Only recently I said it is all about competitive sports with regards to Olympic success. It now appears Gordon Brown agrees.

So Britain can now bask in the glory of our superb Olympians. I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of gold medals we have won. Its also nice to see us excel in sports like cycling which I suppose never really get a look in, domestically when you think of all the football, cricket and rugby that is on our screens.

It really is interesting to read some of the comments from former Prime Minister John Major who not only regrets not investing enough in sport, but makes the point that historically many of our sporting successes have gone to private school. Why? Well they advocate competitive sport.

The ethos that competitive sport is bad for youngsters surely has been shown to be false. Yes you have winners and losers, but such is life. I would love to do a marathon in an Olympic qualifying time but I never have done and never will be able to do. At school I was a failure at Cross country. It didn't damage me. My self esteem wasn't harmed. I was good at other things.

As a country we really could take a leaf out of places like Australia, who really do value competive sport. Then again - given where we are in the medal table maybe they could learn some things from us!

Just back from a week in sunny Malta - lovely.
The flight back was delayed considerably (that's what you get for booking with a budget airline, mentioning no names). As we sat interminably in the plane with no information from the cabin crew, who either didn't know what was going on, or just wouldn't tell us, passengers were getting grumpier and grumpier...
And then the pilot came on the intercom, explained the problem (a passenger needed some medication) and promised that he would get us off the ground as soon as possible and would "fly the plane as if he had stolen it". Not quite sure what that meant, but I assumed he meant he'd go as fast as he could!
Just that little bit of information, and a touch of humour, was enough to restore most passengers' goodwill. The message for communicators everywhere? Don't keep people in the dark, let them know what you're doing to solve the problem, and be human. Gordon Brown, take note...

I read this article with interest and suddenly felt myself slowly moving into grumpy old man modde. Isn't it a sad state of affairs when we learn that children are bullied when they aren't wearing name brands.

Maybe it's because I have no kids, but surely the only way kids learn about "name brands" are from their parents. OK TV has a role - but how does a child knows that Adidas or Nike shoes are better than Gola or others? Surely it always come from some kids parents who buy their kid the Nike pair and then peer group pressure takes hold.

Was it always thus? Maybe so. A sad reflection on our throw away consumer society.

Can you tell it's Monday morning!!

Much has been written about blogs and blogging in politics. The most successful bloggers often now appear in the mainstream media. The likes of Iain Dale, Tim Mongomerie of Conservative Home, and Phil Hendren (aka Dizzy Thinks) have had pieces in national newspapers. Part of the reason is that they are good writers and produe excellent copy.

National newspapers have been quick to jump on the blogging bandwaggon - although as Guido often likes to point out, some are more successful than others.

Last week did we see a watershed in the blogging vs traditional media debate. ConservativeHome hired Jonathan Isaby from the Telegraph. Now I have to say I have known Jonathan since University days when he was a couple of years below me at York. Jonathan was at the BBC for a while before moving over to the Daily Telegraph. Is the fact that ConservativeHome has the power and credibility to hire someone like Jonathan Isaby from the Telegraph a sign of how good ConHome is, or how bad the Telegraph has become? Possibly a bit of both but much more of the former.

Those who wrote blogging off as a passing fad may just have to eat their online words!