and loose.

ME,  you obviously live in a  well organised  country. which has no citizens living under the existence minimum.

I know that change happens.Things are changing here in Switzerland and not only for the better. 

In GB. living standards and moral are very low.

When a country has money to wage an expensive war but isn't taking care of education and the elderly,

then that is sad.

That was a pleasant post ME and I see what you mean.

We here in Switzerland get nothing free, no matter how old you are

Only one thing more— For the elderly people so many things free—

Nothing is free somebody is paying for it all.

Of course the word 'free', although meaningful is inaccurate. My parents, just like my wife and I, paid over a lifetime of work for the benefits in later life.

Our GST (English VAT) level is going to rise on October 1st to 15%, I had a letter from the government reporting they are to increase our pension by $40.00 a fortnight to offset this rise. 

The pension for women in England kicks in at 60, in New Zealand it doesn't start until a woman is 65. I see no reason why living standards in the UK are low, or come to that morale. However, meaning no rudeness to anyone on this board or people looking in, they [the English] do have a well earned reputation of complaining and not appreciating fully just how fortunate they really are. Sorry if that sounds controversial, I was born in the UK and spent the first 32 years of my life there, in recent visits I cannot believe how attitudes have changed and not for the better.

Are you a dual passport person Doreen? Back in the '60's I travelled on a UK passport as the UK had more reciprocal arrangements with other countries than NZ did, but I travelled with a Kiwi and soon realised that there were still mental barriers against the 'Seat of Empire' . We are fortunate that due to our small impact on the world, almost nobody hates us!  So I know have an NZ passport.

What an interesting topic, I do love it when people open up without getting personal or upset, it makes for such interesting reading and learning.

Doreen, please take no offence, what I am about to write may seem unpalatable or unkind, however, it is correct as Michael may care to endorse. In both Australia and New Zealand English migrants are known collectively as 'whingeing poms'. Many of the migrants who came on assisted passages were under the impression they would be met on the wharf with open arms, they were coming here because they were urgently wanted. At the time migrants were wanted, but for their skills not their attitude and English mindset. They caused huge problems by becoming leaders of unions, trying to turn this country into what they had got so used to in the UK. To put it mildly, they were despised. Even now in 2010 the term whinge is in common use, this is not a part of the NZ or Aussie heritage that makes for good reading.

Anne-marie, I am 67, I look 87 but have a mind like a 27 year old, I am plainly wicked. I have to buy my own spectacles, the last pair cost me $1200-00, about six hundred pounds. I have to pay for dental treatment, and believe Me, this hurts in more ways than one. Should I need them (pardon) I will have to pay for my own hearing aids, and the cost of these little beauties is measured in thousands not hundreds of dollars. I have to pay to visit the doctor, but as a pensioner I get this reduced to $15-00. I get my prescriptions subsidized also, I pay $3-00 per item. My mother had all that list for free.

The thread started by Tom, was not about sport in general, it was about a school Olympics, which I assume is to identify the winners of tomorrow. Inter school competitions are common place here, and winners go on to represent towns, cities, regions and eventually their country. This is the reason why the likes of Australia do extremely well at world sporting events, they identify the pick of the crop at a very early age, then give both boys and girls the best coaching and training available. There is a difference, both Aussies and Kiwis are immensely proud of their youngsters. They don't complain about the funding, they get behind their youth and stand at airports waiting to welcome them home when they have been overseas on competitions.

This week it was the NZ soccer team who were on the receiving end of such a welcome … and they got knocked out in the first round. The week before it was a group of school children who had just won the world championship of problem solving. The week before it was a one legged skier who had excelled in competition. All these guys and girls made it onto the main evening news broadcast of the day. Kiwis all over the country get in behind and say 'go for it'. If the government are using tax payers money to support them, or money from the lotteries commission, then it's considered to be money well spent.

You are right when you say I wouldn't recognise the UK of today, I didn't. However, it's one thing for the PC brigade to put forward suggestions there should be no losers, another thing entirely for leaders, teachers and worst of all parents to go along with such crass stupidity. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. If the people got up from the couch and collectively said they would not stand for such rubbish, the government of the day must listen, especially if they wish to be re-elected. But the people don't do anything, they remain silent and the insidious few of the PC brigade march on unchecked. I was recently lead to believe that in the UK school barbecues and sausage sizzles were no longer allowed. I might add those two items are the very backbone of school fundraising here, and school committees would be lost without them.

Now I am going to be lost also … who said hooray? On Saturday I am moving and I have much to do. I hope to be back to ready to be shot down in flames about the middle of next week. After this post I may need to get my second wind, I'm fast running out of puff.  

There was a great TV programme recently about the 10 pound poms. It had some old footage of the camps they stayed in until they could earn enough to move somewhere else or come home.

When my sister was in Australia she had to see a doctor because she got something in her eye. She said it was not cheap. When you know you are going to have to pay you can get insurance so it's not so painful. I would love to move but because of my health I can't get insurance.

I love the Australia and New Zealand attitude to sport and their sports people. Here we have a strange attitude and I think a lot of the sports people are spoiled. They don't have the hunger to win because they are rewarded before they achieve anything. I saw an interview with Steve Ovett a while ago. He moved to Australia because he said they have the wrong attitude in school in the UK and he wanted his children to go to a school with a good attitude for sport. You can't all be winners and as much as it's not nice being a loser, if you don't know what it's like to lose, you can never know how great it feels to be a winner.

“You may have to pay“

or perhaps not. Anyway it is a very polite way of saying.

When I was young and played sport in the UK I did like the attitude that you shook hands and congratulated the winner. It was said, and I believe quite rightly, you had to learn to lose before you could win. I do have difficulty in handling the Australasian attitude, which is: nobody remembers who came second. Better a smile and being gracious in defeat than a scowl at what might have been.