“All Must Have Prizes!”

Dame Kelly Holmes yesterday launched a stinging attack on the decline of competitive sport in schools and said it risked spawning a generation of bad losers.

The double Olympic champion and former Army physical training instructor blamed a culture of political correctness for making 'competitiveness' a dirty word.

Can’t see the loony PC crowd coming off the blocks too quickly to take on a darling of the sporting world and a Dame to boot, can you?

Odd, that…

Her comments come a year after Gordon Brown admitted Labour had made a 'tragic mistake' by allowing dozens of mainly left-wing councils to scrap competitive sports in schools in the 1980s.

And after that, what happened?

Well, pretty much the same thing that happens every time Gordon makes a promise.

Once the headlines are achieved, nothing:

After the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the Government pledged to end a 'medals for all' culture in which sports days have been cancelled and field sports 'dumbed down'.

But Dame Kelly has criticised established policies that continue to allow health and safety concerns to ride roughshod over sporting rivalry.

See, with the government, it’s never just one hurdle you have to overcome. It’s several, and they get progressively higher…

The 39-year-old former middle distance athlete said: 'Too often, in these politically sensitive times, it seems that competitiveness is seen as a dirty word.

'I was surprised by how many schools I came across where sports day had been abandoned. It's very important to learn how to lose.

'What you should do is pick yourself up, dust yourself down and start all over again. If everyone gets a prize, where on earth is the incentive to push yourself to do better next time?'

But if only one or two people get a prize, it’s not f-a-a-a-i-i-i-r!

Think of the children!