Gary's views

Does it matter if team GB do well in Beijing? I think so. For many of us, it really puts a spring in our step when our national teams do well in any sport, especially when the whole world is watching. The performance of our sportsmen and women in the Olympic Games is important to our sense of wellbeing as a nation. It has been a very good fortnight for Team GB and for all of us who have cheered them to the echo.

In some of the sports in which we have done so well, notably rowing and cycling our success has been in part brought about by a massive investment over the past five years, a lot of it lottery money. In the run up to 2012 a great deal more investment is planned. Some people think it is wrong that so much public funding is invested in sport, but I disagree. Naturally the Olympic champions themselves are the main winners, but their success rubs off on all if us.

When our elite athletes do well it inspires the next generation to engage in sport at school and through community teams. This is in itself a good thing. The health benefits of exercise are obvious, especially as we battle to free ourselves from the grip of creeping obesity, not to mention the tremendous self- discipline and character building that comes with most sport. I also venture to suggest that most youth vandalism and crime does not flow from those who participate regularly in team games. I imagine that many more young people will be running and taking to the water this autumn thanks to our gold successes in China.

But national sporting success has a more subtle impact on us. British-ness is an elusive concept, but it can be found in the tears that flow as the national anthem is played and the union jack rises majestically up the flag pole. It flourishes in the flags waved by the supporters in the stands who belt out God Save the Queen with raw passion at our triumph. It makes an appearance when athletes from all backgrounds and colours push themselves to the absolute limit for their country.

At a time when social cohesion is one of the great challenges facing our country, national pride is an important virtue. It is partly shaped by sporting success in which we can all share. It is worth investing in.

ENERGY PRICES

It never rains but it pours. I speak not of our increasingly tropical weather conditions, but gas and electricity prices. Just when other pressures are falling from the sky upon us with spiralling food and fuel prices, we could do with energy prices remaining constant. The opposite is true with massive increases already suffered and more on the way.

This is a trend that is unlikely to be reversed in the medium term. The reason is the old maxim of supply and demand. Gas, coal and oil, which supply most of our domestic energy, are all running out and it is unlikely that significant new reserves are going to be discovered anywhere. Our nuclear power stations are getting old and it will take ages to replace them. So, dwindling supply.

With one third of the planet that used to live in abject poverty (China and India) now becoming wealthy enough to afford televisions fridges and computers, the demand for energy is soaring. That is unlikely to change. The price reductions we experienced in the 1990's were a temporary phenomena flowing from competition introduced into this market. The fruits of that new structure have now run their course.

We have to treat these increases as an incentive to become more energy savvy – each and every one of us. I saw some schemes in Green Park Road in Plymstock recently where for modest amounts of (British Gas inspired) investment real savings in energy consumption were being achieved: around 25%. This is the future. It is both about making our homes more energy efficient in reducing waste – better insulation and equipment PLUS exploring micro generation of our own power through solar panels and small turbines and the like. There is help and guidance available out there for all of us through all kinds of organisations.

Some are calling for a windfall tax on energy companies to subsidise the poorest people who are struggling to pay their bills. I am not against major corporations paying their fair share, but this policy misses the point. One off subsidies will not help us face a long term challenge. We have to allow these price increases to drive us into better stewardship of our own energy consumption and production. It is time for each of us to explore how we can do that in our own households, and those of us with elderly relatives, how we can help them also. To the loft!